Even today, no matter the country in which you may meet an Ozarower, it is remarkable to see how passionate he is about politics. But you can sometimes also detect bitterness: that of having seen an ideal he once believed in crumble. He may have struggled for more justice, for freedom of expression, for Communism, for socialism, for the right, for the left, for religion, against religion ..... This activism was almost universal in Ozarow, a surprising fact about a little village of such limited means. It is explained, however, by a high level of cultural development and by a serious conflict between generations.

     Only after independence in 1918 and in the aftermath of the war with the Bolsheviks of 1921, did political parties develop to any degree in Ozarow. Two of them especially, the Poale-Zion and the Free Thinkers, served as way stations for the Communists. They carried on propaganda against religion and militated in favour of equality and fraternity. They based themselves on the Soviet model which would in time bring universal happiness. It was necessary to struggle for freedom by revolution. From that perspective, to combat religion was a duty, since it served only to keep man in a state of ignorance. These anti-clerics, who were also inspired by western literature, settled across the street from the musicians' house and from the house of El'ye Shafir, Wovke's. They chose their location well because it allowed them to attract a lot of attention to their propaganda. Furthermore, it was located directly on the way to the synagogue, which appeared to border on provocation! To "set a good example" one of these ideologues went so far as to refuse to recite Kaddish at his father's burial.

     One Sabbath afternoon in 1926, the Free Thinkers organized a debate on "Clerics and Clericalism" with the participation of their friends from Cmielow and Ostrowiec. As soon as Rabbi Reuven Epstein heard this news, he mobilized all the faithful: This meeting was a sacrilege, an insult to God, the Creator of the Universe! An aggravating factor was that these "Yiddish goyim", these renegades, had the audacity to travel in the middle of Sabbath. The meeting hall was located at the edge of the village, at the mill, toward Wyszmontow.

     Having got wind of the impending attack, the Free Thinkers put up barricades and lay in a stock of rocks and clubs. Rabbi Reuven arrived on the scene, accompanied by Shya Kleinmintz, his right-hand man and bodyguard, who solemnly demanded that the rabbi and his followers be allowed to enter. The Free Thinkers agreed to allow the rabbi in, but his followers were out of the question! This refusal lit the powder and a brawl broke out. The rabbi's followers threw themselves into the fray, confronting the impious with all the force given them by God.