Kehila links logo

From Kolomea Between the Two World Wars By Aron Stahl (1908 - 2005)


translated by Barbara Stahl

1. Reb Aba Dreyer

Aba Dreyer was an orthodox man born in Zidetshiv.  He observed the Jewish traditions in the strictest fashion.  Without fail, he could be seen each day coming and going from prayer.  How he earned his livelihood was a mystery to me.  He was not concerned with politics or the mundane affairs of the townsfolk. When he did express an opinion, there must have been some controversy at hand involving Jewish law or customs. 

Another Jewish man who lived in Kolomea was named Eli Kriss.  He was from an esteemed, respected, and well liked family.  In fact, he was the director of the commercial bank.  He was entirely the opposite of Mr. Dreyer in that he had a progressive outlook.  He was worldly and cheerfully personable.  He did not keep Kosher and, although it wasn’t a popular thing to do in town, he would smoke on the Sabbath. There were very few other characters like him in Kolomea.  The Jewish elders in town used to say that they remember a time when he wore the traditional long black coat and hat common among the orthodoxy, and accordingly, heeded the laws governing kosher restrictions.  However, I remember him as a tall man dangling a cigar, with a braided ponytail.  Often, he could be seen sitting outside of the local coffeehouse, looking indistinguishable from a non-Jew.  If I hadn’t known better, I could easily believe he was the priest from the town’s Polish church.

On one particular Sabbath, as Mr. Dreyer was on his way to daily prayer, he paused near the coffeehouse.  He positioned himself near a low rising window that was overhung by a thick curtain.  Mr. Dreyer made every effort to peer inside propping himself up on his tiptoes.  For some time, he tried assiduously to catch any glimpse inside. 

Suddenly, Eli Kriss stepped out onto the threshold of the entrance and said, “Good Sabbath Aba.  It’s past ten o’clock and beyond the appointed time for daily prayers.  What have you noticed here that is so engaging you must strain yourself to see“?  Mr. Dreyer responded that it’s really nothing much.  He explained that the day before, one of his hens became diseased.  It had scabs on its intestines and pox on its liver.  Because those signs made it not kosher, he had sold it to the coffeehouse.  He was curious how the un Kosher carcass was prepared and served to the customers. 

From the time of that conversation on, Eli Kriss refused to eat anything that was not Kosher.  He did not revert to being an observant Jew, but he no longer ate non-kosher food.

2. Reb Yakov Bretler

Though it was before my time, townspeople told stories about a man named Yakov Bretler who had lived in Kolomea. They said he had owned a brewery producing beer, had his own mill, and employed many people.  He had been a wealthy man who gave a lot to charity.  Yakov had had a son named Mendel Bretler who was born blind and worked in his father’s businesses. Yakov Bretler had instituted a tradition to supply provisions to the poor to help them celebrate Passover.  In addition to potatoes and matzo, he also distributed wood for townspeople to heat their homes.  The tradition was carried on faithfully by his son Mendel. 

There was no shortage of needy people in the town.  Supplies for distribution were brought in by the wagon load and the process was handled by Yakov Bretler’s employees year after year.  During one such distribution, a man waiting for his portion vehemently insisted on personally thanking Yakov Bretler for the abundance of charity he’d extended.  Without such support over the many years, the man said, he and his wife and his little children would have long since succumbed to hunger and frost.  The workers, overwhelmed with the difficulty of managing the distribution in the wake of the man’s interruption, assured him that they will convey his gratitude to their boss.  “No,” the man demanded.  After all the many years that he’s taken the support to which he owes his very life, this time nothing would deter him from stepping away until he’s had the opportunity to see his benefactor.  Understandably, the scuffle with the man impeded the distribution to the many others equally needy while the eve of Passover was fast approaching. 

Seeing no other option, one of the workers went into the boss to ask for instructions on how to deal with the man.  The worker told the boss that he and the others are on the verge of physically tossing him out.  After hearing that, Yakov Bretler instructed his employee to show the man into his office.  When he entered the office, the man raised his voice loudly proclaiming that he had received the charity Mr. Bretler sponsored for many years which has sustained him and his family and he felt obliged to give thanks for the generosity.  Mr. Bretler modestly acknowledged the man replying that he understands, that’s fine, that’s enough already.  “No”, the man exclaimed, “I must also add my prayer that in the years to come, may I be the one supporting YOU, Amen”.  Sadly, the problems of poverty and hunger did not subside.

Townsfolk also spoke lovingly of the blind Mendel Bretler.  It seems his father’s firm employed a bookkeeper named Hilzenrot who also had a birth defect that left him afflicted with a small hunch.  Each morning, when Mendel came to the office, he called out, “Good morning Mr. Hilzenrot, have you arrived yet?”  The answer was routinely, “yes, I’m already here.”  This was their regular early morning pattern for quite a long time.  On one occasion, Mendel came in with the same quizzical greeting.  However, Hilzenrot instead replied, “No, I’m not yet here.“  Perplexed, Mendel remarked that Hilzenrot was indeed present.  “So,” Hilzenrot replied, “I must have just come in.”  That ended their odd morning interrogatory ritual.

3. Dr. Rozenhek

Kolomea was home to a well known doctor of internal medicine, Dr. Shlomo Rozenhek.  He was not only an excellent doctor, he was one of the forerunners of the Zionist movement, along with Dr. Shlomo Zinger.  Both doctors were delegates to the first Zionist Congress held in Basel in 1897.  (A photo of all the delegates along with a list of the full roster of attendees can be found in the Encyclopedia Judaica).  While Dr. Zinger later backed away from Zionist activities, Dr. Rozenhek remained loyal to the movement to the last day of his life.    He had many interesting stories to tell, among them, the following incidents he spoke about in a speech he gave at a banquet.

The Zionist youth organization had organized the banquet in honor of Dr. Rozenhek’s seventy-fifth birthday.  It was held at the Bait Y’srael hall in Kolomea.  The doctor mentioned that in his early youth he was a fervent Polish patriot during a time when Kolomea belonged to the Austrian Empire ruled by Kaiser Franz Josef.  At the time, he was a member of the Sokol movement (an extremist right wing group committed to Poland’s independence) clad in a formal parade uniform he proudly wore as he rode on his horse.  His primary language was Polish.  When plans to build a Sokol hall in Kolomea were drafted, he was tasked with fundraising and maintaining the treasury.

Portrait of Dr RozenhekDr. Rozenhek was married to a lovely, intelligent, and refined young woman from Chernowitz.  While Chernowitz was only 60 kilometers from Kolomea and had a thriving Jewish population, life there was distinctly different from Kolomea.  The upper class townsfolk spoke mainly in German, as did Dr. Rozenhek’s bride.  She must have also spoken Polish as the doctor said he demanded she add a coin to the can for the Sokol building collection fund for every German word she uttered.  This was another clear example of the doctor’s Polish patriotism.  At last, the day arrived for the much anticipated opening of the newly constructed Sokol hall.  The most prominent citizens were invited to attend the ceremony including various Polish aristocrats.  Despite the doctor’s efforts on behalf of the building project, the Poles were repulsed by the presence of the “lousy Jew” and with violence had Dr. Rozenhek forcibly ejected from the proceedings.  Thus, the doctor’s Polish patriotism was dispelled and he turned his undivided dedication to Zionism.  Such was the backdrop for his attendance at the first  Zionist Congress. 

His speech at the banquet also included a tale of his early experiences as a young doctor struggling to start his practice in Kolomea.  One stormy night, he was jostled awake in the midst of roaring thunder, blasts of lightning, and lashing sheets of rain.  Tried as he might, he couldn’t fall back asleep.  He allowed his mind to consider the many difficulties of operating a medical practice and finding competent servants. As the flashes of lightning lit up the sky, he fretted about the dreadful prospect of being summoned out of his bed on a night like that.  He thought to himself he surely would decline just rising out of bed, much less venturing outdoors on a night on which it would be sinful to let a dog out.  Lost in these thoughts, suddenly the doorbell rang relentlessly.  He hurriedly grabbed a coat and slid into his galoshes merely to investigate who had latched onto his doorbell at that late hour of the night.  He opened the door just as a burst of lightning lit the sky like daylight and revealed a woman before him.  She was so tightly swaddled in some sort of shawl that he couldn’t see her face apart from a small tip of her nose.  She began shrieking her demand that the doctor must come with her swiftly because her sister’s life is hanging in the balance.  “She is enduring a complicated childbirth” she exclaimed, and “there’s not a moment to be lost to reach her.”  She implored him that if he wasn’t the doctor, to urgently give her a name of the nearest doctor.  Holding him back from re-entering his house as she continued to panic, the doctor felt certain that a horse and carriage would be waiting.  Instead, she raced ahead of him and he hastily followed behind.  He asked her where she was leading him, but all she would say was “it’s not far, we’re almost there.”  In that way, the doctor continued with her at paces in front and him in the rear.  All the while, there was no pause in the torrents of rain, thunder and lightning.  In his rush, the doctor lost his galoshes which were swallowed by the enormous pools of rain and mud along the way.  The woman screeched unabatedly that they’re almost there, just a little further.  The doctor found himself on the street leading to the main synagogue that stretched out toward many smaller, winding streets.  From out of nowhere, someone confronted the woman with the greeting, “Beyle, congratulations it’s a boy.” At this, the woman quickly turned to the doctor and said she no longer needs him.  She then disappeared into the night.  “Up to this very day”, the doctor said, “I’ve practiced medicine in Kolomea for over forty years and I have no clue who that woman was.” See more about Dr. Rozenhek in the Memorial Book of Kolomye.

4. Hersh Ramler

Hersh Ramler was a member of the upper class having made his fortune in construction.  Under the Austrian Kaiser, his structures and buildings were used for government purposes like courthouses, jails, and offices for the tax collectors.  Even in the buildings he erected for civil business use, the government would lease space and pay rent.  In the event that a municipal building needed to add an extension or relocate to a new site, the construction project was assigned to private enterprise.  Buildings such as military quarters also fell into private hands in which the builder owned the property and the government would lease it.  That was the purview of Hersh Ramler’s livelihood.

Hersh Ramler didn’t have a son, but he did have two daughters.  Each daughter took their husband’s surname, one having the name Klarman and the other Tzikman.  But the Ramler name was perpetuated having been assigned to the street on which the courthouse and jail resided, which was named Ramlerufke.  All the houses on both sides of Ramlerufke Street were owned and leased by Hersh Ramler.  When the local government sought to expand the jailhouse, they contracted Hersh Ramler to erect a bigger building.  After the structure was finished, Hersh Ramler was said to have boasted that his work on the jailhouse was so fine, it was suitable to imprison the Kaiser himself.  According to local gossip, on account of this derisive comment, Hersh Ramler was afforded the “honor” of being the first to be incarcerated in his own jail.

5. Bais Yaakov girls’ school

Who could have imagined that Zalel Schenirer’s daughter, Sarah Schenirer(i), would become the founder of the much acclaimed Bais Yaakov girls’ school [a multinational network](ii)?  Zalel Schenirer was a humble man, although when I knew him, he was quite wealthy.  He was a member of the upper crust and also an accomplished Talmudic scholar, but was always modest and reserved.  Yet, it was his daughter, with the establishment of the first Bais Yaakov school, who added another distinguished name to the long tally of personalities who made up the rich Chasidic culture that originated in Kolomea.

[Translater’s Note - the author’s father was a successful textile merchant in Kolomea.  The author must have interacted with Zalel Schenirer while working in his father’s business. Mr. Schenirer was from Tarnow and his daughter Sarah lived in Krakow; all three cities were within the region of Galicia, then governed by Poland.]


Next Story