[Page 40]

Riteve is a little town in the lower part of Lithuania, an area with an abundance of lakes, swamps and a great deal of dust in the summer season.

Jews lived in this place since ancient limes, but no one investigated when the Jews first arrived there. Everyone was too busy making a living, so there was no interest in questions of this nature. The old cemetery, which was quite big, testified that many generations had lived in this town, that many had passed on to the next world and that their remains were buried in this ground.

The place is very far away from the main road, and if there were wars in this part of the world, the Jews could tell you stories about them, but they had never seen them with their own eyes.

The chapter which was of great interest to the Jews was the rule of the Oginskis, Oginski the First and Oginski the Second, the Pritzim of the place. The first Oginski, who lived in the middle of the 19^th century, was a tyrant and ruled the place without any limitations, He had serfs and slaves who feared him, and the Jews were afraid of the tyrant and did not dare to disobey his orders. Evidence of the tyranny of this Poritz was the old Beit Midrash. This building served in the olden days as a place of worship and study for the congregation of Riteve. But once, the Jews ‘sinned’ against the Poritz and he sent a group of his henchmen, who took the holy articles out of the Beit Midrash and brought in pigs in their place. Afterwards they turned the place into a dwelling for his land tenants and his servants. For many years the Jews looked at the building and their hearts trembled with fear of those tyrants. This happened in the 1860s and only after the Great War in the year 1918 was this place returned to the Jewish community by Graf Zalutsky, the heir to the Oginskis.

The Jews saw the hand of G–d in the vengeance which was visited upon this Poritz. In 1859, Oginski was arrested by the Russian government for taking part in the preparations for the Polish rebellion which was about to break out. Oginski committed suicide on the eve of Purim that year. Many generations remembered that day and every year they celebrated a double Purim: the down– fall of Haman, and the downfall of Oginski.

Professor Zelikovitz, who was born in Riteve, tells more about the tyranny of Oginski the First. One Saturday, when the Jews were sitting in the Beit Midrash, as they were accustomed to, the door suddenly opened, and a Jew came in trembling as he told the congregation the news that the Poritz had sent his henchmen to the old cemetery, to plough it up. The Jews were terrified on hearing this news, but did not know what to do.

The professor also tells in his stories, Mein Shtetle Ritevas, about the beauty of the town and about the road that the Poritz had paved towards the Prussian border. It was apparently his intention to be connected to the city of Memel and

[Page 41]

The school in Riteve– probably taken when the new school building was opened in 1924. Five of the teachers and communal workers may be seen at the back, but six names are given. They are Alter Levite; David and Moshe Kos, the communal workers of the school; David Handler, Zalman Abelov and Shmuel Saks.

Oginski the Second also ruled the place with a strong arm, but he was not as bad as his father. He gave the Jews permission to build a new Beit Midrash and to add it as a wing to the synagogue which already existed. The synagogue was a place of worship and the Beit Midrash used to serve both as a place of worship and study. In the Beit Midrash, visitors could find a place to rest and even to sleep. This was permitted for respectable visitors who came to the village and could not pay for a room at the hotel.

Although there was no scribe to write the history of Riteve, the people related many events which took place during the 19^th century. First of all they referred to the ‘days of panic’ when the Russian government published a law by which Jews were to serve in the army and only married men were tree of this duty. The Jews acted wisely and married off their sons and daughters at a very tender age. Then there is the story told about the young father who begat a son

[Page 42]

The ‘Yahveh’ school in 1929 or 1930 with teachers Miriam Levite and Izchak Zvi Paktor

From time to time plagues broke out in the village. The angel of death was active among babies and as a result there was no house where two or three babies had not died. The bereaved parents saw in this the act of G–d as punishment for a sin which someone had committed; they felt it was the duty of the people to find out who the sinner was and thus stop the plague. It so happened that a plague broke out among the babies and the sinner was discovered. It was said that he had been having an affair with a lady whose husband was overseas. The people gathered and wanted to lynch him, but the rabbi himself saved him. He hid him in his house for a few days until the anger had passed. One of the Jews went to the Pristav, the chief of police, and told him what was happening in the village. The Pristav himself went to the synagogue and warned the people that he would send all those who touched the sinner to Siberia. The words of the Pristav made an impression and the Jews were afraid to implement their decision.

On a similar occasion a plague broke out and, after investigating, they discovered that the reason for this was that it was being planned to cut down trees in

[Page 43]

the old cemetery and use the wood for building a new synagogue. The dead of Riteve were coming to avenge the living and that is why the plague had broken out.

But as soon as they stopped cutting the trees, the plague passed. There were enlightened Jews who said the plague was a result of the poor sanitary conditions prevailing in the village. They were considered apikorsim (heathens), and those who had the fear of G–d in their hearts kept away from these ‘wicked’ people.

The people could also tell stories of days of famine in the land. The ground did not give forth its fruit and the lines of communication were very bad. It was impossible to bring grain from faraway lands. People were actually starving. If a man came into a bakery and wanted to buy a bagel, he was asked who was sick in his house.

In the 19^th century, the houses in the village were all built to the same standard. Every house was divided into two or four apartments with a long corridor separating them. In the middle of the corridor there was a place for the people to cook and wash their linen. Smoke from the stoves would pass through a central chimney. No one could say which house was being warmed, or in which house the people were sitting and shivering. At a later stage every house was divided into four apartments. Special rooms were built to accommodate married sons and daughters. Riteve could not expand because of the order of the tsar, Alexander III, who had forbidden the Jews to live outside the village. In the middle of the shtetl there was the marketplace and around it were several structures of brick to distinguish them from the other houses, which were of wood. In these buildings, the Jews were trying to earn their living.

A very important event took place at the beginning ol the 20^th century. The Poritz Oginski decided to install electric lights in his palace and in the streets of the little town. Thus Riteve was the first shtetl in Lithuania which had electric light, even before the city of Kovno. The Jews were surprised at the miraculous light, which was exploited by them for studying the Torah in the Beit Midrash. They no longer had to depend on the favours of the shammas (the synagogue's attendant), who distributed candles sparingly.

The Jews of Riteve studied the Torah diligently. Every morning, after the morning service, the people would sit and study a chapter of Mishnayot or Mishnah Brurah (regular Mishnah chapters and easier ones). In the evening after the Ma'ariv (the evening service) they would study a page of the Talmud.

Those who had not reached the standard of the Gemara would sit and listen to the chapter of the Sedra of the week. Especially important was the study in the Beit Midrash on Saturday, the day which belonged totally to G–d. The people enjoyed sleeping in the afternoon. Before Mincha (the afternoon service), they would gather in the Beit Midrash, some of them for a chapter in the Mishnah, or a page in the Gemara, and some for a chapter of Agadah. Between Mincha and Ma'ariv and the Tehilim (Psalms) Jews would take their place. The students of the Talmud were now quiet, because of the darkness which filled the house. There

[Page 44]

was a reader to read the chapters of the Tehilim, and the congregation responded after every sentence he recited. There was one Tehilim Jew who was called ‘Baruch the Rebellious’, for he would not listen to the order of the shammas and would continue reading the Tehilim even after the shammas had commanded him to stop because the time for Ma'ariv service had arrived. He would continue his reading until the congregants were all tired and their voices grew weaker, and he, the reader, remained the only one.

It was very difficult to make a living. The town was full of small shops, and the shopkeepers waited for market day when the farmers would bring their produce into town to sell and, with the money they got from the sale of their merchandise, they would buy what they needed from the towns shops. The shopkeepers would stand in the doorways of their shops and call out to the farmers, ‘Come to me, come to me, for a good bargain!’

There were also artisans to be found among the Jews: shoemakers and tailors who worked from first light until nightfall to support their families. Some Jews were peddlers who travelled to outlying villages and bought the farmers' produce, selling it in turn to the town's merchants. These peddlers would see their families only on Shabbat and Holidays, and during the week they would sleep in the farmers' village houses. It goes without saying that they would never have the opportunity to learn Torah during the week, and on Shabbat they would be too tired and fall asleep at the very table at which they would be studying Torah. Peddlers like these remained simple Jews, distanced from Torah learning and from the fear of G–d.

The Zionist movement, the beginning of which was Hibbat Zion, was also felt in this village. There were people who started to sell the Zionist shekel, and stamps of the Keren Kayemet. The congregation looked upon them as apikorsim who wanted to force the Schechina (Spirit of G–d) to come nearer. They believed, with all their hearts that the Messiah would come, although He was being delayed. It was forbidden, in their eyes, to change the ways of G–d, who had decided that the people of Israel must wait in the Galut (Diaspora) until He Himself with His glory would bring a complete redemption. When it became known in Riteve that Dr Herzl had died, the Zionists tried to say Kaddish for him in the synagogue, but their voices could not be heard over the noise made by their opposers.

The Russian war against Japan in 1904 shook the congregation from its tran– quillity. Some of the Jews were called to military service to fight an enemy whom they did not know and had not heard of. The war soon ended and the people returned peacefully to their families.

The rebellion in Russia against the tsar in 1905 found only a few people in this little town who dreamt about the general salvation that would come from it. There were no factories in the place and those who joined the movement of the rebels were primarily craftsmen who hoped that the rebellion would bring some

[Page 45]

changes to the community that they would not be discriminated against at the meetings of the congregation and at the synagogue.

The Enlightenment Movement also found no response in this village. The Jews here knew that the boys had to learn in the cheder in the same way that they and their ancestors had learnt and they would not become goyim, G–d forbid. Some of the people, especially those who joined the Zionist movement, saw it as their duty to bring a teacher who would open a cheder meiukan (a modern cheder) but very few people agreed that their sons should he kept away from studying the Torah and give their precious time for secular study Some of the girls were sent to the Russian school for beginners. There they learnt the beginnings of reading and arithmetic, but the boys had to he satisfied with studying the religious subjects and twice a week they would go to a private teacher to learn to read Russian, without understanding a word of what they were reading, and to write an address in Russian or Latin characters.

The Jews were terrified when they heard about the pogroms which took place in the big cities of Russia. Even the Lithuanians, their neighbours, heard about the disturbances in which the property of Jews was taken from them. Their great wish to harm the Jews was not fulfilled. They only raised a fist when they saw a Jew walking in the street, but they did not do anything else, for the Pristav came to the assistance of the Jews after receiving a nice present from the Jewish leaders. He did not allow the crowd to touch the Jews.

Every village in Lithuania was devastated by a fire. Most of the houses were wooden structures covered with wooden shingles and, when the hot summer came, it was enough for one spark to touch one of the houses and the wind would do the rest. The wind caused the fire to spread, and the labour of many generations was destroyed in a day. But Riteve was an exception. The people of the village knew how to prevent such a tragedy. The Poritz established a fire brigade and when a day of reckoning came they would quickly gather and extinguish the blaze. But in 1911, Riteve, too, was destroyed by fire.

For many weeks there had been no rain and on the eve of Tisha Be'Av, a day which was always one of tragedies, a fire broke out in one of the forests of the Poritz. Naturally the whole fire brigade went to the forest to extinguish the blaze. In the meantime, a fire broke out in the village and there was no one to put it out. The fire spread very rapidly and most of the village went up in flames.

That night of Tisha Be'Av, the Jews of Riteve understood what churban (destruction) means. They were lying in the fields, on the bundles that they had saved from their houses, and saw with their own eyes the fire consuming every part of the village. There was nobody to save it. In the morning, when they walked through the smouldering ruins, they saw the churban of Jerusalem, for which they had mourned for so many years. Now another churban was added for the families who remained without a roof over their heads.

The Beilis trial had a depressing effect on the Jews of the town. Every Jew was

[Page 46]

The firemen of Riteve, photographed in the Shlomo Goldshmidt Center, which was named after the founder and chairman of the voluntary fire brigade.

During the years before the First World War, life was normal and the Jews had no desire to change their way of life. There were, however, some people who decided to depart for distant places in order to improve their economic situation. The Jews of Riteve found out that there were places where it was easy to make a good living and many citizens left. Many were especially attracted to South Africa where there were gold mines and the gold was there for anyone who could get there. Their intention was to save a few hundred pounds sterling and return home as the ‘big shots’. These immigrants were quickly disappointed when they arrived in the land of gold. While they did have some savings, they actually starved themselves in order to collect enough pennies to make the few hundred they dreamed of, and then hurry back to their families in Riteve. When the First World War broke out many Jews found themselves in South Africa, unable to return home, while their families were left without a livelihood in Riteve.

During the first days of the war, news was slow and nothing was known about it except for the fact that some of the men had been drafted into the army No soldiers were seen in the town or its environs because it was quite a distance off the main road. It was only after a few months that a regiment of Cossacks came to guard the town from an attack by the enemy and to make preparations for

[Page 47]

the battle against the Germans. Those in the town who supported the Russians produced proof of their side's superiority, claiming that they would shortly reach Koenigsberg, and even Berlin, and that the war would soon come to an end. However, the German supporters knew for certain that the Russians would be disastrously defeated. The debates were quite heated, sometimes reaching abusive tones on both sides. The ‘Germans’ were overjoyed when the Russian attack on East Prussia failed. Some told stories of having seen with their own eyes how the Russians retreated, leaving their weapons. They saw G–ds work in the defeat of the Russians as retribution for the way they had treated the Jewish citizens of their country. It is true that the Germans did attack the Russians, expelling them from East Prussia and conquering all of the border towns, but they did not dare chase them through the great swamps and the unpaved roads.

In the spring of 1915, the swamps dried up and the roads were reopened to transport. It was now that the Germans began their grand attack. Myriads of battle–tested soldiers were transported from the Western Front, and they roundly defeated the Russians. Within one or two days, all of Zamut was conquered by the Germans and when some of the Jews tried to escape to nearby towns they found, to their amazement, that the Germans had reached there first, leaving them no choice but to return home. In this way the Jews of Riteve found themselves transferred from Russian to German rule within one day. The decree to transfer Jews from the border towns to the inland cities of Russia was late in coming and the Jews of Riteve remained in their homes – unlike the Jews of neighbouring towns – ignorant of what it meant to be refugees.

The change in ruler brought with it drastic changes in the lives of the Jews in the town. At first things were easier because the Germans treated the citizens more liberally, permitting them to travel to the coastal city of Memel and to trade throughout the country. Yet the Jews slowly began to feel the burden of the conquerors when the Gentians set up a military regime that meant to milk the country of its produce and send it to the German cities that had begun to suffer from lack of food. Those responsible for supervising this task set about their work with German order and method, setting quotas for each and every farmer, who was to bring his yield to the storerooms in their cities. The farmers were left with nothing to sell in the marketplace and there was a great lack of bread. The conquerors came to the aid of the townsmen and instituted a rationing system: bread was sold by ration, and families without the ability to buy bread on the black market began to feel a hunger that kept growing. The Germans tried to case the shortage of bread by replacing rye flour with oatmeal flour, but this caused terrible stomach illness.

The Germans were secure in their triumph and began opening schools to teach the local children the language of the conquerors. For some reason the Jews agreed to send their children to these schools. During the Russian rule only a handful of girls had frequented the Russian language schools, while the new

[Page 48]

A group photograph of the Jewish school after German rule during the First World War. This was apparently the school begun by the Germans for Jewish children and not the Hebrew School.

As the conquest lengthened, and the war continued, the Germans began to fear the indigenous younger generation. They found a way to subdue the youth. They would kidnap them and send them to forced labour camps, where they gave them hard labour, embittering them. Some managed to escape to the villages in the area, with awful consequences for anyone who was caught. They were tortured terribly and taught the lesson that it was not worthwhile to run away. Torah studies declined during the German regime. A curfew was instituted and it was forbidden to go out at night. The Jews had no choice but to hurry home after the evening prayers, hut continued, however, to study Torah in their homes, although the Beit Midrash was silenced throughout the long winter nights. The attitude of the conquerors toward the locals took a turn for the worse as the war continued. The Germans became anxious because the awful war seemed to have no end and they began taking

[Page 49]

The German School in Rieteve in 1918

In early 1917, the Russian Revolution broke out and the Germans were encouraged. The hope was that the new government in Russia would make peace with them and then the entire German army would be free to make war on the Western Front. But their hopes were soon dashed. The Kerensky government declared that the war would continue and the Germans became embittered, taking out their wrath on the people living in the conquered territories. The year 1917 was a very difficult one for the Jews. The Germans forgot how the Jews had willingly received their rule and they were now treated like prisoners of war.

Neither did the revolution in October8 of that year bring any salvation to the Jews. The Germans were forced to fight on the Western Front and their attitude to the people did not improve and by the end of 1918 there were days of confusion. The Germans surrendered on the Western Front and the conquerors in Russia were ordered to clear the land which the Germans had held.

New states arose in agreement with the Germans and with the united nations of the Western Front. Thus it was decided to establish a new

[Page 50]

Government of Lithuania and Riteve went over from German rule to the rule of the new government. The Jews assisted their neighbours in organising the newly established government. There was an agreement between the Lithuanian National Council and the Jewish leaders that the Jews would he given certain rights as a minority in the new government. A special minister for Jewish affairs was appointed who was to organise the Jewish communities. The post was given to Dr M Soloveichik, one of the honourable people of Kovno, and he started his work with great energy. His task was very difficult, for most of the cities and villages were empty of Jews, who had been driven away to the far districts of Russia. But Riteve was one of the little towns that were saved from the exile of 1915. A council was appointed to supervise all the institutions of the town.

In spite of the opposition of some ol the Gabayim (here meaning local religious officials), it was decided to open a new Hebrew school and in February 1919 the first class of this school was opened with Hebrew as the language of instruction. Riteve had lived to see something of which it had never dreamt, a school where all subjects were taught in Hebrew. This institution attracted the girls, but the boys were still sent to the cheder to continue their studies as in the old days. This school in Riteve was the only Hebrew one in the town while in the other villages and small towns of Lithuania the people were divided into camps, the Hebrew camp and the Yiddishistim. In Riteve there were no labourers and in the town there was no one who would bring the Bund's ideology to the inhabitants. This new institution, the Hebrew school, was founded by a group of young Zionists and they devoted themselves to its development. They were not just satisfied with the classes that were opened, but the committee also established a library for the youth and lectures on various subjects were held every Saturday.

In those days the Jews of Riteve ran a flourishing trade. But suddenly they became wholesalers. Whoever brought a parcel of goods would find immediate buyers who would snatch the metziah (the good bargain) from his hands. The Jews did not know that all the riches they were making from trade were just imaginary because the money they had received for the goods would be devalued in one night. People filled their pockets with German money which was devalued from day to day One day a rumour spread that the German mark with the red seal would not lose its value and the Jews believed it and started to fill their bags with these bills. Suddenly they became millionaires. The end of it was that the poor people did not know what to do with these bills which were not even good for papering the walls of their houses. This tzarah (disaster) was felt by all of them. Even the Germans were hit by this misfortune, years of saving being lost in one night. This money would not even be enough to buy one meal. The people opened their eyes and suddenly saw that with the millions they had saved they could not even buy a pair of shoes. They also learnt that the labour of many years was now worthless and there was nothing they could do.

[Page 51]

about it. This madness ended when the Lithuanian government decided to introduce their own money system to be covered by dollars.

Then the inhabitants of the town reminded themselves that there were counties where immigrants would be accepted and many of them started to leave Lithuania. The majority went to South Africa where many inhabitants of other towns and villages had settled. There were also many lucky people who received visas to enter the United States, but the majority of the people remained in Riteve and the sources of their income became less and less every day. There were some relatives in South Africa and America who came to the assistance of their brethren in need. Every week, on the day when the post arrived, the poor people of the town gathered at the postman's house waiting for a letter from overseas. Those who were lucky came home with their present in their hands – a letter with a cheque inside – but there were also many who returned home empty–handed.

After the First World War, with the establishment of Jewish communities in the Lithuanian cities, a benefactor was found who came to the assistance of the Jews of Riteve. He was Mr Kruskal of Frankfurt am Main, who had been born in Riteve. He discovered that the Jews of Riteve were in great need. They wished to establish various communal organisations but did not possess the means to do so. He made a generous contribution to the town, instructing the townsfolk to decide for themselves how to spend the money. A public meeting was called and it was decided that the first priority was a Talmud Torah, as the children had for quite some time been learning in shabby rooms that did not conform with the required hygienic standards of a school. A suitable house for the rabbi was also needed. In no time at all, an appropriate place was found for the construction of both these buildings – it was the spot on which the old Beit Midrash had stood. The Riteve community had the pleasure of seeing an area, which had been like a thorn in their side, dedicated to new buildings which was a joy to all.

When the buildings were completed, Kruskal sent two representatives to take part in the dedication ceremony. The parents thanked their generous benefactor for enabling their children to study Torah and Mitzvot in such pleasant surroundings.

These things I remember and am troubled

Riteve – an ancient and beautiful town – a renowned Jewish habitation. Only– two mass graves remain as a memorial for all time. They are the sole remnants of the thousands of faithful Jews who were massacred in those black days. For this destruction there is no comfort.

Riteve with its vital Jewish community nestled on the road to Shavli and

[Page 52]

The Kruskal family from Frankfurt am Main made a generous donation to the building of a new school building and for the building of a house for the rabbi. This group of adults and some children was taken when the new school building was dedicated in 1924

Dedication of the school in the name of Kruskal on 23 Sivan 5684 (1924). This photograph, taken through a window from inside the school, shows a section of what must have been a large crowd.

[Page 53]

Plungyan–Memel. The town's communal life was quite well organised with its Hebrew school and a library, with many volumes in Yiddish, Russian, Hebrew and Lithuanian, run by the Zionist youth Its scholars and great men were well known beyond its borders. The majority of its inhabitants were Jewish and they made their mark in the town. They were responsible for its growth and develop– ment and because of them its commerce flourished. Riteve was a Zionist town as the contributions to the National Funds and the Aliyah of its youth to Israel proved. The Aliyah movement began 40 years earlier and increased up to the period of the Holocaust. Many yearned for Zion, and most of the youth attended Hachsharah (preparation programmes) to prepare themselves lor lile in Israel. Prior to Aliyah, the youth would organise lectures, debates and many other activities which stimulated the cultural life of all circles in the town and an interest in Zionism.

The Jewish quarter was poor and its inhabitants made do with very little. The youth, however, longed for change and a better life. They no longer bore the exile with the tolerance of their forefathers. In the marketplace, the Jews were to be found everywhere, discussing their fate at the hands of oppressors and dreaming of the advent of the Messiah and the wonders that He would bring. When the hour of prayer approached, they would make for the synagogue where they would immerse themselves in prayer and study and sometimes shed tears over the misfortunes that befell the Jews both there and in Palestine.

The Zionist activities were led by local committees. Speakers from the central organisation would also be brought out, and they gave encouragement to contributors and participants in the Zionist endeavour. The youth were divided into He–Chalutz, Hashomer Hatzair, Hitahudat and later also Betar. They would hold meetings at their clubhouses, sing and dance and also collect the money from the Blue Boxes ol the National Funds. An artisans' organisation also helped in the Zionist work.

There was no shortage of shops in Riteve. Customers came from afar to shop there. Tailors, blacksmiths, carpenters and seamstresses, all had bread to eat and clothes to wear. All the Jews of Riteve knew the secret of living frugally. The problem was especially acute before the Sabbath for, as much as one saved, there was always a lack of flour, yeast, candles, fish, meat and the ingredients for the tshulnt (the special Jewish Sabbath food that would cook slowly all night). If you chanced upon a Jewish home on the Sabbath, you might think that you were in a rich man's house. The table would be beautifully laid, the candles were lit and reflected the delicacies made in honour of the Sabbath Queen.

Once a week the market was held. Jews and gentiles bought and sold from one another in the process of making a living. The Jews bought mushrooms and pigs' hair from the peasants. The peasants frequented the bars. They would often arrive with a cartload of wood, which they sold, and would then drink up all the proceeds.

[Page 54]

The children of Riieve were serious and not given to pranks like the impudent peasant lads. They took their studies in the cheder, the Talmud Torah and the yeshiva seriously. They spent their playtime out of doors in the fields and yards. Never in their lives did they know pampering.

The synagogue was big, spacious and beautifully built, with hand–carved decorations. The shammas would sweep and dust meticulously and provide clean towels for the washing of hands. He would also bang on the bima (the podium) and announce the prayers, or extend an invitation to the congregation to join in the celebration of a B'rith (circumcision). The rabbi would preach every now and then on a point of rabbinic law or a topical subject. Frequently emissaries would come from the yeshivot or from the Zionist institutions and they would deliver speeches which left an indelible impression on their audience.

There were a few Communists in our town who held that the world of money and labour was not the only reality. They explained that the present order would collapse and a new and better world would take its place. To bring this about workers would have to mount the barricades. This led to stormy discussions among us. However, the ongoing suffering of the Jews strengthened growing national sentiment, while the spirit of the new Land of Israel inspired them. It is not surprising, therefore, that Riieve contributed both quantitatively and qualitatively to the pioneering efforts with excellent human material.

A strong national consciousness had taken hold of the Jews of Riteve. They did not put their trust in the Galut–inspired policies of the Bundists and the Folkists, nor were they led astray by new ideas of assimilation. Rather they believed that the apparent calm that reigned was merely a transient episode before the storms which only trust in the national and Zionist ideals could weather.

Study of Torah and a G–d–fearing way of life were characteristic of Riteve. Was Riteve a city of Torah scholars? It can be said that Riteve was characterised by the ‘golden mean’. There were no very wealthy or very poor people, but rather all its inhabitants made a moderately good living. Likewise there were no extremely pious folk nor apostates. So in the matter of scholarship – there were a number of great scholars, but there were no ignoramuses. The majority of people were versed in Torah and Rashi and they studied their daily page of Mishnah and Gemara. There were the groups who studied Ein Yaacov and, from time to time, they celebrated the completion of a tractate – a celebration called Siyvum (end) – with a glass of spirits and cake. Most of Riteve's population was observant and very few were free–thinking. The pervading atmosphere was one of faithfulness to Jewish tradition. On the Sabbath all the shops were closed, and the synagogue was filled with worshippers. Even the younger generation remained, in the main, close to tradition. Out of respect for their parents (Kibbud Av) they attended the synagogue and observed the dietary and other laws and customs.

[Page 55]

In the matter of personalities and devoted workers for the community, Riieve had nothing of which to be ashamed. Riteve was beloved for itself, its parochialism. its little houses and businesses. What could one not find in Riteve? Rabbis and learned scholars on the one hand and followers of the Enlightenment, who yearned to understand everything, on the other. There were also young people who read Mapu's The love of Zion and the articles of Lilienblum. The Hebrew school had a profound influence not only on the young but on the adults as well. The singing of the school children could be heard throughout the town. The young had been captured by the spirit of the Zionist movement and from a small group there grew a large movement: He–Chalutz, Hashomer Hatzair, Betar, and Hitahadut. The Hebrew language could be heard in Riteve's streets. Emigration to the Land of Israel followed and Riteve folk can be found today in the towns and villages of Israel.

[Page 56]

Guests leaving the synagogue after a wedding in riteve in about 1927– the synagogue is on the left and the Beit Midrash on the right. This was drawn by Dean Simon from a photograph in the original book

  Rietavas, Lithuania     Yizkor Book Project     JewishGen Home Page

Copyright © 1999-2024 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 26 Jan 2016 by JH