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THE JEWS OF THE VILLAGE OF STAVKE
By Efrayim Lerner
When Efrayim Stavker decided to marry off his
daughter Chaye-Tove, he came to Libivne, talked
it over with the melamed [Hebrew teacher] Avrom-
Moyshe Meshcheches, and they decided on a
shiddach [match]. They did not have to ask the
children themselves, because in those days, over
100 years ago, the decision lay with the parents.
Nor were the bride and groom capable of making
decisions, since the boy and the girl were 13 and
14 years old!
The bride later became my grandmother on
my mother's side. She told me that though they
were not supposed to see each other until the
wedding ceremony, she stealthily peeked from
behind her veil to look at her groom. And she felt
dejected, for he was a small skinny boy from his
constant sitting and learning Torah, while she was
a village beauty, healthy and full of life.
After the wedding, they came to live in the
village. My grandfather was employed in a mill
and used to visit the city quite often.
Stavke had 12-15 Jewish families. Among
them was our family and Hershele Shamays, with
his four families. Some families had settled in
Stavke during World War I. They even had a
melamed whom we nicknamed Itsye Stavke. After
he died, the village brought a teacher from the
outside.
I remember my grandfather when he was a
lessee. He had leased the estate of the village
landlord, including the orchard and the fields,
paying an annual fee. The landlord would stay in
St. Petersburg, seldom coming to the village.
I remember the wedding of grandfather's
youngest daughter, Rayntse, which was celebrated
in the landlord's manor. My father had hired the
band of Libivne musicians led by Yakov Hersh
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Klezmer. With them was old Pesach with the
white beard, which was in harmony with his
black clarinet.
During World War I, all my grandfather's
children lived in the village.
By then I was already a grown-up fellow. My
cousins and I used to go to the neighboring
village, Ovlotchim, to buy fish. I remember some
of the names of the Jews of that village: R. Ovadye
der Krumer [the lame], who was head of the
kehila; Moyshe der royber [the robber], who used
to tell jokes, being somewhat of a wedding entertainer.
R. Ovadye der Krumer would arrange a minyan
[quorum of ten Jews needed for certain
prayer services] at his house on the Sabbath and
conduct services. Lending his home for holiday
services too, he acted both as cantor and reader of
the Torah.
The village of Ladin was about a mile from
Stavke. Moyshe Ladiner lived there with his
family and made a living from his mill, which
pressed oil from seeds. On the High Holy Days
and during Sukkot, his family used to pray with
my grandfather's minyan.
A kosher slaughterer would come to us on
Thursdays from the neighboring town of Masheve,
walking from village to village. I always wondered
how he had the strength to walk so far on
foot while carrying a heavy sack with his
slaughterer's knives, as well as several cuts of
meat he had received as a supplement to his
payment for slaughtering.
During World War I, the Jewish people would
hire a young man to teach village children to read
and write Yiddish. It happened that my grandfather,
passing by, heard the teacher explain to the