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I came to America in 1920, and my memories of
my shtetl, Libivne, are scant and not at all
clear. Perhaps it is worthwhile to tell what I do
remember.
I used to study in Moyshe Yitzhok's cheder.
He had a fiery temperament. When he was teaching
us Psalms, he would chant the chapters beautifully.
I was so thrilled by his singing that instead
of looking into the Psalms, I would look at him.
The rebbe [teacher] noticed this and let me have
it right on the spot.
During World War I, when Austria was occupying
Libivne, Austrian officers were quartered
in our house. Things were terrible at home. My
father was in America during the war and so we
could not get any financial support from him as
we had before the war. My mother, therefore, took
to baking all kinds of kichlech [coolcies], and I
would sell them at the station.
The Austrians opened a school and hired
two female teachers, who were brought from
Galicia. I studied in that school. I remember
that they taught us German patriotic songs,
such as "Ich Habe Einen Kameraden" [I have a
friend] and "Gott Behalte, Gott Beschutze Unser
Kaiser, Unser Land" [God keep, God protect our
kaiser, our land].
During the occupation, the Austrians introduced
forced labor. All men had to report to them
on specified days. The rich men escaped forced
labor by paying a sum of money.
OUR SHTETL
By Dr. Ben-Zion Bokser
114
The Jews of Libivne led a strict Orthodox
life. But soon new ideas began to influence
them. It was not long before such movements as
Zionism and socialism found many supporters
there. I remember a confrontation between the
pious Jews and the more modern ones, not
because of differences in ideology but on the
question of how one was to dress: one young
man had been brave enough to put on a tie. To
pious Jews this act was a symbol of doing away
with old traditions of the shtetl, and they called
him an apikoyres [heretic].
Every Sabbath, before dawn, the shames [sexton]
of the synagogue would stand in the middle of
the street and call the Jews to the synagogue to say
the Psalms. He would knock on the shutters of
each house to make sure the Jews did not oversleep.
I still remember his chant. The shames had
a beautiful voice and he would sing out his call:
"Kumu na, hit'orru na, hit'yatzvu naShteit oyf
tzu avoydas HaBoyrey""Get up, wake up, stand
up, to do the holy work of the Creator."
During the time of transition from Austrian
occupation to Polish independence, when there
was no stable government structure, there were
many pogroms [against Jews]. We were afraid the
gentiles also would attack the Jews in Libivne. A
few young people organized a self-defense group;
and when a group of hooligans did show up to
attack some houses, the Jews of the self-defense
group successfully chased the attackers away.