Imagine living in Lubaczow from the year 1830 forward, and though you and your family could not, for so many reasons, go to Jerusalem to be a Thora scholar, you wanted to support those from Galicja who had gone there.
The Charities of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness - Kolel
”Chibas Yerusholayim” (Jerusalem) of Galicia
“Founded in the year 5590(1830) by the Gaonim & the Tzadikim of Galicia to
support & strengthen the Yishuv in our Holy Land”
Despite the harsh conditions in the Holy Land, those Galicjan scholars stayed there with their families, dedicating their lives to studying the Holy Scriptures.
So back in Lubaczow and in other places in Galicja, families kept small boxes - pushke - in their homes, adding money that would be sent to Kolel Galicja in Jerusalem to support those who lived there . Money needed to support families, widows, orphans, supporting young women to get married. A few times a year, a trusted local person would walk to the different Jewish families and collect the money in those metal boxes, and then send the money to Jerusalem.
Each donation noted with the name of the donor and the money donated.
Once I met Shlomo Helsinger, originally from Lubaczow, in Kfar Saba. Through his amazing memory, he looked at the list and described how the collector had walked from one home to the other, first floor, second floor, crossing the street, sometimes noting that so and so family was poor and could not give any more. He had the map of Jewish Lubaczow in his head - after close to 60 years since he left Lubaczow.
Kolel Galicja, still exists on Mea Shearim Street 120 in Jerusalem. I have been fortunate to visit a few times. It is like walking back in time, sensing history.
In their archives they have some of the donor lists from the 1920's and 1930's. For Lubaczow the lists were from 1930's.
If your family came from Lubaczow, lived there in the 1930's and would be likely to support the religious students living in Jerusalem, and you are visiting Jerusalem, it may be worth making an appointment for a visit to Kolel Galicja. Dress appropriately!
In this donors' lists from Lubaczow, I decided to add the given names of the female donors:
ALTMAN
BELZ
BOGNER
FISCHLER Kreinze
FRAENKEL
GOTLIEB Rachel
GROSS
HALPER Ester
HERZBERG Ester
HOFFMAN
KNOPF
KONIG Lea
KREMERMAN
MUELLER
REINFELD Hendel
RETTIG
ROST
SCHMIDT Scheindel
TEMPELMAN
WEINROTH/WEINRATH
Three of these women appear on the Yizkor list for Lubaczow, so it is most likely they were murdered during the Holocaust:
FISCHLER Kreinze
HERZBERG Ester
REINFELD Hendel
Kolel Galicja's website in Hebrew https://www.hibat.org/
An example of donors' lists from Bukowsko:
https://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Bukowsko/charity.htm
