Created byTerese Fehlberg tuf@tpg.com.au and by Eilat Gordin Levitan

Opsa
A shtetl, boasting approximately 300 Jews, who were linked with Braslaw by commercial and familial ties. Opsa is first mentioned in the fifteenth century in a royal decree of the Polish king Alexander in which he ordered a special tax imposed on its pasture lands and on fishing rights in its nearby lakes. In certain respects its history and development strongly parallel those of Braslaw and other vishuvim. It too kept changing hands as a result of the continual feuding of its rulers. Records show that in 1790 Opsa's population totaled 130 souls, made up of seventeen Christian and two Jewish families. The year 1794 is a red-letter date in the history of Opsa. It is the year of the famous Kosciuszko revolt against Czarist might when a great battle in which close to 40,000 Polish rebels took part, was fought on its outskirts. Another fateful date was April 28, 1928 that fine spring Sabbath morning when a fire broke out, almost razing the entire shtetl to the ground. Yaakov Aviel describes it as follows:

I remember it as if it were only yesterday. The fire started in Baruch-Itse's house. The tongues of flame fanned by the spring breeze spread like wildfire, enfolding roof after roof, house after house. The church bells pealed ominously, then suddenly fell silent as the fire began to engulf the sacred building and the burning crosses and massive bells came crashing to the ground.

Opsa was again rebuilt but the fire was not forgotten. Interwoven into the fabric of the lives of its inhabitants it frequently served as a landmark. Thus they would say: "This still happened before the fire." Or "Do you remember the house before the fire?" Despite its small Jewish population of barely a few hundred souls, the communal and spiritual life of Opsa was multifaceted and replete with cultural activities, clubs, social circles, and political parties. It had two synagogues – a Chassidic and a Mitnaggid synagogue-cum house of study. The children attended "Cheder," a religious afternoon school, or studied in the Braslaw yeshiva (Torah academy)_ or in the Hebrew school Yavneh. The Betar was the predominant Zionist movement and attracted a large following among the youth. As in most Jewish shtetlach in the interwar period, the period engaged in business or plied trades. They were tailors, cobblers, tinkers, bankers, and so on. The Jews of Opsa, like those of Braslaw and environs, perished at the hands of the Nazis.