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Houses of Prayer
and Learning in Zambrów
From the Zambrów Yizkor Book (abridged English version),
1963 |
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At first Zambrów
Jews prayed in a little Beth
Midrash. The whole town had only tiny houses of
wood, even the church was a wooden one. The
only real house in the town was that erected by Reb Leibe, the
son-in-law of Elijah Kazin, at the Rynek! Reb
Leibe was deeply engrossed in
Kabbalah
studies. He was an upright and honest man. His early
death was much mourned by the townsmen. The
widow (his wife) Reise the innkeeper handed over part of her house
for a Beth Midrash. This was the first
synagogue. Later on it was decided to erect a new
synagogue. Money was collected for that purpose. Reb Monush Golombek
donated part of a plot (behind his house). The synagogue was built
out of stones and bricks. During the act of placing the foundation
stone a closely shut
earthen pot
was put
among the stones. This pot contained a parchment scroll in which the
history of the synagogue and the list of donators was recounted.
Before
long even
this synagogue grew too
narrow and it was decided to build a great Beth
Midrash. A dispute arose: The Burstein people
maintained that the new synagogue should be made of stone and
erected on the other side of the town whereas the members of the
Golombek family demanded that the synagogue should be made of wood
near the present synagogue. After long disputations the Golombeks
resolved to
act
and not to
talk:
they handed over to the
Kehillah
the
remaining part of their plot. They also brought boards or planks,
rafters or beams, workmen, and within a short time the new Beth
Hamidrash was ready ... The Bursteins also went in
the footsteps of the Golombeks and started to build a Beth
Midrash from stones in a plot donated by Reb Hershak
Burstein, near the Cattle Market, opposite the spot where the house
of the Fire Brigade was later erected. Reb Shlomo Bloomrosen donated
ten thousand bricks for the building of the Beth
Hamidrash. Thus the two synagogues were designated
respectively:
1)
the wooden synagogue,
and 2) the stone and brick synagogue or the new Bet-Hamidrash.
During the great Conflagration of 1895 the "wooden synagogue" was
entirely burned down, whereas the "new" of stone synagogue was left
untouched. After some time the burned synagogue was rebuilt, this
time out of
red bricks.
It was therefore called
the "Red Beth
Hamidrash" whereas the previous synagogue (of stone) was plastered
and
white-washed
with white lime
and was thus called the "White Beth
Hamidrash." Thus were
the two synagogues termed up to the final catastrophe during the
Nazi regime. |
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THE WHITE BETH HAMIDRASH
Called so not
so much for its
whiteness, which was not too conspicuous, but just in contrast to
the second Beth Hamidrash that stood nearby in the vicinity, built
with genuine red bricks, a novelty at that time in Zambrów, and
known by its original official name as "The Red Beth Hamidrash". The
White Beth Hamidrash was sponsored and sustained by the so-called
progressive elements of the Jewish population, as the families Bloomrosen, Burstin, Wiliamovski, Lewinson, the popular
personalities Reb "Abtche" Rakovski, Reb Israel Lewinsky, Kagan,
etc. It was the house of prayer for almost all the butchers in town,
including all their in-laws and relatives at large, and likewise
almost all the other artisans and working people in Zambrów. In the
year 1905, the year of the first Russian Revolution, the White
Beth Hamidrash served as the meeting place of the revolutionary
youth that "invaded" the premises, disregarding the apprehension and
alarm of the elderly people.
The White
Beth Hamidrash, in its long history, was the hallowed place of
worship and learning, playing also a very important part in the
social and religious functions of the community. Here were upheld
and entertained meetings, gatherings; here were performed the ritual
ceremonies, of weddings,
circumcisions, bar-mitzvot. Here too had taken place the compulsory
celebrations of the days of the august birth and coronation of the
Tsar, with the participation of the school children, the presence of
the local authorities, a representative of the police, with a
patriotic speech (in Russian), uttered by the "official"
(government-appointed) Rabbi, the singing of the national anthem,
"God save the King".
THE RED BETH HAMIDRASH
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This house of worship, known under the moniker "The Red
Beth Hamidrash'" on account of its being a red brick
structure, was the "citadel", the seat of authority and
spiritual power of the venerable Rabbi, Reb Dov Menachem
Regensberg, during the sixty some odd years of his leadership
in the Jewish community of Zambrów. only to end his long life
in martyrdom by the hands of the Nazis who forced the ninety
year old patriarch to dig his own grave. Around Rabbi
Regensberg rallied the influential family Golombek, nicknamed
the "Rabbi's Cossacks," standing by him and giving him fervent
support in all his contentions, polemics, in the war of words
that flared up from time to time in the social and religious
life of the community.
photo:
Rabbi Dov Menachem Regensberg (z"l) of Zambrów. |
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The Red Beth Hamidrash was,
though, the quieter place of worship and Torah learning. In the
daytime, after the morning worshipers were all gone, the premises
were taken up by a group of young men. Former Yeshiva students,
mostly now happily married, they enjoyed the free room and board
given them by their respective fathers-in-law. They studied
Gemarah singularly or in a group, which entitled them to the
privilege of living for an agreed time at the expense of the parents
of their young wives. The soft sad sing-song that accompanies the
study of the Gemarah echoed thus daily in the hallowed
shadowy atmosphere of the Red Beth Hamidrash, reaching ofttimes the
ears of the passers-by outside. Here, as in the White Beth Hamidrash, were also performed wedding rituals, circumcisions,
bar-mitzvot. In the evening, at the conclusion of the
evening-prayers, the synagogue turned into a house of learning, a
sort of a classroom for elderly gents. In the bright light of the "blitzlamp",
a candelabrum, suspended high from underneath the ceiling, Jews of
all ages learned, under the guidance of this one or another
voluntary teacher, Mishnayess, Schulchan Aroch or
Humesh (Pentateuch) with the Rashi-commentary. The
daily Torah learning was in those bygone days the part and parcel of
the daily life of the average Jew. Rabbi Regensberg himself gave
also impressive and imposing instructions in Gemarah in this, his
Red Beth Hamidrash. next
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