The Jewish Community of Spisska Stara Ves

KORAH, KAREH

Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name is a patronymic, derived from a male ancestor's personal name, in this case of biblical origin.

Korah is the central figure in the story of the revolt against the authority and status of Moses during the wanderings in the wilderness. The name Korah appears frequently among Yemenite Jews.

Nandor Katona (1864-1932), painter, born in Spišská Stará Ves (Szepesófalu), Slovakia (then part of the Austrian Empire). He was a pupil of the painter Baron Laszlo Mednyanszky. His canvas Man at the Fireside was exhibited in Budapest in 1883, although he continued to study art for nine more years at Budapest and Paris, France, showing interest mainly in problems of figure, motion and portraiture. On his return from Paris he went back to his native county of Szepes in the Tatra mountains and painted landscapes there. Twelve of these, exhibited in Budapest in the winter of 1898, won him an award which enabled him to travel to England and Holland. "Autumn Rain" won a prize in Budapest and also an honorable mention in Paris in 1901. The same year he exhibited 140 paintings in an exhibition in Budapest. He also won awards in Budapest (1905), London (1908) and Budapest (1911). His paintings portraying Jews absorbed in prayer combine a pictorial, impressionistic effect with a fine rendition of character. Twelve of his canvases were acquired by the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts.

Pesah Singer (1816-1898), rabbi, born in Ungarisch-Brod (Uhersky Brod), Czech Republic (then part of the Austrian Empire). He studied in Moshe Sofer's yeshiva in Pressburg (Bratislava) after which he was appointed director of education in Papa, Hungary From 1846 he was rabbi in Varpalota, Hungary, and from 1871 in Szepesujfalu (now Spišská Stará Ves, Slovakia). Singer was a noted Talmudic scholar.

Luxembourg

Official name: Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
Luxembourgish: Lëtzebuerg; German: Luxemburg

A country in Western Europe, member of theEuropean Union (EU).

Luxembourg’s capital, Luxembourg City, is one of the three official capitals of the European Union, and is home to the headquarters of the European Court of Justice.

 

21^ST CENTURY

Estimated Jewish Population in 2018: 600 out of 600,000 (0.1%).

Luxembourg is one of the few countries in Europe whose postwar Jewish population is larger than its prewar population. Most Jews live in Luxembourg City and Esch-sur-Alzette.

There are two synagogues in Luxembourg, an Orthodox one in Luxembourg City, and a Liberal one in Esch-sur-Alzette. The synagogue in Luxembourg is Francophone, with a significant number of Sephardic members; on major Jewish holidays the synagogue hosts two services, one Ashkenazi, and one Sephardi. Meanwhile, the synagogue in Esch-sur-Alzette is predominantly Ashkenazi and Anglophone, with members from around the world. Both synagogues offer services on Shabbat and Jewish holidays, youth and adult Jewish educational programs, and regular Shabbat dinners. Both communities, in Luxembourg City and Esch-sur-Alzette-constitute the Israelite Consistory of Luxembourg, the central representative body of the Jewish community before the government. The communities are autonomous and independent wheni t comes to their interpretations of Judaism and Jewish practice, and the Consistory does not take an official stance on any particular version of Judaism.

Since 2011 Rabbi Alain Nacache has served as the Orthodox Chief Rabbi of Luxembourg. In 2015 Rabbi Alexander Grodensky became the rabbi of the Liberal Jewish Community of Luxembourg in Esch-sur Alzette.

Main Jewish organization:

Consistoire Israélite de Luxembourg
Phone: 352 45 29 14 20
Fax: 352 473 772
Email: secretariat@synagogue.lu
Website: www.synagogue.lu

 

HISTORY

Jews were first mentioned as living in Luxembourg City in 1276. Later, during the early 14th century immigrants from the neighboring region of Trier formed several small Jewish communities.

In the wake of the Black Death (1348-1349), many of Luxembourg’s Jews were massacred (along with Jews throughout Europe); the remainder were expelled from the cities of Luxembourg and Echternach. However, they must have returned soon after, since records from 1367 mention the existence of a Porte des Juifs ("Jews' Gate") in the capital.

An uprising in 1478 led to the destruction and looting of Jewish property. In the immediate aftermath only two Jewish families remained, but by 1515 the number of families had grown to 15. These Jewish families lived in Luxembourg, Echternach, and Arlon, which was then still part of the country.

Nonetheless, in 1530 an expulsion decree was issued, forcing Jews to leave Luxembourg; the only Jews who remained were a few marranos and traders who came temporarily for the fairs. It was only during the Napoleonic period beginning in 1794 that Jews were permitted to return. At first, 15 Jewish families from Lorraine settled in Luxembourg, and by 1808 there were 75 Jews living in the country.

Luxembourg’s first synagogue was built in 1823. Its first chief rabbi, Dr. Samuel Hirsch, was appointed in 1843, and served until 1866. Dr. Hirsch is considered to be among the pioneers of Reform Judaism. By 1880 there were 87 Jewish families (369 people) living in the Luxembourg City, and 63 families in the rest of the country. The growth of the Jewish population necessitated the construction of a new synagogue in Luxembourg in 1894, and another in Esch-sur-Alzette in 1899.

The Jewish population continued to grow during the 20^th century; by 1927 it had reached 1,171. The population grew significantly during the 1930s, when a number of refugees arrived from Nazi Germany. In 1935 there were 3,144 Jews living in Luxembourg.

 

WORLD WAR II (1939-1945)

Luxembourg was invaded by Nazi Germany on May 10, 1940. At that time, over 1,000 of the 4,000 Jews living in the country were able to flee to France. After Germany annexed Luxembourg, the discriminatory laws that were in effect throughout the Reich extended into Luxembourg. 355 Jewish-owned businesses had to be handed over to Aryans.

Over the next year, Luxembourg’s Jews sought to emigrate; approximately 700 managed to obtain visas, while another 1,000 were secretly evacuated to France in small groups. The remaining 850 Jews were under the supervision of the Aeltestenrat der Juden (Council of Jewish Elders); 127 managed to emigrate by January 1942, while the rest were deported. Of those who were deported, 35 survived.

 

POSTWAR

After World War II approximately 1,500 Jews returned to Luxembourg and worked to rebuild their lives and their communities. A new synagogue was built in Luxembourg City (the original synagogue was destroyed in 1943), and a number of institutions were revived.  A community of 40 families was established in Esch-sur-Alzette; the community also built a new synagogue. Edmond Marx, the head of the Jewish community of the Grand Duchy, and Rabbi Dr. Joseph Kratzenstein, who served the community from 1946 until 1948, and Rabbi Dr. Charles Lehrmann, who served from 1949-1958, were instrumental in renewing Luxembourg’s Jewish community.

Beginning in 1959 Luxembourg’s chief rabbi was Dr. Emmanuel Bulz. Maurice Levy served as the president of the Luxembourg City’s Jewish community from 1961 until 1968. He was succeeded by Edmond Israel, who served until the end of 1983. During the period that Israel was president, the community focused on consolidating and developing religious, cultural, and social activities. After Vatican II (1962-1965), particular efforts were also made to promote dialogue between Christians and Jews.

In 1970, there were 1,200 Jews in Luxembourg.

Luxembourg has a small role in Israeli history. On September 10, 1952 Konrad Adenauer, the Chancellor of the German Federal Republic, and Moshe Sharett, the Foreign Minister of Israel, signed the German reparations agreement in the Luxembourg City. Later, on February 10, 1985 the community was visited by Chaim Herzog, the President of Israel, during his official visit to Luxembourg.  

In December of 1984, under the leadership of the community’s president, Guy Aach, the community celebrated the 175^th anniversary of the Consistoire Israelite established by Napoleon I, which bestowed legitimacy of the Jewish community. A special ceremony was held, which was attended by the Grand Duke Jean and the Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte.

Congregation Ramath Orah in New York City was founded by Jews who flex Luxembourg during the 1930s. The congregation was originally led by Rabbi Dr. Robert Serebrenik, who had been Luxembourg’s chief rabbi between 1929 and 1941. The name “Ramath Orah,” “Mountain of Light,” was based on the name “Luxembourg.”

 

Russia

Росси́я
Российская Федерация / Rossiyskaya Federatsiya - Russian Federation
A country in eastern Europe and northern Asia, until 1991 part of the Soviet Union.

21st Century

Estimated Jewish population in 2018: 172,000 out of 147,000,000 (0.1%). Russia is home to the seventh largest Jewish community in the world. In addition to Moscow and St. Petersburg, there are several dozen Jewish communities of more than 1,000 people. Main umbrella organizations:

Russian Jewish Congress
Phone: +7 (495) 780-49-78
Email: info@rjc.ru
Website: www.rjc.ru

Federation of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Russia (Va’ad)
Phone: +7 095 230 6700
Fax: +7 095 238 1346

 

HISTORY

The Jews of Russia

1772 | Polish Today, Russian Tomorrow

Many believe there have always been Jews in Russia. However, the truth is that save a few traders wandering between country fairs throughout the Czarist Empire, no Jews at all lived there until 1772.
The reasons were mostly religious. While elsewhere in Europe the Catholic Church wished to maintain the Jewish entity in an inferior position as testament to the victory of Christianity of Judaism, the central religious establishment in Russia – the Russian Orthodox Church – strictly opposed the settlement of Jews, held to be responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus. This sentiment can be found in the famous remark by Empress Elizaveta Petrovna: “I have no desire to profit by the haters of Christ.”
This was the situation until the year 1772, when Russia began to annex large parts of Poland, which were populated by multitudes of Jews. It was then that Empress Catherine the Great decided, mostly for financial reasons, to maintain the rights enjoyed by the Jews under the Kingdom of Poland. So it was that hundreds of thousands of Polish Jews found themselves living under Russian sovereignty, without having moved an inch.
Catherine promised “equality to all subjects, regardless of nationality or faith”, and to the Jews she granted rights in the “Charter of Towns”, which decreed that the municipalities of the empire would be run by autonomous administration, and the Jews could enjoy the right to vote for these institutions and be employed by them. However, these rights came with a hefty dose of alienation. Catherine also decreed Jews to be “foreigners” in Russia – enjoying the rights of foreigners but barred from the rights of native Orthodox Russians – and finally in 1791 invented the “Pale of Settlement” - a large but remote swath of land in the west of the empire. Jews enjoyed freedom of movement and toleration of their religion within this territory, but needed special permits to move elsewhere in Russian domains.

1797 | A Genius? You Must Be From Vilnius!

One of the most fascinating chapters in the history of Jews in Russia concerns the ethos of scholarship of Lithuanian Jews, despite the fact that most of those known as “Litvaks” lived in areas outside of modern-day Lithuania.
The moniker “Litvaks” came to stand for the spiritual identity of this stream, which developed as a counter-revolution to the Hasidic movement. Litvaks prized scholarship, rationalism and above all a rejection of Hasidism, which was spreading through Eastern Europe like wildfire at the time.
The ethos of the scholar, who devotes his days and nights to the fine points of the debates between Abai and Rabba, dedicating his life to the hair-splitting of the Talmud, was a role model and an embodiment of the creative force born from the merger of faith and reason. Furthermore, being a Litvak scholar made one part of the community elite, opening the doors to a possible match with the daughter of someone rich and well-born, thus securing one's financial existence for life.
The founding father of the Litvak tradition was Rabbi Eliyahu Ben Shlomo Zalman (the Gr”a) of Vilnius, or Vilna as Jews called it, better known as The Gaon of Vilna (1720-1779). Although he served in no official capacity and was rarely seen in public, the Gaon enjoyed extraordinary admiration within his lifetime. His authority stemmed from his personality and intellectual prowess. The Gaon of Vilna had many pupils, the most famous of whom was Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin, who founded the famous yeshiva named after his hometown. Many years later that institute of learning would boast a graduate named Chaim Nachman Bialik, the national poet of Israel.

1801 | There Is No Despair

Against the model of the rationalist Litvak scholar stood the common-man's Hasidic model, which focused on his emotional life and religious experience and offered more to hardworking, hard-living Jews.
The struggle between these two schools, known as the Hasidim-Misnagdim dispute (Misnagdim is the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the Hebrew word Mitnagdim = “opponents”), was replete with boycotts, ostracism and Jews informing on each other to the Gentile authorities. The most famous such case is that of the founder of the Chabad/Liubavitch group, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liady, who was thrown in a Russian jail in 1801 due to information from Misnagdim informants.
Several famous Hasidic dynasties operated within the Pale of Settlement, among them those of Chernobyl, Slonim, Beslov, Ger and of course Chabad. Each Hasidic court was headed by an Admor – A Hebrew acronym for “Our Master, Teacher and Rabbi” - a man shrouded in mystery and the aura of holiness. The Admor was reputed to have magical abilities and a direct line of contact with higher beings. Multitudes of followers (“Hasidim”) thronged to him for guidance on every matter under the sun – from fertility problems to financial difficulties and match-making. The Hasidim had (and still have) distinct dress and social codes. They would gather in the “Shtibel” - a place that serves as house of worship, of study, and a gathering place for Sabbath and holiday meals. At times a Hasid would make a pilgrimage to his Admor's court, even if it was thousands of miles away. The highlight of the Hasid's week is the “Tisch” meal (tisch means “table” in Yiddish), which is held on Friday night, during which the Hasidim gather around their Rebbe and lose themselves in ecstatic songs that drove them to spiritual elation.
According to the basic views of Hasidism, joy is the root of the soul. This view is expressed in the famous saying by Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, that “There is no despair in the world at all.” Other key concepts of Hasidism are love of one's fellow man, abolition of classes and removal of barriers. These humane principles are beautifully captured in a prayer composed by the Admor Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk:
“Furthermore, give to our hearts to each see our friends' advantages and not their shortcomings, that we may each speak to each other honestly and pleasingly to you, and let no hate arise in our hearts from one to another, Heaven forbid, and strengthen our love for you, for it is known that all is to please you, Amen so be thy will.”

1804 | Improving The Jew

13 years after the Jews of France were granted equality, Russia passed the “Edicts of 1804”, whose stated goal was to “improve the Jews” and integrate them into the economic and social fabric of the Czarist Empire.
Like many other episodes in Jewish history, the attempt to “correct the situation of the Jews” was attended by purist justifications and religious condescension meant to legitimize the hostility directed at them. While the edicts reflected the liberal approach of the early reign of Czar Alexander I, allowing Jews to attend any Russian institute of higher learning, at the same time Jews were required to “purify their religion of the fanaticism and prejudices which are so detrimental to their happiness”, seeing as “under no regime has [the Jew] reached proper education, and has hitherto maintained an Asiatic idleness alongside a revolting lack of cleanliness.” And yet, the Edicts of 1804 state that the nature of the Jews stems from their financial insecurity, due to which they are forced “to consent to any demand, if only it should benefit them in any way”.
Despite the fact that the Edicts of 1804 were tainted with anti-Semitism, eventually they benefited the Jews. The “Pale of Settlement” was redefined and expanded, with new territories added to it; Jews who chose to engage in farming were awarded land and tax relief; and rich Jews who opened workshops received orders from the state.

1844 – Shtetl, The Jewish Town

For hundreds of years, the shtetl – the Jewish town in Eastern Europe – was a sort of closed autonomous Jewish microcosm. Yiddish was the prevailing language, and the community institutions – the charity, the religious trust, the religious courts and the community council – ran the public life. Figures such as the gabbay (who collected payments for the synagogue and managed its funds), the shamash (the custodian of the synagogue and its upkeep), the butcher and others populated its alleys alongside the town idiot, the aguna (a woman whose husband has either disappeared without proof of death or is refusing to divorce her, leaving her unable to remarry) and the beit midrash loafer. The only contact between shtetl Jews and their gentile neighbors took place at country fairs and the Sunday market, usually held in the main square of the town.
The penetration of Enlightenment (and its Jewish variant, Haskala) and modernism into the Jewish town throughout the 19th century ate away at the traditional structure of the shtetl. Many young Jews removed themselves from the home, the family and the familiar surroundings. Some of them, including Abraham Mapu, Sh.Y. Abramowitz (known by his pseudonym “Mendele Mocher Sforim”) and Shalom Aleichem were to become the pioneers of the Haskala literature. In their descriptions, which ranged from nostalgia to biting satire, they painted the Jewish township and its characters, streets and institutions, at times castigating the town and at times painting it in rosy, yearning colors.
The traditional structure of the town was attacked not only from the inside, but from without as well. In 1827 Czar Nikolai I issued an edict requiring every Jewish community to supply a certain quota of young men, age 12-25, to the Russian army for a period of 25 years. When the community didn't meet its quote, the Czar sent men to lie in wait for the children and kidnap them away from their families and schools. These children were sent to distant location, where they were handed over to gentile farmers for reeducation until they reached the age of enlistment. The “Cantonists Edict”, as the Czar's decree was known, divided the community, which was forced again and again to decide which children shall suffer the horrible fate.
In 1835 the Czar's government issued laws forcing the Jews to wear special clothing, banning them from distributing “harmful” books in Yiddish and Hebrew and distinguishing between “useful” and “un-useful” Jews. Another nail in the coffin of the shtetl was driven in 1844, when the “kahal” system, which was the self-administration mechanism of the Jewish community for many years, was abolished.

1860 | Odessa – Non-Stop City

It is well known that language creates consciousness and consciousness creates reality. An example of this is the policy of Alexander II, who sought to reward “good Jews”, unlike his father Nikolai, who chose to punish “bad Jews”.
The Jews seized upon Alexander's reforms with great gusto. Figures such as Adolph Rothstein, the great financial wizard, the Polyakov Family, who covered the soil of the empire in railroad tracks, and Baron Joseph Gunzburg, who established a large banking network throughout Russia, are but a few prominent examples of Jews whose talent took great advantage of Alexander II's liberal policies.
The atmosphere of liberalism spread to the world of publishing as well, with Jewish periodicals popping up like mushrooms after a rainstorm, including “HaMagid” (1856), “HaMelitz” (1860) and “HaCarmel” (1860).
From the mid 19th century the city of Odessa, on the shore of the Black Sea, became a Jewish intellectual and literary hub. The cosmopolitan city was home to Greek merchants, Turkish barkeeps and Russian intellectuals, who all delighted in Odessa's air of freedom and libertine mores, of which the wits of the time joked that “Hell burns for a hundred miles around it.”
The combination of innovation, globalism and a lifestyle unencumbered by the weight of the past made the city a lodestone for Jews, who flocked to it in droves from all over the Pale of Settlement – Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania and elsewhere as well. To illustrate: In 1841 there were 8,000 Jews living in Odessa, but in 1873 that number reached 51,837.
In the 1860s many intellectuals gathered in Odessa, among them Peretz Smolenskin, Alexander Zederbaum, Israel Aksenfeld, and Y.Y. Lerner. Years later other influential figures were active in Odessa, among them Mendele Mocher Sforim, Achad Ha'am and Chaim Nachman Bialik. In Odessa they could live unencumbered by religious restrictions, exchange views freely, make pilgrimage to an admired writer's court and carouse together, without feeling guilty for wasting time that should be spent studying Torah.
At that time some Jews, mostly the richest, began to settle outside the Pale of Settlement as well – in Moscow and St. Petersburg. This in addition to a small Jewish community living in central Russia, in the Caucasus Lands.

1881 | Greasing the Wheels of the Revolution

The Jews' hopes to integrate into Russian society and be, as the revered Jewish poet Judah Leib Gordon put it, “A human being when you go out and a Jew in your own tent” was smashed against the rock of modern anti-Semitism, which reared its ugly head in 1880.
Dazzled by Czar Alexander II's reforms and their accelerated integration in the economic, cultural and academic life of the country, the Jews ignored the anti-Semitic coverage growing more and more prevalent in the Russian press and literature, consistently describing the Jewish “plot” to take over Russia and dispossess the simple farmer of his land.
Author Fyodor Mikhailovich Reshetnikov, for instance, described in his books how Jews buy young Russian men and women and abuse them like slaves. Not to be undone was Dostoyevsky, who in his masterpiece “The Brothers Karamazov” describes a Jew crucifying a four year-old against a wall and delighting in his dying.
Such descriptions and others trickled into the consciousness of the masses and farmers, who sought for someone to blame for their failure to compete in the free market, which appeared following the abolition of serfdom in 1861.
The pogroms of 1881, dubbed “Storms in the South”, left the Jews stricken with grief and astonishment. Great disappointment was caused by the silence of the Russian intellectuals, which at best kept their mouths shut, at worst encouraged the rioters, and at their most cynical regarded the Jews as “grease on the wheels of the revolution,” a metaphor common among Russian socialist revolutionaries. These reactions sharpened the bitter realization for many Jews that whether they joined the local national forces, assimilated or adopted socialist views, they would always be seen as unwanted foreigners and be treated with suspicion and violence.

1884 | Get Thee Out Of Thy Country

Nietzsche's statement that “Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the existence of suffering” may be pessimistic in sentiment, but is most apt to describe the lot of the Jews in Russia in the 1880s. The “Storms in the South” pogroms that broke out in 1881 and the anti-Semitic climate that grew even stronger in their wake with the passage of the “May Laws” and the “Numerus Clausus” laws limiting the number of Jews who could enroll in universities, led the Jews to realize that waiting for emancipation would only prolong their suffering.
From 1881 to the outbreak of WW1 in 1914 some two million Jews left the Pale of Settlement, mostly to the United States and some to Argentina, Britain, South Africa, Australia and the Land of Israel.
The myth of America as “Di goldene medina” (country of gold, in Yiddish) drew the migrants like magic. Reality was less romantic. Upon arrival in America the immigrants huddled in small neighborhoods and suffered from poverty and severe hygiene conditions, which only improved after a generation or two.
At the same time, anti-Semitism in Russia led to a revival of Jewish national sentiments, which manifested in the foundation of Hibat Zion in 1884 in the city of Katowice. One of the ideological leaders of the movement was Leon (Yehudah Leib) Pinsker, author of the manifesto “Auto-emancipation”.
To describe the relations between the Jews and the general society Pinsker used the image of the “jilted lover”: Like a lover courting his beloved only to be rejected again and again, so the Jew tries incessantly to win the love of the Russian, but in vain. The only solution, according to Pinsker, was to establish a national political framework in Israel, the land of our fathers.
The accepted verdict among scholars is that Hibat Zion failed as a movement, but succeeded as an idea. And indeed, the First Aliyah, organized under this movement, was the first of several waves that followed.

1897 | Jews Of The World, Unite!

Dates sometimes have a life of their own. Thus, for example, the muse of history chose 1897 as the official date of birth for two parallel and highly influential Jewish schools of thought were born: The World Zionist Organization and the Bund Movement, the labor party of Russia's Jews.
While the first Zionist Congress convened in the glittering casino hall in Basel, the Bund, as befits a labor movement, was founded in an attic of a house on the outskirts of Vilnius. The Bund received its ideology from Marxist-Socialist sources, and as a result abhorred anything bourgeoisie, all religions and hierarchical social structures. The party called for the abolition of all holidays except for May Day, the holiday on which, the party leaders thundered, “the evil bourgeoisie with their arrogant, rapacious eyes shall shiver in fear.” The Bund opposed Zionism and called on Jews to establish “A social-democratic association of the Jewish proletariat, unfettered in its actions by regional boundaries.”
This should not be understood to mean that the members of the Bund renounced their Jewish identity. On the contrary: The Bund taught its members to be proud of who they were, to refuse to accept the pogroms and to actively react to any injustice and discrimination. The youngsters of the movement even called upon their brethren to take their fates into their own hands.
In the socialist climate spreading rapidly throughout Eastern Europe at the time, the Bund became highly successful, but in the test of history it was the parallel movement, Zionism, that held the winning hand.

1903 | None But Ourselves

In the same year that saw the distribution throughout Russia of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” - possibly the most prevalent anti-Semitic document in the world to this day – a young man was sent to report on the riots that had broken out in the city of Kishinev, later to be known as the “Kishinev Pogrom”. The horrors encountered by this man, poet Chaim Nachman Bialik, were transformed by his razor-sharp quill into one of the most devastating poems in the Hebrew language, “In The City Of Slaughter”. This poem is considered a scathing rebuke of Jewish society, and it wounded the souls of many readers. The dishonor of the Jews, who cowered in their hiding holes praying that evil should not reach them, while their mothers, wives and daughters were raped and murdered before their eyes, was exposed in clear, harsh words.
Bialik's words struck deep, and roused many of Russia's Jews to vengeance and a deep desire to do something, rather than wait in hiding for the killers to come. Many Jews took the realization to heart that a Jew must defend himself, or he was lost.
This was a true revolution of mind. The Jews, who until then were used to the status of a minority in need of another's protection, were forced to grow an awareness of brawn out of thin air. The poems of Bialik and the writings of Berdichevsky may have roused their souls, but the reticence of violence was burned deep in their collective consciousness. Most of them were drawn to the moderate, reserved approach of Achad Ha'am than to that of the tumultuous and combative Yosef Chaim Brener, and yet, many historians mark the Kishinev Pogrom as a watershed line; a formative moment when the collective psychic frequency switched from “None but Him [can save us]” to “None but ourselves.”

1917 | The Global International

Upon the end of WW1, in which tens of thousands of Jewish soldiers died on Mother Russia's altar, a new era began in the land of the Czars, which now became the land of the hammer and sickle. The monopoly on power, which for four hundred years resided exclusively in the hands of the legendary House of Romanov, devolved to the people. Equality became the highest value, and the simple working man was (supposedly) no longer anyone's exploited victim.
For four years civil war raged in Russia, claiming the lives of 15 million people, among them some 100,000 Ukrainian Jews slaughtered by the anti-Semitic White forces. However, the triumph of the revolution and the overthrow of the Czarist regime instantly released immense forces in Russia's large Jewish community.
No-one believed that change would be so swift, as a mere five years before the “Beilis Trial” was held – an infamous blood libel in which the authorities accused a Jew named Menachem Mendel Beilis of baking matza with the blood of Christians, sending anti-Semitism skyrocketing to new heights.
Most of the change happened on the national level. Representative and democratic Jewish communities organized throughout Russia, and attempts to establish an all-Russian Jewish representation began to take shape. The telegraph lines flooded the newsrooms with reports of the Balfour Declaration, promising a national home to the Jewish people, which was the product of efforts by a Jew born in the Pale of Settlement, Chaim Weizmann. All these increased the confidence of the national Jewish circles that their hour of victory was at hand.
And yet, as the Bolshevik revolution grew stronger, the national motivations subsided in favor of the universal ones. Drunk on equality, the Jews embraced the prophecy of Isiah, “For mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people,” and determined that this was a messianic hour of grace, a time to shed the national trappings and unite with the workers of the world, without regard to faith, nation or sex.
It is difficult to overstate the stamp placed by Jews on the face of Russia in the years following the revolution, whether as heads of government and of the Communist Party, as thinkers or as military leaders. In all these fields and many others the Jews played a central part, out of all proportion to their share of the population.
But was it indeed springtime for the People of Abraham? Let the annals of the Jews of the Soviet Union answer this question.

Kezmarok

In Hungarian: Kesmark

A town in north-east Slovakia. 

Kezmarok lies on the river Poprad in the region of Spis (Zips in German), in the south-eastern part of the high Tatra mountains. The town had been a center of trade and industry. Until 1918 the region belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and since then, until 1993, to the Republic of Czechoslovakia. Until 1939 the town had been the center of German culture in the region of Spis.

The citizens of Kezmarok had objected to the settlement of Jews in their town and therefore the settlement of Jews at Kezmarok began only in the 1860’s. Most of them came from the neighbouring villages and they were joined after World War I by refugees from Poland, particularly from Galicia. They were initially affiliated to the Jewish community of Huncovce. Later, Kezmarok became an independent community and following the General Congress of the Jews of Hungary in 1868-9 it joined the Orthodox stream of the Hungarian Jewish communities. The Jews of Kezmarok were indeed traditional in their way of life but they were in favor of general education and their language was German, although they spoke also Hungarian and Slovak.

The first rabbi of the community, Rabbi Abraham Gruenburg, was appointed in 1874. After his death in 1918, he was succeeded by his son, Rabbi Simhah Nathan Gruenburg. Rabbi Israel Meir Glueck served as a dayan (religious judge) and a rabbi in the Talmud study society. The community kept teachers for the little children, a secretary and a beadle. The shohets (religious slaughterers) served also as cantors.

A synagogue in the Moorish style, with 500 seats, was built towards the end of the 19th century. A lecture hall was on the floor above the synagogue, which served for public prayers in the winter. The kloiz (prayer location), the Hasidic bet midrash, had some 200 seats. The rabbi of the Hasidim was Rabbi Arieh Halberstam, a descendant of Rabbi Haim Halberstam, the father of the Zanz dynasty of Hasidic rabbis.

There were heders and Talmud torah schools at Kezmarok but most of the Jewish children went to general elementary schools in the German language, and from the 1930’s to state schools which taught in the Slovak language. Many of the children continued their studies at the school of commerce or the gymnasium. The bet midrash, which Rabbi S. N. Gruenburg founded in the court of his house, was attended by some 30 students.

Among the institutions of the community were: a hevra kaddisha (burial society), a women’s society, an ezrat nashim society, a poalei zedek society, and a tiferet bahurim society. There were also a fund for the support of the old communities in Eretz Israel, like Meir Ba’al Hanes, and a fund for yeshivot in Eretz Israel, as well as a Fund for the Poor of the Country, which supported Jews from Carpatho-Russia and kept a hostel for wayfarers.

In 1921 there were 1,650 Jews in the community of Kezmarok, including the Jews of the neighboring settlements Spisska Bela and Podolinec. Arieh Desider was then the head of the community.

Most of the Jews of Kezmarok were well-established economically. They owned about 80% of the business places of the town-shops, coffee houses, inns and kosher restaurants, fashion workshops, better clothing and footwear, wood processing workshops, saw-mills and petrol stations. Among the Jews of Kezmarok were some great merchants, producers and exporters of cheeses, farmers, professional people and artists. Most of the doctors of the town were Jewish.

In 1903 the Zionist society Ahei Zion began its activity at Kezmarok and many homes kept blue boxes of the Jewish National Fund. The Zionist activity slowed down during the war years (1914-1918), when many Jews enlisted in the Emperor’s army and some of them were killed in action. In the Republic of Czechoslovakia between the two world wars the Jews were recognized as a national minority and the Zionist activity intensified. Local branches were opened by Hapoel Hamizrachi, Benei Akivah, Hashomer Hazair, Maccabi Hazair, Tekhelet Lavan, Betar, and the sport club Hagibor. Prior to the elections to the 15th Zionist Congress in 1927, 33 shekels membership in the Zionist organization and a voting right were acquired and in the elections to the 20th Congress (1937) 76 Jews of Kezmarok took part. During the 1930’s some young men of Kezmarok went to Eretz Israel. Agudat Israel and Zei’rei Agudat Israel were also represented in the community.

In 1930, 1,166 Jews were living in Kezmarok.


The Holocaust Period

After the annexation of Austria to Germany in March 1938, there were antisemitic manifestations by the German citizens of Kezmarok. A few of the Jews of Kezmarok enlisted to the army of CzechoSlovakia which was deployed along the border with Germany and Austria. In the army barracks at Kezmarok thousands of soldiers were stationed, among them many Jews.

Following the Munich Pact of September 1938, the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia was annexed to Germany and the republic broke up. Some 20 Jewish families from the annexed region escaped to Kezmarok. Slovakia declared its autonomy on October 6, 1938. On November 5 the antisemitic Hlinka Guard expelled some 30 Jewish stateless families to the border with Hungary. The Hungarians refused to accept them and they remained on the border for about two weeks. Finally, the Slovak authorities allowed their return to Slovakia.

Slovakia became an autonomous state, a satellite of Germany, on march 14, 1939. The following day German students of the local high school attacked Jews and broke windows in the houses and business places of Jews. The employment of Jewish doctors and lawyers was restricted and gradually the Jews of Slovakia were removed from the social and economic life of the country. A local branch of the Center for the Jews provided help to the needy. When World War II broke out (September 1,1939), the community of Kezmarok assisted about 2200 Jewish refugees from Poland to escape to Hungary.

In December 1939 some 30 Jews of Kezmarok succeeded in boarding the illegal emigration ship Confino and they reached Eretz Israel by way of the Black Sea in the spring of 1940. Another group of 30 Jews who left in May 1940 on board of the Pancho reached the shores of Eretz Israel after many misfortunes only in 1944.

In Kezmarok Jewish men were taken to forced labor and the harassment of Jews intensified. At the end of 1940, 1,185 Jews were registered in the town. In the summer of 1941 all the Jewish businesses were transferred to Slovak Aryans. A number of Jewish families escaped from Kezmarok to Hungary.

In February 1942 Slovaks, with the help of German youth, confiscated the valuables of Jews. The Jews were ordered to report for registration. On March 29,1942, young Jewish girls were abducted from their homes and taken to a camp in Poprad. Soon after Passover they were deported by trains to Poland and reached Auschwitz a month later. On April 1,1942, Jewish men of the ages of 16-45 were taken to the fortress of Tokaj and they too were deported on the following day, via Zilina, to concentration camps in Poland. Attempts to escape to Hungary increased in number. Those who were caught were taken to a camp at Novaky and from there deported to Poland.

Most of the Jews who were still in Kezmarok and the area (some 800 people) were deported to the region of Lublin in Poland between May 25 and June 5 and some on September 21 (Yom Kippur) and October 2 , 1942. Before the deportation, the children, the old, and the weak were shot on the spot and those capable of work were transferred to labor camps. In Kezmarok remained only Jews who were economically vital and some who managed to hide.

In the summer of 1944 a revolt against the Fascist regime of Slovakia broke out. Jews of Kezmarok who were still in the area, joined the fighters against the government. The revolt was suppressed by the Germans who began to hunt down the partisans, particularly the Jewish partisans. Those who were caught were shot on the spot. In September 1944, some 40 Jews of Kezmarok, among them the Rabbi S. N. Gruenburg, were caught near the Polish border and were shot.

48 Jews of Kezmarok and the neighborhood fought against the Germans in the ranks of the Czech army and the partisans. The Jewish doctor Eduard Laufer from Nitra saved Jews and partisans in the guise of a Christian Slovak.

When the war in the region ended, in January 1945, survivors of some 15 Jewish families came out of hiding and, joined by Jews from other places, revived the life of the Jewish community. Rabbi Meir Gruenburg, the son of Rabbi S. N. Gruenburg, became the rabbi of the area, which included the communities of Kezmarok and Liptovsky-Mikulas. An attempt was made to rebuild the ruins of the synagogue but the building was finally destroyed. A kosher restaurant was opened and a shohet from Kosice came once a week. Rabbi David Reisner served as a mohel for the entire region.

In 1948 there were 384 Jews in Kezmarok, among them 58 children. Moritz Goldmann was the head of the community. In 1949 most of the members of the community went to Israel. Some of them, including Rabbi Meir Gruenburg, emigrated to the U.S.A.

In the 1950’s there were ten children in the community, who received Jewish tuition. In the 1970’s there were still some Jews in the place and a Christian Slovak looked after the Jewish cemetery. In 1989 the cemetery was found surrounded by a wall, the gate locked and the graves in a proper condition.

Slovakia

Slovenská republika - Slovak Republic
A country in central Europe, until 1993 part of Czechoslovakia, member of the European Union (EU).

21st Century

Estimated Jewish population in 2018: 2,600 out of 5,450,000. Main Jewish organization:

Ústredný zväz židovských náboženských obcí v Slovenskej republike - Federation of Jewish Communities in Slovakia
Panenská 4
811 03 Bratislava
Slovakia
Phone: 02-5441 2167
Fax: 02-5441 1106
Email: office@uzzno.sk
Website: http://www.uzzno.sk/

Poprad

In German: Deutschendorf

A town in north-east Slovakia. Until 1918 Poprad belonged to the district of Szepes (in Slovak Spis) in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and since then until 1993 it was part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia.

There is very little left of the Jewish community in Poprad. In 1990 there were still a few Jews living in Poprad.  The Jewish cemetery whose tombstones were broken and scattered was repaired recently.  The synagogue houses a printing press but a memorial plaque for victims of the holocaust was dedicated there in 1992. In 2004, a plaque was dedicated at the railway station in memory of the Jewish girls deported to Auschwitz.

HISTORY

Jewish settlement came relatively late because they were forbidden from settling in mining towns (there was copper mining). Most of the founders of the Jewish community of Poprad came from the town of Huncovce (in Hungarian: Hunfalva). The community registered in 1879 as an orthodox community. A prayer house was dedicated in the 1880’s and a synagogue was built in 1906 and enlarged a few years later. Next to the synagogue there was also a beth midrash (Jewish study hall). Rabbi Aharon Grunberg was the first rabbi.  A Jewish elementary school was opened in the town in 1908.  There were fifty students and the language of instruction was German. Franz Gottlieb taught there and wrote a history of Poprad’s Jewish community. A Talmud torah school was founded in 1924 by the initiative of Mor Klein.

There was a hevra kaddisha (burial society), an interest free loan society  and a women’s society engaged in social work. The community employed a cantor and a shohet (ritual slaughterer). Jews living in a number of villages in the area were also registered in the community. The economic situation was generally good and many Jews made their living in commerce. Most businesses in the town were owned by Jews.

The first rabbi of the community, Rabbi Aharon Gruenberg, occupied the post until his death in 1907. He was followed by Rabbi Zevi Hirsch Praguer. He too served until his death, a few years before the holocaust.

The president of the community in 1922 was the engineer Whitman. In the late 1920’s the president was the manufacturer Henrik Kleinberger. Mor Klein was honorary president for life.

Most of the Jews of Poprad were merchants and craftsmen. There were also doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, clerks and others. A sawmill owned by a Jew employed 70 workers. The economic condition of most of the Jews was stable, but there were also some poor families who were supported by institutions of the community.

In World War I, 38 members of the community joined the Hungarian army. Following the war, at the time of the Republic of Czechoslovakia, lively political and Zionist activity developed in Poprad. The third convention of the National Federation of the Jews of Slovakia in 1924 took place in Poprad. In 1926, prior to the elections to the 15th Zionist congress, 158 Shekels (membership in the Zionist organization and a voting right) were acquired by the Jews of Poprad.

In 1935 a world convention of Hashomer Hazair was held in the town and the radio station of Kosice broadcast proceedings of the convention, even in Hebrew. Maccabi Hazair and the general Zionists were also active in the town. There was also Bnei Akiva and Beitar youth movements.  In the early 1930’s a number of halutzim, trainees of the local training for aliyah, went to Israel.

The Jews of Poprad were also active in local politics and formed a National Jewish Party headed by Dr. Alfred Low. In the general elections of 1928, the party received 195 votes and Dr. Lowe was chosen as deputy mayor. He continued in this role after the 1931 elections as well.

In 1930 618 Jews were living in Poprad, 15,3% of the total population of the town.


THE HOLOCAUST

Following the Munich Agreement of September 1938, about a year before World War II broke out, the Republic of Czechoslovakia disintegrated. Slovakia declared its autonomy in October 1938 and in March 1939 became an independent state, a satellite of Nazi Germany. Antisemitic manifestations and harassment of Jews under the protection of the authorities and with their encouragement soon set in. Gradually the Jews were removed from the social and economic life of the country and deprived of their livelihood. At the end of 1940, 606 Jews were still living in the town. On August 13, 1940 there were riots against the Jewish community resulting in the destruction of property. In the spring of 1941, licenses for businesses were denied and larger Jewish businesses were Arayanized.

In March 1942 a transit camp was set up in the military barracks of Poprad, to which thousands of the Jews of Slovakia were brought. It was one of the five camps through which the Jews of Slovakia were deported to ghettos and death camps in Poland. The first train from Slovakia to the extermination camps left Poprad on March 26,1942 and carried approximately 1,000 Jewish women to Auschwitz. On the 3rd of April and the 23rd of April two additional transports of 1,000 Jews each left Poprad to Auschwitz. On May 25 a transport of 1,000 Jews left Poprad for Rajowicze, and five additional transports left between May 28 and June 13. The men were taken to Lublin and the women to Izbica and Sobibor.  In all, 10,000 Jews were deported from Poprad’s transit camp to extermination camps in Poland and most were murdered.
 

POSTWAR

At the end of the war, a few dozen survivors of the community returned to Poprad and community life was renewed briefly and the synagogue was repaired for services.  In 1947 the community raised 17,000 kronen to plant a forest in Israel in memory of the martyrs of the shoah. In 1949, most of Poprad’s Jews emigrated to Israel.

Lublin

A city in Poland

Lublin is one of the largest cities in Poland, and is the capital and center of the Lublin Voivodeship.

In the 16th and 17th centuries Lublin was famous for its fairs. Annexed by Austria in 1795, it was incorporated in Russian Poland in 1815. From 1918 to 1939 it was in Poland, and during World War II (1939-1945) it was under German occupation. After the war, Lublin was again part of Poland.

 

21ST CENTURY

The building and grounds of the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva were given to the Jewish Community of Warsaw in 2002-2003. The Jewish Community renovated the building, which had fallen into disrepair, and, based on prewar photographs, restored many of the building’s religious features. The Lublin Branch of the Jewish Community of Warsaw began using part of the building for community activities in 2006. The building’s official reopening took place in February of 2007, with over 600 in attendance.

In May 2005 the Jewish world celebrated the Siyyum HaShas, marking the end of the 7-year cycle of reading a page of Talmud daily. One of the celebrations took place at the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva, to honor its former head, Rabbi Meir Shapiro, who invented the system in 1924. A memorial service was also held for Rabbi Shapiro in 2008 in the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva, to mark the 75th anniversary of his death. A new Ark and chandelier were installed in the synagogue to honor the occasion.

The old Jewish cemetery site is located in the Kalinowszczyna district. Most of the tombstones were destroyed during World War II, but some of have survived. The new Jewish cemetery was almost completely destroyed during the war. Remnants of the cemetery include the southeastern section of the wall, and the ohel built over Rabbi Meir Shapiro’s grave. 

 

HISTORY

Jews were first mentioned as transients in Lublin in 1316. By the 15th century a community had developed, and became a place of refuge for a number of Jews who had been expelled from other areas. During the second half of the 16th century land was granted to the community so that it could establish a cemetery, and build institutions. Shalom Shachna established a yeshiva in the city in 1518; he was later appointed as the Chief Rabbi of Lublin in 1532. Economically, Jews were allowed to set up movable stalls for shops but not to erect buildings. There was also a Hebrew printing press that began publishing Hebrew books and prayer books in 1547.

In 1602 there were 2,000 Jews in Lublin.

When the Polish high court convened in Lublin between the 16th and 18th centuries, tensions between the city’s Jewish and non-Jewish residents rose significantly, particularly when the court was trying a blood libel case (the first blood libel trial in Lublin took place in 1598). The hearings were followed by attacks on the Jews; some were murdered and their property stolen. If the high court sentenced the accused to death, the execution usually took place on a Saturday in front of the Maharshal Shul (synagogue), and elders of the kehillah and other Jews had to attend. An execution was often followed by an attack on the Jewish Quarter. Additionally, like Jews throughout Poland-Lithuania, the Jews of Lublin suffered greatly during the Chmielnicki uprisings in 1648-1649. Yet another period of hardship followed in the second half of the 18th century with the disintegration of the Polish state.

However, in spite of these hardships, Lublin became both a cultural, economic, and religious center for Polish Jews, due mainly to the fairs and yeshiva. The Council of Four Lands, the central Jewish body of authority, often met in Lublin between 1580 and 1725. Community institutions included a well-organized chevra kaddisha and a "preacher's house," which provided visiting preachers with food and lodging. The fortified Maharshal Shul, the most famous synagogue in Lublin, was built in 1567. It burned down in 1655, but was later rebuilt.

Chasidism played a prominent role in Lublin, mainly through the influence of the local Tsaddikim, including Jacob Isaac Ha-Chozeh ("The Seer") of Lublin, and, from the mid-19th century, the Eiger dynasty. At the same time, there were also some community rabbis who were strongly opposed to the Chasidic movement, particularly Azriel Horovitz (late 18th century) and Joshua Heshel Ashkenazi.

A cholera epidemic broke out in 1829, resulting in the deaths of many Jews. As a result of the increase in burials, a new Jewish cemetery was established that year.

Educational institutions for the community’s children included a cheder and the yeshiva. Beginning in the second half of the 19th century, the first Jewish schools were founded where the language of instruction was Russian or Polish. The city’s first private Jewish high school was opened in 1897.

During the early 20th century the Jews of Lublin were politically and culturally active. The Jewish Public Library opened in 1917. The Polish-Jewish magazine, “Myśl Żydowska” (“Jewish Thought”), began publication in 1916, and the Yiddish “Lubliner Tugblat” (“Lublin Daily”) began publication in 1918. The Bund was also active during this period.

Construction on the famous yeshiva, Chachmei Lublin, began in 1924; the cornerstone laying event was attended by a crowd of about 20,000. The yeshiva opened in 1930, led by Rabbi Meir Shapiro, the Chief Rabbi of Lublin. Rabbi Shapiro was a particularly well-known rabbi, in part by pioneering the Daf Yomi system of Talmud study in 1924.

In 1939 there were over 42,000 Jews living in Lublin.


THE HOLOCAUST

Lublin was captured by the Germans on September 18, 1939. During the very first days of the occupation Jews were forcibly evicted from their apartments, physically assaulted, and conscripted for forced labor. Some Jews were taken as hostages, and all of the men were ordered to report to Lipowa Square, where they were beaten. For a while, the Nazis entertained the idea of turning the Lublin District into an area where Jews from the German-occupied parts of Poland and various other areas incorporated into the Reich could be concentrated.

The existing Jewish community council remained in office until January 25, 1940, when the Judenrat was appointed. During the first period of its existence, the Judenrat did not only execute Nazi orders, but initiated a number of projects designed to alleviate the harsh conditions. Public kitchens were established in order to provide meals for refugees and the local poor. The ghetto was divided into a number of units for the purpose of sanitary supervision, with each unit run by a doctor and several medical assistants. Additionally, there were two hospitals with a total of over 500 beds, and a quarantine area in the Maharshal Shul with 300 beds. Hostels were established to house abandoned children, but the Judenrat did not succeed in reestablishing the Jewish school system, and the schooling that was available to children was carried on as an underground operation.

At the beginning of 1941 the Jewish population of Lublin was about 45,000, including approximately 6,300 refugees who had fled from other areas. In March of that year, the Nazis ordered a partial evacuation of the Jews in preparation for the official establishment of the ghetto. Between March 10 and April 30, 1941 about 10,000 Jews were driven from Lublin to villages and towns in the area. The ghetto was created at the end of March, and eventually held a population of about 34,000. On April 24, 1941, the ghetto was sealed, and Jews were no longer permitted to leave.

With the commencement of Operation Reinhard, the secret Nazi plan to kill the majority of Polish Jewry, the Jews of Lublin were among its first victims. The liquidation of the ghetto began on March 16, during which time 30,000 Jews were dispatched to the Belzec death camp. The rate of deportation was fixed at 1,500 per day, and attempts by the Jews to hide were of no avail.

The remaining 4,000 Jews were taken to the Majdan Tatarski ghetto, where they lived for a few more months under unbearable conditions. On September 2, 1942 an aktion resulted in the murder of 2,000 Jews; another 1,800 were killed at the end of October. Approximately 200 survivors were sent to the Majdanek concentration camp.

Lublin was also the site of a prisoner-of-war camp for Jews who served in the Polish Army. The first prisoners arrived in February 1940. Those who came from the area of the general government were set free, but about 3,000, whose homes were in the Soviet-occupied area or in the districts incorporated into the Reich, remained in detention. The Judenrat tried to extend help to the prisoners, and there was also a public committee that provided the inmates with forged documents in order to enable them to leave the camp.

When the Germans stepped up the extermination campaign, there were some attempts to escape from the camp; the Germans responded to this attempt by imposing collective punishments on the prisoners. Nevertheless, there were continued efforts to obtain arms for resistance, and some prisoners succeeded in escaping to the nearby forests, where they joined the partisans; indeed, some of the escaped prisoners assumed senior command posts in the partisan units. The last group of prisoners was deported to Majdanek on November 3, 1943

The Red Army liberated Lublin on July 24, 1944. The next day, Polish army and guerilla units entered the city. A few thousand Jewish soldiers served in those units, and among the guerillas was a Jewish partisan company under Captain Jechiel Grynszpan.

 

POSTWAR

Until the liberation of Warsaw in January 1945, Lublin served as the temporary Polish capital. Several thousand Jews, most of whom survived the Holocaust in the Soviet Union, settled in Lublin. However, the majority of them left between 1946 and 1950, due to Polish antisemitism. The Jewish Cultural Society was functioning in Lublin until 1968, when many of the remaining Lublin Jews left Poland.

A monument dedicated to the Lublin Jews who were killed during the Holocaust was dedicated in 1963. Later, in 1985 a memorial plaque was placed on the wall of the building that once housed the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva.