MEMOIRS OF SHERESHEV

By MOISHE KANTOROWITZ

 

 

 

Chapter 5.B

 

 

Avrom-Bear, the chimney-sweep, an old Jew who’s job it was to go around the Jewish streets Friday and all other holidays before sunset and yell in a loud voice, ”In Shul Arayin”, meaning go to the synagogue. This was the signal for the Jewish stores to close, for the Jewish workers and artisans to stop work and for the women to light the Shabath candles. In the month of Ellul he used to go around the Jewish streets between two and three in the morning knocking on doors and shutters shouting “Get up for Slychot” (penitence prayers). Jews used to get up early every morning and go to the synagogues. I will admit that the majority that used to go were older men.  That chimney sweep use to go around all the Jewish homes every Thursday and get a donation for performing that “sacred work” which consisted of between 10-20 groszy from a well to do member or from 1-2 groszy from a poor member who’s family was starving themselves.  Besides this function, Avrom-Bear was the only chimney sweep in Shershev.  This old Jew, through all his years, used to climb on every roof in the Shtetl, with a small broom stuck on a long thin stick in his hand.  He positioned himself beside the chimney jamming the broom into the chimney and used to push it all the way down to the stove below.  Having repeated it several times he used to climb down and empty the stove below of all the soot that came down from the chimney. Yet with all of his effort he was as poor as they come having to support a wife, and a son and a daughter, both of whom were passed the marriageable age for Shershev.  The only benefit he could derive from his profession was the fact that his beard was always black and nobody has ever seen his face even on a holiday.  Even this Avrom-Bear used to lower his voice before the “Days of Awe” which must have been difficult for him, for I believe that he really forgot to speak in a normal voice. As far as I remember his voice always thundered from one to the other end of the Shtetl.  People made do with less gossip which was quite popular.  After all we had to have something or somebody to talk about. In short people shied away from “every forbidden thing”.

 

We, that is my little brother “Liova”(Leibl) and I used to go with our father to the synagogue. The floor of the synagogue, as I mentioned earlier used to be covered with hay during the “Days-of-Awe”. Fortunately, some old men used to remain over night to pray and to watch out for the burning candles otherwise I’m sure the synagogue would catch on fire.  For those “Days-of-Awe” the membership used to arrange for a better “Bahalay-Tefilah” (a person who leads in the prayer) and not settle for some of our own volunteer members. They preferred Yankel KLEINERMAN or Tzalke Fun-Di-Zamden (from the sand dunes) or Bendet LIFSHTZ who had better voices.  Understandably that such “Bahalay-Tefilah” did not come for free and the entire treasury of the synagogue had to be emptied for such a pleasure which could cost as much as five dollars.  After the short “Rosh-Hashona” eve prayer the congregants used to wish each other a “Shana-Tova” (a good year) and without the customary short chat, go home. The welcoming greeting coming home was always “Leshona Tova Tikotaivu” (may you be insc0ribed for a good year), Never a hint of a holiday.  After the “Kidush” (blessing on the wine) we used to sit down to the “Rosh-Hashana” eve meal which always used to start with golden chicken soup with noodles. The noodles my mother used to say is very traditional as a reminder of our long lasting “Galut” (exile). This dish used to be followed by fish, meat, with “Kreplach” (fritters stuffed with meat) and other dishes, but never anything sour or bitter.  The “Rosh-Hashana” used to be spent between the house and the synagogue. We boys used to go to the river and watch the crowd of worshipers that used to gather for “Tashlich( the ceremony of casting the sins).

 

The ten days of “Tshuva” (Repentance) used to pass in a very subdued mood. The day before “Yom-Kippur” early in the morning all members of the family used to perform “Shlogen Kaporot” (traditional sacrificial ceremony the day before “Yom-Kippur”); the men with the cock and the women with a hen. Shortly after, it was my task to take the fowls to the “Shochet” (ritual slaughterer) who lived on the “Bet-Chaim” street.  The slaughterer, an older respectable man, stood on the porch in his back yard, wrapped in a blood stained apron, a long thin knife in one hand, took with his other hand the receipt which I got from his wife or daughter coming into the house for the twenty groshy slaughtering fee for each fowl. After putting the receipt in a little box near by he leads the nail of his thumb over the length of the sharp edge of the knife to make sure that there is no adhesion on the knife. (It is a requirement by Jewish law to make the slaughter of animals or fowls as painless as possible).  After this inspection with a quick slash he cuts the fowls neck and throws it down to the ground below. Not losing a second he turns to the next customer. The just slaughtered fowl used to try even to fly in its lasts seconds of agony. It didn’t last more that 10-15 seconds before they were dead. I and others used to pick up the fowl and take them home where they used to be prepared for the meals before and after the fast. 

 

About three in the afternoon the men used to go to the synagogue for the afternoon prayers. Right inside the synagogue at the entrance, they used to put down a large table on which there were a dozen or more large plates containing signs indicating the name of the charitable organization or purpose for which the alms are being collected. For example: right in front was the plate for the synagogue, next for the beadle, for the local free-loan-institution, visiting the sick, burial associations and others.  Besides the above, there were out of town plates like Jewish national fund, Keren hayesod, keren-tel-chai, yeshivot and for poor locals, the neediest of all. One had to come with some change in his pocket. The saddest part was that most of the attending worshipers could use it themselves. Of course each worshiper had his own preferred charity which he used to favor more generously then the others.

 

The traditional candles that we light on “Yom-Kippur” today in memory of the departed were not the short and stubby ones; they were waxen candles 60 centimetres long, 5 centimetres at the bottom and 3 centimetres on top. They were lit not at home but in the synagogue right after the “Mincha” prayers on “Yom-Kippur” eve and used to burn until after “Yom-Kippur”, that is after dark the following day.  Almost all worshipers used to bring with them candles, one for each departed. Thus the synagogue was full of huge lit candles that use to contribute more to the already suffocating conditions of the crowded synagogue. As a result many of the candles used to start melting and bending.  After the afternoon prayers they used to have the meal before the fast which always started with chicken soup and noodles. My mother use to make sure that the food is not salty so that we should not be thirsty during the fast.  For “Kol-Nydre” (main and opening prayer of the eve of the Day of Atonement) and the following Yom-Kippur day all of the Jewish population in the Shtetl used to be in the synagogues, except for the bed-ridden. It was a tempting time for the not so honest non-Jewish elements in the Shtetl not to try to open a door or a window of a Jewish home knowing that none of the people are home.

 

As the form of the prayers in Shtetl was in all the synagogues the same, the worshipers used to sing aloud with the “Chazan” (Cantor) and my father use to make sure that I participate. As a substantial part of the “Yom-Kippur” prayers are in Aramaic and despite the fact that at that time I already could converse in Hebrew, I did not understand those prayers fully and my father used to interpret them for me.  I believe that my father had a gift for languages, for there were no Hebrew schools in Shershev in his youth and in a “Cheder” (traditional religious school) they did not use the spoken Hebrew, yet my father was fluent in Hebrew. The same applies to Polish even though my father grew up under the Czar where the study of Polish was unavailable. He kept repeating to me; read and understand what you are reading.  Nehila” (closing service of the day of Atonement) time was a difficult time for the fasting crowd, firstly because of the solemnity of the hour and secondly due to the total exhaustion at the end of the long fast. After the closing prayer the “Ghabay” (trustee of the synagogue) with some older members use to go outside to see if there are three stars visible in the evening sky. When they appeared they used to finish the day with “Maariv” (evening prayer) and then blow the “Shoifar” (ram’s horn) after which the worshipers used to answer with a loud “Leshono Abo B’yerusholoim” (next year in Jerusalem).  Worshipers hurriedly use to wish each other by saying the words “Gmar-Chatimo-Toivo” (may you be sealed for a good year) and hurry home.  My mother and sister Sheva use to leave the synagogue right after “Nehilo” and go home to get the feast ready which traditionally use to start for my father with a small glass of Vodka and a piece of “Lekach” (honey cake).

 

Sukkot” (the feast of tabernacles) was a long and pleasant holiday, which used to usher in the beginning of the winter. It might sound strange but as far as I remember the first frost used to comeChol-Amoed” (intermediary-weekdays) of “Sukkot” and used to end the season of the “Zielonky” (a kind of green mushrooms) that appeared in late summer and disappeared with the first frost. Gentiles used to put them in vinegar or marinate. Jews used to fry or cook them.

 

The time came to wear “Kaloshy” (short rubber boots worn over shoes or boots). They had to be taken off before walking into the school. In order to protect the wooden floors from rotting, they used to spray kerosene on the floor every month or so. The moment one stepped on the kerosene covered floor with the “Kaloshy” the bottoms of the “Kaloshy” began to blister and fall apart.  With the cold weather and short days, our activities became limited and we use to spend a fair amount of the evenings in the local of the Betar where the time used to pass quickly with singing Zionistic and contemporary songs, dancing the “Hora”, discussions about Zionistic and contemporary problems.

 

None of us could forget the early spring of 1933 when we heard grown-ups speaking of a man by the name of Hitler who gained power in Germany. I can still see the concerned faces of my parents and their friends speaking about it. A year later this name was on the lips of every Jew in Shershev as well as on all Jewish lips in Poland. At our meetings in the local Betar this name came up quite often as a Jew hater but not to the extent and the scale on which he turned out to be. 

 

One of my favorite pastimes was reading books which I used to borrow from the Hebrew library school. The library consisted of some two hundred and fifty books mostly originally written in Hebrew but there were a few dozen that were translated into Hebrew from other languages. I would say that a good part of the library books I read before I left Hebrew school after finishing grade four.   There was also a “Yiddish” library in Shershev founded by a group of young people some ten years earlier. One of the founders and initiators of the idea was my cousin Abraham AUERBUCH who in the year 1930 at the age of twenty married a local beauty by the name of Channa MAISTER and shortly after left for Argentina, leaving his young wife behind to stay with her parents until he will be able to bring her over.   It was he and some of his friends, none of them over the age of 18 that lay the foundation for creating a Yiddish library that has grown to several hundred books by the time my cousin left Shershev a couple years later.

 

Those young and idealistic individuals saw it as their duty to provide worldly reading material for the Jewish youth of Shershev who began slowly to move away from the “Cheder” tradition to a more modern educational system that began to expose them to new yet unknown horizons.  I’ll come back to it later.

 

November used to bring with it the cold weather but seldom any snow. Yet I remember an eleventh of November when there was snow on the ground as we paraded on that Polish Independence Day while the rest of Europe celebrated that day as Armistice Day. We, that is our Hebrew school and the Polish public school, used to gather on the “Sport-Place” a large empty lot at the corner of the main street Mostowa and the “Court Lane”.  On this Sport-Place we used to be joined by the “Strzelcy” (a pre-military volunteer youth organization to which Jewish young men did not belong due to the prevailing anti-Semitism in it. Jews had enough mental and physical cruelty applied to them by their officers while serving the compulsory two years in the Polish army.  We were also joined by another group of men the so called “Reserve”, consisting of former Polish soldiers of the Catholic Faith, who with the awakening of Polish Nationalism became suddenly very patriotic. Jews or members of the Russian orthodox faith were not accepted, even though they constituted 80% of the local population.  When we were finally joined by the fire brigade, of which the majority were Jews, in their uniforms and brass helmets with their wind orchestra in front they began to march toward the town center. There the orchestra used to strike up the Polish anthem and the public was subjected to a couple of speeches of the same contents that told and retold the bravery of the Polish legions in the 1st World War. The crowd use to applaud, listen once more to the anthem and disperse.  For the Polish government employees including the Police that day was a good excuse to celebrate, often to excess.

 

The father of my two friends Laizer and Litek ROTENBERG hailed from around the town of “Chelem” where he grew up on his father’s estate and from where he brought an inexhaustible number of stories, which he shared with us boys during the long winter evenings. Some of the stories were from his childhood, which was much different than ours. Some were true stories and some were fictions. Being a good storyteller he could keep us boys hypnotized with his stories for hours. Many of his stories had to do with witches, ghosts and demons.  Living in a society where many grown ups believed in ghosts, we kids certainly were inclined to believe too. After listening with my friends to his stories for a couple of hours we used to go home on the dark night.  My friends lived along the street where one could see an occasional passer by at night. I lived across the dark and empty square where to one side of our house stood the large synagogue, which at that time of evening was closed and enveloped in darkness. Behind our house some 20-25 metres stood the ancient synagogue all burnt out except for its immense walls, imposing facade and with young birch trees overgrown on the roof. As the flat ceiling and the upper part was inaccessible to humans, birds and small animals made their homes there. At night one could hear strange voices coming from that ancient relic, which were rumored to be of ghosts, and demons that gathered there at night.  As I was nearing the house I was also getting closer to the huge Shul and the sounds coming from there. The closer I got to the house, the closer to the sounds, the more scared I used to get. The relief used to come the moment I got a hold of the door handle. The door got locked only when the last one in the family used to go to bed.

 

Preparations for “Chanukah” (feast of the Maccabees) use to start in school a month before the festival. Each grade had its part to perform and each teacher wanted to please and get the praise of the spectators. So instead of lessons a lot of time was taken up with rehearsals which were at times quite entertaining and to which the students did not object.  The performance used to take place on “Chanukah” Saturday night in the largest room where the stage was situated. The general public used to be invited, but the majority spectators were the parents of the students, especially the parents of the performers.  This performance used to remain a topic for conversation in Shtetl for weeks to come, not so much among the students as among the parents who could not stop raving about their children’s artistic qualities or among parents who felt offended by the insignificant part their children were assigned in the play, worse yet if a child was completely overlooked and had no part at all.  Traditionally on “Chanukah” we kids used to receive from our parents so called “Chanukah Gelt” (“Chanukah” money). Not only from the parents but also from grandparents and even aunts and uncles if we happened to be there in the right time. It was not big money but more than we used to get from our parents in our daily allowance. We could also spend it on anything our hearts desired.