By Dovid Zaklikowski, Hasidic Archives
In 1946, the Gurewicz family joined a group of Chabad followers fleeing religious persecution in the Soviet Union. Using forged Polish papers, they made their way across Europe, arriving in Paris on May 1947, residing in hotel rooms paid for by the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
A small school was organized for the children in the group. The boys were taught by a man named Dovid, whom Shmuel Gurewicz described as someone who had “a talent for explaining something in a way that everyone could understand.”
Every Thursday, Dovid would test the students on the material they had studied the past week. When a student did not know an answer, the teacher placed a matchstick near him. At the end of the test, Dovid would remove his belt, “which had a metal buckle,” and give each student as many lashes as the number of matchsticks he had received.
So attached was Dovid to this punishment regimen that, when the children once stole his belt, he went on strike and refused to teach. “We had a ball and went to the Eiffel Tower and other attractions in Paris,” Shmuel recalls. The vacation lasted two days, until the children’s parents compelled them to reveal the belt’s location.
Now in his 80s, Shmuel remembers that once he had 9 matches next to him when the test ended. “Dovid placed me on the chair, giving me the nine lashes due.” With each blow, the teacher shouted, “A young child needs to study!” About halfway through, one of the parents walked in. For the first time it became clear what the teacher was using his belt for and the parent grabbed it away. “Don’t you dare give him even one more lash!” he demanded.
The parent wrote to the Rebbe Rayatz describing the incident. Dovid also wrote to the Rebbe, saying, in his own defense, that the students were provoking him.
The Rebbe replied that Dovid should not teach anymore, quoting the sages that “The short-tempered cannot teach” (Ethics of Our Fathers 2:5). The small school was dissolved, and the students were transferred to another Chabad school in a suburb of Paris.
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A pity my Rebbe in Yeshiva didn’t write to the Friedigge Rebbe, he would have been fired as well LOL
He had two names the second name was Dovid
The Rebbe Rayatz advised him to become a Shochet ,they played him much much better, he only worked Monday to Friday, off any legal holidays ,
He was a very Chassidisher Yid , I heard him giving Shiurim in Likutei Torah he was A1
His children and grandchildren all Rabbonim a School principals Roshe Yeshivos