Cover image of Bobbe Chaya Zlate and Bobbe Mindl, two midwives of Horodets
In the land of lost memories, in the places time has forgotten, grandmother healers can still be glimpsed. The following are a few radiant stories that attest to the knowledge and the central roles embodied by these vanished figures.
HARADZETS, BELARUS
Yiddish: HORODETS/האראדעץ
Away from the hustle and bustle of the market square, in the more heymish settings in the village of Horodets, folk healing flourished into the twentieth century. One memoirist wrote about family members who were famiiar with medicinal herbs as well as bee-related remedies:
"My father used to bring home certain herbs (Korenyes) [the Yiddish and Slavic word for roots] that Moshke Lea used to soak in whiskey as medication for toothache....rumianik (chamomile) and dried yagedes (berries) were used to cause one to sweat when he had a cold."
"Moshke Lea, my aunt Chaya and also aunt Feigl and old Henye used to say that the year-old wax heals all disease,...this sort of wax was taken from young bees.The young bees had to be separated from the old ones and to prepare for them their food for winter....My father used to bring home this wonder-wax from Viloysk for Chaya Zlate and Mindl, the two bobbes of the shtetl (pictured above), and aunt Feigl."
Read more about the two bobbes of Horodets here:
from: https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/gorodets/gor167.html#Page178
Kitev market square (rynek)
KUTY, UKRAINE
Yiddish: KITEV/קיטעוו
"Folk medicine was in the hands of women, “grandmothers,” who used medicinal plants and spells."
This matter-of-fact statement was part of a survivor's description of folk healing in Kitev before the second word war.
"From the north and west sides of Kittev, a long chain of green forests surrounded Kittev and fell in places into the valley and then rose again so high that it looked as if the tops of the trees were touching the heavens."
"In these forests, folk legend tells, the Holy Baal Shem would come to be in seclusion – to pray with the magical Nature, with the birds in the woods, with the grasses and herbs of the fields, and to pour together his soul with divine Nature."
Visit Kitev's yizkor to read more about the shtetl and the ancestors who lived here:
https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/kuty/kut010.html
from: https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/kuty1/kut043.html
The Tishivits market square
TYSZOWCE, POLAND
Yiddish: TISHIVITS/טישיוויץ
At least one grandmother healer, Gitl Shtern, a bonesetter and herbalist, and her family lived in Tishivits before the Shoah. Her story, both sad and sweet, can be found here:
https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/tyszowce/tys141.html#f161-1r
The Bilgoray market square
BILGORAJ POLAND
Yiddish: BILGORAY/בילגאריי
Gnendele came to Bilgoraj from Germany. She was described as wealthy yet very generous, especially when helping those in need. She was known to carry a basket of jams, yagodnik (berry) and vishnik (black cherry), for a treat for the ailing. Both of these syrups were well known herbal remedies for those with colds. Her story can be found here:
https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Bilgoraj/bil181.html#Page190
The market halls in Tomeshev-Lubesk
TOMASZOW-LUBELSKI, POLAND
Yiddish: TOMESHEV/TAMASHAV LUBELSK /
טאָמעשעוו / טאמאשאוו לובעלסק
So much folk medicine and so many folk healers are documented in the yizkor for this shtetl! The memoir includes linden tea, bahnkes (see earlier post on these cupping glasses), whisking "with a soft broom" (which may have been birch), wax pouring by an opshrekherin to diagnose the cause of a fright, not to mention bonesetters, feldshers, and midwives with their "homegrown remedies".
In the same account, an ant folk remedy for soothing a headache is described:
"In the forest, there were ant hills, such that whoever touched them with his hand, or threw pine needles on it, sensed the odor of fermentation. Everyone believed that the odor was a deterrent against headaches. Many would gather around to inhale the ants, and they struck the ant hill with their hands, moving their hands quickly to their nostrils in order to relieve themselves of any distress in the head."
Read more about these ancestors and their traditional practices here: https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Tomaszow-Lubelski2/tom273.html
INDURA, BELARUS
Yiddish: AMDUR/אמדור
Amdur was home to at least one grandmother healer prior to the Shoah:
"...His wife Golde was a quack physician (in the original Yiddish she is called a "znakherke", the Slavic term for a "knower" or wise woman), a supposed healer. If a child's throat was swollen, he or she was immediately taken to Golde Hore's, or “Golde the Great,” as she was called. She would take out her lead spoon, open up the child's mouth, and immediately say to the mother, “dear Peshenke, two obstructions like potatoes.” Then she would dip her black finger into rose-honey, put it in the child's mouth, touching all the sides. The child would become green and blue, scream from the pain, and bend into thirds. Golde would devilishly move her eye, spit out three times, and say: “Feh! An ugly child” as a remedy against the evil eye. When a child would become pale and skinny, the mother would run to Golde Hore's to have her pour wax. Golde would take a pan, black from soot, and would warm something up in it. "
Golde Lasher is described in a betlittling manner but her story is interesting none-the-less because from it we learn of an herbal remedy she worked with for swollen tonsils and also a brief description of the wax pouring ceremony.
Golde's story can be found here: https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/indura/ind064.html
Photo credits:
Two bobbes from Horodets: https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/gorodets/gor167.html
Kitev market square from: cities4cities.eu/community/kuty-territorial-community/
Tishvits market square (photographer unknown) from: https://teatrnn.pl/lexicon/articles/tyszowce-the-shtetl/
Bilgoraj market square from the yizkor: jewishgen.org/Bilgoraj/bil000.html#PageIII
Tomashev-Lubelsk market halls (photographer unknown) from: teatrnn.pl
Amdur synagogue and beit hamidrash from: https://shtetlroutes.eu/en/indura-cultural-heritage-card/
