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Recent blog posts
- Aharon Pick’s Memoir
- 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
Categories
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.
Category Archives: Israel
The Life and Times of Solly Chesler
By Jennifer Chesler Rubin, Ramat Efal, Israel (Adapted from an essay by Muriel Chesler on the occasion of Solly Chesler’s 75th birthday.) This is the story of my father, the late Solly (Sholem) Chesler, a self-made man, who arrived in … Continue reading
Posted in History, Israel, Memoir, South Africa
Tagged History, Israel, South Africa
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Exodus, Interrupted
The story of Keidan’s Sroelov and Smilg families By Tamar Dothan (Jerusalem) My grandparents, Chaya Smilg and Chaim Ber Sroelov, were married before World War I. Chaim Ber was operating the family’s wholesale beer business, as his father had passed … Continue reading
Posted in History, Holocaust, Israel, Memoir, Soviet Union, Zionism
Tagged Economy, Family history, Holocaust, Interwar, Israel, Zionism
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From Darkness to Light
By Rivka Shlapobersky-Strichman (Haifa, Israel)[1] In 1996, representatives of the Spielberg fund, who initiated the archiving of Holocaust survivor’s stories, asked to interview me. I wondered what I could share about my childhood and to my amazement I could gather … Continue reading
Keidan’s Mutual Aid Societies
By Aryeh Leonard Shcherbakov and Andrew Cassel Jews have always been absorbed with problems of ethics and morality. Both before and during the diaspora, proper behavior and relations within the family and community have been major concerns, particularly concerning treatment … Continue reading
Posted in Emigrants, Israel, Landsmanshaft, South Africa, USA, Zionism
Tagged Beit Zera, emigrants, landsmanshaft, South Africa, Zionism
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Young Refugees in Keidan
By Moshe Domb (Kfar Menachem, Israel) After many hardships and torments, we gathered in Keidan, in Lithuania, to continue the training as Kibbutz Manof that began in Włocławek [Poland]. We were all graduates of the Hashomer Hatzair movement, preparing for … Continue reading
Posted in Emigrants, Holocaust, Israel, Memoir, Personalities, Soviet Union, Zionism
Tagged Hashomer Hatzair, Holocaust, Lithuania, Red Army, Soviet Union, Youth movements
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In the Lithuanian Division
By Eliezer Lipman (Tel Aviv) I was born in Keidan in 1924. My father, Shmerel (Shmaryahu) Lipman, had a grocery store in Smilga (now Smilgos) Street, in a house that he had inherited from my grandfather. The whole street had … Continue reading
Posted in History, Holocaust, Israel, Memoir, Soviet Union, Yizkor Book
Tagged Holocaust, Lithuania, Military, postwar, Red Army
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Survival in Siberia
By Menachem Klibansky I was born in Keidan, Lithuania. During the First World War, we were exiled to Russia and settled temporarily in the city of Tsaritsyn (later renamed Stalingrad). In 1921 we returned to our home at Number 5 … Continue reading
Posted in Emigrants, Holocaust, Israel, Memoir, Soviet Union
Tagged cheder, Holocaust, Interwar, Red Army, Siberia, Soviet Union, USSR
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Mass Graves
By Chaya Gel (Jerusalem) I was born in Keidan, where I lived in 16 Gedimino Street. When the Russians conquered Lithuania the first time in 1940, they nationalized our business and seized our house. I went to live with my … Continue reading
The Road of Suffering
By Rachel Shlapobersky-Ratner (Kiryat Chaim, Israel) Based on testimony from Yad VaShem, IX – 2939 / 252. I was born in Keidan in December 1912. My father, Yudel Shlapobersky, owned a flour mill. My mother was Chasya Rivka Shlapobersky, neè … Continue reading
Posted in Holocaust, Israel, Memoir, Personalities, South Africa, Soviet Union
Tagged Family history, gestapo, ghetto, Holocaust, Kovno, shlapobersky
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Zvi Lipschitz, Zionist Martyr
By Ben-Moshe (Johannesburg) Originally published in the Keidaner Sick Benefit & Benevolent Society jubilee book, 1950. Young Zvi Lipschitz hy’d [1], from Kfar Etzion, was a Keidaner landsman. He was born in 1919 in the town of Yasven (Josvainiai), near … Continue reading
Posted in Interwar, Israel, Personalities, South Africa, Zionism
Tagged Israel, Palestine, Personalities, Zionism
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