All posts in Characters

Born in Siedlce in 1913, to a poor family. He attended the “Tarbut” school. After the death of his father, when he was 12 years old, he was forced to stop his studies and moved with his family to Warsaw. He began working in a glass factory and supported his mother and younger sister. He continued his studying by himself in the […]

Born in Siedlce, the only son of his father, a tailor, who was pious and had dreamed about the Land of Israel all his life. Yehuda was a handsome, black-eyed, and with curly hair. From childhood, he absorbed stories from his parents about the heroes of Tel Hai and the Galilee. At the “Tarbut” school, where he studied, he showed special […]

My mother had a cousin named Mordechai. Mordechai was the son of Abraham, my grandfather’s brother Samuel Ibkobitz. Mordechai was married to a woman named Rachel, known in the city as Rachel the dressmaker (in Yiddish – Rachel di Snadarka). Rachel and Mordechai had two sons. The oldest one named Jacob and the other – David (as I was named after […]

I knew Hannah (or Hanke) Kramarz even before my father went to work in her father’s sewing workshop, since Hanke learned with me in the same class, so in that sense, if I want to write about Hanke, I must focus on all issues related to this family. My father worked for many years for Welwel (wolf) Orlovsky, and […]

The Bagagon family shop resided on Filsodskigo Street. What goods were sold in this store? Sewing supplies and everything related to tailoring and sewing. They made good livelihood as it was quite a spacious store for that period. On Mondays and Fridays, when the market was taking place in our city, the shop was crowded with people. Most of the buyers were coming […]

Very few people, especially women, needed Ash’s services. What is the meaning of his services? Today it is acceptable for a woman to buy a readymade cake according to her taste. At Ash’s confectionery, which was located on the corner of Filskigo and Kilinskigo, in front of the city clock tower, one could obtain slices of cakes that […]

There was one family, nicknamed “Demons”. These were not evil or bad people, feared by Siedlce. On the contrary, they were very quiet people. The designation was received from one of their forefathers, who was involved in a strange and bizarre case. The man’s name was simple – Josel. Josel the baker. He owned a bakery and a store in […]

The story I’m about to tell you here, like many other stories about Siedlce of time, was not, unfortunately, written down. It was told and retold by the elderly, who passed it from generation to generation. And so it was. Immediately after the rebellion of 1863, in the village Vimisli near Siedlce, lived a Jew named Yitzchak-Josel. A simple and […]

I was requested by friends to talk in memory of Levi Gotgeld, a comrade and a friend, who not live to see the fulfillment of our goals and perished in exile by the oppressing enemy. About thirty-five years have passed since we first met. We were together for a short time only, and then our ways parted. But […]

On the Twelfth day of the month of Av, Tsi”a – the day the Zionist Congress convened in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, the cantor of Siedlce, Rabbi Yosef Dov Fasobski has left us. He gained much sympathy and acquired a place of honor in orthodox Jerusalem. His friends and acquaintances has not yet recovered from his death. Indeed, since […]

Rabbi Matithyahu was one of the remnants of the old generation, of the few elders and scholars Kochek Hasidim in Siedlce. He was a man of wit and sharp memory, remembered many stories of Siedlce of past days, since the days of the rebellion. Whoever wanted to know what happened in those days, had no one to turn to but R’ […]

After the Maggid Rabbi Manis, R. Israelkala became preacher in town, circa Tr”h. Israelkala, who wrote many essays, cameto Siedlce from Wongrob, together with Rabbi Itzhak Goldman, who settled in the city and served as secretary and typist for the Maggid, for three pennies per sheet. This Rabbi Yitzchak Goleman who was a floor tiller excelled in R. Israelkala’s yeshiva, where he proved himself […]

When Maggid Rabbi Manis worked in Siedlce, Rabbi Meir Nissan Nusbaum served as the monthly “Parnas”, one of the three “Dozor”s who led the community, each for one month. Meir Nissan Nusbaum was an educated man, knew Hebrew and Polish well (he translated the book “examination of the World” into Polish), was a great scholar and learned SHAS in company every […]

We do not know exactly when Rabbi Moshe Hirsch has arrived to Siedlce. We know he served as the city’s Rabbi before rabbi Rabbi Eliezer Shalom Fiitrikobr, and that prior to coming to Siedlce he served as the rabbi of Sokolov. In Siedlce Rabbi Moshe Hirsch also served as Maggid. Every Sabbath he gave a sermon before the public and on the days of […]

Itzhak Izik came to Siedlce from Kortz’ob, a town near Otwock. He was a great and God-fearing scholar, excelled in many virtues and was a charity seeker, and besides, he knew how to write well in Hebrew and Polish. Because he spent his entire life dealing in the Torah and the work, he could not deal with matters of livelihood, and […]

One of the first Jewish families, which began to play an important role in Siedlce in the second half of the 18th century, was the Greenberg family. They later grew and became a very large family. The first father of the family was Rabbi Chaim Greenberg, who was already wealthy at the time. He had plenty of property in Siedlce, houses and […]

Rabbi Eliezer Shalom was a dedicated and loyal public activist. With the consent of the Dozors of the time – Rabbi Meir Nissan Nussbaum, Rabbi Gedalia Zaltzman and R. Nathan Zilbertzweig, he established a fund for the redemption of captives. The fund aimed to free Jews from prison. They agreed to set a fee on sales of yeast and salt, which was leased. The lessee would pay […]

Rabbi Manis lived in the city before Rabbi Eliezer Shalom Fiitrikobr, so called because he later became the Rabbi of multi Fiitrikobr. At the time – the municipal synagogue was built of wood. The Beit Midrash, on the other hand, was already built of bricks and stood in the place where the community office is now located. The city’s […]