Brisk D'Lita, 13th of Tishrey 5659 [11 October 1899]

The Society Tmikhat Aniyim [Support for the Poor] was founded three-quarters of a year ago and has already won our respect for its activities and value in this short period.

The Society has finally resolved an old ethical issue, unresolved for 14 or 15 years. This concerns our citizens in general and the righteous scholar Rabbi Arieh Feinstein (AL"F) in particular.

Fifteen years ago [1883], AL"F –while still in the position of a gabai– started building a mikvah or Beit Tvila [house of immersion] in accordance with the laws of both [religious] purification and [secular] cleansing so that our folks would not have to bathe their bodies in stinking and foul water serving 2 or 3 people of our town. At the following elections for the gabai position the person nominated was not worthy of that position. AL"F and many of our honored folks refused to have this person manage the new mikvah. They wisely named it after two private people from among the honored and rich members of the community.

This angered the new gabai and the results were endless slander and informing [or: libeling], extreme blasphemy and suffering of such a pure soul as AL"F's. Until today [1898] this man holds his whip over AL"F's head to torment him whenever he can as we, readers of Hamelitz in our town know very well. The building in which 4,000 rubles were invested has not been finished. It stood with 4 walls and gaping windows, with no ceiling or roof for a very long time. The passing of time also ate into it.

Now that the Society Tmikhat Aniyim is active, our people have become convinced of the righteousness of their leaders and their good will for the benefit of the poor. Therefore, the two persons entrusted mentioned above, agreed to place the building under the management of this society. They called for a meeting in the municipality and signed a document to be passed for approval by the district minister.

In truth, the gabai, י"ש ,  [the initials of Yerukham Schatz, as we know from other sources] made efforts to slander the Society in order to have the building placed under the management of the synagogue, that is, under his management. However, according to well-informed people, he was reprimanded and retreated shamefaced. So, hopefully the building will be completed as is required and our town will be properly equipped.

Two good things came of the involvement of the Society: First, it saved a large sum of money from going down the drain. The plans of this mean man were finally destroyed. Second, it took the threatening sword away from the neck of the very clean person, AL"F.

An additional society was founded: Khebrat HaTmikha LeAniyey HaKhayatim [Support for the Poor Tailors]. This society was an offspring of the general Society Tmikhat Aniyim and it serves as its branch. The new branch has special income in addition to the income of the mother society. It is autonomous in that it has gabais from among the tailors. Only they really know who among the tailors is in real need of support. They are permitted to have a tzedaka-box of their own. Their treasurer is one of the managers of the mother society – L. Leizerovitz, a law-abiding, trustworthy man.

Two or three years ago, the tailors of our town wished to found a society and support fund for tailors. However. the laws of the authorities did not allow that. Now, thanks to the society of Tmikhat Aniyim, under its wings, all workers are able to do so. It would be wise for the teachers and melamdim to found such a society for their poor members as well.

Here is the place to advise the umbrella Society Tmikhat Aniyim –the aim of which is to help the poor materially and spiritually– to attend to the outrageous condition of the Talmud Torah. It is dark, no light of education, and the poor flock grow with no Torah and good manners for they don't have proper guides and teachers. If you pose a question to any of the boys there, he would look at you without knowing what answer to give. Why? Because his teacher, except for the narrow frame of Gemara, does not know a thing besides the bread he eats daily. I felt disgusted when one of the boys, who finished this school and started studying on his own, hesitated when he was asked to read and interpret a verse in the Nevi-im, the Prophets, and the Ktuvim, the Writings of the Bible. He was unable to read it properly and then interpret it.

One of our town, Yehoshua Mordekhai Bergstein, complained before our readers (in Hamelitz 1 September 1898) that “before the youth finishes one Prophet, he is already taught Gemara”. Our youth are studying Prophets but without order or methodology. I visit this school from time to time and I can attest that Prophets have been prohibited from being taught here already 4 years.

Beyond that, I want to inform you about our religious education: this summer the gabais appealed to the authorities to grant them a permit to free the pupils of their studies for 3 months [i.e. add a school vacation of this length] and they achieved their goal. This proves that learning reading and writing in the Russian language and arithmetic is in great need at this time, is spite of the gabais of the Talmud-Torah. We shall have no more of this disgrace!