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122 LUBOML
the outbreak of World War II. Its secretary was
Moyshe Lifshitz, who held that position from
1929 on. The new members elected Asher
Tenenboym as their chairman. He was a Zionist;
in fact, most members were Zionists.
Three rabbis served the religious needs of the
community: R. Leybish London [nicknamed
"Henshl's," for his mother Henshl], R. Pinchas
Oselka, and R. Leybl Melamed, the dayan [judge].
The starosta demanded that the Jews elect one of
the three as the official rabbi for the town. This
led to a great many quarrels. The congregation of
the Kotsker shtibl wanted to appoint the grandson
of R. Leybish to the rabbinate chair one Reb
Alter [London]. All those who attended the bet
midrash wanted to see R. Oselka occupy the chair
of honor as official town rabbi. And the congregation
of the Trisker shtibl wanted R. Leybl Dayan
elected.
Elections took place and R. Alter was chosen
as town rabbi, with the help of the town's artisans.
We, as the executive council of the kehila,
did not want to discriminate among the three
rabbis and gave the two unelected rabbis both
salaries and positionsone as head of the Chevra
Kadisha [burial society], and the other as head of
the Great Synagogue.
Famous Chasidic rebbes used to come to the
shtetl once a year to visit the Libivner followers of
their particular sects. The exception was the
Rizhiner rebbe, who visited us only once. The
town received him with great honor. The
Stepenyer Chasidim bought a house for the
Stepenyer rebbe and he came to live in the shtetl
together with his whole family.
Libivne was a Zionist town. Zionists occupied
important positions in almost every town
organization and accomplished a great deal of
work. Important proprietors and most of the young
people did a great deal for the Keren HaKayemet
and for Keren HaYesod [Jewish National Fund].
The agricultural training camp of the HeChalutz,
the Labor Zionist youth movement was supported
by the town's Zionist organization. The
day of aliyah [when trained pioneers left for
Palestine to work its land] was a big holiday for
the town's youth.
The youth organized such clubs as Hechalutz,
Beitar and Hashomer HaTsair, which conducted
cultural and educational activities.
There was a Yavneh school in Libivne, under
the auspices of the Mizrachi [Orthodox Zionists].
There were also about 20 melamdim [teachers]
who taught in the cheders.
In 1939, the Zionists planned to erect a
Tarbut school. The Radziner rebbe came to town
at that time and called all the Jews together for a
meeting in the big shul, where he spoke out
severely against the Tarbut and Yavneh schools.
He said they bred apikorsim [heretics] and Jews
must not permit this.
The rebbe, who was staying at the home of
my friend, Avrom Lichtmacher, called together
all the members of the kehila's executive council
and tried to convince us that we must not allow
the Yavneh school to be built. But we did not
accept his advice. The kehila office was transferred
from the Talmud Torah [Orthodox school]
to another place, and we decided to build the
Yavneh school. This was in 1939, and you can
well understand that all our plans were destroyed
by the coming war.