This photograph was donated to the Centropa collection together with the oral history of Yakov Honiksman. The photograph, taken in 1922, is of his maternal grandfather, Rabbi Moisey Grinberg. The bearded old man is facing the camera and smiling. He is wearing tefillin (phylacteries) on his arm and forehead and a tallit (prayer shawl) over his head and shoulders. He is holding a book, probably a siddur (prayer book), and is seated next to a small table which is covered with a tablecloth. On the table cloth are the words - לשנה טובה תכתבו – “May you be written for a good life” – the traditional Jewish New Year’s greeting.
Moisey Grinberg was a Hasidic rabbi who live in Ostrow Lubelski in the Lublin province of Poland. His grandson, Yakov Honiksman, remembers travelling on a cart through woods to see his grandfather. Moisey and his wife had many children, some of whom immigrated to the United States and some of whom remained in Europe. Some of Yakov’s cousins became high-ranking Soviet officials in Odessa, only to be murdered under Stalin’s rule.
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Tefillin – Tefillin or phylacteries are a set of black leather boxes and straps. The boxes contain small scrolls of parchment on which are written verses from the Torah. Tefillin are worn by adult men in Orthodox communities for weekday morning prayers. In reform and liberal communities, tefillin may also be worn by women. The purpose of tefillin, according to the Torah, is to be a sign and a way to remember the redemption of the Israelites from Egypt. One box of tefillin is placed above the forehead and another is strapped along the right arm (or left arm if right-handed).
Tallit (Prayer Shawl) – A tallit is a large garment that is worn over the clothing during morning prayers. A tallit katan refers to the smaller garment that is worn underneath one’s clothing. Both garments are square or rectangular and have tzitzit (fringes) tied to the four corners. Many tallitot are made of white woolen material with black stripes; however, nowadays, tallitot are designed in a variety of colours and designs. The tzitzit contain a total of 613 knots, representing the traditional number of 613 mitzvot (commandments). The biblical source of wearing tzitzit comes from Numbers 15:38: “Speak to the Israelite people and instruct them to make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments throughout the ages; let them attach a cord of blue to the fringe at each corner.” Different traditions exist regarding when a tallit is first worn: some begin wearing a tallit when reaching the age of bar mitzvah, while others begin after marriage. Traditionally, a tallit is only worn by men, but in some communities it has become customary for women to wear a tallit.
Jewish Community of Ostrow Lubelski – Ostrow Lubelski is a town in the Lublin province of Poland. Jews first settled in the town in the second half of the seventeenth century. A small community was established in the town with a stone synagogue. Jews mostly worked in trade and the garment business. In the 1920s Zionist movements such as Hachalutz and Beitar functioned in the town as well as the religious Agudat Yisrael and secular socialist Bund. Before the Holocaust, 1,500 Jews lived in the town, comprising a high percentage of the population. On September 17, 1939 the Germans occupied the town. As in other places in Poland, the Jews were immediately persecuted including a special taxation, a mandatory armband, and the confiscation of their businesses. A few months later, a ghetto was constructed and Jews from neighbouring villages were also forced to live there. As the number of inhabitants grew, the situation in the ghetto deteriorated due to disease and deprivation. The Jews of Ostrow Lubelski were deported to Sobibor and Belzec death camps in October 1942.
Jewish Community of Poland – Jews have been living in Poland for over 1000 years at the invitation of the Polish rulers who recognised the value of their particular skills. Jews fleeing persecution in other countries found relative security in Poland, and by the middle of the 1500s, eighty percent of all Jews lived there. For the next 200 years, Jews enjoyed a certain amount of autonomy in Poland and the community flourished, becoming very influential and a centre of Talmudic learning. Yeshivot were established by the prominent rabbis of the period, and mysticism and, later on, Hassidism, had a great influence on Polish Jews. Following the Polish partition of 1795, the Jews came under the rule of Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Prussia, and many were subject to anti-Semitism, pogroms, and poverty. Despite this persecution, Poland remained an important centre of both Jewish religious learning and the new Jewish Haskalah (Enlightment) movement. Poland was the birthplace of many influential Jews in politics, law, science, literature, and economics. Many of the leading Zionist leaders first joined the Zionist movement in Poland. Jewish culture, including Yiddish literature and theatre, also thrived here in the nineteenth and twentieth century. The end of the nineteenth century saw the emigration of many Polish Jews to the United States and Palestine due to the repressive Czarist Russian rule. By the onset of World War II, over three million Jews were living in Poland; by the end of the war, about eighty-five percent of the community had been murdered. Poland was home to many of the most notorious ghettos, concentration camps, and extermination camps, where the Holocaust was carried out by the Nazis and their supporters. Poland also saw Jewish uprisings against the Nazi occupation, and many non-Jewish Poles endangered their lives protecting Jews. After the Holocaust, most Jewish survivors did not return to Poland but emigrated to other countries. Of those who did return to their homes, many found their property confiscated and some were even victims of pogroms. Under the post-war communist rule the small Jewish community remaining in Poland faced additional hardship. However, after the fall of the communist regime, the community underwent a Jewish cultural, social, and religious revival. Jewish community centres and synagogues were built, universities started offering courses in Jewish studies, and the POLIN Jewish museum, one of the largest in the word, was opened in 2013. Many Jews from all over the world visit Poland to learn about the history of the Polish Jewish community and about the Holocaust. According to estimates by the Joint and the Jewish Agency, there are between 25,000 and 100,000 Jews currently living in Poland, including the many Poles who have discovered Jewish roots in recent years.
