In Warsaw there were once more than 300 synagogues, two-thirds of which were Chassidic. The Great Synagogue, the most imposing in all of Poland, was always packed on the High Holidays. One could hardly breathe: "Always during Kol Nidre services on Yom Kippur the air was hushed as the Chazzan began. Little boys would climb the iron beams that went up to the ceiling, tying themselves tightly around their waist, and the packed crowds stood out in the courtyard."
The Jewish neighborhoods were located on Dluga street; here was the heart of Jewish life in Warsaw. Here in Warsaw, the "Mother City of Israel," 400,000 Jews lived. Here was the city whose Jewish population was mostly Chasidim. There was great learning and were great Rabbis and scholars. It was here that the sons of the great learned ones of Western and Southern Europe sent their sons to study in Yeshivas. Here stood the great Mesivta Institute headed by Rabbi Solomon Joskowicz where 400 Bachurim (yeshiva students) learned.
Yiddish was the mother tongue and it was in Yiddish that writers would write "about my milieu and especially my feelings for nature - Yiddish evokes for me the fragrant fields and orchards."
In the year 1414, Warsaw- Warzawa in Polish and Varshe in Yiddish- was home to about 20 Jewish families. The following year, more Jews moved to the city, coming from various parts of the continent. There were organized attacks to expulse/encourage the expulsion of the Jewish population, but the community continued to increase. In 1881, after the pogroms in Russia, 150,000 Jews moved to Warsaw and in 1862, all restrictions against the Jews living in Poland were lifted. In 1914 the Jewish community reached a total population of 337,000, 33.4% of the total population.
The Haskalah (Enlightenment) movement came to Warsaw through German cultural influences at the end of the 18th century. It resulted in a number of wealthy Jews converting to Catholicism. Fortunately, Warsaw was blessed with an assemblage of great Talmidei Chachomim, Chassidic Rebbes and their followers, whose spiritual strength and influence kept the Orthodox community strong and vibrant. These accomplished Orthodox Rabbanim managed to overcome the potential dangers of the Haskalah.
Following World War I, thousands of refugees began arriving in Warsaw, and by 1917 forty percent of the Warsaw population was Jewish. The Polish authorities, who were openly anti-Semitic, legislated economic issues unfavorably for the Jews. Many Jews were soon unemployed. Subsequently, the Jews were pressured to emigrate to Eretz Yisrael, then known as Palestine.
It was not easy to leave, but there were Gedolim, Admorim and Rabbanim who encouraged it. The Gerrer Rebbe, Rabbi Avrohom Mordechai Alter, known as the Imrei Emes, advised many to leave Poland. Rabbi Yitchok Zelig Morgenstern of Sokolov-Kotzk shared this viewpoint. Many did leave at this time and a group of Warsaw Chassidim founded Kfar Chassidim in Eretz Yisrael.
Rabbi Klonimus Kalmish Shapiro of Piesesstsna arrived in Warsaw in the wake of World War I, along with many others including Rabbi Yerachmiel Taub of Zvolin, Rabbi Yisroel Spira of Grodznish, Rabbi Uri Ashkenazi of Parisov and Rabbi Eliezer of Volmin. Rabbi Shlomo Dovid Kahana became a leading Posek Halachah in Warsaw (he survived the Holocaust and eventually became the Rav in the Old City of Jerusalem). Rav Menachem Ziemba, the illustrious Gaon of Poland, arrived and eventually became the leader of the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto. Rav Tzvi Yechezkel Michelson arrived from Plonsk and is still reputed for his Seforim: Beis Yechezkel, Pinos HaBayis and Tirosh VeYitzhar.
The Mesivta of Warsaw was headed by Rabbi Meir Dov Plotzki with the Tachkamoni of Warsaw, headed by Rabbi Moshe HaLevi Soloveichik, the son of the illustrious Reb Chaim. The majority of students in the Warsaw Yeshivos and Battei Medrash were Chassidic. Many streets in Warsaw boasted their own Gaon or Rebbe such as the Mila Street Rebbe, the Pavia Street Rebbe, and the Nizka Street Rebbe.
The association of Orthodox Rabbis in Poland, called the Agudas HaRabbonim included Orthodox Rabbonim from all parts of Poland. They deliberated on all matters of Orthodox Jewish life. Nearly one thousand Rabbonim comprised this Agudah and its headquarters were in Warsaw.
Up until the outbreak of the War, nine large Mikvas operated in Warsaw under the strict supervision of leading Rabbonim.
The highest standards of Shechitah (slaughtering) were practiced in Warsaw. All Shochtim had to be appointed by the Kehillah Rabbinate. Every Shochet received a written document from the Kehillah granting him permission to Shect. Before the War, twenty-six Shoctei-Ofos (chicken slaughterers) worked in the special slaughter houses on Bazan Yaruch Street, 44 Zamanhuf Street, and 1 Tvarda Street. Every Yom Kippur, large quantities of chickens were slaughtered and distributed to the needy.
In Warsaw, there were several Litvishe Yeshivas: Emek Halachah, the Rav Yeshayale Prager Mesvita/Yeshiva and Toras Emes. The local Yeshiva Beis Yosef was an acclaimed Litvishe Yeshiva where the Bochurim learned the standard curriculum of Gemora, Halacha and Sifre Mussar. Limud Mussar in the Yeshiva included Mesilas Yeshorim, Chovos HaLevovos, Mussar of Rav Yisroel Salanter and Mussar of Gedolei Novardok. Toras Chaim was the Litvishe Yeshiva named for the Gaon Rav Chaim Brisker zt"l, and the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Herschela Glickson, was Rav Chaim's son-in-law.
Nearly one thousand Warsaw Bochurim learned in the Shtiblach, Chassidishe Yeshivas and Battei Medrash. Many learned in the Shtiblach of Ger, but others learned in Sochotchov, Aleksander and Radomsk. The Shtible of Ger was at 19 Nalewki Street and the Beis Medrash of the Chiddushei HaRim was located at 57 HaBarzel Street (the Chiddushei HaRim was Rav Yitchak Meir Alter of Ger). Da'as Moshe was the Yeshiva under the supervision of the Admor of Piesesstsna and had three hundred Bochurim while Beis Avrohom of Sochotchov had one hundred.
Warsaw was traditionally the center for publication of Seforim, books and periodicals. When the Orthodox community increased in Warsaw following WWI, the Gerrer Rebbe, Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Alter (the Imrei Emes) encouraged publication of an Orthodox newspaper, and soon Der Yud was published by Agudas Yisroel. Ten years later it became known as the Tagblatt. Subsequently, a number of Orthodox newspapers and periodicals began to appear. Bais Yaakov was edited by Reb Eliezer Gershon Friedenson; HaPardes, a collection of articles on Gemora and Halachah was published by Rav Shmuel Aharon Pardes; and Digleinu, a publication for the youth, was edited by Rabbi Alexander Zusha Friedman.
How do you describe Shabbos in Warsaw? It was an experience from the World to Come. The voices of the great cantors, the Shlichei Tzibur, resounded through the windows of the city's Shuls and Shtiblach. The city was full of singing, joy, and Shabbos serenity- all which would soon be no more.
On September 29, 1939 the Germans entered the city and began issuing a series of Anti-Semitic measures against the Jewish population. On November 16, 1940 almost a half-million Jews were incarcerated in what was the largest "prison city" in Europe, the Warsaw ghetto. A wall had been built earlier in the spring. The aim of the Germans was to starve the Jews. Starvation and disease set in. The minimal amount of bread allocated was mixed with sawdust and potatoes. Illnesses decimated the population. There were no medicines to fight the typhus that spread. The dreaded disease was carried by lice which were found everywhere. Thousands of people were homeless. The streets were strewn with corpses. Synagogues were closed down and destroyed by the Nazis.
Still, despite the hardships, life went on in the ghetto. Social welfare institutes were set up to combat the hunger and disease. Committees of charitable work were set up and engaged in educational activities. Clandestine prayer services were held. Young Chasidic students continued to learn in their freezing-cold rooms, with little food, hiding from the Germans as they refused to join the work force. Illegal periodicals appeared in Hebrew and Yiddish. A Jewish military underground was organized, headed by the young leader Mordecai Anielewicz.
During the first 15 months, 60,000 Jews died of malnutrition and other diseases. On January 1941 the Germans began their deportations to Treblinka and it was there that most of Warsaw Jews were murdered. By January 1942 there were only 40,000 Jews left in the Ghetto.
Diaries were written and preserved describing the atrocities for the world to see. Emmanuel Ringelblum (1900-1944), a high school teacher before the war, was founder and director of "Oneg Shabbat," which compiled tens of thousands of pages documenting the extent of Nazi barbarism in Warsaw and elsewhere in Poland. It was from the "Oneg Shabbat" that as early as March 1942, the allies received the first testimony from a man who had escaped from the death camp of Chelmno. By the end of that year, Ringelblum's team had smuggled to London a meticulous account entitled "Annihilation of Jewish Warsaw." As a result of Ringelblum's fearless activities, the British and American governments knew full well of the German extermination of the Jews almost from the moment it began. Ringelblum was later captured by the Nazis and perished in a concentration camp. After the war, two hermetically sealed milk containers containing 40,000 pages of the most explicit documentation of life in the Ghetto were discovered. A third container lay buried, and is yet to be discovered.
On April 19, 1943, the ghetto was surrounded by the Germans in preparation for the final liquidation. The Jews fought back and the Germans retreated. After three days, the Germans began to burn the houses block by block. For the next three weeks the Germans burned, bombed and threw canisters of poison gas into the bunkers where the Jews hid. Many Jews died from the fires and suffocation, and many jumped from the burning buildings. The leader Mordechai Anielewicz committed suicide rather than die at the hands of the Germans. On May 19, 1943, after fierce fighting and after nearly a month of rebellion, Jewish Warsaw was decimated. The Great Synagogue was blown up in an elaborate ceremony, and today only one synagogue remains- the Nozyk Synagogue, where services are still held.
Today there are about 5,000 Jews living in the city where there once were 400,000. Warsaw is now a city of monuments. The cemetery on Okopowa Street is in a sense the Jewish life today, with its carefully preserved 100,000 tombstones.
Copyright © 2003 by Stanley Mann
Michlalah Jerusalem College All Rights Reserved