Simcha receive a monthly check. Some of זטס‎ 1 claim that once, when Schiff was on an extended trip to Europe, his office in New York neglected to send Sim- cha his regular check for several months. In a rage, he descended upon Schiff’s office and when the staff attempted to eject him, Simcha bellowed at the top of his lungs: ‘““Where is my Yankele? I demand to see my Yankele!”’ In his inner office, having already returned from his European trip, Schiff heard the tumult and emerged to find out what was happening. Simcha was furious, ready to tear everyone apart. Schiff took him into his private office and ordered a check drawn at once to compensate Simcha for the months he received nothing. At the same time Schiff scolded the bookkeeper who had failed to exercise proper oversight over his charity affairs in his absence. Simcha visited Israel five times, never paying for his voyages. He had his methods of obtaining free pas- sage. At that time, traveling by ship was relatively inex- pensive anyway. On several occasions, Simcha left Israel for Europe on ships carrying oxen, where he worked, earned his fare, and even a few dollars for his trouble. Every five or six years he went to Israel to see his wife and daughter. Because she was strictly Orthodox, Mrs. Tzfas refused to leave Israel for America. But Sim- cha managed to bring his daughter here. Whatever became of her is unknown. During the many years he lived in America, Sim- cha Tzfas worked at various jobs: longshoreman, laborer, fisherman, coal miner, soldier, farmer, night watchman. His adventurous nature and brute strength drove him to the most hazardous activities. He loved to take risks and enjoyed life. He was a connoisseur of good food and drink. As a matter of fact, his appetite was legendary. When Simcha grew older, he arranged to take his meals with different /andsleit each day. This was known in Yiddish as “‘eating days.’’ When Simcha Tzfas visited a well-known Buialystoker butcher, Philip Tashman of Yonkers, he found on the table a two and a half pound loaf of bread, several rolls, and a whole herring with onions soaked in vinegar. Then he devoured a large plate of meat (a butcher always had meat — particu- larly when a pound cost seven to eight cents). Simcha was also treated to a large bowl of barley soup, after which he consumed an entire salami weighing a pound and a half. Certainly no good meal could pass without ‘some spirits’’ and a pint of beer. On another occasion a Bialystoker housewife pre- pared a dairy meal for Simcha consisting of several pounds of fish, noodles and cheese, grits and milk, pan- cakes, coffee and a dozen rolls. Surely this great repast would be considered excessive for the average person. Simcha left the table hungry, complaining to another neighbor that he was famished. Perhaps she could offer him some food to “restore his strength.” This second 166 lady, who possessed great compassion, prepared a lovely banquet fit for a king. Simcha finished every- thing in front of him as though he had not eaten for days. He was a frequent visitor at meetings of various Bialystoker societies. Usually he asked for a new suit, rent for his room, or something else. Once he went to the Somach Noflim, requesting a שסם''‎ 5806." Imme- diately he was asked why only one shoe. He answered that he would get the second shoe from the Bialystoker Brotherly Love Association, another society. And that’s the way it was: the Somach Noflim gave him a dollar and a half for one shoe and the Brotherly Love the same amount for the other shoe. Faithfully these two societies granted him a new shoe every year until he died. When Bialystoker Jandsleit multiplied in later years, people celebrated weddings, circumcisions, bar mitzvahs, and so forth. Simcha was not embarrassed to show up at these parties uninvited. Invariably he jumped up onto a chair in the middle of the hall, with a large glass filled with liquor in his hand, shouting at the top of his lungs, ““Without Simcha there can be no sim- cha! Mazel Tov, L’Chaim,”’ and drank the entire glass of whiskey. Simcha was never sick. At no time did he wear eye- glasses. He possessed all of his faculties until the last day of his life. | Simcha Tzfas died peacefully in his lonely room on Division Street in 1917. * * * As soon as Bialystoker Jews began arriving in the United States, they formed their own organizations and societies, which united and strengthened the Bialystoker community, absorbing the larger Jewish population. These groups, working separately and _ together, extended the Bialystoker /andsmanschaft’s influence throughout America. As mentioned earlier, the first organized society was the ‘‘Bialystoker Unterstitzungs Verein” established in 1864. What follows is a list of almost fifty societies founded between 1868 and 1949. Although most of them no longer exist, they made a major contribution to the development of the /andsman- schaft, its relief work and other communal activities that served Jews from Bialystok for almost a century: