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Dvinsk (Daugavpils), Latvia
The Jewish Community of Dvinsk (Daugavpils): Dvinsk (now Daugavpils, Latvia) was one of the leading Jewish cities of the Russian Empire and a centre of high Jewish culture and debate. At the time of the lists forming this database, it was part of the Russian Gubernia (province) of Vitebsk and its commercial importance was well established. Jewish gravestones found in the area date from the 17th century are evidence of an early Jewish presence.
In 1910 the city numbered 111,000 of which 50,000 were Jews. Unlike its immediate neighbour Courland, Dvinsk was within the Pale of Settlement. Its ethos derived more from Russian, Lithuanian and Polish influences than from Courland which was broadly German in character and cultural background as a result of nearly 700 years of de facto domination by the Baltic Germans.
According to the Jewish Encyclopedia (Funk & Wagnalls), commerce and manufacturing in Dvinsk were largely in Jewish hands. The 1893 census showed 330 industrial establishments owned by Jews and 99 owned by non-Jews. The census records only 741 Jewish artisans but this figure has been challenged by Herman Rosenthal in his article on Dvinsk published in the Jewish Encyclopaedia (1916), citing "private investigations" as the source for the claim that in 1898 there were 4,862 Jewish artisans including 2,193 Masters, 1,700 journeymen and 909 apprentices.
The most important trades followed by the Jews were tailoring (1,210) and shoemaking. Some 32 factories are identified including button manufacture, a sawmill, match factory, tannery etc, all owned by Jews with a total of 2,305 employees recorded. A further 684 day labourers are noted. Dvinsk was one of the chief artillery depots of the Empire and many troops were garrisoned there.
The poverty of the Pale was a feature of Dvinsk Jewish life and it is estimated that 30 per cent of Jewish families applied for aid from the community in 1898. There were numerous Jewish aid societies recorded including a Mutual Aid, founded in 1900 and with more than 1,200 members by 1901. A loan fund was established in memory of the Merchant M Vitenberg. Loans, secured by personal property, were advanced without interest. Other charitable institutions included a society for aiding the poor founded by the Jewish governor, with an income in 1899 of some 8,917 Roubles, soup kitchens, a charitable dining hall, a bikkur holim, a dispensary and a lying-in hospital all organised and run by the community. These testify to the traditions of self help and community organisation that reflect the high value placed on charity to those less fortunate.
Dvinsk was an important centre of Jewish thought and culture and nurtured a number of Rabbis known and respected throughout the Jewish world. Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Kuk [Kook] of Palestine was a pupil of Reb Reuvele Dunaburger. Meier Simcha Hacohen, Rabbi of Mitnagdim for 39 years while Rabbi Yosef Rosen served as the Chassidic rabbi for 50 years. Both were formidable Talmudic scholars and vivid personalities.
A wonderful account of Dvinsk Jewish life and culture seen through the eyes of the young Sarah Feige Foner who lived in Dvinsk for part of her childhood can be read on line at http://www.fonerbooks.com/memoir.htm. Her account "Memories of the Days of My Childhood or a Look at the City of Dvinsk", published in Hebrew in Warsaw 1903 gives a lively account of the impact of the Haskalah (Jewish enlightenment movement). Her account of the struggles between the followers of the Hassidim and the Mitnagdim and the extremes this sometimes took is a treasure. It also contains many references to specific individuals and rabbis in the Jewish community during the period including many names found in this database.
Finally, the important American painter Rothko was born in Dvinsk from a Dvinsk family and a family portrait of the Rothkowitz family from which he was descended can be seen at http://www.nga.gov/feature/rothko/early1.html .
Further reading on this important and most Jewish of Russian cities can be found in the Latvia SIG Newsletter – See: Vol. 1, No’s 1,2 and Vol. 5, No’s. 1,2,3 - which contains the "Jews in Dunaburg" extracted from the Jews of Dunaburg, published in 1993 by Z. I. Yakub. See also Dvinsk, the Rise and Fall of a Town, by Yudel Flior (translated from the Yiddish by Bernard Sachs), Johannesburg, Dial Press [1965]. Unfortunately this book is out of print but it is an excellent evocation of the flavour of Jewish life in Dvinsk at the turn of the century and above all records the enduring affection of the writer for his home town following his emigration to South Africa in 1928.
In 1910 the city numbered 111,000 of which 50,000 were Jews. Unlike its immediate neighbour Courland, Dvinsk was within the Pale of Settlement. Its ethos derived more from Russian, Lithuanian and Polish influences than from Courland which was broadly German in character and cultural background as a result of nearly 700 years of de facto domination by the Baltic Germans.
According to the Jewish Encyclopedia (Funk & Wagnalls), commerce and manufacturing in Dvinsk were largely in Jewish hands. The 1893 census showed 330 industrial establishments owned by Jews and 99 owned by non-Jews. The census records only 741 Jewish artisans but this figure has been challenged by Herman Rosenthal in his article on Dvinsk published in the Jewish Encyclopaedia (1916), citing "private investigations" as the source for the claim that in 1898 there were 4,862 Jewish artisans including 2,193 Masters, 1,700 journeymen and 909 apprentices.
The most important trades followed by the Jews were tailoring (1,210) and shoemaking. Some 32 factories are identified including button manufacture, a sawmill, match factory, tannery etc, all owned by Jews with a total of 2,305 employees recorded. A further 684 day labourers are noted. Dvinsk was one of the chief artillery depots of the Empire and many troops were garrisoned there.
The poverty of the Pale was a feature of Dvinsk Jewish life and it is estimated that 30 per cent of Jewish families applied for aid from the community in 1898. There were numerous Jewish aid societies recorded including a Mutual Aid, founded in 1900 and with more than 1,200 members by 1901. A loan fund was established in memory of the Merchant M Vitenberg. Loans, secured by personal property, were advanced without interest. Other charitable institutions included a society for aiding the poor founded by the Jewish governor, with an income in 1899 of some 8,917 Roubles, soup kitchens, a charitable dining hall, a bikkur holim, a dispensary and a lying-in hospital all organised and run by the community. These testify to the traditions of self help and community organisation that reflect the high value placed on charity to those less fortunate.
Dvinsk was an important centre of Jewish thought and culture and nurtured a number of Rabbis known and respected throughout the Jewish world. Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Kuk [Kook] of Palestine was a pupil of Reb Reuvele Dunaburger. Meier Simcha Hacohen, Rabbi of Mitnagdim for 39 years while Rabbi Yosef Rosen served as the Chassidic rabbi for 50 years. Both were formidable Talmudic scholars and vivid personalities.
A wonderful account of Dvinsk Jewish life and culture seen through the eyes of the young Sarah Feige Foner who lived in Dvinsk for part of her childhood can be read on line at http://www.fonerbooks.com/memoir.htm. Her account "Memories of the Days of My Childhood or a Look at the City of Dvinsk", published in Hebrew in Warsaw 1903 gives a lively account of the impact of the Haskalah (Jewish enlightenment movement). Her account of the struggles between the followers of the Hassidim and the Mitnagdim and the extremes this sometimes took is a treasure. It also contains many references to specific individuals and rabbis in the Jewish community during the period including many names found in this database.
Finally, the important American painter Rothko was born in Dvinsk from a Dvinsk family and a family portrait of the Rothkowitz family from which he was descended can be seen at http://www.nga.gov/feature/rothko/early1.html .
Further reading on this important and most Jewish of Russian cities can be found in the Latvia SIG Newsletter – See: Vol. 1, No’s 1,2 and Vol. 5, No’s. 1,2,3 - which contains the "Jews in Dunaburg" extracted from the Jews of Dunaburg, published in 1993 by Z. I. Yakub. See also Dvinsk, the Rise and Fall of a Town, by Yudel Flior (translated from the Yiddish by Bernard Sachs), Johannesburg, Dial Press [1965]. Unfortunately this book is out of print but it is an excellent evocation of the flavour of Jewish life in Dvinsk at the turn of the century and above all records the enduring affection of the writer for his home town following his emigration to South Africa in 1928.