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Where Did You Come From Superman?
Where Did You Come From Superman?
Where Did You Come From Superman?
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Where Did You Come From Superman?

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This is the story of a man who was the original prototype of Superman presented against the background of Jewish history and its impact on the Superman culture. It tells the story of Zishe Breitbart who in many respects could have served as a role model for Superman – including his nickname “Superman of the Ages”. He was born in Tsarist Russian (Poland) in the 1880’s and died in Poland in the 1920’s but in between he developed the reputation as “the Strongest Man in the World.” He was also one of the first entertainers to exploit the fitness market. A true story of an exceptions individual. It has been translated from Polish and uses illutrations from the Breitbart family
LanguageEnglish
Release dateOct 1, 2018
ISBN9781945430893
Where Did You Come From Superman?
Author

Jacek Perzynski

Jacek Perzyński is a researcher in the history of her most unknown and mysterious history. His books or press articles published in Poland aroused many discussions about the topics he touched upon. In this publication he proves where Superman came from and who was his progenitor. All interested in this subject, the author asks for contact at the following e-mail address: jacekper75@o2.pl

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    Book preview

    Where Did You Come From Superman? - Jacek Perzynski

    WHERE DID YOU COME FROM SUPERMAN?

    BY

    JACEK PERZYNSKI

    Where Did You Come From Superman? by Jacek Perzynski

    Cover design by Vincent Rospond

    This edition published in 2018

    Winged Hussar Publishing, is an imprint of

    Pike and Powder Publishing Group LLC

    1525 Hulse Rd, Unit 1

    Point Pleasant, NJ 08742

    Copyright © Jacek Perzynski

    ISBN 978-1-945430-57-2

    LCN 2018945496

    Bibliographical References and Index

    1. History/Biography.  2. Poland.  3. Zishe Breitbart

    Pike and Powder Publishing Group LLC All rights reserved

    For more information on Pike and Powder Publishing Group, LLC, visit us at 

    www.PikeandPowder.com 

    www.wingedhussarpublishing.com twitter: @pike_powder facebook: @PikeandPowder

    This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

    The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s and publisher’s rights is appreciated. Karma, its everywhere.

    1. Breitbart was also called the King of Iron

    The author expresses special thanks to Gary Bart, who is closely related to the unusual hero of this book for help and sharing unique materials necessary for the creation of this work.

    STRYKÓW, FAMILY CITY OF POWER

    The real-life character whose story is depicted on the pages of a novel or film always fires the imagination. This biography is more colorful than the novelties invented by writers. It happens, however, that in the film or book the fate of the hero is significantly different from what often really happened. That also applies to the hero of this book. Over the years, he has become more and more of a legend and a myth.

    The biography of our hero is sensational and unique, but it also includes the bitterness of childhood, years of poverty, many disappointments and great ambition supported by a strong will - the ambition to become someone. There is also a great mission and message in its telling. It is a story about an extraordinary man almost forgotten for years, whose life gave rise to the biggest icon of pop culture today. What you must keep in mind when reading this story is not just the tale, but the tales that seem to have grown up around him

    Is Superman a completely fictional and impersonal character, as we often read when searching for information about him?

    Is that all there is to it?

    Let’s remember that in principle every hero of a movie, a book, etc. has its prototype - a person whose life was an inspiration, who provided a fascination so great that he was not allowed to disappear into the reverie of history.

    It is said that it is difficult to create an official life story of Superman, a figure that has existed in mass culture for over seventy years. There is always one original, and the reader will find out after reading this book where this original came from.

    Let’s start from the beginning. Our hero was born in an exceptional place ... Exceptional, because it is extremely important for shaping his psyche, personality and character. This person’s name was Zishe Breitbart, he was born in the town of Stryków, which today is in central Poland. This small town is located about ten kilometers from the big city of Łódź. This is the first very important note for the American reader of this book. In most English-language publications that have been written about Zishe Breitbart, you can find multiple, erroneous bits of information that he was born in Łódź in the Stryków district. We will come back to clarify this fact. The advantage of the city was and still is its location at the intersection of the main roads of Poland at that time.

    2. Stryków lies 10 km north of Łódź

    Stryków received city rights[1] thanks to the Polish king Władysław Jagiełło in 1394. In the mid-15th century, Stryków had over five hundred inhabitants and was ranked as a medium-sized city. The relatively good location on trade routes ensured its development, which lasted until the mid-seventeenth century during the Polish war with Sweden. This war was so terrible for Poland that the destruction of the country it caused was comparable to those of the years of World War II! This very large state was weakened despite attempts to rebuild. Reforms did not bring results mainly due to interference by their neighboring countries.

    3. Today’s Stryków lies at a crossroads of European highways

    After the final collapse of Poland in 1795, Stryków was under the administration of Prussia, then Napoleon, who created the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807-1815. In the end of 1815, the town was ruled by the Russian tsars as part of the Congress Kingdom of Poland. After 1831 this area was incorporated directly into the huge Russian state.

    Stryków was a place of strong Hasidic influence. The Hasidim had their own Hasidic synagogues and prayer. They created a compact and strong environment, almost like families based on strong ties of brotherly friendship. At their head were Tzadiks[2] from various dynasties of Rabbinical Courts. This religiousmystical movement (from Hebrew, pious, God-fearing) was born in eastern Poland during the mid-18th century in the bosom of Judaism. It was created in response to cultural unrest, the decline of piety and had a renewing character. Hasidism transformed into a mystical movement that developed the form of worshiping God through song and dance. The Tzadik was the leader of the religious community in Hasidism as well as the model of piety, wisdom, justice and authority in matters of faith. Yiddish, the language of the Jewish community was used throughout the Polish lands, and in the vicinity of Łodz was spoken of as a characteristic singing dialect, which has not completely disappeared, while some words, phrases, and definitions entered Polish for good. The Tzadik Elimelech Menachem Mendel Landau founded his court in Stryków. Rabbi Efraim Izaak Fiszel taught there in the first decade of the 20th Century.

    In the city on the Old Market Square there was a synagogue, and next to it a mikveh[3], as well as a shelter for the poor behind it. The square was surrounded by houses and shops, and in the middle was a well from which the Jews drew water. The New Market Square was surrounded by several brick houses - in the middle of which stood a Catholic church. Only a few squares and roads were paved. The town also contained a cheder (a Jewish religious school). Strykow’s synagogue and its community popular among the local Jews. They could live where they wanted, without creating a separate district. Interspersed between the Jewish houses there were houses of Polish burghers. There were never ghettos in Poland, of the kind that existed in the Germany and Italy, where Jewish people were only allowed to go out during the day. This is a very important fact to explain why so many Jewish people sought shelter and emigrated to the Polish lands – with the largest concentration of the Jewish community in Europe. They had greater autonomy and freedom here than in other parts of Europe.

    The largest part of the citizens in this part of the country was engaged in trade in agricultural and as craftsmen.  The Jewish citizens were also engaged in various trades that included wool, hops, cloth, cotton and spices. In 1860, the city’s population amounted to 2,413 inhabitants, of which the vast majority – 1,609 were of the Jewish faith.  Among these residents there were 65 tailors, 53 farmers and 35 shoemakers.  The Christian and Jewish communities were intertwined with one another in a relatively harmonious existence. It was in this environment that Zishe came into the world.

    The year that Zishe was born and later raised in Stryków was a time when Poland was not present on the maps of Europe (Poland did not exist as a state), and its lands were in the hands of three invaders: Prussia, Austria and Russia.[4] The severe political and economic situation of the people living there combined with a growing population forced active and enterprising individuals to look for work abroad.  Most often the destination was the US.  One such resident of the Jewish faith born in Stryków, who followed this path must be mentioned. 

    His name was Awrom Pinkas Unger, who in his memoir My Town Stryków - Majn hejmsztetl Stryków (title in Yiddish) described the life of the city at the turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries when Zishe was growing up there. At the beginning of the 20th century he emigrated to the USA, and his memoire was recommended reading by the New York Jewish Science Institute’s (JIWO) as an interesting biography of a Jewish emigrant.  It was published in Yiddish, in New York, in 1956.

    4. Photograph of the Synagogue of Stryków from the 1920’s

    It is in these memories that we can find the following excerpt at the beginning of his

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