Virtual Yiddish Mini Museum of Jewish Life in Interwar Lithuania


מוזייעלע פון יידישן לעבן אין דער קאָוונער ליטע

Mažasis žydų gyvenimo tarpukario Lietuvoje muziejus

ESTABLISHED IN 2018 IN HONOR OF THE CENTENARY OF THE RISE OF INDEPENDENT, DEMOCRATIC LITHUANIA IN 1918. Updated 2023

by Dovid Katz

Skip to: Undated Section

See also: Yiddish Mini Museum of Old Jewish Vilna

EXHIBITS TO DATE

Last updated May 2023 

 

1919

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The 28 October 1919 issue of Kaunas’s Zionist Yiddish daily Di Yídishe shtíme

[no. 9]


1920

Postcard of 29 June 1920, from the new Hebrew secondary school in Pónevezh  (Panevėžys), received by the addressee, the Jewish Community Council of Utyán (Utena) on 1 July 1920

The purple-ink mimeographed “mass message” (With spaces for details of date and addressee to be filled in by hand) is in Yiddish, saying (here condensed): “Pónevezh, 29 June [1920]. To the Community Council of Utyán: We have posted under separate cover some announcements about a Hebrew gymnasium in Pónevezh. We ask you to paste them up  prominently and explain to people the importance of the institution. With respect, Hebrew gymnasium, Pónevezh”

[no. 20]


1920 (b)

Postcard from the offices of the National Jewish Council of Lithuania in Kaunas (during the period of Jewish Autonomy) to the Jewish Council of Utena (Utyán)

The standard mimeographed text in purple is a reminder send to all communities to complete their questionnaires and send them in to the National Jewish Council in Kaunas. This card, sent to the community board in Utyán (Utena), specifies (in the handwritten insertions in black ink to the formula card) the need for information on the economic situation.

[no. 23]


1922

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Letter in German from Lithuania’s Jewish Affairs Minister Max Soloveichik to his Weimar counterpart

[no. 3]


1923

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Lithuanian-Yiddish Dictionary compiled by the Brothers Kolodni with Lithuanian language editing by Stasys Dabušis and Yiddish language editing by “D.G.”

[no. 10]


1923 (b)

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Yiddish deposit slip from the Kaunas Jewish People’s Bank

[no. 8]


1925

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Yiddish-Lithuanian state marriage certificate issued confirming 1922 wedding of Míne Kan and Abromas Simonas Fleišmanas (Avrom-Shímen Fleishman) in Žeimelis (Zeyml)

[no. 7]


1925 (b)

Š. Vulfartaitė’s shop, on Daukšos gatvę 28 in Kaunas, representing the Riga company “Nova”, issues a receipt to the Boys’ Shelter Society on 23 October 1925. Her bilingual letterhead proudly depicts the silver medal the company won at the 1923  Lithuanian Agricultural Exhibition.

[no. 12]


1926

Dovid Lipman’s corner electrical shop, on the corner of Petro St (Yiddish Yátkever gas) and Luksio (Yiddish Vilkomirer), uses Khashmál, the Hebrew word for “electricity” as the name of the business, and boasts a separate section for cosmetics and perfume.

[np. 13]


1926 (b)

J. Slavin of Remigóle (Ramygala) Invites Dentist Jacob Stotsky to Come and Set up his Practice in Abólnik (Vabalninkas)

[np. 27]

 


1928

1

Textbook in Marijampolė (Maryámpl, Márnpol) to teach children Lithuanian through the medium of Hebrew

[no. 1]


1929

The Kaunas “Society for the Holy Child Jesus” places its order for apron cloth, oil cloth and canvas with M. Tabatshnik’s dry good store on the city’s central boulevard, in July of 1929.

[no. 14]


1929 (b)

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Postcard on bilingual Yiddish-Lithuanian stationery from the Solsky Brothers and Sh. Kh. Broyde in Kazlų Rūda (Kazlove-Rúde) to the Priest of Šeštokai (Shestok)

[no. 4]


1929 (c)

Elkhónen (Elchanan) of Kóvne (Kaunas) sends his photo, made by Fridmanas of Kaunas, to friends (relatives?) Esther and Joseph in the Holy Land on 14 April 1929

[no. 26]


1929 (d)

Torah Scribe Kasríel Léshem of Náyshtot Távrik (Žemaičių Naumiestis) Explains Delay to M. Kroshéyev (Krevošejevas) in Radvíleshok (Radviliškis)

[no. 28]


1930

Kovno Leather Merchant D.L. Lipetz Writes to Son-in-Law Dr. Joseph Britanishsky in London (Leon Brittan’s Father) in 1930

[no. 18]


1931

Meyshe writes from Memel (Klaipeda) to his brother Motl in Kharkov (Kharkiv, Ukrainian SSR), with all kinds of family news, musing: “I recently turned 34 and you’ll soon be 33 Our years go by, they run, and the two of us have still built nothing for ourselves, we’re building other worlds, and we’ve forgotten about ourselves.” There is also news of their sister Shéynke who has moved to the Land of Israel…

[no. 15]


1931b

Bilingual ad cum bill cover of Sh. Abelsky’s “First in Lithuania: Rope Factory & Retail” (workship in Panevėžys / Pónevezh, Plukių St. 27) noting: orders for products from local hemp, linen, white hemp; making rope and materials for fishing nets, reins, traces, engine belts, and homemade horse whips. The reverse is an actual bill/receipt, dated 11 August 1931, for an order of 1 kg of  string and 1 piece of rope, addressed to Head of the Pedagogical Work Courses.

[no. 19]


1932

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Mazltof telegram (in modern Hebrew in Lithuanian transcription) from Marijampolė (Márnpol) to Kaunas (Kóvne) wishing the newlywed couple all the best

[no. 6]


1935

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Kaunas Professor N. Šapira (Chaim-Nachman Shapira) Publishes a Book on Modern Jewish Poems about Vilna

[no. 11]


1937

The Gorzd (Gargždai) teacher J.A. Sores writes on 13 Sept. 1937 to Mr. Kopilowitz in Kóvne (Kaunas), at the central office of Yavneh, the Orthodox Hebrew school movement, asking urgently for a teacher, because the town’s Mrs. Mines left to take up a job in Mazhéyk (Mažeikiai). He says a male teacher if possible, but if not then — an experienced female teacher.

The postcard was sent on 13 Sept. 1937 from A.J. Sores in Gorzd (Gargždai) to the central office of Yavneh in Kóvne (Kaunas). Someone has added the words “Teacher Garber” in the upper left hand corner, perhaps indicating to whom the request might be forwarded…

[no. 21]


1938

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Envelope on trilingual (Hebrew-English-Lithuanian) stationery  of letter from Rabbi Yitskhok-Isaac Sher, head of Slabodka Yeshiva in Kaunas (Kovno) to Philadelphia

[no. 5]


1940

Lithuania’s Red Cross Committee in Vilnius continues to help Jewish refugees more than a month after the Soviet takeover: Matis Kolinsky’s attestation

[no. 16]


1940b

Dvéyre Klaz’s Poem Welcoming Springle in the Shtetl Tsáykeshik (Čekiškė) published in the Children’s Section of Kaunas’s Fólksblat in the Final Months of Independent Interwar Lithuania (1940)

[no. 24]


1941

prescription

Prescription in Ukmergė (Vílkomir) in Lithuanian and Yiddish, issued by Dr. A. Karlinsky for Mrs. Joffe

[no. 2]



 

Undated Section


Ticket for Charity at a Prayerhouse in Plungyán (Plungė)

[no. 25]


Yiddish-Hebrew Form for Getting Divorced

Bilingual divorce form, in Hebrew and Yiddish, for both the Rabbi and the Council of the Community, with Lithuania’s state symbol at top

[no. 17]


Envelope from Shádeve (Shadov, Lith. Šeduva) from Local Branch of Jews Committed to Transfer of Vilna/Wilno/Vilnius to Lithuania (from Poland)

[no. 22]


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