The community as a welfare system
Khotyn’s Jewish community maintained a hospital, an old-age home, schools, loan funds, and food relief. Elected leaders and volunteers raised money and organized the work.
The pinkas, a register of community affairs, records repairs, budgets, loans, and committee appointments.
Khone Rayss: A communal benefactor
Khone Rayss devoted his wealth and time to Khotyn’s institutions. The memorial book recalls him arranging building repairs, buying boots for pupils, establishing cultural activities, and supporting the hospital and old-age home. His library passed to the community after his death in 1920, aged fifty-two.
Old age, travelers, hunger, and shelter
The old-age home cared for elderly residents, while a travelers’ hostel offered lodging. Food relief and help with clothing reached households throughout the town.
Loans instead of alms
The Roza Goldenberg fund, created in 1929, lent money without interest to small traders, artisans, and other workers. The community account describes renewable two-week loans and support from Khotyn relief organizers in America.
Children: clothing, food, and the summer colony
Children received food and school clothing. A 1937 account reproduced in the memorial book describes annual two-month camps for more than four hundred poor children, financed with help from Milshteyn, the JDC representative in Chișinău.
1930–1932: Emergency relief after fire
Fires in May 1930 and February 1932 left fifty and fifteen families homeless respectively. The community organized collections and loans, sought tax relief, and obtained building timber and other help from public authorities and private donors.
Community administration
The community bought land to expand the cemetery in 1932. In 1933, its existing registry office improved the recording of births, marriages, and divorces.
Women served on several committees: Golde Brodski in administration, Chave Tsimerman in health, Sore Barag in finance, Zive Entelis in culture, and Betye Tulchinsky in social assistance.
Sources for community institutions and charity
- Shlomo Shitnovitzer, ed., ספר קהילת חוטין (בסרביה) (Sefer kehilat Ḥoṭin (Besarabyah)) [Book of the Khotyn Community (Bessarabia)] (Tel Aviv, 1974), communal records and institutions, pp. 131–145; linked through the JewishGen Yizkor Book Project. Read translation
- Ancel, Jean, and Theodore Lavi, eds. “חוטין” (Ḥoṭin) [Khotyn]. In פנקס הקהילות: רומניה (Pinkas ha-kehilot: Romanyah [Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities: Romania]), vol. 2, 353–57. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1980. Read English translation.
- Shlomo Shitnovitzer, ed., ספר קהילת חוטין (בסרביה) (Sefer kehilat Ḥoṭin (Besarabyah)) [Book of the Khotyn Community (Bessarabia)] [The Book of the Community of Khotin (Bessarabia)] (Tel Aviv: Khotin (Bessarabia) Society, 1974), pp. 11–20. Read translation
- Shlomo Shitnovitzer, ed., ספר קהילת חוטין (בסרביה) (Sefer kehilat Ḥoṭin (Besarabyah)) [Book of the Khotyn Community (Bessarabia)] (Tel Aviv, 1974), Yiddish historical section, pp. 115–130; linked through the JewishGen Yizkor Book Project. Read translation
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Archives. New York Office, 1933–1944, Countries and Regions: Latvia–Yugoslavia finding aid; entry “Chotin, Bessarabia, 1939,” with related Romania relief, medical, yeshiva, and welfare files. View archive catalogue
- JewishGen Bessarabia Research Division. “Khotin Jewish Cemetery” project. Photographed and indexed July 2010; 2,693 burial records and 2,693 photographs uploaded to JOWBR. Read source
- Shlomo Shitnovitzer, ed., ספר קהילת חוטין (בסרביה) (Sefer kehilat Ḥoṭin (Besarabyah)) [Book of the Khotyn Community (Bessarabia)] (Tel Aviv: Khotin (Bessarabia) Society, 1974), “Life in Town,” printed pp. 97–104. JewishGen Yizkor Book Project. Full book citation.
- Shlomo Shitnovitzer, ed., ספר קהילת חוטין (בסרביה) (Sefer kehilat Ḥoṭin (Besarabyah)) [Book of the Khotyn Community (Bessarabia)] (Tel Aviv: Khotin (Bessarabia) Society, 1974), “The Community,” printed pp. 131–145. JewishGen Yizkor Book Project. Full book citation.
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Archives. New York Office, 1933–1944, Countries and Regions: Latvia–Yugoslavia, Romania Localities, file entry “Chotin, Bessarabia, 1939.” Finding aid.
- JewishGen Bessarabia Research Division. “Chotiner Hospital Moshev Zkenim Relief.” Records at YIVO, Record Group 1120, Box 3; 1934–1935 and 1946–1947. Collection description.
Notes on sources
The camp figure follows the 1937 account reproduced on page 139 of the memorial book. Hospital sources give 1860 or 1865 as the founding year. Khone Rayss’s name and biographical details follow the translation on pages 131–132.
See the Sources & Bibliography for publication details, original-language titles, and image credits.