The Livelihoods of Brest Jews
Most of Brisk's Jews earned a livelihood from small trade and handicrafts (labor); only a few of Brisk Jews were factory workers or businessmen on a large scale. Factories were few and small in size. In town there were a few flour mills, sawmills, and a chemical plant, cigarette factory, paint and oil factory, and a few small soft drink plants. Most were owned by Jews.
In a labor poll conducted by the Joint [the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee] in 1921, it was clear there were 882 factories employing 1,959 workers, that is, on average each factory had a bit more than two workers. In fact, these were very small workshops. The main branch was clothing - 341 factories, wherein one worker worked per two owners. The situation was the same in other branches. The work situation in trade was hard and making a living was little, for example, only 50 in 300 of the Jewish shoemakers in Brisk made a decent living. Craftsmen were unionized and in the 1930's Brisk had two professional unions. Each one had its own health insurance for its members.
In order to survive, the Jewish workers needed institutional financial aid. The oldest and most established among them was the People's Bank (Volkesbank) that was founded in 1921 and survived throughout all crises until 1939. In 1930 it had 2000 shareholders. Besides that, there was the (Great) Merchant's Bank, which in 1929 had 436 shareholders and its yearly return reached 158,500 gold coins [?]. It had gotten into financial troubles and closed in 1931. It re-opened in 1933 under the name The United Co-operative Bank (Folkes-Farins Bank) and existed until 1939. At the end of the 20's and beginning of the 30's operated in Brisk the Co-operative Industrialist Bank or Industrialists Fund, General Bank (Fawshachni) and Credit Bank. At the end of the 30's operated an additional bank, Shares Bank (Odezialwi) that was Zionist in its outlook. An important financial institution was the Charity Fund that began in the 20's; it existed until September 1939. It aided needy small businessmen, peddlers, and tradesmen with loans of between 40 and 100 gold coins[?] without interest. Between 1934 - 1938 the fund distributed loans to 549 businessmen and 507 tradesmen.
Education
The Brisk was wealthy in Jewish educational institutions. The oldest amongst them was the Talmud Torah and was established in the mid - 19th century and continued to operate until the expulsion of 1915. It had approximately 800 students at the time. In the beginning of the '20's the institution renewed its operation and despite monetary hardship continued to operate until September 1939. Also the Yeshiva Torat Chesed, established by Rav Chaim Soloveitchik in 1898, continued to operate after the intermission caused by the war. It was headed by Rav Ze'ev Yitzchak Soloveitchik until September 1939, the chief rabbi of the community. On October 26, 1930 the building for the yeshiva was dedicated.
From 1905 there were a few day schools of the Enlightenment. In 1918, an elementary Hebrew school named HaTehiya developed from them through the initiative of Zionist youth. Two hundred students learned there. The institution grew and added a Hebrew kindergarten. In 1924 a Hebrew Gymnasium (high school) opened, named Tarbut (Culture). In 1929/30 the lower classes received government subsidies, though only for a short time. In 1929 approximately 500 students learned in these institutions. In 1929 there was an attempt to open another Hebrew day school named after Achad Ha'Am and Hebrew kindergarten, however it seems they existed for only a short while. In 1938 operated a Hebrew day school named Chinuch (Education), but there are no additional details about it. In 1919 the Zionist Youth founded a dual language (Hebrew-Yiddish) school named Tel Chai, which existed until the end of the 1920's; it had about 150 students.
There were also schools of the Yavneh chain under the Mizrachi movement that taught with the Nationalist Hebrew spirit. In Brisk, this chain had a Hebrew kindergarten and two Hebrew elementary schools named Ha Chaim (The Life), later named Tachkemoni, one for boys and one for girls, and a gymnasium (high school) named Tachkemoni. They struggled financially at the end of the 1930's, but existed until September 1939. In 1938 there were two Agudat Israel schools in Brisk: Beit Ya'akov for girls and Darchei Noam for boys.
In 1919, Workers-of-Zion Left [Faction] and the Bund Yiddish elementary school was established. Within a year they split and became two schools. Poalei Tzion closed shortly thereafter, but the Bund school, named after Y.L. Peretz, lasted until in 1937. Many Jewish children attended Polish institutions, state schools and private. For example, in the private Polish Levitzky gymnasium, 60% of the students were Jews.
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The ORT organization operated two vocational schools in Brest. Boys were taught carpentry and locksmith's craft (or welding), and girls were given classes in sewing. At the end of the 20th century, educational organizations struggled to survive financially, therefore, the 1931/32 school year commenced on February 1932. These organizations operated until September 1939. In addition, there was an orphanage and a boarding school- the Findel Home in Brest.
Culture
Jewish schools, mostly the National Hebrew Schools, served as centers for cultural activities. Teachers, students, and groups of adults took part in those activities. Tarbot (Culture) high school's library contained 1,000 volumes; almost all of them in Hebrew, and in its reading room, there were Jewish and Hebrew periodicals. Lectures and classes were given in the library. The high school was self governed by the students who published a school newspaper by the name of the Tzohar (Window). At the beginning of the 20th century, there was a large Jewish public library in Brest. It contained approximately 8,000 volumes. The library was closed in 1915 during the First World War. In 1918 it was reopened and divided into a number of smaller libraries. One of them was the Tharbot library named after Shalom Aleichem. Nearly to half of its books were written in Yiddish, one third in Hebrew and the rest in Polish and Russian. A second library, with an active reading room, was named Tel Chai. Cultural activities, lectures, evening reading sessions and group discussions took place in that library.
A drama club was established in Brest around the middle of the 20th century. The club staged shows in Brest and nearby towns and traveled as far as Prozena [possibly: Pruzhany]. Every once in a while, actors and professional Polish Jewish entertainment groups performed their best repertoire in Brest. Israeli entertainers stopped in Brest on their way to perform in Poland. In 1929, the singer Bracha Tzphira visited Brest.
In May of 1930, a group of authors got together and formed the Young Polesia organization. Among its founders were the following young authors and poets: Yitzchak Prelov, Binyamin Shinmen and Mendel Boim. At first, they published a selection of their writings, and at the end of May they held a literary evening and read from their work.
An important cultural factor was Brest's Jewish newspapers. At times, they claimed to be the Shofar [The sound or The Voice] of all of Polesia. In reality, they reported only on events that took place in Brest and published advertisements only from that city. Most of them were Yiddish weekly publications. The Voice of Polesia was the first newspaper to be published on September 18th 1924. On April 11, 1924, publication was halted. It was resumed a few months later, in the summer of 1924, and continued to be published until the beginning of 1930. Around April 24th 1925, the Polesia Weekly started its publication. It was stopped at the end of that year and restarted in January 1925 under the name of The New Voice of Polesia. After a few publications, the paper's name was changed again to Berst's Weekly. The newspaper was in publication from May 28th 1926 until March 14th 1930. During the years 1934-1939 there was a daily newspaper by the name of Polesia News. Under an agreement with the Express, a newspaper published in Warsaw, the Brest Daily started its publication. Later on, the name was changed to Polesia's Daily. During the thirties, for a short period of time, two additional newspapers were published Our Voice and Polesia's Day.
Social Organizations
Among the Jewish organizations in Brest we need to mention the Jewish hospital that was established in the middle of the 19th century. It was reopened in 1919 after the return of Brest's deported Jews. The municipality provided funds towards the upkeep of the hospital, and in return, a specified number of non-Jews were allowed to receive treatment Also active in the medical field was Tazh [?]. The organization ran a number of clinics for Jewish school children like; dental, Trachoma, Tuberculosis, radiology, immunization, and an educational center for pregnant women. Other organizations that were active in the same area were; Bikor Cholim [Visiting of the sick] and Linat Tzedeck [hostel or hospice for the poor]. There was also an old people home in Brest, and a chapter of Tzentus [?] that operated an orphanage and an adoption agency.
At the beginning of 1920s, a Jewish Sport's Club was active in Brest. The club started as a soccer team that played in the regional league. Later on, the club's activities widened and included athletics. In the 1930s, the club was renamed Macabi Jewish Sport's Club. During the same period of time, additional sport's clubs were active in Brest. Ha'poel, the Workers' League of Israel, Nordia of the Revisionist [?] movement, and Stern of the Bund.
Politics
The Zionist activities of the Bund that came to a halt with the deportation, resumed at the beginning of the twenties. The Bund was mostly active within the trade associations. It took part in the municipal and community elections, and operated a Jewish elementary school that was in existence until 1937. Some of the Zionists movements that operated in Brest were Tzeirai Zion (Young Zion), Poalie Zion (Workers for Zion) and the Chalutz (Pioneers). In 1918. Tzeirai Zion opened the Hebrew School Hatchia (Rebirth), a Jewish children's institution Yaldut (Childhood) and the bi-lingual school (Hebrew and Yiddish) Tel Chai. At the time of the division, in 1923, majority of the members transferred to Poalei Zion Right. In the year 1925/26, a branch of Ichud Poalei Zion (United Workers of Zion) was active in Brest. Later on, all of them worked together as members of the Workers' Association for Israel (from the year1929).
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During the year 1919/20,Workers-of-Zion Left [Faction] established a worker's kitchen that later on served as a center of their activities. They were active among the trade associations, controlled the clerks' association and had a lot of influence on the tailor's association [Literally: Workers of the Needle] and the associations of the blacksmiths and the builders. Their cultural activity was important, too. The Ziyonim Klaliyim (General Zionists) were active in their two factions: the Al Hamishmar (On the Guard) and Eit Livnot (Time to Build) and also in the pioneers of the Ziyonim Klaliyim which was established in 1923 and for a while maintained training groups. The religious party Mizrachi (Eastern) which was active before the world war renewed its activity and kept a number of Jewish educational institutions. At the end of the twenties some chapters of the Mizrachi youth and the Mizrachi pioneers were established (1929). In the year of 1929 the local branch of the Revisionist Zionists started up and by the end of the year the number of its members reached 600. In the thirties this party maintained a branch of the academic corporation El-Al (To the Heights), a branch of National Women's Alliance, a Kadimah (Forward) club, and a sport association by the name of Nordiyah.
In 1938 a clandestine chapter of the Irgun Zva'y Le'umy aka Etzel (National Military Organization) was established in Brest and two of its members participated in the Organization's military courses in Ivaniki near Pinsk. There were 300 members of the Organization in Brest. In 1929 a branch of the Agudat Yisrael [An Orthodox Israeli party, now under a different name.] was established as the result of the initiative of the Rabbi of the congregation Yitzchak Ze'ev Solovietsick. In the thirties Wizo and Young Wizo were also very active. In 1919 a branch of Hechalutz (The Pioneer) was established in Brest and very soon 14 of its members immigrated to Eretz-Yisrael (The Land of Israel). At the beginning of the twenties this branch was closed and its activity renewed in 1925. In the thirties there was also a branch of Hechalutz Ba'al Hamlachah (The Pioneer, the Artisan). Hashomer Haza'ir (The Young Watchmen) in its scouts form was established in 1924 and a year later it had 300 members. Until 1928 this was the only youth movement in Brest. In this year Forward (Kadimah) was established which was an all-spanning Zionist youth movement students and adult pupils being its members. In 1933 this movement established a Kibbutz near Brest. In 1929 a branch of [a revisionist youth movement, the Be'itar], The Alliance of Joseph Trumpeldor was established, the number of its members grew from 150 and was 800 at the end of the thirties. Additionally there were in Brest branches of Gordoniyah, The Zionist-Youths - Akivah, Freiheit, Hashomer Hale'umi (The National Watchmen) and Masada of the learning and working youth with 150 members.
In the 14th Zionist Congress which took place in 1925 133 people voted for the Al Hamishmar (On the Guard) fraction, 233 to the Eit Livnot (Time to Build ), together 366 voters. At the 1939, 21st Congress -- the last before the second world war --1,532 people voted of the 2,272 eligible. The Ziyonim Klaliyim(General Zionists) received 347 votes, The Eastern [A religious party, now known as Mizrachi) - 203, the Mifleget Hamedinah (State Party) - 5, The Eretz Yisrael Ha'ovedet (Working Land of Israel) - 698, Po'alei Ziyon Smol (Workers-of-Zion Left [Faction]) - 248.
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