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When the two men came to fix the wire, they
met the priest standing near it. The priest told
them that he would fix ita symbol of good
neighborlin esstruly a wonder!
A Jew by the name of R. Leybish, who was a
Trisker Chasid, had lived in our town in the
1890s. The children of the Trisker magid always
stayed at his house when they came to Libivne.
He was a bal-madreyge [a man of great moral
rectitude], while his grand-son, Dovid, was already
a maskil [enlightened one].
One of our interesting types was R. Aaron-
Shmuel Kneler, author of the book Minchat
Marcheshet (Lublin, 1904). His main occupation
was selling the books of the Chofets Chayim (the
famous Jewish scholar of Poland). R. Aaron-
Shmuel was something of a kabbalist. When
everyone else had finished praying, he would
still be saying the Shma. He would always place
his house keys on the prayer desk to be ready
when the Messiah came. He was a fiery orator.
The other learned men in the shtetl included
R. Azrilke Melamed, R. Moyshe Klingl, R. Leybish,
R. Aaron Eyger, and R. Uziel Dovidls.
CHARACTERS AND PERSONALITIES 169
The gabbai of the big shul was R. Avrom-
Shmuel Herts. The shul possessed unique things:
old silver poroyches [curtains over the ark], silver
Torah crowns, ancient candlesticks, and rare
yads [pointers in shape of a hand with a pointing
finger, used in reading the Torah]. My greatgrandfather,
R. Yitse-Shloyme, was the gabbai of
that shul for 43 years!
For several years the Libivner Jews enjoyed
the magnificent prayers of R. Yosele Zaslaver, a
noted cantor, who officiated with a whole choir.
Sixty or 70 years ago, the Jews of Libivne led
traditional Orthodox lives. It so happened that a
young man came to Libivne wearing a kapelyush
[modern hat] instead of the traditional Chasidic
cap. And when he came to shul (it was on the
holiday of Shavuot), his presence led to a big fight.
Luckily, the young man was the son of a synagogue
trustee and the people managed to quiet
down the tumult.
And if there was ever a maskil [enlightened
Jew] in town, he would have to hide in order to
read a [forbidden] book, or, God forbid, a newspaper!