Sam Rafel visits his hometown of Gombin in 1937

Sam Rafel visits his hometown of Gombin in 1937 

Sam Rafel, the son of a tailor, left Gombin, Poland in 1913 at the age of 17 and immigrated to New York. He planned for his move to be temporary, but what little savings he had managed to accrue was lost when the bank he used went bankrupt. He eventually became active in efforts to aid both Gombin Jews in the US and those who remained in Poland. He went back to Gombin first in 1930, then with his wife in 1937, when he shot this film. On both occasions he took with him sizeable amounts of money that he had raised for the Gombin Jewish community. Later, Mr. Rafel screened this film on many occasions in the United States and Israel, hoping to expose the poverty in which the Gombiner Jews lived as well as the anti-Semitism of the Polish government. He led the effort to provide relief in Gombin and, after the Holocaust, helped to resettle survivors and establish a Gombiner House in Tel Aviv, Israel. 

Sam Rafel visits his hometown of Gombin in 1937