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Haynt published articles by many writers not on the editorial staff. Some wrote regularly, while others were commissioned to write articles for special events which might have been of Jewish concern, when the Zionist camp was drawn into debates about the right way to rebuild Eretz Yisroel, Aliyah politics, or tactics with respect to the Mandate. The editors called them “freelance contributors” whether their articles were published regularly or infrequently.
The
freelance contributors were well known figures, active in public life, men and
women, leaders of political parties or major Jewish institutions, deputies,
senators, council members, members of the organized Jewish community. Others
were prominent economists, jurists, doctors. Historians published excerpts of
their studies (literary contributions of poets and novelists are discussed in
chapter 13.) They were all considered part of the Haynt family.
Abraham
Insler (1893-1939), the youngest Jewish deputy, wrote in Haynt about internal politics in connection with the Jewish
Question in Poland. He was popular in Galicia. A native of Stryj, he was well
acquainted with the needs of Galician Jews and wrote about their specific
issues.
Ben-Gurion
regularly wrote in Haynt every week.
His long articles bore the character of dogmatic, narrowly political
declarations, calculated to be guides for his friends from Poale Zion and
Histadrut rather than aimed at the broader circle of readers of a daily
newspaper. Haynt was neither entirely
nor always in agreement with him, but published the articles to please his
followers who sought explanations of the politics of his party. Melech Neustadt
(Noi, 1896-1959) took his place when Ben-Gurion transferred his articles to Dos
Vort, the official party publication of
Poale Zion in Poland; however he maintained friendly relations with Haynt. After Malcolm MacDonald issued
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the White Paper in May 1939 stopping immigration to Eretz-Yisroel, Ben-Gurion attacked the British government sharply in a brochure “The Book of Treason.” Haynt distributed the brochure for free as a supplement with the issue of Friday, June 21st, 1939.
Dr. Jacob Wigodski (1856-1941), the beloved Vilna doctor and activist, wrote in Haynt since 1922, when he was elected Sejm deputy. In the Haynt-Jubilee-Book of 1908-1938, he published a study of the role of the “Litvacks” in the Polish economy. This is a pioneering attempt at serious research into how Russian Jews who settled in Poland in the 1880’s opened up Russian markets, especially in the far east of the Russian Empire, to Polish trade.
Maximilian Apolinary Hartglas was perhaps the only freelance contributor who systematically participated in Haynt from 1920 until the outbreak of war in 1939. He signed articles A. Hartglas, and used the pseudonym Ben-Levi for lighter pamphlets.
Born of
assimilated parents in Biala Podlaska, Hartglas grew up in a home where the
parents, and especially his mother, did not want to have any connection to Jews
and Judaism. The children were brought up in the Polish tradition, to be Polish
patriots. And as often happens with alienated children from assimilated homes,
“dos Pintele Yid” (the quintessence of one’s Jewish identity) awakened in
Hartglas once he began to think for himself. He returned to his people, became
a nationalist Jew and a Zionist. However he did not renounce his love for
Polish land and culture. In the memoirs which he wrote in Israel during the
last years of his life, Hartglas mentions that particular ambivalent trait .*
From his earliest youth, Hartglas set high moral ideals in life. He used to say that he strove to earn enough as a lawyer to allow him to work for free as an activist. But also in his professional work he conducted trials of a community nature without charge if the clients were not in a position to pay an honorarium, or if Jewish honor was at stake.
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One
of these trials was engraved in the memory of Jews not only in Poland itself.
This was the trial of Rabbi Chaim Shapiro in Plock, who was condemned to be
shot to death at the time of the Bolshevist invasion in 1920 ostensibly for
making signs to the Bolshevik army from the balcony of his apartment. The
sentence was immediately carried out. Haynt
gave the trial a lot of coverage during the six years during which the
rehabilitation proceedings were carried out in military court in Plock and in
Warsaw. After the May coup d’etat in 1926, Pilsudski’s regime “radically”
liquidated the trial. The files were “lost;” many volumes of documents,
accumulated in the meantime, were “unable” to be found. In his memoirs Hartglas
writes that he received a variety of information about the background of the
trial, but as a lawyer, he was unable to reveal it. He took the secret to the
grave. *
Haynt published articles by M. A.
Hartglas almost every week. Hartglas considered it a duty to learn Yiddish, and
mastered the language so well that his manuscripts could be published with only
minor changes. His spoken Yiddish was worse; he lacked vocabulary, and his
expression and sentence structure were typically Polish.
In
the Haynt-Jubilee-Book of 1908-1928 Hartglas published a larger work
“The Legal Situation of the Jews in Poland” (pp. 75-77.) In the Jubilee-Book
of 1908-1938 he dealt with the problem “Democracy and National Minorities”
(pp. 215-218.)
M.A.
Hartglas experienced the first months of the Nazi occupation in Warsaw. He
participated in the first Judenrat; the Gestapo summoned him and demanded
information about Jewish leaders and organizations. He gave evasive answers and
felt the noose tightening around his neck. In December 1939 he and his wife Eva
succeeded
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in leaving Warsaw together with a group of activists. The Gestapo came to arrest him the following day, but found his home empty. He arrived in Israel via Trieste and settled in Jerusalem.
During the war, Hartglas participated in the Vaad Hatzala Letovat [?] rescue efforts on behalf of Polish Jews. He could not forgive himself for abandoning the Jews of Poland in their fateful hour of danger. When the destruction of Polish Jewry became known, he fell into a deep depression; during Purim 1945, in a moment of great despair, he swallowed poison. He was saved just in time. From then on, his health was weak. He developed a heart condition and died in 1953 at the age of 70. A street in Tel-Aviv, in Ramat-Aviv, where a lot of Polish Immigrants live, was named M.A. Hartglas Street.
Joseph Tchernikov (1882-1941,) the leader of the Territorialists, published among other articles in Haynt a larger series of articles about the political trials during the years 1919-1921 in Russia, in which he acted as defense in the revolutionary tribunal in Karkov. For the first time, the broad Jewish public received an authentic picture of Bolshevist justice. The series had a tremendous success, and Tchernikov published it in book form under the title RevTribunal [?].
Tchernikov participated in both Haynt Jubilee books. In the first he published memoirs of St. Petersburg on the eve of the revolution (pp.186-187.) In the second Jubilee book, Tchernikov contributed two works. One (pp. 190-199) is a serious study of the social movement among eastern European Jews in connection with the history of Jews in Poland for the last 150 years. He signed the study with the full name Joseph Tchernikov. The second work (pp. 213-215) was signed with his pseudonym Y. Danieli. These were thoughts about Zionism and “Freeland” which he printed as a discussion article about the practical views of Zionism and Territorialism. He characterized the Zionists as nationalist romantics in contrast to the nationalist rationalism of the Territorialists, and concludes with the wish that the “dreamers of Zion” do what they can, and the “dreamers of Freeland” should complement that, “ without which it is objectively not possible to think about a larger national Jewish future.”
Tchernikov lived in Vilna, where he was active as a lawyer. He conducted a lot of trials of communists, and defended them
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with success in court. After the Soviets occupied Vilna in 1939, Tchernikov was arrested. They imprisoned him in the old Villeyiker [?] prison. When Nazi Germany attacked Soviet Russia in 1941 Tchernikov was evacuated to Russia, but on the way, not far from the city of Barisov, he was shot by a guard.
Dr. Raphael Lemkin (1901-1951) published articles about the battle [?] against the anti-Jewish laws. He created the legal term “genocide,” a new word, combining two Greek* words: race and killing, which is recognized today to indicate the extermination of a people. At a lecture to the League of Nations in 1933 in Geneva he held a talk on the subject.* In the Haynt articles he often wrote about Genocide as a means of a ruling government to kill off a minority. Dr. Lemkin was an assistant public prosecutor in the Warsaw county/circuit court for a few years. After that he practiced law.
In the Haynt-Jubilee-Book of 1908-1928, Dr. Lemkin had two informative legal articles. In one (pp.140-142) he interpreted the most important laws that were enacted since the Polish state was founded. He signed the first article with his full name; the second is marked with initials. During the Second World War Dr. Lemkin was professor of International Law in several American universities. When the United Nations was created,
Dr. Lemkin acquired an office in the United Nations building in New York, and continued to lead the clarification efforts against genocide. In 1948 Dr. Lemkin’s lengthy effort and work were crowned with success when the UNO adopted an official declaration that genocide was a crime.
Jacob Leschinski [?] published economic and statistical articles about the Jewish situation in Eastern Europe and especially in Poland. He lived in Warsaw for several years, and concentrated during that period on the analysis of the economic decline of Polish Jewry. In the Haynt-Jubilee-Book of 1908-1938 he published a work about the impoverishment of the Jewish population (pp. 147-150.)
Israel Mereminski (Marom, 1891-1976) one of the founders and leaders of “Tzeiri Zion”, wrote in his articles about socialist Zionism and his group’s program and activity in Eretz Yisroel.
Mayer Ebner (1872-1955,) the worthy [?] Zionist leader in
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Czernowitz (Chernovtsy, Ukraine) wrote about Jews in Bukovina and Romania; Deputy Moshe Frostig ((1887-1928,) editor of the daily newspaper Der Morgen in Lemberg (Lvov), sent articles of special interest for the Jews in East Galicia.
The outstanding feuilletonist and essayist Dr. Abraham Karalnik (1883-1937) took to writing regularly in Haynt shortly before his death, and in that short time published tens of articles, each one a masterpiece. With a well-rounded education and a knowledge of about ten languages, he wrote with erudition about literature, art, philosophy and international politics. An old Zionist, he reacted temperamentally to developments in the movement, and the Yishuv. Dr. Karalnik was without a doubt one of the wittiest Yiddish journalists. He had a rare talent for analyzing a problem and in a light, lively style writing appealingly about the most complicated matters.
About two years before the war, Dr. Joseph Kruk [?] (1884-1972) came into the Haynt family. A prominent figure in labor circles in Poland and Eastern Europe, he was well known as a pacifist and a fighter for social justice, and had broad connections with the progressive elements. In the Jewish world he was known as a Territorialist, and was, together with Israel Zangwill (1864-1926,) founder and theoretician of the Territorialist movement. He was also the founder and leader of the Zionist-Socialist movement (S.S.) and the “Independentists [?]”
Before the First World War, Dr. Kruk wrote in Haynt on several occasions. Thus in 1912, during the election campaign for the 4th Duma (see Chapter 2,) he published in Haynt on the 10th and 11th of October two longer articles “the Dmovskis and the Kuchasjevskis [?]” in which he decisively said that Jews must put forth their own candidate in Warsaw. In March 1913 the first convention of Jewish students took place in Switzerland. Dr. Kruk took part in the conference as the special correspondent for Haynt; his detailed reports were published in four editions of the paper.
It took a quarter of a century before Dr. Kruk became a regular writer for Haynt. In the meantime he had a career as socialist and labor leader.
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In 1937 the Polish government sent Dr. Kruk to a concentration camp for opponents of the regime in [?] After his liberation Dr. Kruk began to write for Haynt. A warm man with European salon manners, and a fine storyteller, he had many friends among European statesmen and intellectuals, and often wrote about them in Haynt. In the Haynt-Jubilee-Book of 1908-1938 he published pioneering research about the history of Jewish migration politics since the 1980’s (pp. 296-299.) In the second part we publish the memoirs of the veteran of the labor movement about his banishment, liberation and the circumstances of how he became a writer for Haynt. He wrote the work at the request of the author.
Litman Rosenthal [?] from Bialystok, one of the first pioneers of Zionism, a delegate of the Zionist World Organization in Russia and a close colleague of Theodore Herzl, used to send articles about Zionist themes sporadically. In the Haynt-Jubilee-Book of 1908-1928 he published recollections of the serious crisis in Zionism after the 6th Congress in 1903., after Theodore Herzl stated the proposal of the British Government to create in Uganda, Central Africa, a center for Jewish emigration under the British administration (Commonwealth.) Herzl saw in the project a temporary solution, “a night shelter,” as he expressed himself, until a favorable set of circumstances for the Jewish colonization in Eretz Yisroel would be created. He believed that the provisional safe haven would be a help for the oppressed Jews in Czarist Russia, but the sharpest opposition came on the part of none other than the Russian Zionists. At a conference in Kharkov it was even decided to begin a battle against the Uganda Project and against Herzl himself.
“The loyal Herzlists in general and the political Zionists in particular created at that time an organization called “Agudat Megine Hahistadrut [?]” The leaders of that organization were: the lawyer Israel Yashinovski [?] (1842-1917,) Alter-Yehuda Chazzan [?] (1876-1906,) Noah Finkelstein and S.Y. Yatzkan. The organization branched out into the entire Zionist world, and its capital was in Warsaw, at 8 Chlodna Street. Number 8 Chlodna and the Agudat Megine Hahistadrut was at that time a so much a byword in Zionist circles, that when I was in Paris
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meeting Max Nordau (1849-1923,) the first thing he asked me was how were our dear loyal Herzl friends from 8 Chlodna Street. We would manage almost every afternoon to travel to Warsaw to the conferences of the Megine Hahistadrut. Nahum Sokolov would also participate in these conferences.
Rosenthal’s recollections concern a little known episode of the dawn of the Zionist movement, how Max Nordau in a meeting in Paris defended Herzl’s point of view. Nordau drew an analogy between the Jewish aspirations to Eretz Yisroel and the Uganda crisis, and the bitter debate tyhat took place among the Italian patriots in the 1850’s. It had to do with whether Italy (actually little Sardinia) should participate with England and France in the Crimean War against Russia, which even then wished to rule the Mediterranean Sea and conquer Constantinople (Istanbul today.) The Italian patriots with Garibaldi at their head, who dreamed of a greater united Italian state, maintained that Italians should ally themselves with the Anti-Russian coalition, in order to in this way obtain the possibility of participating in the peace conference after the war, and present their demands for statehood. However, other Italian leaders were against dragging the Italians into the bloody war, and strongly opposed the plan. Nordau concluded that Herzl was convinced that the world was standing on the brink of war, and was sure that the Uganda proposal, which was addressed to the Zionist leadership had created a precedent for the Jewish people to appear at the peace conference after the world war with the demand for a Jewish state in Eretz Yisroel (pp. 188-189.)
The article is not only an interesting contribution to the history of one of the most turbulent episodes of the first years of Zionism. Rosenthal, in his memoirs, gave a lively picture of Nordau the orator, his powers of persuasion, and truly magical effect on the audience.
In the list of freelancers, we must also note the group of leaders of “Yardenya [?]” and “Mercaz HaZionim” which maintained active contact with Haynt (see chapter 10.) We will mention a few here:
The writer Abraham Levinson, like Israel Mereminski (see above,) wrote articles in the spirit of Tseiri-Zion. In 1935 he settled in Eretz Yisroel and sent back articles about the problems
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of the Yishuv.
Zelig Russetski [?] a Jewish sports pioneer, and one of the founders of Maccabi in Poland, later became active in the sports movement in Eretz Yisroel and the State of Israel, and was one of the organizers of the Maccabias. In the Haynt-Jubilee-Book 1908-1928 he printed an article “Jewish Sport in Poland” (p. 135.) He used to write about sports. David Dunkelman, a colleague in administration described the accomplishments of the boxers and soccer players of the Warsaw Maccabi, Vienna HaKoach and other sports clubs.
Abraham-Yitzchak Provalski [?] (1895-?,) the pioneer of the cooperative movement in Poland between the wars, studied economy in universities in Warsaw and Paris and wrote economic articles in Haynt just before World War I. He was one of the founders of Tseiri-Zion, active among academic youth. In Haynt-Jubilee-Book 1908-1938 Provalski had an article “The Jewish Artisan in Poland and Cooperation” (pp. 91-92.)
Simon (Shimek) Krongold was a frequent visitor in the editorial offices. A musically gifted individual (see Chapter 17,) with many acquaintances among the Jewish professional intelligentsia, he gradually began writing local news about Jewish business and cultural activity for the paper; he participated in Haynt until the outbreak of the war. In the first days of the war, he fled east. The Bolsheviks sent him to Uzbekistan. Krongold died not far from the city Tashkent, shortly after his release from the camp.
Translated by Larry Gillig
Ezriel-Nosn Frenk (1863-1924) was the first to write on historical themes in Haynt. He had a personal archive of lesser-known materials concerning the history of the Jews in Poland, particularly in Warsaw. He wrote extensively about the intimate life of the Polish Jews in days gone by. The fragments from his magnum opus on Warsaw Jewry and the “Jewish” streets in the Polish capital, as well as his series on (Jewish) converts to Christianity, which were published in
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installments, are exceptional. A synthesized history of Polish Jewry appeared in book format as a bonus for the readers of Haynt.
When the Endekes (an anti-semitic Polish nationalist party) began agitating for [anti-Jewish] boycotts in 1912. (see Chapter 2), E.N. Frenk conducted a poll among the leading Polish progressive intellectuals and used the data in a number of Haynt articles.
E.N. Frenk had a sense of humor and personal charm. He wrote at home, but enjoyed coming to the press office to tell of the new things he had dug out of old newspapers about old-time customs and rituals in Jewish life.
Dr. Yitzkhok Shiper (1884-1943) began writing in Haynt upon settling in Warsaw in 1922, when he was elected as a Deputy in the Sejm (Polish parliament).
Dr. Shiper was a “Renaissance personality”. A man with multifaceted spiritual interests, he was a sociologist, a historian, a researcher in the fields of culture, Yiddish, Hasidic philosophy, folklore, and theater. An erudite scholar well-acquainted with the tribulations of the Jewish past, he was an expert on Jewish history in Poland. He had a broad scope of vision, and wide horizons, and developed pioneering historical and social theories. Dr. Shiper was a prolific writer and author of numerous books, essays, research papers, and articles. Many of his works were published in Haynt. He was a friendly, easy-going person, with a great sense of humor. A good teacher, he established a generation of younger historians (Emanuel Ringlblum was one of them.). He spent a great deal of time with these young historians, sharing his own research with them, helping them in their studies, and celebrating their accomplishments.
Dr. Shiper belonged to the “Poalei-Tsiyon” and was active in various community institutions, wrote and delivered speeches on Zionism. In his parliamentary work, he followed the position of Isaac Greenbaum. He lived in the same apartment as Grinboym, and it was joked in Warsaw that Shiper was not only a roommate, but was also Grinboym’s political roommate.
For the Haynt Jubilee Book 1908-1928, Dr. Shiper wrote about “Issues Concerning the Productivity of the Jewish Masses in Poland” (pp 68-71, 74). This article provides in-depth research on the socio-economic structure of the Polish Jews. Dr. Shiper assembled seven original charts and a large number of statistical materials for this project.
Ten years later for the Haynt Jubilee Book of 1908-1938 he chose a completely different topic—original research on the Ba’al Shem Tov (pp 205-212).
Dr Shiper, who was sent to the Maidanek extermination camp in 1943, was one of only ten prisoners who managed to send out a letter from there to Dr. Dovid Wdowinski (see Chapter 14). The exact date when Yitskhok Shiper was murdered is not known.
Professor Meyr Balaban, from time to time-- especially in the first half of the interwar period -- published articles about the history of the Jews in Poland. In 1929, Haynt published his work on the Jewish community in Lublin, an excerpt from his exhaustive treatise on the history of Jewish communities in Poland.
Dr. Balaban was known as an indefatigable collector of information about the Jewish past in Poland. He would scrutinize old archival materials. Even the smallest fragment of a Jewish text was important to him, and in every ancient paper and book he was able to find something new. At the banquet celebrating his 60th birthday, Dr Shiper called him a “Jewish History Romantic”.
For a short time, Professor Balaban played an active role in politics. In 1922 he ran as a candidate for the Sejm, but lost the election. A short episode in the life of this deserving scholar is related in Chapter 7.
Not only was he an important researcher and author of historic works of great scholarly import, but Professor Balaban was also a devoted pedagogue. At his initiative, the “Mizrachi Rabbinical Seminary ‘Takhkemoni’” was established. From 1926 he was connected to the Warsaw University as the head of the Judaic History Department. Jewish students loved him, and attended his lectures enthusiastically. In 1934 Balaban was nominated to become a professor at Warsaw University. This was no small feat for a Jewish scholar in Poland, where very few Jews-- even those whose scholarly merits were recognized-- were appointed professors, or even docents.
In the 1908-1928 Haynt anniversary journal, Professor Balaban contributed a substantial study entitled “Warsaw, the Largest Jewish Community in Europe”. (pp 117-180).
Dr. Nosn-Mikhl Gelber (1891-1966) wrote historical essays and treatises of various lengths for Haynt, which he arranged specifically for the newspaper. For the Haynt Jubilee Book of 1908-1938, he prepared original research on “The Problem of a Jewish State for the 1878
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Berlin Congress” (p. 293-295).
Ben-Tziyon Katz (1875-1958), in addition to articles about contemporary issues published in Haynt, produced serious historical works. His series on Jewish leaders in Russia was met with great interest before the Revolution. A second series, which was read eagerly, was dedicated to the standard of living of the Jewish masses in what had been Russia. He based it on his research on the secret documents from Tsarist times that he had discovered in archives. A spirited publicist, in his articles Katz often condemned the Bolsheviks for their suppression of Jewish cultural life in the Soviet Union.
The historical philologist and Yiddish researcher, Dr. Matisyohu Mizish, in the late ‘30s wrote about forgotten episodes of Jewish-Polish coexistence. His series on converts to Christianity, in which he related facts about converted Jews among the elite of the Polish aristocracy, Polish literature and science, was very successful, and found resonance in the Polish press. For the Haynt Jubilee Book of 1908-1938, Dr. Mizish prepared a study “The Rationale for the Emergence of Yiddish” (pp 277-279).
Dr. Philip Friedman (1901-1960) began his association with Haynt in 1938. The proposed 30-Year jubilee book of Haynt required a historical overview of Jewish life in Poland during the 30 years since the newspaper was founded. The dilemma was how to address the “extermination policy”, so that the jubilee book would not be confiscated.
Dr. Friedman treated this delicate subject skillfully. He provided a cross-section of the development of Jewish-Polish relations from the beginning of the 20th century. He blamed changes on the worries that had previously disturbed the economic life of Polish Jews. He did not restrain himself from describing the terror and the hard life of the Jewish masses. He pointed out the political and economic suppression, and offered a comprehensive view of the Jewish reality in the Polish state-- but remained mild in structure and tone. The Jubilee Book was issued without any difficulties.
Haynt began very early on to publish medical articles. Jews have traditionally taken an interest in issues concerning health, and enjoy reading about medicine. They appreciate the importance of maintaining one’s health, and Haynt tried to supply its readership with popular material on “Jewish” health issues such as
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arthritis, the metabolism, pulmonary tuberculosis (consumption), intestinal ailments, and nervousness. The “Yehudia” publisher at Haynt disseminated a popular weekly medical journal called “The House-Doctor”.
Dr. Zalmen (Zygmunt) Bikhovski (1865-1934) for many years wrote about medicine in Haynt. A physician with a large practice, a researcher and internal medicine and specialist in neurology, he also had a warm Jewish heart and an understanding for the ordinary man and his needs. Dr. Bikhovski was a doctor in the best tradition of the Jewish healer. He was among the physicians who would investigate an illness and consider a seriously ill person not as an “interesting case” from a medical perspective, but above all have in mind how to help quickly and practically. He spoke”mame-loshn”—Yiddish—with his Jewish patients; treated the poor without charge; climbing many flights of stairs and descending deep into their basement apartments to treat them.
In the medical world, Dr. Bikhovski was considered a pioneer. He was the author of dozens of works, books and studies in medical journals in Polish, German, and French. A large number of his works were dedicated to investigating nervous disorders among Jews. But when he wrote for Haynt, Dr. Bikhovski was able to approach the reader at the layman’s level, eschewing medical terminology and writing in a rich Yiddish about complex medical problems.
For the 1908-1928 Haynt Jubilee Book, Dr. Bikhovski wrote an original essay entitled “Life and Death—A Dream?” (pp 165-166), in which for the first time in the Jewish press he scientifically discussed the issue of prolonging human life and its implications. He demonstrated that advances in medicine and hygiene, the new treatments for social diseases and epidemics go hand in hand with progress in industrial technology and regular improvements in societal conditions in general. He foresaw that as more machines become part of people’s lives, with time, people will live longer and the number of people who die of old age, and not of disease, will increase. He posed the question: “Is it not possible that there will come a time
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when everyone will be able to live out his years and that death will cease to be a frightening, sudden catastrophe? Is this a dream? A fantasy?” His answer was a categorical “No! I am certain that we will live to see the image of the beautiful future that must come.”
The utopia, which today seems less of a fantasy than it did when he philosophized about it nearly a half century ago, Dr. Bilkhovski linked to the Jubilee of Haynt, writing about the role played by Haynt in spreading culture among the Jewish masses, and about its struggle to improve the conditions for Jews in Poland. He wrote:
Haynt, where I have also had the honor of being published many times, is now celebrating a Jubilee. At the request of the editors that I take part in the Jubilee issue, I have written down my dream, which I believe is sacred and will be fulfilled. Life is beautiful and rich. Nevertheless, honored reader, among all of the various things that can make life more beautiful, happier and longer, the daily press plays a great role. Haynt understands and feels how vast its responsibilities are. From the depth of my heart I wish the editors, and even more, the readers, that these goals will be reached.
Dr. Gershon Levin (1868-1939) was intimately connected to Haynt, its publishers, and its staff. With Nehemiah Finkelshtayn, he belonged to the circle of Y.L. Peretz’s close friends and together with him was active in various cultural institutions and played chamber music (see Chapter 17). He treated his co-workers for free. Over the years he was published hundreds of times in Haynt. He wrote reminiscences of Y.L. Peretz, memoirs of the First World War in which he took part as a military doctor, and recollections of his birthplace, Lublin. However, most of his articles were on medical topics. There were times when his articles were published one week after another. He wrote with humor and could observe people and events. His pieces were always appealing to read.
Dr. Levin dealt with the social aspects of medicine and hygiene in his articles. He underlined the “Jewish moment”-- how Jews react to various specific illnesses, what kinds of conditions are more prevalent among Jews than others, the response of Jews to various medicines. He enjoyed citing passages from the Talmud and presenting examples from Jewish literature. When he wrote about the hygienic conditions of poverty-stricken Jewish homes, about superstitions prevalent among Jews in search of a cure, about childbirth and new mothers, he gave examples from the Jewish way of life in small towns. Dr. Levin was a great believer in soup… the universal Jewish remedy for all ailments. “what harm can come from a person having a little water cooked with a piece of chicken?”
Dr. Levin was a great believer in the healing power of fresh air and sunshine. He used to instruct his patients and write in his articles in Haynt, that one day, or even a few hours, outside of the city are important for health, and whenever possible, a person should get out of the city. At the very least, he should go and rest in a park. He held that it is absolutely unnecessary to spend one’s vacation traveling to spas, torturing oneself with mineral water and baths. The main point of a vacation, he wrote, is to change one’s daily routine. It is important to spend time in the fresh air, away from work. For a few weeks, one does things that he does not have time to do throughout the year.
In the Haynt Jubilee Book of 1908-1928, Dr. Levin published an article about pulmonary tuberculosis among Jews. Based on statistics, he demonstrated that although Polish Jews were physically weak of constitution, contrary to popular opinion, the mortality rate from tuberculosis among Jews was nearly 50% less than by non-Jews. Based on his own research, he determined that the number of blonde tuberculosis patients was 15% greater than the number of dark-haired patients.
In the Haynt Jubilee Book of 1908-1938, Dr. Levin published a serious study “The Development of Social Medicine among Jews in the 20th Century” (pp 154-162). He analyzed the methods used by Jews in raising young children, sanitary and hygienic conditions of Jewish life over the last century, and the important contributions of Jewish health organizations to improving the health of the Jewish population.
Dr. Meyr Peker (1887- ), since 1921, published in Haynt popular medical instructions for the daily needs of the healthy as well as the sick. A specialist in metabolic disorders, he wrote of these illnesses in his articles. In addition to medical articles, Dr. Peker published memoirs of WWI in Haynt. In 1940, Dr. Peker succeeded in emigrating to Israel.
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Women occupied a significant place among the part-time staff. Several women writers whose work was published by Haynt were mentioned in Chapter 13. Here we will characterize three women who struggled for women’s rights, who used to publish articles in Haynt.
In first place, we must mention Puah Rakovski, the feminist-activist pioneer of the movement to organize Jewish women in the battle for equal rights with men. She devoted her entire life to the idea of woman’s emancipation in the professions, in politics, in the workplace. In her articles in Haynt, she demanded that the woman be freed from the thankless lot of the housewife and that they assume an equal place with men in communal life.
In Haynt’s 1908-1928, Puah Rakovski published a major work, “The Modern Women’s Movement.” (pp. 169-171). This was a historical overview of the eternal “suppression” of the woman by men. In a well-put together ground study of the struggle in which women engage to free themselves from “slavery to men”, she analyzed, country by country, the status of women since the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. As far as Jewish women were concerned, she pointed out that to a limited extent, the First Zionist Congress in 1897 gave equal rights to women in the movement. In 1935 Puah Rakovski emigrated to Israel, where she died.
Dr. Esther Mangel (1895-1942) wrote in Haynt beginning in 1923. When she finished her studies at the Universities in Warsaw, Krakow, Berlin, and London, she was one of the first women who dedicated themselves to Zionist work in Poland, and one of the first who was elected to office in the Zionist agencies. She was Vice President of the Zionist Organization in Poland, and Rector of the Zionist People’s University in Warsaw. An energetic, intelligent woman with organizational striving and initiative, she would often attend open meetings. The Zionist Women’s Organization WIZO elected her Vice President.
In Haynt, Esther Mangel commented on current problems in the Jewish and general communities. She wrote without embellishments, logically, convincingly.
p.244
She perished during the Warsaw Ghetto uprising at the age of 48.
Rokhl Shteyn was a Warsaw City Councilmember and made sure that the city government supported Jewish social institutions. She was interested in protecting children, and active in the “Tsentos” organization, whose mission it was to care for poor and abandoned Jewish children. Rokhl Shteyn was an active feminist. She founded and was very active in the “Jewish Women’s Union” in Warsaw, and together with Puah Rakowski she published the monthly journal “Women’s Voice”. Rokhl Shteyn was active in the Zionist movement. Her husband, Leon Shteyn, was head bookkeeper of the Zionist Organization in Poland.
In Haynt, Rokhl Shteyn used to write articles about societal needs, child welfare, and the welfare of mothers and working women. She committed suicide in the Warsaw Ghetto during the mass liquidation in 1942.
* The manuscript (in Polish) of the memoirs of A. Hartglas is in the possession of his daughter Mrs. Chana Apstain [?] in Tel-Aviv. The author also has a copy. Translator’s note: I think these memoirs were published in Polish in Warsaw in 1996.
* Details about the murder of Rabbi Chaim Shapiro and the role of the lawyer Hartglas in the rehabilitation trial can be found in: Shlomo Greenspan, Yidn in Plotzk (Jews in Plock) published by A and H. Printing, New York, 1960, pp. 127-134; Plotzk; toldot kehila atikat yomin be-Polin (Plock; a History of an Ancient Jewish Community in Poland), Editor: Eliyahu Eisenberg, "Hamenora" Publishing House, Tel Aviv, 1967; Yakir Varshavski , Hakarban (The Sacrifice) translated from an article in Haynt published in 1930 for the 19th anniversary of the execution of Rabbi Chaim Shapiro pp. 260-261, and M. A. Hartglas Hamaavak Letihur Shmo Shel Harav Shapiro, Zichrono Lebracha, (The Struggle to Clear the Name of Rabbi Shapiro, of Blessed Memory) pp. 261-263..
* Translator’s note: “cide” is from the Latin.
* Translator’s note: probably refers to a League of Nations conference on the Unification of Penal Law held in Madrid.