p.190, Translated by Bertha Berman
Haynt was the first in the Yiddish Press in Russia and Poland to staff its own newsgathering team, providing its readers with a view of political events, economic problems, and whatever cultural events the community offered them both in Jewish and non-Jewish public happenings. At the time it was the style in the Yiddish press to move the day's news to the side. “Haynt 's layout style, giving the news a prominent position, was news in itself.
David Druk commented in his work mentioned above (see chapter 1), "To the History of the Yiddish Press (page 40)" how much it was feared to disrupt the Editorials, "that even the headlines about peace between Russia and Japan, in Portsmouth, (which ended the Russo-Japanese War) - what's called "first class news" was printed the old way - hidden in a corner". In literary circles, one considered a newspaper to be a literary collection - a place to discover young talent and give older typesetters an opportunity for work. Haynt ended these old-fashioned notions about dailies, their goals and tasks. From a stepchild the chronicle and general news rose in the paper to one of the most prominent components, on the same level as the articles. It is characteristic that before World War I Haynt invited its readers into the editorial office to share what was going on in the city. A special advertisement announced: the "Special Bureau to Collect News, Observations and Statements about Warsaw Daily Life, - is open daily from 10 a.m. to 12 a.m. in Haynt 's Editorial Office, where every one's input will be heard". Even in its first years Haynt established correspondents in the Polish Congress and everywhere in the Russian Imperia, where there were large Jewish communities. In the years between the World Wars Haynt had its own correspondents in almost every country in Western Europe. From Eretz Yisroel two or sometimes more
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Abraham Kleynman (Awraham Klajnman), the Parliamentary Correspondent, specialized in the internal politics. His weekly analysis, "Talks in the Political Spheres", which he wrote under the pseudonym "A Politician", were popular with readers, but not with the censors. The newspaper was frequently confiscated because of his articles. In his evaluation of the Polish legislation and the Senate, he would summarize the material and choose what interested the Jewish readers. He often accompanied the reports with intriguing descriptions of the sessions.
In the 20th Jubilee book (1908-1928), it fell to Kleynman to write about the government's structure and about the rights and obligations of the citizen of the Polish Republic that was not yet ten years old. He fulfilled his task in earnest in an article "Poland and the Polish Jews”, (p.p. 59-64). The article contained ample statistical material and copious information on the young Polish State, about which the average Jewish population was unaware.
Kleynman’s study occupied a prominent space in the information section of the anniversary book.
Abraham Kleynman had been a Zionist from his student days. He had studied jurisprudence at the Warsaw University, but didn't complete his program because he was so involved in Zionist activities. By age 26 he had produced various publications in Russian and Polish. Kleynman was a founder of the Student Zionist Organization, "Yordania", which established a visible position in the Jewish public life in the Polish Congress before the World War I. This was the organization from which came out the subsequent Zionist community workers, who with their knowledge, intelligence, energy and, first of all, their passionate Jewish nationalism and deep Zionist consciousness brought to life and influenced the Jewish public life in free Poland between the two world wars, in Erez-Isroel and later in the State of Israel.
The eleventh Zionist Congress, held in Vienna in 1913 resolved to include the founding of Hebrew University in Jerusalem as part of the Zionist mission. “Yordania” took the initiative to appeal to Jewish student youth throughout the world
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to support the project. The announcement was disseminated in the name of the Committee of Mutual Benevolent Assistance of Academics in Warsaw. The author was Jacob Robinson, at the time a student at the law faculty of the Warsaw University. Haynt published the appeal, which was copied and repeated in the world wide Jewish press.
When Germany occupied Warsaw in 1915, “Yordania” began to create a "Zionist Center". The "Center", the familiar name, was located in central city, at a prominent address, 43 Kruleski, opposite the Saxony Gardens, in the Bourse Building. Before, in the Russian era, it had been the Ruski Ugolok (The Russian Corner).
That club was evacuated, as was the administration of the center. “Yordania” inherited the space with good club furniture, a fine hall with a theater stage and other facilities. First the youth organization, Zeiri - Zion moved in. Soon the initiative of “Yordania” founded the Zionist Center, at which there become concentrated all the Zionist activities in Warsaw. Critical political Jewish and Zionist conferences were hosted at the Center. Not only young people, but businessmen enjoyed dropping into the center, into the Jewish cultural atmosphere. They sought out the reading lounge and the library, which in a short time collected several thousand volumes in Russian, Polish, German, Hebrew and Yiddish. The Librarians were Herschel Solomon, (later to be honored by the Jewish community), and Khaim Finkelsteyn (Chajm Finkelstajn), a member of the school organization, “Achdes” (Unity), in the center.
Haynt generously supported the Center, and had great empathy for the enthusiasm and ideals which developed there. In edition #244, dated 26 November, 1915, Haynt published a long article describing the colorful variety of Jewish cultural activities in the Center's Zionist Youth Organization. Several Center and “Yordania” leaders maintained a long close relationship with Haynt (they are remembered in Chapter 12)
In 1917 the Polish Zionist Organization decided to recruit Itzhak Grinboym (Ichak Grinbojm) from Russia to lead the Zionist work and strengthen Jewish politics. Abraham Kleynman was delegated to assist Grinboym and his family to leave Russia,, where the revolution had disintegrated into anarchy and civil uprisings.
Kleynman was a cheerful, merry man. Robust, like an oak tree, he
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radiated an inexhaustible energy and had a brewing temperament. His laughter sounded laud and he talked even lauder. Unfortunately, his career was short. He fell ill with Parkinson’s, which physically crippled him. His brain was not affected, he was capable to do various works for the editing office, but it became out of the question for him to represent Haynt in the Seim.
Abraham Kleynman died in Warsaw ghetto in 1940 at the age of 52.
_____________________
When Itzhak Grinboym was building the block of the national minorities, he was helped by a group of young Zionists, who dedicated themselves to mobilize the Jewish voters. Among them was Yosef Gravitski (Joseph Grawicki). The success of the Jewish list was on a large scale a result of his energy, organizational skills and perseverance. At 18 years he started to write for Zionist publications, at 21he became a member of the Central Committee and the General Secretary of the Zionist organization in Poland and took part in the Zionist congresses. In 1928 he became one of the elected leaders in Warsaw. In Haynt Gravitski started working in the beginning of 1924, first as an assistant to Abraham Kleynman during the stormy “Yiddish” meetings, when it was physically not possible for one man to write detailed reports. In a while, when Abraham Kleynman because of his illness could not any more represent Haynt, Yosef Gravitski took his place. When in 1932 the cooperative “Alt-Nay” (“New-Old”) took over Haynt (see chapter 19), Gravitski made aliya to Eretz-Isroel. He became a correspondent for Haynt, often signed his articles Yosef Regev. He died in Israel in 1955 at the age of 50.
Khayim Finkelsteyn became a parliamentary correspondent after Gravitski left. He wrote under pseudonym H. Fink used the initials H. F. He was the editor of the local (Warsaw) chronicles, had duties as a night-editor and principle and later, managed the business of the publishing house as a secretary of the cooperative “Old-New”. All these duties made it impossible for him
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to regularly work in Seim and Shmuel-Leyb Shverdsharf (Sz. L. Szwerdszarf) (1909- ) became the parliamentary correspondent.(1 sentence split in 2 –B.K.). Shverdsharf not long before this joined the Haynt and it was his responsibility to translate from the foreign press interesting reading material for the weekly “Velt-shpigel” (“World mirror”). Shverdsharf new several foreign languages, wrote beautifully in Yiddish and understood what is interesting for the readers of the weekly.
Shverdsharf didn't last long in the “Velt-shpigel”. Haynt favored young talent and eyed the gifted scholar (he studied jurisprudence at Warsaw University), who had several great merits: intelligence, a sense for news and enthusiasm for work.
With all his sharp skills, so important to a journalist, there was one glaring fault: he had little patience; he could not do the same work for a long time. It was difficult for him to accustom himself to the discipline of a team player in the editorial staff, which is fundamental for a well functioning newspaper. But they forgave him a lot. On the contrary, he was given important news assignments to inspire him.
Eventually Shverdsharf graduated from the university and became an attorney. He continued with occasional work for Haynt, sometimes as a night editor and other times as a parliamentary correspondent, published brochures in Yiddish about legal issues, debts and taxes. He also posted charades in Yiddish in the "World Mirror", was the first in the Yiddish press to run such a section, and became that section's editor.
In the summer of 1939 Haynt sent Shverdsharf as a delegate to the 21st Zionist Congress in Geneva. When war broke out he remained in Paris. After Hitler's invasion of France in 1940, Shverdsharf was dragged with the throngs of homeless who ran from Hitler's armies and stopped in Marseille. Khaim Finkelsteyn appealed to the president of the Y. L. Peretz Writer's Guild in New York, Dr. Ben-Zion Hoffman, (Tzvion - 1874-1954) to intercede for an American visa for Shverdsharf, but Tzvion didn't realize how critical was the need. He remained cold and indifferent
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to the whole idea. "Why do you 'bother'? - Who will support him here? 'you'?" was his response. Half of Europe was under Hitler’s yoke at the time. His own newspaper, where he was one of the lead writers, had alarmed their readers about the fate of the Jews in the occupied countries, but Tzvion did not wish to "bother".
Fortunately another committee member of the Y. L. Peretz writer's guild, William Edlin (1878 - 1947), had an open ear and warm heart for a fellow Yiddish writer in danger. Immediately Edlin successfully interceded for the visa, than intervened with HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) for the passport and shipping papers.
When Shverdsharf arrived in America, he possessed only 25 cents. He found work in a lady's wear factory until he got a position in the New York City Library. Soon he was engaged with the telegraphic agency "United Press" in New York. His assignment was to create bulletins, that were transmitted through short-waves radio of the underground organizations in the occupied countries of Europe.
In 1943, Shverdsharf was drafted into the American Army and assigned to the Bureau of Military Intelligence (A.S.S) in the rank of sergeant. Later he served on the General Staff in Washington, D.C., and in the American Military Missions in London, Paris, Rome, Cairo and Jerusalem. During the Nuremberg War Criminal Trials he participated in the preparation of the prosecution materials. In 1946 he left the Army in the rank of a lieutenant.
While in the Army, Shmuel Leyb Shverdsharf shortened his name to Samuel L. Sharf. After completing his military service he began an academic career. From 1949 on, he was a professor at the American University in Washington, D.C.. On his 60th birthday he was awarded the title, "University Professor", the highest academic honor for a professor. Only one other professor at the American University held that title.
Professor Sharf wrote a number of books on international problems.
In his book, “A vayser adler oyf a roytn feld” ("A White Eagle on a Red Field"), an allusion to the Polish national flag, he addressed in 1949 the problem of the borders of the Polish Republic after the Second World War. He put forward
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a suggestion that Poland lost nothing when the Vilna District and the Eastern Galicia were annexed to Soviet Russia, because instead of the virtually undeveloped impoverished province they gained rich industrial territories that before used to belong to Germany. His book caused quite a furor. The Polish nationalists and political emigrants for whom those areas and particularly the cities of Vilna (Vilnius) and Lviv (Lemberg) had great sentimental value, criticized the author.
Professor Sharf visited Israel several times, lecturing in Tel Aviv and in the "Israeli Institute for International Studies". In 1947 he married Laura Metzker, who held a leading position in the Bureau of Social Studies in Washington.
***
Political gossip was common at all times and places, and Poland was no exception. Rumors from “reliable sources” about intrigues and scandals in the “high spheres” would spread quickly through grapevine, but the press kept quiet about them, because who would dare to publish in a newspaper about corruption and intrigues between ministers and high officials?
But Bernard Singer (1893-1966) was an exception. Often wrote about gossip and rumors that filled the Saim’s lobby. He was familiar in various circles in the governmental spheres, which used him for their intrigues and provided him with secrets from the Chamber about the inside quarrel and fight. In the totalitarian system in Poland politicians who implicated each other or disclosed compromising information about each other were not favored. Singer helped them to bring the secrets out.
Singer did not write much about the hard struggle for existence that the Jews had to keep. His task was secrets from the Chamber. He published his reports, the censorship bothered him seldom – it seems Haynt was never confiscated because of Singer’s writings – so Singer wrote for four or five more Yiddish and Polish newspapers in Warsaw and in province, also in Vilna’s “Tog” (“Day”), edited by Zalman Reysen (Rajzen).
Bernard Singer didn't feed from only one trough. He started
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as a left “Paoli-Zionist”, became a “Populist” and was even included in their election list for the Saim. From the populists he flitted to the Communists, than he declared himself an “independent”, but a radical, a committed radical. Basically Singer was no more then “Moyshe Farkert” (a contrarian). He used to sign his articles “Regnis” – Singer spelled backwards. He was a cynic, spiteful and disagreeing, who derided and mocked and belittled everyone. He disliked the Litvaks, derided Hebrew (The Holy Language), ridiculed the Zionists. He parried with the Communists, insisting he is more of an expert in Marxism then they are, and here is a proof – he studied “The Capital” from cover to cover and who of them could claim the same?
Bernard Singer was one of the 15 Yiddish journalists who left Poland in the train that evacuated the Polish government (see chapter 9). The Bolsheviks arrested him in the area of Poland occupied by the Red Army, and the Soviets imprisoned him in a camp. In 1941, after the treaty was signed between Russia and Poland, Singer among many other exiled Polish citizens was granted amnesty. Old friends from the Polish government found for him a position in the Polish embassy in Kuibyshev, and he left Russia along with the Army of the Polish general Wladyslaw Anders (1892-1970).
After the war Bernard Singer settled in London. In 1959 he visited Warsaw and published there in Polish memoirs of the old-time Jewish Warsaw “Mayi Nalewki” (“Mayne Nalevkis”) (Nalewki – name of a street in Warsaw, later - in Warsaw ghetto).
The book appeared to be a parody on a city, where he was born to pious parents, grew up and made a nice living. It was written in a satire and sharp sarcasm of the manners and customs of the Warsaw Jews. It is futile to search his memoirs for the long history of the large Jewish community in the Polish capital, its struggle, its creative cultured life and great economic achievements. Just as in the chronicles that he wrote about the Saim’s lobby, in his memoirs he did not have more to tell than gossip and tasteless witticisms, disgracing and mocking everyone. With self-hatred typical for a Jewish renegade, he made “dust and ashes” of his teachers and mentors, does not find a kind word neither for the friends of his youth nor for his journalist colleagues. As if in
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a warped mirror, they are shown by Singer as a “fanatical mob”. For a young reader of the new generation in Poland, who does not know anything about the Jews but is being bombarded with the anti-Semitic propaganda by today’s rulers, Singer described his Nalewki as some grotesque “dark mass” (“tshemna masa”), as the “endeks” (National Democrats) called the Jews. The old renegade Arenshteyn (Arenstajn) - Orenski or the sophisticated, but no less talented anti-Semitic publicist Adolf Novatshinski (Adolph Nowaczinski) did not write otherwise in their articles in press supporting the National Democrats.
p.199, Translated by Renee Miller
In Chapter 11 we write, that Josef Shimon Goldshteyn and Ber Kutcher worked as social reporters, apart from their functions as humorists. The gifted novelist Hersh-Leyb Zhitnitsky, who was one of the night reporters and had often represented the secretary of the editorial board, also represented Haynt as the reporter at press conferences and other social events. His reports were precise, to the point, written in fine literary language. The editorial board admired him for writing detailed reports by heart, without notes.
H. L. Zhitnitsky arrived at Haynt in 1922. A nonchalant person, externally without passion and emotions, he gave the impression of one to whom nothing matters. But under the mask of an indifferent, apathetic person was concealed a journalist and novelist with polished language and a sharp eye. In his literary work he would always return to the theme of Jewish life in the small Polish shtetlekh. His cycle “My Grandfather’s Little House” found a broad resonance among readers.
When the Germans took over Warsaw, he went to Lemberg, from where the Germans banished him to a concentration camp. He was murdered in 1942 at the age of 51.
Chaim Finkelstein worked for many years as a social reporter. He established contacts with Jewish and non-Jewish personalities and assured for Haynt important and trustworthy news. The contacts were useful for the Alt-Nay Cooperative, when the existence of cooperatives was put in danger (see Chapter 19 and the author’s work in From the Recent Past, volume 2, page 121).
It is plausible that Haynt had had a reporter especially for Zionist news.
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That was Moshe Danzigerkron (1904- --), the present day Moshe Ron in Israel. His assignment was to stay in touch with the various Zionist organizations and write about their work and the activities of the Zionist leaders.
Moshe Danzigerkron was not only a social or Zionist reporter – he was more, a lot more. He thought of himself as a kind of ambassador for Zionist interests and he was watchful for the Zionist organizations in the columns of Haynt. He lived and breathed Zionism, he was experienced with Zionist politics, well versed in internal party happenings and he was familiar with the leaders. Moyshele, as they used to call him, had friends who helped him to create a name for himself as a good reporter and gladly told him interesting news for the newspaper. Danzigerkron greatly loved his work in Haynt. For him, the newspaper was a prayer house; he looked at the writers as on Kohanim. He worked with eagerness and fire by day and night; he wanted to point out, to show what he knew. For him there was no impossible assignment. He was unassuming, looking with reverence on the several older colleagues. Little by little he was recognized as one of Haynt family.
When the Alt-Nay Cooperative took over Haynt, the management complied with Danzigerkron’s request and gave him the opportunity to travel to Israel as a correspondent for Hayntike Nayes [Today’s News]. Regularly, he would send interesting letters. May of the letters were printed in Haynt.
During the years of the Second World War and later in the land of Israel, Moshe Ron developed journalist activity and social activity within Israel and places outside Israel. Mainly, thanks to his initiative and energy “Beys Sukulov” (?) was built in Tel Aviv where the home of the World Union of Journalism is located. At the evening by World-Union in honor of Jewish press in Poland, Moshe Ron talked about episodes from his work for Haynt. We will bring portions of his recollections in the second part.
Abraham Rinderman (1907 - ?) was a reporter for Haynt with the special assignment to keep in touch with Zionist guest from other countries, who would come to Poland with various missions. In 1936, when Rabbi Dr. Stephen Wise, the Zionist leader in America
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came to Poland with the intention of learning about the state of the Jews and the Zionist organizations, Rinderman was delegated to escort the guest through the Jewish neighborhoods in Warsaw. Dr. Wise asked him to take him through the streets where Jewish poverty was concentrated. He saw their shops, their workshops, he went in side their house, spoke with the shopkeepers, artisans and merchants. Later, Rinderman about how Dr. Wise was shocked at the poverty he had seen, and whata the Jews had told him about the persecutions, terror and boycotts that plagued them. He had marveled at their optimism and the deep belief that times will get better.
Abraham Rinderman was murdered in the Warsaw ghetto.
Leyb Beyn (1890-1955) concentrated on news about Hasidic life, He also had connections in the underworld and among the Jewish poor, that furnished him with colorful and diverse material, but one had to be cautious about what to print: not always were his delights reliable enough and he often liked to add a bit of his own fantasy.
He himself was as colorful as his news. As a Piaseczner (?) Hasid, he had a long, heavy beard that came almost up to his eyes. On weekdays he wore a “gehakter”* kapote. From under the black hat a velvet yarmulke. He looked like a prosperous observant Jew from the provinces, an assistant to a rabbi or a merchant but not at all like a reporter, who chases after a bit of news. On Shabos he would often sit at the rebbn’s table dressed in a long, coarse frock and a shtrayml. But right after Havdalah, he would go to work and come into the editorial room with “fresh, squirming” news, even before he took off his Shabos clothing.
Beyn’s virtue was what he had in order to approach the Hasidic circles. Other reporters, the “golebrodnikes”*, as the Hasidim in Poland used to call the Jews with shaved beard, had no easy entry.
*A short elegant fashionable cloth kapote “fitted” in the waist, with a cut “shlits”) in the back.
** An idiomatic abbreviation in Yiddish of two Polish words: “gola broad”: bare chinned.
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During the war he successfully came to Eretz Isroel by way of Japan with a group of other refugees. He got work in the propaganda bureau of “Mizrakh” and later was a reporter for “Latest News” in Tel Aviv. When he became seriously ill before his death he did not fail to come to work even for one day.
The young novelist Mordechai Grinfeder (1901-?) assisted with local news in Haynt and Hayntike Nayes (Today’s News). From the yeshivah, he went to the advanced school for the study of Judaism in Berlin and wrote articles in the Jewish press in Berlin. Upon his return to Warsaw he published a number of stories and wrote correspondence for Jewish newspapers in Argentina, Canada and Mexico. In 1838 he received first prize in a literary competition by “Forverts” in New York. That same year in the Haynt Jubilee Book he published a fragment of the story, “Hakhshore” [Preparatory Training for Prospective Emigrants to Palestine] under the pseudonym M. Federgrin.
News from the workers’ world worried Jacob Kener (1884-1951), the veteran of “Linke Poale Tzion”. Every week he published his page of the news in Haynt on the life of the Jewish worker. Kener wrote of the fight by the Jewish proletariat for better earnings and the relations between the Jewish worker and the employer. The articles and informative material that he published on this page, were important not only for the readers who were directly interested, but also for the wider population.
During the war Kener came to America from Vilna through Russia and Japan, and in New York he was active in the Party. In 1947 he immigrated to Israel.
Ben-Tsion Grinboym wrote reviews of Jewish art exhibitions. In the later thirties, he began to write critical reviews about the creations of Jewish artists and participated in Haynt until the outbreak of the Second World War. He was murdered at the age of 43 during the action in Warsaw Ghetto in January 1943.
In 1913 Haynt began to print reports from courtrooms and in the years between both world wars reports of trials were systematically printed every day. David Taomim [Twins] was the court reporter. The reports that he used to sign his name to with the pseudonym Twin were matter-of-fact, objective, rarely exciting.
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Taomim came from a Hasidic family and learned in traditional Jewish schools and yeshivas. He was an unassuming person, quiet and earnest. At the age of 16 he made his debut with a short story about Hasidic life, in his later years, under the pseudonym “The Hasid”, he published some stories in Haynt. In the Haynt-Jubilee-Book 1908-1938 a fragment of his longer story “Revenge” was printed. Taomim’s fate during the war is unknown.
Yitzhok Royzman (1888-1958) wrote court reports and other news. When he settled in Eretz Isroel, he often used to send correspondence to Haynt and “Today’s News”.
The chess master Rafal Faynmesser published in Haynt reports of chess contests, the local ones and tournaments from abroad. He came from a distinguished Hasidic family of merchants, but he was so deeply in chess playing that he abandoned the business world. Every Friday Haynt printed his diagram from an important chess competition. In the Haynt-Jubilee-Book (1908-1928) Faynmesser printed an article “Chess Playing and Jews” (p. 179). In fine Yiddish, he gave an overview of the history of chess, the accomplishments of the famous masters and the interest that Jews had always had for chess. He treated in particular detail the participation of Polish Jews in chess competitions. Jacob Zbunski (Zibunski) was the first to begin writing about radio in the Jewish press in Poland. He worked at Haynt as a linotype setter but his special interest was music and he participated in the activities of “Hzmir” the musical society in Warsaw. On his behalf it must be said that for a long time in Poland, publications of musical radio concerts were only reported in Haynt. In those days music was widespread in radio by orchestras and not by gramophone records as is done today and Zbunski wrote the reviews of the concerts. Also, thanks to him, Haynt was the only Jewish newspaper that carried the radio programs from the Polish and foreign countries radio concerts every day. In “Velt Spigl” [World Mirror] he published articles about innovations and accomplishments of radio as a means of communication. He died of hunger in the Warsaw Ghetto at the age of 51.
Zalmen Plotnik was a reporter in the Warsaw bureau, in the daytime for the provincial number, he would report the stock prices, gold and foreign currency on the official exchange.
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In the evening, for the Warsaw number he would give the fluctuations in private foreign currency transactions. The regime called these transactions “Black Exchange”. In the private transactions the rate of exchange of zlaty was calculated according to the figure on the foreign exchanges and was, therefore, more real than in Warsaw where the rate of exchange was calculated by the regime. The difference was as high as 80 percent and the blame was laid on the Jews, that they depressed the rate of exchange of zlaty intentionally. The regime used to carry out raids on the “Black Exchange”, confiscate the foreign currency, arrest the currency dealers and they were sentenced to long jail terms. The “Endektsia” press used to exaggerate the police raids and the trial litigations as a demonstration of how the Jews, as it were, undermined Polish finances.
Shloyme Faynkind (1891-1942) was a reporter of criminal news. A son of the historian and columnist Moyshe Faynkind and brother of the Polish and Yiddish writer Natan Faynkind, Shloyme Faynkind became a police reporter during the German occupation in the years of the First World War. His ambition was not only to write about murder, robberies, larceny and rapes, but also to investigate crimes by himself and to expose secrets that were often not known to the investigative powers. Faynkind had “friends” in the police, the “friendship” actually cost him a pretty penny but this paid off well for him. He was proud of the name “King of the Warsaw Reporters” and his news was printed not only in Haynt alone. Faynkind often allowed himself to be deluded by reporter-like fantasy and, if the editor had a complaint against him, he would say: “True not true, but it’s a nice story, isn’t it?”
Until 1942 Shloyme Faynkind was in the Warsaw Ghetto, he was hidden by his old-time friend from the police on the Polish side, until the Germans grabbed him and banished him to Shkardzisko camp were he was murdered.
As a newspaper person and reporter Joel Shveger was a journalistic oddity. Sh. I. Yatskan had befriended him and brought him into the Haynt-family not as much for his journalist earnings as for his sympathetic, humane virtues.
He was always in a hurry, always running, he could not sit still in one place, it pulled him – where, why? Perhaps he did not know himself, but he ran – and always it was too late, or came too early, mostly too late.
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He was unorganized at work, his pockets full of pieces of paper and notes, but his briefcase from which he would not part; he used to carry an old newspaper article and other such things.
Shveger was a friendly person with fine, good manners. A handsome man, he became gray in his youth. His forelock with thick gray hair, his smoothly shaved, nervous, strained face, and the bright blue sparkling eyes gave him a peculiar appearance. He was scholarly in his work, but he had unlimited trust in people and this did not work to his advantage as a reporter.
Shveger did not speak to anyone about this, but he went around with a deep wound in his heart. HE wife left him and took their two children. The cause of this destroyed family life was that his wife was assimilated, completely removed from Jews and Yiddishkayt. And he, as an ethnic Jew and Zionist, dreamed about Eretz Isroel and emigrating. His brother Dov (Berele) Shveger was one of the first to immigrate to Palestine and died of a wound that he received from an Arabic bullet back in 1909. His entire life, Joel Shveger had a craving to settle in Eretz Isroel and take the place of his fallen brother. But this was not to be. He died after a short illness in 1937.
A rich source of local news for the reporters was all the kinds of street merchants, who bought for a few groshens from little wagons “great bargains”: fruit and pots, odds and ends of textiles and glassware and what else? The fruit was a little “damaged”, but still edible, tomorrow it would have to be thrown away; the pots and glassware – parts missing and rejects, but still usable, the piece of fabric was usable to sew up a little dress. On Fridays from little wagons, they used to sell “skinkes” minute little fish, the cheapest of all the fish. Poor women would chop it with a lot of onions and had “gefilte fish” for shabos. In the ghetto this became a very important food.
These merchants were called “khesedlekh” – they gave “khesed shel emes” [the mitsve of preparing the dead for burial] to the “merchandise” that would otherwise have to be thrown out in the dirt. “Everything to be kashered” [made kosher for Passover] the Jews would shout, who, early on the day before Passover, came into the courtyards carrying burning ovens with boiling water to kasher the dishes for the holiday, and with the “khesedlekh” it was really “made kosher”.
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There were other “merchants”.
For a groshen they used to sell “lemonade” from a rusty tin keg carried on
their shoulders, for drinking from a glass that was rinsed all day in the same
bit of water that was added from the front of the keg. Others, with racket and
uproar offered “To eat and to drink and a whack for a tveyer” [2 “dollars”] - a
piece of watermelon the same kind as the fruit on the wagons. The poorest were
the women who used to deal in “hot” bagels from a little basket. Usually old
women and wives of sick husband would take this up, or men without work, or
widows with hungry orphans. They would “support” themselves by selling several
dozen bagels. There were also children, often quite young, who dealt with
bagels on their own. They all were gambling, among the “khesedlekh”, the
poorest, the mostly clumsy, the first victims of the police, who used to let
out their ferocity, without pity, throw the bagels out on the cobblestones
mixed with snow in winter, with mud in the gutters when it rained.
The “khesedlekh” had to have
sharp eyes, a good sense of hearing and good feet to stride all day over the
streets and to nimbly run away from the police. For the reporters they were an
important source of tales of the city. They heard and saw what was going on
around them in the streets and gladly gave the news to the “gazettes”. And
these were the individuals that Z. Wendrof, Pinchus Katz, B. Kutsher described
in their street-pictures in Haynt and
M. Kipnis would snap a picture of them for his photographs (see Chapter 11).
Translated by Sammy Parris
Jewish provincial life, at first in tsarist Russia but especially during the Polish republic, was well presented in the colums of Haynt
Every single community, even the tiniest, was a world in itself. It had its own local color, tradition, its special interests, its own way of life, its own history spanning generations, and centuries. The greatest effort was made to reach the remotest villages to prove to the provincial readers that the newspaper had not forgotten them, but on the contrary, was deeply interested in their concerns.
Haynt had set up a network of correspondents all over the Polish-Jewish provinces and regularly published their articles.
The messages from the correspondents, apart from being important in the context of ‘local news’, also helped to strengthen Jewish social life in these places and to represent a picture of Jewish life to the world.
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Besides the news items from correspondents, Haynt published overviews of the provincial press and pictures, and insights about the lives of Jews in the provinces.
They also instituted an opinion column for the provincial readers and they made a great effort to print their letters in that special column, The People’s Tribune.
As already mentioned in Chapter 9, Aharon Einhorn was writing the press overview that he signed as Radion, and B.Justman was writing a feuilleton* of the provincial life and insights. Menachem Kipnis had collected the subjects for his various series (Chapter 11) from travels in the provinces.
Yossef Roitberg (1875-1925) has been one of the first correspondents in Kiev. A long-standing journalist (he started his writings in the Russian press in 1895), he was a man with a strong Talmudic education and general culture. In his reports, he gave Haynt readers a picture of the Jewish life in Ukrainia. His position as a correspondent in Kiev has particularly been important during the Beilin process, which together with the investigation, hardly lasted 2 years (1911-1913)
After the March 1917 revolution, Roitberg worked for the “Petrograder Togeblatt” which was published in the former tsarist capital under the direction of Isaac Greenbaum. At one time, the life of the Ukrainian Jews was the main theme of his articles in the correspondence for Haint.
In 1921, Roitberg left the Soviet Union. He moved to Warsaw and started to write again for Haynt, Hatzfira, and other newspapers in Poland. A year later, he immigrated to America and settled in Philadelphia. Roitberg had also been active in America as a publicist and translator of the Russian literature.
With the formation of the Polish republic, the responsibility of Haynt became quite important as a leading Jewish political organ in the capital of the new state. Poland was becoming quite a nice state in central Europe with 3 million Jews living dispersed throughout the whole republic. The question of a special edition of Haynt, which could be sent in the evening by train to the provincial readers and be read in the morning, was becoming urgent.
*an articles of
general entertainment or an article appearing the feuilleton section
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Haynt underwent self-examination and estimated that they had not done enough. First of all, they had to take care that the newspaper, together with the general daily news would have local correspondents for the readers in the provinces. At this point, we recall a few of the active correspondents of the largest Jewish settlements in Poland who distinguished themselves with their articles and telephoned reports.
As soon as Haynt started to be published, the editor tried to “sign up” the Lodz readers for the newspaper. The city had become a kind a “Polish Manchester” because the largest dynamic Jewish settlement had been working with so much energy, and so it looked the most natural and nearest target for Haynt. Zalmen Zylbercweig (1894-1972) has been the first Haint correspondent in Lodz. He fulfilled his task assignment completely until 1925, when he left for Israel as a correspondent for Haynt. A few years later, Zylbercweig went to America and worked for the Morgen Journal and wrote in the weekly newspaper The American. Later, he settled in Los Angeles, where he successfully led a one-hour radio chronicle. Zalmen Zylbercweig composed and spread the lexicon of the Jewish theatre for which he worked till his last days. In the second part were published the “memories” of his collaboration with Haynt, the first years of the newspaper and the editor Yatskan and the collaborators.
Upon Zylbercweig’s recommendation, Aharon Halperin was appointed as the Lodz correspondant. In 1928, when he left for the Parizer Haint, the assigned representative for Haynt in Lodz was the Hebrew teacher and composer, writer Shmuel Rozenstein. He died in the Lodz ghetto.
Dr. Nathan Sverdlin (1907- ) a collaborator for the local Zionist newspaper Die Zeit has been the Wilno correspondent. After Sverdlin had left for America, the Haynt correspondent in Lodz was Aharon –Shlomo Cincinatus. He had studied to be a lawyer at the Wilno University and often wrote about the difficult situation of the young Jewish academicians. In other letters and telephoned news, he had informed about the societal and cultural life of the Jews in Wilno and their struggle to earn their living. When the Soviet forces occupied Wilno, Cincinatus was deported to the depths of Russia. After the war, he came back to Lodz. In 1950 he went to Israel and died in 1961 at the age of 66.
Aharon Itzhak Grodzenski often wrote in Haynt about the Jews way of living in Wilno.
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His articles were read with interest not only in Wilno. In the Haynt Jubilee book 1908-1928, he published an essay about the life of the Jews in Wilno, starting from the 14th century where the Jews had started to settle in the city. He died in Ponar in 1941 at the age of 50.
Pinhas Steinvaks (1905-1977) has been the correspondent in Grodno. He has started to write in the early thirties and rapidly distinguished himself as a useful collaborator from the provinces. Steinvaks was dedicated to the economic struggle of the Jews with particular attention to the Grodno area, where, because of the introduction of the tobacco monopoly, the Jews lost their jobs in the cigarette factory of Sheresheski in Grodno.
He often reported events and facts where the Jewish factor was dominant. And so Steinvaks, in his correspondence reported the problems of narcotics –drugs- and alcoholism. A subject, which 40 years ago, in the small settlement of Grodno was far from the Jewish reality and looked totally stranger in the depths of the Jewish provincial life of this period. Steinvaks used the fact that a sanatorium was built behind Grodno to treat drug addicts and alcoholics, to bring to light, maybe for the first time in a Jewish newspaper, the problem, which has now, unfortunately, also turned into one of the most painful problems for the Jews, particularly in the United States.
In 1941, Pinhas Steinvaks and his wife Mania arrived in America. During all these years, he wrote numerous popular books, on business.
Jewish wives who were active in the Jewish life in Poland before the destruction were Zionist leaders. During 15 years, Steinvaks has been the editor of the Zion press bulletin, of the Jewish agency for Israel in New York.
Israel Guedaliah Steinsapir (1890-1937), the Byalistok born correspondent was a colourful character. He had studied at the heder and yeshivas in Byalistok –Slonim- and by reb Yitzhak reines in Lida. While still on the yeshiva bench in Byalistok -Slonim-, he collaborated as a co-editor of a newspaper named the Yeshivah Boy, which circulated in hand-printed copies in Byalistok and the neighbouring villages. Steinsapir liked to exaggerate his participation in the Yeshiva Boy and liked to tell that he had had the idea of a convention of yeshiva boys with the aim of introducing reforms in the yeshivas.
p.210
Nothing came out of his plan. The town councillor in Lida where the plan was born in Steinsapire’s mind was informed about it and Steinsapire had to flee his home to Byalistok. But he had no rest there either, where, as an active “Poalei Tsion”, he was menaced with being arrested and he fled the country. Steinsapir liked to tell the editorial staff, notable episodes of the years when he was in Holland and then in New York. He worked hard physically as a peddler in the Jewish streets of New York on the East side. When he had the opportunity, he published some articles in the Jewish press shortly after he went back to Europe.
In Haynt, Steinsapir started to write correspondences from Byalistok in 1919. He came often to the offices where they enjoyed seeing him. With laughs and jokes, he used to tell about its hard experiences in America or about what recently happened in Byalistok. In 1926, he published in episodes, the confessions of the former representative, Leibele Tikatzker. Der Tag in New York published the confessions. The poet and journalist Mendl Goldman became the Byalistok correspondent when Steinsapir died in 1937. Haim Jelony (who died in 1942), was the Kielcz correspondent in a town where Haynt was popular at the time of the 4th Douma elections in 1912 (see Chapter 2). Leib Nowik had been the Atwash correspondant, the spa in the woods near Warsaw. In the course of time, he started to help the editor of the first edition of the [provincial] newspaper. He took charge of the news that correspondents had telephoned from the province or that reporters had telephoned from the city. Today (1972), Nowik is a civil servant in Israel. He’s changed his name to Yacovi.
Regarding the other provinces collaborators, we will mention the young correspondents from Zaglembie (Bendin, Sosnowietz, Michael Hager, the son of reb Menahem Hager, rabbi in Sosnowitz), who died in Tel Aviv in 1956. Michael Hager distinguished himself as a very apt and truthful collaborator. Today, he is the director of a textile factory Tel Aviv. His efforts to relate the life of the Galician Jews in Haynt will be described in Chapter 15.