Tag Archives: Zionism

In Prison

Posted on January 11, 2021 by Andrew

Dr. Aharon Pick This recollection by Keidan native Dr. Aharon Pick, of his time as a poor yeshiva student in Kovno, was published in 1935 in HaOlam, the official Hebrew weekly organ of the World Zionist Organization. Edited by Nahum … Continue reading →

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Reb Zvi the Cooper

Posted on April 27, 2020 by ACassel

(Memories of M.L. Lilienblum’s father) By Dr. Aharon Leib Pick (Šiauliai) Published (in Hebrew) by the Keidaner Assn. of NY, 1930. Translated by Nathaniel Stampfer. The area around the Lithuanian city of Keidan has been famous for its beauty since … Continue reading →

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Yudel Ronder’s Story

Posted on April 23, 2020 by Andrew

Yehuda “Yudel” Ronder (1923-2016) was among the small number of Keidaner Jews who remained in Lithuania after the Holocaust. His story is both singular – a heroic tale of survival and persistence – and representative of the lives and experiences … Continue reading →

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Exodus, Interrupted

Posted on March 23, 2020 by Andrew

The story of Keidan’s Sroelov and Smilg families By Tamar Dothan (Jerusalem) My grandparents, Chaya Smilg and Chaim Ber Sroelov, were married before World War I. Chaim Ber was operating the family’s wholesale beer business, as his father had passed … Continue reading →

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Keidan’s Mutual Aid Societies

Posted on March 7, 2020 by ACassel

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 →

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The Mir Yeshiva

Posted on March 2, 2020 by ACassel

By A. Simcha Hacohen Kaplan (Tzfat, Israel) The yeshiva at Mir, Poland, one of the greatest yeshivas in the world prior to the Second World War, was forced into exile. This great Torah stronghold had existed for more than 100 … Continue reading →

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Zvi Lipschitz, Zionist Martyr

Posted on February 27, 2020 by ACassel

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 →

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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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Avraham Tzoref, Zionist Pioneer

Posted on February 27, 2020 by ACassel

From the “Encyclopedia of the Builders and Pioneers of the Yishuv.”  Avraham Shlomo Zalman Tzoref: Born in Keidan, Lithuania on 1 Kislev, November 3, 1785 — or as he himself wrote later, in the year “TaKuM”[1], thereby hinting at his … Continue reading →

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Schools in Keidan

Posted on February 26, 2020 by ACassel

By Zippora Kaplan The Jewish community in Lithuania was generally poor before World War I, but it was rich in spiritual matters and in the love of Torah. The vast majority of the Jewish people in Lithuania lived financially oppressed … Continue reading →

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