Svisloch

"Typical of the larger, more urbanized shtetlach was the village of Sislevich, in the Grodno region of Poland.* Known in Yiddish as Sislevich, the town had a population of more than 2000 Jews at the beginning of the twentieth century. Most of the streets were unpaved, but there were sidewalks around the central market square, and many of the larger homes were multistory brick residences. There were sixty wholesale and retail establishments in the village, and a railroad connected the town to the provincial capital of Bialystok, although some tradesmen were prosperous enough to bring goods all the way from Warsaw.

"The town was surrounded by little villages inhabited by White Russian peasants, and many of the Jewish townsfolk made their living by supplying the rural population with essential iron goods and other types of non-farm commodities. But the major economic enterprises in the town were the eight leather factories, which together employed more than 400 workers; all the skilled workers were Jews. Beginning in 1901, a series of strikes called by the Svisloch Bund took place in these factories, culminating in a bitter four-monthly stoppage in 1908. This last action involved union organizers from all over the province and at one point resulted in the appearance of the army to keep order in the town. In the aftermath of the strike, which ended with a complete victory for the factory owners, many of the skilled workers emigrated to Canada and the United States. This episode illustrates the difference between Swislocz and Aisheshujk or Skala. Swislocz's size and economic development produced the kind of political ferment that was characteristic of the large industrial cities in the Pale."

*  Irving Howe and Eliezer Greenberg, eds., Voices from the Yiddish (New York: Schocken 1975), pp 100-108.

From: - Michael R. Weisser, A Brotherhood of Memory: Jewish Landsmanshaften in the New World, Basic Books, Inc. 1985

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