Rumsiskes (Lithuania)

“Rumshishok”
Jewish Cities, Towns and Villages in Lithuania until 1918
(Rumsiskes, Lithuania)

54°51' / 24°12'

Translation of “Rumshishok” chapter from
Yidishe Shtet, shtetlekh un dorfishe yishuvim in Lite: biz 1918

Edited by: Berl Kagan

Published in New York, 1991 (Y)

Acknowledgments

Project Coordinator

Rabbi Ben-Zion Saydman

Our sincere appreciation to Miriam Kagan Lieber for
permission to put this material on the JewishGen web site.

This is a translation from: Yidishe Shtet, shtetlekh un dorfishe yishuvim in Lite: biz 1918;
Jewish Cities, Towns and Villages in Lithuania until 1918:
Historical-Biographical Sketches. Edited by Berl Kagan, New York, 1991 (Y).

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[Pages 549-551]

Rumsiskes (Rumshishok), Lithuania

Translated by Rabbi Ben-Zion Saydman

Edited by Rabbi Klein

District of Kovno. Quite an old place. Mentioned in documents of 1381. In 1760 it belonged to Count Broinoff and in 1775 to Baron Mat Ziniev.

Between 1842 and 1880 there were in Rumshishok 24 subscribers of rabbinical books.

In a list of volunteers of 1872 helping Jews suffering from famine in big parts of Lithuania, there were many from Rumshishok. The fundraisers were: Michal Shraga Kadishon, Tuvia Segal.

In two lists of contributors of 1899 to help build Eretz Israel, there were Jews from Rumshishok. The deputies in one list were Zemach Feldstein, Nachum-Eliyah Yog. In a second list , Rabbi Eliyahu Levin.

Before the First World War, about 450 Jews lived in Rumshishok; in 1923, 288; and before Holocaust , about 200. Jews occupied themselves with commerce, retail stores and labor.

The Lithuanian expulsion occurred in Rumshishok in May 1915. Police had warned the farmers not to hire out carts to the Jews. Nevertheless, some Jews successfully obtained carts for the old and small children and some garments. When the head of police saw this, he shouted at the peasants why they were helping “Jewish traitors.” The peasants dispersed and the Jews had to drag themselves by foot to another place, with their possessions and old people. Before the expulsion, Cossacks organized a pogrom against the Jews.

Rabbis

Rabbi Meir Duber, son of Rabbi Moshe Eliezer Pagir, from 1866 until 1891, later as assistant rabbi in Keidan. He emigrated to America where he died in 1906. He published Yad Meir (Meir's monument), Likutei Yaacov (Yaacov's gatherings), Piskei halachot (Decisions of laws).

Rabbi Eliyahu, son of Rabbi Shmuel Hacohen Levin, was the rabbi there in the 1890s and at the beginning of the 20th century.

Rabbi Aharon Bendet Hacohen Schmidt, later Rabbi in Wizshun, died in 1965 in Tel-Aviv at the age of 106.

Rabbi Israel Goldman.

Rabbi Aharon Grozovsky, died in 1937, at the age of 44.

From about the second quarter of the 19^th century, the rabbinical court judge, Rabbi Joseph Eliashberg, lived here. He taught before in Tzaikishok and in his last years emigrated to Eretz Israel. He was the father of Rabbi Mordechai Eliashberg, born in 1817 in Tzaikishok and head of court in Zhezmer and Boisk (Latvia). He was a known pro-Zionist thinker. His books are considered as basic books of religious Zionism. The Gaon Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Kook said that “his views on the future of the nation and its hopes” were influenced by the books of Rabbi Mordechai.

Natives

Rabbi Yehuda Leib, son of Rabbi Yitzhak Katz (Rabbi Leibele from Rumshishok), was a Talmudic scholar and a genius and one of the prominent Jews in Vilna. In 1798, a Jew, who supported the Hasidim, was brought before him and another dignitary from Vilna. (As it is known, the Vilna Gaon had declared a herem, a ban, on the Hasidim). He died in 1906. Shai Fein (S.Y.Finn?) writes that he was one of the sharpest intellects in the generation of the Gaon of Vilna.

Rabbi Chaim Elchanan Tzadikov was known as Rabbi Chaim from Rumshishok. Born in 1813, he was one of the most known magidim (preachers) in his generation. He was one of those who frequented the house of the Vilna Gaon who said about him that he was worthy of the title of Gaon. Abe Kahan, redactor of the Forverts, wrote in his memoirs that Rabbi Chaim from Rumshishok was the most interesting figure among the magidim (preachers) of his time. He used to visualize his allegories with powerful rhetoric elevated by humor. In “Eitz Pri,”volume 1, by S.A. Fridenstein, a story is related, in his name, about the Gaon “Shaagat Arye” (Lion's roar”) and the last Rabbi of Vilna, Rabbi Shmuel, author of “More Chayim” (Teaching life), Vilna 5735, interpretation of Job, with text). Died 1883.

Rabbi Joseph, son of Rabbi Yehuda of Rumshishok, was one of the Ashkenazi scholars in Jerusalem and died there in 1870.

Rabbi Yaacov, son of Rabbi Israel Katz, was born in 1863. In Hirshel's Yeshiva in Slobodka. From 1906, Rabbi in Klikol. During the First World War, Rabbi in Homel and later in Zhager. From 1920 until his death in 192 , in Wildingen (Germany).

Shimon Gens, born in 1907, studied philosophy at the university of Kovno. From 1935 in Eretz-Israel. Wrote in Galim (Waves), Netivot (Paths) – Kovno, Ktuvim (Written), Turim (Columns), Ha'aretz, Al Hamishmar, Davar – Tel-Aviv. Published articles on literature and theater in the Kovno daily newspapers: Iddishe Shtime, Dos Wort, Folksblat. Redacted the journals Ptach and Paam – Kovno. Author of “Hitler reads the Bible” (Tel-Aviv 1940). Translated into Hebrew Voropianov Polius' Tayasei Hakotev (The pole's pilots) (Tel-Aviv 1940)

Bibliography:
Hamagid 1872: 11; Hameilitz, 1899: 62, 213; S.Y. Yatzkan, Rabbi Eliyahu of Vilno, Warsaw, 5670, page 120; Abe Kahan, Pages from my life, New-York 1926, page 164; Israel Klausner, story of the old cemetery of Vilna, 5695; “Rabbi Mordechai Eliashberg”, Jerusalem, 5696, pages 7, 11, etc.
Israel Klausner, Vilna during the period of the Gaon, Jerusalem, 5702, page 28; Memorial book of Keidan, Tel-Aviv, 1977, page 189; the story of Keidan, page 11; A.L. Frumkin, The annals of Jerusalem's Sages, C, Jerusalem, 246; Faithful City, 204; the story of the Jewish Yeshivas in Kurland, page 54; the city of Vilna, 125; lexicon, 2; Book of the subscribers, 8153; Ohaley Shem (Shem's tents), 113; Lita, 2, page 99; Yahadut Lita, 3.
J. Totoraitis, Suduvijos Suvalkijos Istorija, pages 393; Black Book.

See also:
"Rumshishok" - Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities in Lithuania

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