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Photograph of 12 young Jewish adults who are part of the Kremenchuk Hechalutz organisation. The Hechalutz Zionist organisation aimed to train and prepare youth and young adults Jews to survive and self-sustain in Israel, through practical training in agricultural work and ideological teaching of the Zionism. Due to the harsh political and economic situation in Israel, it was necessary to have these skills. This immigration to Israel is in light of the Zionist sentiment of aliyah (returning to the Jewish homeland). The members of this organisation competed to become Halutzim, which is a Hebrew word that translates directly to “pioneers”. This originally referred to the first Jews who immigrated to agricultural Palestine from the 1880s until the State of Israel was formed in 1948, but was increasingly used in the 20th century to refer to those who migrate to Israel. In other words, members of this organisation were intending to immigrate to Israel, but were competing due to the limited number of travel passes for this kind of emigration at the same. [Source: https://www.yadvashem.org/about.html].

Some of the members are standing in the back row, some of whom have their hands or arms resting on other members in front of them. The middle row has some members sitting on stools, also resting hands or arms on the front row members, who are lying on the ground. All members of this group photograph are looking at the camera, but are not smiling. All of the Hechalutz members are wearing hats or head coverings, which is an indication of the focus of the organisation being on outdoor work to sustain themselves.

During the period of 1890 to 1930 a great migratory movement took place in Europe (particularly Eastern and Southern Europe). Jewish people fled to other countires due largely to economic hardship and political persecution. South Africa received a large influx of these immigrants with the largest Jewish population in South Africa being of Lithuanian heritage [https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/capetown/Jews_in_SA.html].

The large Lithuanian and Surrounding Towns Collection includes photographs taken from towns in Eastern Europe that existed for years prior to, and during, the first half of the 20th century. This collection primarily includes towns that fell under what was previously the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and in interwar years traded titles as part of various powers, but settled into Independent Lithuania after the fall of the Soviet Union. However, there are also some towns that are from surrounding Eastern European countries, all of which had some connection to the Soviet Union, and which had very similar characteristics to the Lithuanian towns in this collection. These towns had considerable Jewish populations, either in number or in presence, referring here to significant Jewish cultural and religious contributions. These photographs have been preserved by survivors of the Holocaust, or by family members of survivors, and have been donated for the purpose of educating and providing comfort to those interested in or invested in the lives of East European Jewry.

Each town is named according to the moniker for that town in Lithuanian, or in the language of the country that the town in question falls under.
In the Series Description for each town, alternative names are given, for ease of reference and for contextual clarity. The number of alternate names is limited to Eastern European countries and Russia, due to the commonplace act in the first half of the twentieth century for these towns to pass from one occupying country to another. This is particularly true for occupation by Russia (then the Soviet Union), and Poland, thus justifying these as the most common alternative provided. Further, being primarily Jewish towns (plural: shtetlekh; singular: shtetl), the Yiddish name is given if it has been identified. This information was sourced from JewishGen, using the Communities page, which provides historical, current and alternative names for various towns. [Source: https://www.jewishgen.org/Communities/Search.asp].

Interconnections between towns, with family and community ties were an extremely important factor deciding where Jewish communities lived and spent time in terms of school and work. This extended from within the little town (referred to as a shtetl in Eastern Europe), to in between shtetlach (plural of shtetl). [Source: https://avotaynuonline.com/2007/01/the-ties-that-bind-jewish-kinship-networks-and-modernization-in-darbenai-and-its-diaspora/]. There has been an attempt to illustrate some of these linkages, with examples of movement between towns and strong community and inter-organisational activities, demonstrating the strength and significance of Jewish life in Eastern Europe.

Importantly, although not always visible in the photographs, various stages of occupation and reoccupation by different powers throughout this period meant conditions for Jewry in these towns could change significantly from one day to the next. Some towns have larger treasure chests of tangible memories in photograph form, while others were unable to preserve as much.

The general pattern of occupation for most of these towns in Lithuania went as follows: The Russian Empire controlled Lithuania until the outbreak of World War I. Bolsheviks (the Red Army) occupied many Lithuanian towns during WWI, which was accompanied by a decree from the Tsar that all Jews were to be exiled deep into the interior of Russia. After the Russian Empire fell at the end of WWI, some of these exiled Jews could return to their original shtetl, but many did not due to having emigrated or died in the transit or by more cruel means. This meant the Jewish population had already begun to decline by the First World War.

During the period of the Independent Republic of Lithuania between WWI and the Second World War, while Jews had some community leadership positions, anti-Semitism was generally quite violent. This Independence was disrupted by Soviet invasion in 1940, which saw the confiscation and nationalisation of economic resources and new governance of these towns. Since Soviet rule had anti-Semitic tendencies, but not necessarily murderous ones, and since some Jews were supportive of communism as part of their Zionist or Bundist ideologies, many Lithuanian nationalists perceived Soviet rule as being beneficial to Jews and saw Jews as supportive of Soviet occupation. Therefore, when Nazis occupied in 1941 at the beginning of war between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, many Lithuanian citizens turned against their Jewish neighbours and either orchestrated or collaborated in massacres of Jews.

Lithuanians saw Jews as threats to their independence in many instances, and saw Nazis as more amenable to allowing Lithuania to govern itself compared to Soviets, and thus Lithuanians were likely to collaborate with Nazis. This is one of the reasons that such a large proportion of Lithuanian Jewry were killed during the Holocaust, as Nazis were not acting alone and were not met with resistance from local non-Jews in many instances. There were periods of mass exodus from Lithuania, whereby some Jews were able to escape in between occupations, or during occupation when borders were still open, with most Jews from Lithuania immigrating to South Africa, America and Israel. [Source: https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/pinkas_lita/pinkas_lita.html; https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/lithuania6/lit6_00i.html#Pagexxxivhttps://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/lithuania6/lithuania6.html#TOC]

Whenever possible research has been conducted to enrich the information in these collections, if you would like to add any additional information please contact us.

Photograph of 23 women student attendees of the adult evening Hebrew class in Luninyets, and their male intructor. The teacher is seated in the centre of the second row from the front. Some students are looking at the camera, while others are looking away.

Photograph of 33 participants of a Purim concert in Luninyets in 1913, with 11 older participants (3 in the centre of the back row, and 8 comprising the entire second from the back row) and 22 children. This photograph depicts the child participants of the Purim concert, with their instructors. All participants are looking at the camera, but are not smiling.
The Jewish holiday of Purim surrounds the celebration of Jews in Persia being saved by Queen Esther from being exterminated by Haman (a prime minister in the Persian Empire) who intended to kill all Jews. The celebration occurs over two days, to commemorate the victory of Jews over Haman. Esther marries King Ahasuerus, who redirects the decree ordering for the extermination of Jews to rather kill Haman, after finding out that his new wife (Queen Esther) is Jewish. The celebration of Purim involves reading the Megillah (meaning 'scroll'), which is the book of Esther. This holiday is extremely festive, and involves celebrations, dressing up, putting on plays, and often dramatizing the story of Purim in a comedic or satirical way. [Source: https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/purim/index.asp]

Photograph of 22 participants of a concert in Luninyets to celebrate Purim in 1913. The members of the photograph are young men and women, with one older adult man seated in the centre of the second row from the front. The participants are looking at the camera, but are not smiling.

The Jewish holiday of Purim surrounds the celebration of the Jews in Persia being saved by Queen Esther from being exterminated by Haman (a prime minister in the Persian Empire) who intended to kill all Jews. The celebration occurs over two days, to commemorate the victory of Jews over Haman. Esther marries King Ahasuerus, who redirects the decree ordering for the extermination of Jews to rather kill Haman, after finding out that his new wife (Queen Esther) is Jewish. The celebration of Purim involves reading the Megillah (meaning 'scroll'), which is the book of Esther. This holiday is extremely festive, and involves celebrations, dressing up, putting on plays, and often dramatizing the story of Purim in a comedic or satirical way. [Source: https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/purim/index.asp]

Photograph of Yaakov Leibowitz's (a resident of Pikelai) wedding party. Some guests are seated around the couple who are at the head of the table, with some guests standing behind the bride and groom. There are 29 guests in attendance, exclusive of the newly wed couple. The table has cakes and bottles on it, comprising the wedding celebration feast. Some guests are holding their glasses in the air in tribute of the union of Yaakov and his wife. One guest in the far back of the photograph is holding up a frame photograph of some guests that were not able to make it to the wedding.

Photograph of some members of the Leibowitz family next to some equipment in a flax refinery factory. The people in the photograph, from left to right, are: Avram and Aaron Leibowitz, Hilleurd standing upon the machine above the other members of the photograph, and Yaakov Leibowitz on the right of the photograph. Avram and Aaron are standing to the right of the machine, Hilleurd is upon the machine, and Yaakov is standing to the left of the machine. On the far right of the photograph, and thus on the far left of the machine and Yaakov, there is the factory manager and assistant, who are unnamed.

This photo has been taken at the flax refinery factory in the town. Since Hilleurd left Lithuania for South Africa early in 1925, this photograph had to have been taken in 1924 or earlier.

Photograph of six young adult Jewish women posing for the camera. These women are organized in a pyramidal-like format: the two women at the forefront of the photograph are crouching at the base of the pyramid on either side of the next lowest level consisting of one centrally-positioned seated woman, followed by the scond highest level of two women standing on either side of the centrally positioned woman below, and finally the apex of the pyramid consisting of the most highly positioned woman standing above the others in the centre with her arms around the women in the level below her.

This picture was donated by Mr I Berger, who lived in Panevezys before moving to Johannesburg, where he donated these photographs in 1988 - among others in this Collection - to the SAJBOD Archives.