Guide to the Records of the Vilna Jewish Community Council, RG 10

Processed by YIVO Archives Staff, 1950s; Additional processing and creation of new finding aid by Paul Radensky and Vital Zajka with the assistance of a grant from the Claims Conference, New York. Finding Aid edited, encoded and posted online with the assistance of a grant from the Gruss Lipper Family Foundation.

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
Email: archives@yivo.cjh.org
URL: http://www.yivo.org

Electronic finding aid was converted to EAD 2002 by Stanislav Pejša and Yakov Sklyar in February 2007. In 2012 the EAD finding aid was migrated to Archon and customized for display in the online Guide to the YIVO Archives. Description is in English.

Collection Overview

Title: Guide to the Records of the Vilna Jewish Community Council, RG 10

ID: RG 10 FA

Extent: 12.15 Linear Feet

Arrangement: The collection is divided in three series and a number of sub-series, according to the provenance and chronology of the documents.

Abstract

From the 16th century onward the Jewish community of Vilna was governed by an autonomous administrative body, called the Kehillah (or Kahal). Under the Russian domination (from 1794) the Kehillah steadily declined in power until the institution of Kahal was altogether abolished in 1844 by an imperial edict throughout the Russian empire. The Tsedakah Gedolah which replaced the former Kehillah in Vilna was limited to charitable and religious functions. In 1919, as Vilna became part of Poland, the Tsedakah Gedolah was replaced by an elected New Kehillah (Yid. Naye kehile). This institution was eventually dissolved in 1940 by the Soviet authorities. These are incomplete records of the Kehillah covering mainly the period of the Tzedakah Gedolah, 1844-1918, and the New Kehillah, 1919-1940. Some pre-1844 records are included. Originally part of the YIVO Archives in Vilna, only a third of the collection was recovered after World War II. Additional records of the Vilna Kehillah are in the custody of the Central Historical Archives in Vilnius, Lithuania. The collection relates to all three administrations, although records of the first "kahal" period cover only the years 1800-1844 and these are very sparse. The collection also includes numerous documents of the Jewish Refugee Relief Committee, established at the beginning of World War II under the auspices of the Kehillah. That committee functioned from 1939-1940.

Scope and Contents of the Materials

The Vilna Kehillah archive includes documents related to the activities of the Vilna Jewish community board, the Kehillah and its auxiliary institutions, covering the period from 1800 to 1940. It mostly includes correspondence of the Kehillah with the authorities of the day-Russian, German, Polish; announcements of the Kehillah, lists of persons receiving charitable aid, materials on Kehillah elections, invoices from vendors and contractors, petitions from individuals, personal documents. The records are quite fragmentary with the bulk relating to the New Kehillah, in the interwar Poland.

The earliest pre-1844 Kehillah documents are related to the economic activities, litigations regarding the Kehillah real estate, sale of kosher meat, contacts with the local Russian authorities. Some of them bear the stamp of the S. Ansky Jewish Historical-Ethnographic Society, which suggests that at some point they were separated from the main Kehillah archive.

The Tsedakah Gedolah documents from 1844 through 1915 relate to the administrative, financial and economics activities, hiring of rabbis and cantors, charity work, Jewish education matters, kosher meat tax, maintenance of buildings, cemeteries, and other property. Represented in the collection are documents and some minutes of the committees: Rabbinic, Charity, Cemetery, Financial, Administrative, Management, and Audit. The majority of the Tsedakah Gedolah documents consist of correspondence with Russian authorities on questions ranging from the care of the homeless Jewish orphans to the changes in Russian legislation concerning Jews in the Pale of Settlement.

The 1915-1919 period includes documents about distribution of the relief aid, mostly from the American and German Jewish sources. Tsedakah Gedolah played a significant role in the Central Relief Committee, and the documents of that Committee are represented in the collection. There are minutes of the administrative board meetings, lists of people receiving aid, correspondence with German occupation authorities.

The Kehilla elections on December 25, 1918, are represented by the Elections committee correspondence, campaign materials of the participating Jewish political parties and groups, lists of candidates, list of the New Kehillah council members. Important materials represent the catastrophic situation of Vilna Jews during the so called “Vilna dispute” by which name the conflict in 1919-1920 between Poland, Soviet Russia and Lithuania for the possession of Vilna is known. When the Bolsheviks came to Vilna, the Soviet power was established for three months and the Kehillah was shut down, its activities banned. As Vilna was taken over by the Polish army, a string of vicious pogroms and plundering took place that resulted in the deaths of many Jews. The revived Kehilla received hundreds of petitions from the victims, which are present in the collection. There is also some correspondence with the Lithuanian authorities which briefly ruled Vilna in 1920.

The later documents reflect relations of the New Kehillah with the Polish authorities through the interwar period. Records of the departments of the New Kehillah, include Managing committee, Personnel, Finance, Social Welfare, Children’s Welfare, Public Health, Education, Religious, and Legal departments. Many materials relate to the Kehillah health care institutions, especially the Zwierzyniec Children’s Hospital. A large number of documents define relations of the Vilna Kehillah with other Jewish community organizations throughout the Polish Republic. A significant body of documents covers the negotiations and drafting of agreements between the Tsedakah Gedolah supervisors and the New Kehillah authorities. The collection also includes documents of the Jewish Refugee Relief Committee, established at the beginning of World War II under the auspices of the Kehillah That committee functioned during1939-1940.

The Vilna Kehillah archive allows to study aspects and the mechanism of Jewish autonomy by illustrating the role of Jewish community institutions in Vilna., and to trace the treatment of the Jewish population by Russian and Polish rulers. It sheds light on the Jewish communal activities during extremely hard times of wars and occupations. It also allows glimpses into the everyday life of Jews in Vilna, their economic condition, and the state of their physical well-being. It ultimately illuminates almost all spheres of life of the Vilna Jews, from religion to health care, from education to nutrition. Noteworthy is the large volume of documents on the topic of the kosher meat-its production, taxation, distribution and consumption.

A number of documents relate to the activities of prominent personalities who resided in Vilna, such as Rabbi Chaim Oyzer Grodzienski (Grodzinski), Tsemakh Shabad, Jacob Wygodzki, Max Weinreich, Zalman Reisen, Khaykl Lunski and others.

The collection is a valuable source in genealogical research considering a great number of lists of population with names and birthdates indicated, and a large number of personal documents, some with photographs

Historical Note

The city of Vilna began in 1323 as the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1596, following the Lublin Union, Vilna became part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1795 it fell under the Russian domination in result of the Third Partition of Poland between Russia, Prussia, and Austria. During the World War I, starting in 1915 until the end of the war in 1918 Vilna was occupied by the German army. In 1920 Vilna was returned to independent Poland but was overrun by the Soviet armed forces in September1939. Occupied by the Nazi Germany in July 1941; liberated from the Germans and made capital of the Lithuanian S.S.R. in 1944; since 1991 the capital of Lithuania.

The Jews began moving to the vicinity of Vilna from Germany and Poland in the middle of the 15th century. However, only in 1593 did the Jewish newcomers receive a royal privilege from the Polish king Zygmunt II that enabled them to settle and trade in the city.

Beginning in the 16th century the Jewish community of Vilna, Lithuania, was governed by an autonomous administrative body, called Kehillah (or Kahal). After the partition of Poland in 1795, when Lithuania was annexed to the Russian Empire, the Kehillah steadily declined in power until it was abolished in 1844, along with all other community boards throughout the Russian empire. The Tsedakah Gedolah (Greater Charity Fund) which unofficially replaced the Kehillah performed mainly charitable and religious functions.

The Tsedakah Gedolah acted as a surrogate community organization with reduced scope of activities, and as a welfare fund, that took care of the cemetery, the Jewish hospitals, the Hekdesh (home for the aged), library, public baths, shelter for transients, distribution of matzot for Passover, firewood, weekly aid to the poor, and more. The official name for the Tsedakah Gedolah under the Russian rule was Vilenskoie Molitvennoie Upravlenie Glavnoi Sinagogi ( Vilna Religious Board of the Main Synagogue ), and during the German occupation of 1915-1918 Vilna Haupt-Synagogeverwaltung ( Administration of the Vilna Main Synagogue ).

The Tsedakah Gedolah was governed by a council, which consisted of eight committees-Rabbinic, Charitable, Cemetery, Financial, Administrative, Management, and Audit. After the retreat of the Russian forces in 1915 most of the Tsedakah Gedolah supervisors and board members fled into the Russian interior. To coordinate Jewish relief efforts, various Jewish institutions that remained in Vilna, united to establish the Central Relief Committee (Tsentrler hilfs-komitet), where Tsedakah Gedolah played a significant role.

At the end of 1918 the German military allowed the general election of the new Kehillah which took place on December 25. The so named New Kehillah (Yid.di Naye kehile) was thus restored in January 1919. Yet the Tsedakah Gedolah continued in its capacity as charity dispensing institution associated, as before, with the Main Synagogue. This duality of Vilna communal leadership persisted until 1935 when the Polish authorities forced both institutions to merge. The Vilna Kehillah was eventually dissolved in 1940 by the Soviets

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions:

Open to researchers by appointment.

For more information, contact: Chief Archivist, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011; Email: archives@yivo.cjh.org

Use Restrictions: Permission to publish part or parts of the collection or to cite verbatim from the text of a document must be obtained from the YIVO Archives. For more information, contact: Chief Archivist, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011. Email: archives@yivo.cjh.org

Preferred Citation: Published citations should read as follows: Identification of item, date (if known); YIVO Archives; Vilna Jewish Community Council; RG 10; folder number.

Box and Folder Listing

Browse by Series:

Series 1: Series I: Tsedakah Gedolah (Yid. Tsedoke gedoyle, Rus. Vilenskoye Evreiskoye Molitvennoye Pravlenie Glavnoi Sinagogi), 1800-1930,
Series 2: Series II: The New Kehillah (Pol. Gmina Żydowska w Wilnie; Yid. Di Naye kehile, Hebrew: Ha kehillah Hayehudit beVilna, 1915-1940,
Series 3: Series III. Miscellaneous Materials, 1919-1936,
All

Series I: Tsedakah Gedolah (Yid. Tsedoke gedoyle, Rus. Vilenskoye Evreiskoye Molitvennoye Pravlenie Glavnoi Sinagogi) 1800-1930

Documents of the Vilna Kehillah, 1800-1844, and of the Tsedakah Gedolah, 1844 until the merger with the New Kehillah in the 1930s. The series includes also minutes of the council meetings, documents on the board elections, agreements with contractors, lease agreements, various financial and payroll reports, documents concerning kosher meat, correspondence with theRussian authorities, court cases, lists of aid received, communal property files, petitions, permits, notes.

Subseries 1: Administrative documents of Tsedakah Gedolah 1869-1923

Documents relate to the maintenance of the Main Synagogue, supervison of cemeteries, control of real property holdings, assistance for the poor, providing winter heating, and distribution of Passover aid.

Folder 1: Elections to the Board of the Tsedakah Gedolah (Chairman, Scholar, Treasurer and their deputies). Letters from the Governing Senate on the status of the Tsedakah Gedolah in response to appeals from Mandelbaum and Lam 1909-1914
Folder 2: Minutes of the Tsedakah Gedolah meetings 1889, 1905-1916
Folder 3: Council of the Tsedakah Gedola, by-laws and minutes 1890-1923
Folder 4: Lease contracts on land and real estate, belonging to the Tsedakah Gedolah 1869-1895: see also: folders 56-63
Folder 421: Inventory of Kehillah building. undated
Sub-Series 9999: 9999 * TEST * 9999: 9999 * TEST * 9999

Subseries 2: Kosher Meat Tax Matters 1800, 1830-1917

Documents relate to the korobka, or kosher meat tax, which was farmed out to individual tax collectors. Correspondence with the municipal and police offices responsible for meat tax collection; petitions and permits.

Folder 5: Lease of kosher meat tax collection, regulations and contracts; correspondence with the City Council (Gorodskaya Uprava) 1830-1910
Folder 6: Expanditure list of the Office of the Meat Tax (at the Vilna City Police Department) 1915 March-April
Folder 7: Office of the Meat Tax (Khoziaistvennoie Upravlenie Delami Korobochnogo Sbora po g. Vilnie) 1915 May-June
Folder 8: Korobka tax, requests and petitions 1907-1917
Folder 9: Korobka tax, permits of release 1914-1917
Folder 10: Various documents concerning kosher meat 1800, 1840

Subseries 3: Financial Records of the Tsedakah Gedolah 1818, 1860-1930

Minutes of the Finance Committee; income and expenses; accounts payable and receivable; invoices; receipts.

Folder 11: Finance Committee, minutes of meetings 1916
Folder 12: Financial statements 1860-1875
Folder 76: Confirmation notes by M. Pawlowski on receiving payments on loan from Fund for Orphans and Poor Israelites 1818
Folder 13: Financial statements, lists of expenses 1890-1902
Folder 14: Financial statements and related papers 1906-1919
Folder 15: List of sources of income for the Tsedoke Gedoyle, (payments of the korobka tax, bequests by M. Strashun, Grinevich, I. Bloch, B. Klaczko, I. Gilels, A. Minker) circa 1900
Folder 16: Statements of income and expenses 1904
Folder 17: Bank loans (Vilenskii Zemelnyi Bank: receipts) 1904-1911
Folder 18: Inventory of assets and debts 1895 January 1
Folder 19: Payroll reports 1916
Folder 20: Tsedakah Gedolah and Central Committee correspondence on financial matters 1906-1917
Folder 21: Tsedakah Gedolah miscellaneousellaneousellaneous reciepts 1908-1922
Folder 22: Bills, miscellaneous 1872-1928
Folder 23: Management orders (weekly budget requests) 1917-1918
Folder 24: Budget of the Tsedakah Gedolah 1922-1923
Folder 25: Accounts payable and receivable. Ledgers, miscellaneous notes 1919-1926
Folder 26: Miscellaneous invoices, receipts 1890-1910
Folder 27: Miscellaneous receipts 1912-1918
Folder 28: Miscellaneous receipts 1916-1930

Subseries 4: General Correspondence of Tsedakah Gedolah 1826-1930

Correspondence with government and local Russian authorities, German occupation command, Polish government agencies; Jewish organizations and individuals.

Folder 29: Correspondence, Vilna City Council 1850-1918
Folder 30: Correspondence, Vilna City Council 1850-1918
Folder 31: Correspondence, Vilna Police, passport 1826-1903
Folder 32: Correspondence, lost unknown Jewish children 1904
Folder 32 A: Correspondence, with or concerning Vilna rabbis and cantors 1860-1917
Folder 33: Correspondence, Vilna gubernia 1873, 1910
Folder 34: Correspondence, Vilna Statistical Committee 1889-1898
Folder 35: Correspondence, German occupation authorities 1915-1918
Folder 36: Correspondence with the Society of Teachers of Jewish Languages 1918
Folder 37: Correspondence, miscellaneous 1826-1919
Folder 395: Vilna city council case on covering the deficit of the Vilna Jewish hospital and construction of a new building, 1907. Vilna pristav’s office on Khaia Volokhanskaia, 1913-1914 1907, 1913-1914
Folder 38: Correspondence, Vilna magistrate and miscellaneous 1920-1930

Subseries 5: Bequests to Tsedakah Gedolah 1826-1924

Wills and bequests made to the Tsedokah Gedolah.

Folder 39: Last wills in favor of Tsedakah Gedolah 1826-1924
Folder 40: Wills benefitting the Tsedakah Gedolah 1863-1909
Folder 41: Estate of Abraham Leybovitch Arons 1893-1904

Subseries 6: Religious, burial, and other community matters 1849-1932

Records relating to management of real property, cemeteries, hospitals, and other community matters.

Folder 42: Jewish cemetery in Vilna 1849-1920
Folder 43: Jewish cemetery in Vilna, expansion 1891-1894
Folder 44: Cemetery Commission, minutes of meetings 1911
Folder 45: Memorial Service announcement for Baron Naftali Hirtz (Horace) Ginzburg 1909
Folder 46: Jewish Hospital 1853-1919
Folder 47: Materials of Sh. J. Fuenn Foundation, M. Strashun library 1903
Folder 48: Yeshiva Tiferes Bahurim 1907
Folder 49: Letter to the Kehillah about the needs of shokhtim (slaughterers), written on a blank shoykhet certificate form 1912
Folder 50: The Great Synagogue (receipts of purchase of permanent places 1874-1931, 1932

Subseries 7: Court cases related to the Tsedakah Gedolah 1805-1931

Court cases and litigations related to the ownership of the Tsedakah Gedolah real property.

Folder 51: Court cases 1805-1825
Folder 52: Court cases 1825-1931
Folder 53: Court matters, miscellaneous 1895-1919
Folder 54: Patsevich case, litigation about a house at 545 Safianna St., reportedly belonging to Tsedakah Gedolah 1866-1878

Subseries 8: Military service matters 1896-1914

Records of the Tsedakah Gedolah interventions on behalf of Vilna Jews drafted into military service.

Folder 55: Military service of Vilna Jews 1896-1914

Subseries 9: Property records of Tsedakah Gedolah 1878-1931

Documentation on the Tsedakah Gedolah property, lease agreements and correspondence on related matters.

Folder 56: Power of attorney agreement for Tsedakah Gedolah properties 1912
Folder 57: Lease agreements (for buildings and stores owned by the Tsedakah Gedolah ) 1891-1898
Folder 58: Lease agreements (for buildings and stores owned by the Tsedakah Gedolah), note by Ts. Shabad on relations between Tsedakah Gedolah and Kehille (6/21/1921) 1904-1926
Folder 59: Lease agreements (for buildings and stores owned by the Tsedakah Gedolah ) 1908-1914
Folder 60: Lease agreements (for buildings and stores owned by the Tsedakah Gedolah ) 1915-1919
Folder 61: Lease agreements (for buildings and stores owned by the Tsedakah Gedolah ) 1919-1931
Folder 62: Lists of income from Tsedakah Gedolah properties 1901-1931
Folder 63: Real Estate, miscellaneous correspondence 1918-1925
Folder 64: Lists of tenants undated
Folder 65: Property tax and other bills related to properties owned by the Tsedakah Gedolah 1905-1931
Folder 66: Correspondence with contractors and potential lessees, Budget draft for 1910, list of Tsedakah Gedolah real estate property, 1878-1929 1878-1929
Folder 67: Legal matters concerning properties owned by the Tsedakah Gedolah, correspondence 1923-1931

Subseries 10: Passover aid and other charity matters 1818, 1891-1924

Materials on providing support for the needy Jews of Vilna, running soup kitchens and other relief.

Folder 68: Permission from the Building Department of the Vilna Gubernia Administration to the Tsedakah Gedolah to renovate a building 1908 June 4
Folder 69: Passover relief (reports, lists of recipients, correspondence) 1914-1918
Folder 70: Passover relief (various lists, correspondence) 1919-1923
Folder 71: Matzo coupons 1917-1918
Folder 72: Contracts with bakeries to provide matzot 1918
Folder 73: Matzo Commission and Rabbinic Committee - Passover handbills 1918-1920, 1928
Folder 74: Lists of employees involved with the Passover relief 1918
Folder 75: Coupons for Passover flour Inventory reports from flour warehouses 1918
Folder 77: Society for Grants to the Poor Jews of the City of Vilna (bylaws, minutes) 1906-1907
Folder 78: Notes about the "Biliger kikh" (subsidized kitchen) circa 1903
Folder 79: Grants to recruits 1914
Folder 80: Lists of contributors and contributions 1915-1916
Folder 81: Lists of contributors and contributions 1916-1917
Folder 82: Lists of families who have a member serving in the army and are receiving aid from the Tsedakah Gedolah 1918. Postcard of Khaykl Lunski to artillerist Slioma Lunski 1918
Folder 83: Help Committee for the Hungry Jews of Vilna. Receipt book from contributors, lists of recipients, miscellaneous 1914-1918
Folder 84: Requests for Aid 1905-1922
Folder 85: Requests for Aid 1910-1919
Folder 86: Requests for Aid 1891-1909
Folder 87: List of persons receiving aid (lit., Halukah) 1923
Folder 88: Request for subsidy to pay for Sukkot kosher kitchen 1924
Folder 89: Mmiscellaneous Financial Papers (receipts for monies given, loan papers, various notes relating to money) 1893-1918

Subseries 11: Merger of Tsedakah Gedolah and the New Kehillah 1919-1939

Documents regarding negotiations and agreements between the Tsedakah Gedolah and the New Kehillah to merge the two.

Folder 90: Merger of the Tsedakah Gedolah with the Kehillah 1919-1931
Folder 91: Audit Committee to review the accounting for the Tsedakah Gedolah 1931
Folder 92: Merger of the Tsedakah Gedolah with the Kehillah 1931-1939

Sub-Series 12: 12 ** TEST ** 12

12 ** TEST ** 12