Tag #112017 - Interview #94906 (Arkadi Yurkovetski )

There were few synagogues in Tomashpol before late 1920s. I remember two of them not far from our house. One was big and another one was smaller. It was a long one-storied building with a basement from where the Torah was brought. On holidays children carried the Torah. Later, when Soviet authorities began their struggle against religion [2], the synagogues were closed. The bigger one was disassembled brick by brick and the remaining synagogues were turned into storage facilities. The Christian Church was also closed at that period. When the synagogues were closed Jews got together in a prayer house on Saturdays and Jewish holidays. Only neighbors knew that Jews had their prayer house there. There was a chazzan and a rabbi. There were always a sufficient number of Jews for a minyan. They prayed in a small room with windows facing the yard. There was an elementary Jewish school in the town. I remember director of this school Berzhycher. The school was closed in 1938. I believe there was a Jewish community in the town before the revolution, but not at the time of my childhood.