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Dovid Veytsfrucht (London) was known as "the
Birgermeister" (mayor), as he was the only Jewish
mayor of Luboml during the Austrian occupation
in World War I. He was the son of the Voislovitser
rabbi, R. Yoshe London, and the brother of R.
Leybish London, the rabbi of Luboml. He was a
great scholar and had a mastery of rabbinical
studies. People would say he should have been
the rabbi of Luboml, rather than his brother.
Even though he was preoccupied as a merchant,
yet he spent most of his days in studying
the Torah with other people, adults or younger
students in the Kotsker shtibl. Until this day I see
before my eyes the image of myself, together with
Alter London (later rabbi of Luboml), Asher
Veytsfrucht, and Itsik Vidre as we got up at four
o'clock in the morning and went to the Kotsker
shtibl to listen to R. Dovid Birgermeister expounding
a lesson. It was dark and freezing outside,
and snow fell at times. The stove would be
lit, when suddenly the door would open and in
THE MAYOR
By Yakov Hetman
Rabbi Dovid
Veytsfrucht, the
Birgermeister
177
would come R. Dovid, dressed in an elegant fur
coat. As he stood at the door, he would blow in
and out, in and out, and stare sternly at the couple
of young boys waiting for him. Without saying a
word, he would go to the lectern and begin the
lesson on Tosefta, Mishnah commentaries and
other meforshim [commentaries], from time to
time asking us whether we understood.
He was considered to be one of the three
greatest scholars in town. The other two were R.
Yankl Moyshe Feiveles (Natanzon) and R. Pinchas
Oselka. Whenever there was a controversy over
an interpretation of the halacha (Jewish law),
people would naturally turn to R. Dovid for
enlightenment.
R. Dovid was born in 1877 in Voislovits and
then came to live in Luboml, where he married
Gitl Sandlshteyn, the daughter of R. Moyshe-
Asher, in 1898. To escape conscription into the
Russian army, he went to live in Bendin, where
he changed his name from London to
Veytsfrucht. Then he went to live in Dombrovo-
Gurnitsha.
He returned to Luboml in 1916 during the
Austrian occupation and was appointed mayor
by the Austrians. When the Poles replaced the
Austrians, the Jews of the shtetl asked him to
become the rabbi of Luboml, but he waived the
honor and suggested that his brother, R. Leybish
London, be rabbi instead.
His suggestion was accepted, and R. Dovid
lived the rest of his life as a merchant. In 1940,
during World War II, the Russians forced him to
leave Luboml and forbade him to live closer than
12 miles from the border. He therefore settled in
Masheve, where he was killed by the Germans in
1942.