The road Moscow-Warsaw went through Siniavka. Russians valued it greatly. Lively traffic benefitted the economic situation of the shtetl on the one hand. On the other hand – during the wars it caused great damage. The sudden swift expulsion of the Jews in WW1, by the Tzar’s army was due to this geographic location.

At the end of the war, when the refugees returned, they could hardly find calm, civil war and war between Poland and Russia continued until 1921.

Houses and shops paralleled the road on both sides. They were exposed to all armies: Russian, German, Bolsheviks, Polish legionaries, etc, who fought, passed the road and not once harassed the population. For a long time Siniavka was no man’s land without rule and control. On the west – the patrols of the Polish Legionaries and on the East – the Red army. Both would come and go alternately on fixed days and dates, as if by mutual consent. The behavior of the Polish legionaries was especially wild. It happened that they entered the shtetl Friday evening, broke into the synagogue in the middle of evening prayer. The stripped the men of their clothing and shoes and left them there, undressed. There were also cases of robbery and looting. Once two Jewish merchants came to the shtetl from Moscow for their business and slept in the inn of the Kaplan family. Unfortunately, they bumped into Polish legionaries, who accused them of treason. The Jews were taken out of the shtetl and murdered.

The two daughters of Tzvi (Hirsh) Zablotzki, the butcher, and their small brother who returned from their expulsion, from Slutzk, and had trade business, were found one morning murdered together with 2 girls from Siniavka who slept at their place that night. All the signs indicated that it was these legionaries who came to rob them.

A Red Army soldier who did not manage to escape when the Polish army regiment entered the shtetl, hid behind the door in the house of the forest-merchant [direct translation of the Hebrew] Meir Pessakh Hokhberg, was caught, The merchant was accused of espionage and hiding an enemy soldier and was thrown into the cellar and beaten badly. The intercession of the honorable Yitzkhak Shkliar, Eliyahu Neimark. and Asher Kessler before their Polish estate holders succeeded in gaining the release Hokhberg.

The Red Army soldiers were also “guests” in the shtetl. At least they were not as cruel as the Poles and did not murder people but they constantly demanded food and commodities.

The Jews were constantly in fear and worry until in 1921 peace treaty was signed in Riga and Siniavka was included in the Polish State.

[the writer remembers a certain episode about the pasture field]

Almost every Jewish family had a milk-cow. The pasture was half a kilometer away from the shtetl, near Z’orvashchin forest next to the road, part of the estates of prince Radzivil renowned in Niesviaz’. Until 1921 the herds grazed in the pasture without disturbance, paying little for it.

The prince, crippled in his legs, spent most of his time in Warsaw or somewhere else, drinking and “living it up”. His estates were managed by supervisors, administrators, and clerks who mismanaged dishonestly.

The Jews of Siniavka were told that the pasture was about to be sold and they could not use it anymore. The estate managers offered another pasture 8-9 km away from the shtetl. It was impossible to have the cows graze so far away. Eliyahu Neimark, the activist, suggested that the Jews buy the closer pasture from the prince. The price was set: 5,000 gold rubles. The general assembly on Sabbath in the synagogue decided to collect 100 gold rubles equally from each family. This caused disagreements among the families. Finally the sum was collected and the activists Arche Tarabur and Neimark came to the estate of the Prince in Niesvitz, handed over the money and brought lawyers to transfer the land legally to the Jews. Weeks and months passed and nothing was done. The activists reached the head supervisor over the forests, a Jew hater, who hoped to take advantage of the deal and get something for himself. He was angry that the Jews skipped him and approached the prince directly. He let the activist know that they will not get the field.

It became clear that this supervisor wrote a letter to the defense ministry in Warsaw pointing out the danger of transferring the field next to the road to the hands of the unfaithful Jews.

A special committee of the royal ministry toured the neighborhood, agreed with the supervisor, and stalled the transfer. This hit the Jews badly. During Sabbath, in the midst of the prayer, they delayed reading of the Torah and argued for and against seeking a refund of the money.

This episode reached its tragic solution in 1939 when WW2 broke out… [the Jews were oppressed and eventual exterminated]

members of the Neimark family, coming back to the shtetl on vacation from their schools outside the shtetl, decided to solve the lack of a library. They gathered the active youth in their house to discuss the matter. The idea was to establish a drama-group. The income from selling tickets to the shows will be invested in building a library. A committee was chosen: Shimon Hokhberg, Shimon Mlodz’inov, Sarah Beinush, and Leibl Neimark. They had to find the talented amateurs, organize the group and rehersals, fix and renovate the storehouse donated by Mr. Shkolier, set a stage, etc. Yitzkhak Feder, the master watch-maker from Kletsk, was invited as a talented actor, stage manager, and adept at theatrical makeup. He auditioned the would-be actors. The group included Ania Shkoliar, Gronem Neimark and Etel and Motl Mlodz’inov, Dvorah Kaplan and Bonia Cohen. The rehersals were under Feder’s guidance and the first show on stage was The Shkhita [The Slaughter]– a drama written by Yaakov Gordin.

It was a grand celebration putting the show on stage. The hall was full. The spiritual enjoyment was complete and the income was very good. The first 200 books were bought in Hebrew and Yiddish. A generous woman dedicated a room in her house for the library. By and by the library grew to contain 10,000 books in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Polish. The number of readers increased.

The drama-group grew and continued to perform.

The same youth group founded also the first Hebrew school Tarbut. When established it had over 40 children and two teachers. Lacking a proper school building, they used the women's section in the synagogue as a school.

All functioned until the destruction.