Category Archives: Personalities

The Problematic Hirsh Bloshtein

Among the pages I’ve added to the Keidan archives this week is this 1958 article from the Yiddish newspaper Morgen Freiheit by the Keidan-born poet and novelist Hirsh Bloshtein. Morgen Freiheit was a publication “affilitated with the Communist Party USA” … Continue reading →

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Hirshel Bloshtein, Yiddish Poet

By Monty Starr (Birmingham, UK) Hirshel Bloshtein 1895-1978 My mother’s uncle was the well-published Yiddish author Hirshel Bloshtein. Hirshel lived in Czernowitz from 1932 until his death in 1978. Hirshel was born in Kėdainiai, Lithuania to Dovid Bloshtein, a poor … Continue reading →

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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 →

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The Emigrants Look Back

From the 1930 zaml bukh of the Keidaner Assn. of New York. A Thirty-Year Anniversary Thirty years in a person’s life flies by unnoticed. Old age sneaks up on us stealthily. We run about, we work, we strive and fail … Continue reading →

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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 →

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Echoes of a Vanished World

By B. Cassel Originally published Nov. 17, 1940, in the 40th anniversary edition of The Keidaner, the bulletin of the Keidaner Assn. of New York.  The original Yiddish text is here.  Keidan’s Great Synagogue was packed. From all the small … Continue reading →

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Riva Starr’s Journey

Riva Starr (1904-1993), born Riva Schneider in Keidan, emigrated to the U.K. in the early 1920s. In 1991, her son, Monty Starr, recorded an interview with her in Birmingham, England. The following is a transcription of that interview. M. It’s … Continue reading →

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A Flag Comes Home After 16 Years

Originally published in “Israel Horizons” magazine, Dec. 1956. Miracles can happen even to a flag. Recently, the flag of Gdud Maapilim, of Ken Keidani of Hashomer Hatzair, was brought to Israel, the only flag of the Lithuanian youth movement to … Continue reading →

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Among the Ruins

By Chaim Ronder The text of a letter sent to the Keidaner Society of Johannesburg by Chaim Ronder, a partisan during the German occupation. POGEGEN (Pagėgiai, Lithuania) 7 November, 1946 Warm brotherly greetings to you, Jews of Johannesburg – born … Continue reading →

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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 →

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