ZALMAN YERUSHALMI AND KOPEL LEW BIALYSTOKER CENTER IN ISRAEL The Irgun Yotzei Bialystok in Israel was organized in 1946, shortly after World War II ended. Our Center in Israel was established to help newcomers, surviving landsleit seeking a new life in the Holy Land, find employment, as well as give financial assitance. Later on, we built a community in Israel, Kiryat Bialystok, which carried the name of our beloved hometown destroyed by Hitler. For this reason, the late David Sohn convened a world conference in 1949 in New York, attended by representatives of Bialystoker organizations throughout the world. The delegate from Israel was Zvi Klementynowski. At the convention, the Kiryat Bialystok Foundation was formed, headed by the late Ralph Wein. Simultaneously in Israel, a Kiryat Bialystok committee was organized, whose members included the following leaders of our Center: Zalman Yerushalmi, Zvi Klementynowski, the late Mordechaj Krugliak and others. In 1950 a contract was signed with a construction company to build Kiryat Bialystok on the site of Yahud, where Bialystoker pioneers had tilled the soil one hundred years earlier. The first hundred homes were erected in 1951 and were soon occupied by newly arriving Bialystoker immigrants. We developed this vil- lage so it could become a second Bialystok — dynamic and vibrant — like its predecessor before its liquidation. With the financial assistance of landsleit in Amer- ica, Australia, Mexico and other countries, another 108 homes and institutions were built, including a kinder- garten, child-care center, community center, high school, a beautiful synagogue, and a monument to the martyrs of Bialystok financed by the late president of the Kiryat Bialystok Foundation, David Lubin. In 1963 a large textile factory was constructed with the help of the foundation in New York. Many of Kiryat Bialy- stok’s streets were named after prominent Jewish per- sonalities from our hometown. At the monument, annual memorial assemblies are held in tribute to our martyrs and heroes. Moreover, a senior-citizens 7 was formed in our community building. Today we focus on absorbing new arrivals from the Soviet Union. They attend lectures, Hebrew and English courses, dramatic presentations in our theater and participate in excursions throughout Israel. Our library lends books in three languages. We even have a credit union named after the martyrs of Bialystok. It provides interest-free loans for the needy. Many visiting landsleit from abroad are proud of the way the village has progressed. In fact, we were the only /andsman- schaft to memorialize our annihilated community in The Bialystoker Memorial Book prewar Poland by establishing a Bialystok village in Israel. In 1969, the Irgun Yotzei Bialystok convened a world conference of /andsleit, which set the following goals: 1. Strengthening identification of Bialystokers with the State of Israel; 2. Encouraging succeeding generations of Bialy- stokers to carry on the spiritual values of our hometown. 3. Remembering the Holocaust and remaining vigilant against neo-Nazism and anti-Semitism. The credit union in Tel Aviv has supported Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union. In 1964, a high school in Tel Aviv, known as Tichon Daled, pledged to honor the annihilated Jewish community of Bialystok in consideration of large donations from our landsman- schaft. The students study the struggle for survival in the Bialystok ghetto, as well as the heroic uprising and the final liquidation. Within the high school we built an auditorium and cafeteria named after David Sohn, with financial support from the Bialystoker Center in New York. We also honored the memory of our late leader, Mordechaj Krugliak, by naming a study hall after him equipped with visual media that will enable children from Oriental lands to progress in their studies. Zalman Yerushalm1 personally contributed to and raised funds for this project at a dinner marking his eightieth birthday. י 5 . / a א‎ Bialystoker Pioneers in Israel: Welwel and Etka Sucha- wolsky arrived in Eretz Israel in 1905. They were the first to be buried in the Tel Aviv Cemetery. 183