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The First World War caused severe damage in Łopuszno. In the vicinity there was a front line of Austrian, German and Russian troops. From December 1914 to Mai 1925 there were battles fought for the area around Łopuszno and the village itself became a front line. In December 1914 the Germans occupied Łopuszno and till February they fought there against the Russians. In February 1915 Łopuszno was almost completely burnt by the artillery fire. The Jewish synagogue and a church were burnt at that time.
During the military operations the civil records of Jewish inhabitants from the years 1913-1919 were destroyed. Only the Book of death was preserved, in which barber-surgeons and corpse observers Mordka Krajskopf and Szaja Jakubwicz recorded the causes of death of Jews from Łopuszno. Thanks to that book we know that the military operations didn't cause losses of the Jewish inhabitants because according to the records the people died then in natural circumstances.
In 1916 in Łopuszno died the following Jews: Chaim Gancarski of heart aneurysm, the baker Izrael Lewkowicz of consumption (tuberculosis), Sura Frajman of old age and Toba Grynbaum of scrofula (lymphonodular tuberculosis).
In 1917 12 people died, among others: 100-year-old Laja Borensztajn, 93-year-old Jojne Oblęgorski, and also 18-year-old Icio Szkło and 2-year-old Herszla Brajbrot - of tuberculosis, 17-year-old Moszek Blumenson and 43-year-old Chaskiel Wikiński, who died of typhoid.
In 1918 three Jews died in Łopuszno: 32-year-old Jankiel Lewkowicz, 66-year-old Chil Linke and 45-year-old Moszek Strawczyński of pneumonia.
Typhoid and pneumonia were the most frequent causes of death in 1919. Fifteen people died at that time, including two little children.
From the preserved certificates issued by the communal board we know that during the war there were also marriages contracted. In 1918 Haskiel Weltman married Idesa Podlińska and Judka Żelazo married Estera Cukier.
In 1919, after Poland had regained independence, life in Łopuszno began to return to normality. Five couples got married: Szlama Kenigsztajn with Sara Sosnowska, Moszek Podliński with Ruchla Borensztajn, Nuta Ścisłowski with Rajza Żarnowska, Syma Cukier with Krusa Aleksandrowicz and Calel Laskowski with Rachela Czerchowska.
On March 13, 1920 an incident took place in Łopuszno that shocked the Jewish inhabitants. In Piotrkowice, a village that belonged to the Jewish department, 9 Jews and 1 Pole were murdered and robbed. The investigation was conducted by the head of the investigating agency in Kielce Zygmunt Krężel. The course of the robbery and the murderers recognized by 9-year-old Cywia Piast - were soon found out. It turned out that the crime had been committed by three criminals together with Gypsies and the leader was a sergeant of a spare battalion who was later convicted by the military investigating magistrate. The other delinquents were convicted by a civil court. The murdered people were: Chaja Gromnicka, Fajgla, Chana and Jankiel Rozenzwajgl, Motel and Majer Zilbering, Moszek and Alter Szejer, Fajgla Pięta and Ludwik Smolarczyk.
The war caused great poverty among the inhabitants of Łopuszno. Its results were felt even long years after the war. In the whole commune the number of inhabitants significantly decreased from 10038 people in 1913 to 6290 in 1921. Because of limits imposed on the local market many people lost their source of income, first of all craftsmen and Jewish merchants, who had to look for a job in other villages and towns. The number of Jewish inhabitants decreased over twice: from 1375 people in 1913 to 574 in 1921. During the whole 20 year-long period between the World War I and the World War II the commune didn't manage to reach the state of 1913. This process can be clearly seen in the table of the natural mobility of Jewish inhabitants of Łopuszno especially when analyzing the number of births from the years 1911-1912 and 1920-1921. Many families left Łopuszno in order to find a job in Kielce, Sosnowiec or Łódź. The census of 1921 showed that 5004 Catholics, 574 Jews and 716 Protestants lived in Łopuszno at that time. (Remember that in 1913 only in Łopuszno there lived 1115 Jews!)
597 Jews from the commune of Snochowice also belonged to the Jewish religious department of Łopuszno. Those who stayed in Łopuszno occupied themselves first of all with rebuilding their houses. With a lot of effort, a new temporary wooden synagogue was built at the expense of the whole Jewish community on the place of the burnt one.
The religious and social life deteriorated almost completely. The duties of rabbi were still performed by Majer Chil Kopel. The life of the religious department during the war was organized by a board, whose members were: Berek Feldsztajn, Zajnwel Wajnsztok, Ardorf Borensztajn, Godel Cukier, Moszek Aleksander and Emanuel Weltman, confirmed by the Austrian authorities on July 12, 1918. Because after Poland had regained independence Berek Feldsztajn went to Łódź and Ardorf Borensztajn died, the board continued its work in a limited committee and wasn't very active. In June 1920 there was a conference on organizing Jewish Communities in free Poland. From Łopuszno nobody participated in the meeting, neither the rabbi, nor any member of the board.
Such situation prevailed until the following elections of the board of the Jewish religious department, which took place on Mai 19, 1924. There were at first two lists of candidates presented but later on one was cancelled for formal reasons. On 26 September 1924 a new board led by cap maker Lejzor Rusinek took over the duties and the properties of the commune, which consisted of: a wooden synagogue, the rebuilding of which wasn't completed, rabbi's wooden house, the commune's stamp and seal, seven Pentateuch rolls and a velvet cover for the Pentateuch rolls. The board had 11 members. Apart from the president of the board Rusinek other board members were: Herszel Rajzman, Dawid Borensztajn, Godel Cukier, Jakub Lewkowicz, Herszel Kenigsztajn, Szlama Zajączkowski, Moszek Aleksander, Chaim Weltman, Mnyl Waldsztajn and Chaim Lejbuś Żarnowski.
The budget of the commune for 1924 was particularly low. On the list of the fees paid for the maintenance of the commune figured 103 people who were to pay 755 zloty. The remaining source of income constituted fees for the kosher butchering 876 zloty, for the cemetery 20 zloty and for the ritual bath 40 zloty. The most important expenses were: the salary of rabbi Majer Kopel 720 zloty, of the ritual butcher Abram Luftman 480 zloty, the salary of the secretary Roman Przeniosło 200 zloty. Only 30 zloty was reserved for the repairs of the synagogue and for its heating and lightning 50 zloty.
To the poverty of the residents of Łopuszno testifies the fact that great majority paid the annual fees of 2 to 5 zloty, which still constituted considerable amounts for many of them. The highest fees 50 zloty were imposed on Lejzor Rozenberg a sawmill owner in Ruda and on farmers and tradesmen from Snochowice and Wólka. The highest annual fee of all residents of Łopuszno had to pay Lejzor Rapport -15 zloty.
The following prices of the basic groceries illustrate the standard of life in August 1924 in the Kielce poviat:
Name of the article | price | unit |
Herring | 20 grosz | unit |
Egg | 5 grosz | unit |
pearl barley | 50 grosz | kg |
Rice | 75 grosz | kg |
Wheat | 24 zloty | 100 kg |
wheat bread | 60 grosz | kg |
whole-meal bread | 20 grosz | kg |
Butter | 2 zloty | kg |
cheese | 1 zloty | kg |
Hen | 3 zloty | unit |
chicken | 2 zloty | unit |
turkey | 10 zloty | unit |
Duck | 2 zloty | unit |
Beef | 40 grosz | Kg |
Soap | 1,10 zloty | Kg |
Salt | 20 grosz | Kg |
Sugar | 1,10 | Kg |
coffee | 5 zloty | Kg |
Cacao | 2, 50 zloty | Kg |
Onion | 40 grosz | Kg |
potatoes | 4 zloty | 100 kg |
notebook | 5 grosz | unit |
newspaper | 10 grosz | unit |
kerosene | 30 grosz | liter |
Shoes | 19 zloty | a pair |
Six years after the war there were only 14 registered craftsman's workshops in Łopuszno. There were no machines there and the products were hand made. Only tailor Calel Gruszka and shoemaker Icek Cukier employed 3 workers each. The following shoemakers employed 2 workers each: Jankiel Kenigsztajn, Lejzor Szczerba, Herszla Fruchta and Iser Trawa. Other shoemakers worked alone in their workshops. Surely there were also craftsmen who didn't register their activity. As late as in 1925, when the controls became stricter, they registered their workshops. In the first half of 1925 there were already over 40 registered workshops, ¾ of which belonged to the Jews.
Their own workshops had among others:
After the death of rabbi Majer Kopel on August 17, 1925 the Jews of the religious department in Łopuszno didn't have a rabbi for over a year and the commune didn't have permission to hold elections. The board consisting of Lejzor Rusinek, Godel Cukier, Herszla Rajzman and Dawid Borensztajn led the economy in a very inefficient way. The president of the board Rusinek used to leave Łopuszno for long periods of time. Irregular meetings of the board took place in his house because the commune didn't have its own seat. The records were kept by the Polish secretary of the communal office Józef Przeniosło, who received a modest fee for his work. The only source of the board's income constituted fees for the kosher butchering and membership fees and as the Jews living in Łopuszno couldn't afford to pay the collector's salary, this function was performed by 3-month-long turns by each member of the board. The members of the commune were very reluctant to pay fees, mainly because of their poverty. In 1925 the amount of only 336 zloty was collected from fees whereas the amount of 1550 zloty was expected. Even the members of the board didn't pay fees. Out of the 3000 zloty expected from the kosher butchering 2705.25 came in. There wasn't any proof of illegal kosher butchering and the low income from slaughter was caused by conflicts between the board and the butchers, who for a few months sold kosher meat imported from Kielce, as a protest against too high prices for the kosher butchering in Łopuszno.
For slaughtering oxen and cows the butchers paid to the commune a tax of 6 zloty, for a calf and sheep 2,50. For the kosher slaughter of a goose the inhabitants paid 40 grosz and for a hen 20 grosz. The money from the kosher butchering and the fees constituted actually the only source of the communal income. The money paid for the ritual bath and the fees for cemetery didn't come in to the board of the commune but was kept by the undertaker, the religious attendant and the manager of the mikveh Berek Żarnowski. The fees for marriages (40 zloty in 1925), for circumcising (20 zloty) and for koshering stoves 920 zloty) constituted the rabbi's income.
No wonder that the buildings that belonged to the commune that is mikveh and the prayer house, were in miserable conditions and needed an immediate renovation.
The function of rabbi was informally performed by religious attendant Majloch Ejbuszyc. He received from the commune a salary of 150 zloty a month. Majloch Ejbuszyc, who came from Szczerców in the Łask poviat in the Łódź Province, had been taught by rabbi Chmielnik, who testified that he possessed all the needed qualifications and could act as a rabbi. The words of a renowned rabbi were sufficient for the Jews of Łopuszno. Despite the official standpoint of the Ministry of Confessions and the Public Enlightenment requiring elections of a rabbi, the commune was reluctant to hold elections because a rabbi would have to receive a higher salary Majer Kopel received the salary of 3000 zloty and the commune didn't have enough money.
In February 1926 the staroste of Kielce commissioned an inspection of the economy of the Jewish Community in Łopuszno. It results from the report made by Edward Trznadel that the commune worked unskillfully and the Jewish residents of Łopuszno still felt the results of the World War I.
In the reports on the inspection apart from the command to put the management of the finances in order it was also required that the election of a rabbi should be held. The commune couldn't postpone the elections any longer.
On August 8, 1926 the starosty of Kielce ordered rabbi election in the religious department of Łopuszno. The preparations for the election lasted for over six months. There was appointed an electoral committee consisting of 7 members and 3 deputies. The president of the committee was Mnyl Weltman, son of Herszla and grandson of tailor Izrael. The right to elect a rabbi had all male Jews over 25 who had been living in the commune for at least a year. The electoral lists prepared on the base of nominal declarations were hung in the seat of the commune for 8 days. The candidates for a rabbi had not only to submit a certificate entitling them to teach the Jewish religion but also had to prove their command of the Polish language.
On February 10, 1927 a list of candidates for a rabbi in Łopuszno was hung. There was only one name on the list a young, 23-year-old religious attendant Majloch Ejbuszyc. Why were there no other candidates? Because the Jewish Community was poor and the rabbi couldn't expect a good salary. The document certifying the command of Polish was issued by the principal of the school in Łopuszno Czesław Kalita, who had been a private tutor of Ejbuszyc and who had written in his opinion that Ejbuszyc made a significant progress in relatively short time.
Later on, in the same public school Mejloch Ejbuszyc, already as a teacher employed by the local school authorities was teaching Jewish children their religion.
The elections took place on Mai 20, 1927 in the communal seat from 10 a.m. till 8 p.m. There were 83 voters, 78 of whom voted for Ejbuszyc and 4 against. One vote was void. The rest of the Jews who had the right to vote didn't participate in the elections.
In connection with the election of Ejbuszyc Jewish butchers Zsyman Gołębiowski, Jankiel Podliński and Moszek Podliński applied to the commune with a request to appoint a new religious supervisor who would control the kosher meat because the Jewish inhabitants began to buy meat in the neighboring towns not being sure if the slaughter was done according to the religious ritual. There was, however, no response to the request because the commune had not enough money to employ a supervisor.
In 1927 the board hired a room for an office of the Jewish religious department. The president of the commune Lejzor Rusinek used to leave Łopuszno for a long time and his duties were performed by Godel Cukier. Although not all members of the board were interested in the communal affairs, the board drew conclusions from the previous inspection and began putting the management of the finances in order. First of all, they reached an agreement with the butchers and for 1926 into the communal cash box there came in 6176 zloty out of expected 6500. It was, however, still impossible to make the members of the commune pay the overdue fees.
The work of the board was criticized for its being limited only to collecting money with no understanding of the religious needs of the society. The criticism concerned no interest in keeping the ritual bath and the prayer house in good conditions. Only under the threat of closing down the bath because of sanitary reasons the board decided to give 1000 zloty for its renovation.
The money was to be collected from raising the prices of the kosher butchering: 8 zloty for a cow and an ox, 3.50 for a sheep and a calf, 70 grosz for a goose. There were fixed also the prices of funerals from 5 to 20 zloty depending on the wealth and of marriages from 5 to 10 zloty. The poor didn't have to pay anything. At that time the salary of Mejer Kopel's widow was of 1740 zloty annually (she should therefore pay 145 zloty monthly but she had to provide for 7 children), kosher butcher Abram Luftman earned 2580 zloty, fee-collector Moszek Aleksander 150 zloty and undertaker Berek Żarnowski 50 zloty. Out of expected 1000 zloty from the communal fees for 1926 only 433.29 zloty came in. No wonder then that the communal budget still lacked money and the communal officers got their salaries very irregularly. Another inspection of April 1927 showed that in the communal cash box there was only 1.41 zloty.
The following year brought no change. The board of the commune, in order not to discourage members of the community, didn't synagogue fees but charged the fee to tradesmen coming from other towns to the market in Łopuszno. It brought about many conflicts because the tradesmen had to pay higher fees than the Jews from the commune. An average annual fee was of 10 zloty. More money was collected from the kosher slaughter. In the whole 1927 butcher Luftman killed 150 cows, 1000 calves and sheep, 700 calves not older than 7 days, 414 geese, 2000 hens, ducks and 301 chickens. The meat was consumed mainly by the Jews from Łopuszno. Non-kosher back parts of cows, cheaper than the kosher ones, were willingly bought by the Poles. After the following inspection the staroste of Kielce wrote in his report to the voivode of Kielce: The inhabitants are very reluctant to pay the synagogue fees, which have to be collected by force. The impossibility to pay the fees is explained by the argument that due to the wartime military operations the village had been completely burnt, which caused pauperization of its residents. The income from the kosher slaughter is so low that it is hardly enough to remunerate the butcher
The overdue fee for the years 1925-1927 were of 3115.21 zloty, whereas the communal expenses were increasing. The starosty of Kielce didn't agree among others to raise the pay of butcher Luftman explaining that he had additional annual income from feathers and other things of about 450 zloty a year.
In August 1928 the staroste ordered the commune to begin a renovation of the synagogue, which had already been in appalling conditions: a new floor should be put in the hall and a door; inside the walls should be plastered and painted and the stove needed repairing. The property of the commune constituted, apart from the wooden synagogue temporarily built after the war, also a wooden house in bad condition, where rabbi's widow Dwojra Kopel lived; 0,5 morg of land (morg unit of land measure = 5600 cubic meter) used by the widow and religious attendant Berek Żarnowski. An equally rigorist order concerned the ritual bath. It was exceptionally agreed to continue the kosher butchering in a rented shed, inappropriate for that purpose.
In 1929 about 750 people belonged to the Jewish Community in Łopuszno but the number of inhabitants was systematically decreasing. The residents of Łopuszno and the neighboring villages still had to look for a job in bigger towns because small trade and the markets couldn't give many people sufficient income.
At that time the activity of Zionist organizations intensified. The greatest influence among the Zionists enjoyed rabbi Majloch Ejbuszyc, who led a fraction of the party in Łopuszno. The group had about 30 members, mostly young ones. Their activity consisted in raising funds in order to buy lands in Palestine and help immigrants. Another social organization in Łopuszno was a branch of the Central Union of Jewish Craftsmen in Poland. It was set up by: tailor Zyndel Goldbust, baker Chaim Lejbuś Zwierz, baker Izrael Kapitulnik, undertaker Szlama Zajączkowski, tinsmith Chaskiel Weltman, baker Szmul Berek Zajączkowski, tailor Szymon Cukier and shoemaker Mordka Fiszel Grynbaum. Łopuszno was a village of craftsmen. As many as 21 shoemakers worked there, a part of who produced shoes on order of larger producers; 13 tailors, 5 butchers, 3 bakers, 3 leather-stitchers (sewed tops of boots on order) and 12 glaziers. There were also representatives of such occupations as: undertaker, tinsmith, saddler, cap maker and barber. It was thought that a union of craftsmen would be quite active in such circumstances. However, the organization didn't show much activeness and from 1937 on it entirely stopped its work and was therefore dissolved with the decision of the starost. The constant pauperization of the inhabitants was parallel to the deterioration of the religious department. The board wasn't still interested in development of the social life, upbringing of the youth and the religious life of the commune. For example, they didn't give any money for charity. The society got stuck in stagnation.
Among the members of the board only Godel Cukier and Herszla Rajzman did anything in order to maintain the Jewish Community in Łopuszno. The others, busy with earning money, weren't interested in the social life at all. Even rabbi Mejloch Ejbuszyc himself didn't show much concern about the social life of the Jews. His activity was limited only to care about his regular salary and he often wrote petitions to the authorities for a pay rise. The starosty knew the situation of the Jewish residents and didn't comply with his requests. There was not enough money even for regular obligations of the commune. The rabbi's widow, who was provided for by the commune and who received her money very irregularly, started a small outfitter's shop so as to keep herself and her family.
In 1930 there was hardly any life in the religious department. There had been only two meetings of the board in the whole year. The situation could be changed only by appointing new people as leaders of the commune. Such an opportunity arose in May 1931, when the board elections were held. The electoral campaign that started at that time and the invalidation of the elections by the staroste made Łopuszno famous not only in the poviat.
The old board of the commune, although not interested in organizing the life of the Jewish community in Łopuszno, didn't want to give up control to other, more active members of the commune. There began conflicts also between the poorer and the richer. For the first time in the history of the commune in Łopuszno a real electoral fight started. At first, the conflicts concerned the composition of electoral committee, which finally consisted of the representatives of both groups. On Mai 1,1931 two lists of candidates for the board were registered. Soon afterwards, however, the committee dominated by the board cancelled list number 1 supposedly because it included close relatives: Jankiel Gancarski and his uncle Aba Płuciennik. The other reason constituted the fact that on the list there were signatures of Jews who couldn't write: Mendel Żarnowski, Jankiel Poliński, Dawid Zylberberg, Izrael Strawczyński and Eliasz Frajman. The electoral committee applied for permission to approve an election without voting since only one list was submitted. However, the staroste of Kielce didn't make such decision because after Berek Całczyński had announced that he had collected the signatures himself it became clear that it was a case of electoral manipulations. On list number 2 of the poorer craftsmen figured: Chaim Lejbuś Żarnowski, Izrael Kapitulnik, Herszla Rajzman, Icek Aleksander, Moszka Grinbaum, Lejzor Rusinek, Jakub Josek Lewkowicz and Zajnwel Wajnsztok.
On Mai 12 the staroste ordered elections based on two lists. The elections were held on Mai 20. Out of 125 Jews entitled to vote 94 made use of their right. List number one received 73 votes and list number 2 - 21. In the new board were the following representatives from list number one: Jankiel Gancarski, Aba Płuciennik, Icek Finkler, Jankiel Oblęgorski, Mnyl Aleksander and Szmul Berek Żarnowski, and from list 2: Chaim Lejbuś Żarnowski and Herszla Rajzman.
The new board took over its duties on June 21, 1931. The communal property comprised: a square of about 0.25 hectare, wooden synagogue, a 3-room-flat of the religious attendant, 3-room rabbi's flat, ritual bath, cemetery, 8 Pentateuch rolls (5 in the synagogue and 3 rented without charges), 18 pews and 5 tables in the synagogue, a samovar in the bath, a kettle a cupboard and a wooden case for money.
There were, however, protests against the results of the elections and the staroste started an official investigation in order to explain their course. The most objections were against Jankiel Garncarski. The investigation lasted for almost a year.
Majer Sosnowski claimed that he hadn't sent the electoral protest to the staroste and he didn't know who it had been written by, although the signature was his. He announced that there was no agitation in the communal office but Gancarski and Gawryl Kopel tried to talk him into voting on list number 1 outside the office. He could also see Jankiel Gancarski as an electoral committee member - carefully examining the envelopes against the light by the window and earlier, in the rabbi's house he had threatened that he would remember how people voted.
Chaim Szmul Sosnowski testified that he didn't know anything about the case but he signed the complaint to the staroste because other Jews told him that second elections would be held if he did so. He himself, as a tailor-workman, would rather see in the board more representatives of the second list since list 1 included only the names of rich merchants.
Berek Izrael Borensztajn admitted that he wasn't satisfied with the presence of Garncarski and Płuciennik in the board, either. He saw Garncarski observing the envelopes against the light, too. On 14 Mai 1932 the staroste declared the results of the elections of 20 Mai 1931 null and void. Jankiel Oblęgorski and Szmul Berek Żarnowski appealed against the decision but the voivode supported the staroste's decision and the elections had to be held again.
During almost one year of its governing the board under the leadership of Gancarski caused disagreements among the people and wasn't able to organize the life of the commune. According to inspectors from the starosty, the people still lived in misery because their houses had been destroyed in the war and they didn't get any compensation. An income of the commune came mainly from the kosher slaughter and very low fees of the inhabitants. The synagogue and the bath were still in miserable conditions, although the material for their renovation had already started to be collected. The commune was still behind with the payments of the rabbi and Dwojra Kopel, who was treated badly and who still hadn't received 2300 zloty. The board moved a proposal to increase the prices of kosher slaughter. The rise, according to the board, shouldn't influence the prices of meat but it would help to pay the debts. The butchers immediately protested against the proposal. In nearby Radoszyce, where the kosher slaughter of a cow was more expensive than in Łopuszno and the butchers bought meat not from peasants but from agents, the prices were lower. In Łopuszno three butchers from one family fixed the prices of meat, which were lower than in the vicinity. The rise of prices wouldn't influence the non-kosher meat because in Ùopuszno, where ¾ of the inhabitants were Jews, there was very little demand on non-kosher meat. The butchers who were against the rise of prices explained that due to the long lasting crisis the demand on meat was lower and the prices of cattle were minimal, whereas the fees were too high in comparison to the prices. In Łopuszno, as it was written, mostly small animals were slaughtered, which was caused by the lack of consumers of larger amounts of meat. Because of high fees the butchers would have to limit the slaughter.
Some Jews started even having hens and geese slaughtered by a kosher butcher, who lived in Mnin, 7 km away from Łopuszno. Therefore the income from the slaughter fell instead of increasing. Also the butchers, attracted by lower fees, started going with their cattle to Mnin, which affected the finances of the commune. From 1 to 18 January 1932 in Łopuszno 18 oxen, 13 calves, 16 geese, 56 hens and 14 chickens were slaughtered. In the whole 1932 238 oxen, 538 calves and sheep, 456 geese, 2533 hens and ducks and 1480 chickens were slaughtered in Łopuszno. The situation improved only after the negotiations between the butchers and the board of the commune.
In the conflict concerning the income there came even to a fight between president Garncarski and butcher Abram Luftman about slaughter fees and the incident ended up in court in Niewachlów.
Moreover, Garncarski was accused of bribery and of ordering the communal officers to give him a part of their salary. To make the matters even worse, he demanded from the owner of a sawmill in Ruda Lejzor Rozenberg free services in the sawmill for lowering his high communal fee of 800 zloty.
On the list of the communal taxes prepared for 1932 from the 565 living in the commune Jews 232 were ordered to pay. On the list there were only 56 residents of Łopuszno, 68 tradesmen coming to the markets from Włoszczowa, 36 from Radoszyce; there were also tradesmen from Małogoszcz, Przedborze, Krasocin and other towns, even people from Kielce. It brought about new conflicts and complaints about the high fees, the more that the tradesmen had to pay much higher taxes than the residents of Łopuszno, who usually paid 5 zloty. They were indeed poor, which can be proved by the fact that they didn't pay for graves at the cemetery simply because they didn't buy any! At that time a goose cost 7 grosz, a hen 2 zloty, a turkey 9 zloty, beef 1.25 zloty a kilo, an egg 7 grosz, pearl barley 55 grosz and rice 80 grosz a kilo; a kilo of bread cost 40 grosz, a kilo of sugar 1.70 zloty, tea - 20 zloty and coffee 8 zloty a kilo. The situation of the Jews was strongly influenced by the economic crisis in the world and in Poland. First of all, the markets for the craftsmen's goods were shrinking because the village had less and less money. The only attempts to put the financial policy of the communal board in order under the leadership of Jankiel constituted an application for a loan in the starosty to finance the building of a synagogue and allocating 400 zloty to educate children from the poorest families.
After the voivode cancelled the decision concerning the elections in the religious department in Łopuszno the following elections took place on 26 Mai 1932. This time only one common list was presented. The list included the following names: Jakub Josek Lewkowicz, Herszla Rajzman Chaim Lejbuś Żarnowski, Chaskiel Weltman, Herszel Kenigsztajn, Herszel Frucht, Mnyl Waldsztajn, Moszek Aleksander, Moszek Zylbnerberg, Eljasz Frajman, Zajnwel Wajnsztok, Icek Rozencwajg, Lejzor Rapoport and Szmul Szczerba. Jankiel Gancarski wasn't on the list. People described him in their complaints in the following way: 'He is such a man that everybody is afraid of him but everybody is also afraid to reveal what kind of a man he is. Gancarski told people that if they didn't vote on him he would cause some unpleasantness if he could. He is said to have urged members of the Association of the Perec's Library in the previous elections to vote on him. As a security for fulfilling his promises he deposed with Chaim Lejbuś Żarnowski a golden chain, earrings, watch and the members indeed voted on him and persuaded people to follow him. Also the Association Kultura is said to have received 100 zloty for agitating for him. The cause why Gancarski didn't figure on the list was first of all the fact that in 1931 he was sentenced by the district court in Kielce to one year of imprisonment for forging bills of exchange, for illegal trade with hunting equipment and for selling ammunition to poachers.
Because only one list was presented there was no voting and the new board was composed of: tailor Jakub Josek Lewkowicz as the president and Herszel Rajzman, Chaim Lejbuś Żarnowski, Szlama Zajączkowski. Chaskiel Weltman, Herszel Kenigsztajn, Mnyl Waldsztajn and Moszek Aleksander as members of the board. It was a board of mainly young people (the oldest was respected in Łopuszno 60-year-old Herszel Rajzman, a farmer, owner of 17 hectares of land). All were loyal to the Polish state, only 32-year-old tailor Chaim Lejb Żarnowski was described as a communist hostile to the state.
The most important task of the new board was to put the communal economy in order and to find a cantor. The commune was involved in administrative lawsuits with tradesmen from Włoszczowa and Radoszyce concerning the fees. The debt resulting from the impossibility to collect fees was alarmingly growing; the people had not enough money to pay. Out of expected 1917 zloty for 1931 only 24 zloty came in. There was hardly any income from funerals, almost nobody bought graves. The communal budget was limited to the income from the kosher butchering, which was constantly deteriorating. The staroste ordered the constable of the state police several times to investigate if there was any illegal slaughter but it was never proved that butcher Abram Luftman was doing the slaughter without a receipt that a fee was paid to the commune.
In 1933 244 Jews were obliged to pay fees, only 63 from Łopuszno. From among the tax payers as many as 108 people paid the lowest fee 5 zloty. 10 zloty annually paid 110 people. It is apparent that few people were able to pay more. The fee paid by the richest Jew from Łopuszno Lejzor Rapport was 50 zloty and the richest member of the religious department the owner of a big sawmill in Ruda Lejzor Rozenberg paid 400 zloty. Every year 25-30 people were released from paying any fee because of their poverty. The total income from the taxes 2550 - was enough only to pay the rabbi's salary. Other expenses were covered from the fees for the kosher butchering. On discussing the budget for 1933 the board had to take into consideration the pauperization of the inhabitants and fixed lower fees for the slaughter: from 6500 to 5000 zloty. At that time slaughtering of an ox cost 8 zloty, a calf, and sheep 3 zloty, a turkey 1.40 zloty, a duck 50 grosz, a hen 40 grosz, a chicken 20 grosz and a dove 10 grosz. Because of the fees for the kosher butchering the prices of poultry and kosher meat were higher for Jews than for Poles.
The commune owed in 1934 2400 zloty to the rabbi. Butcher Luftman received 1456 zloty out of 2360 zloty due. In 1935 he wrote a complaint to the starosty: I've been a butcher for 28 years and never before have I lived in such poverty. They pay me 100-110 zloty a month, which is not enough for a family of 10 people. It's even not enough for dry bread. I live in misery and have impossible debts. Also widow of rabbi Gabriel Kopel - Dwojra Kopel, who had 7 children and her mother-in-law to provide for, applied to the staroste to intervene about her payment because she didn't have any money to live on. The writing was sent gratuitously by Leonid Górski the owner of an office where petitions were written. The staroste promised during his visit in Łopuszno to care for a regular payment.
At that time the debts of the commune exceeded 10000! The commune owed most money to Dwojra Kopel. The communal overdue debt for the .skład!!! (jaki skład?-storehouse?) were of over 2000 zloty and this amount was impossible to collect. Neither the authorities of the commune nor the supreme authorities saw a solution. It was impossible to carry out the budget plan. The religious department was on the verge of bankruptcy.
The situation was even worsen by the fact that the starosty complied with the appeals of the neighboring towns and lowered their fees or released them from paying anything to the commune in Łopuszno. Tradesmen from Włoszczowa and Radoszyce had even ready models of appeals written in the same office. It made the situation of commune of Łopuszno even harder because its 75% of its budget plan concerned people without strong connections to Łopuszno. For example, tradesmen came to Łopuszno only once a week to the market and Lejzor Rozenberg an owner of a sawmill in Ruda was a resident of Kielce. A tax was imposed also on the sawmill workers. A competition to the inhabitants of Łopuszno constituted not only people trading with cattle or flour but also tradesmen buying eggs, selling scythes or even soap. On each market there were 5-6 bakers from Włoszczowa and Radoszyce, tailors and shoemakers.
The commune of Łopuszno not only lacked money but there also existed a silent conflict with the rabbi. Finally, Abraham Luftman, who for 5 years had been an cantor in the synagogue and hadn't received any money for that, resigned and the commune was left without a cantor. Since the cantor's salary wasn't included in the budget plan it was impossible to employ anybody else who could lead prayers. On January 9, 1933 the board explained the need to find money for a cantor: 'A cantor is needed to conduct certain prayers in the synagogue, which don't constitute rabbi's duties. Due to lack of a cantor last year there were disorders in the synagogue because nobody wanted to lead the prayers for free.
Rabbi Mejloch Ejbuszyc, although he was well known in the society, didn't gain any authority among the Jews in Łopuszno. He wasn't interested in organizing the communal life; his activity in the starosty of Kielce wasn't favorable, either. He was criticized by the inhabitants for frequent absence from Łopuszno without appointing his substitute. The communal board accused him of tolerating import of kosher meat from other communes impeding the income of his own one. Rabbi Ejbuszyc was interested only in his regular salary, which can be proved by his lengthy writings to the starosty with complaints about the communal board. He wrote that they didn't pay his salary on purpose although the income from the slaughter was regular. He even declared that he would become an honorary inspector of slaughter fees so as to control the income. There is preserved a unique and a very interesting record reflecting the relations in the commune of Łopuszno, testifying to how rabbi Ejbuszyc understood his duties. In December 1934, when the starosty didn't agree to give him a pay rise, Ejbuszyc wrote:
I explain it to everybody who knows the Jewish law that the rabbi is obliged towards the Jewish Religious Department to fulfill the following things;
The above mentioned five points constitute my duties on the base of an agreement (ksaw rabonu) with the board of the religious department in Łopuszno. I can openly say that I do my duties faultlessly.
Moreover, there is only one butcher and I can't count on that he sees to everything, therefore I have to be present 5 times a week at each kosher butchering, which takes me about one hour.
Frankly speaking, the members of the board limit me in many ways not allowing to see many illegal things. I suggest that I should receive 50% of the monthly income from the slaughter because otherwise I won't be able to feed my family.
I inform you that I'm often absent from the board's meetings because the board is hostile towards me and I can't bear it as a clerical.
The starosty knew, however, the relations in the commune and the state of the communal cash box and didn't comply with rabbi's request. What is more, it ordered him to explain his frequent absence from Łopuszno without formal asking for a day off in the communal board. He was also reminded that he had regular, although small income from teaching religion in the primary school in Łopuszno.
In 1936 new elections of the boards of religious departments took place in Poland. In Łopuszno a new committee was appointed under the leadership of Herszla Rajzman. Two lists of candidates were presented, the first of which was prepared by the communal board and the other was proposed by rabbi Ejbuszyc. On 27 August the electoral committee decided to cancel the second list because there were signatures of people who supported also the first list. After crossing out those people it turned out that the list was supported only by 11 people whereas the required number was 15. The rabbi didn't manage to find more supporters. Because one list was cancelled there were no elections held and the list was approved by acclamation. On November 30, 1936 the control over the commune was taken by a new board including: Jankiel Gancarski the president, Izrael Kapitulnik, Chaskiel Weltman, Zajnwel Weltman, Mnyl Aleksander and Chaim-Lejb Żarnowski. The board took over the small communal property and faced a very difficult task to prevent the department from liquidation. The number of Jews in Łopuszno was decreasing. Moreover, the poverty was growing and there were less and less people able to pay synagogue fees. On the list of tax payers there were more and more people out of the commune. The starosty began to consider the liquidation of the department of Łopuszno and transferring the inhabitants to a bigger department of Chęciny.
The new board wanted to increase synagogue and slaughter fees but it met with a decided protest of craftsmen, who appealed for lowering the fees: We kill only small animals, not heavier than 60-70 kg and we are in critical conditions because we can't even pay 5 zloty from such small animals. Moreover, Jankiel Gancarski started using his position of the president of the board for his own purposes. In February a group of people from Łopuszno wrote a complaint about Gancarski: Jankiel Gancarski makes people who he is angry with pay a fee that is three times higher than it was fixed. He says that he fears no one and boasts that as a leader of the board he must profit from it. He charges for iron things as much as he wants because he has many of them to sell. The petitioners asked the starosty to organize a secret investigation. The complaint was signed by: Lejzor Rapoport, Icek Finkler, Chaim Szmul Sosnowski, Estera Gruszka, Ela Frajman, Jakub Oblęgorski and by members of the communal board: Izrael Kapitulnik and Jankiel Josek Lewkowicz.
In June 1937 the board decided to lower fees for the kosher butchering on the proposal of Izrael Kapitulnik, who explained The people here are so poor that they go to other towns to kill the poultry since the prices are lower there.
Another hindrance in governing the commune constituted the introduction of an act limiting the kosher slaughter in 1937. Jankiel Gancarski resigned explaining that the limits would allow, according to the fixed quota, an income from the kosher butchering of only 840 zloty, which absolutely wasn't enough to make a budget plan. The fees would bring 2000 zloty whereas only the rabbi's salary was of 2400 zloty annually, the salary of butcher Abram Luftman 2350 zloty and Dwojra Kopel was to receive 500 zloty a year. Besides, there were also expenses on the secretary of the commune, the collector of slaughter fees, heating and lightening of the synagogue.
The resignation of the president wasn't accepted. Soon the authorities limited the force of the act concerning the kosher butchering and postponed the discussion for the following years. Nevertheless, the question whether the existence of a religious department in Łopuszno made sense was becoming reasonable.
At that time people lived mainly from small trade and craftsmanship. A source of income constituted the weekly market but the competition of small tradesmen from the vicinity was growing. There were no warehouses and no bigger magazines. One of the biggest craftsman's workshops Izrael Kapitulnik's bakery was equipped with a 1.5 square meters brick oven, two wooden stirrers and he produced 320 kg of rye bread and 160 kg of wheat bread a week.
Before the war the Jews owned several dozens properties. At the market place lived: Izrael Kapitulnik, Mnyl Aleksander and Josek Proszowski. In Kielecka Street: Chaskiel Blumenson, Aba Płuciennik, Izrael Rozencwajg, Herszel Wikiński, Zysman Gołębiowski. The greatest number of Jewish properties was on Przedborska Street, on the area determined for Jewish settlements by heir Dobiecki. On Przedborska Street there was a synagogue. On that street there were houses of: Lejzor Rapoport, Ruchla Łaja Rapoport, Abram Waldsztajn, Jankiel Gancarski, Szaja Jakubowicz, Jankiel Podliński, Moszek Aleksander, Chana Cukier, Zajnwel Wajnsztok, Godel Cukier, Hersz Kenigsztajn, Majer Kenigsztajn, Josek Wrocławski, Majer Sosnowski, Majloch Sosnowski, Aron Promnicki, Berek Promnicki, Mendel Żarnowski, Abram Żarnowski, Abram Ryng, Moszek Podliński, Moszek Sosnowski, Wolf Sosnowski, Całel Gruszka, Szmul Frajman, Moszek Zylberberg, Eljasz Frajman, Jankiel Oblęgorski, Lejzor Rusinek, Moszek Goldlust and Eljasz Frajman. Rabbbi Majloch Ejbuszyc lived in the rabbi's house on the ground that belonged to the synagogue.
However, even owners of the houses weren't well-off. The situation of the Jewish inhabitants was getting difficult. More and more people were looking for a source of income out of their home town. The economy of the religious department crumbled into ruin. This situation prevailed until the World War II.
September 1939 is a tragic date. Hitler's Germany attacked Poland. Already on September 5 German soldiers reached Łopuszno. An occupation began. The village belonged to the district of Radom. Since the beginning of the war there had been a gendarmerie station in Łopuszno. Soon afterwards the Polish and Jewish residents met with severe repressions. For the Jews of Łopuszno, just like for all Jews in the occupied Poland a time of ordeal began. Hitler's plan to exterminate the Jews was being consistently carried out.
We know the tragic fate of the Jewish residents only thanks to scarce and scattered memories. Nobody recorded the war tragedies and the human memory turned out to be transitory.
In 1939 some Jews left Łopuszno and moved to their families in Kielce, Chęciny and Włoszczowa. In the village there stayed about 150-200 people. They were allowed to stay in their homes and to do their job. The school year didn't begin until October. The Jewish children didn't start school at all. One of the first restrictions imposed on the Jewish inhabitants concerned secret slaughter and illegal trade. Adolf Karl Landl, a gendarme cooperating with the Polish resistance movement, recalls that No proofs were necessary, even anonymous denunciations were enough to convict a Pole or a Jew without a court procedure. Finally, the term 'secret slaughter' meant every slaughter of a pig or another animal, because the Polish inhabitants didn't have the right to kill any animal for themselves. I don't want to embark upon the horrible fate of the Jews. The ban on slaughter meant that the Jewish inhabitants were deprived of kosher meat and the ban on trade also of the source of their existence.
In the course of time the Jews weren't even allowed to leave Łopuszno. Their houses were marked with the Star of David. One of the tragic events is related to Janklowa's (Jankiel's wife, whose surname nobody remembers) excursion to get some food. She was on her way back from a neighboring village when she was noticed by gendarmes. At first, they beat her mercilessly and then threw her into a cage where they kept a trained wolf-hound, which bit people. The dog literally tore her. Her screams could be heard in the whole village. She was buried on the Jewish cemetery. Even long after the war people talked about the wolf-hound that terrified the whole vicinity.
Younger Jews were forced to work on building roads, on digging drainage ditches and on collecting ears of corn after the harvest on the court's field. They were watched by gendarmes. On their way to work the Jews had to sing in Polish. The Poles remembered the words of their song:
Śmigły Rydz didn't teach us anythin'
Then golden Hitler came and taught us work
In 1940 Jews from neighboring villages were displaced to Łopuszno: from Piotrowiec, Olszówka, and Gnieździsk; among others the family of Rachmil Rajzman consisting of 7 people, four-member family of Welwa Szkło and 5 other families from Piotrowiec They moved into homes of Jewish families. The living conditions of the displaced families were critical. In the same year the gendarmes killed 10 Jews hiding in a bunker near Korczyn.
In 1940 the Jewish cemetery was destroyed. The stone graves were broken and used for a pavement of in front of the gendarmerie station on the market square. In 1940 three Jews, among them Jakub Oblęgorski, were arrested and transported.
In 1942 a horror began. The repressions intensified. The Jews were mercilessly abused and persecuted for minor infractions, for example for collecting ears in the fields and grinding corn in hand-mills. Among others the hairdresser Aniela Gołębiowska was arrested. There also began, in the beginning sporadic, and then more and more frequent shooting of Poles and Jews. Even a small offence was a good reason. One of the residents of Łopuszno witnessed as a child shooting of some older Jews. He says that he could see that horrible scene in his nightmares for several years. He may have seen the shooting of 13 Jews, whose names remain unknown, buried later in a common grave.
The executions took place usually near the Jewish and Catholic cemetery. There were at least a few executions next to the Jewish cemetery. In the records there is also a case of arresting and shooting a Jew by a Volksdeutsch - Otto Sufin. Behind the Catholic cemetery, where the Germans used to shoot people, there is now a monument commemorating the death of Poles and Jews, which was founded by the society of Łopuszno.
Officially, any contact between the Poles and the Jews was prohibited. However, acquaintances maintained contacts and traded with each other. The Poles gave food and the Jews occupied themselves with illegal craftsmanship. There was no distance between the inhabitants. Both nations suffered a lot from the occupier's repressions.
On March 17, 1942 the Gestapo and the police from Kielce together with the gendarmes from Łopuszno carried out mass arrests of several important residents of Łopuszno in order to intimidate the people. They imprisoned in Kielce chief of the commune of Łopuszno Władysław Kaczmarczyk, the secretary of the commune Roman Przeniosło, the priest of the parish Aleksander Jankowski, the headmaster of the school Jan Rubi as well as members of the board of the religious department Jankiel Gancarski and Izrael Kapitulnik. From Kielce they all were transported to a camp of extermination.
In August 1942 in the General Government there began an action of displacing Jews to 65 designated towns. The tragedy of the Jews from Łopuszno began with an action of the Kielce Gestapo. All Jews were ordered to leave their houses. They were driven onto the market square. They believed that they had to go to the ghetto only for some time; they believed that they would return.
However, they never returned. 30 people, old and disabled were shot by the wall near the gendarmerie station. A few days later, already in September 1942 everybody was driven to Chęciny. Older people and children were transported by provided carts. From there they got to a extermination camp in Treblinka. One of the Poles, who was a child during the occupation, recollects: 'Before the transportation a neighbor came to my parents, undertaker Garlicki. He only said: God bless you and never returned.
The property of the Jewish families was given to families of German settlers from neighboring villages: Eustachów, Marianów, Ludwików and Antonielowo. After the war none of the former Jewish residents came back to Łopuszno. Such was the end of Jewish Łopuszno the world of a difficult, industrious and common existence. In people's memory remain only creatures wandering about on muddy streets somewhere in heaven:
Janklowa, who delivered herrings on credit. You'll pay when you have money she would say and she could always rely on her poor customers.
Fiszel, who used to buy beans; some of which he managed to sell earning his living.
Izrael , who could bake such good bread that the Poles would buy it willingly
Manels from the shop at the bus stop on the market square, who always had a sweet for children.
Josek, who traded in oats with the heir.
Płuciennik, who had in his shop fabrics straight from Łódź
Gancarski he had threads and material
Hunchbacked Szmul he used to buy calves and sheep. He would wander about the villages and ask: Gotta'a ram for a pagan? And only this saying outlived him.
Zjawel he made ice-cream loved by children.
Hairdresser Gołębiowska good-looking, well-groomed. She and her husband weren't very religious, they had no children.
Before the cruel war there were no disputes and no distance between the Poles, Jews and the Germans living in the vicinity. They used to trade together, sell, and buy fluff, feathers, corn and fish. They used to have their old clothes re-knitted by the Jewish tailors even four times. Sometimes people say that at summer nights one could hear clink of keys in Łopuszno. This is the ghost of strange Chaja, who would go about Łopuszno clinking with keys and saying her strange poem:
Buy a green tail coat,
Warsaw tail coat,
It's goin' to be so
Buy, buy a Warsaw tail coat
Green tail coat
Jewish Łopuszno doesn't exist any more.
Jewish Łopuszno didn't survive the extermination. After the war none of its previous residents came back to Łopuszno. Those who had lived there during the war - died. But the home 'shtetl' hasn't fallen into oblivion. Its memory survived thanks to sons and grandsons of the Jewish residents of Łopuszno, who searched for bread and work in Poland and throughout the world. Not only in Kielce but also in distant Argentina did they remember their grandmothers and grandfathers who once led their poor and industrious lives in the peaceful villages of Świętokrzyskie.
One of Abracham Kotlicki's sons Mosze, a tinsmith, settled in Kielce with his wife Chaja née Grafinkiel. In 1920 he died of typhoid. He was then 38. His wife took over his tinsmith's workshop.
Almost everybody knew her in Kielce. Her nickname was Chaja Tinwoman. People were poor and would constantly have their leaky pots repaired. And she was very good at her trade remembers in 2004 90-year-old Sinai Laichter a honorary professor of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, who used to live on Mała Street in Kielce, near Chaja's workshop.
The Kotlickis were poor. Chaja's son Herszel, whose passion were bicycles, didn't feel like learning and began a traineeship with Josef Goldszajder a master, a valued in Kielce painter and a known activist of a craftsmen's union. He learned a trade which proved very useful in his later life.
On August 26, 1938 Herszel Kotlicki married Sura Goldszajd ( born in Lopuszno in 1916), the daughter of a known in Kielce car businessman Jakub the son of already mentioned in our story Berek Goldszajd melammed and a member of the religious municipal department of Łopuszno. Soon after the wedding Herszel Kotlicki went to Bolivia to look for a job. He returned at the end of August 1939. Then the war broke out. The Goldszajd family moved to the east but finally decided to come back. Herszel wanted to stay. Jakub and Rywka told their daughter Sura you must go with her husband. They stayed. The family who returned to Kielce didn't survive the war. They all died in Treblinka.
With Herszel and Sura went Sura's brother Aba Goldszajd. They were transported to Siberia, and worked in a mine in Czelabinsk. Already being there they still received postcards from their family in Kielce, sent from ghetto. Then the contact broke off.
In Leninabad in 1945was born Mosze Kotlicki. After the war they happily managed to return to Poland, to Gliwice. Herszel Kotlicki and Aba Goldszajd returned to visit Kielce. It was on 6 July 1946. In the city there was a terrible pogrom of the Jews on Planty Street. They escaped
By the building of the court on Duża Street an old janitor recognized Aba Goldszajd.
I recognize you, you are Berek's grandson, and he hid them in his cellar. In this way he saved their lives. They spent three days in the cellar. That is why Berek Goldszajd appears again on the pages of our history. Nobody remembers the old janitor's name.
In 1948 Aba Goldszajd went to Israel. Although he was a tailor by trade, he started a bakery there and then a sweet shop. He had two children with his wife Sonia.
In 1948, in Gliwice, Poland, the light of the day saw Yaacov the second son of Herszl and Sura. In 1950 the Kotlickis moved to Israel, where Herszel provided for his family by painting houses. Their sons studied electronics and in 1972 they set up a small company named Visonic, which after years became a world's leading producer of modern electronic security and alarm systems.
Moshe Kotlicki died in 1995. In Israel live his son, daughter and grandchildren.
Moshe's brother Yaacovaacov is chairman of the board and the company's owner. In his office there is a family tree on the wall, which as well as his beautiful paintings, which were made by his father Herszel, although he had never studied fine arts. Sura Kotlicka née Goldszajd, worked in her sons' factory nearly till her death in 2000. In Israel live also Yacoov's three sons and granddaughter.
A handsome 24-year-old man looks at us from a photo in the issued in 1935 identity card No.61of the Kielce Association of Cyclists; a confident look, wavy, combed back hair; signed Herszel Kotlicki, born in Kielce in March 1911. A cyclist amateur, who in his amaranthine-green T-shirt would often cycle the Świętokrzyskie routes, whose friends used to call him Henryk, and that name figured in the identity card of the Polish Union of Associations of Cyclists, which entitled him to participate in the most important amateur races. The bicycle was his true passion till the end of his life. After many years people in Tel Aviv still remember the posture of an older well built man riding his sport bike.
It was Herszel Kotlicki who to a great extent saved the memory of Jewish Łopuszno. At the end of his life he began a meticulous reconstruction of Kotlicki - Wikiński family tree. Following the branches of the tree I traced back the history of the shtetl Łopuszno. It was thanks to him that the names written in some dusty records came into life and turned into real people who had once lived in Jewish Łopuszno.
In distant Chicago Nancy Gilbert, the daughter of Samuel the grandson of Abraham Kotlicki, who used to own an oil factory in Łopuszno, initiated the difficult work of reconstructing the family tree. She found and encouraged Herszel to work. He picked up the phone and started writing to people scattered all over the world. Step by step, he traced back the history of his family as far as to his and his wife Sura's great grandfather tailor Izrael Weltman, who started our story.
Samuel Kotlicki was Max's son, who left Łopuszno to look for a job in the United States. Max was one of nine children of Abraham. One of his sons Emanuel Kotlicki after leaving Łopuszno made a considerable fortune in Łódź. Before the war he had left for Palestine. He had two daughters: Rywka and Chana, who happily survived the extermination camp and after the war lived in Israel. Their children live in Israel.
Another son of Abraham Kotlicki from Łopuszno Dawid had immigrated to Palestine before the war. His wife Rajzel remembered a lot and told the family history. Dawid had a daughter Hanka, whose four children and grandchildren live in Israel.
Josef Kotlicki - Chaja the Tinwoman's son and Herszel's brother - was carried by his fate to Paris before tha war. He was a tailor, established his own tailor's workshop and then a shop. He had a daughter Helenn, who died very young, and a son Michel, who lives in Marseille and has three daughters.
Herszel's third brother Izrael with his wife Henia and their two daughters as well as his sister Chana, who stayed in Kielce, were murdered in Treblinka.
Before the outbreak of the war in Palestine arrived Ichaskiel Goldszajd brother of Sura and son of Jakub, the car businessman from Kielce. His father jakub was a Zionist who sent his son to Palestine so that he could build Jewish homeland. It was Ichaskiel who took care of his sister's family when the Kotlickis came to Israel in 1950. The descendants of Ichaskiel's two children also have their roots in Łopuszno. In Treblinka were murdered: Jakob Goldszajd, Sura Kotlicka's father and Yaacov's grandfather with his wife Rywka Smycha, his mother Lia ( Berek Goldszajd wife) and their son Chaim, who used to be a barber in Kielce, and their daughter Hanka.
Sura Kotlicka used to talk in Israel about her wonderful childhood and holidays in the country at her uncle's home in Łopuszno. The uncle, Fiszel Wikiński - Rywka Smycha's (née Wikińska) brother - was a poor tradesman and had a house in Łopuszno on Kielecka Street. Fiszel had also six children. Only one of his sons - David survived the war. He was in Oświęcim and then got to Israel. After the war he didn't tell anybody what he had experienced. His three sons have never heard the name Łopuszno. All they knew about their father was that he was born in Poland.
Another member of the Wikińskis found his family in Łopuszno. Dwora, the daughter of Chaim Wikiński the brother of Fiszel, a shopkeeper from Łopuszno married Menachem Bracławski, who in Palestine changed his name into Barlev. Their son, Haim Barlev, was a general in the Israeli army. He commanded many battles and became the Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army. When during the Yom Kipur war in October 1973 in the Sinai Became very difficult the Prime Minister Gołda Meir called him from his retirement and entrusted him the function of the commmander on the front in Sinai. In Israel he is said to have saved the country. Later on Haim Barlev was the minister of the interior, the minister of industry and commerce and an ambassador in Moscow. He died in 1994 at the age of 69. His son Omer Barlev was commander of the Elite a commando unit of the Izrael army. He participated in the famous operation of rescuing Israeli hostages from the airport Entebbe in Uganda 4000 km far from the Israel's border in July 1976.
Soon after Herszel Kotlicki left for Bolivia in search of a job, in April 1939 his friend Szmul - the son of a baker from Łopuszno Izrael Kapitulnik, whom we have already met followed in his footsteps. Herszel returned to Poland whereas Szmul stayed in Bolivia and later on moved to Argentina. There he married Rywka Krysa from Włoszczowa. For many years he organized the social life and was secretary of Jewish compatriots of Włoszczowa and Łopuszno in Argentina. He possessed a wide knowledge of Judaism, which he acquired at cheder in Łopuszno. His son Haim, born in 1944 in Buenos Aires, immigrated to Israel in 1963. There he was received by his father's friend Herszel Kotlicki. Haim Kapitulnik is a professor of pharmacology in the institute of medicine of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He has three children and five grandchildren.
Szmul Kapitulnik followed his son Haim and came with his wife to Israel, where they died. Their sons, Haim's brothers Izrael and Szaul live in Israel and their daughter Miriam lives in Argentina. It was Szmul Kapitulnik who saved the family photos from Łopuszno, which were kept and rendered available by Professor Haim Kapitulnik.
Other photos, among them a photo of Berek Goldszajd and his wife Lia, were found in Brazil. Berek Goldszajd's daughter, born in Gitel, after she was married, and got divorced in Kielce , she went to Argentina and then to Brazil, where she married again and had two sons, one of who was a very successful barrister. She visited her family in Israel several times. The photos preserved in family collections constitute a proof of rescue. It was thanks to them that the world of the Łopuszno Jews survived in memory.
Sometimes broken threads meet again and lead to a new trace. It turned out that it wasn't an accident that Herszel Kotlicki came across Josef Goldszajder's workshop to learn the painter's trade. Josef was his uncle as his wife and Herszel's mother were sisters. Josef's daughter Dora, born in Kielce in 1913, went to Prague to study medicine. In 1937 she obtained her degree. She contracted a factious marriage and as Sławka Kleinova she fought in the International Brigades in Spain. She worked in a field hospital till the evacuation of the brigades to France. Since 1939 she had been working there as a doctor in a hospital by Paris, where she met her husband Andrzej Lorski. She organized the Czech resistance movement and in 1943, arrested by the Gestapo, she got to Auschwitz-Birkenau. She was in block 10, where German doctors did pseudo medical experiments on women prisoners. She cooperated with the Resistance Movement. Thanks to her reports the truth about Auschwitz reached London already during the war. She was sent to Ravensbruck and then to the camp Neustad Glewe. She returned to Prague but she was directed to France as a doctor of a repatriation mission. Since 1947 she had worked as a manager of an outpatients' surgery in the Czech Republic but at the beginning of 1950s she was arrested and imprisoned at the accusation of espionage.
After her rehabilitation in 1956 she came back to Poland and became a member of PZPR. She started to work in the Institute of Tuberculosis in Warsaw, took up a scientific work and wrote a lot about Auschwitz. Exhausted by her experiences, the camp, the prison and her illness she died in 1965 at the age of 52. Her briefly described life reveals the complicated paths of human fate. How many similar paths did the descendants of the Łopuszno Jews have to follow?
Nobody knows today how many descendants of the Łopuszno Jews live in the world. Herszel Kotlicki meticulously collected scattered around the world pieces of information about the living and the dead members of his family. Sometimes one could come across dim traces of those who once left Łopuszno.
Maybe this book will help to find descendants of the Aleksanders, Borensztajns, Cukiers, Fruchts, Gołębiowskis, Gancarskis, Janklewiczs, Płucienniks, Podlińskis, Wajnsztoks and others, who used to lead their peaceful lives in Łopuszno.
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for verification.
JewishGen is not responsible for inaccuracies or omissions in the original work and cannot rewrite or edit the text to correct inaccuracies and/or omissions.
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Updated 23 Jan 2012 by LA


text:
Artha Panchak – Episode 1 – अर्थपञ्चक वेदान्त प्रवचन – Acharya Ramanuj Nepal ► SRD BHAKTi
Artha Panchakam – Episode 1 – अर्थपञ्चक वेदान्त प्रवचन – Acharya Ramanuj Nepal ► SRD BHAKTi 2020©► SRD BHAKTi 2020
Herein Acharya Ramanuj Nepal gives an introduction to the book Artha Panchakam by Sri Lokacharya Swamiji. In addition, this knowledge from the Five Truths (Artha Panchakam) is of utmost importance to a Mumukshu- who seeks to liberate oneself from the cycle of reincarnation through knowledge and self-assessment.
The Five Truths or Principles
1. Sva-svarUpa – Own self or Soul.
2. Para-svarUpa – Higher Self or God.
3.. PurusArtha-svarUpa – Goal or End.
4. Upaya-svarUpa – Means.
5. VirOdhi-svarUpa – The opposite or anti {agonsis, sin}
ABOUT SRDBHAKTi PLANS
SRD-BHAKTi is online bhajan and art of living bhajans which provides not only bhajan but it also provides Katha of Ramayan, Mahabharat Katha, Puran, Vishnu Puran, Bhagwat Gita, Shreemad Bhagwat, and in our website you will be able to access such as library, Hindu library, Alavandar stotras pdf, Bhagavad Gita readable in Nepali language/ Sanskrit language.
SRD-BHAKTi SOCIAL SITES
FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/srdbhakti
TWITTER – https://twitter.com/srdbhakti
WEBSITE – https://www.ramd7.sg-host.com/
DONATION – https://www.ramd7.sg-host.com/donate

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Call for papers: "Prizes and Virtues: An Interdisciplinary Workshop" (Rome, April 10-11, 2017)
January 5, 2017
LUMSA University, Rome – April 10-11, 2017
To an economist, a prize, such as a golden medal, is merely a special type of incentive. Any other kind of social scientist would be perplexed by thinking of the Nobel Prize, or of the Medal of Honour, in these terms. In contemporary neoclassical economics, the concept of incentive is a primitive, similar to that of "utility", "price", "production" or "consumption", that all economists use but none feels the need to define: it is a foundation, or a corner stone, of the science of economics. However, if we tried to articulate what economists mean by incentives, we would probably find that they are considered as any "motivation" for adhering to and for complying with some form of contract. Once incentives are intended in this all-embracing way, it immediately follows that prizes and awards are considered simply as their sub-set. Yet many real world prizes and awards do not follow this contractarian, consequentialist logic and cannot be understood within this framework. A more complex understanding of human motivation–we believe–is needed to hold that prizes are indeed not incentives.
This search cannot ignore the history of economic and philosophical ideals. Competing theories of action and motivation were central topics of debate among eighteenth century philosophers. David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Adam Smith's theories implied much more complex social and economic motivations than mere self-interest, which can be opportunely diverted through an appropriate incentive. Within the Italian school of civil economy, Pietro Verri and Antonio Genovesi elaborated on the unintended consequences of public and institutional actions on individuals' behaviour. In the same line, Giacinto Dragonetti debated (at a distance) with Cesare Beccaria on the nature and effectiveness of punishments and awards in shaping agents' choices, both in private and public contexts. From the mid XIX century onward, economists became those social scientists most characterized by the purest anthropology (i.e. that of a human being acting in order to maximize individual utili!
ty), endorsing utilitarian philosophy and sacrificing previously complex understanding of human actions. In the XX century, microeconomics has continued this process of anthropological reductionism: management theory, as well as agency and contract theory, have distilled the all-embracing theory of incentives.
In the last three decades, behavioural and experimental economics are undermining from within this reductionist model of human behaviour. By taking serious account of concepts such as reciprocity, intrinsic motivation, inequality aversion, and fairness, they are making more complex interpretations of human action and motivation central again, albeit still within the utilitarian framework. In addition, there is an important contemporary philosophical stream of inquiry, the so-called virtue ethics, which competes with utilitarianism yet remains almost unknown to the economic profession. We argue that this research may provide further insights into human action, which seem otherwise intractable within the current anthropological framework, and can cast a new light on the nature and working of prizes as fundamentally different from incentives. In particular, prizes may well suit the rewarding of virtues, because incentive are known to be liable to cause motivation crowding-out.
To advance our understanding of the economics of prizes, awards and their link with virtues,we warmly invite economists, historians, philosophers, scholars in organization and management and other social scientists to answer to this call and submit an extended abstract (max 1000 words).
Keynote speakers:
– Robert Dur, Erasmus University Rotterdam (Economics)
– Bruno Frey, University of Basel (Behavioural Science)
– Ruth Grant, Duke University (Political Science)
"Pier Luigi Porta" Award:
Heirs will honour the memory of the past Heirs' President Professor Pier Luigi Porta by a special award to the best paper presented at this conference, a stream of research strongly supported by him before dying. Heirs invites all under fourty scholars to apply for this special "Pier Luigi Porta Award". The award consist in 2500 euro plus travel cost and accomodation for the conference. The prize will be assigned during the social dinner.
Deadline for submissions of extended abstracts (max 1000 words):
February 15th, 2017 (acceptance date: February 25th, 2017)
to: [email protected]
Organization committee: HEIRS & LUMSA University
Luigino Bruni (LUMSA), Vittorio Pelligra (U. Cagliari), Tommaso Reggiani (LUMSA), Matteo Rizzolli (LUMSA), Alessandra Smerilli (LUMSA).
[email protected]


text:
Dear family and friends,
Later this month it's my birthday. I'll be 33, like a long-playing record, or the temperate at which water boils. Or, interestingly (/uninterestingly), the one age I'm likely to share with Sgt Pepper. (In cat years, like. I'm not 4. Just to clarify.)
Later this month it's my birthday. I'll be 33, like a long-playing record, or the temperate at which water boils. Or, interestingly (/uninterestingly), the one age I'm likely to share with Sgt Pepper. (In cat years, like. I'm not 4. Just to clarify.)
Anyway, yes, birthday. There was only one thing I wanted for my
birthday: to make it there. And, provided I can avoid getting sawn in half,
tripping over boxes marked 'TNT', and keep away from falling pianos on the run-up
to the 30th, I think we can safely say I've done it. So what else do I want for
my birthday? (Aah, 33 years of 'I want doesn't get' utterly wasted eh, Mum and
Well, since you ask, there is
something I'd like, please. (Pah, as if my parents didn't drill politeness into
me from the womb.) Just one thing. And it's pretty simple. See, with my
birthday in mind, I've been looking at my life in terms of the things that I
need. Not the working-iPhone, Mulberry-handbag, three-pairs-of-Converse stuff,
because I'm a jammy bugger who's already got that covered that doesn't
matter, in the grand scheme of it all. And so, what I realised I really do need, then, is to continue my life in
the manner in which it's currently being lived: sometimes expectantly, sometimes
anxiously – but, ultimately, happily.
But where the hell can you find the wrapping paper for that, eh? Well,
that's kind of the point: I don't want you to buy wrapping paper. Or, for that
matter, a card. And more to the point, I don't want (sorry – wouldn't like) you to buy me a present,
either. Because, as suggested in the above paragraph, there's something I need
a lot more instead.
As no doubt you've heard from me over the last few months, I've been
spending some time – every Thursday, actually – at Trinity Hospice. (Yeah, I
shuddered the first time I heard that, too. Turns out, though, it could easily
rival Disneyland for that 'happiest place on earth' title. And if you don't
believe me, come along one Thursday and I'll be happy to prove you wrong.)
It took a rather unadvised handful of anti-anxiety pills to even get me
out the door on my first visit, so shot to shit was my confidence. But, as I
later explained in this blog post, Trinity's
mobility-bus driver Mick, who came to pick me up, assured me that the
happy-go-lucky girl I once was would be coaxed out again, with the help of the
day staff at Trinity's day centre, Mulberry Place.
Here we are: the Thursday club |
Thursdays have since become the jewel in the crown of my week. I've
benefited from physiotherapy, worked my way through some tough-ass
psychotherapy (and some much gentler counselling), learned new skills and made
new friends. And, granted, those friends are more than a few generations
years older than me, but they're mates in the truest sense of the word: we love
each other's company, we can talk about anything
(and equally, nothing), we constantly take the piss out of one another, gossip
like teenagers on a lunch break, we've got each other's backs, and have each
contributed towards the building of an enormously special dynamic. Seriously,
if we weren't all so bloody sick, we'd be the Avengers or something.
The aim of the staff at Mulberry Place is to "improve wellbeing by building the confidence of patients,
families and carers; helping them to find ways to cope with what may be an
uncertain and challenging future." All of this care – both at Mulberry Place
and Trinity's in-patient wing – is provided free of charge, yet only one third
of its funding comes from the government. Without the £6 million raised in
charity every year, Trinity Hospice simply wouldn't exist. (And £6 million is a
heckofa lot to ask for a local charity.)
Which brings me back to my birthday, and my wishes for it. I'm lucky
enough to have an incomparable husband, an exceptional family and truly
wonderful friends. I have a lovely flat, with a wonderful cat and a
fully-stocked fridge. I have the ability to work, enough money in the bank to
keep me in Tunnock's Teacakes (or, more to the point, mini Twister lollies –
The New Tunnock'sTM)
and, for now at least, I have my health. But despite the combined brilliance of
every thing and every person above, when I found myself in a sickeningly
depressing, post-treatment slump of terrifying uncertainty, only one thing was
able to bring me back to life: Mulberry Place, and all the superbly
rehabilitative, healing, restorative magic that goes on within its doors.
Thus when I said that what I'd like for my birthday is to continue my
life in the manner in which it's currently being lived, I'm sure you can
appreciate how integral Trinity Hospice is to that.
So, please: no presents or cards this year (I won't be in the country to accept them anyway) – how about visiting the below web page and giving whatever you might've spent to Trinity Hospice instead? (Or, more specifically, to Mulberry Place, which is where I have asked that any money raised on this page be apportioned.)
So, please: no presents or cards this year (I won't be in the country to accept them anyway) – how about visiting the below web page and giving whatever you might've spent to Trinity Hospice instead? (Or, more specifically, to Mulberry Place, which is where I have asked that any money raised on this page be apportioned.)
There is, quite genuinely, nothing else I need… nothing except my
Thursdays, and all the lovely things I already have in my life. So let's save
the festivity-type-stuff for another time, yeah? Maybe for when I make it to
34. Because hey, who wouldn't want to celebrate being the same age as the atomic number of selenium, or the dialling-code
for Spain, eh?
Oh aye. 34. We'll go mad then.
Oh aye. 34. We'll go mad then.
With all my love,
Happy-go-lucky Lisa x
PS: Obviously, not all of you reading this are in the circle obliged to
know my birth date – and thus, of course, I absolutely don't expect you to
contribute towards my birthday fund for Mulberry Place. What you might like to
do instead, however, is help me spread the word about how wonderful Trinity
are, whether by sharing this post, learning a little more about the hospice via their website, or even by offering your
services as a volunteer, here.


text:
"Simply Scales (and Arpeggios)" Sheet Music by Lynne Latham
This product does NOT support transposition or digital playback
This audition survival guide for teachers and students of all levels begins with one-octave major and minor scales to three sharps and flats. Two-octave scales are introduced subsequently, and the book concludes with three-octave scales to five sharps and flats. Two-octave blues scales to four sharps and flats are included as a bonus. Bowings and fingerings are not included in this workbook, which includes blank staves in the back for teachers to make suggestions. An introduction by Lynne Latham offers tips on how to practice scales and includes a lesson on scale construction and theory.


text:
Diphtheria is an illness caused by bacteria. There are two types:
Respiratory diphtheria. This type affects the throat, nose, and tonsils.
Skin (cutaneous) diphtheria. This type affects the skin.
It was a common childhood disease in the past. A vaccine against diphtheria has now made it very rare in the U.S. and other developed countries.
The illness is caused by bacteria called Corynebacterium diphtheria.
These bacteria can enter the body through the nose and mouth. This causes respiratory diphtheria. It's spread from person to person by breathing in droplets that contain diphtheria bacteria when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
The bacteria can also enter through a break in the skin. This can cause skin diphtheria. After being exposed to the bacteria, it often takes 2 to 4 days for symptoms to start.
Symptoms may be a bit different for each person. The most common symptoms are below.
Respiratory diphtheria. When a person is infected with diphtheria, the bacteria often grow in the throat. A membrane may form over the throat and tonsils. This causes a sore throat. Other symptoms may include:
Trouble breathing because of the membrane
Husky voice
Enlarged lymph glands
Fast heart rate
A harsh or high-pitched breathing sound (stridor) due to narrowing of the upper airways
Nasal drainage
Swelling of the roof of the mouth
Sore throat
Low-grade fever
A general feeling of discomfort (malaise)
In some cases, the membrane blocks breathing. A person may die if this happens. Other complications are caused by the diphtheria poison (toxin) released in the blood. This leads to heart or kidney failure and nerve problems.
Skin (cutaneous) diphtheria. With this type of diphtheria, the symptoms are often milder. They may include yellow spots or sores on the skin. These spots or sores may look like impetigo.
The symptoms of diphtheria may look like other health conditions. Always talk with your healthcare provider for a diagnosis.
Your healthcare provider will look for common symptoms. A diagnosis is confirmed by taking a throat swab to test for the bacteria. If the skin is affected, a sample from a skin sore can also be taken.
Treatment will depend on your symptoms, age, and general health. It will also depend on how severe the condition is.
If your healthcare provider thinks you have diphtheria, treatment will be started right away. Diphtheria is a very serious illness. Even with treatment, about 1 out of 10 people will die.
Antibiotics often work well to treat respiratory diphtheria before it releases toxins in the blood. An antitoxin can be given along with the antibiotic. In some cases, surgery may be done to put a breathing tube into the windpipe (tracheostomy). This is needed for severe breathing problems.
A person with diphtheria will often be kept in isolation until they are not contagious. This is often about 48 hours after starting antibiotics. When the course of antibiotics is done, you will have tests to make sure that the bacteria are not in your body anymore.
In their first year of life, children in the U.S. are given a triple vaccine that includes a vaccine for diphtheria, with several booster doses given later in childhood. This has made cases of diphtheria very rare in the U.S. But diphtheria still occurs in developing countries. So the vaccine is still needed in case of contact with a person with diphtheria (a carrier) who is visiting from another country. The vaccine is also needed for travel to an area where diphtheria is active.
The CDC advises that children need 5 DTaP shots. A DTaP shot is a combination vaccine that protects against three diseases. It protects against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis. The first three shots are given at ages 2, 4, and 6 months. The fourth shot is given between ages 15 and 18 months. The fifth shot is given when a child enters school at ages 4 to 6 years. At their regular checkups, preteens ages 11 or 12 should get a dose of Tdap. The Tdap booster protects against tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis.
Adults who did not get a Tdap booster as a preteen or teen should get a dose of Tdap. All adults should get a tetanus-diphtheria (Td or Tdap) booster every 10 years. But it can be given before the 10-year mark. Always talk with your healthcare provider for advice.
The CDC advises that pregnant women get a Tdap vaccine between 27 and 36 weeks of each pregnancy. This is so that antibodies can go to the baby before birth. Always talk with your healthcare provider for advice.
Diphtheria is an illness caused by bacteria. There are two types. The respiratory form affects the throat, nose, and tonsils. Skin diphtheria affects the skin.
It's spread by respiratory secretions, and by breathing in infected droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes. It can also be spread by touching a contaminated object.
Symptoms of the respiratory form include trouble breathing, fast heart rate, and sore throat. The symptoms of skin diphtheria are often milder. They may include yellow spots or sores on the skin.
Antibiotics are used to treat respiratory diphtheria before it releases toxins in the blood. An antitoxin can be given at the same time. Sometimes a tracheostomy is needed for severe breathing problems.
Tips to help you get the most from a visit to your healthcare provider:
Know the reason for your visit and what you want to happen.
Before your visit, write down questions you want answered.
Bring someone with you to help you ask questions and remember what your provider tells you.
At the visit, write down the name of a new diagnosis and any new medicines, treatments, or tests. Also write down any new instructions your provider gives you.
Know why a new medicine or treatment is prescribed and how it will help you. Also know what the side effects are.
Ask if your condition can be treated in other ways.
Know why a test or procedure is recommended and what the results could mean.
Know what to expect if you do not take the medicine or have the test or procedure.
If you have a follow-up appointment, write down the date, time, and purpose for that visit.
Know how you can contact your provider if you have questions.


text:
1. Location
SPLASH 2015 will be held at the Sheraton Pittsburgh Hotel at Station Square, on Pittsburgh's South Side. 300 W Station Square Dr, Pittsburgh, PA 15219, USA.
2. Airport
Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT), 1000 Airport Blvd, Pittsburgh, PA 15231
Approximately 20 miles NW of the venue.
Map Link: https://goo.gl/maps/L0vZU
3. Travel to the Venue from the Airport
Approximately 25 minutes, depending on the traffic
General directions:
- Follow signs out of airport to I376 E, towards Pittsburgh.
- After approximately 15 miles, take exit 69B
- Merge onto PA 51/US19 Truck S/Saw Mill Run Blvd
- Keep right to continue toward and then onto Woodruff St
- Slight right into Wabash Tunnel. Stay in the right lane; the tunnel ends in a T at West Carson street.
- Take a left onto W Carson Street, then your first right onto Commerce Dr (if you miss it, the next right, Station Square, will also work). Commerce Drive ends at the Sheraton Pittsburgh.
Map Link: https://goo.gl/maps/mcNnY
Pittsburgh Super Shuttle:
The Pittsburgh Super Shuttle can be reserved online and offers multiple options from shared vans to private vehicle pickup at prices starting from approximately $20. Reservations can be made online in advance, and riders should check in with a uniformed representative at the airport. The airport also has a self-serve kiosk for printing boarding passes and reserving rides, though you're better off reserving online to guarantee a timely pickup.
The shuttle ticket counter is located at the "Ground Transportation / Car Rental area" in the center of the baggage claim level.
Link: http://www.supershuttle.com/Locations/PittsburghPIT
The airport is probably the only place in Pittsburgh where one can reliably and quickly catch a regular cab. Expect to pay approximately $40-50 to the Sheraton, including tip. Pittsburgh cabs usually accept credit cards.
Within Pittsburgh especially, ride sharing services Lyft and Uber are much better options than traditional cabs and as of July 2015 are permitted to pick passengers up at the airport; see our section on travel within the city for more info.
Public Transit:
Public transit from the airport is not especially convenient, nor fast, but if you're feeling adventurous…
Expect to take between 1 and 1.5 hours to get from the airport to the hotel via public transit.
The 28X airport flyer bus runs every 30 minutes and leaves from the PIT airport lower level, Door 6. Take it 15 stops (approximately 40 minutes) to Liberty Ave at Wood Street, and then your options include:
1 Walk to Wood St at 6th ave to catch the 51 bus inbound; 5 stops to East Carson St at Station Square Station. Map link: https://goo.gl/maps/d6b7f
2 Walk to the Wood Street T station, and take the BLLB outbound Blue Line 3 stops to Station Square Station. Map Link: https://goo.gl/maps/MW2Jb
Station Square Station is very convenient to the hotel, approximately 0.2 miles away. See below (Traveling within Pittsburgh) for more information.
Map Link: https://goo.gl/maps/8QSKM
Other options are available and may be a few minutes faster, depending on when you arrive; we encourage you to consult Google Maps or the Port Authority's Trip Planner.
The 28X from the airport is $3.75, and require either cash or a Connect Card. Drivers do not make change. Always pay on entry to the 28X. If you plan to transfer to the metro, ask for a transfer before you pay. Transfers from the 28X to the lines that will take you to Station Square may cost $1.00, depending on your route.
For other bus lines, see the Pittsburgh Transit Authority's website for the rather arcane rules for how and when to pay (sometimes on entry, sometimes on exit). Fares vary by zone (usually $2.50, more to/from the airport, free within Downtown).
Bicycle (from DC)
We're mostly kidding, though we personally know CS faculty who have done it.
The Great Allegheny Passage (150 miles, http://www.atatrail.org/tmi/about.cfm) is considered one of the most beautiful rail trails in the world and, in combination with the C&O Canal Towpath (beginning in Cumberland, MD) creates a 334.5-mile route between Pittsburgh, PA and Washington, DC, entirely free from traffic and other motorized vehicles.
4. Travel Within the City
Orienting Yourself
Downtown Pittsburgh sits on a point between two rivers (Alleghany to the North, Monongahela to the South) that come together to form a third river (the Ohio), which then flows West away from the city. The city is composed of a number of neighborhoods that grew together, in many cases organically, leading to a somewhat-less-than-gridlike street grid (a situation that is not helped by the quantity and grade of the hills). Directions are thus often given with reference to rivers, bridges, or neighborhoods. We do not list all of the neighborhoods in this guide, but provide a few points of reference.
The SPLASH venue is on the "South Side", in Station Square. Points north of the Alleghany, including the football/baseball stadiums, are on the "North Side." The North/South "Hills" typically refer to the suburbs beyond the Sides.
The "East End" refers to neighborhoods East of downtown, between the rivers (past the Hill district), including Oakland, Squirrel Hill, Shadyside, and East Liberty. These neighborhoods host the main Pitt, CMU, and Chatham campuses, several major museums, and the Google office, among many other points of interest.
Sheraton Shuttle
The Sheraton runs a hotel shuttle within a 3-mile radius on a first-come, first-serve basis (pickup and drop-off). The last shuttle runs at 10:30 pm.
Taxis/Ride sharing
Ride sharing: Lyft and Uber are often cheaper (watch for surge pricing) and, more importantly, significantly more reliable than most taxi services in Pittsburgh. Despite the controversy associated with such services, they really are typically a better choice than the alternatives ("Everyone has their own stories about not being able to get a cab in Pittsburgh." —Bill Peduto, mayor of Pittsburgh). These services require the use of a smartphone, with the associated apps installed, and a credit card. Note that such they can also take you to and from the airport, though they cannot be reserved in advance.
Taxis do not typically roam the streets of Pittsburgh; the underlying dispatching systems are somewhat mysterious. When called by a hotel concierge, they usually arrive in a reasonable amount of time; when called otherwise, they will probably show up eventually.
- Yellow Cab: http://www.pghtrans.com/yellow_cab.cfm
- Pittsburgh Transit: http://www.pghtrans.com/
Light Rail and Bus
The Pittsburgh subway/light rail system is commonly referred to as the T. The Sheraton is located very near to the Station Square T station:
Map Link: https://goo.gl/maps/8QSKM
From Station Square, the T provides convenient and regular light rail access to downtown (several stops) as well as two stops on the North side (near several sites of interest, including the stadiums and the Warhol museum). Map Link: http://www.portauthority.org/paac/apps/maps/TLines.pdf
During the day, it runs every 8-10 minutes from Station Square to downtown.
Rides within downtown on bus or light rail are free; fares beyond that depend on zone and method of payment, see Fare Information. If you intend to transfer, ask for the transfer before paying your fare.
The Pittsburgh Port Authority also runs a number of bus lines. Consult their website (http://www.portauthority.org/) for scheduling, trip planning, route, and fare information (when and how much to pay can get a bit complicated if you're traveling between more than 1 zone, which is usually only true if you're coming from/going to the airport).
Note that the stated bus schedules (including those referenced by google maps transit directions, which are otherwise very useful for navigating the system) should not be considered accurate except in terms of approximately how frequently one can expect a stop to be serviced. However, the Port Authority is in the process rolling out real-time tracking on the bus system, and a number of lines are currently covered (http://truetime.portauthority.org/bustime/home.jsp). This tracking system is largely accurate.
Note that the inclines (Duquesne Incline and Monongahela, right behind Station Square) are considered part of the public transit system and thus standard fares apply. See our Pittsburgh Guide for more information.
Common Destinations and Neighborhoods via Public Transit
Downtown (get off at Wood St at 6th Ave stop) (10 minutes total from the Sheraton, depending on time of day): by light rail, any train inbound (approximately every 10 minutes); Wood Street is the third stop from Station Sq. By Bus: any of the 40, 43, 44, 48, 51, Y46, Y47, or Y49, inbound to downtown, approximately 4 stops.
South Side/E. Carson Street (approximately 15 minutes from the Sheraton, depending on when you catch the bus): From E Carson St at Station Square Station, the 48 Bus Outbound-Arlington Southside Works to South Hills Junction, makes several stops along E. Carson Street depending on where you're going (16-21 stops from Station Square).
Oakland/Cathedral of Learning/University of Pittsburgh/CMU: Get to downtown (6th ave at wood st, via light rail, bus, or on foot), and then any of the 61s or 71s outbound (A,B,C,D on either)
Carnegie Museum of Natural History (an estimated 30 minutes from the Sheraton, accounting for transfers): same as Cathedral of Learning, but try to be on a 61. If you end up on a 71 instead, get off at 5th and Bellefield and walk a block towards Forbes Ave.
Strip District: From Wood St at Sixth Ave, walk ¼ a block to Liberty ave at Wood St and take the 86, 88, or 91 bus approximately 5-9 stops (getting off at or around Liberty Ave Opp 21st or 25th st). (estimated about a half hour from the Sheraton, accounting for transfers)
North Side (stadiums, Andy Warhol Museum, Casino, Children's Museum and Science Center): Any of the inbound light rail trains from Station Square to North Side Station (5 stops).
To get from the venue to downtown, your best bet is to cross the Smithfield Street Bridge and use Forbes Ave to get to Market Square. Google estimates 20 min. The other downtown streets also work. We don't recommend the Fort Pitt bridge, as the sidewalk is narrow, the traffic heavy, and the pedestrian onramp hard to find, but it will take you directly to the point, if that's your goal. The West End bridge is similarly not the most comfortable walking experience.
From the venue, The Three Rivers Heritage Trail moves eastward is nice for walking and jogging; it eventually leads to Carson Street, with many restaurants and some shopping, and the Southside Works. Heading that way to the Hot Metal Bridge (approximately 2.7 miles one way) and coming back to the venue from the other side of the river can be a nice loop for runners.
All four downtown bridges that crossing the Allegheny (the river to the North) are very walkable.
Bike Pittsburgh provides helmets and locks with bike rentals, as well as information on self-guided tours and pleasant cycling locations in and around downtown, and is conveniently located across the river (not far!) from the conference venue. It is easily accessible either on foot, or via T:
On foot:
Via subway:
Healthy Ride PGH provides bike sharing services and stations around Pittsburgh, allowing pickup/dropoff from different sites. Its website can show you the nearest site to your current location with available bikes; new sites are being added regularly. Note that as of August 2015, helmets are not provided.
Driving in Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh drivers are usually friendly, though it's worth being aware of certain city-specific conventions:
- Intersections of more than 2/4 roads. 5- and 6- ways are common where neighborhood boundaries have run together. This can render directions somewhat confusing, as they may include comments like "don't take the leftest left, it's the second-leftest-left."
- The "Pittsburgh Left." Many intersections lack protected left-hand turns. Natives wanting to turn left at busy intersections without protected arrows have a convention of pulling ahead slightly during the red light and performing a very quick left turn when it turns green; only the first such car will do so, and usually only after establishing eye contact with the first driver in oncoming traffic. However, it's good to be aware of the practice so as to avoid accidents.
- Driving lanes that unexpectedly turn into parking lanes. If it feels as though the cars ahead of you are parked, rather than stopped at the light, they probably are.


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O'Hara's Half Pint Tulip Glass X 2
Enjoy O'Hara's Irish craft beer in these official O'Hara's half-pint tulip glasses.
2 x 10 oz. tulip shaped glass
Additional information
Weight | 0.42 kg |
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Tags: beer half pint glass, irish craft beer glass, O'hara's beer cup
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