If someone met a Jew from Keidan on a journey and asked, “Where are you from?” he would answer proudly, “Me? I’m a Keidaner!” And on the word “me” he would thump his finger into his chest. Envious, other Lithuanian Jews dubbed them “Hole-in-the-chest Keidaners,” the hole resulting from excessive chest-thumping. 1
Jews were an important part of Keidan for nearly 400 years, but in the late 19th century, social and political storm clouds began to gather that would lead to the community’s annihilation. In the decades before World War I, hundreds of Keidaners emigrated to the U.S., South Africa and elsewhere. Yet even in diaspora, they remained tied to their home community, and over the years they wrote memoirs, essays, and histories, documenting and recalling the life of their historic town.
This literature, collected from numerous sources, is presented here in English translation, as an archive and living commemoration of this once-beloved community.
The first formal anthology about Keidan was published in 1930 in New York. Edited by Boruch Chaim Cassel and Chaim Epstein, it included a history of the town, profiles, humorous reminiscences and much more. Mainly in Yiddish, its tone was nostalgic, with only a slight sense of foreboding about the community’s political and economic condition. Of course there was nothing to hint at the horror that would destroy Jewish Keidan less than a dozen years later.
In the wake of that catastrophe, efforts to commemorate the town became more urgent. The survivors understood that they were the last generation to know the vanished community, and they attempted to record whatever they could about its life and death. The principal result was the “Sefer Zikaron” – also known as the Keidan Yizkor Book. Published in Israel in 1977, it was mainly in Hebrew, and remained largely untranslated until recently.
A third, smaller collection of essays and histories was published in South Africa in 1950, marking the 50th anniversary of the Keidaner Sick Benefit and Helping Hand Society of Johannesburg. Together with various individual essays and memoirs circulated privately over the years, these sources constitute a rich tapestry, a grassroots historiography, and an invaluable window into our own past.
The original memorial books were organized based on the contingencies of their times. This site attempts to provide a more contemporary structure, adding footnotes and context where appropriate and organizing by chronology and content.
Sections (click to jump)
Overviews / Before 1914 / The First World War / Between the wars / Notable Keidaners / The Approaching Storm / War and Destruction / The Keidan Diaspora
Overviews
- Preface to the 1977 Yizkor Book
- Foreword to the 1930 Anthology
- “The City of Keidan” from the 1908 Russian “Jewish Encyclopedia”
- “Keidan and its Jews” from “Yahadut Lita (Jews of Lithuania)” 1959
- “Keidan in the 17th Century” from “The Deluge” by Henryk Sinkiewicz (1893)
- “The History of Keidan” by B. Cassel
Before 1914
- “An Old and New World” by B. G. Richards
- “Worlds Gone By” by Dr. Hyman J. Epstein
- “Preachers and Tailors” by B. Y. Biolostotzky
- “Stolypin in Keidan” by Berl Cohen
- “Memories of My Teachers” by Mayer Yitzhak Edelman
- “Summer Bathing” by B. Cassel
- “Theater in Keidan” by Julius Lee
- “Pranks on the Bridge” by B. Cassel
- “Little Portraits” by B. Cassel and H. Epstein
- “Looking Back” by Sholem Dat
- “Of Wood and Medicine” by Mordechai Muller
- “The Doctor and the Chief” by Pesach Weitzer-Chittin
- “A Hometown Wedding” by Philip Greenblatt
- “Tales of the Talmud Society” by Dr. Hyman J. Epstein
- “Echoes of a Vanished World” by B. Cassel
- Chanukah vs Christmas by Philip Greenblatt
- Shevuos in Keidan by B. Cassel
- Three Memorable Characters by B. Cassel
- In Prison by Aharon Leib Pick
The First World War
- “Fire in the Town, 1914” by Yitzhak Wolpe
- “War Refugees in Exile” by Pesach Weitzer-Chittin
- “The Time of Troubles” by Shabtiel Deitsh
- Riva Starr’s Journey – An oral history
Between the Wars
- Agriculture, Industry and Trade by Israel Libenzon
- Volunteer Firefighters by Chaim Landsberg
- Jewish Economic Life in Kėdainiai Before WWII by Aryeh Shcherbakov and Moshe Girshovich
Education and culture
- Schools in Keidan by Zippora Kaplan
- The Progymnasium by Dr. Mordechai Sochen
- The Library and Drama Club by Haviva Rochin-Carmeli
- The Hebrew Printing House by Shimon Shibolet-Zang
Youth movements
- Hashomer Hatzair by Abba Jonah Goldin
- Beitar by Gershon Shlapobersky
- Hechalutz Hatzair and Hapoel by Pesach Shlapobersky
- Sport in Keidan by Chaim Landsberg
Religious life
- Synagogues in Keidan by Yehezkel Rochin
- The Keidan Yeshiva By Shimon Shibolet-Zang
Profiles, memoirs, etc.
- My Vanished Keidan by Pesach Weitzer-Chittin
- A Town’s Special Character by Daniel Ben-Nachum
- My Birthplace, Keidan by By Shmuel Goldblatt
- The Big Celebration by Hirsh Bloshtein
- Meishe Chone Shamesh
- Rabbi Shlomo Feinsilber by Sheynke Chittin
Notable Keidaners
- Moshe Leib Lilienblum
- Reb Zvi the Cooper by Aharon Leib Pick
- Rabbis of Keidan by Shmuel Hadari and Josef Chrust
- Sages and Scholars
- Thinkers and Doers
The Approaching Storm
- 1930s Status Report by Ben-Alexander
- The Mir Yeshiva in Keidan by A. Simcha Hacohen Kaplan
- Letter from the Ministry for Jewish Affairs
- Exodus, Interrupted by Tamar Dothan
- A Greeting from Home, 1939
- A Visit to a Lithuanian Town by Chaim Vital
War and Destruction
- The Destruction of Keidan by Dovid Wolpe
- Young Refugees in Keidan by Moshe Domb
- A Series of Narrow Escapes by Eliyahu Koenig
- Heros and Martyrs by Pesach Weitzer-Chittin
- Ghetto, Resistance and Murder by Yehuda Ronder
- Mass Graves by Chaya Gel
- From ‘The Annihilation’ by Ephraim Oshry
Escape and struggle
- The Road of Suffering by Rachel Shlapobersky-Ratner
- The Russian Exile by Bella Adler
- Survival in Siberia by Menachem Klibansky
- A Jewish Woman in Russia’s Far North by Y. L. Ushpiz
- In the Red Army by Ze’ev Ronder
- The 16th Lithuanian Division by Eliezer Lipman
- Yudel Ronder’s Story – An oral history
‘Embers from the fire’
- After the Slaughter by Mordechai Karnovsky
- Among the Ruins by Chaim Ronder
- In Pursuit of the Murderers by Yehuda Ronder
- A Lament for Keidan by Rabbi Y. M. Fishleder
- From Darkness to Light by Rivka Shlapobersky-Strichman
- A Return to My Birthplace by Hirsh Bloshtein
The Keidan Diaspora
- Keidan’s Mutual Aid Societies by A.L. Shcherbakov and A. Cassel
- The Keidaner Association in the U.S. by Charles Lipshitz
- The Founding of the Keidaner Assn. of New York by William Einhorn
- Rabbi Avraham Halevy Sochen by Dr. Mordechai Sochen
- The Keidaner Association in South Africa by Max Rochin
- A Family Dispersed by Sonja Shacknofsky-Setting
- The Life and Times of Solly Chesler by Jennifer Chesler Rubin
Pioneers in Zion
Memories In Song and Verse
- Keidan, My Town by Nathan Berger
- My Youth in Keidan by Hirsh Bloshtein
- Mama by David Wolpe
- My Brother by Hirsh Bloshtein
Hello
My name is Varvara Keidan Shavrova, a PhD researcher based at the School of Arts & Humanities at the Royal College of Art in London. I am currently researching my family roots, and since our family name is Keidan, and I know our diaspora originated from Lithuanian town of Keidan, I wanted to ask your advice on researching the history of my family roots in this town, and on tracing the Keidan’s exodus from Lithuania. I am the only daughter of Vladimir Israilevich Keidan, a well-known artist who lived and worked in Moscow ( 1936-2005). As far as I know there are no relatives left in the former Soviet Union to date. The members of Keidan family that I know live in the US (New York), Israel (Safed) and Italy (Rome), plus myself, in London. I would be very grateful to hear your advice, especially on where I can find further materials on my family diaspora, any records of the Keidans who might have lived in Lithuania, or anywhere else in the former Soviet Union prior to the 1900s, and where can I access any data or publications on the subject. I am also planning a research trip to Lithuania, including to Keidania , later this Summer, and am looking for any connections I could make that could help me to to find my family roots there.
Apologies for the late approval of your note; I only discovered it today. You might consider sharing your questions on the Facebook site: “Roots in Keidan”: https://www.facebook.com/groups/RootsInKeidan
It may draw a quicker response from others who have done similar research. Best of luck.