The Diary of Yitzhak Lamdan

(A Translation)

Diary 1 (June 1914 - September 1914) | Diary 2 (July 1915 - March 1916) | Diary 3

The Burshtak and Bortnik Families in the Village of Hubyn

In the period from Oct. 13, 1915, until sometime in the late spring or early summer of 1916, Yitzhak Lamdan and his brother Moshe were refugees in Hubyn [today Hubyn Pershyi]. During their time there, two families, the Burshtaks and the Bortniks, play a central role in the experiences and reflections Yitzhak captures in his diary.

Yitzhak lodges in the homes of two Burshtak brothers, Yehezkel and Shlomo. In the critical edition of Yitzhak Lamdan’s diary, the name of this family is written with Hebrew vowels indicating it is pronounced as “Burshtak.” In the essay by Yosef Weitz recalling his time in Hubyn, the family name is spelled as if it sounds like “Burshtok.” In any case, Yitzhak writes that he is teaching the children of Chaim Burshtak, Yaakov Burshtak and Moshe Bortnik. He also falls in love with his student Zahava Bortnik, daughter of Moshe. In addition, he mentions having a close relationship with Shmuel Burshtak who is a like-minded Zionist and who brings the youthful and mischievous side of Yitzhak’s personality to the fore.

To understand Yitzhak’s diary entries in this period, it is helpful to fill in the known details about these two prominent families in Hubyn which were, as we shall see, intertwined with each other through marriage.

What we know about these families, apart from what Yitzhak’s writes about them in his diary, comes from recollections documented in two essays written later by a man named Yosef Weitz (1890-1972), who taught Hebrew lessons in Hubyn in 1907 as he was making preparations to immigrate to the Land of Israel. Yosef was seven years older than Yitzhak. In many ways, his experiences teaching Hebrew in Hubyn in 1907 anticipate the experiences of Yitzhak Lamdan who arrives there eight years later as a refugee during the Great War. Yosef Weitz was already in Palestine by the time Yitzhak began writing his diary in the summer of 1914, though Yitzhak was in close touch with Yosef’s father, Abraham Weitz, and his siblings, and was actively making plans to immigrate with the Weitz family to the Land of Israel that summer before the War broke out.

Yosef Weitz, for his part, was originally born and grew up in Berestechko which is about 30 km (18 m) from Hubyn Pershyi on contemporary maps. In October 1905, at about the age of fifteen, Yosef went to Odessa to pursue general studies and agricultural training for life in the Land of Israel. The pogrom that broke out there in 1905 changed his orientation and he chose instead a “shorter and more practical” path via labor. Returning to his hometown of Berestechko in 1907, Yosef found work in a flour mill on the Styr River in the village of Lypa. The mill was leased by his father’s brother, Chaikel Weitz, and Chaikel’s business partner, Mendel Bortnik, known by residents in Hubyn as “Mendel Hubyner.” Yosef’s uncle, Chaikel, recommended Yosef to be a Hebrew tutor to the Burshtak and Bortnik families.

Yosef published his recollections of his time teaching there, his memories of those families and the town from that period, in an essay called “The Family of Mendel Hubyner” in the Memorial Book for Boremel and Berestechko, called There Once Was a Town, pp. 207-209.

The Family of Mendel Hubyner [i.e., Mendel Burshtak]

It is not known when Meir Bortnik first arrived in Hubyn or from where he came. In any case, he and his unnamed wife raised three children in Hubyn: his eldest daughter, Chaya Bortnik, and two sons Yaakov and Moshe Bortnik. Chaya Bortnik married Mendel Burshtak who was from the town of Torczyn, interlocking the Bortnik and Burshtak clans. Yaakov Bortnik married a younger woman named Leah, and Moshe married a woman named Devorah.

Of Meir Bortnik’s children, his daughter Chaya, and her husband Moshe Burshtak, had the largest family and were the most prosperous. They had a large, impressive home on the upper street of the village and its roof rose above the houses of the gentiles. It had many rooms, a shop, warehouses, and a large courtyard.

Yosef Weitz recalled that the Burshtak house was busy during the secular days of week from morning until evening. Farmers from Hubyn and neighboring villages came and went with their wives. Some entered the store where everything could be purchased; others brought produce from their fields and gardens into the warehouses or took sacks of grain destined for nearby towns and railway stations serving distant cities. (p. 208).

While Chaya and her family lived in the big house on the hill, her siblings, Yaakov and Moshe Bortnik, lived with their smaller families in a house down below though they would gather at the end of the day in the upper house. Yaakov and Leah Bortnik were childless. Moshe and Devorah Bortnik had four daughters and one son (Meir, Miriam, Nehama, Sarah and Zahava) (p. 207). Zahava was the young girl in Yitzhak Lamdan's lessons whom he fell in love with.

Chaya and her husband Moshe Burshtak had the largest family with seven children, four sons and three daughters. The eldest daughter, unnamed in the essay by Yosef Weitz, had married already and moved away to Radyvyliv. Their other children were there when Yosef Weitz taught in Hubyn and were still featured in Yitzhak Lamdan’s diary when he was there eight years later. The four sons were 1) Yehezel Burshtak, 2) Shlomo Burshtak, 3) Avraham Borshtak, and 4) Shmuel Borshtak. Yehezkel, Shlomo and Avraham were all adults already in 1907 when Yose Weitz was there and they each held different roles in the family business: Yehezkel hurried between the warehouse and the store and tracked the flow of goods. Shlomo stood behind the counter, weighing and measuring products, and engaging the customers. Avraham supervised the warehouses (p. 208)

Showing children of Mendel "Hubyner," i.e., Mendel Burshtak and his wife Chaya (Bortnik)

At the time Yosef Weitz was in Hubyn in 1907, he taught the youngest Burshtak son, Shmuel and the youngest daughter Beracha. He also taught Zahava Bortnik, the daughter of Moshe and Devorah Bortnik. Each of these Burshtak and Bortnik individuals is mentioned in Yitzhak’s diary too, as noted above. When Yitzhak arrived in 1914, he lodged alternatively in the homes of the brothers, Yehezkel and Shlomo Burshtak, and considered the youngest brother, Shmuel, to be a kindred spirit with whom he could horse around. He taught Hebrew lessons to Zahava, and found himself falling in love against his will with her. On one occasion (Dec. 7, 1915), Yitzhak describes how one winter night he and Zahava climbed up the hill to the home of her aunt Chaya [Burshtak].

Showing children of Moshe Bortnik and wife Dvorah including Yitzhak Lamdan's beloved, Zahava

Go to the diary entries when Yitzhak arrives in Hubyn, or return to the top of the page.

Translated by Howard I. Schwartz
Updated: March 2026
Copyright © 2025-2026 Howard I. Schwartz, PhD
Webpage Design by Howard I. Schwartz
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