Volochisk, Our Old Home-Town
For the 50th Jubilee
Brothers and sisters!
Today is the great holiday for which we have been waiting for 50 years. Each
one of us prayed that he might live to celebrate the 50th birthday of our
society, above all, those who have worked tirelessly, given their time and
all their energies to beautify and expand the “First Volochisker”, so that
it might serve its members in the best way. And indeed it is for this reason
that we are to consider ourselves lucky that we have reached this day and
that we are privileged to be together with you in celebrating this great
holiday.
Many of our brothers and sisters who are either not Volochisk-born or have
never been in Volochisk, cannot imagine what Volochisk meant to us.
Volochisk, there where we were born and spent our youth! It is worthwhile to
write a few words about Volochisk, the Volochisk which we remember before
the First World War, our town Volochisk in the Ukraine by the former
Austrian (Galitsia) border on the river Zbrutsh, which separated the Russian
side from the Austrian, though very few of us in the town called it by the
name Zbrutsh. The river was divided into two parts which had two names: “the
brewer river” and “the mill river”. Between them was the wooden bridge ( the
sluice) and the barrier over which one walked and rode across the border to
Podvolochisk. The first river was “the brewer river” and the second “the
mill river”. In the middle of “the mill” was the “kupalnia”[the bathing
area] in which only the bigwigs from town had the privilege to bathe. The
others only had the right to catch a peek through the gratings. From the
“mill river” flowed a narrow water-channel which we used to call the
“rika”[local word for river], which separated Russia from Austria for very
long stretches. Right at the beginning on the bank of the “rika” stood the
three synagogues: the large shul with her two little shuls, the
Beis-hamedrash and the “kloiz”[study house].
In the time of the Russo-Japanese war between1904-5, when they started to
call up the reserves, “our brothers, the children of Israel” used to come to
Volochisk to escape and cross the border. Every night hundreds of reservists
smuggled themselves over the border by way of the #“rika”#. Those that liked
to earn a “bit on the side” used to make a pretty penny by it. Volochisk was
famous near and far because of the border. Since the Ukraine was Russia’s
“bread-basket” and all sorts of foodstuffs were exported abroad, almost all
of the export went through Volochisk. There was a fine train-station: three
trains came and went every day from Volochisk station. On the
railway-carriages of the postal and courier services was written
“Odessa-Volochisk” or “Kiev-Volochisk”. The trains came over to Volochisk
station and made the connection with the Russian trains. People from all-over
Russia, when they were travelling for business or to the spa-resorts used to
travel with… through Volochisk.
Various food-products, such as all different types of grain, eggs, poultry
(chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, etc.), fish, and crabs (all still alive)
used to arrive by horse and cart from near and far. Commissioners,
travelling-salesmen, exporters, agents, brokers and wholesalers were all
busy. There were grain storehouses, egg storehouses, and men who used to
give money to the salesmen and the buyers so that they could go round the
countryside buying up eggs, chickens, ducks, geese, a calf, some flax, a
sack of grain, and whatever came to hand. And like this they made an honest
living. All these goods were sold to Austria and Germany. The goods from
Volochisk used to cross over the border every day to Podvolochisk, where
there was an exchange where the goods were sold. After that they were
exported with wagons through the custom-house. The egg-merchants had
suppliers throughout the Ukraine who used to transport the eggs by train in
boxes of 120 dozen. From the surrounding areas the eggs used to come by horse
and cart, packed into the wagons with straw. The eggs were sorted into
little boxes, #candled# and then packed up into cartons to be sent over to
Austria. Almost half the town was involved in the egg-business. There were
workers who untied the tape round the boxes, those who opened the boxes,
those who sealed up the boxes, packers, #candlers#, counters, etc. All these
workers were united in a cooperative (partnership), and at the end of the
week the earnings were divided up in a systematic way. (These very
egg-#candlers# and packers #became# the founders of our noble society when
they came to America at the beginning of the century.)
Volochisk was an intelligent town. Although there was no yeshiva or
high-school, there were nevertheless learned and world-famous men. People
from the neighboring towns and villages used to envy the inhabitants of
Volochisk because they had the right and the opportunity to cross over the
border to Podvolochisk, which was a beautiful town, with huge stores of all
different kinds with all manner of good things where one could buy clothes
cut to the latest Viennese fashion and at a lower price than in Volochisk.
Volochisk was also a beautiful town. A main road led from the train-station
down to the custom-house in the town, a distance of four versts in all, and
there were trees on both sides of the road. It was a great pleasure to go
for a walk in the summer when the trees were cloaked in green leaves.
This is all in the distant past. Volochisk no longer exists. The Nazi
murderers during the Second World War systematically killed hundreds of
innocent souls. Honor their memory! What’s left is a mass-grave by the
“semenivke” (the crooked foot-path) on the way to the station. According to
earlier letters from our “landsman” Isaac Kumets, the mass-grave has been
fenced off and a monument has been erected, with the help of the
Odesser-Volochisk “landsleit” and the government. At that time, 1946-7,
negotiations went on for us, the society, to pay for the cost of the
monument, but unfortunately it proved impossible to send over the money.