 Joint Distribution committee, and he got me the visa. The next morning, in less than an hour and a-half, I was in Cyprus. In a double barbed wire camp there were already more than 8,000 of our brethren, and by the time the state of Israel was proclaimed 15 months later there were 33,000. After visiting with my niece and her children, I began looking around for Boiberker landsleit in Cyprus, but to my sorrow I could not find any.
Returning to Jerusalem, Dr. Shraga Kallay suggested that since I still had the money from the Relief fund, I should give $50.00 to a Rabbi in Israel who had once occupied a similar post in Boiberke. He had a large family and could use a little extra money.
When I said goodby to Dr. Kallay, he remarked, I am sure ther are Boiberker in Eretz Israel who could use a little money, but as you know they were always too proud to accept aid even if it came their own landsleit. Twelve years later, when they organized with their meager few pounds the Boiberker Free Loan Society in Israel, I convinced myself that Dr. Kallay was right.
Returning to New York 1947, I rendered a report of my journey and handed to the Relief committee the $425.00 which I had left of the $500.00 they gave me to distribute to fellow Boiberker landsleit wherever I might meet them.
We realized that to keep up the Relief Committee was a waste of time and effort and money. It was suggested to dissolve, and the balance in the bank should be donated to the United Jewish Appeal. Which we did. After thirty years of good work in behalf of the poor in Boiberke, it was much viser to give it up.
The last officers of the Boiberker Relief were; President, Anna Paget-Rabinowitz; Vice President, Henie Katz-Lusthause, Ray Paget-Hornik, and Mrs. Kugel; Treasurer, Abraham Haber; Finance Secretary, Florence Zweben;
Among the active women workers for the Relief Committee were Anna Spitzbard-Chapman, representing what was left of the Boiberke Ladies Aid Society, Clara Helfer, Lodie Herbst, Dora Paget, Adell Gross, Mrs. Julius Katz, Mrs. Samuel Bergwerk, as well as Haim Shnuer, Moishe Brenner, Mrs. Raucher, Pearl Schwartz and several others whose names are missing.
I thought then that the chapter Boiberker in the United States was closed as far as Relief for the townpeople was concerned, since there weren't any of them left in Boiberke. However, in April 1958, that was ten years after the Relief Committee was disolved, we came to Israel to the celebration of its Tenth Anniversary, I was visited by a fellow Boiberker in Israel, Uri Kruvi, (Krauthammer). He called on me to say he had a mission to get some money to help a townsman, Shmuel Joizip Shames' son, who had been deported by the Communists when they entered our town at the beginning of the war, to deep Russia. After the war, Russia made a pact with Poland and many Jews were permitted to return to Poland; he, too, was permitted to return, and eventually he was helped by the Jewish Agency for Israel to emigrate to the State of Israel. There, two of our townsmen helped him acquire a horse and wagon, enabling him to make a living by peddling. But when his horse fell dead and he needed another one, the Boiberker landsleit in Israel tried to raise 600 pounds for another horse. After listening to the story, I asked Kruvi how much the old time Boiberker in Israel were ready to raise among them. His reply was, whatever they could, they will raise among themselves. I advanced 300 pounds and told him that we expect two other Boiberker from America to visit Israel shortly for the celebration and that I intended to collect their share from them. I did collect from Herman Zuch and Abe Fischer their share when they arrived in Israel.
Several days later, we met in Haifa with a large group of Boiberker who resided in that city. From them I learned that they planned to organize themselves into a Boiberker Society to help Boiberker immigrants who were coming to settle in Israel, and would need assistance. Thats how the Boiberker Free Loan Society was organized in Israel.
When we revisited Israel two years later, we l