Chatskels

Relationship Family/ Pre-Marriage Name First Name Father’s Name Mother’s Name Occupation or Nickname Place of birth/ Residence Age or birth date Place and date of death
Widower Chatskels Mendl Gabbai (treasurer) of the synagogue, public figure, and farmer Shkud 80 Shkud
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According to Hana Shaf-Brener, Mendel Chatskels, age 80, lived in Shkud. He seems to have been an influential figure; he was the gabbai (treasurer) of the synagogue, a farmer, and a public figure.

According to Kehilat Shkud, Mendel Chatskels was a prominent figure (44). In the period following WWI, he was the first chairman of Shkud’s community council (9, 51). Along with Eliyahu Tanur, Michal Fogelman, and Efraim Bentzion Urdang, he was a founder of the Jewish Folksbank (12, 52). As for his farming activities, “About five farmers cultivated their own their lands in Shkud, produced enough for private consumption and sold the surplus to the shtetl dwellers. Owners of large plots were: Neta Zelikovitz z”l, Bere Kaganzon and Joseph Mirkis – in the old town, and the brothers Mendel and Nachum Chatzkels, Hirsch Cohen and David Shafkind – in the New Town” (Kehilat Shkud 14)

According to Jewish Gen’s Lithuania Tax and Voters Lists database, the Chatskels family was already established in Shkud in 1846. A number of Mendel Chatskels appear on that database, but I could find nothing to definitively identify the individual above. According to the All Lithuania Revision List Database 1, Movsha, son of Mendel Chatskels, “registered as a farmer in 1871.”

As of April 2014, I could find no information on Yad Vashem about any members of the Chatskels family in Shkud or in Lithuania in general.