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Recent blog posts
- 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
- Opening the Archives
- The Badkhn of Keidan
- The Keidan cemetery database
- Simchas-Toyre in Keidan
- August 28
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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.
Category Archives: Memoir
A Comment on Hirsh Bloshtein
After reading my post about Hirsh Bloshtein, and the memoir “A Return to My Birthplace, Keidan,” posted here, Aryeh Shcherbakov submitted the following commentary, which I have edited. Shcherbakov, of Tel Aviv, was born and raised in Vilnius, Lithuania. The … Continue reading
Posted in History, Memoir, Personalities, Soviet Union
Tagged Bloshtein, Soviet Union, Stalin, USSR
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Yudel Ronder’s Story
Yehuda “Yudel” Ronder (1923-2016) was among the small number of Keidaner Jews who remained in Lithuania after the Holocaust. His story is both singular – a heroic tale of survival and persistence – and representative of the lives and experiences … Continue reading
Posted in Holocaust, Memoir, Personalities, Soviet Union
Tagged Lithuania, Oral history, Ronder, Shoah / Holocaust, Soviet Union, USSR, World War II, Zionism
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A Visit to a Lithuanian Town
This was published in “The Keidaner” bulletin in three parts, from October to December, 1938. It was exerpted from the Warsaw Yiddish newspaper “Haynt” (“Today”), which carried the author’s account of travel through Lithuania. By Chaim Vital “When you are … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Interwar, Memoir
Tagged Agriculture, Czapski, Economy, Folksbank, Gaon, History, Synagogues, totleben
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A Return to My Birthplace, Keidan
This article, by the Soviet writer Hirsh Bloshtein (1895-1979), was published Oct 22, 1958, in Morgen Freiheit, a New York City-based Yiddish newspaper affiliated with the Communist Party USA. By H. Bloshtein A journey back to childhood and early youth … Continue reading
Posted in Holocaust, Memoir, Soviet Union
Tagged Bloshtein, Holocaust, Lithuania, massacre, postwar, Soviet Union, USSR
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Three Memorable Characters
A regular feature of “The Keidaner,” the monthly bulletin of the Keidaner Assn. of New York, were short sketches of life back in the old hometown. Here are three: The Coachman / The Feldsher / Yosse-Itse’s Payos The Coachman By … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Memoir, Personalities, Pre-WWI, Religious
Tagged Characters, medicine, Personalities, pre-WWI, railroad, Sketches
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Shevuot in Keidan
by B. Cassel Published (in Yiddish) in “The Keidaner” monthly bulletin of the Keidaner Assn. of NY, June, 1941. After Pesach, Spring ruled our lives more and more each day. The days became warmer, lighter. From after cheder until bedtime … Continue reading
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
My Brother
By Hirsh Bloshtein First published in the anthology “Horizons” in Moscow in 1965. (“Composed after the author’s visit to the mass grave in Keidan.”) Reprinted in the 1977 Keidan Yizkor Book. “In memory of my brother, Mane-Yosl, the wonderful storyteller.“ … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Memoir, Soviet Union, Yizkor Book
Tagged Bloshtein, Literary, Memoir, Poetry, USSR
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Mama
By David Wolpe From the 1977 Keidan Yizkor Book. Nineteen forty-one. May In Lithuania the sun is molten with red lead Father says, with sadness in his face, that Mother, unfortunately, is lying in hospital I waited not … Continue reading
My Youth in Keidan
By Hirsh Bloshtein From the 1977 Keidan Yizkor Book. My youth in Keidan, come back to me, I just want to hear your voice once more It’s not yet time to say the final “stop” and cut the string for … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Memoir, Soviet Union
Tagged Bloshtein, emigrants, Literary, Memoir, Poetry, Soviet Union, USSR
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