-
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: Yizkor Book
Recalling those who survived the Keidan massacre
By Aryeh Leonard Shcherbakov Preface When talking of the Jews of Keidan, the first who naturally come to mind are those who were murdered: our grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins lying in the mass grave on the outskirts of town. … Continue reading
Posted in History, Holocaust, Soviet Union, Yizkor Book
Tagged Israel, memorial books, Survivors
Leave a comment
Memories of My Teachers
By Meyer Yitzhak Edelman Originally published by the Keidaner Assn of New York, 1930. 1. My first rebbe was Noach Reubens, who taught the youngest children. He lived on the northwest corner of the marketplace by German Street. The cheder … Continue reading
Posted in Memoir, Personalities, Pre-WWI, Yizkor Book
Tagged 1930 Zaml Bukh, cheder, Education, pre-WWI, rabbis
Leave a comment
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
Posted in Literature, Personalities, Soviet Union, Yizkor Book
Tagged Bloshtein, Family history, Literary, Poetry, Soviet Union, USSR
1 Comment
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
Leave a comment
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
Keidan, My Town
By Nathan Berger (Meyer Yanusevers) Originally published (in Yiddish) in the 1950 anniversary booklet of the Keidaner Society of Johannesburg. Reprinted in the 1977 Keidan Yizkor Book. With simple words, in a few score lines I will set down, to … Continue reading
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
Posted in Holocaust, Personalities, Soviet Union, Yizkor Book, Zionism
Tagged Beit Zera, Hashomer Hatzair, Israel, Kibbutz, Personalities, Youth movements
Leave a comment
In Pursuit of the Murderers
Excerpts of letters from Yehuda Ronder, Kaunas After surviving the war as a soldier in the Red Army’s 16th Lithuanian Division, Yudel Ronder returned home to Lithuania and spent the rest of his life there. Throughout the post-war years and … Continue reading
Posted in Holocaust, Yizkor Book, Zionism
Tagged Holocaust, Lithuania, massacre, postwar, Ronder
Leave a comment
A Lament for Keidan
By Rabbi Y. M. Fishleder (Mexico) “How deserted lies the city…” (Lamentations of Jeremiah 1:1) How did it happen that my city of birth, Keidan, was left lonely and abandoned, without its holy community? No one is left there to … Continue reading
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
Posted in Holocaust, Memoir, Personalities, Yizkor Book
Tagged ghetto, landsmanshaft, postwar, Red Army, Ronder, South Africa, Soviet Union
Leave a comment