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In the year 5685 (1925), Yuzefpol became a site for pioneering Hachshara. A group of about thirty young people, male and female, arrived here for Hachshara. People from many towns from the entire area, far from Yuzefpol, came to work and live kibbutz life and to prepare themselves for aliya to the Land of Israel. Some of the Christian workers of the flourmill and sawmill were exchanged for Jewish male and female youths. It was not easy in those days to fire a gentile worker, but the deep Zionist feelings of the owners of the enterprise, Mr. Kuchevetski and, may he live long, Mr. Meir Shiff, who is with us today in the Land, and their desire to help the pioneers, had their effect.

Count Tyszkiewicz' large house, with its empty rooms, were filled with the Hachshara people. The quiet place, which had never heard Jewish and Hebrew songs to that point, became a pioneering center. The supervisor would awaken the pioneers early in the morning for work. Hebrew songs were sung by the youths, and the echoes spread afar. It seemed that the entire splendid landscape stood silent in honor of this event.

The pioneers worked with great dedication. Their work was exemplary. Their sole aim was to prepare themselves for aliya to the Land of Israel, to become accustomed to kibbutz life and a life of labor, for the Land is in need of people of toil.

One day, the first group left Yuzefpol and made aliya to the Land of Israel. After some time, another group came in its place. This is how things continued for many years until the destruction.

After three years of study in the Etz Chaim Yeshiva of Volozhin, an idea entered my mind, which did not give me even a moment of rest. Longing for the Land of Israel awakened within me. However, I could not join Hechalutz in Volozhin, for its members seemed to me as not observant of our traditions. I decided to travel to Vilna and to join a group of religions pioneers who were close to my spirit.

However, suddenly an event happened that had great reverberations in Volozhin in its time, because it was an exception to the day-to-day events of the city. This is what happened: There was a lad named Moshe Yaakov Kwiat (today Perach) in the Yeshiva. He was twenty years old. He was an energetic lad, with a good mind, and very diligent in his studies.

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Many prominent householders spoke honorably about him, but he did not want to hear about a match whose heart was not in the Land of Israel, for he was a great idealist. Therefore, he imagined a bride who would make aliya to the Land together with him after the wedding. He searched, and found Malka Shishko, a young woman from an honorable family, and married her.

Two days after his wedding, Yaakov Moshe went to Vilna to see about arranging his aliya to the Land as a person in possession of a sum of money. However, he was not certified for aliya because he did not have the entire sum of money necessary for this. I met him in the Yeshiva hall after his return from Vilna. He took out a sheet of paper from his pocket, gave it to me, and said, “Only this remains with me as a consolation. However, who knows, I may find appropriate people whom I can organize and work together in some matter.” On the piece of paper, it was written that the Mizrachi organization in Vilna authorized Moshe Yaakov Kwiat to organize a chapter of Hechalutz Hamizrachi in Volozhin, and would support it in a time of need.

Moshe Yaakov doubted whether it would be possible to find Yeshiva students who would be willing to close their Gemaras and go to agricultural Hachshara. However, his concern was for naught. I told Moshe Yaakov: I will be the first member of Hechalutz Hamizrachi that you intend to organize. Another three of the finest Yeshiva students came to register as members: Moshe Dovid Namiot, Yosef Goldstein, and Moshe Golub.

The matter was kept as a deep secret among us. There was not even a hint of this in the Yeshiva. All the meetings were held in a private house, behind closed doors and covered windows, and with a special guard, or in the open air on Mount Bialik. At these meetings, it was firmly decided: we will work, we will go hungry and suffer, as long as we will attain our goals. Since every activity demands money, each of us decided to give over the money that we would receive from the Yeshiva after paying our hosts. Of course, from this alone we could not collect significant sums that we required. Therefore, Moshe Yaakov went along with another person who took interest in our situation to speak to the hearts of the well-off householders who were members of Mizrachi, asking them to come to our aid. To our great joy, the Mizrachi members of Volozhin responded positively. The first to come to our aid was Rabbi Yisrael Lunin, a philanthropist of many deeds and a communal activist. About another ten Jews were found, and we collected a sum of over one hundred dollars to form the Hechalutz Hatzair fund. Our joy was boundless, and we decided to immediately go out to work.

Moshe Yaakov began to search for a place where we could study agriculture. He searched and found a very fitting place for our aims, with Reb Ber of Brilki.

Reb Ber's lands, which was called “Maleh Berki,” stood on a small hill surrounded by fields. It included the residential home of the owners – an old wood house – and two granaries next to each other, adjacent to the house. Reb Ber, his wife, and three children lived in one room, which served as a dining room, kitchen, and bedroom. There were two other small rooms in the house. One served as our residence, after undergoing a thorough cleaning.

There were six members in our group: Moshe Yaakov Kwiat (Perach), his wife Malka Shishko,

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Shmuel David Namiot (Oholi), Aryeh Charutz, Moshe Golub, and Yosef Goldstein. It was created on the intermediate days of Passover of 5685 (1925). On that festival, which is the symbol of freedom, we took upon ourselves the yoke of pioneering actualization. We unanimously decided to go to Maleh Berki immediately after the festival. The last day of Passover was a difficult day full of thoughts – especially when the day was over, and night fell upon the land. That was the last night that we would spend in Volozhin. How difficult it is for a person to change his way of life without first taking council with their relatives or acquaintances. We did all this without the permission of our parents, lest they impede us.

The Hanatziv Group of Hechalutz Hamizrachi on Hachshara in Maleh Berki Upon the horses, on the right: Aryeh Charutz, on the left: Yosef Goldstein Standing right to left: Rivka Miriam Namiot, Leibel Liberman, Tzirel (daughter of the baker in Aroptzu), Etl Shishko, Moshe Yaakov Perach (Kwiat), Freidel Berman, Shmuel David Oholi (Namiot), Sheindel (daughter of Reb Shimon der Bord) Seated on the ground: Moshe Golub, Leibel Shptnitzki, Malka Shishko

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the city, and set out in the direction of Maleh Berki. Some of our friends from Yeshiva, to whom we had revealed the secret, came to accompany us to the edge of the city. They parted from us with warm, heartfelt blessings.

Our wagon slowly advanced through the fields, in which farmers plowing their land could be seen here and there. We said to ourselves: How fortunate will we be when we can already plow the soil of the Land of Israel like those farmers. We discussed our future way of life throughout the entire journey, and we promised ourselves with complete faith to be dedicated to the work, as well as to set times for the study of Torah.

When we were about three kilometers from Volozhin, we gazed back at it, and the white Yeshiva building could be seen before our eyes, standing in a prominent area. Our hearts were filled with unique thoughts, which are hard to express in words. We decided to preserve the traditions of the Yeshiva in our hearts, so that they would forever illuminate our paths.

We arrived in Maleh Berki after about an hour. Sadness was poured out in all corners, for it was far from any human settlement. The only thing that comforted us slightly was the nearby railway track, and the train cars that whistled as they passed by a few times a day.

We began to concern ourselves with a dwelling place. When the estate owner showed us the room set aside for us, we remained standing in our place, astonished and amazed. The room was narrow and dark, with a small hole instead of a window. It was half filled with all sorts of rags, rusty scarp iron, and other such “finds.” Nevertheless, we did not despair, and we immediately started to clean the room, which served may purposes for us: we prayed there, partook of our meals there, studied Gemara and other holy books, and also read newspapers and books on Zionist topics. We went to the barn only to sleep.

Among the fields that we leased from Reb Ber, there was a plot of land of land next to the house, a desyatin in area^[1], which we set aside as a vegetable garden. It was in that area that we received our first lessons in agricultural methodology. Our teacher was an elderly gentile named Makar, one of the servants of the yard. Plowing was the most difficult of all the jobs for us. It was literally a difficult as the splitting of the Red Sea. As if to vex us, that area of our garden was on an incline, and the horse was stubborn and did not want to drag the plow on the ascent. We did not succeed in plowing even one furrow in a straight line. When Reb Ber once showed us that he could plow straight furrows by holding the plow in one hand only, it seemed like a wonder to our eyes, and we though that not every person could succeed at this.

It did not long for us to learn the art of agriculture in a satisfactory manner. At that point, we were no longer astonished at the sight of a person plowing straight furrows. Reb Ber, who at first complained that we were ruining his land, now even asked us to plow his soil during our free time. Piles of grass, uprooted roots, and stones of various shapes and sizes were collected around our garden, and surprised any onlooker. We had removed all these from the soil that was given to us neglected and overgrown with thorns and thistles, even after we had plowed the area four times.

Volozhin was like a distant place during the time that we worked in Maleh Berki. From the day that the Jews

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of the city found out about our revolutionary activity, they did not stop taking interest in us. Opinions were divided, but most judged us positively. A new spirit came over the youth of the city. They began to think thoughts that had never even entered their imagination previously. They began to believe things that they had never previously believed. Moshe Yaakov received a letter requesting to open an official office for members who wish to register for Hechalutz Hamizrachi. Indeed, within a short time this office was opened. Even girls registered, and after a short time, Freidel the daughter of Reb Leib was sent to us to ease the burden of the housework.

We began to sow our garden with joy, enthusiasm and song. It consisted of 120 beds, each of the forty feet in length. The beds were ordered nicely and in good taste. We planted the rest of the fields with oats, flax, and potatoes. We worked in the field from morning until night. When we returned from work tired and weary, we did not forget to study a page of Gemara after the Maariv service.

We felt the holiness of the Sabbath in a special manner during those days. How pleasant was the day of rest for us after a week of effort and toil. We felt the holiness of the Sabbath immediately after sunset on Friday. We bathed, got dressed up, and prepared to welcome the Sabbath Queen with holy awe. It was our custom every week to partake of our Sabbath meals in the company of Reb Ber and his family.

There was a large, thick forest near Reb Ber's land. My friend Shmuel David and I chose it as the location for our Sabbath morning prayers, which were conducted at sunrise. There, in the forest, there was nobody to disturb us from concentrating on the sublime words of the prayers. We marched slowly along a hidden path, covered with soft grass. We walked next to each other, and uttered the precious words of the prayers word for word.

In the meantime, the work in Maleh Berki concluded. We received a directive from Moshe Yaakov to return to Volozhin with our belongings, so that we could go to another workplace. We parted from Maleh Berki and arrived in Volozhin, ready and prepared for anything that would be imposed upon us. Moshe Yaakov informed us that we were to go to work in the forest. We began to prepare the axes and saws necessary for that work.

We went on our wagons to our new workplace in the forest, a distance of twenty kilometers. There was only one of us, Chaim, who knew the way somewhat. When we reached the designated area, the sun had already been illuminating for a while the area, full of a bounty of forests. After we ate, we went out to work. We were very tired after a sleepless night, but we nevertheless girded ourselves and work.

It took about two hours for us to cut down our first tree. Our dismay was great when we realized that we could not even earn our dry bread in such a manner. We looked at the fruits of our labors, and barely saw anything. We returned home with broken, oppressed hearts, for al our hopes were disappearing and weakening…

Our work in the forest was difficult and our income was restricted. It was sufficient for basic necessities only. Worse than that was the loneliness, which afflicted us greatly. Our souls longed for spiritual satisfaction, which we did not find among the thickets of the large forest or in the village that was far from a Jewish settlement and filled with coarse farmers. We then received a letter from Moshe Yaakov, telling us to return to Maleh Berki, for

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the fruits had ripened, and everything must be removed from the fields. We hastened to gather our belongings, discharged our debts to the farmers, and returned to Maleh Berki.

In Maleh Berki, we received news that the member Reuven Finger of Vilna was coming to examine us, to determine whether our knowledge of issues of the Land of Israel and Zionism was sufficient. We went to Volozhin for this examination. The member Finger spoke before us about the goals of Hechalutz Hamizrachi. The next morning, he visited our kibbutz in Maleh Berki and was satisfied with our work. The Labor Division certified us for aliya as “the knowledgeable of the knowledgeable.” After a brief time, we traveled to Warsaw and were certified also by the consulary.

We returned to Volozhin victorious after we achieved our desired goal. The entire city accompanied us as we left Volozhin on our way to the Land. They all rejoiced with our joy. They accompanied us a great distance even those it was a cold, rainy day. The honorable philanthropist, Reb Yisrael Lunin, the first supporter of our kibbutz, delivered a heartfelt speech that concluded with good wishes for our settlement on the Holy Land and our success as citizens of the Land of Israel

Note and additional photo from Mr. M. Porat z”l:

Moshe Yaakov Perach (Kwiat) with his spouse Malka (Shishko) settled in the agricultural Moshava Karkur after they made aliya from Maleh Berki.

Binyamin Perach

Binyamin Perach, son of Moshe Yaakov and Malka Perach (Kwiat) became an active member in the Haganah. He participated in many battles during the War of Independence. He fell in the Negev battle on December 28, 1948. He was 22 years old.

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