 as two or three members of the Boiberker Women's Aid Society, and several none affiliated individuals, gathered to organize the Boiberker Relief Committee in New York.
Some months after the armistice, one of our Boiberker, my good friend Julius Engelberg, went to Europe on a business trip and also paid a visit to Boiberke. Upon his return he reported that it was urgent to send help, as the need is great. We sent some money and undertook in addition to raise $5000. This money was handed to two Boiberker, Samuel Haber and Benjamin Helfer, who were to visit Boiberke. On their stop in Vienna, they met a fellow Boiberker Hersh Gross. He informed them that there was a large group of Boiberker halutzim in Vienna on their way to Palestine. They had ship tickets from Trieste to Palestine but they were lacking the rail fare from Vienna to Trieste. Gross urged that they take off some money from the $5000 which they carried with them for Relief in Boiberke and assist these young halutzim, men and women, to reach Palestine where they could be useful in the rebuilding the Jewish National homeland.
And indeed, Palestine did gain immeasurably. In later years, we learned how wise had been the decision to assist the first large group of Boiberker halutzim.
Of the original large group, Dr. Michael Zohari, became a full professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and a member of the Israel Acadmy; Feivel or Dr. Shrage Schleder-Kallay became the inspector of the State of Israel School System; Abraham Zuch was for 38 years librarian at the Tel Aviv Municipal Library; Lonick, or Arieh Alweil, became an outstanding artist and art teacher in the Herzliah Gymnasium in Tel-Aviv; Chaim Schein-Zohari is already on pension from the government public school system; Moshe Wind, who came several months before the first large group, was a supervisor of building the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus, and for the past few years the supervisor of building the Yad Vashem Memorial Institute in Jerusalem.
Mordechai Galler, the son of the late Rav of Boiberke, is a leading ember of the Tnuva-Export Council.
Beril Becker, of the Kvutza Ramath Yohanan and his younger brother Arieh, of the Kibutz Mishmar Haemek, are two outstanding experts on sheep breeding, (Berill has written several books on that subject); Peishe Kramer Molcho, is still with the Ruthenberg Electric Company. And the late Morris or Moishe Leib Zuch, was one of the builders of the Kibutz Bath Alpha. All in all, I should say that it was a very considerable return for he comparatively small investment. I am certain that others of that original group contributed in equal measure to Israel's growth.
From Vienna Haber and Helfer proceeded to Boiberke, where they met with the local committee to which they handed over the $5000, less the money which they expended for the train tickets for the Boiberker halutzim to Trieste.
In connection with the interest which Hersh Gross took in the Boiberker halutzim who were stranded in Vienna, it is worth-while noting that he followed in the footstep of his father and grandfather. They were both musicians and played at weddings in Boiberke and elsewhere. The father played the clarinet and the grandfather played the cello. But on Saturdays they used to go from house to house in Boiberke collecting fresh white bread (or Chales) for the poor of the town.
When Hersh settled in New York, he tried to be help to the Boiberker townspeople here in America in a more modern way. He would do the correspondence on his Yiddish typewriter for families in Boiberke, especially in cases where the townsman might tend to forget his family left behind in Boiberke. Thus he helped to hold together families which otherwise might have drifted apart. Hersh helped others, unfortunately he could not help himself in the same family respect. He died young and mourned by all who knew him.
Hersh Gross was also known as the founder of the musical band in New York which was known for several decades as the Boiberker Kapelie.
The Boiberker Relief committee in the United States was dedicated to th