KOVNO or KOVNA:
Table of
Contents
- In the Sixteenth Century.
- In the Eighteenth Century.
- The Kovno Megillah.
- Philanthropic and Charitable Institutions.
- Jewish Artisans.
Russian
fortified city in the government of the same name; situated at the junction of
the Viliya and the Niemen.
There is
documentary evidence that Jews lived and traded in Kovno toward the end of the
fifteenth century. At the time of the expulsion of the Jews from Lithuania by
Alexander Jagellon (1495) the post of assessor of Kovno was held by Abraham Jesofovich. By an edict dated Oct. 25,
1528, King Sigismund awarded to Andrei Procopovich and the Jew Ogron Nahimovich
the farming of the taxes on wax and salt in the district of Kovno
("Metrika Litovskaya Sudebnykh Dyel," No. 4, fol. 20b). In the Diet
of 1547 a proposition was submitted to the King of Poland to establish at
Kovno, Brest-Litovsk, Drissa, and Salaty governmental timber depots, in order
to facilitate the export of timber, and to levy on the latter a tax for the
benefit of the government. This measure found favor owing to the claim that the
Jewish and Christian merchants of Kovno and of other towns derived large
profits from the business, while they at the same time defrauded the owners of
the timber and encouraged the destruction of the forests. The proposition was
adopted by the Diet and sanctioned by the king ("Kniga Posolskaya Metriki
Litovskoi," i. 36).
In the
Sixteenth Century.
In 1558 a
Jew of Brest-Litovsk, David Shmerlevich, and his partners obtained a monopoly of
the customs duties of the city of Kovno on wax and salt for three years, for an
annual payment of 4,000 kop groschen ("Aktovyya Knigi Metriki Litovskoi,
Zapisi," No. 37, fol. 161). David of Kovno, a Jewish apothecary, is
mentioned in a lawsuit (Oct. 20, 1559) with Moses Yakimovich, a Jew of
Lyakhovich ("Aktovyya Knigi Metriki Litovskoi Sudnykh Dyel," No. 39,
fol. 24b). By an agreement of about the same date between Kusko Nakhimovich, a
Kovno Jew, and Ambrosius Bilduke, a citizen of Wilna, it would seem that the
latter had beaten and wounded the Kovno rabbi Todros, and thatKusko, in
consideration of 2 kop groschen, had settled the case and was to have no
further claim against Bilduke (l.c. No. 41, fol. 120).
From a
decree issued by King Stephen Bathori Feb. 8, 1578, it is evident that Jews
were living in Kovno at that time ("Akty Zapadnoi Rossii," iii. 221).
Another document (June 19, 1579), presented to Stephen Bathori by the burghers
of Troki, both Catholic and Greek-Catholic, and by the Jews and Tatars,
contains their petition concerning the Christian merchants of Kovno, who had
prohibited the complainants from entering the city with their merchandise, and
from trading there; this in spite of the fact that the burghers of Troki had
from time immemorial enjoyed the privilege of trading in Kovno on an equality
with the other merchants, both Christian and Jewish, of the grand duchy of
Lithuania. In reply, the king ordered the Kovno merchants not to interfere for
the time being with the Jewish and other merchants of Troki, and promised an
examination of the complaint at the end of the war then in progress ("Akty
Gorodov Wilna, Kovno, i Troki," ii. 175).
On March
28, 1589, Aaron Sholomovich, leader of the Jewish community at Troki, in his
own name, and in behalf of his Jewish brethren of Troki, complains to King
Sigismund of the merchants of Kovno, who have forbidden the Jews of Troki to
trade in Kovno, and have confiscated their wares in defiance of privileges
granted by the Polish kings and by the Grand Duke of Lithuania. In response to
this complaint the king orders the magistrate of Kovno, Prince Albrecht
Radziwill, to protect the Jews of Troki from molestation by the native
merchants (ib. ii. 180).
A
document issued twelve years later (Aug. 14, 1601) shows that the Jews of
Grodno and of other Lithuanian towns were deprived of the old privilege of
shipping to Kovno grain, salt, and herring, retaining only the right to trade
at retail and to keep inns (" Akty Wilenskoi Arkhivnoi Kommissii,"
vii. 103, 125; "Akty Yuzhnoi i Zapadnoi Rossii," ii. 13).
In the
Eighteenth Century.
At the
beginning of the eighteenth century the Jews of Kovno made an agreement with
the Christian merchants of that city whereby the former in return for the
privileges of residence and trading in Kovno assumed the obligation to pay a
fifteenth part of all the taxes and of the city expenditures. In time, however,
the documents relating to this compact were lost, and the merchants began to
oppress the Kovno Jews and to withdraw from them their privileges. The matter
was brought before the Supreme Court of Poland at Warsaw, and by a decision of
Sept. 14, 1753, the Jews were given the right to reside only in the district of
Starochinska. They were allowed also to trade at the fairs. A few years later
Proser was appointed mayor of Kovno, and he began to persecute the Jews not
only in the city, but throughout his jurisdiction. In 1761 he instigated a riot
during which the Jewish houses of the district were burned. When Christian
neighbors attempted to stop the excesses of the mob, they were prevented by the
officials. After the rebuilding of the Jewish dwellings Proser drove the Jews
out of the city. The case was carried to the Supreme Court, which ordered (Jan.
20, 1766) an investigation of the wrongs inflicted upon the Jews, and
compensation for the losses sustained by them; these latter to be determined by
the findings of a commission appointed for that purpose.
The mayor
and his followers, fearing the result of the investigation attempted to discredit
it, and to place obstacles in the way of the commission. As the oppression of
the Jews was not discontinued, the leaders of the Jewish community of Slobodka,
a suburb of Kovno, brought the matter before the Supreme Court. In 1781 Prince
Carl Stanislaus Radziwil, the owner of Slobodka, intervened, and showed that
great injustice had been and was being done to the Jews. In 1782 the court
ordered the city of Kovno to pay to the Jews damages amounting to 15,000
florins besides the costs of the case. The mayor of Kovno and his associates
were sentenced to two weeks' imprisonment (A. Tabilovski, in "Keneset
Yisrael," i. 57, Warsaw, 1886).
There is
in the possession of the heirs of Rabbi Isaac Zeeb Soloveichik of Kovno a
megillah, bearing the Hebrew date 1 Adar II., 5543, and written in
commemoration of the granting of the right of residence to the Jews of Kovno by
King Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski (1783). Therein it is stated that Jews had
lived in Kovno since ancient times, and that when they were driven out of the
city in 1753, they had found an asylum in the suburb of Kovno, then a part of
the king's private estate. When they were again expelled, in 1761, all their
houses and the synagogue had been plundered and destroyed by the mob. The
megillah lauds the king's generosity, and praises those members of the
community who had taken an active part in defending the rights of their
brethren. These were Rabbi Moses of Kovno and Slobodka and his brother Abraham,
the sons of Rabbi Isaac Soloveichik. They also built the large synagogue in
Slobodka, which was then known as Williampol. The author of the megillah, as
appears from an acrostic contained in it, was Samuel ha-Ḳaṭan of Wilna, a
resident of Kovno. The style shows that he was a learned man and a fluent
Hebrew writer. Fuenn thinks that he was the Samuel ha-Ḳaṭan who had an only son
Joseph, as is mentioned on a tombstone over the grave of Zipporah, Joseph's
daughter, in the Kovno cemetery (Fuenn, "Ḳiryah Ne'emanah," p. 196, Wilna,
1860). A manuscript Hebrew prayer-book entitled "Kol Bo," preserved
in the synagogue of Brest-Litovsk, was written by Samuel ha-Ḳaṭan, undoubtedly
the writer of the megillah.
In 1887
the Jewish community of Kovno (including Slobodka) numbered about 36,000 persons.
In 1902 it had increased to 37,196, or about one-half of the total population.
It had twenty-five synagogues and prayer-houses, and many yeshibot supported by
wealthy men, one of them by Lachman of Berlin. The leader of the students in
the yeshibot was Isaac Blaser, formerly of St. Petersburg. In 1876 the society
Maḥziḳe 'Eẓ-Ḥayyim was founded by Süsman Novikhovich and Hirsh Rabinovich,
rabbi of Mitau, for the study of the Talmud, rabbinical literature, and the
Hebrew language. The TalmudTorah has from 300 to 400 pupils, and a teaching
staff of 6 "melammedim" and 6 teachers of Hebrew, Russian, and
arithmetic. The annual expenditure of the Talmud Torah amounts to about 1,600
rubles, and is provided for out of the meat-tax and by private contributions,
in addition to 15 per cent of the income from the cemetery. There is another
Talmud Torah, situated in the more modern portion of the city, known as
"Neuer Plan," and connected with the synagogue Naḥalat Yisrael. It
has 50 pupils and 2 teachers. The non-Jewish middle-class schools in the city
of Kovno showed in 1887 the following proportion of Jewish pupils: classical
gymnasium for boys 104 Jews in a total of 369; classical gymnasium for girls
115 Jewish girls in a total of 310 ("Voskhod," 1888, iv. 4).
The hospital
was reorganized in 1813 by Benjamin Ze'eb ben Jehiel, father of Rabbi Ẓebi
Naviyazer, and Eliezer Lieberman. They began a new pinḳes in place of the one
lost at the time of Napoleon's invasion (1812), when the inhabitants fled, and
the city archives, including the pinḳes, disappeared in the ensuing disorder.
In 1854
Hirsh Naviyazer made great efforts in behalf of the hospital and succeeded in
collecting enough funds to erect a stone building for the institution. In 1875
Tanḥuma Levinson and Ze'eb Frumkin reorganized the hospital on a modern basis.
The annual income and expenditure are each about 15,000 rubles. There are
accommodations for more than 600 patients; and 4,000 patients are treated
annually in the dispensary.
Among the
other philanthropic and charitable organizations of Kovno may be mentioned the
societies known as "Somak Nofelim" and "Gemilut Ḥesed," the
former founded in 1862 by Ẓebi Shafir, and Isaac Zeeb, father of Joseph Dob,
rabbi of Brest-Litovsk (Fuenn, "Keneset Yisrael," ii. 163). The ḥebra
ḳaddisha was founded in 1862. Of the leaders of the community (in the 19th
cent.) may be mentioned Israel Bacharach, Abraham Dembo, Naḥman Reichseligman,
Fishel Kahn, Ezekiel Jaffe, Solomon Osinsky, and Lieberman Shakhovski, grandson
of Eliezer Shakhovski. Rabbi Israel Lipkin, known widely as Rabbi Israel
Salanter, was prominent in the life of the Kovno community during the latter
half of the nineteenth century. He successfully conducted for many years the
local yeshibah. His son, Lipman Lipkin, Abraham Mapu, and the latter's brother
were all born in Kovno.
A
statistical study of the Jewish artisans in 1887 shows that in the city and
district of Kovno there were 5,479 masters, 1,143 assistants, and 766
apprentices, distributed among the different trades. The greatest numbers of
masters were to be found in the following trades: tailors and seamstresses,
445; shoemakers and workers in allied trades, 380; cigar- and cigarette-makers,
366; butchers and fishermen, 330; bakers, 445; gardeners and truckers, 338;
drivers and coachmen, 509; common laborers, 595. Jewish artisans were also well
represented among book-binders, carpenters, blacksmiths, machinists, masons,
brick-makers, brewers, wine-makers, barbers, and millers ("Voskhod,"
1889, i.-vi.).
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