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Pre War Lithuanian Series in the Afrikaner Yidishe Tzeitung
Originally published in Dorot, Summer 1996, republished with permission of the Jewish Genealogical Society of New YorkThe Affikaner Yidishe Tzeitung was a Yiddish language weekly newspaper published in Johannesburg from 1942 to 1971. It is available on microfilm in the New York Public Library Jewish Division (Call No. *ZAN?*P49), at YIVO (Call No. 64?Y?294?309) and in the Library of Congress Hebraic Section.

For approximately a one year period beginning in late November 1952 and then irregularly thereafter, the Tzeitung ran a series of pictures, "A Picture from the Old Home," that were taken in Lithuanian shtetls before World War 11 (a few of the last of the series were of Polish shtetls).

From Feb. 20, 1953 on, the pictures were accompanied by an article about the shtetl called "There Once Was a Home." The number of people in each picture ranges from just a handful to over 50; they are identified underneath each picture. The pictures were submitted to the Tzeitung by relatives and/or landsmen from South Affica's large immigrant Lithuanian Jewish community.

Below is a list of the towns, the specific issue in which each appeared and the page number. The towns are mentioned according to their old Yiddish name and not their current Lithuanian name.

Picture only:

Nov. 21, 1952 Shavel, p. 12
Dec. 24, 1952 Ponevys, p. 9
Jan. 2, 1953 Shavel, p. 12
Jan. 9, 1953 Ponevys, p. 12
Jan. 16, 1953 Ponevys, p. I I
Jan. 23, 1953 Ponevys, p. 10
Jan. 30, 1953 Shavel, p. I I
Feb. 6, 1953 Kupishok, p. 12
Feb. 13, 1953 Shatt, p. 12

Article with accompanying picture:

Feb. 20, 1953 Vilna, p. 12
Feb. 27, 1953 Ponevys, p. 13
Mar. 6, 1953 Kupishok, p. 7
Mar? ?13, 1953 Vashki, p. 5
Mar. 20, 1953 Vilkomir, p. 6
Mar. 27, 1953 Shavel, p. 4 (YIVO only)
April 3, 1953 Krekenava. & Linkuva, P. 5
April 17, 1953 Kurshan & Kayfirsk, p. 5
April 24, 1953 Pasvul, p. 6
May 8, 1953 Pushelat, p. 6
May 15, 1953 Pashvitin, p. 12
May 22, 1953 Radziwilischki, pp. 6 & I I
May 29, 1953 Kupishok, p. 7
June 5, 1953 Pushelat, p. 12
June 12, 1953 Shidlova, p. 12
June 19, 1953 Jurbarkas, p. 19
June 26, 1953 Zagare, p. 6
July 3, 1953 Birzh, p. 5
July 10, 1953 Kelme, p. 5
July 17, 1953 Rasein, p. 5
July 24, 1953 Yanishok, p. 5
July 31, 1953 Zagare, p. 5
Aug. 7, 1953 Rakishok, p. 5, 12 (YIVO only)
Aug. 14, 1953 Yanishok, p. 5
Aug. 21, 1953 Yanishok, p. 5
Aug. 28, 1953 Oran, p. 5
Sept. 18, 1953 Zagare & Jonava, p. 5
Oct. 9, 1953 Ostrolenka & Rozshan (Poland), p. 9
Oct. 30, 1953 Plungian, p. 5
Nov. 27, 1953 Anikst, p. 5
Jan. 1, 1954 Vashilkova (Poland), p, 15
Sept. 3, 1954 Lodzh (Poland), p. I I (no picture)

For my particular ancestral shtet], Shatt, the picture that appeared in the Feb. 13, 1953 issue was of a Literary Society taken in 1925, containing over 50 people. Most of them perished in the Holocaust. However, in the photo and identified at the bottom was a Sarah Greenblatt Levine and her husband, Max Levine, and it specifically said that "they now five in America.
Although I have not yet found any documentation of them in this country, had it not been for this picture I would have never heard of them. Perhaps you, too, shall be as lucky in discovering a hitherto unknown relative.
[Alex Friedlander's editorial note: This weekly journal, although unindexed and in Yiddish, also contains announcements of marriages and anniversaries, as well as obituaries, in almost every issue. Researchers with family roots in South Africa should check known marriage or death dates.