Translation of
“Lipkan of old”

Project Synopsis

This project is being initiated to fund the translation of Lipcan fun amol (Lipcan of old) edited by Aaron Shuster, from Yiddish into English.

The town of Lipcany was in Hotin District of the province of Bessarabia in the Russian Empire, on the western banks of the Prut River which formed the boundary between Romania and Russia. Lipcany is now part of the country of Moldova. Lipkany was established as a village in the second half of the 17^th century when the Lapchinsky family, the local landowners, invited Jews to settle there. The Jews paid taxes to these aritocrats. In 1930 the town had 4,693 Jews which comprised 80% of the population. On June 22, 1941 German airplanes bombed the town, and the Soviet authorities ordered an evacuation on the following day. Refugees fled to the town of Brichany which was ill-prepared to house them. On July 18, 1941, all the Jews from Lipkany were requested to gather. They were told they were returning to Lipkany but instead were marched to various towns east across the Dniester River and back again until ending up in camps in Transnistria. Approximately 80% of the residents of Lipkany died from starvation, illnesses such as Typhus, exhaustion from forced labor, or shootings or beatings. On March 21, 1944 the deportees were finally allowed to return to their destroyed home. Many chose not to remain. Through narrative and photos, this 217-page book chronicles the life of the Jewish community of Lipcany through its destruction during the Holocaust.

Key Audiences

Jewish genealogists seeking to trace their roots to Lipkany and its region constitute the primary audience for the material. However, the material has the potential to be of broader appeal to scholars interested in the region or specializing in Jewish history and society.

Yizkor books are unique sources of information on once vibrant towns, primarily in central and Eastern Europe, whose Jewish populations were destroyed in the Holocaust. Written after World War II by émigrés and Holocaust survivors, yizkor books contain narratives of the history of the town, details of daily life, religious and political figures and movements, religious and secular education, and gripping stories of the major intellectual and Zionist movements of the 20th century.

Table of Contents, Name Index and 3 chapters have been already translated into English and published on line by JewishGen Yizkor Book Project http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/lipkany2/lipkany2.html.

Marilyn Levinson will assist with coordinating the funding and will also be in charge of selecting a professional translator. She will review each translation and upon approval, will submit it for posting on the JewishGen website.

Estimated Cost

Completion of the translation of the book is estimated to cost $5,000. This may change and can be adjusted over time if translation is found to be more difficult than expected.