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To my disappointment a Russian high school was not available. I knew Russian fluently and hoped to attend such a high school. Unwillingly I started to prepare for the Polish high school. It was not easy to be admitted because of "numerus clausus". I was admitted to the first grade, having lost two years because of our wanderings…. The years in high school were rich in various experiences that affected my life in the matter of Jewish identity and Zionism.
I soon joined a Zionist youth organization Ha'Shomer Ha'Tzair (Young Watchmen). I was very busy being the leader of that organization. I did work hard for the matriculation exams for the last half year, as I promised Rachel I would do.
My Father Returns from Exile
At the end of the 1920 Russian Polish war, my father returned from Harbin. …His business didn't exist any longer and my parents decided to try their luck in the States. I opposed them with vigor because I was adamant to make Aliya … I remained with my grandmother Chana in Kobryn. My father could not adjust to the American way of life. He also did not get along with his wife and he returned alone to Kobryn and took on the textile business. He contacted the manufacturers of textiles and they invited him to work for them. His business took him to Kraków, Łódź and Warsaw. Soon he became a famous and respected businessman, well known for his honesty, and his multi-faceted personality – and knowledge of Jewish culture, philosophy and politics. Some of his articles on various subjects were published in the newspaper Heint [Today]. My father's economic situation improved greatly and he was able to support my studies in the Grende-France Polytechnic school
High School Memories
Here I would like to mention episodes from my Polish high school years that strengthened my Zionist beliefs.
This is the first story that I chose neither in chronological order nor because of its importance.
The Mukavets River flows into the Bug River and divides Kobryn into two parts. More than half of the population was living densely – 90% Jews and the rest Gentiles on one side of the river. Part of them were well-to-do and of higher education and professions. The other side of the river was sparsely populated with a minority of Jews. We had unpleasant encounters in the river with the shkotzim [brats] of the non-Jews in summer and in winter, sometimes ending with injuries on both sides. I use to skate on ice almost every day during winter and was good at it. On Sunday, one of the brats –a deaf-dumb youth who was known to be violent– was holding a hayfork and tried to attack me from the back. He chased me but I was fast. However, a student who was in higher grade in my high school was coming fast towards me with a large lump of ice in his hand which he threw at me. The sharp edge of the ice cut above my right eyebrow. A doctor, acquaintance of ours, sewed the cut. The next Saturday night, when that youth came out of a party, I was waiting for him with two strong brothers from my youth organization. We followed him and when he crossed the bridge over the river we prepared an ambush, threw a coat over his head and gave him a good beating.
Another piquant story: a Geography teacher asked me to teach her younger brother from Warsaw because he had difficulties in mathematics. I accepted but did not want to get paid. We agreed that he would come to me at 4 in the afternoon. He did not come. The next day he found an excuse. The same happened once again. On the third day I saw him standing outside hesitating whether to come in. I invited him in and found out he was afraid to enter a Jewish home. In Warsaw, he lived in a district where no Jews were living... Having had no opportunity to meet a Jew they thought of Jews only through the libels told about them. After becoming acquainted with our home he changed and we became very good friends, having the same interest in sports.
Another story is connected with the river: I loved rowing boats in the river in summer. I wished to own a boat. I had money from giving private lessons in mathematics. I was told that in a courtyard of a Polish family an old boat was lying uselessly. When placed in the water it would topple. I went to see it I was immediately convinced that the center-of-gravity was too high. Its walls were much too high. I bought it, brought it to my grandmother's house, sawed off half the height of the walls and moved the oarlocks lower. I also bought an additional pair of oars for Rachel. I tied up the boat with an iron chain and a lock with a key for each of us…
Another story: the prinicipal of the high school was a Pole, a respectable man over 60 years old, who had been exiled to Siberia by the Tsar's regime. He also taught mathematics in the two final classes before matriculation. I was his best student. I never found in his behavior any anti-Semitic attitude. The music teacher, on the other hand, was very different. She had a pathological hatred of Jews and in particular towards me. She tried to humiliate me in front of the students in class. In the pedagogic forums she attacked my behavior. The other teachers did not support her rough attacks on me and the principal defended me.
Rachel knew of my disgust of the Polish history, which I considered stupid. Rachel and I both knew that I must pass the exam in Polish history I in order to get a matriculation certificate. Rachel started to persuade me not to neglect the subject. I didn't want to let her worry and be disappointed. Several months before matriculation exams I began a routine to wake up at 4:30 in the morning. Winter, cold, while everybody was sleeping I was studying Polish history. The result: I passed the exam well. The warm kisses I have gotten from Rachel, my sweetheart, were the best reward which I could wish for myself and I was in addition caught up... It seems I described enough clearly the events, feelings especially anti-Semitic during my presence in Poland, after returning from Ukraine. The continuation of my life, which lasted circa 70 years include several important stages in my future.
