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Descendants of Solomon (Shleimah) Melamed




Generation No. 1


1. SOLOMON (SHLEIMAH)2 MELAMED (ABRAHAM1) was born Abt. 1840 in Lithuania, and died 1888 in Panevezys, Lithuania. He married FREIDA EDELMAN 1857, daughter of NOTTLE EDELMAN and ETHEL HIRSCHON. She was born 1840 in Lithuania, and died March 12, 1912 in Philadelphia, PA, USA.

Notes for SOLOMON (SHLEIMAH) MELAMED:
0. On Melmeds:

A. Presumably the Melmeds were chassidim.

B. Solomon was a scholar at the famous Velozen Yeshiva.

C. Solomon was a teacher.

D. He struggled financially.


I. On Lithuania:

LITHUANIA:
~~~~~~~~~
HISTORY:
Most of Lithuania was annexed by Russia in 1795. Independent Lithuania was re-established in 1918, formed from Kovno, eastern Vilna, and northern Suwalki gubernias (and a tiny piece of East Prussia). Vilna area annexed by Poland, 1919-1939. Capital: Kaunas (Kovno). Republic of U.S.S.R.

1940-1989. Capital: Vilnius (Vilna). Independent 1990. Capital: Vilnius.


II. More on Lithuania

HISTORY
Jews trace their origins in Lithuania back to the days of the Grand Duke Gedeyminus who founded the first Lithuanian state in the 14th century. By the late 15th century, there were already thriving communities.

In time, Vilnius became a great center of Jewish religious learning, known as the "Jerusalem of Lithuania". Jews from other parts of Europe flocked to the great Lithuanian yeshivot (including those of Slobodka, Volozhyn, Mir and Telshe), and those who learned according to the guidelines laid down in the Lithuanian yeshivot were called "Litvaks". The Vilna Gaon, Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, who lived in the 18th century, epitomized the supremacy of Torah studies, and his influence on traditional Jewish scholarship remains strong. The Gaon was a determined opponent of Chassidism, and, as a result, the Chassidic penetration of Lithuania was negligible.

Lithuania was also home to a large Karaite community centered in Trokai.

The Jews of Lithuania lived an intense Jewish life and their role and influence in the major Jewish political and cultural movements were far greater than their numbers would have suggested. Lithuania was also an outstanding center of Yiddish culture, and Vilnius (then under Polish rule) was the site of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

On the eve of the Shoah there were about 160,000 Jews in independent Lithuania and another 155,000 in Vilnius and the surrounding area, which was transferred to Lithuania after the Soviet conquest of eastern Poland. That population was bolstered by Jewish refugees from German-occupied Poland.

During the German occupation about 95% of Lithuanian Jewry was killed (a greater percentage than in any other community in Europe), in large measure due to the enthusiastic participation of ethnic Lithuanians. After the war some of the survivors remained in Lithuania, and some who had been deported or fled also returned. These were joined by non-Lithuanian Jews (primarily Russian-speakers) from other parts of the Soviet Union.

Jews in Soviet Lithuania benefited from a slightly more relaxed atmosphere than in Soviet Russia or Ukraine, and in Vilnius certain limited expressions of Jewish culture were tolerated. Upon regaining its independence, all restrictions on Jewish religious and cultural life were dropped.


COMMUNITY
The Lithuanian Jewish Community is the roof organization of Lithuanian Jewry. In Vilnius there are affiliates of some of the leading international Jewish organizations. B'nai B'rith, Betar, Maccabi, WIZO and various professional, veteran and survivor groups are active. The rehabilitation of numerous Lithuanian collaborators has been cause for concern not only for Jews living in Lithuania but for Jews throughout the world. The Israeli Government and Jewish bodies, especially Jews of Lithuanian origin, have been especially active in demanding the prosecution of Lithuanian Nazis. The WJRO is negotiating the restitution of Jewish property.


CULTURE AND EDUCATION
There is a Jewish secondary school and kindergarten in Vilnius, and Sunday schools are maintained in other towns. The community publishes Jerusalem of Lithuania, a monthly newspaper in Lithuanian, Russian, Yiddish and English. There is also an occasional 20-25 minute Jewish television program, and a bi-monthly radio presentation. The Jewish community building houses the State Jewish Museum, the Israel Center of Culture and Arts, the Center of Yiddish Culture and Music, and the Zalman Rejzen Foundation Supporting Jewish Culture, Education, and Science.

Lithuanian Jews laid the foundations for one of the major English-speaking Jewish communities. Between 1880 and 1930 tens of thousands of Lithuanian Jews landed in South Africa and today 85% of South African Jews trace their ancestors back to those "Litvak" immigrants. Jews sometimes called South Africa "a Lithuanian colony".


RELIGIOUS LIFE
There are synagogues in a number of cities and towns, but attendance is low. A bakery for matzot exists in Vilnius and other supplies, such as kosher meat and wine, are imported. A rabbi visits from London every three months.

The Chabad House, with its own rabbi, has been especially active in organizing classes for young people and promoting knowledge of Judaism. Israel and Lithuania enjoy full diplomatic relations. Israel is represented by its ambassador in Riga, Latvia.

Aliya- Since 1989, 5,291 Lithuanian Jews have immigrated to Israel.

Important sites include the medieval Jewish quarter of Vilnius and the grave of the Vilna Gaon. The Romanesque-Moorish Choral Synagogue is the only Jewish house of worship to survive the Shoah. Among the objects in the State Jewish Museum in Vilnius are ritual items salvaged from the Great Synagogue which was destroyed by the Germans. These include parts of the original ark and reader's desk.

The Museum also includes a section devoted to the destruction of Lithuanian Jewry. In Trokai there is a museum adjacent to the Karaite Synagogue, which tells the story of this community. The Nazi killing grounds such as Paneriai (Ponary), where 70,000 Jews were massacred, and the infamous Ninth Fort of Kaunas, also attract visitors.

Reprinted with Permission of the World Jewish Congress.
Copyright 1996; Institute of the World Jewish Congress.

Send questions and comments to: <webmaster@virtual.co.il>


III. Travels through modern Panevezys:

I spent my first three days in Lithuania with a group of Israeli scholars touring some areas of Jewish interest. The first stop was the city of Panevezys, which Jews knew as PONEVEZH. PONEVEZH housed an important yeshiva, a transplant of which exists in Israel. Here I developed a sense of Jewish grief --and grievance--as we visited the building that once housed the great yeshiva only to find a bakery. As we moved through the city, our guide took us to the place that was once the Jewish cemetery--now destroyed. Yet I found that my sense of Jewish loss and anger was unexpectedly mixing with other feelings. Seeing the many Soviet-era buildings I was struck by the extent of the assault on the Lithuanian people perpetrated by the Soviets.

It was in PONEVEZH that I began to think that the tensions between (non-Lithuanian) Jews and Lithuanians stemmed from very different perceptions of World War II and its aftermath. For Jews outside Eastern Europe the war ended more than 50 years ago, long enough for us to demand a reckoning on the part of the many counties that participated in the destruction of European Jewry. We have been aggressive in demanding that all collaborating countries acknowledge what they did, and make whatever amends they reasonably can. For Lithuanians the war in some sense ended only seven years ago. Lithuania is still going through the first stages of recovery from deep psychic trauma. PONEVEZH was not to be the last place in which I felt this trauma, or that all parties involved in Jewish-Lithuanian relations would have to take it into account.


IV.
My father told me that, during World War I, when he was a youth, his family, with thousands of other Jews from that area, were deported by the Russian Authorities into Russia itself, because they were suspected (apparently falsely) of having pro-German sympathies (mainly because they spoke Yiddish).

The Spring issue of Avotaynu, due to be mailed out the first week of May, contains an article I wrote about unknown Jewish vital records stored in an archive in Panevezys. When the Jews who were forced to move East from the Panevezys area returned after the end of World War I, they were allowed to record vital records going back as far as 1880-1881. Evidently, some of these original records had been destroyed and Jews were allowed to replace them. This particular archive is supposed to contain only Jewish vital records for the post World War I period. Until my discovery, it was not publicly known that pre-World War I records existed in this archive.

Read the Avotaynu article when it is published in several weeks. If you cannot wait for that, write to the archive. For the address, see archive number (5) on the Litvak SIG Web page.

Howard Margol
Atlanta, Georgia
<homargol@aol.com>


V. Lithuanian Cemeteries

1. PASVALYS (Posvol)
The cemetery has many tombstones scattered over hilly terrain located behind a lumber company. A local foot-path cuts through the length of the cemetery, and additional collateral paths are toward the back. Most of the stones are partially buried so that only the upper parts show. Approximately 20 stones are readily apparent; but poking around exposed "rocks" reveals additional ones. Many of the markers are over 100 years old (1847-1890). We recorded seven inscriptions. Source: Kirschner

2. Panevezys:
The Jewish cemetery lies under a military aerodrome built by the Russians. source: Helman (The cemetery is now a public park)

3. PUSALOTAS:
I found the cemetery on the lst trip in June, 1993. It is practically in someone's backyard. I paid to have the cemetery cleaned up. The villager doing the cleaning dug up about 50 gravestones buried next to the cemetery. I saw this in May, 1995. He said another 50 gravestones are still buried. I gave him additional money to dig those up. I will see these in June. I took many photos and video of the gravestones. Unfortunately, many of them are illegible. Time and the weather have taken their toll.

On July 1, 1941 between 250 and 300 Jews were living in Pusalotas-about 40% of the population. I have documented proof that all of them were murdered there by Lithuanians. My father's youngest sister, her husband and their three young children were among those murdered. Of course, there will not be any gravestones for them. source: Howard Margol; e-mail:
hmargol@aol.com

4. BIRZAI:
Source: Linda Cantor and Bruce Kahn - see above
The cemetery still exists and is in good condition with about 400 tombstones. source: AF

VI.
Vilna and Kovna Guberniaa were one province from 1795 until 1843. In 1843, the Russian government split the Guberniia and formed Kovna Guberniia out of the north-western part of Vilna Guberniia.

That's why it appears that a shtetl was part of one Guberniia and later part of another. Just the gubernia (i.e., provincial) borders changed.

That's therefore how a person was born in, for example, Zagare Vilna Guberniia in, let's say 1832, and died in the same shtetl in 1886 and is listed as dying in Zagare, Kovna Guberniia.

VII. Video of Panevezys:

Panevezys Revisited - Panevezys, Lithuania 1932/1997 English Narration accompanied with Music, Produced and Directed by Chaim Mechanic. Photographed by a former Panevezys resident in 1932 and Harold Rhode in 1997. About 30 minutes, in Black and White. The older original movie footage on this video, which is owned by Rabbi Moshe Wiener, was photographed by his Grandfather in 1932. This video contains film of Panevezys, the Old Cemetery (before the Russian destruction) with shots of the graves of Reb Itzle and the Ponivez Rav, as well as pictures of the famous Ponivez Rav - Rabbi Kahanaman teaching the students of his Yeshiva Kolel. There are pictures of Modern Ponivez, with many of the same places, taken by Harold Rhode when he was there in 1997. This video can be ordered through Chaim Mechanic. (chaimmac@aol.com)\\


VIII.
Subject: Sephardic style of prayer
From: "Steven Weiss" <szome@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 17 May 2000 05:56:18 PDT

As my own Litvak grandparents led secular lives, I am at a disadvantage when it comes to matters of religious practice of my forbears. Therefore I would like to ask others with a more thorough knowledge of the history of Litvak religious practice a few questions.

Jews from the Rokiskis area of Lithuania (Zarasai District in the Northeast), were distinct as they were predominantly Chabad-Lubavitch Chasidim. A translated chapter on my grandfather’s shtetl of Panemunelis from the Rokiskis yizkor book has the following:

“All people of the shtetl were Chasidim, but the tradition followed in praying was the Sephardic style because those belonging to the Karabelnik family were Mitnagdim. Sometimes when the gabbai Karabelnik went up to the
lectern for prayer and recited the 'yetsme purkno' from the kaddish[veyitsmakh purkoney is a line of the kaddish] or a 'borekh shoymer' [text has: shin-alef-mem-resh] as 'hoydoe' [text: hoyde], a tumult would arise in the benches [shtenders], but it never became an outright shouting match.”

Is this an issue over pronunciation? What is meant by the 'Sephardic style'? From where was the ‘Sephardic style’ imported?

I also understand that the practice known as Nusach Ari was common among the Chasidic Jews in this area. Does the Nusach Ari have any connection to the above?

Thank you for any input.

Steven Weiss
Chicago


IX.
Subject: Re: Sephardic style of prayer
From: "stuart sholl" <STU120@email.msn.com>
Date: Wed, 17 May 2000 23:56:38 -0400

Yes, that's the connection. Hasidim daven (pray) Nusach Ari (custom of The Ari, Rabbi Yitchak Luria). The rite is Sephardic, although the Hasidim are Ashkenazim. The connection is neither Litvak nor Sephardi, just that the Hasidim pray the Sephardi Rite. The reason for this is theological rather than geographical.

Stu Sholl,
Harrisburg, PA USA


X.
Subject: RE: Sephardic style of prayer
From: "Bronstein Family" <sygaa@netvision.net.il>
Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 09:04:54 +0200

Dear Fellow LitvakSigers:
In Eastern Europe, there were 3 different versions of the prayerbook or 3 different nushaot (Nusah is the singular), in general use - (1) Ashkenazi - used in almost all of Lithuania & many other areas that were not under Hasidic influence; (2) Nusah Ari - generally only used by Habad (Lubavitch) Hasidim; (3) Nusah Sefard - used by Hasidim. The Nusah Sefard was introduced (or as the Hasidim would say restored) as part of the Hasidic innovations that took place in the first generations following the Baal Shem Tov.

While I would have to check the literature on the issue, for the most part, the early Hasidic masters believed that the Sefardic ritual (Nusah/prayerbook) was more authentic. It was another way of showing their break with the previous religious establishment that was Ashkenazic, and trying to prove that they were more authentic. Although called Nusah Sefard, in reality it had nothing to do with Spain. The prayerbook used in Spain is quite different from the Nusah Sefard. When one speaks of Nusah Sefard today, they are referring to the prayerbook used by most Hasidim - a far cry from Spain. They all davened using the Ashkenazic pronunciation & even today, there is great opposition in both the Hasidic & Lithuanian religious circles to the use of the Israeli Sefardi pronunciation in prayer.

In the case that Steven Weiss reports, I would venture to guess that the following scenario is being described. The morning service begins. As a Mitnagid would choke on Nusah Sefard or Nusah Ari & following in the tradition still in effect today, he would begin the service as he was taught using Nusah Ashkenaz. The morning service in Nusah Ashkenaz begins with Barukh She'amar; in Nusah Sefard & Nusah Ari, it starts with Hodu. When the shaliah tzibur (person leading service) would start Barukh She'amar, the Hasidim would probably shout out "Hodu" to let him know that they want him to lead the service using Nusah Sefard.

The Mitnagid would also not say the "Viyatzmah Purkanei" which appears in the Nusah Sefard version of the Kaddish, but the only Kaddish recited at the very beginning of the service would be Mourner's Kaddish & Rabbanan Kaddish. If the congregation does add the phrase "Viyatzmah Purkanei" & the prayer leader leaves it out, no one really knows. The big fight over leaving it out would come later in the service after the preliminary Psalms section (P'sukei D'zimra) is over.

These disagreements still take place in Israel although in many quarters a modus vivendi has been worked out. But, I am sure that no one would ever get away with using either Nusah Sefard or Nusah Ari in any of the Lithuanian yeshivot.

I hope this is not too confusing,
Shalom Bronstein


XI.
Subject: Re: Sephardic style of prayer
From: "Avrohom Krauss" <avkrauss@actcom.com>
Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 15:36:53 +0300

The "Sephardic style" referred to is undoubtedly "Nusach Sfard" which was adopted by most Chassidim. It is used by Ashkenazic, Chassidic oriented Jews and called "Sfard" because it resembles the actual Sephardic rite (of Spanish-Portuguese and Mid-Eastern Jews) in some ways. Chabad uses what they call "Nusach Ari", however the authentic Nusach Ari is an unclear matter and "Nusach Sfard" is also based on Nusach Ari and claims are made by other groups (eg. Muncacz) to have an authentic version, but called by a different name- Nusach Sfard.

But, something in the Rokiskis story sounds wrong. The story implies that Misnagdim daven Nusach Sfard but really they daven Nusach Ashkenaz. If the gabbai was from the misnagdim, why would he of all people recite "v'yatzmach purkonay" in Kaddish or recite "hodu" before "Baruch She'omar" (note these corrections in transliteration from the original) which are found in both Nusach Sfard and Nusach Ari- but not in Nusach Ashkenaz?

And if the above portions appear in Nusach Sfard, as well as Nusach Ari- which they do- and the members agreed to Nusach Sfard, why would a commotion occur and why single out the gabbai as the instigator- everyone who would ascend the "amud" (lecturn) to daven would do the same?

This is what I think happened. In Rokishuk (Rokiskis) the Karabelnik family of Misnagdim would want Nusach Ashkenaz (because this is the Nusach of Misnagdim) and the Chabadniks- Nusach Ari, so they settled on Nusach Sfard and this, evidently made no one happy! Why pick on the poor Gabbai who anyway would not say it on his own and would just be accommodating the Chassidim? The probable answer is- it must of been his own Misnagdim relatives who realized the folly of the "compromise". Nusach Sfard, while not the Nusach of Chabad, is a Nusach of Chassidim. Thus, the Chassidim won the battle, as no accommodation was made for the Misnagdim.

Avrohom Krauss
Telz-Stone Israel


XII.

Subject: Nusach Sepharad or Ashkenaz
From: Len Yodaiken <shoshly@kfar-hanassi.org.il>
Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 18:01:20 +0300

Nusach Sepharad amongst the Chassidim

I believe that to really understand the divergence of the prayer style amongst the two communities, one must take a long look at the Jewish History of the 17th century and specifically at the absolute and utter destitution to which Polish Jewry was reduced by the ravages and rapine of Chelmnitsky, his Cossacks and his Tartar allies. Those Jews who managed to remain alive were bereft of everything, communal institutions, synagogues, Torah scrolls, prayer books etc. They barely had the clothes to cover their backs. It is said that the Jews preferred to surrender to the Tartars and be sold into slavery in the Ottoman empire than be slaughtered by the Cossacks. We could well compare this terrible period in Jewish History as a preview to the Holocaust.

When it was all over, the Baal Shem Tov appeared on the scene with some like minded rabbis and not having the means material and physical to restore a normal Jewish routine of prayer to the demoralized people, they evolved the system we call Chassidut by which they brought their people back to the Almighty through song and dance.

One should remember that Lithuanian Jewry, although they had suffered in this period, their suffering was not nearly as great and they managed to preserve their communal institutions. However their situation was such that they could not help their southern neighbors. Polish Jewry was dependent on the help of other branches of the Jewish people, presumably those to the south in places like Bulgaria and Greece including the great community of Salonika. They received from there the prayer books which were all written in Nusach Sepharad. One must also remember that the Great Jewish Printing houses of the time were in Italy and Holland again areas of Sephardi influence. Lithuania got its first printing house at the end of the 18th century. So what started off as a necessity turned into an ideology in the course of time.

It was not the mode of prayer that bothered the Litvaks so much as the institution of hereditary Courts amongst the Chassidim which often, in the early days, brought incompetent and superstitious leaders to the forefront, instead of men of learning. The books of Balshevis Singer demonstrate this world in a most graphic way.

As for Nusach Ari, my guess would be that the Lubavitcher chose this as a middle road between their Chassidut and their Litvak heritage, but I am only guessing

Len Yodaiken


Notes for FREIDA EDELMAN:

I. Freida and her daughter, Rachel, travelled together, via steerage for the USA. They were the last to leave Panevezys. Rachel's son, Irv Weiner was sure that Freida and Rachel travelled together to the USA.

II. I found at this web site:
http://istg.rootsweb.com/v2/1800v2/rotterdam18991019.html

Immigrant Ships
Transcribers Guild

Passenger List of S.S. Rotterdam from Rotterdam 19 October 1899 to New York:

Twin screw S.S. Rotterdam 22

First Cabin 54
Second Cabin 89
Steerage 794
_________
Total 934
_____________________________
Nationalities in the Steerage*
_____________________________
U.S. of A. Citizens 15.
Switzerland 1.
Belgium 1.
Bulgarie* 1.
France 3.
Spain 4.
Italy 7.
Armenie* 8.
Syrie* 15.
Greece 15.
Germany 19.
Netherland. 27.
Roumanie* 87.
Hungary 69.
Russia 205.
Austria 317.
________

Total 794
__________________

Left Rotterdam Oct 19th 1 PM
Left Boulogne* Oct 20th 1:25 AM
Arrived at Quarentaine* 7:45 AM

No births
No deaths


...
Steerage from Rotterdam:
...
368. N 19 F. Melamed (Probably means Room N, bunk 19)

Transcriber's Notes:

GENERAL
...
3. While the passenger total is given as 934, the numbering goes only to 674; the other passengers are children traveling with their parents and listed under the parent's name.

(Could this be Freida??)

III. I found this in the Jewish Archives, Philadelphia, PA, in the HIAS Blithstein Bank records, Book #4, Page #48:

On August 3, 1904, Raitze Melamed, age 18, was to depart from Libau??, on SS Oscar II, on the Scandinavian American Lines, destined for Philadelphia, via NY, NY. Her address was listed as:
c/o Freida Melamed
G. Ponevesa,
noi Norvoi Plun,
Dom Schaservitz,
Gub. Kovna

(This is our address in Panevezys, Lithuania)

The ticket purchasers are listed as M. Greenbaum of 920 Passyunk Avenue, Philadelphia, and Meyer Melamed of 336 League Street, Philadelphia, PA.

There is a note next to Aunt Ray's name: "RR Order #13455..."


IV. Freida died in a tragic fire in her home in Philadelphia, in 1912. Mrs. Ray Goldberg made the funeral arrangements through the Ponevyzeh Lodge (This Lodge later became Brith Shalom Lodge Number 1).

More About FREIDA EDELMAN:
Burial: March 12, 1912, Lot C-21, Line 2, Grave 58, Har Juhuda Cemetery, 8400 Lansdowne Avenue, Upper Darby, PA, USA
Cause of Death: Tragic kerosene fire
Emigration: Abt. 1900, Lithuania
Immigration: Abt. 1900, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Marriage Notes for SOLOMON MELAMED and FREIDA EDELMAN:

25 Jan 2000,

extracts from a report on the possibility of Lithuanian Jews being Sephardic:


The idea that Litvak Jews descend partly from Oriental Jews has moved beyond hypothesis to the realm of fact. We already discussed this once before some months ago, but it was requested by Chaim Charutz and by the LitvakSIG Moderator that such references be presented. Archives of some previous discussions (only since July 1998) are contained off the link at:

http://www.jewishgen.org/litvak/jgensig.htm

Abraham Elija Harkavy, a Russian-language historian of Jewish ancestry, argued in the 1870s and 1880s that Russian Jews are descended to some extent from Khazarian and Oriental Jews. Harkavy is the author of numerous studies including "Skazaniya evreiskikh pisatelei o Khazarak i Khazarskom tsarstvie" (1874). I'm not aware of any English translations of his writings. Harkavy's theory was recently confirmed when Yaffa Eliach revealed in her book "There Once Was A World: A 900-Year Chronicle of the Shtetl of Eishyshok" that the first five Jewish families to settle in the town of Eishyshok in Lithuania came from Babylonia. Eishyshok as a town was founded about the year 1061. Jewish tombstones are attested as early as 1097. In fact, Eliach (whose family I imagine spoke Yiddish just like other Lithuanian Jews) herself claims descent from these Oriental Jews:

"In fact, Eishyshok is the site of one of the oldest Jewish settlements in
that part of the world. My paternal ancestors had been among the first
five Jewish families to settle there in that long-ago time, and their
descendants had lived on its soil for all the centuries since then, under
all the various governments that had fought for control of it: Lithuanian,
Polish, German, Russian, and Soviet."
- Yaffa Eliach, There Once Was A World: A 900-Year Chronicle
of the Shtetl of Eishyshok (Little, Brown and Company, 1998),
in her Introduction.

So that proves that Yiddish-speaking modern Jews did not simply arrive in eastern Europe from Germany, but also from other locations as well. On Eastern European Jews in general, Eliach writes something similar:

"The shtetl, typically a town ranging in size from about one thousand to
twenty thousand people, was a uniquely Eastern European phenomenon, the
product of a very specific time and place. We can trace its origins to
the eleventh and twelfth centuries, when Jews from Babylonia, Germany, and
Bohemia began trickling into Eastern Europe."
- Yaffa Eliach, There Once Was A World: A 900-Year Chronicle
of the Shtetl of Eishyshok (Little, Brown and Company, 1998),
in her Introduction.

Other writers independently included references to the same phenomenon:

"Jews from central Europe first settled in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in
the second half of the 14th century. Early examples are the communities
of Brest-Litovsk and Grodno, established by Jews from Poland with charters
from Duke Vitold, similar to those granted by Bolislav the Pious to Jews
of Great Poland. Among the Jews of the southwestern districts of the
Lithuanian Duchy, annexed to the Kingdom of Poland toward the end of the
14th century, were descendants of Jews from oriental countries, including
a few of Khazar stock. They differed from the Ashkenazis in both language
and cultural traditions."
- Shmuel Arthur Cygielman, in Jewish Autonomy in Poland and
Lithuania until 1648 (5408) (Jerusalem, 1997).

"Again, however, Gediminas is best known as the empire builder of
Lithuania.... Gediminas then extended an open invitation to all peoples to
come and settle in his land, luring them with privileges such as tax
exemptions, freedom of worship, and religious tolerance.... Jews from the
Near East (Babylonia, Persia, Bukhara, etc.) moved up through southern
Russia and joined those from Germany."
- Masha Greenbaum, in The Jews of Lithuania: A History of a
Remarkable Community 1316-1945 (Jerusalem: Gefen Publishing House,
1995), page 5.

"The first Jews to settle in Lithuania in the 11th century came from the
land of the Khazars, on the lower Volga River, from Crimea on the Black
Sea and from Bohemia. Originally, the Jews came to the land of the
Khazars from the Byzantine kingdom, where they had been oppressed. The
Khazars had welcomed the Jews and later had been converted to Judaism.
When the Khazars were overrun by the Mongols and Russians, the Jews
settled in Lithuania, whose rulers, at that time, were extremely
tolerant."
- Sidney L. Markowitz, in What You Should Know About Jewish
Religion, History, Ethics and Culture (New York, NY: Citadel
Press, 1955).

"Jews from Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) also moved to Khazaria. Around
929, Saadiah Gaon wrote that a Jew named Yitzhak ben Abraham migrated from
Mesopotamia to Khazaria. The Schechter Letter confirmed that Jews came to
Khazaria from Baghdad, as well as from the Byzantine Empire and Khorasan
(eastern Persia)."
- Kevin Alan Brook, in The Jews of Khazaria, 1st edition
(Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1999), page 118.

"Thus, the Ashkenazic ethnogenesis, having been formed by migrations from
the East (Khazaria), West (e.g., Germany, Austria, Bohemia), and South
(e.g., Greece, Mesopotamia, Khorasan), is more complex than previously
envisioned."
- Kevin Alan Brook, in The Jews of Khazaria, 1st edition
(Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1999), page xv.

That the first Lithuanian Jews came from Khazaria as early as 1016 is also proposed by Martin Gilbert in The Illustrated Atlas of Jewish Civilization (New York, NY: Macmillan, 1990), page 77.

By contrast, a reader of Leonard B. Glick's well-written book "Abraham's Heirs: Jews and Christians in Medieval Europe" (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1999), which focuses on French and German Jews only and does not mention the existence of Eastern European Jews in early medieval times in places like Hungary and Khazaria, would not learn anything about these important non-Western Jewish populations in Lithuania. On page 273, Glick wrote:

"By 1450 the medieval phase of Jewish history in Germany and France had
effectually ended. There was now under way an eastward migration that
over the next hundred years or so would shift the center of Ashkenazic
Jewish life to Poland and Lithuania. By 1500 there were probably between
fifteen and twenty-five thousand Jews in Poland; by 1600 the number had
reached eighty to one hundred thousand."


he cites estimates that 75% of the "rural" Jewish population were principally in the alcohol trade, known as the "Propinacja" (small-scale production, transport, and inns often all together). Usually when vital records use the term "leaseholder" (arrender) this involves inn keeping and the alcohol trade. It is a common (and often not necessarily flattering) image of the rural Jew in Polish literature and art.


More About SOLOMON MELAMED and FREIDA EDELMAN:
Marriage: 1857
     
Children of SOLOMON MELAMED and FREIDA EDELMAN are:
2. i.   AVRAM-PINCHAS3 MELMED, b. 1864, Paneveyzs, Lithuania; d. 1934, Cape Town, SA.
3. ii.   NATHAN-ISRAEL MELMED, b. July 1871, Panevezys, Lithuania; d. March 03, 1938, Brixton Cemetery, Johannesburg, SA.
4. iii.   MALKA (MOLLY) MELMED, b. 1870, Ponevez, Lithuania; d. 1955, Milwaukee, WI, USA.
5. iv.   MEYER ITZAK MELMED, b. October 20, 1875, Panevezys, Lithuania; d. December 25, 1916, Queenstown, SA.
6. v.   JACOB MELMED, b. March 27, 1879, Ponevez, Lithuania; d. 1965, Port Elizebeth, SA.
7. vi.   LOUIS MELMED, b. 1882, Ponevez, Lithuania; d. 1945, Capetown, SA.
8. vii.   RACHEL (RAY, ROSE) MELMED, b. April 09, 1884, Ponevez, Lithuania; d. 1972, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

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