Kehilla

... Sunday, June 29, 1941, two days after the Nazis entered Bialsytok, their commandant summoned Chief Rabbi Gedalja Rozenman and the former Director of the Kehilla, the engineer Efrajim Barasz. He ordered them to form a Judenrat (a Jewish council), through which the local Nazi authorities could issue all kinds of ordinances and regulations affecting the Jews. Rabbi Rosenman and Engineer Barasz conveyed the new edict to other leading Jewish figures. Soon afterward, a Judenrat was appointed containing twenty-four Jews, including two women. They included: Rabbi Rozen- man, Efrajim Barasz, Dowid Subotnik, Mr. Liman, Jakow Goldberg (these five constituted the executive committee); Mend! Kaplan, Dr. M. Kacenelson, H. Glikson, Pejsach Kaplan, Mordechaj Chmelnik, Szmuel Punianski, Rabbi Boruch Eli Halpern, Rabbi Pinje Ajzensztat, Jakow Lifszic, Aba Furman, Mojsze Szwif, Izak Markus; Awrom Tyktin, Cwi Wider, Pejsach Chmelnicki and Szmuel Polonski. ...

On February 27, 1938, S. Goldman was elected chairman and M. Wisocki vice-chairman of the Kehilla. Zwi Klementynowski replaced Goldman as chairman in October 1938, when the authorities disapproved the lat- ter’s appointment. ...