Every year at this time I turn to a story about Keidan, specifically about how the Simchas Toyre holiday was celebrated in the town. My grandfather published this set of vignettes and memories in 1940, as part of the Keidaner Association of New York’s 40th-anniversary commemoration. I spent some years translating it from the Yiddish, and I still think it’s worth sharing, particularly if you’re new here and/or are looking to experience the “tam” (yiddish for taste or feel) of our ancestral community. I used to characterize it as a kind of “Lake Wobegone meets the Shtetl” story, before Garrison Keillor’s fictional hometown vanished into the cultural ether. I don’t know how much fictionalizing went into this account of Keidan’s holiday season, but since the author was my zeyde, I’m willing to put aside all doubt and just enjoy it. I hope others do as well.
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Recent blog posts
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- Documenting the Holocaust
- Tracing the Pick Family
- Aharon Pick, Holocaust Witness
- Searching for Tsemach Pick
- Recalling those who survived the Keidan massacre
- ‘Good Morning, Lithuania’
- The Printed Version
- Another Day to Remember
- A Comment on Hirsh Bloshtein
- Yudel Ronder
- Coming Together for Passover
- A Century in Photographs
- The Problematic Hirsh Bloshtein
- Locating Lost Tribes
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The Keidaner Network
Keidaner descendents reside all over the world. Keep in touch, share memories and materials about the community and its diaspora, via the Facebook group “Roots in Keidan.” Click the link to join.