THE CITY OF KEIDAN: An Historical Memoir by Boruch Chaim (Alter) Cassel

Boguslav Radzivill, a Calvinist, fought on the side of the Swedes at the war's start, but after Janusz Radzivill died and Polish victories increased, Radzivill and his armies joined the side of Jan Casimir. This move allowed Radzivill to obtain his inheritance - the city of Keidan - from his cousin Janusz, and gave him protection from Polish persecution.

The wars with Sweden and with Russia ended in 1657. Boguslav brought the remains of his cousin Janusz from Tikotzin to the family crypt in the Calvinist church in Keidan. He placed a metal plaque at the site with a long Latin inscription detailing the conquests of Janusz, the seventh in the Radzivill line of succession, and giving his date of death.

After 1658, Poland and Lithuania - including the Jewish community in Keidan - began to recover slowly from the devastations of war. In 1658 an apothecary was established in Keidan, where one can still see a licensing document signed by Boguslav Radzivill. In 1659 the first bridge across the Neviasha River was built. Booths were set up on both ends of the bridge for toll collectors. There was even an information office for new arrivals in Keidan. In the booth on the Keidan side of the bridge, where the market area began, resided a city official whose responsibilities included the cleanliness of the market and the city streets. He was also the town crier, who announced new orders from the ruler's castle or from the town hall. These announcements, preceded by the beating of a drum, were generally shouted out on Thursdays, the market days. Bridge tolls were turned over to a Jew who served as collector.

Boguslav confirmed all the rights granted to Jews by the earlier Radzivills. Boguslav spent most of his time in Koenigsburg, Prussia, returning to Keidan only occasionally. Jews were appointed to collect all moneys to be turned over to the town government. Most of Boguslav's official documents were issued from Koenigsburg. This included a document issued to the monks of the Russian Orthodox church granting them an annual stipend of 5 tons of corn, 4 tons of malt, 7 1/2 tons of oats, 1 ton of buckwheat, 1 ton of barley, 1 ton of peas, 3 barrels of butter, 90 cheeses, and so forth. This was signed on September 12, 1661.

On June 11, 1662 Radzivill's adjutant in Keidan reported to him in Koenigsburg, that in defiance of the rights that had been previously granted to Jews, the Catholic bishop had posted notices in the market place and other public areas denying Jews the right to employ Christian servants. On October 5, 1665, Boguslav Radzivill wrote a contract which turned over the management and collection of all incomes relating to the castle and court in Keidan to a Reb Wolf Isakovich. Reb Wolf was given the right to pass judgments and punishments on the residents of Keidan, just as if he were the ruler Radzivill. Reb Wolf contributed a great deal to the improvement and growth of the Jewish community in Keidan.

As the lot of Keidan improved, it grew as a center of Torah, scholarship and piety. The greatest scholars of the time occupied the chief rabbinical posts in Keidan; the seminary and the middle and elementary schools were famous throughout Zamut.

After peace was settled with Russia in 1667, with Malerussia being turned over to the Russians, many Jews of that region, survivors of Chmelnicki's pogroms, fled to Lithuania. Some came to Keidan. Though Radzivill lived in Koenigsburg, Keidan was still the focal point of Calvinism in Lithuania and a center of religious freedom. This contributed to the economic and spiritual development of the Jewish community. Boguslav Radzivill died in 1669 and was laid to rest in the family vault of the rulers of Brandenburg in Koenigsburg.

After Boguslav's death the Catholic church gradually grew in importance in Keidan. Documents from 1687 and 1697 record that the head monk of the Russian Orthodox church in Keidan won a lawsuit against the Bishop of Zamut, Dominick Tishkevitz, after Catholics attacked the church. At the same time, the German Lutherans began redecorating their church, a brick edifice built in 1670 to replace an earlier wooden structure. As a result, the Catholic Bishop Tishkevitz ordered the church closed, forbade worship there and confiscated the silver religious vessels, demanding a fine of 200 Gulden for the "illegal" redecorating of the interior.

In 1681 a huge conflagration, the greatest catastrophe that Keidan had yet suffered, destroyed most of the city. Included in the losses were the lyceum and the rich library that the Radzivills had built. The Jewish community also suffered much because of the fire, but their wealth was not diminished significantly. Keidan continued to be an important Jewish center in Lithuania and in Zamut.

But conditions for Jews in Poland were worsening continuously, because of persecutions by the government, Christian guilds, Jesuits and students. There was bloodshed everywhere in Europe where the Jesuits had influence. However, in Keidan Jews lived peacefully among their Christian neighbors, because they were united against their common enemy - the Jesuits.

In 1686 one Stefan Bolshetes complained to the Radzivill court that Jews did not observe the order to keep businesses closed on Sundays, that the Jewish quarter had overflowed into the greater city and that Jews were becoming more powerful, richer and more numerous than allowed. In 1691 a Calvinist synod was held in Keidan, attended by Calvinists from various European countries.

Because of the great persecutions suffered by Jews throughout Europe, in 1698 Rabbi Yosl Kobriner - an important scholar in Keidan - composed a penitential prayer which was taken into the prayer rituals of all the Jewish communities of Lithuania and Zamut.

At the beginning of the 18th century a series of great wars broke out between Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia and Karl XII, king of Sweden. In 1704 Keidan was besieged by the Swedish general Lowenhoept, and in December Karl XII spent several days in the city and attended a religious service in the Calvinist church.

In these wars Keidan fared much worse than it had during the earlier wars between Karl August and Jan Casimir. The pursuits of the Russian and Swedish armies through Keidan ruined the city. The famous Radzivill castle on the mountain was burned and much of the city was destroyed. Christians and Jews both suffered immensely. The Jews were so impoverished by the war that they could not cover their communal expenses; they had to borrow money from the nobility to pay their head-taxes and other taxes to the government.

Keidan belonged to the heirs of the Radzivills, and the king of Prussia was their legal representative. There exists a document characteristic for the times, dated July 30, 1707, in which the Jewish representative of Zamut, Shmuel Bitner, complains to the court council of the Prussian king about their abuse at the hands of noblemen to whom the Jews owed money. He writes that a certain nobleman Gursky, who was owed several thousand Gulden by the Jewish community in Keidan, had locked the praying congregants in their synagogue on a Sabbath demanding payment. With great efforts they obtained an extension for after the Sabbath.

In 1710 a terrible epidemic wiped out much of the population of Lithuania and Zamut. The suffering in Keidan was great. During the epidemic a certain German doctor, Kanein, who was also the postmaster of Keidan, was particularly active in providing medical aid for the community. Kanein died in the epidemic and on his tombstone, erected by his wife in the German cemetery, is inscribed:

In 1710 the first Catholic Carmelite cloister was erected, some remnants of which still exist.

Count Francisco Czapski married Veronica Radzivill and obtained the city of Keidan as his dowry. Since the Czapskis were Catholics, the passing of Keidan into their hands strengthened the Catholic influence in the city considerably. The Jesuits, who previously played a minimal role in Keidan, began to achieve power there. With all this, the Jewish community recovered, and by 1721 had become one of the more significant Jewish groups in Lithuania. That year, for instance, Jewish head-taxes in all of Lithuania totaled 60,000 Gilden; contributions from some of the individual communities were as follows:

• Brisk (which had the largest Jewish population in Lithuania), 5,150 Gulden;
• Grodno, 4,500;
• Pinsk, 3,730;
• Vilna, 1,100;
• Minsk 1,300
• Keidan 4,300.

In other words, Keidan was in third place, far surpassing Vilna and Minsk.

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