by Mordechai Berenstein
In the last Nazi Holocaust, the fate of the well-known
congregations was more bitter than the saying of the prophet; as there will
only remain “one from a town and a prince from a family” (one from a city and
one from a family). In front of the
town where not even one survived, who would be a live witness? From the last slaughter of the congregation,
there was no one left who could give a correction, a destroyed life of the
congregation. Of those Jewish shtetls, Selets was actually named. From that congregation, we earlier brought
up a succession of chapters, which cover earlier periods of time from Selets -
it lacks however the last time of slaughter of the congregation.
Through an accident, however, what was saved was a bundle of
documents, which referred to the very last years of the eve of the
Holocaust. Those were a great number of
postcards and contribution lists from Selets, at the Yeshiva Council in Poland,
which were found in Vilna. These
documents were held in the archives of Yivo in New York. The correspondence was sent chiefly on
postcards. (I will show a reproduction of such a card on both sides,) The correspondent was Meir Chaim
Rubinshtein. Each postcard was from the
years 1937 to 1939, and on them is the name of the contributors. There were not any great amounts (of money)
- about 10 to 15 zlotas a month - a particularly great sum was in the Yitro
portion, which was the portion when we used to carry out an action especially
before the Yeshivas.
From one of those Yitro credit unions, we gave out the
contributors-lists. It is to be seen that from 21 guildens and 55 groschen,
donations were given from 20 groschen up to one guilden. From the contributions, we find out also the
names of the Seltzer Rabbi, Joseph-Isaac Velimavski and, as shochet-inspector,
Rabbi Moshe Noah Gorodezki; also in the shtetl, there was a teacher, a bachelor,
Moshe Friedkin. Concerning that shochet
(ritual slaughterer), Moshe Noah Gorodezki, the correspondent, Meir Chaim
Rubinshtein, several times asked, being a stranger, who is much involved in the
action before the Yeshiva Council, that the center should send him a
companion-identity-card, a kind of membership acknowledgement.
In one of the postcards from the 25th of Shevat, 5698
(1937), there is a judgment about the donations in the Yitro credit union
which, among other things, was spoken about.
At the time, I found upon me the obligation to recognize
goodness and to say something on behalf of those who say that many of the
opponents of Hasidim were in this business to vow and donate on the Sabbath to
the Yitro on behalf of the Council of the Yeshivas, because it was known at the
time that the situation was very horrible, and money in the town as distressing
as Selets. Thus, our shochet-inspector, Rabbi Moshe Noah Gorodezki, preached
before the reading of the Torah, and, in his explanation, decided to get in
every way into the hearts of the listeners who even showed that they did not
have even the sense on behalf of the donors; also they came with hospitality,
and we will gather an amount like his (so that our town can too)
That means:
And now I’m holding it as my duty to say that there were a
lot of opposition to the donations, and the donations for the Yeshivas in the
Yitro, while it is known that the time was now fearsome, particularly in such a
small shtetl as Selets. But the shochet,
Rabbi Moshe Noah Gorodezki, before reading, took the floor and, with his
flaming speech, reached the heart of everyone, even the free thinkers, who had
no feeling for this affair and did not willingly want to be taxed, and it was
all right, for them, to get a very
important sum, according with the possibility for our shtetl.
It will permit us to send out the sum of 36 guilden and 45
groschen. From that, 21 guilden and 45
groschen plus 14 guilden and 90 groschen from the pushkes (contribution boxes).