Post No.1 - The School of Yehuda Pen - Vitebsk

Forgotten Vitebsk

We will look at Yehuda Pen, his art school, his students, and their story later. But first Vitebsk. Vitebsk was the largest town in the “Chabad Territory”, the capital of the Chabad Republic. It was connected culturally and by railroad to Vilno, Warsaw, Moscow, Minsk and St. Petersburg (Petrograd/Leningrad). Yet in the new mythologized history by Ramash/Rayaz there is hardly a mention. As if after the departure of Menachem Mendel Vitebsker the city disappeared. It indeed disappeared, but much later.

Vitebsk held the north-eastern edge of the Pale of Settlement. About the same distance from Petrograd and Moscow. With the royal Chabad villages of Lyady, Kapust, Lubavich, (Nezhine is further to the South), located to the east of Vitebsk, it was exposed to the Russian cultural influences. Moreover, being the eastern front of the Pale of the Settlement, it was, like California in the USA, the limit of the expansion. And like California, only the most adventurous moved that far; hence it was, if I can use this word, most progressive.

The text is mostly quotations from the work of Emmanuel Ioffe, Jews of Vitebsk in the 1880s – 1920s (Russian).

Population

In the “Historical and statistical sketch of the Vitebsk province”, written in 1884-1885, it is noted: Jews, although found in our province at the beginning of the 17th century, but their number until the very end of the 18th century was very insignificant. In 1765, in Vitebsk district, there were about two thousand male and female Jews. As of January 1, 1884, their number in the Vitebsk district had increased to 144,005 people. Jews managed to take over all the trade and industry of the province. So, it’s natural that they are mostly concentrated in the cities and settlements where one or another branch of trade or industry developed.

According to the census of 1897, there were 65,719 inhabitants in Vitebsk, of which Jews made up 34,420 people (16,351 men and 18,069 women). Jews counted 90.49 men for every one hundred women, non-Jews counted 118.79 men for every one hundred women. The percentage of residents in Vitebsk by religion was as follows: Jews - 52.4%, Orthodox Christian - 38.6%, Catholics - 7%, Protestants - 2%. The population was distributed as follows by nationality: Jews - 52.4%, Russians and Belarusians - 39.9%, Poles - 5%, Germans - 1.4%, other nationalities - 1.3%

Trades and Services

This painting dates to April 21, 𝟭𝟵𝟭𝟱, with the headline about major battles on the Carpathian Front during World War I ("גרויסע שלאכטן אין די קארפאטען").

Jews owned most industrial and commercial enterprises in Vitebsk. The greatest influence was enjoyed by the owner of the tannery, merchant (купец) Elyash Girshevich Grilihes and the owner of the brewery, merchant (купец), Adolf Grigorievich Levinson. Both were members of Vitebsk Factory and Mining committee. Also, a member of that committee was the director of the Vitebsk Electric Tram, Grigory Samuilovich Chernyavsky.

On the eve of the First World War, the manager of the steamship company “Gindin and Rachmilevich” was Zalman Berkovich Strunsky.

Printing

The printing houses of Nohim-Itsky Leibman, Rasi Aizikovna Kovner. The printing house “Trud”of Chaim Movshevich Ryabchik-Rabkin, lithographs of Pinkhas Abramovich Pozemsky, Meer Moiseevich Neiman, Elki Meerovna Ofin [two women].

In the late 19th - early 20th centuries, the banking offices of the merchant Movshi-Leiba Abramovich Ginzburg. The Smolensk 1st guild merchant Israel Wolfovich Vishnyak and the banking office under the firm “Solovey and Son” owned by the merchant of the 1st guild Simon Shmerkovich and his son Kusiel.

David Abramovich Finkelstein, managed the Vitebsk branch of the Moscow International Trade Bank in 1908, and Boris Danilovich Trainin was a member of the board of this bank. They then held the same positions in the Vitebsk branch of the United Bank. Five years later, a merchant became the manager of this department, Grigory Moiseevich Bandler, and his deputy Viktor Mordkovich Dlikman. Yakov Lvovich Aronson was first the manager of the Vitebsk branch of the Asian Bank, and in 1913-1914, together with Yakov Abramovich Shifom, he held the position of the director of this bank. The chairman of the Vitebsk Stock Exchange was Max Mikhelevich Tubin, secretary - Yakov Markovich Okun, treasurer - Ya.L.Aronson.

City Government

Vitebsk Duma - 1rg category

In the late 19th – early 20th centuries, the Jews of Vitebsk took a certain part in the city government. In 1885-1886, seven Jews (out of 22 people) were in the Vitebsk City Duma 1st category. These were merchants Movsha Simonovich Bezsmertny, Leiba Zalmanovich Gurevich, Wolf Shmelkovich Kagan, Pinhus Khaimovich Kaganov, Hercik Shmuilovich Ravich and Girsha Borukhovich Haikin.

Vitebsk Duma - 2nd category

Six Vitebsk Jews were city Duma in the 2nd category (out of 22): merchants Yankel Aharonovich Dobrin, Noah Simonovich Roy, Eliya Girshevich Perelstein, Girsha Tsalkovich Sheinin, Leiba Abramovich Elinzon and Aaron Berkovich Fogelson.

Vitebsk Duma - 3rg category

Merchants Mendel Girshevich Rominson, Israel Shmuylovich Bezsmertny, Herman Moiseevich Blumberg, Berka Moiseevich Bykhovsky, Zalman Yudovich Kerlin, Abel Berkovich Schneerson, Girsha Arievich Yakhnin and petty bourgeois Ruman Meerovich Lyadov and Leiba Meerovich Yukhnin.

Economy

The economic commission consisted of twelve people, including six Jews: L.Z.Gurevich, G.S.Ravich, V.S.Kagan, A.B.Schneerson, G.M.Bloomberg and G.C.Sheinin. In 1889, M. Fabristov, A.Dobrin, E.Perlstein, G.Ravich, B.Gershman and I. Debrin were elected.

Politics and the Communist Virus

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Vitebsk Jews established a holiday to celebrate the liberation from the St. Petersburg fortress of the famous head of the Belarusian Hasidim, Zalman Schneerson.

In the 19th century, the Hovevei Zion movement developed in Vitebsk, and later also the socialist movement. Vitebsk was one of the first centers of the Bund. In 1897-1921 there was an organization of the General Jewish Workers Union in Lithuania, Poland, Russia, which was headed by the Vitebsk Social Democratic Committee of the Bund.

During the October political strike of 1905, representatives of the Bund Committee and the group of RSDLP (bolsheviks) created the Vitebsk Coalition Committee, which led the revolutionary movement in the city in October-December 1905. In November 1909, under the control of this committee operated four circles of artisans (15–18 people each), a tailors' union was created, which organized five strikes.

In the decade between the revolutions, the Vitebsk Bundists conducted one major event in connection with the Kiev trial of Beilis in 1913.

At the beginning of 1914 the Vitebsk United Organization of the RSDLP (bolsheviks) and the Bund was created. It was liquidated by the police and did not have time to expand its activities. In the years During the 1st World War, there was a small group of Bundists in Vitebsk, which concentrated around the Red Cross and the Jewish Labor Aid Society.

In March 1917, the activities of the Bund organization were restored, and in May 1917 it already numbered 650 people. Together with the Mensheviks, the Bundists took leadership positions in the Vitebsk Council of Workers and Soldiers, and one of their leaders, R. Aronson headed the Council.

The Bund Committee met the October Revolution with hostility. At a meeting of the City Duma in 1917, the Bundists of Vitebsk proposed a resolution of protest against the uprising in Petrograd and the activities of the local Bolshevik organization. The meeting of the members of the committee of the Bund and the Vitebsk United Organization condemned the Bolsheviks, demanding the creation of a coalition government and the holding of elections to the Constituent meeting.

By the beginning of 1919, the influence of the Bundists in Vitebsk had sharply decreased. There were 12 of them left in the city council out of 128. In 1921, the Vitebsk Committee self-liquidated.

At the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries, the influence of the Zionists was quite strong in Vitebsk. Since 1901, the Zionist leader Gregory Brook has held the post of state Rabbi Vitebsk. When at the end of 1919 The Vitebsk organization split into left and right, the right-wing Bundists went to an alliance with the local Zionist workers’ organization. After October Revolution, the chairman of the City Council was Boris (Yankel-Berka) Abramovich Breslav.

Revolution in Art