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Three other houses of worship were erected next
to the Great Synagogue. The big corridor (poolish)
had two entrances: a narrow, iron-covered door
on the north and a strong, broad entrance on the
south side, with wide iron gates an d several small
steps that led into the corridor. Children used the
corridor as a place to play.
I want to describe one of the three added
houses of worshipthe Stepenyer shilchl (little
shul), the place where both my grandfather and
my father used to pray.
The Stepenyer shilchl was very modest. It
was whitewashed and had a pair of bright lights.
Benches, where those who prayed there would
sit, surrounded a round table that stood against
a wall near the whitewashed stove. Cut wood was
piled up on the other side of the stove, ready for
the winter, leaving enough room for a couple of
other Jews to pray.
The rest of the wall, from the stove to the
door, was occupied by a big closet of holy books.
Near the door was a washstand with a copper tap
and a heavy copper pot with two handles.
I will try to describe some of the worshippers
whom I remember. First of all, those who sat at the
eastern wall: Elye Mestsheches; Itche Yidls, the
gabbai (sexton); Chayim Mestsheches; my father,
Yankl Menashes; Chayim Reyzman; Shmuel
Getman ; Elye Stavker; and Yidl der blinder (the
blind one), the gabbai's fatherthese were the
men who prayed there during the High Holy Days.
Two brothers, Moyshe and Itshe Lerner, were
important people. The older one, Moyshe, was a
bit shy and did not participate in community
affairs. He finished praying and headed straight
for home. Itshe was a different sort of person. He
did not dislike leading prayers, and leading the
THE STEPENYER SHILCHL
By Efrayim Lerner
155
Mincha service on Yom Kippur was traditionally
his by right.
Another Step enyer Chasid was Moyshe
Reyzman, the gevir (rich man); but he came to
pray only on the High Holy Days and on Simchat
Torah eve, because he was entitled to say Ato
Horayso (a prayer for the first eve). The Ato
Horayso for the second night belonged to Shmuel
Getman.
Nutl Melamed (Faigen), my teacher, was still
another Stepenyer Chasid. He was tall and walked
straight. He always wore neat clothes, sported a
white shirt and a narrow black tie. He was never
one to laugh, yet he was not strict and was not in
the habit of becoming angry.
Another fine Jew used to pray in the Stepenyer
shtibland I will dwell on him at greater length-
Yehoshua Bibeles (that was his nickname).
He was a strong Jew, in his late fifties; he had
a gray beard and always smiling good-humoredly.
He always smelled of apples, for that was his
trade. He kept orchards all his life, spending his
summers in picking and collecting the fruit and
carrying them in a basket to Chasye the
marketwoman or to "Yellow Yankl."
When he was in the shtibl on a Sabbath
Yehoshua could never sit still, but would run
around and play tricks: he pinched the ear of one
man, nudged another in his side or untied the belt
of still another man and quickly turned away,
looking as if he had nothing to do with it.
Yehoshua was the opposite of his wife, Freyde,
who never laughed but only squinted with her
short-sighted eyes. They had no children. They
therefore donated a Torah scroll to the shtibl; and
when their Torah scroll was read the two were the
happiest of people.