I have chosen one small chapter in this episode packed book
of over three hundred fascinating pages, to give the readers
a small taste, a small foothold in the Looking-Glass of
Yesteryear, of over fifty-five years ago.
"Pages of Yesteryear" takes us back in time to a very pivotal
period in Jewish history: post-Holocaust, threshold- State of
Israel. In this historical chronicle, based upon a diary of a
young girl as she turns woman, we become involved in the
turbulent events of those times, as we, the reader, might
have seen and experienced it.
We relive the austerity times, the acclimatization of a
family that had been wealthy in Eastern Europe, but had to
make the best of the situation in a small new country for the
sake of their love of the Land. The founding of the first
Bais Yaakov school in Tel Aviv by Rabbi Scharansky is the
focus of this particular story, but the book is full of
keystone events, like the establishment of the State, the
helpless struggles of a small activist chareidi
element trying to reclaim religious children, the Yaldei
Teheran, to the fold, and many more.
As an important documentary, it reads flowingly, is very
poignant, moving, absorbing. Here, then, is
Chapter Seven
An Emergency Meeting
The Bais Yaakov school in Tel Aviv had become a fact. The
girls attended it, prepared their homework, complained about
inconsiderate teachers who left no free time for other
things... but the brunt of maintaining this bona fide
institution, which rested upon Rabbi Scharansky, became an
increasingly difficult burden.
He did his best to stint and reduce expenditures, and
consequently, his responsibilities were varied and many.
He was the ever-ready substitute teacher for anyone who was
unable to come. He similarly served as the handyman,
financial secretary and fundraiser, and principal. His
personal property [with which he had launched the school]
gave out and all the valuables he had once possessed were
sold to keep the school afloat, but the institution still
demanded more and more money.
At one point, Rabbi Scharansky thought up the idea of holding
"A Rally of Tel Aviv Women for the Sake of Bais Yaakov."
The Yasha Hefetz auditorium in Tel Aviv was rented and the
women were invited to attend through large printed posters
plastered throughout the streets. The emergency rally was
scheduled for Tuesday evening, the 19th of Teves, 5696
(1936). And the women came. A special section had been set
aside for the students, and they came as well.
Rabbi Scharansky opened the meeting and called upon R' Shmuel
Greineman, the honorary president, to speak. R' Greineman,
brother-in-law of the Chazon Ish, took the podium and began
describing the low level of chinuch and the so-called
progressive approaches which the secular education was
adapting. "These ways are proving to be disastrous to our
spiritual life and have created a vast schism separating
parents from their children. It is chareidi parents
who show no interest in the future of their children who are
responsible for this situation! I call upon every person who
wants a pure education for his children to enroll his sons in
chareidi institutions and his daughters in Bais
Yaakov!"
[A student of the school was then asked to speak.]
"...When I came to this country two years ago, the school
numbered only seven students in two classes. I smallmindedly
assumed that such a school would not survive. I did not yet
realize that a bit of light can repell a great deal of
darkness. I was enrolled in a secular municipal school, but
how disappointed I was with the liberal education and the
hefkeirus.
"In the middle of the school year, my parents transferred me
to Bais Yaakov. How surprised I was to see how rapidly it had
developed. Today we number seven classes and one hundred and
eighty students, may they increase.
"Don't make the same mistake. Don't sin with your daughters,
for you will be held responsible for their `blood.' Do not be
enticed by the secular schools, where no tuition is charged,
for you are sabotaging the very vineyard of Israel, your own
homes. These may be very harsh words, but my heart bleeds
when I see my former friends and what has become of them in
the permissive atmosphere of the secular schools they
attend..."
Rabbi Dovid Tzvi Zilberstein was the last speaker. With his
oratory gift and fiery fervor, he roused the women to do what
the women of Italy had done recently for the good of their
people [and what the good Jewish women had done when asked
to contribute to the Mishkon]. They had divested
themselves of their jewelry and donated it all. The words he
spoke penetrated deep into the hearts of his listeners and
they immediately began removing rings, bracelets, pendants
and necklaces and earrings and bringing them up to the table
on the dais.
The jewelry piled up high on the table without anyone knowing
who had donated what. The young students were astounded. They
looked at the glittering gold, refusing to believe their own
eyes. It seemed completely unreal.
[Ayala, the heroine of this book, upon whose diary it was
based, wrote:]
"It all seemed like a marvelous dream. But it was real!.. We
were now able to say that the Jewish people are not without
their Protector, lo almon Yisroel. Indeed, even today,
in our very city of Tel Aviv, there are righteous women who
are prepared to renounce their gold for the sake of
Torah!"
The school did not fold up. Rabbi Scharansky had been given a
reprieve, thanks to all the wealth that had been donated at
that emergency rally.
[And the good women had proven, as throughout history, and
especially in the Generation of the Desert, that they knew
when to withhold their gold - as in the eigel - and
when to remove it all for the glory of Hashem.]
