jewish

The Birobidzhan Jewish Autonomous Oblast

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This Google Map shows the past and present Jewish settlements in Birobidzhan (also transliterated from the Russian as Birobidjan and Birobijan), the so-called Jewish Autonomous Oblast of Russia.

Birobidzhan was named after the Bira and the Bidzhan, the two main local tributaries of the Amur, which forms the southern border of the oblast and divides it from Manchuria in China. The region is very remote and was sparsely populated – before the move to settle Jews here in the late 1920s, there were only some Cossack villages and a small Korean population. Consolidating the border zone was one of the Soviets’ reasons behind encouraging immigration.

Birobidzhan was settled with some optimism and idealism in the late 1920s, although this may have been misplaced – the new settlements were overwhelmingly agricultural enterprises and many of the settlers were lacking in the necessary experience and skills and became urbanised instead. As a result, some of the early agricultural settlements such as Pompeyevka were abandoned over time. The riverside collective farm at Stalinsk (Stalinfeld) was abandoned for a different reason, due to severe flooding by the Amur in 1958.

The Jewish Autonomous Oblast suffered, like the rest of Russia, during the Soviet purges and in 1937-1940 (and later) many local Jews in Birobidzhan were arrested on usually fabricated charges and prosecuted and in some cases executed.

For example, looking at Stalinsk we find the following accused Jewish residents of the collective farm. Spellings of names are mostly a direct transliteration from the Russian (in which language the preference is to render proper nouns phonetically), so may differ from the normal spellings in the Latin alphabet. The Russian use of the otchestvo (patronymic) clearly helps in identifying an individual, so that e.g. Mordukh Abramovich Ekelchik is Mordukh Ekelchik, the son of Abram. The places of birth are given, anachronistically, to show the present-day location, and indicate how diverse the places of origins of these Jewish settlers were.

Mordukh Abramovich Ekelchik. Born in Minsk, Belarus in 1880. Farm produce distributor. Arrested 18 Oct 1937, shot 29 Jan 1938.

Khaim Yakovlevich Kab. Born in London, England in 1905. Tractor driver. Arrested 12 Dec 1938, case dismissed for want of evidence 29 May 1940.

Shimon Iosifovich Shef. Born in Zhytomyr, Ukraine in 1894. Loader on grain farm. Arrested 14 Oct 1937, sentenced to 10 years 31 Dec 1937.

Isaak Tevelevich Sukhoy. Born in Dubăsari, Moldova in 1899. Arrested 12 Mar 1938, sentenced to 6 years 21 Oct 1938.

Lev Yankelevich (or Yakovlevich) Zhak. Born in Ukmergė, Lithuania in 1901. Fire chief on grain farm. Arrested 3 Dec 1938.

And below are some of the Jewish victims from the small settlement of Smidovich:

Moses Fimelevich (or Fishelevich) Berezovsky. Born in Brest, Belarus in 1901. Russian Red Cross oficial. Arrested 20 Nov 1937, sentenced to 10 years 4 Jan 1938.

Moisza Abramovich Bykhovsky. Born in Panevėžys, Lithuania in 1915. Turner.  Arrested 28 Dec 1937, case dismissed 3 Apr 1939.

Henrietta Moiseevna Fiks. Born in Daugavpils, Latvia in 1908. State bank accountant. Arrested 11 Jul 1938, sentenced to 8 years 22 Oct 1938.

Israel Isaakovich Fishbein. Born in Uzda, Belarus in 1907. Secretary. Arrested 26 Oct 1937, case dismissed 13 Nov 1939.

Rakhil Ioselevna (or Moiseevna) Gamarskaya. Born in Vilnius, Lithuania in 1898. Instructor. Arrested 23 Nov 1937, sentenced to 5 years 27 Jul 1938.

Shaya Solomonovich (or Sholomovich) Gilinsky. Born in Poland in 1906. Agronomist. Arrested 7 Jul 1937, sentenced to 10 years 22 Oct 1938.

Khaim Peisakhovich (or Teisanovich) Kaplan. Born in Shchadryn (Shchedrin), Belarus in 1902. Party official. Arrested 3 Feb 1938, case dismissed 21 Mar 1938.

Bluma Isaakovna Meerbaum. Born in Romania in 1908. Jewish elementary school teacher. Arrested 15 Feb 1938, sentenced to 10 years 27 Jul 1938.

Zusman Ioselevich Perevozkin. Born in Vilnius, Lithuania in 1903. Chairman. Arrested 23 Nov 1937, convicted 18 Jul 1938, shot 16 Aug 1938 in Khabarovsk.

Sara Mikhailovna Shtern or Stern. Born in Ostroh, Ukraine in 1896. Party propagandist. Arrested 6 Jul 1938, case dismissed 16 Jan 1939.

Grigory Samoilovich Vasilevsky. Born in Moscow, Russia in 1913. Foreman of the collective farm. Arrested 10 Jan 1949, sentenced to 10 years 24 Dec 1949.

Shaya Srulevich Verkhivker. Born in Voznesensk, Ukraine in 1888. Official. Arrested 21 Oct 1937, sentenced to 15 years 11 Nov 1937.

Ilya Mikhailovich Zimmerman. Born in Chernovin (possibly Chernobyl intended?), Ukraine in 1904. Director. Arrested 31 Mar 1937,  convicted 17 Jul 1937, shot 17 July 1937 in Khabarovsk.

Despite increases in population into the 1940s, over time the Jewish population diminished through out-migration, a phenomenon which inevitably increased when the USSR dissolved and emigration beyond the Soviet Union became a possibility. Today, the only notable known Jewish centres of population are in the capital Birobidzhan and in the nearby village of Valdgeym. However, during the time of the USSR with its aggressively secular ethos, it is likely that there were mixed marriages and assimilation, so that mainly ostensibly Russian individuals in the oblast may have partly Jewish roots.

 

The Karaim

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Back in May 2001, I visited the town of Trakai in Lithuania. A mini-bus took me and a handful of Japanese tourists the 30 or so km from Vilnius bus station and dropped us off outside Trakai’s tourist attraction, the restored Trakai Castle situated romantically in lake Galvė. While the others headed across the footbridge to the castle with their cameras at the ready, I wandered by myself the length of the little town to see what I could find of the Karaim.

Karaism is a non-Talmudic Mosaic faith and the Karaim, or Karaites, are a dispersed people with what are generally regarded as Semitic but sometimes, probably fancifully, as Turkic roots, living in scattered communities across the former Soviet bloc and the Middle East.

Historically in what is today Ukraine, Karaim lived in towns such as Lutsk (inter-War Polish Łuck) and Halych (after which the former Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia is named). There were many Karaite communities in the Crimea, in towns such as Bakhchisaray (Bağçasaray), Feodosiya (Kefe) and Yevpatoriya (Keslev). One of the best-known traditional centres of the Crimean Karaim was Chufut Kale (Çufut Qale) but this was abandoned during the 19th century (although two kenesas survive, adjacent to one another). The Crimean Karaim often lived by trade and therefore sometimes had mercantile links and family outposts in Black Sea ports (e.g. Kherson and Odessa) and the Eastern Mediterranean (e.g. Egypt and Constantinople).

The Karaim in Lithuania arrived at some date before the end of the C14th, almost certainly as officially invited and privileged settlers involved in defence. It is not clear whether the original settlers came from the Crimea or from Lutsk. In any event, while military service may have been the prime mover behind their arrival in Lithuania, soon many Karaim were involved simply in agriculture or in trade.

The most well-known settlement in Lithuania is that at Trakai which I visited but smaller communities survive in Panevėžys and Vilnius. There is a Karaim cemetery in each of these three places. The one in Trakai is disappearing amid meadow and woodland on the other side of lake Totoriškiai facing the town – inscriptions are mostly in Hebrew but with some Latin script. A Karaim place of worship – a prayer house known as a kenesa – survives at Trakai and Vilnius but that in Panevėžys was destroyed in 1970, a victim of the atheist communist state and probably also the declining local population and the ongoing process of assimilation. Other Lithuanian Karaim communities such as the one in Biržai have become extinct or, like that in Naujamiestis, all but died out with only individuals or solitary families surviving. The Lithuanian Karaim population is now very small and dwindling: officially 423 in 1959, 388 in 1970, 289 in 1989 and 273 in 2001. Assimilation and out-marriage are serious issues for the survival of the community, which traditionally was endogamous and sometimes had to resort to sourcing marriage partners from Lutsk or even the Crimea.

A distinctive feature of the Trakai Karaim settlement is its vernacular architecture. The typical Karaim wooden cottage, sometimes painted in pastel or brighter shades, sits with its gable end with three ground-floor windows facing on to the street; the entrance is on the facade round the side.

One reason why the Lithuania Karaim community survives at all today is the official recognition they gained in 1863. In that year, they successfully asserted themselves as a Turkic people in contra-distinction to the Jews, with whom they had previously been associated in the Russian Empire. The unforeseen consequence of this was that they were largely spared the fate of the Lithuanian Jews during the Holocaust.

The Google Map shows the distribution of past and present Karaim settlements from Lithuania in the north, south through Poland and Ukraine to Crimea, and on to Egypt, Turkey and Israel. The pattern is quite curious, with a north-south axis, especially noticeable if the newer, post-WW2 diaspora Karaite communities, such as most of those within the borders of modern Poland, are disregarded. Green Stars of David pins show kenesas/synagogues, both surviving and former. Blue pins show cemeteries and settlements which have or may still have a Karaite population, no matter how small. Grey pins show extinct settlements.

 

 

יהדות_קראית

The Jews of Estonia

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This Google Map shows Jewish communities and sites across Estonia – synagogues past and present, Jewish cemeteries and Holocaust memorial sites. It is designed to be of interest and use to Jewish family historians with roots in Estonia and especially visiting Estonia. It can also help orientate research in some cases, for example when trying to establish place of burial in Tartu (Dorpat), where there are three Jewish burial grounds opened in 1846, 1895 and 1935 respectively.

As with the companion map for Latvia published previously, synagogues are marked on the map with Stars of David; this includes the sites of lost synagogues where known.

Surviving and former Jewish cemeteries are marked with regular blue pins. Holocaust monuments and memorial sites, including Nazi concentration camps, are shown with black memorial pins. It should be noted that not all of the sites may actually have a physical memorial on the spot marking them, although the majority do.

The remainder of the pins (for those places with no specifically sited synagogue, cemetery or memorial) have been dropped on to the approximate centre of the town or village which had a Jewish community. Note that some of these very small; some may have comprised only one or two families.

Places are listed alphabetically under their current Estonian names. Alternative place names (either German, or Russian in transliteration) are given in the text. If you do not know the modern place name, you can search under the old name and the correct place should be returned in your results – for example, search for Arensburg and you will be shown Kuressaare; search for Wesenberg and you will be offered Rakvere.

It is possible to change the base map to road map but satellite view is recommended for most uses.

 

יהודי אסטוניה

The Jews of Latvia

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This Google Map shows the sites of Jewish communities in Latvia and other sites of use to Jewish genealogists and ancestral tourists visiting Latvia.

Surviving synagogue buildings are marked on the map with Stars of David. Most of these are no longer functioning and have been put to temporal uses. A few known sites of destroyed synagogues are also marked in the same way.

Surviving and former Jewish cemeteries are marked with regular pins. Many of the older and smaller cemeteries are now overgrown or wooded with few surviving legible gravestones. Some mass graves from the Holocaust are also marked in this way although most now have a commemorative stone.

Holocaust monuments and memorial sites, including Nazi concentration camps, are shown with black memorial pins. It should be noted that not all of the sites actually have a physical memorial marking them.

The balance of pins (for those places with no specifically sited synagogue, cemetery or memorial) are simply dropped on to the approximate centre of the town or village (shtetl) which had a Jewish community.

Places are listed alphabetically under their current Latvian names. Alternative place names (for instance German, or Russian or Yiddish in transliteration) are given in the text. If you do not know the modern place name, you can search under the old name and the correct place will be returned in your results – for example, search for Goldingen and you will be shown Kuldīga; search for Hasenpoth and you will be offered Aizpute.

Switching the base map from road map to satellite view or vice versa may assist researchers in understanding particular sites or reaching them if undertaking ancestral research on location in Latvia.

 

 

יהדות לטביה

 

Return to Lithuania, 1921

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In eastern Europe, the aftermath of the First World War and the Russian Revolution was chaos and population displacement on a previously unknown scale. Imperial Russia unravelled around the edges and new states struggled to assert their independence and pull away. In the former Russian gubernias of Kovno, Vilna and Grodno, moves were afoot to recreate Lithuania.

However, the issue here, as elsewhere in Europe, was that there were competing and mutually incompatible claims to land. It was impossible to satisfy all claims, as the population was not neatly parcelled up into ethnically or nationally homogeneous units. Most regions had diverse populations. In the city today called Vilnius, for example, Poles and Jews formed the majority and in its hinterland many of the pre-War landowners were minor Polish gentry or szlachta; yet the peasantry was Lithuanian. Force decided the issue and treaties ratified it. It was the new Polish state which emerged victorious, securing a Polish Wilno, just as it successfully secured Lwów as a Polish island in a largely Ukrainian sea.

At the start of 1918, as many as one in six Lithuanians were refugees within Russia. An estimated 550,000 were scattered across European Russia, from Minsk and St Petersburg to distant Voronezh and Yekaterinoslav. It took until 1924 to bring home all those who wanted to return and who Moscow and Kaunas would between them allow. Maybe as many as one third of Lithuanian refugees remained abroad and settled, willingly or otherwise, in Soviet Russia or Poland.

From 1921, the return of refugees was closely supervised by the authorities. Refugees were registered and issued with travel permits in Moscow. From Moscow they travelled by train to Rēzekne, Daugavpils and Kalkūni in Latvia, and thence across the Lithuanian border to Obeliai. At Obeliai – the only recognised point of entry into the country, although not the only one in practice – refugees were vetted, re-registered and issued with passes, usually to their place of birth or pre-War residence.

Those who were regarded as suspect were sent back to Moscow. And those refugees who wished to return to their pre-War homes in what had become Polish territory were often stuck in limbo for months on end in the Obeliai transfer camp, with its ever-present risk of humanitarian crisis – typhus, cholera and hunger.

Not all those coming to Lithuania were refugees. So-called optants – Lithuanian colonists long settled in Russia – paid their own way to reach the newly independent country. And from 1918 to 1921, the nascent Lithuanian state, in need of qualified administrative and technical experts, welcomed back not just its Lithuanian but also its Jewish middle classes. In fact, the immigration policy was so liberal before the change of government in 1922 that Jewish doctors, engineers and so on from elsewhere in Russia headed to Lithuania for the opportunities it presented.

For many researching their family history in Lithuania, the period 1915 to 1924 looms like something of a black hole. For a start, the family may not appear in the expected parish registers (assuming, that is, that such records were created and have survived). Over half a million spent several years effectively in exile in Russia and, of course, of these, some married, some had children and some died there. At Obeliai, too, refugees gave birth or died and, doubtless, in some cases married. The Lithuanian state did not recognise Soviet civil registry marriages so, in order to return with spouse and children, natives of Lithuania would have to remarry in a Roman Catholic or Orthodox ceremony: this can result in what appear to be illegitimate children born between the respective dates of the secular and the religious marriage.

The Google Map shows the railway route from Moscow’s Vindavsky Station to the transfer camp at Obeliai.

 

The Abayudaya of Uganda

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This Google Map shows the distribution in Uganda of the communities of Abayudaya, who are C20th converts to Judaism.

Their story can be read about in a chapter in James R Ross’s book “Fragile Branches: Travels Through the Jewish Diaspora” (although strictly speaking, of course, the Abayudaya are not diaspora Jews), published in 2000 by Riverhead, which is an enjoyable and easy read. There is also an informative and up-to-date Wikipedia page on the Abayudaya which develops their fascinating and still evolving story. The Abayudaya appear to be a surprising success story: a confident, expanding community with a clear sense of purpose and now enjoying a degree of support from and recognition by Jews in USA and Israel. Indeed, they now receive mention as a tourist attraction in Uganda (a kind of ethnographic curiosity) which, however uncomfortable as a concept, has probably been important in raising funds for development and, significantly, in commanding acceptance and respect from their Christian and Muslim neighbours.

All the known Abayudaya communities are marked on the map in correct or approximately correct locations, even those which are the smallest often scattered settlements within the parish units which make up the administrative geography of Uganda. Where a precise location of a synagogue or community school was found, the pin is placed upon it. Where that wasn’t the case, the marker pin has simply been placed towards the centre of the village or parish.

 

 

אבאיודאיה

The Jews of Libya

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This Google Map is the fourth in a series showing the former and, in some cases, current Jewish communities across the Maghreb, from Morocco, through Algeria and Tunisia to Libya.

It shows the former Jewish communities in Libya. It is thought that no Jews remain in the country today. However, there were once as many as 44 synagogues in the capital Tripoli alone. This city had a thriving Jewish community (approximately 20% to 25% of the city’s population), concentrated in the old town Hara district – this is the neighbourhood in which the still standing but sadly derelict Dar Bishi or Dar al-Bishi synagogue is marked on the map. However, a good deal of Jewish heritage in Libya has been purposely erased, much in the recent past. The Jewish cemetery in Tripoli was deliberately destroyed to make way for development – the Corinthia Hotel, opened in 2003, now stands on its site. The Bu-Shaif (or Slat Abn Shaif) synagogue in Zliten was also destroyed at about the same time to make way for an apartment block.

Most Jews in Libya resided in towns along the Mediterranean seaboard, the majority in Tripoli. Blue pins on the Google Map are settlements in the historic region of Tripolitania in the west of the country, while green pins mark those Jewish communities in the region of Cyrenaica in the east.

The red pins show Jewish places of settlement in the Jabul Nafusa (the Nafusa Mountains). These are the Berber highlands where, as in Morocco and Algeria, Jews lived alongside the indigenous Berbers and spoke their language (Amazigh). Although as many as possible have been abstracted from sources, it is certain that there were additional, smaller Jewish communities in Nafusa which are not shown on this map, particularly around Yefren (Yafran). In Yefren itself, and to its NE between the hamlets of Qaryat al Maanin and Al Qusayr, are two of the seven Ghriba synagogues of the Maghreb. The word Ghriba means “strange and wondrous” in Arabic, and the Ghriba synagogues are places of pilgrimage to Maghrebi Jews. The most famous is, of course, the Ghriba synagogue on the island of Djerba off the coast of Tunisia. All seven of the Ghriba synagogues are marked on bluebirdmaps’ Maghrebi Jewish Google Maps for Algeria  (see pins for Annaba and Biskra),  Tunisia (see pins for Ariana, El Kef and Hara Sghira) and Libya (pins for Qaryat al Maanin and Yefren).

 

 

 

Gli ebrei della Libia   יהודי לוב

The Jews of Tunisia

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This Google Map is the third in a series covering Jewish communities in the Maghreb. It maps the places in Tunisia in which there were, and in some cases still are, Jewish communities.

As with the companion maps showing Jewish settlement in Morocco and Algeria, this map does not claim to be complete and comprehensive. However, it is believed to show the location of all the major Jewish communities in Tunisia in the C19th and C20th. Of these, very few now remain, other than the two communities on Djerba and those in the capital Tunis and a few towns such as Zarzis.

As with the companion maps for Algeria and Morocco, the places are listed A-Z using the Latin alphabet. In many cases, there will be variant spellings, due to transliteration from the Arabic language original, so if you do not find a place of interest by searching, try scrolling down the A-Z list. In some instances, there are alternative and now defunct place names dating to the French colonial era (shown in brackets). Where there is a surviving synagogue, it is marked with a star of David. Where there is a Jewish  cemetery, the pin for the community is placed upon the cemetery (with text to this effect). If the location of synagogue or cemetery is not known, the pin for a community is simply dropped randomly in the town or village.

In the case of the capital Tunis, a number of municipalities which are part of the conurbation are shown under their own names – for example, Ariana, La Goulette and La Marsa. The main Jewish neighbourhood in the old town of Tunis is Hara (or El Hara), now usually known as El Hafsia; its synagogue is marked on the map.

 

 

Les Juifs de Tunisie   יהודי תוניסיה

The Jews of Algeria

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This Google Map shows the principal former Jewish settlements of Algeria. As may be expected, these are concentrated along the Mediterranean coastline and its hinterland but there were significant communities in fertile oases and trading posts in the Sahara.

Of particular interest is the former Jewish population of the so-called pentapolis of the M’zab valley, comprising the ksar (walled town) of Ghardaïa and its four neighbours. The Mzabite (or Mozabite) Jews of Ghardaïa numbered approximately 6,000 at the time of Algerian independence in 1962 but they and their descendants now live in diaspora in France (Paris, Strasbourg) and of course Israel. However, their synagogue survives in the old Jewish quarter of Ghardaïa.

There are presently no functioning synagogues in Algeria. Many were converted into mosques and a few of these are indicated on the map with stars of David despite their current status. Other synagogues are either disused and derelict (as in the case of Ghardaïa) or have been put to temporal purpose.

There are many surviving Jewish cemeteries in Algeria. Where these were identifiable on maps, in the absence of a synagogue building, the pin for the former Jewish community has been placed upon the cemetery.

The map is not necessarily fully comprehensive but is believed to show all the main Jewish communities across the country.

 

 

Les Juifs d’Algérie | יהודי אלג’יריה

The Jews of Morocco

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This Google Map shows the once very widespread settlement of Jews in Morocco. Stars of David on the map show synagogues; regular pins show Jewish cemeteries, pilgrimage sites (hiloulot) and former communities from the C19th and up to the exodus during the third quarter of the C20th (which peaked in 1948, 1956 and 1967).

The map shows the main centres of population but does not claim to be complete – there were many more small Jewish communities, especially in the Berber villages in the mountains.

The Jewish population of Morocco was made up of three main components. There were the Toshavim, or indigenous Maghrebi Jews – those who were already present in the country before the arrival of the Gorashim, being the Sephardim who were expelled from Spain in 1492. Finally, the Ashkenazim arrived later and settled in the bigger cities and ports. The Jewry of Morocco was therefore characterised by significant internal cultural differences and traditions, with (for instance) some Sephardic Jews regarding the religious practices of the autochthonous Berber Jews as unorthodox and irregular (containing, as they did, folk and syncretic elements).

In the urban environment, the Jewish quarter of a town was known as the mellah: typically, gated and contained within its own walls, and characterised by very narrow pedestrian alleyways. Sometimes, by extension, the word mellah was used figuratively for the Jewish community of a particular place. Note that the words kasbah and medina have no specifically Jewish connotation; both refer merely to the old quarter of a town, with the former term traditionally implying fortification.

In the rural environment – in the interior and the Berber villages – there was not a mellah per se, but Jews tended to live in separate and discrete quarters of settlements adajacent but apart. In this context, the word ksar signifies a fortified walled village.

Many place names in the interior of Morocco are not distinct and unique, and can be transliterated into the Latin alphabet in different ways. However, it is believed that, where two or more candidates exist for a particular place, the correct one has been plotted on the map (any errors identified may be reported using the Contact form and will be rectified). Some place names are tribal or patronymic, for example those prefaced with aït or ouled (both of which mean “sons of”), while others refer to distinctive geographical features, such as ighil (hill) and oued (wadi). Note that the etymology of place names may be either Arabic or the Tamazight (or Amazigh) of the native Berbers.

 

 

Les Juifs du Maroc | יהודי מרוקו