and Jewish Life
Atzalynas Gimnazija, Kedainiai Lithuania
13 June 2019
VIDEO OF OUR EVENT IN LITHUANIA
For video, click here:
Source: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZXBEuPfeFc
At the school
At the cemetery
At the Holocaust site
Kimberley Newsletter
Kimberley ex-pats Newsletter no 21
Cape Town
http://www.gitlinlibrary.co.za/ActiveConnect/default.html
Wednesday 6 March 2019
https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/stellenbosch/Home.html
https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/stellenbosch/Shabbat.html
Translated the Partisans’ Song into Afrikaans & presented her project on the Jewish wedding ceremony to her ed last year.
Who We Are
Moet nooit sêdaar wag net dood vir jou nie,
alhoewel loodswaar hemele die blou lug mag versteek,
want die uur waarna ons gehunker het, is naby;
die aarde sal bewe onder ons tree – ons is hier!
Van die land van palmbome, tot die vêrre land van sneeu,
sal ons kom met ons pyniging en geween,
en oral waar ons bloed in die aarde ingesyfer het,
sal ons dapperheid, ons krag, uitbloei!
Ons sal die môreson hê om ons dag te laat gloei,
en al ons gisters sal verdwyn saam met ons vyande.
En indien dit nog lank is voor die son weer verskyn,
laat hierdie lied soos ‘n sein voortklink deur die jare.
Hierdie lied is geskryf in bloed, nie lood nie.
Dit is nie ‘n lied wat somervoëls oorhoofs sing nie.
Dit was ‘n volk ter midde van brandende versperrings,
wat die lied van ons gesing het met pistole en grenate.
Moet nooit sêdaar wag net dood vir jou nie,
alhoewel loodswaar hemele die blou lug mag versteek,
want die uur waarna ons gehunker het, is naby;
die aarde sal bewe onder ons tree – ons is hier!
Using resources from Eli Rabinowitz
Comments by students
Daniella-Comments-1
In the South African Country Communities
compiled by David Solly Sandler
If your parents and grandparents lived in or nearby one of the towns mentioned below before 1980 you can read about the Jewish history of the town and there is a good chance they will be mentioned in the relevant volumes of Jewish Life in the South African Country Communities
Volume 1 Northern Transvaal
Barberton, Belfast, Brits, Bronkhorstspruit, Cullinan, Duiwelskloof, Dullstroom, Graskop, Gravelotte,
Groblersdal, Hammanskraal, Hazyview, Hoedspruit, Komatipoort, Louis Trichardt, Lydenburg, Machadodorp, Marble Hall, Messina, Middelburg, Naboomspruit, Nelspruit, Nylstroom, Phalaborwa, Pietersburg, Pilgrim’s Rest, Potgietersrus, Roedtan, Sabie, Settlers, Soekmekaar, Thabazimbi, Tzaneen, Warmbaths, Waterval-Boven, White River and Witbank
Volume 2 Western Cape and Karoo
Barkly West, Beaufort West, Brandvlei, Britstown, Calvinia, Carnarvon, Ceres, Clanwilliam, Colesberg, Darling, De Aar, Douglas, Franschoek, Fraserburg, Garies, Gouda, Griquatown, Hanover, Hopefield, Hopetown, Jan Kempdorp, Kenhardt, Klawer, Kuruman, Laingsburg, Lambert’s Bay, Loeriesfontein, Mafikeng, Malmesbury, Middelburg, Modderrivier, Mooreesburg, Niewoudtville, Noupoort, Paarl, Petrusville, Philipstown, Piketberg, Port Nolloth, Porterville, Prieska, Prince Albert, Prince Alfred Hamlet, Richmond, Riebeek-Kasteel, Rietfontein, Somerset West, Springbok, Stellenbosch, Strand, Strydenburg, Sutherland, Taung, Touwsriver, Tulbach, Upington, Van Wyksvlei, Vanrhynsdorp, Victoria West, Vosburg, Vredenburg, Vredendal, Vryburg, Warrenton, Wellington, Williston, Wolseley and Worcester
Volume 3 Southern and Eastern Cape
Aberdeen, Adelaide, Albertinia, Alexandria, Alice, Alicedale, Aliwal North, Barkly East, Bedford, Bonnievale, Bredasdorp, Burgersdorp, Butterworth, Caledon, Calitzdorp, Cathcart, Cookhouse, Cradock, Dordrecht, Elliot, Fort Beaufort, George, Graaff-Reinet, Grabouw, Grahamstown, Hankey, Heidelberg, Hermanus, Hofmeyr, Humansdorp, Indwe, Jamestown, Jansenville, Joubertina, Kareedouw, King William’s Town, Kirkwood, Knysna, Kokstad, Komga, Ladismith, Lady Grey, Maclear, Molteno, Montagu, Mossel Bay, Murraysburg, Napier, Nieu-Bethesda, Pearston, Peddie, Plettenberg Bay, Port Alfred. Queenstown, Riversdale, Robertson, Somerset East, Sterkstroom, Steynsburg, Steytlerville, Stutterheim, Swellendam, Tarkastad, Uitenhage, Umtata, Uniondale, Venterstad, Villiersdorp, Willowmore and Wolwefontein
Volume 4 Free State and Natal
Amanzimtoti, Dannhauser, Dundee, Empangeni, Ladysmith, Margate, Newcastle, Paulpietersburg, Pietermaritzburg, Pinetown, Umhlanga Rocks, Utrecht and Vryheid
Volume 5 Southern Transvaal and Witwatersrand
Bethlehem, Bethulie, Boshof, Bothaville, Brandfort, Bultfontein, Clocolan, Dealesville, Dewetsdorp, Edenburg, Excelsior, Fauresmith, Ficksburg, Fouriesburg, Frankfort, Harrismith, Heilbron, Hennenman, Hoopstad, Jacobsdal, Jagersfontein, Kestell, Koffiefontein, Koppies, Kroonstad, Ladybrand, Lindley, Odendaalsrus, Parys, Paul Roux, Petrus Steyn, Petrusburg, Philippolis, Reddersburg, Reitz, Rouxville, Sasolburg-Coalbrook, Senekal, Smithfield, Springfontein, Steynsrus, Thaba Nchu, Theunissen, Tierpoort, Trompsburg, Tweespruit, Ventersburg and Viljoensdrif.
Five volumes have been published and I understand two more volumes are almost complete.
The names of many of the Jewish residents of each town is listed and if your parents or their parents came from a town in the areas published you can learn more about Jewish life and people in that dorp.
This is an ideal gift or book/s for your coffee table
The best person to contact for your book and for more information is Elona Steinfeld
Elona email <museum@beyachad.co.za>
Online screener for “Leaving Memel: Refugees from the Reich” Produced & Directed by Fred Finkelstein Edited by Pad McLaughlin ©2018 Fred Finkelstein
Movie Source: vimeo.com/256360106/2c142b998f
Join us at the opening of the exhibition to be launched by the Premier, the Hon. Mark McGowan MLA. This exhibition profiles some of the heroes, titled “The Righteous Among the Nations”, who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. The multimedia exhibition heightens awareness and understanding of the human capacity for good by inspiring a proactive community of upstanders rather than bystanders.
Source: www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=411819
Significant milestones marking the first five decades of the Righteous Among the Nations program.
Source: www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/righteous/index.asp
Source: elirab.me/tag/chiune-sugihara/
With the door closing on the Jews of Europe in the late 1930s, places of refuge were desperately sought to escape the clutches of the Nazi enemy. Shan
Source: hartnation.com/refugee-jews-in-shanghai-during-world-war-ii/
Shortly prior to and during World War II, and coinciding with the Second Sino-Japanese War, tens of thousands of Jewish refugees were resettled in the Japanese Empire. The onset of the European war by Nazi Germany involved the lethal mass persecutions and genocide of Jews, later known as the Holocaust, resulting in thousands of Jewish refugees fleeing east. Many ended up in Japanese-occupied China.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_settlement_in_the_Japanese_Empire
In August of this year, an article appeared on the website of the Lithuanian municipality of Kėdainiai, under the headline: “With a minute of silence, Kėdainiai met Tel Aviv.” The text described an annual event, begun only a few years ago, commemorating the extermination of Kedainiai’s Jewish community on August 28, 1941, during the Nazi occupation of Lithuania.
At precisely 18:30, local leaders and others observed a minute of silence – while at that same moment, in Israel, descendants of that vanished Jewish community, who called their home Keidan, were doing the same thing.
Two simultaneous ceremonies – one at the hall of the association of the Vilna Jews in Tel Aviv, the other by the mass grave where more than 2,000 Keidan Jews were murdered 77 years earlier.
Such commemorations are a longstanding tradition in Israel, home to thousands of Jews who trace their families to Lithuania. But in Lithuania itself this is relatively new, and still uncommon, tradition. Kėdainiai’s annual observance began several years ago, and has grown each year. This year it was led by Saulius Grinkevičius, mayor of the municipality, and Rimantas Žirgulis, director of the regional museum. The participants included two mayor’s deputies, the heads of local cultural and educational institutions, members of the administration and museum workers, school teachers and other Kėdainiai citizens. A local television station broadcast the ceremony.
The event reflects an important recent change in public consciousness and attitude. To a significant degree, Lithuanians are confronting their country’s painful past. This is reflected in the media, in increased research into local Jewish history and culture, and in the restoration of sites related to Lithuania’s former Jewish communities. In Kėdainiai, the regional museum and its director have played an important role, as have teachers such as Laima Ardavičieneof the Kėdainiai Atžalynas gymnasium, or secondary school. As it was often in the past, Kėdainiai is providing leadership and serving as a role model for other communities in Lithuania.
Supporting those efforts going forward is a recently published English translation of the Keidan yizkor book – a volume of memoirs, historical accounts and other material gathered from survivors and descendants of the Jewish community after World War II. Originally published mostly in Hebrew and Yiddish in 1977, the book offers a multi-faceted view of Jewish life in Keidan – its history, its religious, educational, social and cultural institutions, youth organizations, portraits of its prominent people, recollections of witnesses and survivors before, during and after the Holocaust.
Cover of the Keidan Memorial (Yizkor) Book, recently translated into English. Edited by Aryeh Leonard Shcherbakov aryeh.shcherbakov@gmail.comand Andrew Cassel awcassel@gmail.com of the Keidan Associations of Israel and the U.S.; published by David Solly Sandler sedsand@iinet.net.auin Perth, Australia. The book is obtainable from any of the three above mentioned
Photos of Commemoration in Kedainiai – 28 August 2018
A section of the memorial erected in 2011 at the site of the Jews’ massacre near Kedainiai. Names of the victims were recorded as cutouts in the metal sheet.
At the site of the 28 August 1941 massacre of Kedainiai’s Jews. Mayor Saulius Grinkevičius lays flowers, while Rimantas Žirgulis (in white shirt) observes.
Local students and media participated in the commemoration.
Laima Ardavičiene, a teacher at the Kėdainiai Atžalynas gymnasium, records the event.
Article and photos by :Aryeh Leonard Shcherbakov aryeh.shcherbakov@gmail.com and Andrew Cassel awcassel@gmail.com of the Keidan Associations of Israel and the U.S and David Solly Sandler sedsand@iinet.net.au of Perth, Australia.
Source: kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/Johannesburg/Solly.html
Litvak Land – Plateliai, Lithuania
Dear friends, Jakovas Bunka Charity and Sponsorship fund has bought a piece of land about 1 km north from Plateliai. Close to the main road we created a
Source: jbfund.lt/our-plans/
Moze being restored
Before restoration!
Kazys Striaupa wood carving – Žemaitijos nacionaliniame parke gausu lankytinų objektų, gamtos paminklų, ir pėsčiųjų takų, ekskursijų ir edukacinių užsiėmimų.
Source: zemaitijosnp.lt/en/veikla/products-of-trademark/medzio-meistro-k-striaupos-darbai/
Žemaitijos nacionalinis parkas – tai gausybė lankytinų objektų, išsidėsčiusių aplink Platelių ežerą, gamtos paminklai, kultūriniai draustiniai ir vertybės.
Source: zemaitijosnp.lt/en/
Plunge, Lithuania
Source: kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/plunge/Home.html
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Harwood
Sea Point High School, formerly Sea Point Boys High School, is a co-educational public high school in Main Road, Sea Point, Cape Town, South Africa. The school was established on 21 April 1884. In 1925, the senior grades were separated from the junior grades. In 1989, the school merged with Ellerslie Girls’ High School after becoming co-educational.
Sea Point Boys connected to Plunyan
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Point_High_School
Source: 
