p.158 Translated by Tamar Rawitz
During the first few years of its existence, Haynt had only one columnist, Sh.Y, Yatskan. But soon after, to the extent that it was economically feasible, extended efforts were made to attract Jewish writers (see chapter 13) so as to ensure that Haynt would have feature articles and feuilletons from the pens of other writers as well. David Frishman (Ps: Dawid Friszman), H. D. Nomberg, Hillel Tsaytlin (Ps: Cajtlin) were invited to join as regular members of the staff. All three were well known writers. Their articles dealt with current issues, presenting a broad perspective, which reflected the attitudes and the ongoing debates within the Jewish community at the beginning of the present century. Many of their articles should be of interest for today’s reader as well.
David Frishman’s (1860-1922) feuilletons, which appeared in Haynt were the first in the Jewish press of the time to raise the level of political and social feuilletons to a European standard. In 1911 and 1912 Frishman joined the tours to Palestine that Haynt organized for its readers and wrote a series of articles reporting on his impressions. During the First World War, David Frishman lived in Russia. He returned to Poland in 1920 and again worked for Haynt. That same year he moved to Berlin from where he regularly sent articles and feuilletons.
David Frishman’s role in Haynt was doubly important. His writing added a luster and enhanced the paper’s appearance; as a person he was a dear friend to all the staff. As Nekhemie (Ps: Nechemje) Finkelstein wrote:
…Frishman was known among a wide readership for his brilliant feuilletons that appeared in Haynt every Friday and holiday eve. They remain to this day a classic example for other writers of feuilletons… Frishman’s far ranging knowledge
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and his keen ability to observe life around
him enabled him to make use of his great literary talent… regarding all spheres
of politics, literature, art, philosophy, science and so on. He was able to set
forth the most difficult topics in such a way that they were understood by all.
No wonder he was so popular, so well liked…
All of us who worked in Haynt
got to know Frishman the man, too… He used to come to the office every day,
struck up a conversation with everyone. People used to perk up as they listened
to his “small talk” in which he often expressed such insights and made such
telling remarks that he influenced both his listeners and, in a large measure,
the policies of Haynt as well. (Haynt Jubilee Book 1908-1938, pp.9-10).
People in the office looked forward to his arrival. He always dressed conservatively, wore round glasses in a thin golden frame and carried himself with an inborn elegance. There was usually a thick, unlit cigar between his teeth. He would merely walk in and immediately there was an atmosphere of good mood in the air. He spoke an excellent German and as soon as he opened his mouth in German-Yiddish with “sehen sie…” [look here…], everyone was all ears.
Hersh-David Nomberg contributed both feature articles and feuilletons. He sometimes signed his name as H.D. Nomberg, sometimes as H.D. and sometimes as H.D.N. His articles were often printed in the From Day to Day column. Sometimes he called his feuilletons “Notes” and sometimes “Life in Warsaw”.
H.D.Nomberg made several journeys on behalf of Haynt. His impressions of America evoked great interest. He was the first to bring authentic regards from the “Goldene Medine” [the “Golden Land”], published in a newspaper. Later Haynt sent him to various European countries and he also participated in the Haynt-tours to Palestine. The letters he sent from these journeys were both original and had a great appeak for the reading public.
When the Germans occupied Warsaw in 1915 and began publishing a Yiddish newspaper (see Chapter 3), Nomberg became one of the editors. When the Germans closed the paper, Nomberg went over to the Moment [another Yiddish newspaper published in Warsaw. See below re: Tseitlin].
Hillel Tseitlin (also spelled Zeitlin in the NYPL list of authors) (Ps: Cajtlin) (1872-1942) began working in Haynt in 1908, just as the paper was first being published. He wrote
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a
column called “Letters to Jewish Youth” and essays dealing with
philosophical-religious and social issues, both of which were hugely
successful. His articles, rich in spiritual content, were simply devoured by
the readers of Haynt.
In
1910 Hillel Tseitlin went over to Moment*.
Stiff competition between the two papers followed. At first, not affiliated
with any political party, supportive of struggle for the betterment of all
humanity as well as of the Jewish masses. Towards the end of its existence was
strongly influenced by the Revisionist movement in Zionism. See: The Jewish
Press that Was (Hebrew), Tel Aviv, World Union of Jewish Journalist, 1975.]
Soon after he became the cause of a bitter conflict between the two papers. One
cannot say that either paper’s attitude to the other was overly friendly. (See
chapter 6.) Far from it. In the case of Hillel Tseitlin the relations became
utterly scandalous.
It
began with a report in Haynt
datelined Pinsk [a city in Poland]. The reporter wrote that he personally saw
Hillel Tseitlin eating “treife” [non-kosher food, insinuating pork] in the
railroad station buffet. That was enough.
A
bitter argument arose about this. People who had nothing to do with all this
got involved. A committee was established as a mediation tribunal to clarify
the matter in order to put an end to the “war” between the two newspapers. It
consisted of several well known personalities active in the Jewish community:
Boris Stavsky (Ps: Stawski), Yitskhak Grinboym (Ps: Ichak Grinbojm), Heshl
Farbshtayn (Ps: Heszl Farbsztajn) and Levi Levin-Epshtayn (Ps: Lewi
Lewin-Epsztajn). They did not accomplish anything and the “polemic” continued
until the issue faded away by itself.
Tseitlins
65th birthday was also the 40th anniversary of the first publication of his
work, “The Good and the Bad”, which appeared in “Hashilo’akh” [A Hebrew monthly
published in Berlin as of 1896, dealing with science, literature and so on. See
Israeli Google, in Hebrew]. On this occasion, Haynt printed an article in the “Writers and Books” section of
issue No.101, dated Friday, April 30, 1937, dealing with Tseitlin’s literary
activity, which included a large picture. The Haynt editorial board and the directorate of the “Alt-Nay” Cooperative invited Tseitlin
to participate in the Haynt-Jubilee-Book
1908-1938. He sent in five chapters of a larger work about the
wandering-brothers Rabbi Elimelekh and Rabbi Zisha (pp. 280-286). His son,
Aharon Tseitlin (1898-1973), a Hebrew and Yiddish writer and poet, also
participated in the Jubilee Book to which he contributed a sketch “The Story of
a Boy Who Went to Volozhin” (pp.92-93).
Yitshak-Eliezer
Leyzerovitsh (Ps: Ichak-Eliezer Leizerowicz) (1883-1927) was one of the popular
contributors to Haynt during the
early stage of its existence. He was a talented writer and his weekly
feuilletons**,“Thoughts of the Week”, which he signed with a pen-name “Isidior
Lazar”, were read eagerly. In the midst of his successful writing career he
decided to study medicine at the Leiptzig University but this did not prevent
him from writing for Haynt. During
the
*a Yiddish newspaper
published in Warsaw. Established 1910, Der Moment, drew away several
journalists from Haynt
**The part of a
European newspaper devoted to light fiction, reviews, and articles of general
entertainment.
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Beilis trial in Kiev he sent in
reports and his impressions from the courtroom.
Eliezer-Dovid Finkel (Ps: Dowid, rest the same) (1862-1918) was one of the first members of the Haynt staff. He knew Latin, Greek, some Japanese and Arabic and was knowledgeable in many fields of science, both general and Jewish. His main job was translating news from the foreign press. He used to pore over foreign newspapers to find unusual vignettes for the daily column From the Four Corners of the World, which were outstanding. The “Four Little Corners”, as they were called in the office, were very popular with the readers of Haynt. Many years after his death Haynt still published the From Four Corners of the World column.
Shaul-Yitshak Stupenitski (Ps: Szaul-Ichak Stupenicki) (1876-1942) worked in Haynt from 1908 to 1916. In his later writing career, first in Lublin and then in Warsaw, he wrote in the vein of The People’s Party [Folkspartay in Yiddish] and supported its anti-Zionist political activity.
Among the gallery of Haynt staff members during the first period of its existence there was one quite singular character - Yitshok Shapiro (Ps: Ichok Szapiro) (1863-1935). In the little world of Jewish writers in Warsaw there was no other like him. He was a true workaholic. He was capable of doing the whole paper all by himself and, if we only let him, he would do just that – would write articles, feuilletons, novels [serial novels?], news stories, telegrams, everything. Deaf as a door nail (literally: wall), unkempt, he never took off his old, stained fedora, summer and winter wore the same old clothes. He lived isolated in his own deaf world, had no need of anything for himself, and made do with whatever there was.
All Yitshok Shapiro really needed were countless glasses of strong tea, the glasses stained black from perpetual use, pieces of sugar to hold between his teeth, a full inkwell, a pen and a stack of paper. He was incredibly diligent and possessed encyclopedic knowledge. Writers used to tell wondrous tales about “Deaf Shapiro”, as they called him.
In 1905 Yitskhok Shapiro was employed in a small paper in Warsaw. “Employed” is not exactly the right way to put it. In fact he was the only journalist on the paper, he was the editor, the publisher and the distributor as well. At that time bigger and more important Jewish newspapers did not have any sources of information – so certainly not Shapiro’s little paper. The day after the Tzar’s proclamation of October 17th 1905, which promised civil liberties, an amnesty and
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elections to the Duma, the press naturally ran all of the story – but not Shapiro’s paper. Shapiro had not heard anything about it, he did not subscribe to any telegraphic agency and so he filled his paper, from front page to the last, with what he himself wrote just as on any other day. The following day he published an article full of complaints – that it never occurred to any of his readers to inform the editor about the proclamation…
This is what Zalmen Zylbercweig told this writer:
Yitskhok Shapiro virtually lived in the office. For him there was no work schedule; he sat at this desk from morning till late at night and did the work that it would normally take many others to accomplish. At one time the journalists union in Warsaw decided to demand definite work hours and since the publishers paid no heed, there was no choice but to declare a strike. As people began leaving the office they saw that “the deaf Shapiro” just sat there and went on working as if nothing were happening. So they went up to him and yelled in his ear that there was a strike and he must stop working and leave the office together with all the others. But Shapiro did not make a move. They thought that he did not hear what they said so they repeated what they had said only this time louder yet. So then Shapiro spoke up:
I heard what you said, and I am coming with you, but before I leave, because a strike can sometimes go on for several days, I want to first finish several installments of the novel, finish an article, write a few stories and review what some others have written which I was asked to edit. As soon as I finish I will go down and participate in the strike. As for the work hours that they want to establish as of now, I agree that it should be from 9 in the morning till 2 in the afternoon and from 2 in the afternoon till 9 in the evening…
In the time of the German occupation Yitskhok Shapiro left Haynt and worked in the orthodox newspapers. The Hassids had no professional journalists and they found Shapiro very useful. He could finally write as much as his heart desired and the owners of the paper did not have to worry about his salary. He wrote under the pseudonym Dr. A. Farsher (Ps: Farszer) and had an account as A. And.
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This is the story told by Moshe Prager: One time… a strike broke out… in Yod (an orthodox paper in Warsaw) because they had not paid the wages. The first day the strike was declared Shapiro showed up in the office and begged the strikers: “Let me write my thing, don’t print it, just let me write”. (“From the Recent Past”, vol.2, pp.452-453).
According to a report in Korot (Happenings) – of May 22nd, 1966 (p.44) Eizik Remba spoke at an evening which was held in Tel Aviv on February 28th, 1966, and which was dedicated to the Warsaw Jewish press. Referring to Shapiro he said: I worked in ha’Yom (Today) together with… old Yitskhok Shapiro… He also worked for the Agudas Yisroel [an ultra-religious anti-Zionist political party in Israel] paper. Saturday afternoons he came to work in ha’Yom and Saturday evening he wrote articles against the Zionists whose newspapers desecrate the Sabbath…”
We mentioned in Chapter 1 that, at the time when in the first few months of its existence the paper was not doing so well, Sh.Y. Yatskan started publishing a light novel, the first of many others, which had a tremendous success. The writer of these novels was Avrom-Leyb Yakubovitch (Ps: Awrom-Lejb Jakubowicz), at that time still a young man. It can be said that he himself, more than anyone else, was responsible for the big financial success of the paper, which enabled Haynt to engage the greatest of writers.
Yakubovitch found material for his novels in sensational stories which appeared in various European publications. Such “tear jerkers” are meant for lonely people, mainly women who in daytime hours are home alone, cleaning or preparing dinner. Today, what with radio and television, they spend hours listening or watching TV - just as their mothers and grandmothers virtually swallowed the daily installments in the newspapers. Now people wait anxiously from day to day to hear on the radio or see on TV what happened to their present-day heroes just as in the past people used to hurry in the morning to get their newspapers in order to read the next installment of the novel.
Yatskan was the first in the Jewish press to understand this phenomenon and in Yakubovitch he found the right person to create these novels for the Yiddish reader.
Yakubovitch knew how to transfer a plot to fit in with the Jewish environment and Jewish experience, give the characters Jewish names, imbue their conversations with Jewish ideas and Jewish expressions and he
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caught on to the idea of writing daily installments so that each would end at the most interesting point and the reader would anxiously await the next episode.
The first novel of this genre was originally printed in Haynt in 1909. The name was “The Network of Sin”. It caught on right away and was so successful that Haynt had to print a warning to imitators that unless they stop, they will be taken to court for plagiarism.
Other novels that Haynt printed in installments had similarly racy titles. To tell the truth they were, however, far from lewd. They suited the popular taste of the readers of Haynt because they described life in a world that was strange to them and seemingly fantastic. Today such publications would be dubbed “escape-literature”, meant to take the reader away from the reality of his daily worries and troubles. In the first decade of this century, when Yatskan amused the readers of Haynt with these love stories, this was a revolutionary turning point in the Jewish press. In the puritanical atmosphere, which was dominant in the Jewish community, there were many who looked at this askance.
When Yakubovitch started writing these dime-novels he was still quite a young man, 28 years old (he was born in 1880). He was however already known as a serious writer, literary critic and had translated into Yiddish important literary works as well as books dealing with science, Darwin’s theory, chemistry, geology, astronomy. He was particularly fond of problems relating to calendars, dates and chronology.
In spite of the phenomenal success of these dime-novels, he did not enjoy writing them. Even the fact that the first novel was made into a Polish film did not much console him1. He considered writing dime-novels degrading, below his dignity. The first of these were printed under his own name, the later ones
1Henrik (Chaim) Finkelshtein (Ps: Finkelsztajn), the cousin of Noah and Nechemia Finkelshtein, a pioneer, in the Polish film industry, was the owner of the “Sphinx” studio in Warsaw and bought from Yakubovitch the film-rights for the book “The Network of Sin”.
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he signed with a pseudonym, L. Shreiber (Ps: Szrajber). In the second volume of “From the Recent Past” (pp.53-66) Yakubovitch gives a detailed account of how he became a writer of dime-novels. It is an outstanding human document, a confession. It appears that this man, endowed with a sensitive soul, waited all his life for an opportunity to unburden himself of a grievance and a feeling of guilt. More than 40 years had passed yet he still had a feeling that he needed to cleanse himself of a moral guilt. He did that in the form of a long letter to Moshe Grossman (Ps. Mosze Grosman) (1904-1961), an administrative employee of Haynt.
In about 1921 Haynt stopped publishing these dime-novels. Times had changed, life in Poland was different, the readers of Haynt became more sophisticated and more discriminating. Instead of the cheap love stories Haynt printed works from world literature (see chapter 13).
Yakubovitch became the editor of the Warsaw Chronicles. At that time he also wrote the weekly column, Literary Conversations. He also participated in the literary journal “The Month”, which was published by Haynt and edited by Shmuel Rosenfeld (Ps. Szmuel Rozenfeld) (1869-1943).
A. L. Yakubovitch was both a colleague and a dear friend, a person with integrity, pure as snow (lit: crystal pure), straight as an arrow, an altruist, ready to do a favor for anyone in need. He used to spend all day in his “hideout” which he built for himself in the space under the roof of the house where he lived on Novolipie St. (in Polish: Nowolipki St.), in the very depth of Jewish Warsaw. In Warsaw this kind of a little garret was called “patziate” [in quotes in the original – Tamar]. To get in he had to climb up high, steep stairs, on which one could easily break one’s neck. There was no furniture except for a work table and a chair; the rest of the space was piled with books and journals. It was cold in the winter and hot in the summer. This is where, under such austere, ascetic conditions, he worked, read, wrote articles, translated Heine, Romain Rolland, Dushek [spelling uncertain], London.
For a long time Yakubovitch was the treasurer of the Writers and Journalists Union and was in charge of a writers’ welfare fund. Debts that were due were paid up in small weekly installments and the money brought to him in his garret.
He could sit hours long in the editorial office
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without saying a word. But if there was an issue that interested him, he would join in the discussion with a passion, as if it were the end of the world. There was fire and brimstone in his flaming eyes, red from aggravation. He never heard what others were saying, only kept on talking and yelling until he lost his voice. If anyone tried to tell him that he was getting all excited for nothing, that the facts were quite different, he would yell back in his hoarse, high pitched voice Hegel’s well known phrase: “Too bad for the facts.”
In 1935 Yakubovitch went on aliyah to Palestine together with his wife, the actress Fanina Tsidkus-Tsipis (Ps: Cidkus-Cipis) and his only son Uriel, now a psychologist in Tel-Aviv. In Palestine he continued a very active literary career.
On the 31st of December 1919 the publishers of Haynt (which was then called Haynt News (Today’s News) printed an announcement on the first page of the paper stating that “according to an agreement with the central committee of the Zionist Organization in Poland our newspaper will be under the auspices of the Zionist Organization and, as of January 1st 1920, will become the central mouthpiece of the Zionist Organization in Poland, with Yitskhak Grinboim (Ps: Icchak Grinbojm) as the editor in chief.”
On that day Haynt entered a new era. The space devoted to political, social and economic issues was enlarged and given greater importance. Members of the staff got a new impetus, feeling that the masses of politically conscious Jewry were behind them. New people were co-opted to the editorial board, both within the country and abroad, and new literary figures were brought in. There was richer information material and Haynt became a better newspaper in all aspects.
The process of integrating the journalists and other writers of Haynt with the staff of “The Jewish Folk”, who now joned Haynt, (details concerning the consolidation of the two papers can be found in Chapter 7) proceeded without particular difficulties. All were intent on Haynt appearing on the highest level possible. The fact that among the people involved in the two newspapers there were no ideological differences went a long way to make this easier. Their personal backgrounds were also similar. They all had a sold grounding in
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both Jewish and general education, which stemmed from “cheders” [religious schools for young Jewish boys] and “yishives“ [Jewish religious secondary schools] and various educational institutions in Russia, Poland and western Europe. They were good Jews, ardent nationalists, convinced Zionists. They had a lot of experience as observers of the Jewish scene and of the political mood in the country, they were familiar with the needs of the Jewish community. Within a short time they became a team functioning like a harmonious orchestra. Everyone was instinctively capable of responding to current issues in accordance with the interests of Polish Jewry and with the political stand of the paper. This was especially apparent when the issue had to do with politics in Palestine or Zionist activities in the Diaspora or the way of rebuilding Eretz Israel – the three cardinal problems that figured in the center of Jewish life in Poland. There were discussions concerning methods but the goal was always incontrovertible. In the course of the years two of the journalists working in Haynt did not want to comply with the political outlook of the editorial board and had to resign. Zev Zabotinski and Dr. Yehoshua Gotlieb (Ps: Jehoszua Gotlib) attempted to lead Haynt away from its General Zionist platform and from its radical stand in Palestinian politics, but did not succeed in doing so. The personnel of Haynt decidedly refused to change the character of the paper. We talk about this in greater detail in Chapter 20.
It was not easy to found a dynamic Yiddish newspaper that, day after day, week after week, year in and year out, followed a sharply delineated Jewish-nationalistic political stand in the face of the ruinous anti-Jewish policies practiced in Poland. The staff of Haynt felt themselves to be representatives of the people, defenders of Jewish honor, demanding that Jews have equal rights to live and work just like everyone else. As one united family, they all left their imprint on the paper. Whether publicist or reporter, or the anonymous proof-reader, all shouldered the burden and contributed to the ability of Haynt to carry on and have the courage to stand up against the assaults on Jewish life and Jewish well-being. Together they took on the responsibility for the political stand and content of the paper. The years between the two world wars were for Haynt a momentous period.
In chapters 1, 7 and 8 we have written about the founders of Haynt and some of the leading members of the staff. This chapter and chapters 10 and 11 are devoted to other permanent writers, the
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columnists, feuilletonist, humorists, the political and other reporters and correspondents. Chapter 12 is devoted to the writers of articles who did not belong to the editorial staff, the so called “free lance contributors” Chapter 13 is about the important place that Haynt devoted to authors of books, novelists and poets. Chapter 14 deals with proof-readers. All belonged to the Haynt-family, all left their imprint on the paper.
Haynt policy concerning current problems was discussed and decided upon in meetings of the editorial board, which included all the permanent contributors to the paper. After the death of Avraham/Abraham Goldberg (see chapter 1) the editorial board elected a committee of three who together, edited the paper. When the Alt-Nay cooperative took over Haynt, the editorial board sent its delegates to the directorate and three delegates to the supervisory committee of the cooperative.
Five times a week Haynt printed short articles dealing with topics which would attract the immediate attention of readers. These articles always appeared in the same place, on page three, in the first column on the right, under the general title “From Day To Day”, which was the way Sh.Y. Yatskan had done at the very outset of the publication of Haynt in 1908. The articles helped the reader to understand the important events of the day. Each article had to be no more than some tens of lines long so that the reader would be able to get a general idea about the issue and the paper’s policy within just a few minutes, before finding time to read the paper at length.
Aharon (Aron) Einhorn (Ps: Ajnhorn – but I expect they would use the more Germanic spelling, Einhorn - Tamar) was the prevalent writer of the “Day To Day” column. He never went beyond the limit of such an article, knew where to stop and submitted the articles on time – virtues not possessed by every journalist. The readers could not be aware that the author of these articles, so easy to read and so well liked, did not have an easy time writing them. He wrote slowly, giving it a lot of thought, walked back and forth in his study, drank his tea and hummed melodies from operas. It took him a whole day to write an article, which is why it came out “fit to measure”. His style was lucid, his arguments well stated, clearly spelled out, logical. A good example of Aron Einhorn’s writing ability is his polemic with the “Bund”’,
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which we quote in chapter 2, and the retrospective entry “30 Years Later” in the Haynt-Jubilee Book 1908-1938.
Einhorn was the Yiddish theater critic for Haynt. He knew theater and translated for the Yiddish stage Molier’s The Miser and other theater pieces from French literature. Both the actors and the public highly regarded his opinion. For a long time Einhorn also printed comments and carried on a polemic concerning articles printed in Jewish provincial newspapers. When Alt-Nay took over Haynt, the directorate gave Einhorn the opportunity to contribute to the Friday issue of the paper, an achievement which he could not reach previously. He used to sign his articles A. Einhorn, for the theater reviews he used the pseudonym “Einer” – “Somebody”, other articles he used to sign as “Radyan” or A.A.
Until the age of 17 Einhorn studied in a Lithuanian yeshive, after which he passed an external secondary school examination and went to study at the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1912 he became a permanent contributor to Haynt. A Zionist since his early youth, he always stressed the Zionist aspect of the issues about which he wrote.
In the office he was respected for his calm behavior and good manners. He did not like to “kibbitz”, did not engage in small talk. In discussions with his colleagues he weighed and pondered every word just as he did in his articles. Yatskan had a warm place for him in his not always friendly heart. He used to call him Arke, a familiar short form of Aron, or “Yellow” [with no derogatory implication in this context – Tamar] , hinting at his light blonde hair.
Already on the fifth day after the war broke out, on September fifth, the Polish government had to evacuate the capital. The government designated a number of places in the evacuation train for journalists who were known to have written anti-Nazi articles. There were only 15 places reserved for Jews and the Jewish section of the Warsaw Journalists’ Syndicate was left to decide who would be evacuated. The task was borne by the executive of the Jewish section who naturally felt less than happy in that role. It was clear even then that the war was lost and it was expected that those who leave would be saved from the Nazis.
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The task therefore acquired the meaning of determining a person’s fate. No one on the executive was prepared to take upon himself this responsibility as all Jewish journalists were in danger. The task was all the more difficult because of the meager number of places that the government was prepared to give to Jews, who were in the greatest danger. This turned out to be the first “selection”, as Jews, in this case Jewish writers, had to decide themselves whom to save and who would stay behind under the jurisdiction of the Nazi murderers (literally – executioners, Tamar). Having to choose these 15 “lucky ones” was actually the beginning of the tragic chapter of the Holocaust (literally – period of destruction, Tamar) when the Nazis forced Jews to themselves make “selections” of victims.
Two members of the staff of Haynt, Aron Einhorn and Moyshe/Moshe (Ps: Mojsze) Indelman, were among the “lucky” ones. The both refused to take advantage of this privilege.
In the ghetto Aron Einhorn became pessimistic about the fate of Jews under the Nazi iron fist. He took an active part in the life of the Jewish community and in particular in the Ringelblum-Archive. He was in distress, his health was failing. He contracted TB and went to Otvotsk (Ps: Otwock), a resort near Warsaw where there were sanatoriums for people with lung diseases. He died there in 1942, being 58 years old. Emanuel Ringelblum tells the following: “…It was already common knowledge that there would be an expulsion… Einhorn did not want to move from where he was. He declared that he would not move from his room, he will not hide –what will be will be. That was his end. They shot him in his room in Otvotsk.” (“Announcements From the Warsaw Ghetto”, p. 299; “Reports from Ghetto”, vol. 2, p.59). His wife, Rivka, was transported from Warsaw to a death camp. His two daughters, Khana (PS: Chana) and Sara died in Maydanek (Ps: Majdanek). His only son, David (Ps: Dawid), died in a slave labor construction camp near Warsaw where the work was very hard.
Moyshe/Moshe Indelman (1895 - ) began working in Haynt in 1925, when he came back from Germany, where he had studied philosophy at the Berlin University. He was employed as the assistant of Avraham (Ps: Awracham) Goldberg after whose death he became the secretary (better: executive secretary? – Tamar) of the editorial board.
Indelaman was one of the contributors who wrote lead-articles in the “Day-To-Day” column. He style was warm, enthusiastic, exciting. He took part in discussions in the editorial room with the same enthusiasm and talked just as fervently as he wrote.
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He was often in the minority but would never change his mind. A great supporter of Yitskhak (Ps: Icchak) Grinboym, he was a member of his radical group “Al Hamishmar” [“On Guard”].
As was mentioned above, Indelamn refused to be evacuated from Warsaw in the railroad car that the Polish government reserved for journalists. The Germans arrested him on October 17th, 1939. Several days earlier the Gestapo called him for questioning about the character of Haynt, his position on the paper, Jewish-Polish relations before the war, Haynt policy concerning the German-Polish non-aggression treaty, the anti-German boycott, and so on.
Indelman was jailed in the central police prison in Warsaw. He was forced to do hard, dirty work until on October 24th 1939 the Gestapo sent him to a small town on the Polish-German border. Some time later he was transferred to a camp which the Germans constructed on the grounds of the erstwhile Polish airplane factory “Albatross” and where 500 prisoners suffered under the Gestapo regime of continual hunger, beatings, insults, all kinds of moral degradation. The camp was liquidated at the end of 1939. Some of the prisoners were set free, others were sent to other camps. Indelman and another 18 people remained until the end of January 1940.
A short time after his liberation the Jewish Agency for Palestine in Jerusalem provided a certificate for him and he went on aliyah with his wife, Fani, and his daughter, Miriam. In Palestine Moyshe Indelman changed his name to Moshe Yinon. A brilliant Hebrew scholar, he became the editor of the Bialik Foundation in Jerusalem. In 1953 Moshe Yinon came to America and became chief contributor and editor of the Hebrew weekly, “Hadoar” [The Post].
Yehezkiel-Moyshe Noyman (Ps: Nojman) (1893-19560 was a born beautiful soul. He was endowed with a natural leaning towards the arts, was a mavin of literature and art, an important poet and essayist. In Haynt he popularized the love and understanding of art in general and Jewish art in particular.
Y.M. Noyman had a warm relationship with young Jewish artists, helped and encouraged them, shared with them his knowledge and experience. A young, talented person could count on his sympathy
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and friendly criticism. A new poem, a new novel by a young writer was for him a source of personal joy. Noyman made every effort to make it possible for a young Jewish artist to show his work to the public, for a writer to publish a poem or a story, for a painter to have where to exhibit, for an actor to have a chance to act in the theater. More than one artist or writer owed his career to Noyman.
Absorbed in literature or art, he would often go around his head in the upper spheres. By nature he was a sensitive, likable and friendly person, helpless in day to day practical matters. Noyman lived for art; he viewed and appraised all that he saw around him through the prism of its artistic value.
Noyman talked little, quietly – you could hardly hear him. When he was part of a conversation he looked at people with a good natured smile and his eyes were both glistening and penetrating. He evoked trust. It was obvious that the man had no hidden motives, that he says what he thinks, that he will do more than he promises.
Noyman was proud that on his mother’s side he was a descendent of Spanish Jews. His black hair and black eyes, his dark complexion, his fine hands with long, delicate fingers bore witness to this and made this young, good looking Yekhezkel-Moyshe Noyman, with his fine, soft manners stand apart from other writers. He used to say that he had inherited his love of art from his Spanish forefathers who were gravestone cutters and goldsmiths. In Poland they built synagogues, made Jewish ritual articles and were wood carvers.
Noyman was a nervous writer. He wrote in tiny letters, dotted, formed with a flourish, line after line, seldom correcting a word. His material was well organized, his style clear, befitting an art or literary almanac rather than a daily newspaper. It’s no wonder that the readers held him in high regard; his articles enriched everyone’s cultural life.
Noyman often traveled to Western Europe. He also visited Palestine, Greece, Turkey, Egypt and everywhere looked for remnants or traces of old Jewish art. A landsmanshaft of a small shtetl [town] in Poland invited him to America to tell about Jewish life in Poland. Noyman was not a great speaker. As mentioned above, he spoke very quietly, mumbled – as if he were talking to himself. Besides,
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his language was quite far from the New York “east side” Yiddish of his listeners. They could catch only some words here and there from which they understood that the Jews in Poland live in fear, get beaten up, have no way of making a living, it’s a struggle for every piece of bread. People were moved, they sighed, women had tears in their eyes. The confused the word “struggle” with “war” and when Noyman finished one of the listeners got up ad made the following speech: Mr. President, Mr. Vice-President, Chairlady (the chair of the Women’s Division), my sisters and brothers, members, friends! You have heard what our esteemed guest from Poland told us how our brothers are fighting [a war] against the antisemites. We must support our brothers and I suggest that we make a collection for them so that they have the means to fight a war. They collected some tens of dollars and it was decided to send this sum to their shtetl in Poland.
Subsequent to the group of writers from “The Jewish People” having moved over to Haynt, Noyman worked for several years as the night editor. He was also responsible for some technical jobs until in the course of time he concentrated on articles about literature and writers, art and artists, actors and theater. He was also the critic covering the Polish stage. Noyman was interested in social and political issues and often published his impressions of the Polish parliament, Zionist congresses, the Shteiger court case (see chapter 16), all of which brought to light his acute observation capability, a fine sense of humor and good natured ridicule. By conviction he was a Zionist and he often wrote about problems connected with Zionism and the work of building Eretz-Israel [Palestine]. Generally he used to sign his articles Y.M. Nojman. Short critical pieces he often signed Lo’eg L’rash [a Hebrew idiom, “Mocking the Poor”, but here better, “The Poor Ridicule” or just “The Mock” – Tamar]. For theater reviews and reviews of art exhibits he used the pseudonym A.F. or A Bird [In Yiddish, A Foygl]. One time he admitted to colleagues in the office how he came to use this pseudonym. His parents had a pub in Lodz (where he began his writing career in The Lodz Togblat [Lodz Daily]. The wanted their child to be brought up in a good Jewish environment. They sent him to study in Azarkav where his uncle taught in Yeshive. The charming little boy, growing up alone in a strange town, far away from mother and father, became the favorite of the Jews of Azarkov. They gave the quiet lonely boy the name “The Little Bird from Lodz”. Years later he
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shortened the name and adopted it as his pseudonym.
His intensive work in Haynt did not prevent Noyman
from writing for various periodicals, in particular for the important
Yiddish-English journal Menorah which appeared in New York till the 40’s. He
was well read in Polish literature and translated the works of Stanislaw
Wispianski and Ciprian Norwid and other Polish poets. Together with his close
friends, the painter Yitzhak Broyner (Ps: Brojner) (1889-1944) and the musician
Henekh Kan (Ps: Henech Kan) (1890-1974), he established in Warsaw the first
Jewish miniature theater, “Had Gadyah” [“One Goat” – from the song that is the
ending of the Passover Haggada – Tamar], and later a cabaret, “Azazel” [“The
Devil”], and wrote monologues, sketches and songs for both.
He left many manuscripts, including poems, translations and
critical reviews of modern Polish literature.
Simkha-Bunem Pyetrushka (Ps: Simcha-Bunem Pietruszka)
(1893-1950) was one of a kind in the Haynt family. His many-sided literary
activity, his career as a writer, researcher and translator of religious books
into Yiddish and his colorful journalistic work deserve to have greater space
devoted to him in our narrative.
For a long time Pyetrushka was a correspondent in Palestine,
for several years he was the editor and main contributor to the evening paper
“Hayntike Nayes” [“Today’s News”]. He was also a partner in several
publications, which he personally planned and edited. Whatever he did, whatever
was his job, he was always original and creative, though often very
controversial. The editorial board was not always in agreement with his methods
but had to accept him as he was. It was impossible to change him, impossible to
make sure that he did not digress from the acknowledged standards of Haynt. He did his thing.
Pyetrushka’s father was a Warker (Varker?) Hassid
and, as it was the Warkers’ custom, he named his son Simkha-Bunem, according to
the Rebbe’s dictate. Pyetrushka called himself Simkha; he did not use the
additional name. He told us how at one time he asked his father, a pauper “in
seven coats” (as: a pauper in tatters –) how come the Warker Hassids were all
miserably poor. His father explained that the Hassids believed the Rebbe did
not want God in Heaven to make them rich because once they had money they would
no longer come to his court.
From childhood on Pyetrushka stood out like “The Sage
[literally: Genius] from Prague.” [The
Maharal?] He
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was incredibly studious, erudite, sharp. If you stuck a
needle into a page of the Gemorra he knew exactly what problem this page dealt
with. He was a walking encyclopedia of secular knowledge as well. He was
self-educated, swallowed books in several languages dealing with mathematics,
geography, history, astronomy, philosophy. In just a few years he accumulated a
huge amount of knowledge, both in the sciences and the humanities, taught
himself Polish, Russian, German and English and could translate from these
languages into Yiddish. He used to spend days in the library at the Great
Synagogue on Tlomackie Street in Warsaw and read one after another books
concerning various areas of the sciences. He had a photographic memory. If he
once read anything, he retained it forever.
Dr. Shmuel Poznanski (1864-1921), who was a great scholar
and delivered sermons at the Tlomackie Synagogue, took notice of the Hassidic
young man who constantly pored over the thick, heavy volumes in the library. He
often wondered whether this young man in the Hassidic hat and long capote
understood what was written in those books. After several conversations became
convinced that Pietrushka undoubtedly understood what he was reading but also
that his accumulated knowledge was chaotic and spotty or stemmed from wrong or
outdated sources. Dr. Poznanski and the librarian, Chaim-Yechiel Borenshtein
(ps: Borensztajn) (1846-1927) persuaded
the young Pietrushka that his studies should have a more solid foundation and
be better organized and he began to study under their supervision. It was
assumed that he should study for the rabbinate but instead he became a
journalist and as a journalist Simha Pietrushka acquired fame.
At the age of 19 he began working for the assimilated Jews
in Warsaw and assisted them in their fight against Zionism and Jewish
nationalism. During the elections to the second Duma in 1912 (see Chapter 2)
the Warsaw assimilationists started printing in Warsaw a newspaper in the
“jargon”, Die Nayes [The News], in order to combat Haynt, which
supported the candidacy of Eugeniusz Jagelo. Pietrushka’s job on this paper was
to write articles against Jagelo and defend the candidacy of Jan Kocharzewski,
whom the Jews were against because of his antisemitism. This was Pietrushka’s
first appearance in the press. Several years later, when the Germans occupied
Warsaw during the First World War, he worked first in Das Yudishe Wort
[The Jewish Word] and later in
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Der Yud [The Jew], the two orthodox newspapers which the Germans issued in Warsaw after they stopped subsidizing the popular Varshaver Togblat [The Warsaw Daily] (see Chapter 3).
Simkha Pietrushka was not overly discriminating. He was an opportunist and did not care for whom he worked and who paid him. He paid no heed to social consciousness, took nobody and nothing into account and wrote according to whatever his employer demanded. Personally he thought of himself as a Zionist, believed in Jewish nationalism but that never prevented him from writing for the ultra-assimilationist “Nayes” [News] and later for the ultra-hassidic “Dos Yudishe Vort” [The Jewish Word] and “Der Yud” [The Jew], which in Jewish nationalistic circles was sarcastically referred to “Der Yud Hakodesh” [The Holy Jew]. Since at the time that was his employer’s wish, he wrote satirical articles against Zionism, against Eretz-Yisroel, and in particular against the Herzl Forest and The Jewish National Fund. When they asked him: ”Pietrushka, how can you write such lies and such gossip, you yourself know that what you write is utter lies?” He quite frankly answered in his characteristic Polish-Yiddish accent [as: Yach instead of Yich for Yes – Tamar] : “ Me, I don’t know anything. I am like a bookkeeper, my boss cannot write articles so I write for him whatever he says”. *Footnote: A similar instance of a “bookkeeping” approach to journalism happened in America. In the thirties and forties, Royven Mauri (I am not sure if that is the way to spell the name, I am not familiar with the person’s work – Tamar), mercilessly criticized the president, Franklin Roosevelt, in the lead editorials (I am not sure if F. meant “lead editorials” – literally it says, chief articles – Tamar) which he wrote for the most popular New York newspaper, The Daily News. At the same time he wrote amiably about Roosevelt in the liberal weekly Colliers. In The Daily News his articles appeared anonymously while in Colliers he signed his full name. When this became public knowledge Mauri explained that his articles did not reflect his private opinions but the policies of each of the publications. When the criticism of his behavior did not stop he declared that he would press charges in court for gossip if he were further attacked for having “sold” his pen.
In later years Pietrushka appeared to have an extraordinary sense for what can be of interest for the Jewish masses. He would dress news in Jewish outfits. After the First World War he
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published, in partnership with Haynt, publications that were timely and also of practical interest such as “Der Emigrant” [The Emigrant], in which he provided information for Jews who were striving to leave Poland concerning the possibilities of obtaining visas for overseas countries, and the “Handels-Tsaytung” [Business Newspaper], which was devoted to issues of taxation, commercial contracts and various related topics which interested shopkeepers and tradesmen. “Der Emigrant” was full of advertising by shipping lines and the “Handels-Tsaytung” carried advertising from enterprises which sought clients from among small-scale Jewish merchants. Both brought great profits for Pietrushka and for Haynt Publishing.
In 1924 circumstances changed and this kind of business came to an end. Pietrushka packed up and went to Palestine. He became a correspondent for Haynt and sent letters from Eretz-Isroel which were overwhelmingly sensational, just like all that ever emerged from his journalistic pen. The way he wrote about the situation in the country, his superficial evaluations, his alarming and skeptical reflections, provoked in Palestine stormy protests. Street demonstrations were organized in protest and Haynt had to stop his employment as a correspondent. In 1927 Pietrushka had to leave Palestine. He went to America meaning to realize his old plan to publish in New York an American edition of Haynt but nothing came of this idea and he returned to Warsaw (in the second part Zalman Zilbertsveig (Ps: Zilbercwajg) writes about this in his memoirs concerning Haynt).
In 1929, during the riots in Palestine, Haynt decided to publish an afternoon newspaper. Jews were anxious to hear every bit of news from Erets Isroel, readers could not wait from one day to the next till Haynt would print the latest telegraphs. Many wrote to the editors asking Haynt to publish a noon-time paper. At the beginning this was called “Letste Nayes” [Latest News]. Later, when it became more established, it was decided to enlarge the contents, increase the number of employees and make it into a proper evening newspaper. The name was changed to “Hayntike Nayes” [Today’s News] and Simkha Pietrushka became the editor. He promised to write articles in the spirit of the general policies of Haynt and this time he more or less kept his promise.
His talent of understanding the psychology of the Jewish masses again proved itself. He had an outstanding grasp of the feelings, the hopes, the needs, the way of thinking of his readers. The way
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the man in the street thought was an open book for him and he could mold his soul any way he wanted.
As if by a sixth sense he understood what the Jews were thinking. His ability to evaluate a political situation at lightening speed attracted thousands and they could not do without “Hayntike Nayes”. Readers were drawn like by a magnet to Pyetrushka’s short articles, which appeared every day on the first page of the paper, and his “This Week’s Notes”, the weekly news review which appeared on Fridays. Within a short time Pyetrushka was able to print 75,000 copies of the paper.
The news headlines were loud, shocking, alarming, frightening and they simply grabbed readers by their coat tails and forced them to buy the paper for ten groshen [equivalent to a dime, the polish zloty being divided into 100 groshen – Tamar]. His readers did not take him seriously – not for nothing did they call him “hefker pietreshke” [Yiddish idiom meaning irresponsible, lawless – Tamar]. Nevertheless they swallowed his “fishy stories” – and for him that was the main thing. He cared only about the first page of the paper. It’s doubtful if he knew at all what was being printed on the other pages, except for the Friday edition, in which he had his weekly news review on page two. The real editor of the paper was Hillel Mayman (Ps. Hilel Majman), a one time night editor of Haynt (see Chapter 19).
When he sat down to write, he used to fold one leg under himself and stayed that way until he was finished. He would hum a tune that he remembered from his years at the yeshive and often there was a smile on his face, as if he himself was laughing at what he wrote. Once he sat down to write, he wrote very quickly, never giving a thought as to what he would include in the article and how he would say it. It did not bother him that what he wrote was chaotic, run on, that the beginning did not fit the end. He knew that his readers would enjoy what he wrote, that his own inventions and his wild, barbaric use of language amused them, that they cared little whether all that he wrote was really a hundred percent true. Once Pyetrushka came to Yatskan to ask for a raise but Yatskan was not anxious to comply. Pyetrushka warned Yatskan that if he did not get a raise he would write only the truth, report the news just as it came in on official reports, and people would stop buying the “boring” paper. He was disorganized, scatter brained, always in a rush. Inwardly he always remained a “yeshive-bokher” [yeshive student - an expression implying particular personal characteristics – Tamar], as if he had only just left the yeshive. He never knew the meaning of
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taking a rest, virtually never went out into the street except to go to work. He was quite seldom seen in the theater, he did not come to the meetings of the editorial board. When friends came on a Friday evening for a glass of tea he would ceremonially bid them good night at 8 o’clock, latest at 9, and go to sleep saying that he had to go to the office very early in the morning in order to get “Hayntike Nayes” ready for print.
Simkha Pyetrushka’s brain never rested. It kept churning out thoughts non-stop. Just like Yatskan, he was always looking for new publication projects. Many of his ideas were naive and impractical, like the plan to publish Haynt in America. Others, as “The Emigrant” and the “Handels-Tsaytung”, were highly profitable. During the time of the “Alt-Nay” cooperative, he came to the management together with Gedalya Vaysbard (Ps. Gedalja Wajsbard), who was his usual publication partner, and suggested a brand new project which they wanted to undertake in partnership with the cooperative. The plan was to publish an illustrated weekly dealing with popular science, medicine, new technological developments and have a great deal of space devoted to what interested women: novels in installments, fashion, advice on cosmetics, bringing up children, and other such topics. “Der Velt Shpigel” [The World Mirror], as the weekly was called, was a great success right from the first issue and the circulation kept on growing. On the eve of the war “Der Velt Shpigel” was published in 50,000 copies. No other journal in Poland had that large a circulation.
One day in the summer of 1939 Simkha Pyetrushka printed a sensational article under a headline in large black letters, spread across all six columns of the paper: “The War Will Break Out After the Harvest”. The categorical tone of the headline, the blunt wording which he chose for his explosive forecast, made a huge impression. It would be difficult to imagine the panic that broke out when the paper appeared on the stands. The political horizon in Europe was at that time overcast with black clouds. The atmosphere was quite strained and Pyetrushka’s sensational statements struck people like thunder. The telephones at Haynt did not stop ringing, share prices on the stock exchange fell, commerce came to a halt, people did not stop talking about the horrifying report. Later Pyetrushka told the office that he had found mentioned in a Paris newspaper that Hitler would attack Poland at the end of the summer and he
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repeated this in “Hayntike Nayes”.
But, as usual, he "colorized" and added a little fantasy. Written in his sensational manner under a large headline, the news made a “staggering impression," as one said in Warsaw, on the reader and evoked a panic in the city.
The truth is that Pietruzshke was personally deeply convinced that Poland, if not the entire world, was on the eve of a war with Hitler-Germany. The news in the French newspaper fortified his belief and he decided to flee. One, two, as he did everything, he went to America and settled with the family in New York. In 1940 he moved to Montreal, where he was secretary of Mizrakhi a couple of years.
But it would be a great injustice to judge Pietruzshke merely according to his journalistic work. There was another Simkhe Pietruzshke, the great Talmud-scholar, the many-sided, deep, erudite and popularizer of the wisdom of Israel and its large scope. In comparison with his scientific works and creations, actually, newspaper work was for Pietruzshke only a side-line. His true interest lay in the dissemination of the wisdom of Israel in Yiddish among the broad masses, the simple people, hungering for Jewish knowledge, but who not possess the necessary preparation to study the original. By himself he wrote and published two monumental works: a two-volume Jewish encyclopedia and a Yiddish translation of the Mishne, 6 volumes. What is remarkable is that Pietruzshke found time to write in the years when he had to work for "Di Hayntike Nayes" and "Di Velt-Shpigl".
He wrote his scientific work in a completely-different style from the news and articles in the newspapers. The language is for plain people but clean, controlled. The encyclopedia and the Mishne were very successful and brought Pietruzshke a fine income.
The scholarly work brought Pietruzshke recognition and spiritual satisfaction. In 1945, The Jewish Theological Seminary in New York bestowed upon him an honorary doctorate.
Dr. Azriel Karlbach was a journalist and publicist on a high level, a clear-thinking, spiritual person, a son of the Torah, blessed with great literary talent, who know how to hold the
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interest of a reader to his article. He was one of the, Yiddish journalists, who not only enriched the Yiddish press with his pen but helped to place it on a level with the best newspapers in Europe, who knew how to lead. his readers to the depths of political news. A loving, warm person, he was a good friend, affable, cozy. His health was not good, he often suffered from various illnesses; but he did not permit the physical weaknesses to affect his work. He traveled throughout the world and wrote a great deal, original works and expository, the darling of Haynt readers, an appreciated and valued member of the Haynt family.
Azriel Karlbach was born in 1908. His father, Horav (Rabbi) Efrayim Karlbach, was the rabbi in Leipzig. The Karlbachs were a great rabbinic family, spread throughout Germany, Austria, Hungary, England, and America. From childhood Azriel was reputed to be a genius --and as incredible as it sounds-- it is a fact that by 14 he was publishing articles for German-Jewish publications. The editors did not know that the writer was a year older than a bar-mitsva boy.
When he completed gymnasium, his father sent him to study in Lithuanian yeshives in Mir, Slobodke, Telz. Later he studied with Rabbi Kook in Jerusalem. He loved to tell anecdotes in the editorial office of that time. He then studied in the universities of Hamburg and Berlin and received his doctorate from the University of Berlin. At the same time, he wrote articles and correspondence for the German-Jewish press. At that time everything which emanated from his pen flashed with original thinking, deep evaluations, scholarly and general knowledge. He was not yet 20.
Azriel Karlbach wrote and spoke several languages. German was his mother tongue. He received a literary prize for a book in German regarding life in old city Jerusalem. (This was the last prize which a Jew received in Germany before Hitler took power.) His Hebrew was exemplary, he was thoroughly grounded in English and French and knew enough Arabic to be fluent. But what was most astonishing was Karlbach's Yiddish. Helmas surely the only Yiddish-German writer who had learned
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to speak and write rich, idiomatic Yiddish, the substantial Yiddish of the Lithuanian yeshives.
Karlbach began to send correspondence to Haynt sometime in 1926 or '27. When Hitler came to power, he came to Warsaw and became a regular collaborator on Haynt.
Azriel Karlbach was active in various anti-Nazi organizations and committees in a couple of countries, but he never failed to submit his articles on time. The envelopes bore stamps of numerous European cities, also from Hitler's Germany. He had a desire to see what was happening in Germany under the Nazi regime and write about the Jewish persecutions in Haynt. It later cost the Alt-Nay Cooperative a great deal of effort and money to smuggle Karlbach across the "black" border back to Poland. In the second part, we bring his own description of that episode and other details of his career.
In 1936, Karlbach, his wife, and daughter made aliyah to Israel, where he continued to send in articles. immediately after the founding of the state of Israel, Karlbach founded the evening news-Pa-aer MAYRIV in Tel-Aviv. Under his editorship, the newspaper grew to be the most-distributed press organ in the state and he himself became one the most-influential publicists in the country.
Karlbach died of a heart attack in 1956 at the age 48. Thousands of people attended his funeral. The street where the MARIV building is located in Tel-Aviv is called Karlbach Street.
When this writer was working on the essay about Haynt, which is printed in the second volume, OF THE RECENT PAST, he asked Karlbach to send him details about his participation in the newspaper.
The reader will find his response in the second part of the monograph.
When Moyshe Klaynboym started working in Haynt, he was still quite young, barely out of university. Nevertheless, he was already seen as a rising star of Jewish community life in Poland. A doctor by profession, he cast aside medical practice and devoted him-self to general Zionism. A trust follower of his rabbi, Isaac Greenbaum, he supported him so that people began to call him Little Greenbaum. He excelled in straightforward reasoning and had the talent to analyze a political problem and to formulate a matter in a clear and understandable way. In words at gatherings
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as well as in articles written in Haynt, Klaynberg disseminated
the thought that Jews in Poland need, not fall into confusion, and dare not give up the struggle for their rights as citizens. He was especially sharp in his polemics with the Socialists and Communists. His belief and optimism infected the public; he soon grew to become a national figure in Polish Judaism, and, when Yitskhok Greerboym left Poland (see Ch, 7), he become the principal speaker of Polish Zionism andlin his country's politic, the recognized leader --Moishe Kleinbaum, no longer “Kleingreenbaum” (Little Greenbaum). His speeches and articles against anti-Semitism of Sanatsye-Camp upset the government. When he was graduated in 1935 from the medical faculty of Warsaw University, he was required to complete the course in the officers' school in Warsaw, but he was not given the officers' dirloma which the other graduates received but was sent to serve as a soldier in a provincial regiment. That was punishment for his article, "The Two Paces of Yuzef Pilsudski". When he was released a year later, he returned to the activity in Jewish public life and as Co-editor of Haynt.
In the summer of 1939, Kleynboym participated in the 21st Zionist Congress in Geneva. In the last days of August, when it became clear that the war could break out, no matter what, any day, he still managed to get on the last plane to Warsaw and was mobilized into the Army. After Poland's defeat Kleynboym and his family found themselves in Vilna, and in order to keep a low profile in the eyes of the Communists, who had old scores to settle with him, he grew a long beard and hid with friends. In 1940 he received a certificate from the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem and went to Erets-Yisroyel.
As Moyshe Sne, he had a leading role in Erets-Yisroyel as the top leader of the Haganah and leader of other central organs and institutions. He also wrote a great deal in the Yiddish and Hebrew press.
After the establishment of the state of Israel, he was deputy of the Knesset and after 1951 was the head of the Communist Party of Israel (MK"I). How Moyshe Kleynboym, the publicist of Haynt, the leader of general Zionists and fighter for civil rights of the Jews in Poland, became Moyshe Sne, a Communist leader of the state of Israel, is a separate theme. It suffices to say here, that although reasons for such a metamorphosis were not lacking, there were also not lacking
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early evidence. And it is a fact that a careful reader can find in Moyshe Sne's writing and even in his principal declarations as a Communist, traces of thoughts which he had expressed in the pages of Haynt. Naturally, his ideology was different, the problems different, the arguments different; but the commentary and even the logical conclusions he arrived at were not always different from those which Kleynboym used to print previously in Haynt. And certainly one can say so about his articles and public statements as Moyshe Sne after the 6-day war (for example, his article, The Soviet-Egyptian Solution to The Israeli Problem, published in INTERNATIONAL PROBLEMS in May, 1969). In the thesis which he prepared for the 16th Congress of the MK"I which the party published in October, 1968, one can see in his analysis of the Jewish problem in the world, of the tasks of Zionism and of the political situation of the State of Israel, echoes of his previous articles in Haynt, and with many of his thoughts, Haynt would be in agreement.
The Communist Party and its small numbers of hangers-on is not very visible in Israel. His personal charm and talent, ideology, and loyalty to Israel were always well known. in the same spirit of patriotism to Israel, he led the M"I, and after the 6-day war in 1967, he criticized the Moscow government for its enmity toward Israel.
Moyshe Sne died in 1972 at the age of 63. In his will he expressed the wish to be buried in Israel according to Jewish custom, and that kadish and a chapter from Psalms be recited.
Aaron-Levi Ricklis (1875-1960) was more interested in literature and art than in writing aricles for a newspaper. He used to say that although his work in Haynt relieved him of worry about making a living, it swallowed him so that he did not have strength or time for serious literary creation.
He began his career in Haynt with articles about Russian and German literature, the writers and the eras in which they wrote. His pseudonym, A. S. Lirik, became popular with the readers soon after his first articles. He used the pseudonym all his years, and many people believed it was his real name.
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In his youth, Ricklis was a Socialist, but he soon became disillusioned; he became a Zionist and remained one until the end of his years.
In 1920 Ricklis settled in Berlin; from here he sent weekly dispatches about social and political occurrences in Weimar-Germany and in Western Europe. He also frequently wrote about German
literature. The high intellectual level, the interesting content, his fine style endeared him to the readers. He had a tendency to write long paragraphs, no more than two or three in an article of a couple of hundred. lines. Yatskan would ask him, "Ricklis, take pity, in case the reader wishes to catch his breath, else his soul will run out. Can't you allow yourself to provide more paragraphs?"
When Hitler came to power, Ricklis returned to Warsaw. In conversations with his colleagues in the editorship as well as in articles, he expressed the opinion that Germany possessed no organized political rower strong enough to depose the Nazi regime. This was sad news, which contradicted the accepted beliefs of professional politicos in those days, who held that the German folk would depose Hitler any day.
A spiritual person, a talented writer, popular with his readers, Ricklis was not a happy person in his private life. He was a born pessimist, a seer of darkness without a ray of light in life, a loner, an embittered bachelor. When he was not in the editorial office at his desk, he used to frequent cafes. He never had his own home but lived in someone else's home in a room or in a hotel. He considered himself a shlimazl who had wasted his literary talent. Ricklis had had opportunities to make a substantial literary name for himself, but whether he had the psychological bent for it is another question. He wrote with great strain on his nerves. Every article was for him hard, torturous work.
Ricklis did not have patience to remain in one place. Berlin was out; so he went to Paris, then London and Erets-Yisroyel and sent articles from each place. In the summer of 1939, he returned to Warsaw, mainly to receive honorariums which had accumulated, since the management of the Alt-Nay Cooperative, was unable to send funds because of restrictions by the polish government. (See Ch. 6.)
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In the panic which enveloped Warsaw before the very outbreak of the war, Ricklis left for Sweden and in 1940 arrived in New York. Here he became a co-worker for the FORVERTS. Aside from a small number of colleagues from Warsaw who also wandered to America, he did not spend his time with others. In 1952, Ricklis settled in Israel.
Nathan Shvalbe (1883-1941) began his publication career in Haynt in 1914. In the years of the German occupation, he wrote a great deal against assimilationists and sharply attacked the so-call "Red" assimilationists who were active in the union of the Jewish merchant-employees in Warsaw (See Ch. 2). In free Poland., he wrote about the Polish two-party relationships and about the Polish inner politic in general. His impressions of the Polish Parliament sessions were informative, enlightened, and gave an understanding of the behind-the-scenes struggles in parliamentary and government circles. He was popular with the readers, and, in time, he began to interest himself more in international problems and. soon created a reputation as an expert. Shvalbe was well suited for the tasks of a diplomatic correspondent. He was well-versed in international stances after the first world war, conquered German, French, and English, and had access to diplomatic circles in Warsaw in the League of Nations in Geneva.
Shvalbe often represented Haynt at international conferences. When in 1920 in Rigs the Polish-Soviet peace-negotiations took place, Haynt delegated him as special correspondent. His letters, which were published a couple of times a week and sometimes daily, were without sensationalism but rich in facts, which he received from the first source. He was strongly critical of the Bolsheviks, the "Russian Rear which had pulled a red skin over itself", as he described it. In his communiqués from the sessions of the League of Nations, he wrote critically wrote about Polish diplomacy. The Polish diplomatic corps consisted mostly of aristocrats, great landowners, or professors, attorneys, and journalists, almost all from Galitsianer origin, mostly Cracow nobility of old families. Shvalbewrote that they conduct them-selves like the old, supercilious diplomats of vanished monarchies, that their politic is not real, but dilettantish and therefore, Poland has failures
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in the international arena. He also had a poor opinion of the caliber and qualifications of the Polish correspondents, of whom very few had mastered even one foreign language. They were there-fore isolated at the conferences, not having any opportunity to reach an understanding with the diplomats, and had to rely solely upon what the Polish delegation told them.
Nathan. Shvalbe belonged to the "Young Zion" organization and published articles in the party press. Later he became a general Zionist, but he did not formally join any factions in the movement. In 1919, when Dos Yidishe Folk became a daily newspaper, Shvalbe became a colleague there, together with Isaac Greenbaum and Dr. Yeshue Gotleib, and took over the administration of the Zionist organ. A year later, hen Dos Yidishe Folk merged with Haynt, he took over the department of foreign politics. He used to sign his articles with his full name, else with the pseudonym Sigma and Bar-Gash. From 1927 he wrote almost exclusively for the Jewish daily in Polish, Nash Pshegland, in Warsaw.
Shvalbe was an elegant man. In the style of a diplomat, which he quietly considered himself to be, he wore conservative clothes, made of expensive fabric by expensive tailors. He was often seen with a monacle in his eye. Slim, skin and bones, he had a pair of thin, bony hands with long, thin fingers. His handwriting was like his figure: small, thin, with drawn-out letters. He played the role of an epicure, a gastronome, and an arbiter of elegance, an expert in how a person should conduct himself in society. In the literary union, where he was somewhat laughed at, or in the restaurant "Picadilly" on Bielanske Street, where the journalism family would gather after work, he would constantly speak of the proper way to use tableware and explained such culinary riddles as why one needs to have two forks when eating fish. He himself had a small appetite took great joy in discussing eating.
Shvalbe was one of those who received s place in the wagon of journalists whom the government had evacuated from Warsaw. On the 17th of September the Bolsheviks arrested him, together with two other Yiddish-Polish journalists, Shoel Vagman (1891-1941) and Shmuel Volkovitsh (1893---), all three leading colleagues of the Polish-Jewish newspaper, Nash Pshegland, in Warsaw. The Bolsheviks
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exiled them to Sumi in the Kharkov region, where they worked in a sugar factory.
Only Volkovitsh rescued himself, and he now lives in Israel. In a letter to the author he described their martyrdom. In the early days of 1941, Wagman found a little dog on the street and brought it home, not knowing that it had an illness of the eyes. He became infected and had to go to Odessa for an operation. In a couple of weeks the factory received the news that Wagman had fallen into the sea there during the evacuation.
The day that the German-Russian war broke out, Volkovitsh was sentenced to 10 years in a camp, and Shvalbe was exiled from the Ukraine for 5 years. They were tossed from one camp to the other, all camps were packed; and no one wanted to take them in. For a time they were in jail in the shtetl of Valoyki, in the Kursker neighborhood, until a camp was finally found for them. But Shvalbe remained in prison. On the way to the camp, Volkovitsh roamed around a train station two days in Valiki. Meanwhile the Germans took over the shtetl, and during the time that the transport of arrestees was evacuated from the station and led to the camp which had been located for them, from a distance Volkovitsh saw the prison in flames. That is how the life of Nathan Shvalbe ended.
Shimon Shpigl (1891--) worked for the European press, appeared daily with one or two articles, mainly about new technical achievements and new discoveries in medicine and science. When Haynt, (actually Nayer Haynt), began in 1925 to issue an illustrated weekly supplement to the Friday edition of the paper, at first 8 and later 10 pages, he compiled it together with Nehemiah Finklshteyn.
Shpigl is a passionate collector of graphic art, especially illustrated advertisements. But he is especially fond of each letter, and he collects examples of the development of graphic art in Jewish printing. For the Haynt Jubilee-Book 1908-1928, Shpigl prepared an illustrated study with an overview of the history of Jewish printing (pp. 175-176). The main thought of the work is that the people of the book show slight interest in the esthetic of the printed word and. the
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graphic form and that "the artistic side of literary production becomes for us Jews something one takes into consideration only once in a while."
In 1930 Shrigl settled in Erets-Yisroyel and took with him his rich collection, which he really built up from then on. His collection is perhaps the only one which Jews possess. He is considering donating to one of the Israeli museums.