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Title: Simion Koldofsky, the Friend Author: Emma Goldman Date: 1936 Language: en Topics: Simion Koldofsky, Libertarian Labyrinth Source: Retrieved on 25th April 2021 from https://www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/the-sex-question/emma-goldman-simion-koldofsky-the-friend-1936/
I first met Simion Koldofsky in Moscow in 1920, during the so-called
military communism. Life was cruelly hard and the struggle bitter…
Russia, surrounded by four fronts,–blockaded by all the European
powers–was not in the mood for sociability. In the face of hunger,
epidemics and death, the life of everyone was grim and self-centered;
no-one cared for the tragedy of the other.
My old pal, Alexander Berkman, and I, had been in Russia only a short
time. We naturally felt the tragedy of the Revolution that was being
played in the day-by-day struggle. We missed close comradeship and the
fellowship that had been ours for many years in the United States. It
was then that Simion Koldofsky appeared on the scene; he had come to
Russia as the representative of the Joint Board. He brought help and
support for thousands of Jews who at that time were even more devoid of
the means of subsistence than many of the Gentiles. Koldofsky worked day
and night alleviating the hunger and the misery confronting him at every
step. Yet he did not overlook the needs of individual people in the
welter of the mass devastation. He came to us with generous feeling and
willingness, thus bringing into our lives some of the warmth and
comradeship we had known in the past. He did more; he helps in a measure
to save the health of Alexander Berkman.
My comrade became ill almost immediately after we landed in Russia. He
developed ulcers of the stomach because of the black bread which he
could not digest. It was necessary to find some kind of nourishment that
would help to restore him to his former strong phsysical condition. It
was our newly-found friend, Simion Koldofsky, who brought the relief.
However, it was not only the material side of the assistance we received
from our friend. It was more his kindness and his fellowship, which went
a long way to keep up our morale in the first period of our experience
in Russia.
It was some years before I met Simion Koldofsky again. It was at a
reception given me on my return to London in ’32. I did not know that my
good friend was among the people who had come to greet me. When he was
called upon to speak, I at once visualized our small room in Moscow and
the many interesting talks we had with (Koldofsky ?) as well as the hope
and cheer he had always brought with him. I was deeply moved by his fine
tribute to me and my work and by the same friendliness which had not
changed during 12 years.
I was living under very trying conditions in London during a bitter
winter in a room that had a temperature below zero, and with all sorts
of difficulties which made it extremely hard to reach people interested
in my work here. It was Simion Koldofsky and his lovely wife, Lisa, who
came to my rescue. They invited me to their house, as if I were flesh of
their flesh and blood of their blood and they fairly lavished on me
their friendship and their devotion. Both came like a ray of light from
a dark sky. I had never felt acclimatized in England nor was I ever able
to take root in this country. The struggle to be here was often beyond
my power of endurance; but it was the devotion of my friends, Simion and
Lisa, that raised my spirit many times which it was quite in the depths.
Since that time, our friendship has continued until this day without the
least shadow. Always I found their home open to me, and always I
returned to them as to my own.
November 1935, I again returned to England and again enjoyed the
hospitality of the Koldofskys. It was during my stay there that Simion
became so violently ill. Like all proletarians, he continued on his feet
and at his task as a journalist until he collapsed. I felt then (as I
have since) that if our friend had been in a position to give up his
job, go to a southern climate and take the necessary leisure to “invite
his soul,” he would now be a stronger and healthier man. But he is one
of the many in our world, bound by economic necessity to work when his
health is so poor. Fortunately, he is blessed with a partner in life who
by her love and consecration has helped our friend over the gravest
moments of his illness.
There are few people who retain their interest in others and their
friendship, when they themselves are physically stricken. Most sick
people are frightfully self-centered; the rest of the world and its
tragedies and comedies cease to exist for them. They live in their own
world, limited by their physical ailments and exclusive of the world at
large.
Simion Koldofsky is among the few great exceptions, close to his
sick-room, at the time when he suffered such agonies as would break the
strongest will, Simion Koldofsky never ceased to be the same gracious
host and friend; never permitted his own illness to exclude his concern
and his interest in the desperate struggle that was going on in the
outside world. For his own sake, it would be better if he quite required
from his activities in the social and humanitarian world–but it would be
very unlike Simion Koldofsky, whose whole life has been dedicated to the
masses whose hopes and aspirations he has always shared.
The workers were never more in need of such devoted spirits as Simion
Koldofsky. Time on end, they have been neglected–often betrayed–by their
so-called friends and leaders. It is therefore inspiring to know the few
who remain staunch through all the years of disappointments,
disillusionments and vicissitudes.
Let us rejoice, therefore, that Simion Koldofsky has never failed the
workers, never failed the social struggle for human betterment, kept up
whether by Jew or gentile.
For myself, I greet Simion Koldofsky, the Friend, the Comrade, ever
ready to encourage and sustain one at all times. I wish him renewed
strength and complete recovery. We need you, Simion Koldofsky. We need
your continued work, we need you as our Friend!