Page 39 - LEIBY

Chapter 5 39

down her packages behind their door.

Rosa, their daughter, was a revolutionary. She wanted to change
the world. Her ambition was to fight poverty, that the country’s
wealth would be divided equally between its citizens, and that
there would be no need for anyone to donate money to charity
or for anyone to receive donations in order to be able to buy
food. Lida was a large industrial city, home to many factories
where employees worked long twelve-hour shifts. Often among
the employees were orphaned children who worked lengthy
hours and earned starvation wages. After a full year of ten-
hour-long workdays, they had generally earned just enough to
be able to afford to buy a new set of clothing. The capitalistic
factory owners sat in the lap of luxury in their palatial homes
and enjoyed tremendous profits from their poverty-stricken
workers’ labor. A Jewish factory worker’s situation was usually
even more dismal than his Polish counterparts11 since the
government did all they could to squeeze out every penny
possible from the Jews.

Rosa the communist preached to anyone who would listen
that in the new world, established by the Communist Party,
everyone would be equal. No more would there be employers
and employees, exploiters and exploited, but everyone would be
contented comrades in the national Soviet family.

“It’ll never work,” Jewish youths contended with Rosa. “You’ll
never be able to eradicate anti-Semitism.”

“We’re the ones to blame, if others hate us,” Rosa argued
vehemently. “It’s all because we’re different from the goyim. If
we just act like everyone else, there’ll be no reason for them to
hate us! In the Soviet paradise, there’ll be no hatred of Jews
or anyone else, for everyone will be equal,” Rosa promised
passionately.

Rosa was charismatic, and succeeding in convincing many
youths of the marvels of the communist ideals. She cut off all ties

11 ĞĨŽƌĞ ƚŚĞ ĮƌƐƚ ǁŽƌůĚ ǁĂƌ͕ >ŝĚĂ ǁĂƐ ƉĂƌƚ ŽĨ WŽůĂŶĚ͘ ŌĞƌǁĂƌĚƐ ŝƚ
was annexed to Belarus.