Keidan (Kedainiai)

Part 1: The Community

Jews began to settle here around the middle of the sixteenth century. In 1495 archduke Alexander banished the Jews from Keidan - a sign that Jews had lived here a for number of years earlier. In 1503 he reversed the expulsion decree. Under the Radzivils, Keidan's Jews enjoyed broad rights. Their living space in the city was actually limited to certain quarters, however, such restrictions also applied to some extent to Christians.

By 1624 we find a Jew - Isaac Lukovitsh - leasing an inn and taking tolls on a bridge. A second Jewish leaseholder in that time was one R. Samuel . In 1652 Duke Radzivil granted the Jewish community the right to sell alcohol, distill brandy and brew beer. In 1666 Jews were operating taverns and dealing in foods. By 1667 there was a Jewish settlement here of several hundred persons. In 1685 Jews made up 11 percent of the total residents of the town. The number of Jewish houses was 42, compared with 337 Christian houses. One Sabbath in 1707 a Christian, to whom the Jews owed money, locked up the synagogue with the Jews inside and kept them there a half a day.

In 1623 the "Council of the Principal Lands of Lithuania" was formed, and Keidan's Jews quickly chose their representatives. Later Keidan became the largest of the three districts (the others were Birzh and Vizhun) of the Council in Zamut. It was also one of the wealthier communities in the Council. This can be seen from several statutes recorded in the "Pinkas Medina Lita" [Chronicles of Lithuania]. In entry 677, the statutes of 1670, there is a mention of debts owed to Keidan. In entry 799, the statutes of 1684, a debt "to the honorable chief Wolf of Keidan" and also "to the honorable chief Avraham son of Chaim from Keidan."

Entry 948, [958!] statutes of 5512 [1752], mentions debts "to the Holy Congregation of the district of Keidan, four thousand, three hundred thirty pieces of gold" - almost two times more than the Vizhun district, and more than two times more than the Birzh district.

Entry 952 (962 - correction in the "Chronicles") statutes of 1761, under debts: a dispute between the region of Keidan and Grodno "in the matter of the communities beyond the River Neiman, the Council of Slutzk decided that they belong "to the above-mentioned region of Keidan finally and permanently for all time." Concerning the Slabodke dispute, the Slutsk council confirmed the compromise which the Keidan region and Grodno earlier arrived at; that rabbis, cantors and synagogue assistants belonged to Keidan, while the rest went to Grodno.

To the Keidan district belonged: Yurburg, Rasein, Plungyan, Slabodke, Palange, Kelm, Krozh, Shavl, Shkud, Telzh, Riteve.

In 1655 Keidan suffered heavily from the Russian-Swedish War. In 1657 the Black Plague broke out here. In 1681 a large portion of the town was destroyed in a gigantic fire. In 1710 Keidan and its surrounding area were affected by djuma [?] plague. This disturbed local Jewish life, but did not destroy it. In 1721 We see Keidan as the third-largest community in Lithuania-Zamut in head-tax revenue, larger than Vilna or Minsk.

With the takeover of Lithuania-Zamut by Russia, in 1795, the Jewish legal situation in Keidan began to worsen. The Jews lost all their earlier broad rights as the Russian government rapidly extended all the discriminatory laws against Jews that existed in Russia itself. One of the first decrees came in 1804: All Jews must leave their rural village settlements. All the Jews who had been expelled from their homes in the surrounding villages came to Keidan. In 1807 a natural disaster struck: In part of Zamut a great cholera epidemic broke out, and it did not miss Keidan. That year the local Jews lost 397 souls. Here it should also be mentioned that in 1809 Menachem Mann ben Aryeh from Vizhun was publicly burned for converting Count Potocki to Judaism. (This took place on the 17th of Tamuz, 5569.)

The Jewish economy in Keidan nonetheless did not develop badly in the later years of Russian rule. From 1868, two artillery units were stationed here, becoming a source of livelihood for Jewish shopkeepers and workmen. A couple of years later a rail line was built, which strengthened the ties between Keidan and Russia. Jewish shopkeepers and workers profited from it, not to mention Jewish merchants and contractors. In the 1830s there were a lot of Jewish merchants from Keidan who traveled to the major fairs in Russia.

In 1868 General Baron Von Rosen apologized to the Jews of Keidan for letting his soldiers play "the Yudenpolka," because it was offensive to Jews. He promised to prohibit it in the future. 

A little spotlight on the life of Jews in Lithuania in general, and on the Jews of Keidan in particular, was the time of Duke Totleben, who became governor-general of Lithuania in 1863. In the famine year of 1868 he helped the poor. Jews and Christians alike in Keidan received a lot of work through the military storehouses and through the building of barracks, a gorgeous courtyard and garden and other public works.

In 1867 another cholera epidemic broke out. In 4 weeks, 800 rubles were collected for the victims. 

In an 1871 list of contributors to Jews suffering from hunger in a part of Lithuania there are many Keidaners.

The waves of large pogroms in Russia beginning in the 1880s did not touch Keidan, nor all of Lithuania. This was thanks to Count Todtleben, who occasionally sent in a special brigade of Cossacks to protect the Jews. Nevertheless, the horrible pogroms in Russia affected the mood of the Jews of Keidan, and caused an increase in emigration to countries overseas. In the years 1883-1886 some 600 Jews emigrated from Keidan. Helping increase emigration too was the large famine which prevailed in Keidan in the 1880s. Poor Jews ran through the streets, rioted, broke windows in the homes of the rich and threatened worse if they were not helped.

In the years 1887, 1888 and 1900 three large fires raged through the town.

In 1878, construction was completed on the new synagogue of the Burial Society. For the building's dedication, a cantor and choir were brought in from Novo Aleksandrovsk (Ezhereni). About the same time the "Study-House society" finished building a new House of Study. (The old one was torn down.) For the celebration the cantor from Kelme was imported with his choir.

In 1884 a Talmud-Torah was established named "Ohel Moshe " in honor of Moses Montefiore. On the day of his death all the Jewish stores closed for half a day.

In 1888 many Jewish children studied in the public Russian folk-school. In the same year, Russian and mathematics were taught in the Talmud-Torah.

In 1895 "Tiferes Bokhrim" [Bachelors' Glory?] was founded here.

In 1898 there were: the Great Synagogue, the Gravediggers Synagogue, the Study House Over the River, the Great Kloyz, the "Seven Readers" kloyz, the Chaye Adam kloyz, the Eyn Yakov kloyz.

In 1899, hooligans broke and defaced part of the outer wall of the old synagogue. The Christian priest said he was ashamed of the vandalism. The old synagogue was one of the most beautiful in Lithuania, with gorgeous paintings on the interior. A variety of embellishments adorned the walls. The ark was a work of sculpture. The ceiling was filled with a series of wondrous, beautiful images, including one showing the Exile by the Rivers of Babylon. 

The yeshiva existed since the beginning of the eighteenth century. The Vilna Gaon studied there for a short time. With little interruption, the yeshiva was maintained up until the Holocaust.

In 1764 there were 501 Jews living here; in 1847 - 4,987; in 1897 - 3,733; in 1908, around 5,000; in 1923 - 4,028; before the Holocaust, around 3,700 (in the official census of 1923, the 100 Jews living on the edge of the city were not counted). In 1915 Keidan was part of the expulsion from Lithuania.

The Jewish economy in Keidan went through various phases; however, in summary one can say that this was among the best situated Jewish cities in Lithuania. Thanks to favorable circumstances, the structure of its economy was different. By the start of the nineteenth century, a significant number of Jews were drawing their livelihood from small farms and orchards. In an official report of the statistical office for the province of Kovno for the 1890s, it was noted: "A large portion of the Jews in Keidan support themselves with vegetable gardens and fruit orchards; nearly all vegetable gardeners are Jews." The success in later years of Keidan's cucumbers had its roots in those earlier years, as did the manufacture and sale of honey. The export of grain, poultry, eggs and raw hides also strengthened the Jewish economy. Weaving was mostly in Jewish hands by the beginning of the nineteenth century. These agricultural products were sold both in Lithuania and also in Latvia, England and Germany.

Here it would be worthwhile to relate the story of a particular incident between Jewish tradesmen and Keidan's kahal - the official community government. Disputes between kahals and working-class people were hardly rare things in Lithuania in those times, but the reason for the incident in Keidan in 1815 probably makes it unique.

For many years in Keidan there existed a guild of tailors, hatmakers and jewelers. Such craftsmen were treated by the kahal as lower-class people. There was an old custom in Keidan, that the finer citizens of the town distinguished themselves on Sabbath and holidays by wearing velvet yarmulkes and trimmed fur hats in synagogue, while the artisans wore "Manchester" [woolen?] yarmulkes and "klapove" hats. One Friday evening, two tailors came into the synagogue with velvet yarmulkes. The officials ordered them out of the shul. The next Shabbes more tailors came into the synagogue with velvet yarmulkes and fur hats. The kahal then decided to give each tailor a whipping. The execution was carried out by the servants of the local nobility. It enraged all the Jewish workingmen in the city, who helped the Jewish guild of tailors and hatmakers launch a lawsuit against the kahal. The lawsuit cost the artisans and the kahal thousands of rubles. The artisans also determined to take justice into their own hands, and looked for opportunities when outside of town to "teach a lesson" to any representatives of the kahal they happened to meet. In the end the kahal called for negotiations. The artisans demanded two conditions: 1. That they be allowed to wear velvet yarmulkes and fur hats; and 2. That in any future legal dispute between workman and a householder, the bes-din [Jewish court] would include a representative of the workingmen. The kahal agreed, and peace returned.

In Shimon Dubnow 's archive was found the "Chronicles of the Society of Workers for Justice of the Community of Keidan." Basically made up of tailors, it was mostly from 1804, although the guild is believed to have been much older. The story of the tailors being whipped for their velvet yarmulkes came from an elderly resident of Keidan, Shlomo Bernshtein.

Relations with the Lithuanians were generally good. In 1909 there was a circle of both Jewish and Lithuanian intellectuals supporting the liberation of Vilna. The Jewish pharmacist Horovitz printed up prescriptions in Lithuanian. He received a harsh warning from the Russian authorities, but he continued the practice anyway. The Lithuanian doctor Inderovitch used to pay 6 rubles a month to the Society for Visiting the Sick. On each Jewish holiday he would give tea, sugar and money to poor Jewish people. He personally financed the education of a Jewish orphan. He died in 1879. There were many other cases of Jews receiving help from Lithuanian intellectuals and wealthy people. 

 

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