Page 100 - LEIBY

100 Leiby – Border Smuggler

“Come, boy… I’ll help you.”

He painted Leiby’s face with an assorted range of powders
and creams, concealing the numerous scars that covered it,
then placed a short, dark wig on his head. Leiby looked at his
new image in the massive mirror, and almost didn’t recognize
himself. Dark curls framed his face, his pale, scarred skin had
become a dark, even shade, and even his small nose suddenly
seemed longer and sharper.

“I don’t recognize myself,” he exclaimed, amazed and delighted.

“Yes, you look totally changed,” the makeup artist agreed. “But
tell me something. Have Jews really succeeded in getting to
Eretz Yisrael?”

“Oh yes,” Leiby replied emphatically. “We help people get to
Poland, and once they arrive there, there are other volunteers
who assist them in traveling to DP camps in Germany. In the
camps are many Jews who are trying to get to one of the port
cities, either in Italy or in France, in the hope of sailing from
there to Eretz Yisrael. It’s a long and strenuous journey, but
eventually we’ll all get to the Holy Land.”

The man looked at Leiby and sighed.

“I also learned in a cheder as a child,” his eyes grew damp. “I
was just about your age when the communist revolution broke
out, and the Yevsektsia toiled tirelessly to eliminate any trace
of religion in our shtetl. In the big towns there wasn’t much for
them to do, the Jews there tried their best to integrate into the
Russian environment and hide their Jewish identity, but in the
shtetl, they had their work cut out for them.They persecuted the
rabbanim and closed down our cheder.

“I was one of the last three children who learned in the shul
before the Yevsektsia seized it and transformed it into a theatre
house and persuaded me to go along with them. I still regret
the moment that I stood on the bimah in the shul and swore
allegiance to the communist party. After that I became one
of them. I incited them against my fellow Jews and harassed