“Ribukai” - Encyclopedia of Jewish
Communities in Lithuania
(Lithuania)

55° 30' / 23° 07'

Translation of the “Ribukai” chapter from
Pinkas Hakehillot Lita

Written by Dov Levin

Published by Yad Vashem

Published in Jerusalem, 1996


 

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This is a translation from: Pinkas Hakehillot Lita: Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities, Lithuania,
Editor: Prof. Dov Levin, Assistant Editor: Josef Rosin, published by Yad Vashem, Jerusalem.


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(Page 636)

Ribukai

In Yiddish, Ribuk, or Ribok

Written by Dov Levin

Translated by Shimon Joffe

A village in the Siluva county, Raseiniai district, western Lithuania, close to Lyduveniai.

In the 80s' of the 19th century, some 70 Jewish families settled in Ribukai, where they were given land by the authorities for farming. Most of these families indeed left trading and took up farming. One of the first settlers, Welwel (Wolf) Gen, taught his descendents to work the land. In 1887 Ribukai had some 60 Jewish families. After the First World War, in the period of Lithuanian independence, the number of Jewish families fluctuated between 20-40 families. All engaged in agriculture. Two lime kilns in Ribukai belonged to Jews and the output was sold to public official institutions and to nearby towns.

Ribukai had neither a rabbi nor a synagogue. On the Sabbath and on Holy Days a Minyan (a quorum of ten men) would gather in a private home for prayers. The Jewish children were taught by a 'melamed ' (teacher) brought in from elsewhere. Customarily, a charity 'Tithe' was collected twice a year for distribution to the nearby communities. Relations with the non Jewish neighbors were good, some of them working on the Jewish farms.

The conquest of Lithuania by the Germans in the summer of 1941, spelled the end also of the remaining Jews in Ribukai. They, like their brethren in neighboring Siluva and other towns in the area, were murdered in August 1941, by Lithuanians in the service of the German authorities. The murder site and the mass grave of 300 victims, is apparently to be found in the sands of the village, about one kilometer north east of Lyduveniai.

Bibliography:

Masines Zudynes Lietuvoje (Mass Murders in Lithuania), Vol 2, p. 402.

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