The Man Who Barked

Fedor Adrianovich Jeftichew was born in 1868 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Like his father before him, he suffered from Hypertrichosis – an abnormal growth of hair on the body. He was brought to the United States in 1884 by famous showman Phineas Taylor Barnum [05.07.1810-07.04.1891]. Barnum hired sixteen year old Fedor as a sideshow performer and had him bark and growl at viewers as part of his act. He created a background story, according to which a hunter had discovered young Fedor and his father Adrian living in a cave in the forests of Kostmara, and renamed him Theodore Petrof. Theodore had, according to this story, gone to school for a short time, but did not posses the required faculties. In reality, Fedor spoke fluent English, Russian and German. He became known as “Jo-Jo the dog faced boy” and traveled extensively through Europe, north America and Australia. Fedor died from Pneumonia in Salonica, Greece, on January 31, 1904. The Russian clergy refused to have his body autopsied.

Fedor in his deathbed

The Last Voyage of Castor

One hundred and seventeen years ago, little known steamship S.S. Castor vanished with her entire crew and passengers on her second journey from Greenland to Copenhagen. She was never heard from again and was never found.

Screw steamer Castor was built in 1886 by O. M. Olsens in Arendal, Norway. She was 145’3 ft long, with a beam of 30’8 ft and 17’6 ft in depth. Her hull was built from Oak and Pine. 

S.S. Castor

Because her shipyard had been bankrupt, Castor remained uncompleted until 1889 when O. B. Sørensen bought her. In 1893 the ship was purchased by A/S Oceana in Sandefjord and for the following year partook in Norwegian explorer Carl Anton Larsen’s [07.08.1860-08.12.1924] first expedition to the Antarctic Ocean alongside barques Jason and Hertha. Larsen discovered uncharted land and islands during this voyage, including Foyn Coast, Robertson Island and Oscar II Coast.

Hvidbjørnen in Julianehaab

In Februar 1896 Castor was purchased and transferred to Denmark by the Royal Greenlandic Trading Company (Den Kongelige Grønlandske Handel). She was intended to serve as a replacement for screw steamer Hvidbjørnen that had been lost a year earlier. Hvidbjørnen was trapped in cliffs off Nunarsuit, Greenland, on April 12, 1895 and was crushed by icebergs. She sank in waters no deeper than 8 fathoms, and was evacuated with no loss of life. Some of her former crew was rehired for Castor.

Castor sailed from Copenhagen to Julianehaab for the first time on March 15, 1896. She safely returned two months later, and prepared for her second journey.  On August 21, 1896, she set sail to Greenland once again. On board were twenty crewmen, lead by the experienced Captain Sartor. The steamer arrived at Julianehaab [Qaqortoq] on September 28, and for the coming week her cargo was unloaded and loaded with Greenlandic goods. Five passengers boarded Castor in Julianehaab, including one woman and two children. 

Captain Sartor

The steamer set sail on October 7, at 6 o’clock, and was reported to have safely exited the bay. She was headed towards the Danish colony of Ammasalik in the eastern coast, her last stop in Greenland. Several weeks later, when she had not yet arrived in Copenhagen, it was calmly assumed that Castor had been forced to winter in this remote town, and she was listed accordingly in the protocols. Consequently, she was expected to arrive at Copenhagen in Spring. When she failed to show up, an order was given out to ships Ceres and Thorvaldsen heading for Greenland to collect information about Castor's whereabouts. Only in October 1897 did word arrive from Ammasalik - Castor had docked there, but she left shortly after. This confirmed what had long been feared: Castor had been lost at sea. The twenty five crewmen and passengers were announced dead, and the ship was heavy-heartedly crossed out from the protocol.

But the death toll did not end at that. According to stories, grief stricken Georg Valdemar Rassow committed suicide in 1898 by casting himself overboard where he believed his wife and two young children had drowned. He had sent them to Denmark for schooling. Tragically, many of the crewmen on board the steamer were married and had children. To this day, no one knows the exact fate of the Castor. It is believed that she sank somewhere in Baffin Bay after colliding with an iceberg. 

Known crew members:

Captain Claus Bonde Sartor [08.09.1845 Åstrup - 10.1896]

1st Officer Jens O. P. C. Berentz [ - 10.1896]

1st Mechanic I. O. A. Jørgensen [ - 10.1896]

Sailor Sophus Petersen [ - 10.1896]

Known passengers:

Carl Ringsted [15.05.1863 København - 10.1896]

Agnes Kirstine Johanne Rassow née Hansen [ - 10.1896]

Rassow (child) [ - 10.1896]

Rassow (child) [ - 10.1896]

The Miracle Worker from Lomborg

Wise folk, or Kloge folk in Danish, were practitioners of folk medicine and beneficent magic who used herbal remedies to heal sick or bewitched people. They were common in Scandinavia even after the introduction of modern medicine, especially in rural areas. One of the last wise men of Denmark was Kjeld Bjerg. Although few may remember his name nowadays, in the distant past he was quite famous.

Kjeld Pedersen Bjerg was born in Lomborg on October 13, 1821. His parents, farmer Peder Nielsen Bjerg and housewife Mariane Pedersdatter, had no particular affiliation to white witchcraft. Kjeld was the fourth of their eight children. He grew up at the family farm in Storebjerg and remained there throughout his adult life. In 1859 he married Oleane Andersdatter and had a flock of children. When he grew old he passed the farm down to his eldest son and built himself a property called Lillebjerg nearby.

Kjeld Bjerg

Kjeld was a peculiar character. Short and thin, he had black hair and an unusual hawk-face with small eyes, a large hooked nose and a pointy chin. This was, as some joked, due to the blood of trolls and gnomes flowing through his veins. He was also, by all accounts, a kindhearted and well meaning man. He never charged his patients, but accepted a few coins for his expenses when offered. Most often he was content with a cup of coffee or a piece of bread in return for his services. 

Travelers who passed through Storebjerg were always invited to coffee by Oleane. They were seated at one end of a long table in the living room, with Kjeld sitting at the other end. Oleane or their sons lead the conversation, while the wise man was taciturn. But once it revolved around illness, old Kjeld would come to life and recount how he had cured this or that disease. Should someone ask him what treatment he used, he just cryptically replied “I gave them what they needed”.

Kjeld and his carriage

Patients would seek Kjeld at his home in the farm or send for him, especially on Sundays or holidays. Then he would mount his single-horse phaeton and travel around the country on his own. He was cautious in prescribing a treatment for his patients. “If I suffered from that, I would…” he would carefully say in his amusing dialect. He then gave them cumbersome instructions as to how they should apply his medicine: “use only the ring finger on your left hand… rub only towards the nose… drink only during a waning moon… not thirteen or fifteen drops, but only fourteen…” and so on and so forth. His remedies were mostly made up of herbs he personally picked and kept in labeled boxes in his attic. He often used Arnica Montana. Though countless people were among his patients, Kjeld never treated his own children and sent for the physician in Lemvig whenever they fell ill.

Arnica
 Montana

Kjeld treated anything from bewitched animals to tumors and sprained limbs. He was once called to a farm which couldn't bake bread. The owner had tried buying rye and flour from different places, and even let different women handle the dough. Kjeld drilled a hole in the dough trough and stuck a cork in it. What else he did is unknown, but after his visit the farm could finally bake bread. Another time, he reportedly cured a man from Halgård who suffered from a head tumor even physicians couldn't treat. He also treated the wife of Landsting member Rasmussen Byskovs, who suffered from a large lump on her leg. Kjeld put a split pigeon's breast on it, and told her to call upon him again if the treatment didn't work. It didn't, but when he returned Kjeld read her an enchantment during a new moon, and the lump disappeared. Sometimes, when he was truly unable to help his patients, Kjeld would refer them to his colleague in Ulfborg, wise man Anders Christensen Ulfkjær [13.04.1812-27.03.1886]. But evidently Kjeld’s medicine often worked, or at least people believed it did. He never ran short of work. After his death, a notebook with some of the remedies he used was discovered. Here are a few: 

◙ Remedy for Cestoda: Drink Shallot in vinegar 2-3 times a day according to need.

◙ Remedy for Arthritis: Boil potatoes in water and wash the painful area. "Best way to strengthen sinews".

◙ Remedy for Arthritis according to Dybdal's receipt: mix 400 gram Green Arthritis Oil [?] and 300 gram Poppyseed oil together. Rub on the joints and on the painful area every morning and evening. Consume 300 gram Melissa officinalis (or 40-60 drops).

◙ Remedy for diphtheria according to newspapers, or for breathing difficulty: pour two equal amounts of pitch and turpentine oil into a frying pan and set aflame. Breath the steam. Can be repeated several times. "Relieves immediately".

◙ Remedy for diarrhea in children: Boil blueberries in water and sweeten with sugar. Let child consume.

◙ Remedy for blood cleansing: Cut Guaiacum into fine pieces and boil well in water. Filter and drink water.

◙ Remedy for Asthma "that has cured many": Boil 1½ pounds of licorice in six pots of water, ½ pound at a time in two pots. Let patient drink 3 glasses a day or more.

◙ Remedy for insomnia: Make a pillow out of hop-leaves or hops and sleep on it.

◙ Remedy for hydrarthrosis in the knee that "has never failed": Put some layers of linen together and soften in warm piss. Tie to knee every night before bedtime for eight days or more.

◙ Remedy for rock-pain [testicular-pain] and pulled groin: Put a branch of birch in a bowl or a pot and urinate on it. Let it lay in the urine until it turns soft, then remove it to a dry place and let it lay there undisturbed. "The pain won't return".

◙ Remedy against frost bites in hands and feet: wash diligently with sildelage [herring brine].

◙ Remedy for high blood pressure: Boil Waterlily root in water and drink 2-3 spoons every day.

◙ Remedy for coughing "that cannot fail": Mince a dry, clean oat-straw and boil in a little water. Add sugar to better the taste. Drink a teacup in the morning and evening, child and adult alike. Can heal the most aggressive coughing in 3-4 days and even Pharyngitis and croup.

◙ Remedy for knee pain: Melt the innards of a goat and smear on knee two times a day.

◙ Remedy for joint pain: Dry the jawbone of a goat, grind to powder and consume.

◙ Remedy for Arthritis which has helped many: Boil an Opiate capsule (Valmueskal) in two pots of water. Filter the water and soak several layers of linen in it, then tie to painful area as hot as bearable. Repeat. It will take away the pain.

Laurs Glavind

◙ Remedy for skin disease by wise man Laurs Glavind [07.1808-24.05.1891]: 2 teaspoons of Alum, 1 teaspoon of sublimed sulfur. Blended in 6 lots [1⁄30 pounds] of melted butter and smeared twice a day. Drink a tea of blended Juniper and Sarsaparilla twice a day.

◙ Remedy for Scrofula: Drink a tea of blended Juniper and Sarsaparilla. Drink one cup twice a day. Smear powdered Galmejsten [Smithsonite] mixed with dog fat twice a day.

◙ Remedy for removal of milk: Cook Parsley in sweet cream until it turns to butter. When it is lukewarm smear on breasts. Repeat several times a day.

◙ Remedy for headache: Smell thick Camphor oil once every hour.

◙ Remedy for headache in the forehead: Rub with Peppermint alcohol or Althea. Rub temples to make the blood sink.

◙ Remedy for stronger digestion and improved appetite: 1 spoon of China Roborans [Longan tonic?] in a glass of water or wine 2-3 times a day.

◙ Remedy for Scabies: 2 lots of Styrax, 2 lots of sweet oil, 2 lots of sprite. Blend together and smear over three days.

Kjeld's notebook also contained the following incantation to be whispered while treating toothache. Theologian Anton Christian Bang [18.09.1840-29.12.1913] presented several similar enchantment in his 1901 book Norske hexeformularer og magiske opskrifter. They appear to be quite old, and exhibit the ancient belief that a "tooth worm" was responsible for toothache.

"Orm er du herinde, skal jeg dig med mine ti Fingre binde. Er du sort, skal du bort, er du rød, skal du døe. Og det skal ske i tre Guds Ord, i tre Mands Navn. Gud Fader og Guds Søn, og Gud den Helligånd. Amen. Så snart jeg mine ti Finger paa Jorden sætter."

"Worm, if you're inside, around my ten fingers you'll be tied. If you are black you won't come back, if you are red you'll soon be dead. And so be it by the three words of God, by man's three names. God the father, God's son, and God the holy spirit. Amen. Once my ten fingers touch the ground."

People indeed believed that Kjeld could cast spells, and he did little to discourage them. He had a passion for magic tricks, and carried all sorts of bizarre and interesting instruments. He had, for instance, a selection of music boxes. He would often windup a box beforehand, then slightly tap it while visiting patients and surprise them with a pleasant melody. He also had a brass chain that seemed to roll upwards infinitely, a little bottle that could hold its balance and a magic box with moving tin soldiers. But the strangest object in his possession was a book some people called The Devil’s ABC: “Would you like to see some letters?” he would ask his audience, and then leaf through the book showing all kinds of alphabets. “Or maybe some animals?” he would then ask, and to their amazement the pages were suddenly filled with colorful illustrations of all kinds of fauna. “Or perhaps you’d rather look at some stamps?” he would continue, and now the pages featured a variety of stamps. “Or maybe black people?” and the book was filled with silhouettes. But when he leafed through the book for the seventh time people were truly startled, for the pages were completely blank. 

Johanne Hvingelby
16.05.1786-17.07.1890

Kjeld was a teetotaler. He never smoked or consumed alcohol, and prefered tea over coffee. His mother-in-law, Johanne Hvingelby, celebrated her 104th birthday in 1890 and was the oldest living person in the kingdom at the time. This fact undoubtedly contributed to the reputation of the wise man. Hvingelby lived at Kjeld's house, and was reportedly never ill in her life.  To the last of her days she remained clear-minded and miraculously lively. She would reportedly carry her grandchildren on her shoulders and go on long strolls daily. Kjeld, however, did not get very old. He died in his home on December 20, 1903, at an age of eighty two. His departure from this world came as a surprise to many who believed that he simply couldn’t die. Per his request, his body lay unburied for eleven days – the longest time one could only appear to be dead. He outlived his wife, who passed away at an age of seventy four in April 1900. Both are buried in Lomborg’s churchyard, where their gravestone still stands to this very day.

The Starless Woman in Riga

One day in late August, 1941, a woman left her apartment at Letgales iela 17-19 in Riga. Taking the first few steps on the pavement must have demanded a great deal of courage. She walked down the long streets leading to the central market, trying her best to look unsuspicious and blend in with pedestrians. Her two small daughters were at home. She had to do it for their sake. Her husband was gone. Finally she saw the enormous pavilions at the marketplace. She stepped into the crowd. And then she was caught.

 Wreckage of Soviet vehicles at the central market in Riga, July 1941.

-National Library of Latvia

Raya Ribnik

Raya Ribnik was born in Dvinsk on September 6th, 1899, to tannery worker Ruben Kurenitz and Hanna-Liebe née Gindin. She had a younger sister named Maria. Raya’s father moved his small family to Riga in search of work. There she met a young hairdresser, Abram-David Ribnik. They married in April 1929 and had two daughters. Ronia was born in 1930 and Lea in 1933. Latvia came under Soviet occupation in 1940, when Lea was barely seven. Raya’s husband was arrested and imprisoned at the Sarkankalna Hospital in Riga. They were not alone. Many Latvians suffered terribly under the soviet reign. But fate had worse in store.

Crowds cheering the Germans

The Wehrmacht captured Riga on July 1 from the retreating Soviet army. The city suffered heavy damage from the German artillery. The bell tower at St. Peter’s church went up in flames, and the city center, the house of Blackheads and the townhouse were reduced to burning rubble. On the next day, crowds cheered and saluted as the liberating army marched into the city in all its might. Women dressed in traditional Latvian costumes greeted the soldiers with flowers and food.

 

St Peter's church aflame after being hit by German artillery.

The "Bolsheviks and Yids" were blamed for the fire.

-National Library of Latvia

Burning synagogue in Riga,
filmed by the German army

Within a few days, the synagogues of Riga’s forty thousand Jewish inhabitants were set on fire. Rumors claimed that people were burned alive inside. The newspapers were filled with reports of “Jewish terrorism,” anti-Semitic caricatures and articles. A group of Jews was selected and forced to bury the corpses of victims of the Soviet regime. As orchestrated by the Germans, the Latvian Jews were singled out as Soviet sympathizers and national enemies. Many individuals were arrested in their homes, assaulted and subsequently killed. A curfew was imposed upon the Jewish community, as well as Russian and Polish citizens. Their telephones were disconnected, and they were banned from using the mail.

On July 29 the German Feldkommandant in Riga published the following order in the newspapers:

“All Jews are hereby and henceforth required to wear the mandatory distinguishing mark (yellow colored Star of David). Offenders will be punished mercilessly.” 

Further warnings were published the next couple of days. Following the introduction of the yellow star badge, Latvian Jews were officially banned from using public transportation, entering public grounds such as libraries, sports facilities, parks, taverns, entertainment venues, schools, universities, museums, cinemas, theaters, swimming pools, etc. All able-bodied Jewish men and women were assigned to forced labor.

Crowded Jewish store
in Riga, August 1941.

Abram-David was captured by the German Security Police on August 13 and was executed. Raya was now left alone to support their two daughters and her elderly mother. Food was scarce and money was short. Jews were only allowed to buy at a few stores with an ever dwindling supply and steeping prices. A ghetto was being put together by the Germans at the Moscow District in the city. The Latvian newspaper Tēvija praised this plan, that would once and for all separate the Jews of Riga from the Aryans. Harried and helpless, Raya decided to sneak into the central market. There she could get food and perhaps sell what few valuable things she still possessed. She removed the yellow star badge from her cloths before leaving. 

A small notice in the German newspaper Deutsche Zeitung im Ostland dated August 28 states that a Jewess without a Star of David had been caught at the central market in Riga. What fate befell Raya remains unknown. It was merely noted that a “better use" had been found for the starless woman. Did she ever see her daughters again?

Frume Masarsky

A month later, on September 28, a man named Mordecai Weinberg was caught committing the same offense. He had removed his star badge and walked on the sidewalk. A week later, on October 4, the starless Frume Masarsky née Ginsburg, mother of seven, was also caught while walking on the sidewalk without a badge. Starless Hirsch Kurland was arrested the following week, and “a procedure was initiated against him”. Finally, on October 25, the Germans locked all the Jews of Riga up in a small ghetto. By that time, several thousands had already been executed by the Germans and their Latvian collaborators. The vast majority of the inhabitants of the ghetto were killed in shooting pits in the nearby forest a month later. Raya’s mother and daughters were probably among them.

The Children's Poet from Warsaw

A forgotten man of many deeds and wild imagination, who laid the foundation stone to Hebrew children's literature at the end of the 19th century.

Illustration from original work

-National Library of Israel

Aron Luboszycki (אהרן ליבושיצקי) was born in Ruzhany on August 22, 1874, the son of Dov-Eliezer and Hova Luboszycki. His father was a learned and respected man. After receiving a traditional Jewish education in the Cheder, Aron was sent off to high school in Slonim to widen his mind. By the age of fifteen the boy already showed extraordinary interest in literature and poetry and a talent for the written word. He had a special love for Hebrew, a language that had been dead for many centuries and used only for prayer. Great things were expected of Aron, but the life in Ruzhany did not bear particular promise. Although his father was an affluent man, Aron was well aware of what was happening around him:

"The situation in our town is dire. The springs of livelihood have run dry and barren... many of the townsfolk began feeling trapped here, and over a year ago about a hundred families gathered together... and turned to the great Baron Hirsch, describing their terrible need and begging him to take them under his wing and guide them to Argentina... at any rate, the starving poor cannot break the hunger in their homes with their hopes, and they suffer greatly"

-Aron Luboszycki, 1893

There was no future for young Aron in his birth town. After graduating and earning a teacher certification he moved away. He taught Hebrew in schools in Brest, Vawkavysk, Warsaw, Smolensk, Lodz and other towns. In 1894, Aron published his first collection of Hebrew poems for children. It was a first of its kind, preceded only by the poems of Zeev Yavetz which never reached many readers. Its success encouraged him to continue working, and in 1898 Warsaw saw a thin, pink booklet of his poems for children published by Tushi'ya publishing house. The name of the booklet was For my little siblings (למען אחי הקטנים) and it was a first in a series of fifteen. The following years saw many more of his works published, both original poems and translations of works by famous Polish and Russian poets. He also wrote original fairy tales and translated some of the finest youth literature, plays and textbooks of the period. He was, for example, the very first to translate The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish by Alexander Pushkin, Heart by Edmondo De Amicis and Wilhelm Busch's Max and Moritz into Hebrew. Almost every Hebrew newspaper published Luboszycki's poems, sometimes under the pen name A.Ben-Dov (א.בן-דוב), and he became quite known.

Aron Luboszycki

-Yad Vashem

שְׁכַב הֵרָדַם בֵּן לִי יָקִיר,
שְׁמַע אֲדַבֵּר שִׁיר,
בִּימֵי קֶדֶם בַּמֶּרְחַקִּים,
הָיֹה הָיְתָה עִיר.

,Lie and slumber, my dear son

,Hear my song if you would

In the days of old, afar,
Once a city stood.

אֲבוֹתֶיךָ הַקַּדְמוֹנִים
לְפָנִים גָּרוּ שָׁם,
אָז הֵם חָיוּ חַיֵּי אֹשֶׁר,

אָז הָיוּ לְעַם.

And your ancestors, the ancients,
Lived there in the distant past
Their lives were those of happiness
They were a nation unsurpassed 
- Two verses from Aron Luboszycki's most popular lullaby

Aron's strong belief in Zionism and the settlement of Palestine was expressed in many of his works, some of which were graced with acclaimed performances at ceremonies of the Zionist movement. An original collection of his Zionist poems was published in 1898. An elegy he wrote shortly after the death of Dr. Theodor Herzl was also quite popular.

In 1900 Aron was engaged with Judith Zeitlin, the daughter of author Shlomo Zeitlin and Lea Henni née Merlin from Gomel. She had earlier in 1896 been engaged with author Ezekiel Leavitt [21.05.1878-25.08.1945], but they never married. Shortly afterwards, a great tragedy befell the Zeitlin family when Judith's father disappeared. His dead body was discovered a few weeks later in a hotel room in New-York, having allegedly suffocated on gas in his sleep. His mysterious death overshadowed the couple's wedding in Rudnia in June 1900. A few months later, Judith gave birth to a prematurely born child. 

"... But always, always, my poor daughter, will I remember you! For when I can no longer stand the company of men, and their scorn and hypocrisy revolts me, I go to the garden to speak with the flowers and tell them the tales of my life. And as I kiss the white rose I love, I think: Perhaps it is the incarnation of my daughter's soul, this wonderful blooming rose! Or when I see the colorful bird in the garden, flying from flower to flower, fluttering its soft wings in the ocean of air surrounding it, I say to myself: Maybe it's the incarnation of my little girl's soul, this flying garden bird, for my tiny daughter too loved the freedom of the air in the short minutes of her life, the light and space, so much like this bird. And for her temerity, for breaking out prematurely, she died on the very day she was born"

-Luboszycki, May 1901 

Aron became the principal of Dr. Josef Luria's Ha-Chinuch school at Nowolipie street in Warsaw. He renamed it Ha-Ivri ("The Hebrew"), and focused the curriculum on the teaching of the Hebrew language, the history of the Jewish people and the values of Zionism. One of the teachers at his school was Itzhak Alterman [1881-1939], the father-to-be of Israeli poet Natan Alterman.

Aron continued writing in the newspapers. As an enthusiastic supporter of the revival of the Hebrew language, he published a series of articles condemning Yiddish in 1902 which caused quite a stir. He was attacked by many Yiddish authors and bought himself a few foes. The same year he also published the first Hebrew singing book for children, followed by another in 1904. He frequently wrote for children’s papers. Although his works were widely appreciated, he also received a large amount of criticism, not scarecly fueled by personal hate or political disputes. David Frischmann and Isaac Leib Peretz were among his biggest criticizers.

In 1906 Aron was arrested by the Czar's secret police as a suspect of "illegal activity", but he was quickly released. The next year he established, together with L. Zeitlin, a publishing house called Aviv in Warsaw. It printed several of his textbooks and his 1908 monthly pedagogical magazine, The Hebrew Teacher. His translation of Simon Dubnow's History of the Hebrews was very successful, and was printed in several editions despite criticism by religious figures. By 1909 this institution and his school were both moved to the Iron-Gate Square. He frequently dined at the "Zionist restaurant" in Zamenhof 13.

מִדֵּי לֵיל בְּבֵית-הָעוֹלָם שֶׁל הַיְּהוּדִים רוּחַ הוֹמָה

וּלְעֻמָּתָהּ מֵחָצֵר-מָוֶת לְקָתוֹלִים בַּת קוֹל עוֹנֶה,

וּמִתְלַחֲשׁוֹת שְׁתֵּי הָרוּחוֹת בֵּין הַתְּרָזוֹת, צַמְּרוֹת רוֹמָה,

וְאָגַדְתָּ נֶצַח זוֹ לָזוֹ בְּעֶצֶב דֻּמָה שׁוֹנֶה:

Every night at the house of eternity of the Jews a wind does sigh

And from the yard of death of the Catholics sounds a reply

And the two winds whisper between the birches, the trees of high

And retell each other this endless woeful tale with a cry

- The butcher's daughter by Aron Luboszycki, 1905

During the First World War Aron traveled in Russia. He became a frequent visitor to the Zionist synagogue of Ohel Yakov in Lodz, where he would often preach, and continued to work as a private tutor. Among his pupils was future Major General of the Israeli police Nahum Ziv-Av. Between 1923 and 1928 Aron was the publisher and editor of a youth paper called Ha-Kochav (The Star), where he provided an open platform for young aspiring writers and poets to publish their works. Another illustrated paper he published was called Ben Kochav (Son of the Star).

Aron's only son, Bezalel, was an engineer. He migrated to Palestine in the 1930's. Aron's works were also appreciated there, although poets Bialik and Tchernichovsky looked down upon him as an inferior artist. 

"If you confront me with the choice of either Weizmann or Jabotinsky, it is like asking me who is a greater poet; Bialik or Luboszycki"

-David Ben-Gurion, public speech 1931

Cover page of Ben Kochav

-National Library of Israel

With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the contact between Aron and his son Bezalel [-11.12.1988] living in Haifa was lost. All attempts to trace Aron were futile. It was only years later that Aron's fate was revealed. First, he was locked up in the ghetto of Lodz together with his younger brother Zvi Hirsch. He managed to get to Warsaw, where he continued teaching children. His acquaintance Dr. Natan Eck claimed that the "old Luboszycki was utterly unaware of what was really going on".
Aron Luboszycki was taken in the very first German aktion on the ghetto, sent by train to the death camp Treblinka and murdered there. His brother Zvi Hirsch [1881-14.02.1942], sister-in-law Brejna [1889-] and nephew Moshe also perished in the Holocaust. Judith died in Israel in 1959.