After 5 May 1941, Warsaw ghetto, author unknown, ”וואס האט דאס
לאדזער יידנטום פארלוירן מיטן פארברענען [פון] אלטשטעטישן בית-המדרש?“
[What did Łódź Jewry lose with the burning of the Altshtot bet hamidrash?].
History and significance of the old town bet hamidrash.
[1] What did Łódź Jewry lose with the burning of the Altshtot bet hamidrash?²⁹²
One might suppose that this bet hamidrash was like all the other prayer houses
in Łódź. For that reason, it is particularly necessary to dwell on it somewhat.
As is known, in the immediate prewar period, the city of Łódź was a place of
the ingathering of Jews from all of Congress Poland. Whoever had the slightest
possibility of leaving a small shtetl decided, without further ado, to move
to Łódź. Some did so because of their grown-up children, who would be able to
make a living in a large industrial city. Others were motivated by constant
persecution in the form of the boycotting and picketing of Jewish shops and
street stalls, which Poles began to conduct quite openly and zealously just
before the war, clearly intent on liberating trade in their country from Jewish
hands because they imagined the country was theirs forever.
All this resulted in a very large proportion of provincial Jews moving from
their small towns and shtetls to a big city (Łódź was very suitable) where such
behaviour could not yet be engaged in so openly. In Łódź you would constantly
come across tradesmen from half of Poland who, as strangers in the city, had
to [. . .] themselves as best they could. In the early morning you would encounter
such Jews [2] hurrying to the Altshtot bet hamidrash, where they formed the
hashkama²⁹³ minyan. And for all the provincial Jews who had recently settled
in Łódź — before each found his place in a suitable prayer house where he and his children could live their lives, each in his own manner — the Altshtot bet hamidrash was meanwhile the most suitable place to pray.
It was an animated scene. As soon as you got inside, you had the impression
— forgive the comparison! — that you were at a market fair, queuing up
292 The Altshtot bet hamidrash was built in the 1860s and rebuilt 1932–1933, north of the synagogue at Wolborska Street 20, closer to Żydowska Street.
293 (Hebrew) early rising, the first prayer quorum of the day.
