(Communities’ Notebooks: Encyclopedia of the
Jewish Settlements from their establishment to the end of the Holocaust of the
Second World War --- Lithuania. Edited by Dov
Levin, secondary editor Josef Rozin. Jerusalem: Yad V’Shem,
1995/6. ISBN 965-308-049-0)
translation of entry on Kopcheve, pp.565-567.
Kopcheve Kapciamiestis
(in Yiddish Kopcheva and also Kopcheve;
in Russian Koptsiovo)
Village in Sejny district.
|
Year |
Total
Population |
Jews |
Percentage |
|
1897 |
1,314 |
528 |
40 |
|
1923 |
835 |
187 |
22 |
|
1940 |
--------- |
45 families approx |
-------- |
Village
in southern Lithuania, approximately 40 kilometers south-east of the city Lazdai, founded in the beginning of the 17th
century next to a large estate in forest heartland between two rivers, Ancia (white and black) which led to the Neiman river. The
main road from Vilnius to Suwalk and Grodno passed through Kopcheve.
Due to that main road large bazaars and markets were held in the village.
Jews
settled in Kopcheve approximately at the end of the
18th century or the beginning of the 19th century. Lists
of contributors to the Settlement of Israel were published in “HaMelitz” between the years 1899-1903; there are
several names of Jews from Kopcheve on those lists.
The delegate was Rabbi B.Z. Shimshlevich. The 1909
list of contributors includes 5 from Kopcheve, and
that of 1913 lists 50 contributors affiliated with “Agudat
Israel”.
During
the period of independent Lithuania there were approximately 50 Jewish
families. In the early 20th century when the Lithuanian government
declared autonomy to Jews, a committee of Jews elected 5 members; this
committee addressed Jewish issues and Jewish life.
The
livelihood of the Jews in Kopcheve was based mainly
on workshops and commerce. Three families made their living from agriculture,
but almost all of the families had land next to their home where they
cultivated vegetables and fruit. Three families owned land and orchards, making
their livelihood from agriculture.
A
survey conducted by the Lithuanian government in 1931 showed Kopcheve had 9 shops, all in Jewish ownership: 3 fabric
stores, 2 butchers, one grocery store, and one pharmacy. Jews also owned a
power station, 2 flour mills and 2 ironmongeries for cars.
In
1937 Kopcheve had 18 Jewish tradesmen: 5 tailors, 4
iron mongers, 4 butchers, 2 shoemakers, 1 baker, 1 glass maker, and 1 stitcher. In
1939 there were 20 telephones in Kopcheve, only one
belonging to a Jew.
Kopcheve was famous for its educated
students in Cheder. Jewish children studied in Cheder everything except Gemorra and
the Hebrew language. In independent Lithuania there was a private Hebrew
grammar school and next to it a library with an active drama
circle. A few graduates of the Hebrew grammar school continued their
studies in Hebrew high schools in nearby villages or in Kovno.
Many
of the Jews from Kopcheve identified with the Zionist
camp and were members of Zionist Parties, as listed in the below table:
|
Cong- ress # |
Year |
Shekel |
Votes |
Eretz Israel Labor |
Revi- sionist |
Gen’l Zionists |
State |
East |
|
15 |
1927 |
13 |
13 |
|
|
13 |
|
|
|
16 |
1929 |
27 |
13 |
15 |
|
|
|
|
|
17 |
1931 |
14 |
12 |
1 |
|
10 |
|
|
|
18 |
1933 |
|
42 |
38 |
|
4 |
|
|
|
19 |
1935 |
65 |
59 |
30 |
|
26 |
|
3 |
|
21 |
1939 |
32 |
31 |
20 |
|
7 |
3 |
1 |
Of
the Zionist youth movements the most active in Kopcheve
was the “Gordonia” with 30-40 members.
The leading Rabbis in Kopcheve were Rabbi Zvi Dirkdor, author of the book,
“Tosefot Shabat”
[Sabbath add-ons] Warsaw, 1888; Rabbi Abraham-Zvi Pinchas-Eliashberg (1887-1900), Rabbi Zvi-Aria
Luria (1902-1913); Rabbi Meyer Stolvitz,
author of “Mbeit Meyer” [From
Meyer’s house], Warsaw, 1908, and 3 additional parts: Jerusalem, 1930,
1940, 1947; Rabbi Menachem-Mendel Sher
(from 1938), the last Rabbi who perished in the Holocaust.
Amongst
famous Jews born in Kopcheve were the historian Elhanan (Edward) D. Kalman
(1891-1939), Rabbi B.Z. Shimshlevich, a scholar and
avid Zionist who published many articles in “HaOlam”
[The World], [and] uncle of Israel’s second President, Yitzak Ben-Zvi; Dr. Yitzak Kashiv (Kopchiovsky), economist and Chairman of the Board
of Directors of Israel Bank Leumi.
With
the annexation of independent Lithuania to the Soviet Union in the summer of
1940 the private workshops and stores of the Jews were nationalized. Supplies dwindled due to currency
conversion, and the middle class, largely made of Jews, suffered considerably,
and the standard of living lowered. All of the Zionist parties and Zionist
Youth movements were dismantled.
The
German army entered Kopcheve when the war broke out
between Germany and the Soviet Union, on 22 June 1941. Only a few of the Kopcheve Jews who tried to escape reached Russia and were
saved. When the Germans entered Kopcheve, Lithuanian
nationalism broke loose. Property of Jews and their lives were endangered with
anyone wanting destruction doing so. Jews were taken to humiliating jobs, were
belittled and abused constantly. 15 September 1941 all of the Jews of Kopcheve were taken under high security to Lazdai. There they were put into a ghetto established in Katkishes, one kilometer outside of Lazdai,
where Jews from neighboring villages were interned. On 3 November 1941 the Jews
of Kopcheve were murdered with the rest of the ghetto
inhabitants. A mass grave headstone was erected following the Second World War.
Names of the murdered are held in the Yad V’Shem
archive.
[Bibliography]
Konihovsky Collection, file 131, 0-71; M-33/972;
Ez”m
Lithuanian Notebooks
Collection, file 1444
Gutlieb,
“Oheli Sham” [My tent there] or
[God’s tent], p.170.
Dzuku Zinios (Lazdai regional
newspaper), no 57, 29.7.1992.