Molly and Pinchus Kiejdan

Pinchus Kiejdan was born in 1924 in Vilna, Poland (today Vilnius, Lithuania) to Mejer and Julia Kiejdan. Pinchus and his three sisters, Mira, Etalae, and Chanale, had a very comfortable childhood. Under German occupation, beginning in 1941, Pinchus and his family were forced into the Vilna Ghetto, where he met his future wife, Malka (Molly) Avidon. In 1942, they were sent to Heereskraftfahrpark (HKP), a labor camp in Vilna.  Pinchus rewired German tanks and repaired electrical appliances. Shortly before the camp was liberated, the couple escaped and went into hiding until the end of the war. Pinchus’s father and his two youger sisters, Etalae and Chanale, were murdered a few months before liberation. 

Malka (Molly Avidon) Kiejdan was born in 1925 in Augustow, Poland, Malka Avidon had four younger brothers, Zorach, Baruch, Israel, and Fivel. Her parents, Reuven and Shayna Avidon, owned a grocery store. Malka’s parents and brothers were murdered during the Holocaust. In 1941, the Nazis moved Malka to the Vilna Ghetto. When Malka and Pinchus were at Heereskraftpark slave labor camp, Molly stoked boilers, worked on the railroads, and washed clothes for the Germans. Of the roughly 5,000 Jews in HKP, Molly and Pinchus were among fewer than one hundred who survived. 

Pinchus and Molly were married on November 22, 1944. Their son, Michael who was named after his paternal grandfather, was born in 1945. Pinchus and Molly decided to leave Poland and immigrate to the United States. They lived for three years in Gailingen DP camp in the American occupation zone of Germany. The family finally arrived in New York in February 1949. 

They lived in Brooklyn briefly before joining Pinchus’s sister and brother-in-law, Mira and Jack Trocki, on their jointly owned poultry farm with the Narkunski and Judelewitz families in Mays Landing, New Jersey. Pinchus and Molly had five more children in the United States, Edith, Ralph, Robert, Alex and Renee. The two brothers-in-law, Pinchus Kiejdan and Jack Trocki, became lifelong business partners. As early as 1951, they started building chicken coops for other poultry farmers. Their business grew as they entered the home construction business. Molly and Pinchus gave back to society; they became pillars of the Jewish community, including significant contributions and efforts for various educational and religious entities. They instilled in their family compassion for others and perserverence in the face of hardship. Pinchus Kiejdan passed away in 1993, and Molly Kiejdan in 2021.