Lithuanian Jewish Communities by Nancy Schoenburg & Stuart Schoenburg

Author:Nancy Schoenburg & Stuart Schoenburg [Schoenburg, Nancy]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Jason Aronson, Inc.
Published: 1996-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

Rimshani was a town near Ezhereni (Zarasi). It had a small Jewish population before the Holocaust.

RITOVA (RITAVAS) - Telz District

A2

Ritova is near Loykuva (12 miles), Kool (9), Chaviadan (13), Plungian (13) and Memel (30), on the Yura River and along the Shavli-Plungian-Memel Road. The nearest train station was in Plungian.

The Village of Andriava (9 miles) also had some Jewish families. They were engaged in trade and agriculture. The village relied on Ritova in matters of religion and culture.

Jews resided there in the seventeenth century. Under the Lithuanian Council, it was attached to Keidan District. A number of meetings of the District Council were held in the town.

The land for the town belonged to the Aginskys. The first Aginsky in mid-nineteenth century was a tyrant and all feared him. He took the beit midrash of the Jews and, according to the memorial book on Ritova, in the 1860’s he turned it into a shelter for pigs. Later it became a residence for his land-tenants and his servants. When Count Aginsky died, they established a celebration in the form of a special Purim observance.

In 1911, on Tisha B’Av half of the town burned down.

In 1918, Count Zalvzky took over the town from the Aginsky family, and he returned the building to the Jews.

In 1897, the Jewish population was 1397, 80% of the general population, and in 1914 - about 2000 (400 families). During Independent Lithuania, the number declined and just before the Holocaust there were only 200 Jewish families left (less than 800 people).

Most of the Jews engaged in trade; 10 were artisans; and 4 were farmers. Market day was Wednesday.

Many Jews emigrated to South Africa, the United States or Palestine.

There were 2 beit midrashes, a yeshiva and a Tarbut School with 120 pupils. The teachers were Eliahu Levita, Zalman-Leib Levita, Shimon Kaplan, Zvi Rosenzveig and Moshe Chavas.

The Zionist parties, Hamizrahi and Zionist Socialists, were active, as were Shomer Hatzair, Maccabi and Pioneers youth groups. There were 2 large libraries, one containing mostly Hebrew books and one with only Yiddish books. Near the town was a Hechalutz (Pioneer) training facility.

Ritova was the first shtetl in Lithuania to have electric lights, when the Polish Fritz Aginsky installed electric lights in his palace and in the streets in the beginning of the twentieth century.

From the rabbinate: R. Naftali Haratz [a native of the town; author of the book “Mei Kior” about the washing of the hands. He died in 5588/1828)]; R. Leib Harif; R. Avraham-Aaron Burstein; R. Yitzhak-Eliahu Gefen; R. Shur; and the last rabbi, R. Shmuel Ponidler*.

Natives: R. Zev-Wolf Abrach [1845-1922]; R. Aaron-Shlomo Zalmanovitz [1870-1940; rabbi of Haifa]; Baruch Marcus [orientalist and researcher]; Dr. Getzel (George) Zelikovitz [physician]; and Menachem-Mendel Serhai [Torah scholar]; Aaron-Benzion Shurin [rabbi and writer]; and Gabriel Gerad [composer].

Additional References:

Memorial Book, The Ritavas Community: A Tribute to the Memory of Our Town, edited by Alter Levite. It includes a section in English and has a list of Holocaust victims (in English).

“Hoveret Ritova” - an addition to the memorial book with additions and corrections to it.

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