their duties after receiving the first request for payment. Appeals submittedby rabbis were almost universally refused.
[2] I had the opportunity to write such an appeal for the rabbi from Stawiski in the Kolno area, based on a comprehensive memorandum in Yiddish.
In that rather extensive memorandum, the rabbi points to the fact that the services of a rabbi, unlike a priest of other religions, are optional for an Orthodox Jew, and that such a Jew can fulfil all obligations imposed by the Jewish ritual without the assistance of a rabbi. After the closure of the community, in which he only served as a clerk, the rabbi is now living on donations of the faithful. The only source of income – keeping vital records and income from shkhite,24 are now lost.
The rabbi further writes in his memorandum that the ranks of practicing followers of religion are steadily dwindling as a result of anti-religious propaganda. The remaining few religious Jews are mostly poor and elderly.
In conclusion, he is asking to be exempt from income tax; otherwise he will have to step down from his rabbinical office. The tax authorities (after consultation with the secretary of the party) refused the rabbi’s appeal.
2. In offices, factories, etc., people worked on Saturdays and on holidays. Failure to come to work on holidays was treated as progul25 and such anemployee was sacked.
The law of 26 June 1940 changed the penalty for progul. After that, leaving work without reason was punished with imprisonment.
Illustration
In Stawiski in the Kolno area, a shoemaking artel [cooperative] was operating. Incidentally, the members of the artel were exclusively Jewish. According to the artel law, when the artel was founded, the board decided to establish
