The innovators of the town (J. Basanavičiaus square)

The 19th century Jews were gradually drawn from the economic activities in the villages, such as serving in the estates, and became town people. Due to economic backwardness and slow industrial development people faced  shortage and other problems. If we had an opportunity to travel in time and visit Basanavičiaus square 100 years ago – it was called Turgaus or Piliečių square (since 1920) – we would be surprised. It was a place of trade, motion and bustle. Piliečių square  was mostly populated by Jews, there were only a few houses belonging to Lithuanians. The market days were Wednesdays and Fridays. Saturday, the day of Shabbat, was free of any market and other trade activities. A free-from-trade Saturday was a common phenomenon in the towns with Jewish communities whose role in local economic activities was significant.

Turgaus aikštė 1920 m.

Imagine that Tugaus/Piliečių square is surrounded by bigger or smaller shops where one could purchase the local and foreign goods – everything that people of Marijampolė and surrounding towns and villages  needed.  People bought shoes in Chackel Kalenicky‘s shop, and the shops of Zachar Ochron or Faivel Kotler sold foreign groceries such as coffee, raisins, dates, cinnamon, pasta or pepper. A businessman from Marijampolė Chaim London was the owner of imported goods and had a shop located at 15 Piliečių square. Piliečių square was one of the central places in the city where, along with exceptional shops, Samuel Finkelshtein‘s restaurant, canteen or cafe, one could also buy household goods, such as bricks, horsehair, metalware,  Judel Segal sold leather.

Jewish businessmen and tradesmen constantly worked under fierce competitive conditions – a number of their potential clients and customers was limited, whereas the number of the Jews who wanted to develop their personal and family businesses was quite big. Under such circumstances Jews had to look for and offer unique and exceptional goods and services that no one else could offer, find new niches for their business and take up innovative activities.  Some of them changed the habits and activities of the residents, formed new tastes and leisure trends. As the result of new forms of business, Jews developed rare and awe-inspiring business forms in the towns,  such as selling  ice cream and lemonade in the streets, photographing, shuttle buses, petrol stations, x-ray.

The innovator, Rachel Rozenbergaite, opened the first electric cinematograph in 1911 and called it  “Palas“. It was the first cinema in Marijampolė, located on the first floor of the house (Vytauto 27). It showed mostly Hollywood films and was opened till its nationalisation in 1940. The Avram Pimshtein photography studio called “Modern“ was a declaration of novelty – it was about advance and new trends in technologies. At 23 Gediminas street there was electronic mill owned by Abraham Panemunsky. The children‘s favourite place was the confectionery owned by D. Garberovičienė. Those who could afford, bought chocolate and those who couldn‘t could at least look at the luring sweets. The Jews were among the first who started to build brick houses due to the constant rebuilding of the town after the destroying fires. Chaim Rotshtein was also one of the significant people in Marijampolė, he was elected as a vice burgomaster in 1931 for the burgomaster Juozapas Maurukas. He was in this office for 7 years and played a significant role in the modernisation of the town (He was killed together with other Jews near the river Šešupė).

Everything what is a usual thing nowadays was a novelty, discovery and innovation at those times.

List of Marijampolė Jewish Entrepreneurs in 1931