The Miracle

The Miracle

By Nossin Friedman, Newport, America

Published in the Glubocker Leben, March 25, 1932

Translated by Aaron Ginsburg

The story continues. Thanks to Margarita Kozhenevskaya for finding this article which was published in Yiddish in Glubokie, then in Poland.

 

A miracle once happened in Dokshitz. Forty years ago, when there were riots in Russia about Jews, someone, a Christian, an "emissary" from the town, and apparently a good friend of the Jews, as well as a member of the town government, wanted to make a pogrom of the Jews in order to rob Jewish possessions and property.

 

What does the non-jew do? When the non-jew tried to confuse the Jews, he did a very small thing: because there was a house where a Christian was a servant from far away, and also because the same house happened to have two people from Russia, so-called “flunkies,” probably thieves, he went with them to kill the servant at night and to blame the Jew who lived opposite him, and on the next day to make a commotion in the town and in the church that his servant was missing and he thinks that the Jews killed her for religious purposes.

 

It even happened on Shavuos. For the Gentiles must have confused Passover and Shavuos, and so it will be known to all Christians of the villages, and at the upcoming town fair a pogrom would take place and everything that the Jews possessed would be plundered.

 

Clearly, the servant was murdered in the evening a few days before the fair and only Jews had to be blamed.

 

Through Borisover Street then, late at night, at 12 o'clock in the evening, the courier used to bring packages and letters to the next station. After that no one was around. The two accomplices waited until the courier drove off the street, making sure that no one was left. They took the corpse of the maid wrapped in a sack and began to carry it across the street to the Jew’s courtyard.

 

And here’s where a miracle happens. The postilion had at this time forgotten his overcoat in post, but when he left the city, a cold wind blew, he felt something cold, he said to the coachman — “Oh, I must return to get the coat.” It was rather cold, and the coachman immediately turned the horse back, the goyim carrying dead bodies heard the bell of the post, they dumped the bag with the bodies into the middle of the street and fled.

 

The horses approached the sack and they began to smell the blood and stopped. The postilion takes a look, first he sees there is a large package near the horse in the middle of the street. He gets down from the carriage to see what it is, first he finds the flesh and head of a person. Bloodstains were found in the house, the guy was found ostensibly asleep and did not know anything. The goy placed the whole blame on the 2 flunkies.He was imprisoned in the prison for 1 and 1/2 years, but was released.

 

This is how the city of Dokshitz was protected from a pogrom, and the fair passed quietly, there was joy and gladness in the city, this is how the eternal miracle works with Jews. I believe that the Dokshitzer Jews, with the help of G-d, long ago forgot the miracle. If there was a pogrom, that people would still remember, but the story remained in my memory and writing my memoirs I remembered the story and wrote the episode or story, to let a young generation of Dokshitzers know a miracle happened then.

 

Original at https://www.nli.org.il/en/newspapers/gln/1932/03/25/01/article/15/?e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxTI--------------1