Most of the Jews of Solotvino were traditionalists. Many were Chasidim, followers of Rabbi Yekutiel Yehuda Teitelbaum of Sighet, and the wealthier ones belonged to the Chasidim of Viszhnits. Up to the end of World War I the community was assisted with religious services by the district town of Sighet. After the war Sighet was annexed by Romania, and its rabbi, the author of ”Etz Chaim”, passed the border every Tuesday in order to hand down halacha decrees in Solotvino. The first and only rabbi of Solotvino, Rabbi Chaim Isaak Halberstam, the son-in-law of the rabbi of Sighet, was appointed in 1925. He united the Sighet and the Vishnitz Chasidim opponents, and founded a Yeshiva, which attracted students from far away. Most Jewish children were educated in cheders and the wealthy families invited private tutors, others went to public school and most of them continued their studies in Yeshivot. The journalist Eliahu Salptenter, the newspaper magnate Robert Maxwell (Hoch) and Professor Eliezer Schlomovitz, a lecturer at the University of Los Angeles, were natives of Solotvino. Among other distinguished members of the community known to us were Reb Shlomo Tabak, the son of the Gaon Reb Shlomo Judah Tabak of Sighet, the author of ”Erekh Shai”, who was a great scholar in his own right and was authorized to instruct those who applied to him in matters of permission and prohibition. Through his endeavors and financial support, four of his father’s books were printed in Sighet. In the preface of the first three books is inscribed: “published through the efforts of my dear son, the learned and noble Shalom of the settlement of Solotvino. The fourth book was printed (after the author’s death) in the publishing house of the Reb Shalom Tabak. He was one of the few rich men in Solotvino, the owner of grainfields and forests.
