Europe and Holocaust/Antepolye, Grodno, 1929 by David Sherry, originals and negatives, 1929

SOME GENERAL COMMENTS ON THE THREE SHTETLACH IN GRODNO GEBERNYEH

By Rebecca Litfshitz

These pictures are of three towns:Kobrin, Horodetz, and Antipolia. These shtetlach were situated in Polesiyeh Region in the state of Grodno.

KOBRIN Kobrin was the largest of the three. It had a bigger Jewish population, a high school, and institutions of higher Jewish learning. Kobrin also had a movie house. The town had small factories. The Jews mostly made a living as merchants, shoemakers, tailors, carpenters, and teachers of the Torah. HORODETZ

Horodetz was located on the Dnepper-Burgsky Canal. It also had a train station not far from the center of town. Both of these helped bring commerce to the area. Like all the small towns, it had centers of Jewish study. Horodetz produced authors, artists, and musicians such as Jan Peerce who was born there.

ANTIPOLIA Antipolia was bigger than Horodetz and had more Jewish inhabitants. In 1914 a commercial high school was opened as well as a four-year preparatory school before high s school for girls. There was a Talmud Torah and private teachers and rabbis who ran schools to teach the children Hebrew and Jewish history. The schools opened at 8 a.m. and closed at 8 p.m., and learning went on for a l2-hour period. Two Hebrew news- storekeepers, workers, blacksmiths, and other types of workers. Some were merchants that boughts and sold grain; others dealt with lumber. Several Jews rented farms and worked the land since they themselves couldn't own the land; many were dairy farners. These Jews had a better standard of living. Youths who sought higher education came to this shtetl to be instructed.They ate in the middle-class homes and slept on the hard benches in the synagogues. In these three towns were ardent Zionists who worked for their ideals and donated all they could for the cause. On Saturdays the middle-class Jews would gather in a house. They would discuss religion and politics and play chess. The tragedy of today is that these shtetlach are without any Jews. Although they produced well-educated, talented, and devoted Jews for many years before World Var II, the Holocaust erased all signs of Jewish life there.