Kelmė
Kelmė | |
|---|---|
City | |
 Church of Kelmė | |
 Flag  Coat of arms | |
  Kelmė Location of Kelmė | |
| Coordinates: 55°38′0″N 22°56′0″E / 55.63333°N 22.93333°E | |
| Country |  Lithuania |
| Ethnographic region | Samogitia |
| County | Šiauliai County |
| Municipality | Kelmė district municipality |
| Eldership | Kelmė eldership |
| Capital of | Kelmė district municipality Kelmė eldership |
| First mentioned | 1484 |
| Granted city rights | 1947 |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Vaclovas Andrulis |
| Area | |
| • Total | 7.85 km2 (3.03 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 128 m (420 ft) |
| Population (2017) | |
| • Total | 8,206 |
| • Density | 1,000/km2 (2,700/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+2 (EET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+3 (EEST) |
| Website | Official website |
Kelmė () is a city in northwestern Lithuania, a historical region of Samogitia. It has a population of 8,206 and is the administrative center of the Kelmė district municipality.
History
Kelmė's name may come from the Lithuanian "Kelmynės", literally "the stubby place" because of the forests that were there at the time of its founding.[1]
Kelmė was first mentioned in 1416, the year that Kelmė's first church was built.[1]
Prior to World War II, Kelmė (Yiddish: Kelm) was home to a famous Rabbinical College, the Kelm Talmud Torah.
According to an 1897 census, 2,710 of Kelme’s 3,914 inhabitants were members of the town’s Jewish population, the vast majority of whom were merchants and traders and lived in the town.
Most of the Jews in Kelmė rural district were murdered during a mass execution on July 29, 1941. On August 22 a second mass execution occurred. On October 2, 1941, some Kelmė and Vaiguva Jews were murdered in Žagarė. The executions were committed by Lithuanians nazis, auxiliary police and Germans soldiers.[2] In total, the number of victims is 1250-1300 people.
People
- Antanas Mackevičius[1]
- Aryeh Leib Frumkin, Rabbi
- Eliezer Gordon, Rabbi 1874–1883
- Yaakov Kamenetsky
- Elyah Lopian
- Alexander Ziskind Maimon
- Icchokas Meras, writer
- Zvi Yaakov Oppenheim, Rabbi 1883–1926
- Simcha Zissel Ziv, the Alter of Kelm
Twin towns
Kelmė is twinned with:[citation needed]
| City | COA | Country |
|---|---|---|
| Biłgoraj | 
|
 Poland
|
| Hódmezővásárhely | 
|
 Hungary
|
References
External links
 | This Lithuanian location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 | This article related to Jewish history is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |