Metadata: The ”Palestine Office" in Kaunas
Collection
- Country:
- Lithuania
- Holding institution:
- Central State Archives of Lithuania
- Holding institution (official language):
- Lietuvos centrinis valstybės archyvas
- Postal address:
- O. Milašiaus 21, LT-10102, Vilnius
- Phone number:
- (8 5) 247 7830
- Web address:
- http://www.archyvai.lt/lt/lcva.html
- Email:
- lcva@archyvai.lt
- Reference number:
- f. 1664
- Title:
- The ”Palestine Office" in Kaunas
- Title (official language):
- Žydų draugija „Palestinos įstaiga“
- Creator/accumulator:
- Palestine Office, Kaunas
- Date(s):
- 1929/1940
- Language:
- Lithuanian
- Yiddish
- Hebrew
- French
- German
- English
- Extent:
- 527 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Photographic images
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
Like Palestine Offices in other localities around the world, the Palestine Office of Kaunas was in charge of the organisation and control of Jewish emigration to Palestine. Its archive is composed of materials related to Jewish migration between 1929 and 1940, and holds both historical and genealogical significance.
A large part of the collection consists of data on Jewish immigrants ("Olym") to Palestine and the issuance of immigration permits or certificates to potential immigrants: lists of actual and potential immigrants, correspondence with potential immigrants from various localities in Lithuania and various institutions including the Palestine Offices in neighbouring countries, Zionist officials in Palestine and the British and French consulates in Kaunas, questionnaires, photographs and personal documents and lists of people with pre-arranged employment in Palestine seeking immigration permits.
The files also include correspondence on the emigration of Jews from or via Lithuania, including refugees from Poland and other countries after the outbreak of World War II. In certain cases, the correspondence includes appeals by prominent figures in the Jewish community of Palestine on behalf of potential immigrants, such as a letter from Avraham Shlonsky concerning author and poet A. D. Shapira (Shafir). Papers from 1940 include correspondence with the representative of the JDC in Vilnius, Y. Bieder, concerning the immigration to Palestine of his wife, L. Bieder.
The collection reflects the involvement of the Palestine Office in the activities of Zionist organisations in Lithuania. For instance, correspondence from 1935 mentions an arbitration between He-Haluts Ha-Klal-Tsiyoni, a pioneering movement affiliated with the General Zionists, and one of the pioneer communes (kibbutsim) in Lithuania.
Several documents refer to the immigration of university students: correspondence from 1936 refers to the immigration of graduates of the Hebrew Gymnasium in Sauliai intending to enrol at the Technological Institute (Technion) of Haifa. Other documents mention transfers of students from universities in Lithuania and Latvia to institutions of higher education in Haifa and Jerusalem.
The Palestine Office was also engaged in the organisation of Jewish tourism to Palestine from Lithuania. Papers from 1937 include correspondence concerning a tour to Palestine organised for the members of the Jewish teachers’ association Ha-More.
The files also include data on donations accepted by the Palestine Office: several documents mention an investigation into suspicious donations collected on behalf of the Fishermen's Society of Palestine. Data on the office's workers can also be found in the collection.
- Archival history:
- Initially, the collection was kept in the branch of the State Archives of the Lithuanian SSR in Kaunas. In the late 1960s the collection was transferred to the Central State Archive of the Lithuanian SSR in Vilnius, predecessor of the modern Central State Archive of Lithuania.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Palestine Offices (Misrad Eretsisraeli) were established by the Zionist Organisation in various cities around the world after 1918 in order to organise and supervise Jewish immigration to Palestine. A Palestine Office in Kaunas was established in the 1920s and functioned until the Soviet takeover of Lithuania in 1940.
- Access points: locations:
- Lithuania
- Access points: persons/families:
- Shlonsky, A.
- System of arrangement:
- The collection consists of one inventory, which is arranged in thematic order.
- Access, restrictions:
- The collection is open for reference at LCVA.
- Finding aids:
- Inventories in Lithuanian are available at LCVA and online at the Lithuanian Archives' website. Inventories and descriptions in Lithuanian and in Hebrew are 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
- 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, 2015
