Gymnasium of Jozef Zeligman,
Jozef Lebenhaft and Jakub Dereczynski
Sienkiewicza 4, next to Astoria
Courtesy of The Jewish Heritage Trail in Bialystok
 

The school was launched in 1922 and was thought to be one of the best private gymnasiums in the city. Later it received the rights of a public school. Jozef Zeligman was its principal. He also taught history, Latin, and mathematics. He believed in the idea of religious desegregation in education. He thought that pupils of various religious backgrounds, Catholics, Evangelics, Jewish, and Orthodox, should study together, and in this way get to know each other and learn mutual understanding. Hence, in Zeligman's gymnasium, religious divisions applied only to religion classes. Among the school graduates was Leo Fink (1901-1972), a later pioneer of the textile industry and activist of Jewish organisations in Australia. In September 1939 the school was taken over by the Soviets, and Jozef Zeligman was arrested by NKVD. Later, the Nazis took all the equipment from the gymnasium, and its founder was killed in 1943 in Majdanek.