1982 — 1st edition. Original cloth. 4to, x + 205 (English) + 396 (Yiddish) + v pages. Illustartions throughout. Bialystok's strength rests only in its extraordinary features but in its normal characteristics as well. The fifty thousand living there are doing reasonably well financially and also spiritually, like other Jews in Poland. Still, Bialystok was the first, at the end of the German occupation after World War I, to abolish its autocratic community leadership, replacing it with an exemplary democratic system that will do down in history. The Hebraist movement in Bialystok was only a part of the diffuse cultural advance in all of Poland. But when Bialystok established its Hebrew Gymnasium (high school) it was the rank and file Jews, not the radical Hebraists, who erected it. The tall, sturdy building evoked the admiration of the local community as well as of visitors from near and far, especially since it could accommodate seven hundred students. The Yiddish influence in Bialystok was also only a part of the Yiddish movement in all of Poland and in the entire world. But with the exception of Wilno, no other Jewish town besides Bialystok was able to fashion such an intricate Yiddish school network, let alone a high school, despite difficult circumstances. The orphan problem became one of the most critical social issues in Bialystok after World War I. Surely no other city had someone like Mrs. Rabinowicz, who, when the situation became next to hopeless, was the only leader in all of Poland who went to America to obtain the necessary assistance for these unfortunate children. It is possible to mention hundreds of other examples of community and private initiatives in Bialystok which clearly depict its special atmosphere of effervescing creativity a contagion transmitted from one to another compelling everyone to outdo his neighbour. Such is the breeding ground for important accomplishments. (Pejsach Kaplan, a prominent Bialystoker writer and social activist) SUBJECT(S) : Jews -- Poland -- Bialystok. World War, 1939-1945 -- Jews. Memorial books (Holocaust) . Jewish (1939-1945) Ethnic relations. OCLC: 19303249. Ex library with usual marks, inscription on front end page by Max Ranter, Honorary Chairman of the Book Committee. Very Good Condition Overall (YIZ-16-2A)xx
