4 rer
tv.” he said, “has
NM noted for its glove-
As a matter of fact,
ba eichem’s _ brother,

binovich, owned a small
lop. When the. writer
hia me to Berdichev, he
lb, olect all the glove-
the town and read his
to them. Incidental-

tel Ovich worked in
pe ster the Revolution.
mee YOu Can see, the artel
pe into & real factory.
4» “Ore than 400 em-

st then took us on a
© workshops there
ot Machines operated
if women.
“BUS all sorts of
Mga geen DOted, not with-
tk on’ seat they are bought
in Berdichev, but in
’ AI€v and even Mos-

1)

OW lon
Ber eh you been the
ria 20 years. I come
\ hen town of Gaisin.
Particularly anxious
i, to it after the war.
Eusd all my relatives.
Gna ov in Berdichev in
€ it here. It seems
&rew up here for I
» Of my work in its

Chief Builder

lige ichey people ae
tl builders yensky as “our
‘| sAdeq by him The organization

ug es) fa builds apartment
Mier, ceories, ‘schools, and

:
Berdiche’ the poor district
' aipecy? PAS acquired a
nS are y, wodern houses,
Mie of tha’, De Seen in the
it here “v»tOWN, have been
Tins a” lovely Peace
ite lang through what was
‘A €cently more than
thi Moved into new

IS street. Near the
Ouses are shops, a
children’s institu-

fed market in Lenin

Nt may all the time. No
| iver euch you build, it

tid, an Ough,” Khutoryan-
; nat the grcat on to tell me
ht tr varies development
|My. and the next few
Xhut

0
e Ne Seal hails from Vin-
Miter © to Berdichev in
g wishing an institute.
thea “ ork superintendent
Ne Dunne ointed chief en-
Midas ha & the past few
“Uep S been the chief
(Ration © town’s building
ig Ver tyr nen I asked him
lyy than th ught on a larger
» he repliege chev pro-
D :

Wt Mt I have b
th to ecome so
eh livin, wn that I cannot
ih time ape, 2nYWhere else.
vig chieg 3° I was offered the
tig’ Zens Ngineer of a trust
Ohg lik, of building organ-
Lin’, Offer UTS: It was an al-
tart it gp Naturally, But 1
bg Projects I've started
"ith them here and I want

e

hi Tere args Flouse of Cul
de ‘always man
th in it, Cularly ponte is
a, At the yeOrmances are
‘ Ouse of Culture
e F theatre, a male

the pe, pOuUPe a Variety

tray ect tion studio and
Acta ~ Symphony orches-

ney 8S. It has: built the

tator Theatre was giving per-
formances. Professional Jewish
troupes and individual artists
perform in the House of Culture
several times every year.

In Berdichev there are work-
ers’ clubs, cinemas, public li-
braries, sports clubs, 4 stadium
and dance halls. In addition to
general education schools there
are specialized schools, a teach-
ers’ training institute and an
engineering technical’ school. '

A few words about the teach-
ers’ training institute. It is
housed in an old building in Karl
Liebknecht Street. The insti-
tute’s director Pyotr Gornostai
told me that. before the Revolu-
tion this was 4 commercial
school. It was built py Berdi-
chev Jews in 1904. But before
any Jew could study there his
parents had to pay for the tui-
tion of one Christian student.

“Needless to say,” Gornostai
noted, “that our institute 1s
now open to everybody. The
only requirement 1s knowledge.
If you pass the entrance exams
you are admitted as a student.

Nothing But the Best for
Children

Everybody I spoke to in Ber-
dichev invariably asked:

“Have you seen our kinder-
garten or boarding-school?

There are many children’s 1n-
stitutions in the town.
to one of them early one morn-
ing. It was°a large building filled
with light. The finest buildings
in the town have been given
over to children. Half of the
building in question was OC
cupied by children from one _
three years of age. Their wei D
ers brought them here for the
whole day, taking them home
after working hours. The care
of the children is in the hands
of medical personnel and nan-
nies.

In the other half are children
of pre-school age, from 3 to x
In addition to the nannies ne
are teachers who inculcate kind-
ness, independence and honesty
in the children. . ,

For the accommodation ©
their children parents pay a
more than 25 percent of iS
cost of their upkeep. sae
maining 75 per cent is paid by

the state.

We went:

A young woman walked in
with a child. I asked her:

“Are you satisfied with this ©

institution?”

“Yes, very much so. It allows
me to work in the knowledge
that my. little daughter is prop-
erly fed and looked after.”

“Where do you work?”

“Sewing factory No. Eg

“Excuse me, but could I
know your name?”

“Mirl Gofman. Are you going
to write about our children? If
you are I hope you would men-
tion the director of this kinder-

ase

garten, Nadezhda Preizner. She’s
a wonderful woman. She never
had children of her own and
gives all her love to the chil-
dren of others. I say ‘others,’
but she regards all the children
as her own.”

“He Prays Who Wants To”

I went to the Berdichev syna-
gogue on Saturday before the
service started. A tidy old man
with a snow-white beard came
up to me:

.“Sholem aleichem!”

“Aleichem sholem!”

He was 92-year-old Aaron

{PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, AUGUS

~Kloper, the rabbi of the syna-

gogue. ,
“Will the service start soon?”

_ I asked him.

“There’s no hurry,” he replied
with a chuckle. “There’s plenty
of time—the day is long enough.
Our congregation consists of
old people and we have to wait
until they gather.”

“Your congregation must be
small,” I said.

“Not at all. He prays who
wants to. Nobody will stop him.
Incidentally, there are now more
Jews in Moscow, Leningrad and
Kharkov. And the congregation
in the synagogues there is big-
ger. But neither are we a poor
parish. We have no complaint.”

From the rabbi I learned that
the daily attendance at the syna-
gogue was between 50 and 60
people. On Saturdays the con-
gregation swelled to 200, while
on major holidays to 500-600.
Services were conducted in both
the small and large halls. Wo-
men occupied the balcony.

During the service when they
opened the orenkoidesh (ark of
the Lord) I saw quite a number
of torahs in bright red jackets.
Some of them had been slightly
burned.

“These: scrolls,”’ said the com-
munity chief “are particularly
dear to us. They were returned
from the other world. In 1941,
when the nazis took Berdichev,
they destroyed the synagogue,
made a pile of hundreds of tor-
ahs, poured kerosene on them
and set them on fire. Some good
people, local Ukrainians, res-
cued several score of the scrolls
from the fire and hid them.
When we returned from evacu-
ation they gave them back to
uS7t

There is more in my note-
book about observations and
meetings with people in Berdi-
chev and about the town itself.
But what I have related mirrors,
I think, the impressions I got in
that rejuvenated town.

”

Paes =

T 6,.1971—PAGE 5