MEZUZAH OF BRONZE
KIELCE
UL. 1 MAJA 68
$255.00
| Size | 7,48” long / 1,75” wide |
|---|---|
| Material | Bronze |
| Class | Rare |
Description
The trace of mezuzah
new mezuzah - bronze cast of the trace
The story hidden behind
the home
A tenement house from the early 20th century was built at the growing Starowarszawska outskirt street, with street number 55 later changing to 55a. In the 1930s, however, after the street name change, it was already the address of 68, Piotrkowska.
Among the approx. 400 mostly Jewish businesses on this street (and its suburban extension) here were two: Jan Wójcikiewicz’s bakery and the Mosze Borensztajn’s cloth shop. In the Great Depression era, this was not a most prosperous living zone:
“(…) stretches of small, shabby houses and dirty tenements, the ground floor speckled with displays of Jewish stores. Barrels of herrings reigned on the sidewalk, and brooms, brushes, shovels and baskets hung on the wooden doorframes. The street was littered, but it was teeming with life, the throaty sounds of Jewish words reaching the ears (…). Walking further down Piotrkowska Street, one saw similar houses lined with stores – trash on the sidewalks, bustling, filthy everywhere. The roadway in a deplorable state (…). Still, life was going on in the street: women in front of the gates, drying bedding, squirming red pillows, children squatting and eating puffs of bread (…). The farther away from the market, the less commerce and more poverty there was.“
Next door, some grocery stores were run by Mordka Cymrot, Kajla Sas, Ksyl Majtlis, Róża Mancz, Malka Machtyngier and M. Wajryb, while Szmul Wajsberg (who was also a resident of the today’s tenement with mezuzah trace) sold coal, Alexander Zindel Hirszman – hardware goods, Paltil Firschtenberg – wood, Israel Schpiro – thread, candy by Icek Bornsztein. Moszek Feldman ran a soda water and lemonade factory, Ruchla Fajner and Moszek Szlezyngier opened a “galanterja” (haberdashery store), there were also a tailor P. Weinsztat, bootmaker Nuchim Zajfman, hosiery maker Rajza Insolstein, clothier Git Majtlis, and a portrait studio by Estera Szlezyngier.
The property was owned by the Pacanow-born Mojżesz Jakub Bomsztajn (b. 1890), son of Icek Majer and Bluma and a brother of Fajga Machtyngier. It was him with Machtyngier that he first owned the 84 Bodzentyńska St. plot and the property at 4 Planty St., where his first wife Fajga Towa Rozenblum (b. 1885, daughter of Jachiel Aszer and Sura Cukier) and a mother of at least 5 of his children (Gita, Motel, Chaja Zisa, Rachela and Brucha), died in 1923. Mojżesz remarried her sister, Estera Rozenblum (b. 1904), and they had another 3 children (Hela, Sara and Jechiel). Bomsztajn sold “ell goods” – fabrics sold by ell (that is how they called a strip for measuring fabrics, in Poland it was 576 mm long). By then, he was already the owner of 55, Starowarszawska St., as well as a shareholder in the indebted Property Owners’ Cooperative Bank in Kielce.
From the beginning, Jewish names ran through the tenement. In addition to the owner’s Bomsztajn family and the coalman Wajsberg and his wife Zalma, among others who lived there were: Wulf Domblat (Dąblat), a merchant, with his wife Hinda, Józef and Amalia Jablonski, tradeswomen Idesa Rajchking and Czarna Slonim, shoemaker Josek Tajtelbaum, Dawid Azja Guldblit, the Goldblums (Dawid, Ida and Blima), Abram and Sala Judenherc, Josek Mann, Penkwe Najmidel and Hudera Najmidel, Aniela Twardowska, the extensive Kaufman family (B. Wolf, Basia Nicha, Chana, Majer, Toba, Szajndla, Gitla, Sala, Melka and Icek Jankiel), as well as: Jakub, Tauba and Chaja Ciepiolowski, Berek and Chana Dziura (or Dziurawy), Chil Eisenberg, Szlama Symcha and Chawa Chaja Hajman, Rafal and Mindla Jakubowicz, the Oberman family (Rywka, Alta, Mordka Lejb and Ruchla), Icek Majer and Szajna Rabinowicz, Szulim and Mariem Rozenblum, Icek, Fajgla and Ruchla Goldfarb, Pesla and Mycha Laskowski, Mira Strawczynska, Jacheta Lis, Fajwel and Itka Jaskiel, Stanislaw Semiczek, the Strosberg family (Dwojra, Chana and Pesla Mariam), Lejbuś Suwleski, Manela and Ruchla Zelctregier, and the Zelcers (Pesla, Hendla and Moszek Chaim).
During the war, making part of the Kielce Ghetto, the tenement was occupied by, among others, Siedlce’s Chaja Łaja Wałach and Brucha Bomsztajn – a daughter of Mojżesz. The latter and his wife spent the wartime in Chmielnik and died in Treblinka.
Shortly after the war, the tenement was inhabited by, among others, Mojżesz Kleinstein (b. 1927), son of Szmul Kleinstein and Brucha Bomsztajn, a prisoner of the Auschwitz concentration camp and a post-war witness of the Commission in Oświęcim to Investigate the German-Nazi Crimes.
Discovered in 2015, the priceless mezuzah trace at the building backdoors was irretrievably lost around 2024 due to renovations.
Mojżesz Jakub Bomsztajn was killed in Treblinka Death camp
Historical research by
Jan Wąsiński
jan.wasinski@gmail.com
