Our town Kartuz Bereza was blessed with a strong Zionist activity. One of the representatives to the First Zionist Congress called by Dr. Biniamin Hertzl in Basel, 1897, was an inhabitant of our town named Arochik.

Even before that day, the Jews in Kartuz Bereza were supporters and activists of the movement Chovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion). We have several written testimonies saying that in 1900 and 1911, the Zionists of Bereza collected money for the construction of Eretz Israel [the land of Israel].

Around that time, in 1913, emigrants departed from Bereza and founded the settlement Yanviel, in North Israel.

The anxiety to emigrate to the land of Israel was strong, and if quotas and certificates hadn't existed, the number of emigrants would have been bigger. Nevertheless Jews from Bereza emigrated to Israel, one by one, during those years. At the same time, the Jews continued strong Zionist activities in Kartuz Bereza.

We had a Tarbut Hebrew school called Yanve, a Zionist council and another for the KKL [fund for land purchase in Israel], and, needless to say, a Zionist party and many youth movements that had the privilege to emigrate to Israel. Besides, as it is in every age and country, even the young men of Kartuz Bereza had bitter arguments about the different ideologies between the movements. There are many pictures in this book of members of the different youth movements.

In the years preceding the first world war, the Council of Odessa (as it was then called) was very popular. It was in charge of collecting money for colonists and Jewish artisans in Syria and Israel. The headquarters of this Council was in Odessa, led by Menachem Mendel Usishkin.

The official name of the council was "The United Council to Support Israeli children, Colonists and Artisans in Syria and Israel". Besides personal contributions, the Council - in coordination with directors of synagogues - used to have collection plates in the synagogues to obtain contributions. They published their financial statements. Here we present such statements for 1911 which shows that 16 rubles 26 kopeks were collected in Kartuz Bereza that year.

The donors lists are reproduced here:

To the Jewish population of Bereza!

We are facing a very important event in our community life. After years of neglect and carelessness, our institutions were run by minorities, or else didn't exist at all. Now we have the chance to lead our own religious, national, cultural and social affairs, to heal all the sore points in our Jewish life, and to strengthen it.

The community must be the focal point of the Jewish people, to develop a healthy and normal life, to have a better present and a happy and bright future. That's why every Jew has to consider very carefully who are going to be his representatives, who will have to really know the aforementioned aims, as well as the ability to achieve them.

If you look at the standard of living in the last decades, you'll see that the Zionist movement in all its ways (workers, artisans, traders) became the basis and foundation of Jewish life in the spirit of a glorious past and the hope for a better future for our people. Only this movement has the strength to fight against all odds, step by step, building and fortifying our existence.

The results of these elections show that a majority of the Jewish people in this country placed their destiny in the hands of the national Zionist representatives, who fight for our national honor and our vital interests.

The Zionist movement in Bereza has been active in several areas of our community life, some of them of great importance. With much effort we managed to keep out and silence the attacks from right-wing people who wanted to rule the small world of Bereza and lead it according to their point of view.

Our national cultural activities were reasons for right-wing people to free themselves from ignorance and to accept the fact that they needed to improve themselves. This is just the beginning. There is vigorous work remaining to be done.

That is why we address to you, brothers!

If you want somebody to defend your interests,

if you don't want your children to move away from you and our town,

if you don't want your children to grow lost from you and an indifferent life,

if you want your children to be proud Jews,

if you want to give a hand for the big construction,

if you want to be partners of our town's flourishing, to spend your efforts together with our best children, and to participate in building a generation for our highest ideals to come true...

then vote for National Zionist List Nº5.

Kartuz Bereza was a small town. There were a few thousands of inhabitants in all. It was mostly a Jewish community that was divided into two factions: Zionists and Yiddishists. There were three Jewish school and one Polish state school in town. In the Tarbut school Hebrew was taught (its authorities were Zionist), the Yiddish school had a Bund direction [Jewish Workers party], and the Talmud Torah was controlled by Bereza rabbis.

I studied at the Talmud Torah school, but before ending my studies I joined the Young Guardian [Hashomer Hatzair] movement. When I grew up I started to visit Bet Ha'am located in Moishe Tabulitzky's house. He belonged to an honorable family, and they said that they used to be very rich in the past. Both the synagogue and its street were named after them, and the Bet Ha' am was held in their house.

During my frequent visits, I cultivated a friendly relationship with the family, despite the fact that they were older than me; it was very nice to talk with them. Their children were educated in a Zionist spirit, and they emigrated to Israel. Their sons Shmuel and Elisaph are with us in Israel today.

At Bet Ha'am all kind of Zionist activities were carried out. On Friday, and on Saturday evenings many young and adult friends used to meet at "Quiz Evenings", or in lectures dictated by eminent Zionists, and other activities for the KKL. Our colleague Tzipora Lisitzky was in charge of KKL activities. At then end of each month she used to organize groups of couples who would go door-to-door collecting money for the moneybox. For instance, the KKL organized Flowers Day, and the money they collected went to this institution. She was in touch with the head offices.

I want to remember and point out some activist friends: Meir Fodostroitza teacher, Meir Stein of the Hebrew School who wasn't an inhabitant of our town, Menachem Fitkovsky, Moishe Tuchman. There was in our town a branch of the Young Pioneer [He'chalutz Ha'tzair] movement, leaded by Mordechai Pomerantz, Ytzchak Mordechai Yaver, Rachel and Yakov Berkovitz, Chaim and Yona Beer. Yona emigrated to Israel in 1936 and many people of He'chalutz emigrated in those days too. I want to point out some of them: Shoshana Yaver, Moishe Shpitky (blessed be his memory), Avigdor Goldberg and many others.

I remember very well the "Yavneh" Hebrew School of Tarbut net in Kartuz Bereza, because my brother and I studied there. The school was founded in 1922. It started with several teachers, lovers of dead languages, giving private Hebrew lessons. When the number of students increased, these Hebrew faithfuls asked the community authorities for their own building, to be used as a school and for other cultural activities.

In those days, the Talmud Torah study group moved to another building, and they gave up one and a half of two empty classrooms, after exhausting debates and near fights. Considering that one classroom and a half wasn't enough, they rented the Shtuker family's house and then the institution had two separate buildings. When the number of students increased again, they bought a piece of land on Gminia St. and built a new building for the school, a show room included.

I don't remember having met my brother in the playground ever. That's likely since in our days, the school worked in two different buildings, but I vividly recall meeting my cousins Simche Fridenshtein and Chaim Alexandrovsky. Besides the playground was a common courtyard for Yavneh and Talmud Torah. The Talmud Torah students somehow never went to the courtyard.

I remember Director Mania Serlin and the teachers as well. In front of my eyes appear teachers Portnoy, Shtein, Niborsky, Zobrener, Tzukerman, Yafe, Groshilsky, and also teachers Chana and Lis. There were others too, but I can't remember them.

Time has passed. When I got married in Israel and after our children were born and they went to school, I paid careful attention. We used to learn exactly the same things in our Yavneh school of Kartuz Bereza, as is now taught in the Hebrew schools of Israel. We used to speak Hebrew with the sefaradic pronunciation, we were taught the same subjects, we learned about the Jewish festivities, we emphasized the important facts in Jewish history and the Zionist movement. We used to go to the forest with bows and arrows too, a symbol of Bar Kochba's heroism, in Lag Baomer. We also collected money for KKL and contributed with the few coins we received.

The dream of each one of us was to emigrate to the land of Israel, and speak every day, every hour, in Hebrew with everyone.

We learned other subjects besides the Hebrew and Jewish studies, for instance Polish language and history, since it was obligatory in the Polish regime. We had general studies that wasn't taught in other schools, at least the majority of them. At Yavneh school we studied music. A musician named Zvetz, who worked at weddings, was our music teacher; we got to create a great mandolin orchestra.

It's important to point out the loyal activists who assumed the responsibility and care for the school matters. Among them Yoshua Zaltsman, Enach Liskovsky, Moishe Golshtein, Faivl Yber and Shtuker.

It's amazing and symbolical, since every building of Kartuz Bereza was destroyed and burned during WW I, and only two, according what I was told, remained standing: the Yiddish school and the Yavneh school's new building...

At the end of the 1920's organization of the "Betar" movement started up in our town Kartuz Bereza. Youths of our town Sara Gruzalka, Keile Naidus, Leah Dantzig and Masha Shtuker, returned home for summer vacations, because they studied in secondary schools in Vilna, and in secondary level of the Tarbut schools net.

The organization was headed by Yechiel Urbach, who left Ha'shomer Ha'tzair and recruited youths to join Betar. At the same time Yechiel Urbach taught school children as well as youth worker-students. Among the first followers were Menachem Fitkovsky, Binyamin Volovelsky, Ytzchak Somorovitzky, Dov Chomsky, Abraham Minkovitz, Zvi Goldberg, Chaia Braverman, Yafa Liskovsky, Yocheved Nusetzky, Aron Reznik and others. Also, all of them had the privilege of emigrating to the land of Israel in the 1930's, and only leaders Yechiel Urbach, Leah Dantzig and Yocheved Nosertzky didn't have this privilege.

Betar branch developed social and cultural activities. Were carried out night meetings of study and reflection, meetings, walks, encounters with members of other Betar branches in nearby areas, as for example in the town of Malcz, and in the bifurcation of the road, in the towns Bereza, Pruzhany and Kobrin. The Bereza branch participated in meetings in all branches of Betar movement that were carried out in Warsaw. In the field of Education, they stimulated the progress of pre military instruction and military maneuvers. The representatives of the Betar branches in Bereza, Menachem Fitkovsky and Biniamin Volovelsky, participated in the first centralized leadership course, organized by the highest authorities of Betar in Poland directed by Yrmiahu Halpern of Israel, and with the direct inspection of Zeev Zabotinzky, first head of the Betar movement.

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Graduates of the first central course were nominated as leaders and immediately began to deliver courses of military instruction in each district. The first one was carried out in Kobrin, led by Menachem Fitkovsky and Biniamin Volovelsky. Participants of the Bereza branch included Zvi Golberg, Israel Kagansky and others.

Betar activity was renown and very infuential in the daily life of labor youths and students. In the 1930's , the movement grew day by day. It attracted many youths who would have leaned toward the extreme left under other conditions, and perhaps gotten lost from the Jewish people.

I remember an especially important event. Many protest letters were written regarding the limitations imposed on emigration to Israel. They were signed by men of Kartuz Bereza, addressed to British authorities, that were given to the authorities through the Betar branch in Warsaw.

I remember that an exciting Nationalist Assembly was carried out in our town with the participation of Menachem Beguin, later first minister in Israel, and then leader of Betar in the Polesia District. After an internal military inspection in the Betar branch, a public meeting was held in the upper-class synagogue on town's main route.

The opponents, who were of the extreme Zionist left, infiltrated the meeting place, without having the approval of the Betar guardians. They promised not to cause any problem, but they didn't honor their promise, and they interfered and shouted. Menachem Beguin delivered a loud and strong speech. They noticed that he was sure, and confident of what he claimed. Many of them were convinced absolutely, and the rest were very impressed.

With the growth of nationalist movement Betar, the rivalry amongs Zionist groups grew and strengthened. It should be noted that the non Zionist right was indifferent and apathetic and didn't enter in the Zionist fight. They waited for the Messiah, redeemer of Jewish people, and the speech of Beguin struck at the roots of the Jewish people.

In 1934 the leadership of Betar went to the next generation, youths who was mobilized at the end of the 1920's and beginning of the 1930's. Shmuel Tabulitzky was chosen major of the youth branch, and Zvi Liskovky was secretary. When they emigrated to Israel, the branch again went to the hands of the first generation. At the end of 1938 members Biniamin Volovelsky, Aviva Kasiresky, Chaim Alexandrovsky, Simcha Nosetzky, and Elisaf Tabulitzky emigrated with group B, organized by the authorities of Betar in Warsaw. Until April 1939 they were arriving to the certain shores of the land of Israel.

In 1931 I joined this movement whose main objective was the emigration to the land of Israel. Meetings and night courses were part of this movement. We collected money for the KKL by selling country products during the Tu Bi'shvat festivity. We held gatherings to which the youths of all the nearby towns came. The adults of the movement He'chalutz traveled first to the Kibbutz Hachshará (collective farm for training of the future pioneer emigrant to Israel) and they got ready to be adapted to certain conditions of life and work. There were many collective farms in Israel, and the life conditions there were very hard.

The kind of work that was performed on the collective farms were domestic work, tree pruning, etc. Also there were training groups in Kartuz Bereza that lasted for two years. There were activities in which our local branch and collective farm participated. They tried to find work for movement members. They came to our branch, and we visited them. They participated in all our meetings. As consequence of the difficult situation and the lack of work in Kartuz Bereza, they abandoned the place and passed to a collective farm of a bigger city.

In 1934 I went to a collective farm in Ybetzbitz. Together with Rivka Tshesler (blessed be her memory) we were sent to help farm members, and we stayed there. It was a small town, and most of the inhabitants were Christian. They had two sawmills whose owners and their officials were Jews. There were about 35 youths in the farm. Most of them worked in the sawmill, some in excavations, women worked as nannies and performed domestic work. At the beginning we lived in barracks owned by the company, and then we moved to other housing.

Women also worked in the sawmill, conditions were difficult and there was not enough work for all of us. We had rich cultural activities, we held reflection night meetings of readings, and we had conferences. Among the youths was a group that knew how to act and to put on performances.. They organized performances and the youth from nearby towns attended.

After two years, the central office in Warsaw decided to close the group. We moved to the great city of Baranovitz. There were approximately 950 people in the city. We lived in a house owned by a rich Christian. We also occupied two other houses in which we only slept. We performed various tasks. We cut trees, worked in the sawmills and in factories, and women worked as nannies and performed domestic work. Life was not easy, especially in winter, but the anxiety to emigrate to Israel and the youth happiness was so intense, that in spite of everything we grew stronger.

The house that the group used in Baranovitz had a reading room with many books. In that room we carried out conferences, meetings and performances. I remember that actor Elia'hu Goldenberg (blessed be his memory) was with us for a few months, and put on a play called: "Listen, England"! of Naiman. The content of the play was about the quotas on obtaining certificates to be able to enter Israel. The show was very successful. I remember that we participated in the May 1^st parade, together with Christian workers.

Friends that already lived in kibutzim in Israel sometimes visited us in the training farms. A lot of youth was forced to remain for many years in the training farms until getting emigration certificates. The center of the movement in Warsaw looked for other means, and the emigration B began which consumed a lot of money for transfer expenses.

In 1938, four years after having entered the training farm, I emigrate to Israel in an old and small ship named Atarta. The captain was Italian, and the poet Natan Alterman made him a poem called "Captain, Captain". For added security, before traveling they told us that we would see Israel from afar, but we won't come closer. Obviously we accepted anything. Taibel Bayer and Miriam Simonovsky of Vilna and Vita Avigdor Goldberg of Lodz, traveled before me, and we joined them in Israel. It gives me great pain to think of the town of Kartuz Bereza, and the many Jews that are no longer.

Mr. Goldshtein, a man of Zionist ides, had a large yard with a barack. Initially it housed the office of the Great Sawmill. Then the Goldshtein family gave it to the Ha'shomer movement. This was the first branch of the Ha'shomer movement in Kartuz Bereza. In the evenings and especially on Saturdays the youth met there for various activities. Yechiel Urbach directed this branch. He was not born in Bereza but he lived there because he married a woman from the town.

Yechiel recruited a lot of youth into the movement. Among them, Biniamin Volovelsky, Baruch Shtuker, Moishe Fridnshtein, Ziske Kravchik, Chaim Bayer, Beilke Tuchman, Combat Pomeranitz, Chaim Lazarovsky, Nechama Ibar and Shmuel Zalstman. Other youths followed, among them Shimon Rashinsky, Eliézer (Niselboim) Egozy, Yoseph Novick, Ytzhak Mordechai Ybar, Dov Liskovsky, Reuben Zaltsman and others whom I don't remember. This is how the branch of Ha'shomer in Kartuz Bereza was founded. Binyamin Volovelsky was the head of my group.

Every Saturday we met in the small barrack, and we used to go for a walk. Unfortunately, the branch wasn't open much of the time. The conditions to emigrate to Israel were very difficult. Many members that were in the branch, passed to "Betar" movement and abandoned "He'chalutz Ha'tzair" They emigrated to Argentina, because this was the only country to which Jewish youth could emigrate to avoid being drafted into the Polish army. In that time, by the mid 1920's and on, many families emigrated to Argentina.

After several years of inactivity of the Ha'shomer movement activities in the town, it was resurected by a group of young men and women, graduates of the Tarbut School who conducted the activities of the branch. The group was headed by Baruch Fisher, Litman Lisitzky, Mita German, Zelig Ravitz, Rachel Minkovitz, Chana Lubashevsky, Fruma Pomeranietz and Shmuel Garber. They were helped by the teacher Miller and some veteran as Moshe Feldman, Yosef Kagansky, and Ytzhak Grozalka (Goraly).

In that way we reactived the activities of Ha'shomer in the town. We rented a room and each member contributed some money to cover the rent. Then we passed to the house of Mita German. There we also rented a big room, and we decorated it with drawings and paintings. I began to paint, and some said that my works were not bad. The branch was active. We celebrated Chanuka. We invited Mr. Gruzalka, a Bereza native who was an activist in Poland from the Keren Ha'yesod [Fund for the reconstruction in Israel]. He was very impressed by our activities and of the decorated living room, and wished upon us "See you later in the Land of Israel."

After a while we had another small crisis. We didn't have the money to continue paying rent. We informed the School Directors of our difficulty. They offered us space in one of the school classrooms . I remember that we organized walks to surrounding places and we arrived in the town of Kosovo. In Lag Baomer we went to the forest with school students and their flags, since we didn't have the permission of local police.

In 1929, members of the agricultural collective colony that worked in Bluden stayed in our city. We were friends of theirs, and visited them on Saturdays. They suggested to some of us mature members to go to a Hachshará of training for future life in Israel. Some registered but only Nechama and I went to the Hachshara. They gave us a letter of presentation for the Kibbutz in Klosovo, and we were there for half a year. During that time there were the bloody acts in Hebron, and there was an interruption in emigration.

After six months, we passed through different collective farms, and at the end we had to return home, and hoped to emigrate to Israel later. We were to witness a renovated emigration. In 1932 we got in touch with people from the training farm from Lublin called Bintib [in the path] and there we were for half a year. We finally received the certificates to emigrate. I emigrated in 1934 and Nechama Yber who was my wife in January 1935.

The Ha'shomer Ha'tzair movement was created in Kartuz Bereza in the 1920's. But because they couldn't receive emigration certificates, some people emigrated to Argentina in order to avoid being drafter into the Polish army. This disrupted the movement in our town. In 1933 there was renewed activity with the help of teacher Miller of the Tarbut Hebrew school. Among the members of the movement were graduates of Tarbut, and the writer of these.

We formed relationships with the He'chalutz movement and with the "Workers of the Land of Israel" group. Most important for us was to achieve the goal of emigrating to the land of Israel. The first emigrants of the Kartuz Bereza He'chalutz branch were Eliézer Niselboim and Nechama Yber. They received the certificates and emigrated in 1934 and 35.

I arrived at the training farm of Ha"shomer in the city of Grodno, and I was there for two and half years. The British didn't give certificates to emigrate and I traveled to Israel illegally. At the beginning of 1939 I arrived to Ertzlia coast, and from there we were transported to the Kibbutz "Gib'at Ha'shomer" [watch's hill] in Kfar Saba near the town of Tzofit. I later had the privilege of being one of the founders of the Kibbutz Dan in the northern border of Israel, and here I live happy until today.

Looking at those days of the past, I don't doubt that in our ideological fights we lost much, but they were true discussions, although in essence our objective was to serve a single and same aim. May my words be a small homage for the members of all movements that dreamt to arrive in the land of Israel but didn't achieve it, because evil hands took their young lives.

The following are the names of Kartuz Bereza citizen that had the privilege to immigrate to Eretz Israel during the Turkish regime, in the time of the British regime and after the settlement of the State of Israel.