"Haynt" – a tsaytung bay yidn: Part 2, p.356-367

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The next day I received a telegram stating that the lead article in the "Day to Day" section on the election day would be dedicated to the Keltz election, and we would be shipped 500 copies to distribute.

On the morning of September 25th we met the newspaper delivery wagon and found published a very warm article, "Only Not Yaronski", by A. Goldberg. Thanks to Haynt, we were able to mobilize several hundred young people, who with the greatest enthusiasm, went to work to get the voters to the polling places.

Also thanks to Haynt, we were able to persuade all of our supporters in the transportation business to make their wagons available to us, at no cost, to send our people to the surrounding towns to bring in the voters. Our efforts on that day were driven by such energy that not one healthy Jewish voter failed to vote. We were missing only 40 persons, all sick, that we could not get out of their beds. Also, there were those who were travelling on just that day. Unfortunately, we really needed their votes for a complete victory. Yaronski, who received thirty-some more votes than our candidate, was elected. But our moral victory was great. The local Polish press complained bitterly about Jewish unity, the unusually large number of Jewish voters and the great influence the "Litvaks" from Haynt had on the ordinary Jews.

Kh. Ish:

Haynt and the "Kami-Organization"
(A Chapter of Forgotten History)

Those who will write the history of the nationalist movement in Poland, will surely have to refer to the pages of Haynt for the years 1908-1913 and pause at the systematic struggle that played itself out at that time in the four walls of

*Haynt" Jubilee-Book 1908-1928 p.17

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"Komi Furein" in Warsaw (An organization of commercial travellers or traveling salesmen). Also consulting Haynt will be those who will inquire into the history of the workers' movement in Poland --which reappeared after the cruelty and persecution of the "freedom years" of the Czar's reign. And should the writer want to be objective in his evaluation, he will certainly not overlook the honorable role played in that time, in that social-political struggle in the Jewish community, by Haynt.

As a legal institution in the Jewish community, which the authorities could not approach and even the Russian political police treated with respect, the "Komi Furein" became the only social arena where political life played itself out in all its shapes and colors. It reared the majority of Jewish defenders that later spread among all political parties. The "Komi-Furein" was the political school for the majority of today’s Jewish political leaders and experienced civic officials, beginning with the assimilators, Zionists-Socialists, Bund, and today's communists. And it is no exaggeration to assert that there is no election mechanism, not one legal detail that was unknown to this group that passed through the school of "Komi-Furein".

And what about the struggle itself today? It has become directed with Chassidic zeal, with anger and stubbornesss, earnestly, and responsibly. Thereby also respectably, honorably, thoroughly legal, and politically appropriate. It was a fight against assimilation in all its forms, and against ambition, and emptiness and thoughtlessness. A struggle for national awakening, for the Yiddish language, for democracy, and class consciousness.

A very prominent place in this struggle was taken by Haynt. The meetings in the "Komi-Furein" often stretched out over weeks, and brought together thousands of people in the largest meeting halls in Warsaw, where discussions might run for 10 or 15 hours continuously. It was in just this kind of get-together that Haynt found its

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proper reflection, in a positive sense, and had an influence in the Jewish community.

And if we are to tell the truth, here was an authentic group of "those who do the right thing, even if for the wrong reason."* Haynt---a local publication that represented and sought out the ordinary Jews. That Haynt, in its war against the assimilation of that time, often fought with weak arguments, sometimes on principle only. Concerning its opponents, not one "forbidden article" from that Jewish-democratic group (from which later separated Zionist-Socialist and Bundist factions) and not one Socialist appeal or speech was ever as a matter of course, published in Haynt.

There was but one corner in Haynt to which the editor gave broad autonomy; a corner that sprayed Red and Socialist slogans, which awoke sympathy for leftist democracy and activated the memory of the Yiddish language in the broad Jewish population.

And now, as Haynt celebrates its 20-year jubilee, this should also be to its praise and credit, as a sign of its insight compared to its Jewish opponents.

Isaac Grinberg

Abraham Goldberg **

This was at the time of the election to the Polish Parliament, not in the great days of 1922, when Polish Jews went to the voting booth in great numbers secure in their strength as part of a united national minority, but rather in the election of 1928, when already cracks were visible in the wall of the Jewish bloc; and also in the national minority's unity. Pilsudski's regime had already thrown the entire weight of administrative sanctions against the minority bloc. At that time Abraham Goldberg was put forth as a candidate in a parliamentary district where there was a very small chance of a Jew being chosen, although, except for Jews,

*"mtoch shlo lshma atah ba lshma"

**Encyclopedia of the Diaspora, Brisk-Dlita, Volume 2, 1956, Pages 321-324.

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there was no other minority group in that district. We went out on a promotional tour with Goldberg in just those towns, in that district, where most of the population was Jewish. Shortly before this time, the local Zionists were still members of small synagogues and on holidays travelled to their rabbis. Their Zionism was costly to them as they had to break the opposition of their parents and neighbors. Also clear was their Chassidic enthusiasm, as expressed in their relationship to their leaders and spokesmen. The Jews of the towns knew Goldberg from Haynt, most of them being his faithful readers. To this time though, they had never seen him speaking to a "town meeting". And for him, this was the first time he came face-to-face with his readers, who sought in his writing not only information, but also counsel and guidance. In this connection there was something of Chassidism: Instead of the "Rebbe", come the leader, the publicist, who explained, and awakened and called them to acttion. In Goldberg they saw one of those who guides and lights the way.

For Goldberg, those travelling days were one long holiday, full of light, affection and fidelity. When I observed his beaming face, I understood just how valuable direct contact with the general public is for a journalist.

"We came to the Yiddish press not as a livelihood, a profession, but rather it was for us a means to realize the ideal of our lives. A newspaper that serves as a medium for such a great purpose must first of all be clean and tidy. A newspaper that envisions such a great ideal cannot be transformed into an instrument of neutral information and entertainment. Each edition must be a shofar, a demander and an awakener." So he said, approaching the editing of Haynt. It did not take long for Haynt to become the central organ for the Jewish National-Zionist social organization in Poland, truly an awakener and a demanding guide. It marched in front and led in all the important and diffucult issues of the day. And sometimes Goldberg did not wait for the community to become aware of a certain problem. He himself would bring it up, trying to concentrate the community's attention, and urging a resolution.

Abraham Goldberg was a publicist, who lived for

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the day and the momemt. If I am not mistaken, he tried to never deeply involve himself in a problem, investigating it from all sides. His greatest strength was in editing and managing the newspaper. He was closest to the type of editor who fills the paper not with just his own spirit, thoughts and initiative, and in that way laying his stamp upon it.

A. Goldberg

David Frishman In Haynt*

We had the honor of working in Haynt together with I.L.Peretz, who often visited the editorial office, with Sholem Aleichem, who, in visiting Warsaw, would spend many days and evenings with us, and etc. But David Frishman was our every-day visitor. Several hours a day he would spend with us, so much that he became one of the insiders of the editorial office, and when a day passed without "idling" a couple of hours with Frishman, somehow we missed him.

"Oh, things are going badly with me these days", he said to me one time, half ironically, half seriously, on cominig into the editorial office. "I am dying these days. What will you write over me?" He was at that time seriously ill.

"David Frishman of 'profane speech' "**, I answered him in the same tone.

Unfortunately, I did not write down Frishman's "profane speech". I don't know if somebody else, in some other place, wrote it down. And that is a loss and a pity: In David Frishman's "profane speech" was hidden a treasure of a sharp wit, of Jewish witticisms, of genuine Frishman sarcasm, a collection of anecdotes and spirited tales. These were cheerful and comical stories about his wanton little tricks with I.L.Cantor, Sholem Aleichem, S.Frug, M.Spector and a whole list of Jewish and non-Jewish writers.

We always knew in advance the contents of David Frishman's article to be published in 2 or 3 weeks. Not only the subject

*Haynt Jubilee-Book, 1908-1928, P.19

**"Shichus Cholin

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that he would write about, but also the form. Simple sentences, almost the entire article, as it would come out of his pen a few weeks later.

David Frishman would be "pregnant" with his article for several weeks. After finally starting to write, he would ponder over every sentence, almost over every word.

"I will rewrite this and this", he would say.

And a few days later he would say, "I will write it this way, or this other way".

And still later,"I will begin in one way, and continue in another, and end like this", and so on and on.

We would ask him, "Will you bring us the article Monday or Tuesday of next week, and not at the last minute"?

"Definitely."

And perhaps three weeks later he would open the door to the editorial office about four in the morning between Wednesday and Thursday, and as if coming directly from his writing desk, he would appear in his night clothes, a fat cigar in his mouth, his collar turned up, childishly naive and a little ashamed.

"Here is my article. You're still sitting here so late? Uch, you newspaper people!" And he went away.

But not one line of his article had been crossed out, not one letter had been blotted out or erased. The article as he brought it to us, had obviously been finished weeks earlier!

During a lively conversation, in telling a pertinent anecdote it was only necessary to mention a certain person or occurence and we saw before us a completely different David Frishman.

He spurted bitterness. He stormed. There was no way to restrain his anger, his holy anger.

I had never known, and to this day have not known, a Jewish writer who so deified talent, simply adored talent ("at least a little talent"), with a serious devotion to work and sincerity, as did Frishman. I had never known, and to this day have not known, a Jewish writer who from his earliest youth on ("void and desolate")*, to so rage about lack of talent, ignorance, illiteracy and acceptance of them and hypocrisy, as did Frishman. He whole life he built up and tore down, but his tearing down was a kind of building up, and therefore he will eternally

*("toho vboohoo")

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remain in the front row of the great Jewish builders. And if in Haynt has remained the traditiion of an earnest dedication to serious reporting, to tearing down hypocrisy and calling things by their correct names, we have learned it in great measure from David Frishman.

In addition, when we celebrate the jubilee of Haynt we should especially remember our great friend, associate and teacher, David Frishman, who in the first edition of Haynt, published an article, and when he died was still our editorial office colleague.

Doctor Israel Carlebach
Let Us Remind Ourselves*

Dearest Friend Finklestein,

A heartfelt thank you for your letter. I received it in a (rare) moment of sentimentality, late at night, amid the tumult of our elections.

Shuh, Let us remind ourselves. From the very beginning. A story perhaps a little comical. All my childhood years, I wished, longed to be one time in Warsaw. Really Pratzes Warsaw (by Pratzes "Chassidish" by deceit, in a German rabbi's study I learned to read Yiddish). I meant, of course, to go directly to the "old market", and find Jonathan the teacher... But it didn't work out, and I had earlier been in Eretz Yisrael, by Rabbi Cook and at the University, became ill, had to return home, and decided, no other way but through Warsaw.

But I had no friends there and no place to recover from my illness. So what did I do? As a Yeshiva student with Rabbi Cook, I used to lodge with other students with a certain Shklaver Chassid, a quiet man, a learned Jew, a gentleman. He had a son in a Kibbutz, a pleasant child, although a heretic, but with respect for his father, courteous, in a Yiddish way. His name was Gravitski.

It was a poor, modest home. I would eat there once a week, on the Sabbath, The rest of the week--tea and old rye bread... his pride was his son Joseph who worked at Haynt.

I came to Warsaw and went to him with greetings from his parents

*From the Recent Past, Volume 2, pages 233--237

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in Eretz Yisrael. He had recently gotten married, I think. He lived on Kalodny, opposite the editorial office. Around noontime he was still in bed. He had an excuse for this: He was parliamentary correspondent for Haynt and worked until dawn...

He took me in very nicely, especially when he became aware that I am actually a colleague, write in German newspapers, but have not yet tried to write in Yiddish. I told him about my romantic years, my travels, my meetings with Arabs (then I still spoke fluent Arabic). and also with Rabbi Cook. He asked me to write something for Haynt. Yiddish was for me like a piano, probably I will be able to do it...

In short, it was accepted. I was ashamed until with great respect I finally dared to speak with Indelman, who still talks to the older ones who well knew me uncle, Rabbi Doctor Emmanuel Carlebach, who in Ludendorf's time, as an advisor to him, founded The Federation and The Rabbinical Federation, and made not a little trouble for Zionists in general and Haynt in particular...

With a pounding heart I went up to Telemutski 13, and from a distance eagerly watched Segulovitch as he swallowed a fourth of a chicken...And I promised to do some translations into German for publication...I also accomplished my main purpose: I was at Gensher Cemetery, saw the writers row, saw the Pratzes Kahal-Chapel, and a few Pratzes Jews also. And Indelman remembered me. As I recall, at that time, a series of articles came out about Rabbi Cook and Rabbi Zonenfeld, and the whole Rabbinical dispute, in which I was deeply involved, and which played an important role in the politics of Jerusalem. This I believe was at the beginning of my work for Haynt. It must have been 1926, I was 18-19 years old. From time to time I sent in something from Germany, but not regularly, and mostly without a cause.

When the strike broke out and we rolled up out sleeves in "old-new", Goldberg and Indelman sent out telegrams to God and the whole world: Collaborate, beautify, renew. I was a child, and a German in addition--I took it seriously. Klinov at that time sent correspondence from Berlin, and I intermittently from Hamburg. I was at that time editor of "Israelitishes Familly-Gazette", the largest Jewish newspaper in Germany, and I did not need income from Haynt.

Who is talking, when the "siren" came and Klinov had still not

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written any Hebrew and I did not require payment--I became very much appreciated, as if I were the correspondent from Germany. Later, as Hitler began to act, and Germany became the most important story, they demanded more of my writing.

The important gain for Haynt was from my travels, on the expense account of the newspaper, to the "black" Jews (Morocco, Algeria, Turkey, Yemen, Greece) and to the Red Jews": Russia (in 1932).

You might think that being there I would fall into the furor over the "inquisition", about which, abroad, nothing was known, or at least people did not want to know or believe, especially after the journeys of B.T.Goldberg and Reuben Brainen, and the wonderful banquets and speeches concerning the new Jewish culture....My revealing articles (also about Biru Bijan and the colonization in Crimea), made a stormy, shattering impression. Their reach was so wide that Einstein,who, as were all liberals, was progressively anti-Hitler, and was very sympathetic to Soviet Russia,spoke publicly of some kind of "League of Friends of Rattenfarbund". That made a great sensation. So, people read and discussed the articles that led them to these issues.

A pair of young assassins were hesitant when they had to "liquidate" me. Somebody made a "contract" on me in Hamburg, and the assassins shot at me several times, hitting my hat but not my head. An uproar followed and for a few days, the condition of my health took up the front page headlines in Haynt.

A few months later, Hitler came to power. Goebbels remembered that I at one time exposed that he was able to study only thanks to a Jewish stipend. For this and for other good deeds, I was arrested--one of the first. Actually, far enough from the very first that it turned out well. The Gestapo was not yet well organized, the jails still being run by the old officials, who did not yet know that one can be arrested without a warrant. In short, with a little due to luck, and a little due to a favorable misunderstanding, I was freed.

In truth, as soon as I realized I was free, they came looking for me again,and I barely escaped from the hotel with my life (and in total, with only the shirt on my back). I wandered all over Germany with false Nazi papers (stories within stories, not so interesting today), and with

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dyed hair, like a genuine S.A. Really, going to the book burning, where they also burned my books, I saw the anti-Jewish acts as if I were one of the S.A. men, and every day I sent reports to Haynt. My pseudonym was "Levi Gothelf", the excitement was great, and the frivolity of the adventure even greater. It took a while before Haynt could arrange for me to get papers of a coal miner, and for certain people not far from Katovitz to smuggle me across the border into Poland.

When I came to Warsaw, I started to publish a long series of articles in Haynt, the first truly "Inside Story" of Nazism (at the same time the series was published in the "Forward"). Myself, I travelled over Poland with Dr. Gottlieb, S.Stupnitski, and others with "Literary Judgments Over Germany". The "Judgments" had a giant success. I remember in the first session, in Warsaw Circle, in the first row sat the German ambassador...

This, no less, was the beginning of my regular work at Haynt as a member of the editorial office (although not of the cooperative). The pay was not good, I think, but "Novi Jennik" in Krakow, and "Civilia" in Lemberg, and "The Yiddish Voice" in Kovne, and "Morning" in Riga, and partially, the "Forward" in New York, according to an agreement, always reprinted the articles.

Soon, Haynt began to assign important missions to me, mainly abroad, as they considered that I had the face of 'A European". At first to Zionist conferences, you understand. Later, meeting with the national minorities. There was such an obsession at that time: "We, minorities", will fight all together for "our" rights. Germans were a minority in Poland, Polish in Germany. Ukrainians and other minorities, all "good brothers" in the partnership fight. Together with the tumultuous Catholics in Spain, with Deputy Henrik Rozmarin from Lemberg, with Margolis from Czechoslovakia. with the Bernhiem Petition from Silesia and with the Council of Lands with Matzkinen as president. We presented petitions, accusations, even a debate in Felkerbund.

"The world will not be silent", was then the watchword. A half literary and half political theme: "The conscience of the world"...And I ran after it like a reporter and like a publicist, and a bit ot a social worker and a member of various committees in Bern, Geneva...

One time, I remember, Goebbels called a large press conference

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in Geneva, before the Germans left the Felkerbund. There, developed a sharp discussion between me and Goebbels, necessarily...about the cooperative nature of Haynt.

After that came the conferences on the refugee-question. A High Commissar was appointed, and commissions were named, as is customary...A little later, a disturbance in Austria began, after that came Prague...In the years 1933 and 1934 I was almost continuously travelling on missions for Haynt.

By myself "on the road" I was without an editor, so they had me reined in.

In 1935, I was called out by the then still daily "Jewish Post" in London to become editor-in-chief of that newspaper. And as English politics were the main theme of Jewish politics at that time, and as it was also the time of the first great Arab uprising, of the Chaluka-Plan from the Piel Commission, etc., Haynt seized the opportunity: acquired a correspondent in London.

After 2 years in London, in 1937, I went to Eretz Yisrael, and it just happened that the main correspondence from there became my responsibility. The other correspondents, Joseph Gravitski and Simcha Pietrushki, did little work: A.S.Lirik would mainly write criticism, and Isaac Grinbaum, publicity, as if he were a member of the management.

Several months before the World War, in Spring1939, I visited Poland, Warsaw and all the old friends for the last time...

You must have by now the most important dates you asked me about in your last letter.

One more detail: The first name of the Kelner Rabiner and director of the Orthodox Teacher-Seminar, who was, together with Dr. Pinchus Cohen the ":Commissioner for Jewish Matters in the German Occupation-Force" in the First War was Dr. Emmanuel Carlebach.

With Warmest Regards, in Old Friendship, Yours,

Carlebach

P.S. After writing this letter, I had a heart attack, laid in bed two months, and just now, at the beginning of November, I looked for it, and sent it, perhaps, after all not too late.

Next>

Shmooen-Dov Yerushlimski: Haynt and Our Struggle Against Duma Deputy Victor Yaronski1

Kh. Ish: Haynt and the "Kami-Organization" (A Chapter of Forgotten History)

Abraham Goldberg **

David Frishman In Haynt*

Doctor Israel Carlebach Let Us Remind Ourselves*

Shmooen-Dov Yerushlimski:
Haynt and Our Struggle Against
Duma Deputy Victor Yaronski1

Kh. Ish:

Haynt and the "Kami-Organization"
(A Chapter of Forgotten History)

Doctor Israel Carlebach
Let Us Remind Ourselves*