Friendship and Betrayal: Hasidism and Secularism in Early Twentieth-Century Poland

The Jewish community in the small Polish town of Przytyk (pron. “PSHI-tik”) is usually remembered for its members’ fierce self-defense tactics during the infamous pogrom on July 9, 1936. But for Dr. Shalom Honig, writing after the Holocaust, Przytyk’s Jewish community was best defined by its members’ close friendships. This was particularly true of the town’s Hasidic community: “In one’s own shtibl [small prayer house], with its homey company,” Honig recalls, “everyone knew each other, related to each other in a friendly manner, and was as close as family.” Similarly, in the region’s Hasidic courts an “atmosphere of comradery” reigned