ShtetLinks

The Kupishok Jewish School - 

by Sara Paul Courant

I was both surprised and delighted to discover the Kupiskis shtetlinks site and even happier when I realized that the article “School Photos” and the photo “Jewish Children in Kupishok” were about my childhood school and about our beloved teacher, Leibe Jakobson. The school photographs accompanying the article were taken by my father, Mendel (Max) Paul, who wore many hats in that shtetl, the principal one, photographer. With this update I hope to add more photographs from our family collection, make further classmate identifications, and to recount some childhood reminiscences. 
My sister, Helen Paul Knight and I, Sara Paul Courant, were students at the Kupishok Jewish School from its founding in 1927 to our departure for Canada in 1932, at the ages of 10 and 7 respectively. Our father and Solomon Gershuny were the school’s co-founders.  My sister recalls our father traveling to Kaunas to interview teachers and selecting Leibe Jakobson. With a suitable location found on Bahn Gahs, (Railroad street) the school became a reality in 1927.
The secular Kupishok Jewish School is cited in the web article Kupishok in the 1930’s  as “the best example of its type”.  The school was open to all, with stipends available from sponsors in the U.S. and South Africa to help with fees for those unable to afford them. There was a strong commitment to equality; the founders, teachers and some parents were strongly sympathetic to socialism. An example of the devotion to equality is one of my earliest memories, which still colors my thinking today -  the monthly anonymous birthday party. To curb excess gift giving by the haves and reduce the discomfort of the less affluent, all the children born in one month were feted together on one day, some time in the middle of the month, with the entire school present. The event took place at our house with the usual refreshments and with each birthday child receiving a token gift.
The school itself was a miraculous welcoming place. A hot lunch was served each day; the usual curriculum was augmented by a variety of activities; my sister recalls that the older children were responsible for cultivating a garden, and all were encouraged to keep diaries with entries recording specimens from nature walks and bird sightings; ambitious dance and drama events were mounted, with parents contributing sewing and carpentry skills. As a snowflake in one of these productions, I recall dancing across the stage with the other snowflakes trying to avoid collisions during a power failure, while parents held candles. My sister remembers our father turning up at the school on snowy days with horse-drawn sleighs, bells and all, for rides into the countryside. It was a happy inventive environment with our caring no-nonsense teacher Leibe Jakobson very much in charge.

   Both my father and Leibe were jailed by an autocratic regime that misunderstood and mistrusted socialist ideologies. My father, warned that the next time would draw a harsher sentence, left for Canada in 1930 (we followed in 1932). Leibe’s jailing came later and is recalled by my sister in the following account:

I don’t remember the details – I remember visiting Leibe in jail. The jail was diagonally across from the school. The stated purpose of my visit was to be told by Leibe who in the school was eligible to graduate or who needed some improvement in their studies. The prison authorities allowed a 9-10 year old to enter freely. Leibe gave me a note, apparently unrelated to the legitimate reason for my visit, which I hid in my underwear. I no longer remember who was the recipient of that note on my return to the school, but I can still recall standing in that dark ugly cell scared, unhappy and close to tears.

Through Ann Rabinowitz and Linda Cantor I have been in touch with other Kupishokers and their relatives eager to share information and possible family links. I continue to delve into my past and to contact relatives for help in my effort to write an account of my Kupishok connection, my mother’s family, the Jachileviches.
A group of a few school girls, some  wearing the new green velvet school caps:  (2) Sorke Gershuny; (4) Sara Paul Courant,  (5) Hessa (Essie) Kaplan Reichman, (6)  Dvora Traub Fleischmann, (7) Hessa (Helen) Paul Knight. (Essie is the first cousin of Sara and Helen; her mother Chana Jachilevich was their mother's sister.)

Companion snow picture to the one that's on the main page of this site:.

Next to (6) Leibe Jakobson is (7) Hessa (Essie) Kaplan Reichman. Standing together on the left in front are (4) Israel Gershuny and (5) Sorke Gershuny. To the right are (16) Sara Paul Courant (14) Helen Paul Knight  and (15) Dvora Traub Fleischmann .

 
 
The whole school posed with two of the sponsors - (1) the woman at left next to school building  and (9) the man at center of back row . (13) Mr. Smidt, owner of the mill and electric station , is on the right side of the back row with his head missing.  (4) Solomon Gershuny , co-founder of the school, is in the back row, next to the building. The school uniform, black smocks, were worn by many of the students.  Identified so far are (25) Helen Paul  Knight ; (24) Essie Kaplan Reichman ; (17) Dvora Traub Fleischmann; (38) Leibe Jakobson ; (19) Israel Gershuny; (17) Sorke Gershuny ; and (36) Sara Paul Courant .
Entrance to the school. Top row, 3d from left, Sara Paul Courant. Front row (standing), right to left: 2nd Essie Kaplan Reichman; 5th Helen Paul Knight; 6th Sorke Gershuny; 7th Dvora Traub Fleischman. The adult on the extreme left was a visiting sponsor.

The entire school. The older girls are in black smocks, which was the school uniform.

(5) Leibe Jakobson ; (3) Helen Paul Knight ;  (10) Dvora Traub Fleischmann; (14) Sorke Gershuny ; (17) Essie Kaplan Reichman; (18) Israel Gershuny; and (26) Sara Paul Courant .

 
 
 
My father, Mendel (Max) Paul, 1894-1972, was photographed around 1931 or so. He was born in Anyksciai, married Etel Jachilevich about 1920 or 1921 and settled in Kupiskis. He was the co-founder of the Kupishok Jewish School in 1927 and left for Montreal, Canada in 1930. All the photographs of the school children between 1927-1930 were taken by him.

 
(All the photos were taken by Mendel Paul and graciously donated by Sara Paul Courant and Helen Paul Knight)

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