I was born in Disna in the year 1893. There I was raised and educated. Till the age of 14 I studied in the cheder: with Reb Yosef Maloer. Chaim Beshe, and Reb Efraim Tagar; studied Heberw with Chaim Vitenberg; and in the "Yevreyskie Uchilishche" (Jewish School) I studied Russian for two years. The teachers there were: Baruch and Gutman, two qualiifed teachers from the Vilna Lehrinstitut (Pedagogical Institute). Every Friday we would learn to sing Russian songs and the Tsarist anthem, accompanied by a concertina. On holidays all the boys and girls came in their holiday clothes. We would sing and between one song and the next, a student would recite a chapter of the prayers, translated into Russian; sometimes the inspector Nechev from Vilna would come, to participate in our "festivals". Like the teachers he wore a ceremonial gown with golden buttons, the uniorm of the Tsarist period.
Our school was in Savich's house: a large wooden building, surrounded by a large square. There the teachers lived. The house stood next to the boulevard by the lock, where the Disienka flows into the Dvina, opposite Poplovski's Island, not far from the Russian church, behind the Ispravniks Kantselaria (District Police Station). I recall it was so far that in the winter my grandmother Rachel would hire a sleigh for two kopecks and send me to school ...
After that one had the right to enter the six year municipal school in the second class without an examiniation. On Sabbath Jews did not write in school. Only when new "democratic" winds began to blow in Russia, I recall, in my last year of school, they started forcing us Jews to write on the board in a physics lecture. They called up all the Jewish students and all went to the board and unequivocally refused to write. One wanted to get a one, by rote. And in this case everyone got a one; the head of the school was an exceptionally moral man, a tall, good looking Christian, with attractive blue eyes and a fine blond beard-- Inspector Tsvitarevich.
Soon a parental committee was organized, which consisted of Mr. Mints and his brother-in-law Dovkin (his son studied with me).
p. 65
And after a chat with the inspector the decree was annulled.
The instruction in our chasidic Disna homes gave us no taste for being mcholel shbat.
In school all the children from the Disna district studied, because it was the only state school. Although the educational fee was high, the parents paid what it took that the children might learn.
My father, a hairdresser, had five children, and could not afford t to pay the educational fee for me. My dream was to study in the state school. To make this dream a reality, I would help my father on Sundays at the hairdresser's. In the evening I would help out at the "Kazian Rabbi", Friedman, keeping the books, registering marriages, births, and deaths. For that I would get two rubles a month and paid the school with it.
After finishing school I went away to Ekaterinoslav, after that to Odessa, where I earned a professional diploma and then went to Petersburg. I wanted to get a residency permit, to study as a professional with a diploma. On arrival I was immediately ordered to leave the city in the next 24 hours. The agent was the notorious Drachevski. But with God's help I managed to get the order changed and I was authorized to remain, and thanks to Mr. Hofung, son of the lawyer Mordechai Hofung, who was a docent at the Neurological Institute and prepared me for the examinations, I was admitted to the Imperial Pedagogical Institute.
Coming back to Disna I was active in visiting the sick, I was president of Tzairi Tzion (Zionist Youth) in Disna. I was one of those who signed the telegram of greeting to London on the occasion of the Balfour Declaration. I worked in the Disna Jewish community under the direction of Reb Shamrihu-Zalman Yafe.
I would like to mention with respect my wife Henie, who was a Hebrew teacher in the Russian high school at the beginning of the Polish regime. She organized a kindergarden and planted in the younger generation the pioneering idea of Eretz Yisrael with great dedication.
I recall, when I worked under Neustat at the pharmacy as assistant pharmacist, I would take off two hours a week, to study singing in the Jewish public shool. I particularly recall the following song.
Children, come. The spring bids fair.
Clear the heavens, fresh the air.
The little birds are flying
The little children singing
God's world's full of joy.
Help Sasha, children, singing
Flying high and springing
God's world's full of light!
