Subscription and Donor Lists

Evidence of the charity and generosity of the Lithuanian-Jewish community can be found in a number of lists published in contemporary periodicals. Another Jewish custom can be observed in the pre-publication subscription to books to financially enable their publication.

Some examples of these kinds of records that are included in the ALD are listed below along with a brief description.

HaMagid Lithuanian Donors

The Persian famine donation lists, which were printed in the Hebrew newspaper HaMagid in 1871 and 1872, provide a resource of names of over 40,000 Jews from the Pale of Settlement, including over 5,000 Lithuanian Jewish heads of families. Translated and compiled by Jeffrey Maynard.

HaMelitz Lithuanian and Latvian Donors

This is an index to lists of names of almost 20,000 Lithuanian and Latvian charity donors from announcements that were printed in the Hebrew newspaper HaMelitz during the years 1893 to 1903. Many donations were made on the occasions of weddings, and these announcements typically mention the names of the bride and groom and sometimes the date and place of the marriage. The family relationships have been noted and cross-referenced in this index, together with notes giving other information, such as a title or name of a synagogue. Translated and compiled by Jeffrey Maynard.

Prenumeranten Lists

Subscriber or Pre-Publication Lists from Rabbinic books from 1835-1913 for almost every Lithuanian shtetl. (6596 records)

Please be aware that the spellings of names -- both first and last -- may be different from the ones you are familiar with and accustomed to. In addition, some information on these lists that do not fit into our database template are noted in the Comments Field. For more information, see our Translation, Transliteration, and Database Standards for the ALD.

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