The Jewish Kahal of Vilnius

Collection description

Collection

Country:: Lithuania

Holding institution:: Lithuanian State Historical Archives

Holding institution (official language):: Lietuvos valstybės istorijos archyvas

Postal address:: Gerosios Vilties g. 10, 03134 Vilnius

Phone number:: (8 5) 213 74 82

Web address:: http://www.archyvai.lt/lt/lvia_naujienos.html

Email:: istorijos.archyvas@lvia.lt

Reference number:: f. 620

Title:: The Jewish Kahal of Vilnius

Title (official language):: Vilniaus miesto žydų kahalas

Creator/accumulator:: Jewish Kahal of Vilnius

Date(s):: 1784/1921

Language:: Hebrew; Polish; Russian; Yiddish

Extent:: 59 files

Type of material:: Textual material

Physical condition:: good

Scope and content:: The collection includes the records of the Jewish community board (kahal) of Vilnius, chiefly from the late 18th century to the official abolition of the kahal in 1844. The records – correspondence, taxation lists, government orders and other materials – reflect the variety of communal activities during this period, including contact with the Russian authorities, finances, taxation, charity, military conscription and crime.

Data on taxation includes various lists of residents and taxpayers; lists of taxes paid by members of various professions including bakers, producers of fire powder and butchers); lists of tax collectors; data on the collection of tax on kosher meat, on poor members of the community unable to pay tax, and other data. Papers from the early 1820s mention soldiers allocated to the Jewish community in order to assist with the collection of government taxes; later reports mention clashes between the soldiers and some of the Jewish residents who owed taxes. Some documents refer to taxation in other localities such as Sakiai and Merkine.

Some files contain data on various military duties prior to the onset of personal conscription in 1827, such as sewing army uniforms and cleaning army stables in Vilnius (the latter is mentioned in a document from 1808). Other documents refer to the collection and payment of conscription exemption tax. Post-1827 papers include data on the selection of Jewish conscripts, including documents which mention the recruitment of unemployed individuals and tax evaders.

Many materials contain data on community politics and institutions. Among these are pleas by the Jewish community to preserve the legal status of Jewish residents of Vilnius according to privileges granted between 1593 and 1772. The documents mention communal institutions: lists of the elected members of the kahal; data on the Jewish hospital (including accounts of its condition and correspondence on the hiring of doctors), synagogues, a Jewish cemetery and a mikveh (Jewish ritual bath). Some materials refer to Jewish education, including papers from 1808 which refer to the establishment of a school for Jewish children in Vilnius. Other documents relate to the issuing and censorship of Jewish books. In certain cases, the documents mention Jews who pursued higher education, such as a report from the 1830s on Jewish medical students and a document from 1824 which mentions a Jewish woman who graduated from the University of Vilnius.

Other documents refer to the election of members of the kahal and the employment of various professionals, such as ritual slaughterers, doctors (including I. Rozenson) and religious functionaries (the papers mention Rabbi A. Posvoler and others). Jewish merchants also frequently appear in the records, which include lists of merchants, correspondence on travel permits and other data. Papers from the late 1830s mention Jewish families settling on the land in the governorate of Kherson.

Some materials refer to various criminal or prohibited activities such as smuggling: documents from 1819-20 mention the issuing of a herem (ban) on smugglers; correspondence from 1810 refers to Jewish criminals who escaped from custody; documents from late 1825 and early 1826 mention the search for the Decemberist Wilhelm Kuchelbecker, which involved the Jewish community in Vilnius.

Several documents mention cases of Jewish apostasy and conversions to Judaism (papers from the late 1820s mention Jewish residents of Vilnius who were allegedly involved in a conversion of a woman from Siauliai). Certain files include data on investigations held by the Russian authorities on alleged abuses of the kahal in collecting and distributing tax revenues.

Archival history:: Before World War I a major part of the kahal’s papers was kept in the archive at the headquarters of the Vilnius police. After World War I this archive, together with other archives of the Russian authorities in Vilnius, was transferred to the State Archive in Vilnius. The existence of the kahal’s materials remained unknown to the scholarly community until 1925, when they were discovered by the historian Pinchas Kon.

In 1940 the Vilnius State Archive became a part of the Central State Archive of the Lithuanian SSR. In 1957, together with other pre-revolutionary documentation, the archive of the kahal was included in the Central State Historical Archive of the Lithuanian SSR, predecessor of the current State Historical Archive.

Additional materials which refer to Jewish community organisations of Vilnius (mostly in the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century) are available at the YIVO archives in New York.

Administrative/biographical history:: A kahal (Jewish community board) was established in Vilnius in the late 16th century and served as one of the main institutions of the autonomous Jewish community. The regularly elected members of the kahal supervised the collection of taxes and the fulfillment of other official duties, such as the conscription of Jewish recruits for the Russian army. The kahal was also responsible for the hiring of religious personnel and represented the community to non-Jewish authorities and other Jewish communities. In 1844 the kahal was officially abolished by the Russian government.

Access points: locations:: Merkine; Sakiai; Vilnius

Access points: persons/families:: Ki︠u︡khelʹbeker, V. K.

Subject terms:: Agriculture; Conversion to Judaism; Education; Education--Schools and universities; Jewish community records; Kahal; Military; Residency issues of Jews; Smuggling; Taxation; Taxation--Korobka; Trade and commerce

System of arrangement:: The collection consists of a series of volumes that are arranged according to chronological/thematic order.

Access, restrictions:: The collection is open for reference at LVIA.

Finding aids:: Basic information is available online in Lithuanian (for online access see the website of the Lithuanian Archives). A more detailed inventory is available at the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People.

Links to finding aids:: https://eais-pub.archyvai.lt/eais/faces/pages/forms/search/F3001.jspx?_afPfm=-7dec7f9e.6

Yerusha Network member:: Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People

Author of the description:: Alex Valdman, Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, 2014

fullscreen: The Jewish Kahal of Vilnius

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