Providence

[A. Maberry]

The town in question is Skvyra (var. Skvira, Skwira) in Kyivska oblast.
Cf. Encyc. of Ukraine: b v. 4, p. 739 (Skvyra, city and raion
center in Kiev oblast. First mentioned in 1390 as part of the Grand Duchy
of Lithuania. In 1482 it was destroyed by the Tatars. From 1569 it was under
Polish rule. Under the Hetmanate State Skvyra was a company center of the
Bila Tserkva (1648-51) and Pavloch (1651-74) regiments. It was recaptured by
Poland in 1686 and acquired by Russia in 1793. From 1797 it was a county center
in Kiev gubernia. In 1938 it was granted city status)

BGN gives the coordinates as 49[degrees]44[minutes]N,
29[degrees]40[minutes]E.

allen
maberry at u.washington.edu

On Thu, 23 Jan 2003, James A. Landau wrote:

> In a message dated 01/23/2003 9:15:13 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> laurence.horn at YALE.EDU writes:
>
> > >The town of Skvir (sp?) somewhere in Europe,
> >
> >  The closest I could find in my old atlas is the town of Skwirzyna in
> >  Western Poland.
>
> The first Rebbe of what became the Skver Dynasty was Rabbi Menachem Nachum
> Twersky of Chernobyl (yes, the site of the nuclear plant), 1730-1797, a
> student of the Baal Shem Tov.  The second Rebbe was Mordechai of Chernobyl,
> 1770-1837, probably a son of Menachem Nachum.  The third Rebbe was Yitzchak
> of Skver, 1812-1885, the fourth was David of Skver, and the fifth was Yaakov
> Yosef of Skver.  Why the change of place-name I don't know; I suppose that
> for some reason the third Rebbe moved from Chernobyl to a town called Skver.
>
> The current Rebbe is David Twersky, so apparently the position of Rebbe never
> left the Twersky family.
>
> I'm afraid that doesn't help much in determining where, or perhaps what, was
> Skver.
>
> A strange twist on a thread labelled "Providence".
>
>                    - Jim Landau
>