Category Archives: Yizkor Book

Keidan, My Town

Posted on March 11, 2020 by ACassel

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 →

Posted in Literature, Memoir, Pre-WWI, Yizkor Book | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

A Flag Comes Home After 16 Years

Posted on March 8, 2020 by ACassel

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 , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Keidaner Association in the U.S.

Posted on March 7, 2020 by ACassel

By Charles Lipshitz[1] I left Keidan in 1907, shortly after my Bar Mitzvah as a student in the Keidan yeshiva. A short time after my arrival in the United States, I learned that there is a Keidaner organization in existence. … Continue reading →

Posted in Emigrants, Interwar, Landsmanshaft, USA, Yizkor Book | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Keidaner Association in South Africa

Posted on March 7, 2020 by ACassel

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, Yizkor Book | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Rabbis of Keidan

Posted on March 7, 2020 by ACassel

By Shmuel Hadari and Josef Chrust The Jewish settlement in Keidan is ancient, and the town’s Jewish community is one of the oldest in Lithuania. The town held a respected place in the “Council of the Land of Lithuania,” in … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Religious, Yizkor Book | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

In Pursuit of the Murderers

Posted on March 2, 2020 by ACassel

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 , , , , | Leave a comment

A Lament for Keidan

Posted on March 2, 2020 by ACassel

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 →

Posted in History, Holocaust, Religious, Yizkor Book | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Among the Ruins

Posted on March 2, 2020 by ACassel

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 , , , , , , | Leave a comment

After the Slaughter

Posted on March 2, 2020 by ACassel

By Mordechai Karnovsky Spring. Early morning. Only our footsteps can be heard in the street. Here, in front of Rabinovich’s store, is the haberdashery. Above it the Friedlands’ apartment. Looking left – Gurvich’s pharmacy and Wolpert’s shop. Another turn and … Continue reading →

Posted in Holocaust, Memoir, Yizkor Book | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Young Refugees in Keidan

Posted on March 2, 2020 by ACassel

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 →

Posted in Emigrants, Holocaust, Israel, Memoir, Personalities, Soviet Union, Yizkor Book, Zionism | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment