Mitla Pass - Leon Uris [80]
At home in Wolkowysk, the family situation changed for the better when my father was again able to resume his profession as shohet. With the war on, his wholesalers had contracts with the Army and he was butchering chickens around the clock. My father was a good shohet but nobody would appreciate that except, in a strange way, the chickens. The birds he slaughtered were not kosher of course, but good enough for the Russians.
TONIGHT OPENING MEETING OF THE POALE ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF RUSSIA REGIONAL CONFERENCE. KEYNOTE SPEAKER, NATHAN ZADOK WHO WILL RECOUNT HOW HE SECRETLY COVERED THE MENDEL BEILISS TRIAL IN KIEV. A daring account of one young Poale Zionist and how he secretly interviewed the evil Pranaites.
Perhaps I made a slight exaggeration about my participation in the Beiliss trial, but people were coming halfway over the city to hear me speak and there were delegates from all over the eastern part of the country. What’s the sin? What’s the crime if I make them feel proud?
I cannot hardly describe the sensation of approaching the rostrum after thunderous applause. Thousands out there and me, little Nathan Zadok of Wolkowysk, the youngest delegate to the entire convention.
“Comrades! Fellow workers! Fellow Zionists! Before I speak to you about the Mendel Beiliss trial, I should like to touch on the point that all Poale Zionists should be concerned about. Today, all over Russia, we see unfolding a sinister plot of Lenin’s agents infiltrating into one Poale Zion chapter after another, trying to take over the leadership or wreck the structure of the only organization that spells liberty for the Jews. When I speak of labor and socialism and Zionism, one organization alone holds aloft our banner. Poale Zion! Lenin would have you believe that overnight a thousand years of terror against the Jewish people is over. Lenin is a liar. Lenin tells us of a land where White Russians and Ukrainians and Lithuanians are going to reverse the course of their history and embrace us with open arms, after bashing our skulls for centuries. Lenin is a liar. [Now the crowd was chanting “Lenin is a liar” on cue.] Lenin says there will be freedom and equality for the Jewish people. I say that will happen when I grow onions in the palm of my hand! The only path for the Jewish people is the path out of Russia to join our people in the redemption of our homeland—Eretz Israel! Zion! Palestine! [On mention of any of these three names, the people go berserk, so I made certain I spoke all three words in the opening of the address.] Our feet must follow the dictates of our souls and we must blaze a path to our promised land now and we must make settlements so that when this war is over, hundreds of thousands of Jews will follow our example, yours and mine.”
To say that my address was received enthusiastically is to be overly modest.
I CONFESS that I was still extremely bashful and inexperienced when it came to the opposite sex. Whenever I was sitting like a cripple in a living room, I could only wish I had the same dynamics as I had at the rostrum. I got many invitations for dinners and, I must admit, many flirtatious glances were cast in my direction, even though most of the girls were taller than me.
In the girl business, I had a break. My Uncle Bernie also owned the cinema in Minsk and I had free admission at all times.
If things were looking bright for me in Minsk, they weren’t looking so bright for the Russian Army. By late 1915 they were retreating with heavy losses. Much of Poland and the Baltic states was already under control of the German Army.
We could tell that casualties were heavy by the number of bloody uniforms being sent to the various tailor shops to be cleaned, patched, and reissued.
Just how heavy were Russia’s losses came crashing into my life like a thunderbolt on a Saturday