Friday, June 30, 2023
Early Wars Causing Lithuanian Jews to Flee to Ukraine
Nadene Goldfoot
In 1432 -1438 there was war in Lithuania. It was Lithuania and Poland against Russia.
From 1487-1494 a 2nd war was fought; the Lithuanian Muscovite War of Lithuania, the Golden Horde against Moscow.
From 1492-1537, the war raged on as the Muscovite-Lithuanian wars of Lithuania and Moscow. (1492 when Columbus sailed the ocean blue) and Jews had to leave Spain, start moving all over trying to find a home...
By 1495, Jews were living in Vilna, Grodno and Kovno totaling 10,000.
1508 was the Glinski Rebellion against Lithuania by Glinski supporters
1524 was the big Ottoman-Tartar invasion of Lithuania and Poland
1561to 1570 was the Northern 7 Years War of Lithuania/Poland against Sweden
They received a charter in 1529 guaranteeing freedom of movement and employment. Soon they were the leading workers in foreign trade and taxing and farming. However, from 1495-1502, the first 7 years of being in Lithuania, they were excluded FROM Lithuania. In 1566-1572, the Jewish badge was introduced for Jews to wear to distinguish themselves from citizens. Jews were disqualified in the court system for giving evidence.
1576 to 1582 was the Livonian War of everyone (Lithuania/Poland/Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Transylvania); being against Tsardom of Russia
1600-1629 was again the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Swedish War and 1605-1618 included war against Russia and 1606 -1608 the Zebrzydowski Rebellion of nobles against the king.
Organization took place. Jews were represented in the COUNCIL OF THE FOUR (then 5) LANDS, but that wasn't helping, so the Jews formed a separate COUNCIL OF LITHUANIA in 1623 when a separate tax-system was established.
By 1762, Catherine II permitted all aliens to live in Russia, except Jews. Partitions of Poland, resulting from wars, took place in 1772, 1793, and 1795, when the large group of White Russian Jews, Ukraine, Lithuania and Courland became Russian subjects. For more than a century, they were all under the reactionary rule of the Czars.
Lithuania became part of Russia in 1795 which lasted until WWI of 1918. It had become a major part of the Jewish culture so was most important. It was the home of distinguished yeshivote (Jewish schools) and leading rabbis such as the Gaon of Vilna. It became the seat of MUSAR movement, and a center of Haskalah.
During World War I, 100,000 Jews were expelled or actually emigrated to the Russian interior, leaving their shtetles. In independent Lithuania, Jews received national autonomy from 1918- 1924. A Jewish National Council was established under a Ministry for Jewish Affairs. They had the right to levy taxation under government auspices.
The Austro-Polish War or Polish-Austrian War was a part of the War of the Fifth Coalition in 14 April 1809 (a coalition of the Austrian Empire and the United Kingdom against Napoleon's French Empire and Bavaria). It ended October 14, 1809. It lasted 6 months.
Vilna, the largest city as well as capital, was lost to Poland in 1919, the result of WWI. This weakened the Jews of Vilna. After 1924, autonomy was restricted solely to religious matters, while the economic position of the Jews deteriorated in the oncoming years.
No Jews survived the expulsion of Jews of 1290 when Jews were also expulsed from England. A few former Marranos settled in Dublin after 1660 and more arrived as military purveyors after the 1689 revolution. Original Jews were displaced by Ashkenazim, but by 18th century, population declined and by 1816 there were only 3 Jewish families in Dublin and a few in other Irish towns. They were joined by others in 1822 and the population was 400 by 1880. Emigration from Eastern Europe took place at the end of the 19th century and many went to Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Limerick, Belfast. the chief rabbinate was founded in 1918 being Yitzhak Halevi Herzog with the Jewish population in 1990 at 1,600, mainly in Dublin,
Many Jews of Lithuania moved on to Dublin, Ireland and from there, to South Africa which Jews started settling in the early 19th century. Capetown had a synagogue by 1841. The settlers were traders and peddlers who traveled among the Boer farmers. Later they went to the towns. Gold was discovered there in the end of the 19th century, which eastern European Jews which drew many. Johannesburg became the main Jewish settlement, and they enjoyed the political equality in Cape Colony and Natal, but obtained it in the Transvaal only after the 2nd Boer War. Immigration to South Africa was popular following WWI and came mostly from Lithuania.
I know that Simon Goldfoot moved from Lithuania to South Africa in the 20's. His son, Stanley Goldfoot b: May 2, 1914, was born there in Houghton, Johannesburg, South Africa. Immediately after graduation high school, he made Aliyah to Palestine, and he lived in Jerusalem, becoming the Chief of Intelligence for the Stern Group which the British called the Stern Gang.
Polish–Lithuanian Conflict) was an undeclared war between newly independent Lithuania and Poland following World War I, which happened mainly, but not only, in the Vilnius and Suwałki regions. The war is viewed differently by the respective sides. According to Lithuanian historians, it was part of the Lithuanian Wars of Independence and lasted from May 1919 to 29 November 1920. Polish historians deem the Polish–Lithuanian war as occurring only in September–October 1920. Since the spring of 1920, the conflict became part of the wider Polish–Soviet War and was largely shaped by its progress. It was subject to international mediation at the Conference of Ambassadors and the League of Nations.
Though most emigration from Lithuania went to Israel, it is now going to other English-speaking countries. The rabbis of the principal congregations in Johannesburg (Jewish population was 63,620. Cape Town of which Cape Peninsula had 28,000. Chief rabbis and 65 synagogues are affiliated to the Orthodox Federation of Synagogues. A Reform Movement started in 1933 and has 14 affiliated congregations. Also, there are 69 nursery schools, 10 primary schools and 8 high schools. They have an extensive Jewish press and a lot of cultural activities. By 1990 there were 120,000 Jews living in South Africa.
In 1923, there were 300 Jewish elementary schools, the majority teaching in Hebrew, a minority in Yiddish (Hebrew-German Combo).
Jews of Central Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries immigrated to Ukraine and from Poland in the 16th to 17th centuries. Severe massacres happened during the Chmielnicki and the Haidamak uprising in the 17th to 18th centuries.
The Frankist and Hasidic movements originated in the 18th century in Ukraine which was also associated with the early Zionism in the 19th-20th centuries. Jews of Galicia and White Russia had emigrated there.
The Soviet Government promoted Jewish settlement in the Ukraine in the 1920's, however. They used the funds of the American Joint Distribution Committee in the regions of Kalinindorf, Zlatopol, and Stalindorf. By 1930 there were 90,000 Jewish agriculturists there. In January 1918 , a regime of national autonomy was estalished in the Ukraine. Jewish economy and culture suffered under Soviet rule. About half of Soviet Russia's 3 million Jews lived there before WWII. Under Nazi rule, the Jewish people who had not fled to Russia were wiped out by the Germans and Ukrainians from 1941 to 1942. The Jewish population was officially put at 777,126 in 1970 and at 484,129 in 1989.
There were restrictions on them imposed during the 1930's limited the influx (when Germany and Nazism were affecting all countries towards Jews), although many German Jews were able to settle in South Africa. After 1939, however, Jewish immigration was small to nothing. It has increased again in the late 1980's. .jpg%20invasion%20of%20Poland.jpg)
In 1939 when Germany marched into Poland, starting WWII, the Jewish population numbered about 175,000. About 25,000 were deported by the Russians from Lithuania and Latvia in July 1940. The remaining Jews were massacred by the Germans and Lithuanians by 1943. 24,000 Jews were living there in 1959, but by 1989 about half of these had left for Israel, leaving 12,312. Today of 2023 there are 52,300. I presume most have made aliyah to Israel.
Jews of Central Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries immigrated to Ukraine and from Poland in the 16th to 17th centuries. Severe massacres happened during the Chmielnicki and the Haidamak uprising in the 17th to 18th centuries.
The Frankist and Hasidic movements originated in the 18th century in Ukraine which was also associated with the early Zionism in the 19th-20th centuries. Jews of Galicia and White Russia had emigrated there.
Ukraine was the center of anti-Semitism. It was the scene of pogroms in 1905 and 1918 to 1920. Fiddler on the Roof was situated in Ukraine. As the play begins, Tevye, a Jewish milkman, tells of the customs in the little Russian town of Anatevka. It is 1905, and life here is as precarious as a fiddler on the roof, yet, through their traditions, the villagers endure. Anatevka (Ukrainian: Анатевка) is a Ukrainian refugee village that provides food, housing, education, and medical support for refugees resulting from the 2014 Russian invasion and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The village was established in 2015 and currently houses hundreds of families.
The Soviet Government promoted Jewish settlement in the Ukraine in the 1920's, however. They used the funds of the American Joint Distribution Committee in the regions of Kalinindorf, Zlatopol, and Stalindorf. By 1930 there were 90,000 Jewish agriculturists there. In January 1918 , a regime of national autonomy was estalished in the Ukraine. Jewish economy and culture suffered under Soviet rule. About half of Soviet Russia's 3 million Jews lived there before WWII. Under Nazi rule, the Jewish people who had not fled to Russia were wiped out by the Germans and Ukrainians from 1941 to 1942.
The Jewish population was officially put at 777,126 in 1970 and at 484,129 in 1989. Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy (also transliterated as Zelensky or Zelenskiy; born 25 January 1978) is a Ukrainian politician and former comedian and actor who is the sixth and current president of Ukraine since 2019.
Reference;
https://katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/blog/ironies-history-ukraine-crisis-through-lens-jewish-history
https://wisevoter.com/country-rankings/jewish-population-by-country/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austro-Polish_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish%E2%80%93Lithuanian_War
Labels: Anaatevka, Catherine II, Czars, Dublin, Gaon of Vilna, Lazdijai, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Soviets, Tartar, Telsiai, Ukraine, Vilna
