For the most part, Disna Jewish children studied in Jewish institutions. These were private cheders, talmud-torahs, and, for a certain period of time, the Jewish public school. After some years the latter was closed, as there was simply nobody to run it.
In cheder small children studied with older boys. The small children studied "Ivri" and davening; the older ones studied "i-shvarbe" (esrim v'arba, or bible) and bit of Gemara.
In the cheder the children would pass the whole day, with a break at midday when the children would go home for lunch. They would go home from the cheder quite late. In the winter it would be pretty dark. And since the streets were not lit, various kinds of lanterns would be used.
The talmud-torah was already a more modern form of educational institution. There were "classes" with a separate Rabbi for every class. Besides the subjects that were studied in cheder, one also studied history, the holy tongue, arithmetic, and grammar. In the higher classes one also studied Yiddish and Russian, but there the teacher was a "freeman" (without a beard or peot). The talmud-torah was a two story house, which had been given by a rich Jew, who had abandoned the city. In the lower floor there was a string of shops, which supported the intitution though their rent. Study cost nothing there.
When there was a danger, as when Christian rowdies would attack the children, or throw stones at them, one took "security measures". The children would go out in a long file in pairs and at the head Rabbi Moshe-Zalman led the way, a tall, stout Jew. He would protect the children with his rough stick like a branch, which he would move in the air around himself. At a safe fork he would let the children split up and each would run happily home to his father and mother. Rav Moshe-Zalman never got to apply his fighting spirit in a contest with the rowdies.
The same rabbi would interrupt the lecture suddenly, take out his tobacco pouch, which was made of ivory, and put a fine pinch of tobacco in his nose. After which he would lecture with his forehead leaning on his hands and the eyes closed. If anyone asked him somthing at that moment, or just made a fuss-- he would say, without opening his eyes: don't bother me now, I am too high, high.
The children understood that he was enjoying himself in distant worlds and his mind was far removed from childish foolishness.
There was another teacher in the talmud torah. He was called Yudah Hushies. A Jew -- a wonder in Torah and a proper haredi (god-fearing). Not like the others, who make a business of their torah. He and Reb Moshe-Zalman were the objects of various practical jokes for the children of the talmud torah. As an example sitting humming with his mouth closed, nobody sees who is doing it, disturbing the Rabbi while he explains the verse. Very often it would hapeen that before they went home the Rabbi's staff would suddenly disappear. After looking a long time they find it in the stove. Another time the Rabbi finds the classroom full of pieces of wood. The children have celebrated hakafot (dancing with the torah). A piece of wood instead of the torah, and danced in a ring with the Simchat-Torah melody.
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Once they found a note hanging from an electric light, in which somebody expressed a lack of confidence in Moshe-Zalman and asked for another Rabbi instead. To everyone's amazement the practical jokes were carried out without punishment.
In the dark carridor of the talmud torah there was a barrel with drinking water. A couple of older students one fine morning, during the break, began to catch students from the lower classes and tumble them into the barrel The little children, crying, with sodden heads, complained to the administrator Reb Baruch-Yosl. The administrator punished them in an unusual way: he called them "galakhim" (shaven). They had indeed behaved like galakhim -- tumbled their victims in "holy water".
The Rabbi Baruch-Yosl was much loved by the students. Besides the bible and gemara, he taught history. I still recall the lecture on Alexander Mukdun, how riding on an eagle he had gone up to the sun, till his hair began to smolder (?). Reb Baruch-Yosl taught us arithmetic, grammar, and astronomy. Other than with his eyes, he did not punish the children. He always wanted to make peace and smooth the relationships between the teachers and the students and among the students.
There were two governmental educational establishments in the city: a Polish elementary school and a middle school. The elementary school, according to our present way of viewing things, stood on a very low level. In accordance with the government's education law, children from all classes studied there, Jewish and Chrisitan together.
The middle school received special attention from the Polish government, as an important advanced post for Polish culture in a town with almost no Polish inhabitatns. Apart from Jews, most of the residents were Byelorussians.
The middle school occupied two buildings, which the Tsarist regime had left--the "Kazancheistvo" (treasury), a white building, and the "Tower", a building made of red tile. There was everything a middle school needed: a large hall for gymnastics with up to date equipment, rooms for physics and natural sciences, laboratories, and collections. One should not forget that we are talking about a school in an neglected border town decades ago. The school was indeed on a high level.
As the Polish students were a minority there, their relationship with the Jewish students was liberal. In some claases the proportion of Jewish students reached 40 percent. The educational fees were relatively low and many students got scholarships. The scholarships were generally assigned according to the economic situation of the student's parents, and according to the student's progress in his studies.
Evidently, the teachers in the middle school were Poles. Rarely a Jewish teacher would turn up and then an assimilated one. The Jewish students would talk Yiddish among themselves even in school. A Jewish teacher once pointed out to the students: "Here we are in a Polish school, one should not speak Yiddish." Of course it didn't help.
The director, with a doctoral degree in philosophy, was a liberal man. He taught us literature, history and philosophy. In school he would come with his outer gown buttoned wrong, the lowest button in the top hold, with his hose half buttoned and his tie askew. Nonetheless his lectures were deep and full of substance.
The teacher of Latin and classical history was an old Russian. He had the outward appearance of a Roman senator
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and led a Spartan life. Summer and winter he would wear a shirt with an open collar. Even in summer he would wear a felt hat. He would bathe in the rier all year round, even in the sharpest frost. We gossiped that he was from Siberia. His children bore names from the classical period and from mythology.
One of our teachers was a young monk, very educated, mainly in linguistics. Besides some European languages he knew Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. He would use Hebrew when he needed to explain an expression to the Jewish students.
He was also an antisemite. But in his relationship with the students he was objective.
The relationship between the Jewish and Christian students was not marked by a particular friendship, nor by open hatred. Friendly relationships mainly were established between students of the same nationality.
On a day of antisemitic activity in various universities in the country -- in Vilna, Warsaw -- there was a good deal of friction between the classes in the school, which did not produce open conflicts.
Once the non-Jews in school got together and began to sing and mock the Jews. The Jewish students were not frightened and held out well enough agains them. And a healthy young man with a covered arbel (?) in front, when one says "Well, let's see who is stronger!", the non-Jews were satisfied and left the area. In the city menawhile a rumor had spread that the Jewish students were being beaten in the school. Soon the wagoners, the butchers, and simple Jews turned up to help the Jewish students. The police calmed them down and promised, that no bones would be broken.
Many Jewish children from Disna and the environs went for the middle school to the Polish middle school in Disna and continued their studies in the country or abroad.
