Category Archives: Pre-WWI

Echoes of a Vanished World

Posted on March 9, 2020 by ACassel

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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Tales of the Talmud Society

Posted on March 9, 2020 by ACassel

by Dr. Hyman J. Epstein Dr. Hyman (Chaim Yakov) Epstein (1881-1951) was an active participant in Jewish affairs in early 20th century New York, helping to organize the Bronx Jewish Hospital and the New York “kehillah” which for several years … Continue reading →

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Pranks on the Bridge

Posted on March 9, 2020 by ACassel

By B. Cassel From 1935 until his death in 1941, Boruch Chaim Cassel served as editor of The Keidaner, the monthly bulletin of the Keidaner Association of New York. Besides announcing meetings and recording the happy and sad events in … Continue reading →

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Summer Bathing

Posted on March 9, 2020 by ACassel

By B. Cassel From 1935 until his death in 1941, Boruch Chaim Cassel served as editor of The Keidaner, the monthly bulletin of the Keidaner Association of New York. Besides announcing meetings and recording the happy and sad events in … Continue reading →

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Founding the Keidaner Association

Posted on March 6, 2020 by ACassel

From the 1930 “zamel bukh” of the Keidaner Assn. of New York. By William Einhorn In the 1890’s, the gathering place for Keidaners was at the corner of Bayard and Forsythe Streets [in New York]. Later they gathered on Market … Continue reading →

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Lilienblum’s Journey

Posted on February 27, 2020 by ACassel

Originally published in the “Hebrew Encyclopedia,” Vol. 21, p. 797.  Moshe Leib Lilienblum: born Keidan 1843, died Odessa 1910. He was an author and publicist, one of the founders of Hibbat Tzion (Lovers of Zion), and in his youth had … Continue reading →

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Little Portraits

Posted on February 27, 2020 by ACassel

By Dr. Chaim Epstein and B. Cassel Originally published by the Keidaner Assn. of New York, 1930.  Only the devil could stand it Reb Noach Reubens often suffered from toothaches. In those days there were no dentists in Keidan, and … Continue reading →

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Looking Back

Posted on February 27, 2020 by ACassel

By Sholem Dat (Johannesburg) First published in “Lita,” (p. 1475) by the Jewish-Lithuanian Cultural Society Inc. 1951.  Keidan is one of the oldest cities in Lithuania, and her Jewish community was also one of the first. Keidan was originally a … Continue reading →

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Of Wood and Medicine

Posted on February 27, 2020 by ACassel

By Mordechai Muller (Moscow) An excerpt from a letter, written on November 28, 1965, to Yehuda Ronder, Kovno, by Mordechai Muller, a Moscow resident. The writer (the son of Alter the badkhn, or wedding-jester) ended up in Moscow after the … Continue reading →

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The Doctor and the Chief

Posted on February 27, 2020 by ACassel

By Pesach Weitzer-Chittin (Beit Zera, Israel) This event in the life of Keidan, about which I wish to write, I heard of from my father, of blessed memory, when I was a child. Later, in about 1923, I heard the … Continue reading →

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