Town Location and Structure

Makov-Mazowiecki is a small town in Warsaw District. The town is located 95 km north of Warsaw and 55 km south of East Prussia (Germany).
The town is surrounded by forests and other towns: to the northeast, the town of Krasnosielc; to the east, Rozan and Ostrolenka; to the north, Prozanow, Mlawa and Chorzele; to the west, Ciechanow; to the south Pultusk. In the center of the town is the market square (Rynek) and around it streets and buildings. (Most small towns in Poland were built this way.)

Means of Transport to and from the Town

A slow bus belonging to P.K.P. - Polska Komunikacja Przemystowa (Industrial Polish Transportation) reached the town twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, and continued north. The trip took about three hours in each direction and the journey cost 5 zloty.
Carriages drawn by four horses left the town in the evening and reached Warsaw during the early hours of the morning, after which it returned. The trip took about nine hours in each direction and the journey cost about 3.5 zloty. A travelling salesman could load all his merchandise on the carriage and also travel at a reduced rate.
Mr. Gottleiser owned a private car, which he used in emergencies to transport people - for example, to the hospital in Warsaw.
There were fairs in the area to which people travelled in horse-drawn wagons.
The towns of Ostrolenka, Mlawa and Ciechanow had a railway.

The Jewish Community and Jewish Institutions

The community traces its origins to the 14th century. During various periods, the Jews outnumbered the Christians. On the eve of World War II, the number of Jews was close to 5,000.
Among its institutions were the Great Synagogue, which was built in the 18th century and renovated in the 19th century, Makow Yeshiva, the community center, a mikve, two Batei Midrash, the older of which was burned down in 1934 and then rebuilt, prayer halls belonging to the Alexander, Gur and Amanshov Hassidim. The associations of Linat Zedek (for people with no families, the infirm or the handicapped who needed help and who slept there), Gmilut Hasadim and Bikur Holim. There were two cemeteries, which were destroyed during World War II.

Sources of Livelihood

As in most of the Jewish communities in Poland, the principal sources of livelihood were the trades, with shoemakers, tailors, furriers, milliners, carpenters and tinsmiths working side by side with shop owners, brewers, and sugar plant workers. There were two flour mills, two soap factories, two knitwear plants and two factories manufacturing tziziot.
Most of the shops in the market square (Rynek) belonged to Jews (the first floor housed the shops and the second floor, the owners). Tuesday and Friday were the weekly market days.

There was a licensed male nurse in the town (Felczer) and his methods of healing were leeches and cupping glasses. In cases where he did not succeed in curing the patient, he would refer him with a letter to Pultusk or Warsaw, mainly the latter. There was also a Jewish dentist and a midwife.

Educational and Cultural Institutions

Until World War I, there were heders for religious studies as well as an elementary school, where the medium of instruction was Russian. Children of haredi families who did not learn in school studied privately: Yiddish, Polish and arithmetic. After the town was liberated by the Poles, the school was expanded. The language of instruction was Polish, and the subjects studied included Bible and Jewish history. In 1917 a Jewish kindergarten was opened and in 1918 a Polish high school was established in the town. The Jewish children studied in Yavne school (which was established during the period 1928-1930), in the haredi school, the elementary school and the yeshiva belonging to the Newerdyk chain. There were also knitting courses in ORT.
The elementary school had seven classes and those who completed them went on to high school.

Youngsters from Rozan

Most of the Jews did not attend them since studies were also held on Shabbat. More than 90% of the Jews were traditional. The wealthy Jews, who were few in number, went to Mlawa, where there was a Jewish high school. Some travelled to faraway Warsaw to study in the Jewish high school there. Some went to Pultusk to attend the school of commerce. Others studied with private tutors or found work.
The town had five libraries, located in the Polish high school, the Bund named after I.L. Peretz, "Shalom Aleichem," the haredi school, and Yavne school.

Leisure Pursuits

Leisure time was spent by the youth and some of the adults in reading, e.g. textbooks and encyclopedias. The observant Jews read religious books. There were some who read the classical literature popular at the time, such as Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Pushkin, Adam Mitzkevitz, Yiddish literature by Shalom Aleichem, Mendele Mocher Hasefarim, I.L. Peretz, Bialik, Tchernikhovsky, and others.
Newspapers arrived once or twice a week from Warsaw, Mlawa, Ciechanow and Pultusk. Weeklies were the most popular. In 1939 a weekly newspaper began to be published in the town.
The Bund movement began its activities at the beginning of the 20th century. After the war, in 1918, branches of the Zionist movement, such as Poale Zion Smol, Hamizrahi, Tze'irei Mizrahi, Hahalutz and the youth movement Pirhei Zion, made their appearance.
These were followed by Hashomer Hatza'ir, Hahlutz Hatza'ir, Beitar, Agudat Israel and Poale Agudat Israel. The Scout Movement (Hatzofim) was common to both Jews and non-Jews. The youth commonly took part in the various activities.
On Saturdays youngsters would go on excursions in groups to the forests while they would also wander around the market square (Rynek).
Sports in which they took an interest were football and table tennis. Other activities were folk dancing, lectures and sing-alongs with songs from Eretz Israel, expressing the yearning to go to Israel. The Jews of the town were engaged in the collection of money for Keren Kayemet LeIsrael (at the end of the 1930s Golda Meir visited the town in order to encourage the collection of money).
A theater group from Vilna (Wylner Trupe) visited the town, putting on a number of shows. It arrived with artistes such as Josele Kolodny and Lola Furman. The town itself had an amateur Jewish theater that staged Jewish shows.
Radios were owned by only a few families, although on the eve of World War II a large number of people could be found listening to them.
Gramophones were also owned by a minority of families who enjoyed listening to music. There were klezmers who played at weddings and other functions.

Personalities and Offspring of Famous People

Polish towns, both large and small, were the wellspring of famous personalities, their offspring and relatives. Makow itself boasted no small number: Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, the inventor of the submarine and builder of the atomic submarine for the US fleet; Nahum Sokolov, who lived and studied in the town's yeshiva and who married the daughter of Haim Segal, one of the town's wealthy residents; the relatives of Leon Blum, who was Prime Minister of France during the period 1936-1938, and who established the interim government up to the time of the elections for president after World War II, and who even had a house that he had inherited in the town; and David Azrieli, architect and builder of shopping malls in Israel, with worldwide business interests.