All posts in Community Life

There are different opinions and theories concerning the year in which Siedlce was established and there are also different opinions about the meaning of the name “Siedlce”. Siedlce is mentioned, for the first time and in few slim details, in an official document in 1448, in the diplomatic codex of little Poland. It may be assumed that the […]

In 1931-1923, when I was dealing in public affairs, Siedlce wasn’t a real industrial city, but had hundreds of workshops, engaged in light industry of manual labor and provided about 3,500 Jewish families. Workers’ unions had about 2,000 members, a high percentage of which were Jews, who realized in their bodies and hands the verse “With […]

Mordechai Tsanin (1 April 1906 – 4 February 2009) was a Yiddish language author, journalist and lexicographer and a leading figure in post-war Israeli Yiddish culture. In 1947, Tsanin returned to Poland on a year-long fact-finding mission as correspondent for the New York Yiddish daily Forward. What he found there was published in the Forward, republished […]

In 1923, at the initiative of the writer of these words, a branch of the “TA’Z” Association for the health of the Jews was founded in Siedlce. The branch’s budget was based on member-fees of about 800 people, and was aided by revenue from events, and the assistance of the local Jewish community and the […]

Man is nothing but a reflection of his homeland, Shaul Tchernichovsky Polish Jews are not as famous as Lithuanian Jewry – in Gdolei-Torah and God-fearing, and not as German Jews – in culture and talent, and not as the Jews of Galicia – statesmen and debaters, but they are famous for the great spirit of innocence, […]

When I returned from Lida Yeshiva at 17 years of age, my late father and my grandparents – my mother’s father Rabbi Eliezer Ari ‘ Flotznik RIP, and my father’s father – Rabbi Ephraim Greshsnkorn RIP, both famous Hasidim – began to worry about getting me married. Among the most prominent who spoke of me, they seem to like a match from Shedlice the […]

After the terrible pogrom perpetrated by the Russians in 1905 against the Jews of Siedlce, many of its inhabitants left the city. Some moved to other provinces, and some left Poland for the United States, Canada, and South Africa. Among these was Mordechai Rozenbach, who established a thriving tobacco factory in Durban in South Africa, and contributed heavily to […]

Many young people from Siedlce attended famous Yeshivot abroad, but those who remained in the city could also find a place they liked to engage in Torah. located Near the Great Synagogue was the tailors’ synagogue; off Dluga Street was a Synagogue called Peterborger Stiebel, and the butchers visited their own Beit Midrash on Butchers’ street. Apart from the houses of the Hasidim […]

Chazal said: “The place is good for its inhabitants,” meaning: from its inhabitants you can know the grace of the place. And when I come to describe what I saw and found in my city, Siedlce, to the best of my ability and in my state of mind and according to my views, I will tell of “Ha’Mizrahi”, which […]

The story of the new Jewish Hospital began in 1869. According to a decree of the Russian government, titled “Regulation regarding special attire and behavior of Jews and their wives,” dated July 19th, 1851, but published on March 3rd, 1871, chief of police, Drach, sent a copy to the Dozor and demanded publishing it in the synagogue three […]

Until 1926 the Jewish community office in Siedlce was called “Das Dazaar Stiebel” – community management Pavilion. The name matched the community’s situation at the time. The external appearance of the place and status of the “Dozorim “(elected community representatives) was like a “stiebl” (a small Hasidim synagogue). It was a long and narrow room. At one end, near the door, sat Rabbi Isaac Tannenbaum. The Rebbe registered […]