View source for Lipcani

{{Short description|Town in Briceni District, Moldova}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2012}}
{{Infobox settlement
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|subdivision_name1      = [[Briceni District]]
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|leader_name            = Dumenco Evghenii 
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|established_date       = 1699 
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|population_as_of       = [[2014 Moldovan Census|2014]]
|population_footnotes   = <ref>[http://www.statistica.md/pageview.php?l=en&idc=479 Results of Population and Housing Census in the Republic of Moldova in 2014]: {{cite web | url= http://www.statistica.md/public/files/Recensamint/Recensamint_pop_2014/Rezultate/Tabele/Caracteristici_populatie_Comune_RPL_2014_rom_rus_eng.xls | title= Characteristics - Population (population by communes, religion, citizenship) | publisher= [[National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova]] | format= XLS | year=2017 | accessdate = 2017-05-01}}</ref>
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|postal_code            = MD-4706 
|area_code              = + 373 247
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'''Lipcani''' ({{IPA|ro|lipˈkanʲ}}) is a town in [[Briceni District]], Moldova. It is also a [[Moldova–Romania border crossings|border crossing between Moldova and Romania]].

== Overview ==
[[File:Oprire, Lipcani, r-n Briceni, Republica Moldova Bus stop, Lipcani, Briceni District, Republic of Moldova (50331588452).jpg|thumb|left|Bus stop with the name of the town]]
Lipcani is located on the banks of the [[Prut river]], which forms the border with [[Romania]]. The border with [[Ukraine]] ([[Criva, Briceni|Criva]] border crossing point) is also only a few kilometers to the north. Lipcani is located in the [[Bessarabia]] region. The closest large urban centres are [[Chernivtsi]] in Ukraine, [[Suceava]] in Romania, and [[Bălți]] in Moldova. Lipcani is about {{convert|40|km|mi|abbr=on}} from the Ukrainian city of [[Khotyn]]. The town is crossed by a small river called Medvedca.

Because of misspelling or translation difficulties, it is also referred to as: Lipcan, Lipcany, Lipkan, Lipkani, Lipchen, Lipcheny, Lipcheni, Lipcani Targ, Lipceni, Lipchany, Lypchany, Lipchani, Lipkamya, Lepkan, Lepkany, Lepkani, Lepcan, Lepcany, Lepcani, Linkani, Liptchani, Lipkane, Lipkon and Lipcon.

==Timeline==
*June 17, 1429: The first historical mention of Lipcani.
*1699: Some of the [[Kamianets-Podilskyi|Kamieniec]] [[Lipka Tatars]] who remained loyal to the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] [[Sultan]] after fighting for him were settled in a town in [[Bessarabia]] that became known as Lipcani.
* 1812: Lipcani and the rest of [[Bessarabia Governorate|Bessarabia]] became a part of Russia.
* 1900: Population 4,410. Name: Lipkany, Khotin, Bessarabia, [[Russian Empire]].
* 1904: By this year, there was already a [[Calea Ferată din Moldova|railroad connecting Lipcani with Novoselitsy]].
* 1905: Various parts of Bessarabia were subject to [[Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire|Anti-Jewish pogroms]].
* August 1916: [[Romania during World War I|Romania entered WWI]] on the side of the [[Triple Entente]] against [[Austria-Hungary]] & [[German Empire|Germany]].
* March 2, 1918: The 2nd Cavalry Division of the [[Austro-Hungarian Army]], who was originally subordinate to the [[Kosak Group]] and then to the 17th Army Corps and to the [[Ost-Armee (Austria-Hungary)|Ost-Armee]], took Lipcani and [[Larga, Briceni|Larga]]. They later moved to [[Odessa]].
* {{OldStyleDate|February 6|1918|January 24}}: Bessarabia was still part of the Russian Empire, but after the [[Russian Revolution (1917)|Russian Revolution]] it declared itself an independent republic ([[Moldavian Democratic Republic]]). The regional [[National Council (Moldavian Democratic Republic)|National Council]] ([[Sfatul Țării]]) of the Moldavian Democratic Republic decided [[Union of Bessarabia with Romania|union with Romania]] on {{OldStyleDate|April 9|1918|March 27}}.
[[Image:Lipkany1.jpg|thumb|A Quiet Evening in Lipcani, [[Bessarabia]] (printed postcard from the early 1900s)]]
* August 11, 1918 The 187th [[Brigade]] of the [[Austro-Hungarian Army]] moved from [[Czernowitz]], via [[Novoselytsia]], to Lipcani, where they stayed until August 15.
* August 16, 1924: Along the forest of {{ill|Zelena, Kelmentsi Raion|lt=Zelena|ro|Zelena, Chelmenți|uk|Зелена (Кельменецький район)}} (15&nbsp;mi from [[Hotin]]), a couple of [[Romanian people|Romanian]] [[Jandarmeria Română|gendarmes]] who were taking two terrorists whom they had just arrested to Lipcani, were attacked by a Russian squad who killed one gendarme and went off with the terrorists.{{Citation needed|date=April 2008}}
* 1930: Name: Lipcani-Târg, Hotin, Basarabia, Romania.
* 1935: Lipcani Culture house built.
* 1937: [[Lipcani–Rădăuți-Prut Bridge]] opened. 
* End of the 1930s: Lipcani was a small provincial town, populated mainly by [[Bessarabian Jews|Jews]], who mostly lived in the central part of the town. There were about ten synagogues in Lipcani. There was a different synagogue for each [[guild]]: tailors, shoemakers, cabmen, etc. "Guild" synagogues were located in neighborhoods in the outskirts of town. Richer Jews had big synagogues in the center of town. There were 4,698 Jews on the eve of World War II.
* June–July 1940: [[Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina|The Red Army entered Lipcani]], declaring it part of the Soviet Union. Many [[Romanians]] escaped to Romania and left all their belongings behind. The Soviet authorities arrested all [[kulaks]], executed some and [[Soviet deportations from Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina|sent the rest to Siberia]]. Since the Communist system promoted atheism, the authorities began to fight religion by closing synagogues, churches and [[cheders]].
* August 2, 1940: The [[Moldavian SSR]] was formed, which included Bessarabia without its [[Southern Bessarabia|Southern part]]. Territories given to [[Ukraine]] initially included [[Edineț]], [[Briceni]], Lipcani and [[Ocnița]]. When the Soviets came, Lipcani was a town near the border. It belonged to the USSR and the area beyond the town was Romania.
* November 4, 1940: The borders were changed by the decree of the SS of USSR.
* 1940: 1,218 households and 5,726 people.
* June 22, 1941: The Germans [[Operation Barbarossa|invaded the Soviet Union]] and opened fire on Lipcani. There was a commandant office and a frontier regiment in Lipcani that set up a defensive position.
* July 1941: The Germans captured Bessarabia, and the {{convert|16000|sqmi|km2|abbr=on|order=flip}} area of [[Ukraine]] named [[Transnistria (World War II)|Transnistria]] was granted by [[Hitler]] to the Romanian dictator [[Ion Antonescu]] for Romania’s participation in the war against the Soviet Union. [[Bessarabian Jews|Jews from Bessarabia]], Bukovina and Moldova were transferred to Transnistria and many thousands were murdered from 1941 to 1944 by the [[Jandarmeria Română|Romanian Gendarmerie]], the [[Einsatzgruppe]] D, Ukrainian police and [[Sonderkommando]] R.
* July 8, 1941: Jews from the towns of Lipcani and [[Sokyriany|Sekiryany]] were sent to [[Briceni]].
* July 11, 1941: In Lipcani-[[Hotin]], the Military Police took 12 Jewish hostages and executed them.
* July 20, 1941: The [[death march]] of 1,200 Jews from Lipcani began.  The Germans took them to [[concentration camps]] where they were never heard of again. The ones that could not make the trip on foot were shot on sight and during the trip.
* July 28, 1941: All Jews from [[Briceni]] were dispatched across the [[Dniester]] and several were shot en route. When they arrived in [[Mogilev]], the Germans "selected" the old people and forced the younger ones to dig graves for them. From Mogilev the rest were turned back to [[Otaci|Ataki]] and then on to Sekiryany. Hundreds died en route. For a month they stayed in the [[ghetto]], only to be deported again to [[Transnistria]]. All the young Jews were murdered in the forest near [[Soroca]].
* October 9 and  10 (1941): Jews from [[Rădăuți]] were carried to their death in train wagons meant for transporting animals.  These trains passed through Lipcani. There, the Germans sent one group to the Dniester through Ataki, and the other group to [[Mărculeşti]].
* 1941–1944: Around 148,000 [[Bessarabian Jews]] were killed in [[Rîbnița]] and other ghettos and concentration camps on the East bank of the [[Dniester]] during the [[Nazism|Nazi]] occupation. During the war, the town, including almost all synagogues, was burnt down by the Germans.
* 1950: Name: Lipkany, Soviet Union.
* 1944: [[Jassy–Kishinev Offensive (August 1944)]]. The Red Army drove the Romanian and German armies out of Bessarabia, which became an integral part of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (as of 2006, most of Bessarabia is part of the independent [[Republic of Moldova]] and has been so since the dissolution of the USSR).
* July 6–20, 1996: A water ecological expedition called "Prut 96", organized by the NGO called Association of Ecological Education and Information "Terra Nostra" was held down the Prut river from the village of Lipcani to the village of [[Sculeni]] in the Ungheni region. The goal of the expedition was to examine the Prut river with the participation of students and post-graduates in order to attract attention of the population and state services towards the ecological problems of the river and the whole region.
* April 7, 1999: The Lipcani soccer team Venita lost to the [[FC Olimpia Bălți]] in the quarterfinals for the [[Moldovan Cup]] 1998/1999.
* 2000: The Moldovan Section of the [[International Society for Human Rights]] and the NGO's Datino and Credo were working with the women's prison in [[Ruska, Moldova|Ruska]] and the colony for young men in Lipcani.
* March 17, 2004: According to Stela Melnic of the Ministry of Economy, the construction of a {{convert|1.5|km|mi|abbr=on}} bypass road to the Lipcani–Rădăuți-Prut Bridge is going to start next autumn. Sponsored by [[TACIS]] and EU [[PHARE]] the project involves Moldova and Romania. The project will also include the modernization of the Lipcani [[Moldova–Romania border crossings|customs checkpoint]].
* June 17, 2007: the candidate of [[Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova|PCRM]] Dumenco Evghenii (Eugen Dumenco) is [[2007 Moldovan local election|elected]] as mayor of Lipcani. Dumenco Evghenii (born 1958) is an auto mechanic and president of SA "CMD-8".
* February 15, 2010: Lipcani–Rădăuți-Prut Bridge reopened.
[[File:Monumentul a lui V.Lenin, Lipcani, r-n Briceni, Republica Moldova V.Lenin Monument, Lipcani, Briceni District, Republic of Moldova (50334790638).jpg|thumb|''I Love Lipcani'' installation in front of the [[Lenin]] monument, 2020]]

==Current information==
* [[Calea Ferată din Moldova|Railroad lines in Moldova]] run north-south from [[Cahul]] and the southern border with Ukraine to Lipcani and the northern border with Ukraine. The main road routes run from Cahul to Chişinău via Comrat and from Chişinău to Lipcani via [[Bălți]].
* Current Institutions in Lipcani: Lipcani Pedagogical College, Lipcani Reformatory for Boys.

==Books==
* ''[http://yizkor.nypl.org/index.php?id=2410 Lipcan Fun Amol (Lipcan of Old)]'' – Aaron Shuster, Yizkor book in Yiddish, 1957,218 Pages.  Has B/W photos of the town.
* ''[http://yizkor.nypl.org/index.php?id=2936 Kehilat Lipkany: Sefer Zikaron (Prayer for Lipkany): Book of Remembrance]'' – Author/Editor: Zilberman-Slone, Tel Aviv 1963, 407 Pages, Languages: Hebrew & Yiddish, Published in Tel-Aviv.

==Notable people==
* [[Moyshe Altman]] (1890–1980), [[Yiddish]] prose writer, revered for his intricate style
* [[Shaike Dan]] (1909–1994), one of the [[Jewish Parachutists of Mandate Palestine]]
* [[Vasile Didic]] (born 1949), painter with works in several Moldovan museums
* [[Eliezer Greenberg]] (1896–1977), American Yiddish poet
* [[Irina Lozovan]] (born 1983), Moldovan politician
* [[Fraydele Oysher]] (1913–2004), actress in the [[Yiddish theater]]
* [[Moishe Oysher]] (1907–1958), Yiddish singer and cantor
* [[Eliezer Steinbarg]] (1880–1932), Yiddish poet, educator, and well-known author of [[Yiddish]] fables
* [[Judah Steinberg]] (1863–1908), a [[Hebrew]] writer
* [[Jacob Sternberg]] (1890–1973), Yiddish poet and theatrical director
* [[Alexander Grobman Tversqui]] (born 1927), agricultural scientist

==Locations of other towns called Lipcani (or similar)==
* {{convert|55.3|mi|km|abbr=on|order=flip}} north of Chişinău, Moldova (This town is called [[Lipceni]] and is sometimes confused with Lipcani.)
* {{convert|189.0|mi|km|abbr=on|order=flip}} southwest of Kiev, Ukraine] This town is called [[Lypcany]] is also sometimes confused with Lipcani.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}} 
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060212132039/http://rtrfoundation.org/SrchDetails.asp?rbSearchBy=DMSearch&txtTown=Lipkany&Town_Submit.x=43&Town_Submit.y=9&Town2=LIPKANY&RIN=3372 Census records information for 1858–1859 and 1874]
* [http://www.rtrfoundation.org/webart/massacresbessarabia.pdf Massacres, deportations & death marches from Bessarabia, from July 1941]
* [http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/lipkany1/lip010.html#Page12 Pictures of Lipkany]
* [http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/lipkany/lip001.html Survive & Tell by Shalom Eitan, 1998]
* [http://yivo1000towns.cjh.org/default.asp YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, "People of a Thousand Towns": The Online Catalog of Photographs of Jewish Life in Prewar Eastern Europe]
* [http://www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/moldova-inc-transnistria-region/lipcani.html International Jewish Cemetery Project]

{{Briceni District, Moldova}}
{{AdminCitiesMoldova}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Historic Jewish communities in Moldova]]
[[Category:Lipcani| ]]
[[Category:Cities and towns in Moldova]]
[[Category:Populated places in Bessarabia]]
[[Category:Khotinsky Uyezd]]
[[Category:Hotin County]]
[[Category:Ținutul Suceava]]
[[Category:Holocaust locations in Moldova]]
[[Category:Briceni District]]
[[Category:Populated places on the Prut]]