Itche Topola

Born in Sadowna, Poland in 1918, to a poor family. His father died when Itche was 14. Since the age of 10 the boy was sent with his elder brother Chilka to study in a "cheder" in a near-by town, to "eat days". After the Nazi Germany invasion of Russia in 1941 in WWII, Itche and his future brother in-law, Yechiel Menachem, and other Yeshiva students escaped to Lituania and in 1942 were given "transit visas" to Japan, by the Japanese Consul (an act of mercy of the consul, contrary to his government orders). They traveled through Siberia and China, and settled in Shanghai in the Jewish Ghetto, where the Shanghai Jewish community helped them survive. They lived there and studied in a Yeshiva in the ghetto until 1945. Itche came down with severe pneumonia and almost died. Chil-Menachem saved his life by purchasing penicillin for him ($300/shot - in 1945!). When the war ended, both went through Moscow on their way to the USA, but were required to pay a $500 "fine" to get exit visas from the Soviet Union. Lacking the money, the poor students appealed to the Jewish community in the Moscow synagogue, and the money was raised (illegally, in US currency), and they were able to leave. Itche came to the USA in 1946, married Yocheved in 1949, and had 2 children and 9 grandchildren.

He brought over from Russia his three sisters and R'Sekula, as well as his brother Chilka & his wife. He was a successful businessman who donated generously to charity to many Jewish organizations, Jewish causes and to Yeshivas as well as to the needy and the poor in Borough Park in Brooklyn, and in Jerusalem. He died in 1982, and according to his wish, was buried in Mount Olives Cemetery in Jerusalem.