-
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: South Africa
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
Comments Off on The Life and Times of Solly Chesler
A Golden Jubilee in Johannesburg
Published in the 50th anniversary booklet of the Keidan Sick Benefit and Benevolent Society. Jewish emigration from Keidan to South Africa began as far back as before the Boer War, and at the turn of the century several immigrants from … Continue reading
Posted in Emigrants, History, Landsmanshaft, South Africa
Tagged Anniversary, Diaspora, Johannesburg, landsmanshaft, South Africa
Leave a comment
A Family Dispersed
By Sonja Shacknofsky-Setting My father, Joseph Setting, was born in Keidan in 1910. He arrived in Cape Town on Christmas morning, 1927, then went on to Johannesburg, where he found work with relatives. My grandparents likely sent him to South … Continue reading
Posted in Emigrants, Interwar, South Africa, Zionism
Tagged Diaspora, Families, Hashomer Hatzair, Israel, Kibbutz
Leave a comment
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
Leave a comment
The Keidaner Association in South Africa
Published, in English, in the 1977 Keidan “Sefer Zikaron” (memorial or yizkor book) By Max Rochin After World War I, immediately after the liberation of Lithuania, the Lithuanian government granted the Jews a certain autonomy. A Jewish National Council was … Continue reading
Posted in Emigrants, Interwar, Landsmanshaft, Memoir, South Africa, UK
Tagged emigrants, landsmanshaft, South Africa, UK
Leave a comment
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
1 Comment
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
Leave a comment
Looking Back
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
Posted in History, Memoir, Pre-WWI, South Africa, Yizkor Book
Tagged encyclopedia, History, Memoir, pre-WWI, South Africa
Leave a comment