I remember a story that was told in our shtetel about Reb Lipa Meisels. That he once stood in the Prezimshel train station, and it was Mincha time. When he stood up davening shemoneh esrei, he heard a whisper about a Jewish fellow who lost a bundle of dollars. Reb Lipa stopped in the middle. He said that he found the bundle and continued davening. After the davening he returned the money to its owner. People were puzzled and asked him how come he stopped in the middle of shemoneh esrei and he said, “I was afraid that the yezer hara will coax me out. Then I will have second thoughts.”

After WWI some Zionistic clubs were established. Like, Zionim Clalim, Mizrachi and the League for the working Eretz Yisroel. At this opportunity I would like to mention the dedicated zionistic activist, Yosef Haring. He dedicated all his life for Eretz Yisroel causes. Unfortunately he did not see the fruit of his work. At the top of Mizrachi and Young Mizrachi, served Mordchai Gimpel and Shimshon Meisels.

In general, in the shtetel, there were young sophisticated people that were a pleasure to strike up a conversation with them. Also among the plain people there were tyerer yiden.

Whoever did see the simcha on the Eve of Simchat Torah, when the chevra kadisha had the election for their offices, did see a simcha of his lifetime. At the end I want to emphasize the warm heart of a simple man named Yonah Shoav, a shomer mitzvot that lived in the “hekdih.” All day long erev Pesach, he carried water to the houses. And when he arrived home after davening, very tired, he noticed that his wife who was not a very big balabusta, did not even start to prepare for the seder. He fell asleep till the morning and when he woke up he started the seder at daylight. The neighbors and everybody at the Shtetl gathered around his window and helped him to prepare the seder.