the local peasants, enduring only through hard work and always harried. In such circumstances one hoped to be liberated one day by a miracle, a stroke of good fortune. No wonder that lottery tickets, which had pre- viously been popular among Jews in Lithuania and Poland, came into vogue at that time. Bialystoker Jews were enchanted by this novel temptation. They bor- rowed money, pawning all that they had, to purchase these stubs. Some were wiped out as a result. Although selling foreign lottery tickets was forbidden by the Czarist regime, many in Bialystok flouted this rule. Col- lectors of lottery tickets of all types flourished. Not only were whole tickets sold, but halves, fourths, eighths and still smaller slivers of tickets changed hands. Even Rus- sian officials bought foreign lotteries. Poor people would purchase them on the installment plan, or together with a partner. For a long time Bialystoker Jews gained very little from these lottery tickets. On the other hand, the one- percent health tax on each lottery winning allocated for government-subsidized medical care demonstrates that such earnings were routine. In 1870, one Bialystoker Jew received a telegram informing him that his ticket had won 450,000 German marks, worth at that time 150,000 rubles. That stupendous sum, later divided among several poor families, created an upheaval in the city. Many disputes arose; several parties were taken to rabbinical courts for a verdict on how the money was to be allotted. The newly rich managed to arrange high- class marriage matches with the finest families because of their recently acquired wealth from the lottery. Even when I came to Bialystok ten years later, a long time after the event, the town was still talking about the ‘“‘big win.” After my arrival, I found all the religious, philan- thropic and educational institutions of the Jewish com- munity in miserable condition. Everything seemed to stand still, failing to develop when the Bronicki era ended. These organizations were simply inappropriate for a city that had an industrial revolution. All, with the exception of the Jewish hospital, were confined to the synagogue court in the area later to become the ghetto. This location was perhaps the filthiest in the entire town. The Great Synagogue, in the center of this quarter, was relatively small, built by a few local residents. Inside, everything was neglected and dirty. The “‘sacro- sanct’’ spider webs were not permitted to be detached from the walls. Once a new sexton authorized removing the webs, whereupon elderly pious Jews criticized him as if he had committed sacrilege. The talmud torah and the yeshiva were located in four wooden houses built at the beginning of the Rus- sian administration and allowed to deteriorate. In these buildings 450 pupils — 275 Bialystokers and 175 from the surrounding towns — studied in cramped quarters. The Bialystoker Memorial Book In the poorhouse lay incurables — the maimed, crippled, the mentally retarded and psychopaths. The scene was horrifying. The sick literally rotted in their own excrement, suffocating amidst all the clutter. I still tremble when I remember that terrible spectacle during my first visit. When I compare the wretched conditions of the original communal institutions in 1880 with the later growth and development of its philanthropic organiza- tions, I am amazed by Bialystok’s phenomenal social accomplishments during the latter half of the 19th cen- tury and its rapid expansion. This accelerated growth, brought about by the initiative of the Jewish popula- tion, was especially noticeable in the last twenty years of the previous century. Jewish merchants and factory owners began to develop markets in other countries. They could no longer feel comfortable with their “‘small town”’ status. Never again would the modest wooden dwellings be adequate. At the first opportunity, and sometimes even without the necessary funds, people began building three- and four-story houses with every modern innova- tion known at the time. The new homes brought in reliable revenues, although interest on capital invested in building houses was always smaller than earnings from business endeav- ors. That’s why at first only the wealthier capitalists could afford to erect apartment buildings containing several rental units. All of this changed when various banks in Wilno began granting loans to those who built new apartments. Certainly Bialystok’s creditable eco- nomic condition justified the banks’ action, since the textile industry would always continue to expand. Mortgages up to 60 and 70 percent of the buildings’ value were approved. Such a favorable climate for con- struction was a great asset for Bialystok.

New apartment buildings sprang up out of nowhere. People built homes for themselves or rented them to others. Later on it became possible to obtain mortgages on homes at their full value and, if one bothered to embellish the figures on the application, the mortgage could be greater than the value of the build- ings. Loans could be obtained even before construction was completed. After several decades, Bialystok burgeoned with buildings, the vacant spaces virtually vanishing. No longer was there any room for fences between homes. The town sprawled from one end to the other. New streets opened; neighborhoods formed. Jews created a village from a hamlet, and later a city from a town. The building trades consisted mainly of Jews. It cannot be emphasized enough that Jewish energy, Jewish indus- triousness and Jewish labor worked together to make Bialystok grow. If this construction surge had continued, Bialystok would have grown to a truly large city through Jewish initiative. But the process was interrupted by the indus- 7