[Page 637]

It is in the Tavrik [Tauragė] region. It was one of the more recent Jewish settlements in Lithuania. More Jewish residents began to live in the area during the beginning of the 19^th century. Some of them began to build the Skaudvilė community. It developed, and there was an organized communal structure by around 1820.

In 1847, 204 Jews lived there, 1,012 in 1897, 1,017 in 1923, and about 900 prior to the Holocaust. Skaudvilė did not suffer from the expulsion from Lithuania in May 1915.

There were 27 prenumerators on five rabbinical books there between 1814 and 1914.

The government edict (Ukase) of May 1943 that all Jews who live within 50 verst from the western border must leave their places and settle in specific gubernias deeper in Russia applied to Skaudvilė. The option of choosing the gubernia was granted. Nineteen communities conferred and did not respond to such an inhumane and denigrating edict, Skaudvilė among them.

Jews were occupied with commerce, shopkeeping, trades and peddling. Commerce was with grain, cattle, and fowl. Several families earned their livelihoods through agriculture.

We find a significant number of Skaudvilėrs in a list of donors from 1874 for Jews suffering from hunger in the towns of Lithuania [there was a famine at that time].

The following Skaudvilėrs are noted in a list of dues payers of Aguda in 1913: Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Perlman, Moshe-Baruch Broida, Eliyahu-David Katz, Chaim-Tzvi Lifschitz, Zalkind Reichel, Hillel Silber, Nota Zaks, Idel Osherovitch, Yisrael-Moshe Friedman, Mordechai

[Page 638]

Maram, Zeev Krom, Ben-Zion Luria, Betzalel Zinger, Yosef Beker, Dov Luria, Mordechai Milner, Aharon Aron, Shaul Zaks.

In the second list: Rabbi Shaul Katzenelbogen, Aharon Grolman [?], Rabbi Yosef-Idel, Zeev Milner, Eliyahu-Yehuda Segal, Aharon Glik, Chaim-Yitzchak Liberman, Ben-Zion Kleinovitch, Yosef Berman, Yisrael Rabinovitch, Yisrael Tarlov, Shlomo Wolfovitch, Aharon-Yehuda Romberg, Yaakov Katz, Shmuel Bloch.

In a list from 1914: Betzalel Friedman, Avraham Shapiro, Chaim Milner, Shlomo Luria, Menachem Leizerovitch, Tzvi-Yaakov Taub, Betzalel Beker, Yosef Javetz, Kalman Kaplan, Moshe Luria, Yaakov Dorfman, Yehoshua Friedman, Shmuel Krom, Avraham-Micha Blum, Avraham-Nachman Friedman, Eliyahu-Reuven Shein, Betzalel Feit, Freidel Duk, Yeshayahu Friedman Baruch Reichel, Binyamin Stein, Nisan Kirzner.

Elchanan Beker, Yaakov-Leib Luria, Todres Prop, Tzvi Klein, Yudel the shochet Eidelzak, Moshe Duk, David Ton, Tzvi Prop, Elyakim Godin, Moshe-Leib Sherfaltz, Moshe-Yitzchak Segal, Zelig Duk, Yitzchak-Eliezer Kirzner, Moshe Zaks.

Yitzchak Shalomo, Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Perlman, Moshe-Baruch Broida, Eliahu-Dov Katz, Hillel Zilber, Chaim-Tzvi Lifschitz, Yisrael-Moshe Friedman, Zeev Krom, Kalman-Meir Broida, Mordehai Maram, Zalkind Reichel, Notel Zaks, Moshe Luria, Shmuel Maram, Micha Kushevski, Idel Osherovitch, Shaul Zaks, Avraham Shapiro.

Shlomo Luria, Yaakov Grav, Menachem Leizerovitch, Yosef Kashin, Shmuel Krom, Betzalel Zinger, Yaakov Stein, Leib-Yaakov Pak, Tzvi Namokst, Avraham Shneider, Henia Foglin, Sheva Greenberg, Yaakov Shamash, Yehuda Zak, Yeshaya-Menachem Friedman, Chaim-Tzvi Lifschitz.

Rabbis – Rabbi Moshe Luria, around the 1820s and 1830s. He died around 1835. His was the son of Rabbi Todres the son of Rabbi Aryeh Luria. Rabbi Todres was the scribe and judge in Raseinai, and died in 1818.

Rabbi Moshe the son of Rabbi Eliezer Yaffa, from 1859 until his death in 1889.

His son Rabbi Eliyahu-Yissachar-Ber until 1913. He was previously a rabbinical judge in Joniškis.

Rabbi Avraham-Yitzchak Perlman, born in 1890 in Telz. He was the author of Pnei Avraham (Keidan [Kėdainiai] 5688 – 1928). He wrote Torah novellae in Beit Vaad Lachachamim (Satmar, 1926), and in Knesset Yisrael of Slobodka (5700 – 1940). He was the rabbi from 1913 until the Holocaust. May G-d avenge his blood.

There were two small Yeshivas here prior to the First World War. One existed later as well. In one, Rabbi Shmuel Zaks was the Yeshiva head, and the mashgiach [spiritual supervisor] (and possibly also Yeshiva head) was Rabbi Eliyahu-Dov Katz¹.

[Page 639]

The Yeshiva head in the second was Rabbi Yaakov Levi.

Reb Shalom Chodikov was the shochet and the cantor (1879). He was an agent of HaYisraeli (Mainz); Rabbi Yudel Eidelzak was a shochet (1914).

People who came from there – Rabbi Shlomo-Yitzchak Sheinfeld, born here in 1860. He was in America from 1891. He served as rabbi in Louisville (Kentucky) for several years, and in Milwaukee for over 40 years. He died there in 1943.

Shimon Fishman was born here in 1878. He was later in America. He made important inventions for American agriculture.

Rabbi Shraga-Feivel Shapiro was born here in 1900. He was the Yeshiva head of a Yeshiva in Belgium. He studied in Telz and other Yeshivas in Lithuania. He was murdered in 1940 in a Nazi camp. May G-d avenge his blood.

Moshe Zilverberg, born here in 1900. He was a judge in the supreme court of Israel, and a lecturer in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He wrote many works on jurisprudence in the Israeli press. He was the author of Personal Status in Israel (Jerusalem, 5718).

From the honorable ones: Reb Chaim-Meir Greenberg, a scholar, and founder of the Yeshiva and a series of organization. His father Moshe-Tzvi was called the “Shkoder maggid” [Shkodviler?]. He died in 1912.

Sh. B. Chodikov wrote articles n Hatzefilra.

1. In Yizkor by A. Tz. Berzin, it states that he was the head of the rabbinical court here in 1920, but in that year [Page 639] – and seven years earlier and 21 years later, the head of the Rabbinical court was Rabbi Avraham-Yitzchak Perlman, may G-d avenge his blood. Return

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