Taxes paid by the Jews  

And the combination of Ramygala and Krekenava into a

single community for tax purposes

This is an extract from a presentation given at the 18th Annual IAJGS Jewish Genealogy Conference, July 13, 1998, Los Angeles, CA By Vitalija Gircyte  

The Box tax was a different thing. It was a specific Jewish tax paid by the whole Jewish population, except for some higher professionals and perhaps merchants. It was a tax on every pound of Kosher meat sold by a butcher and purchased by a Jew, and on every animal slaughtered. I still can’t figure out how it was done. It should have been collected by the butcher, I see no other way, but I don’t know how it was done. And where was the box? In the butcher’s house or where? I don’t know. But the government for the administration of the Box tax used to announce a public auction, and the person who suggested collecting the largest sum was granted the right to collect the Box tax for a few years, four years in a certain area.  With these tax measures the Box tax was collected. To estimate the sum expected they had to make an estimate of the Jewish population. Who would buy and eat meat and who should pay the tax? Thus we have these lists of tax payers of Candle taxes for 1845 and 1846, and various later lists for Box taxes: for 1877, 1888, 1892, and for some Jewish communities for 1904, 1908, and 1912, but it’s different for different Jewish communities.  

When they started organizing the process of collecting Box and Candle taxes they had to introduce certain administrative reforms. In 1843, when Kaunas Guberniya was formed, taxes were collected and Jews were administrated by their Kahal. In 1844 the Kahal was abolished and to collect the taxes the government, or rather the Kaunas guberniya administration, created certain Jewish communities, but these Jewish communities were organized only for the collection of Box and Candle taxes.  

In Panevezys district a few former Kahals were combined into new Jewish communities in 1845 for the purpose of collecting Candle and Box taxes:  

In 1845, the former kahal’s of Krekenava (Krakinovo) and Ramygala (Remigola) became the single community of Krekenava. 

For the full text go to:- https://www.litvaksig.org/information-and-tools/online-journal/jewish-genealogical-resources-at-the-kaunas-regional-archives 

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