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Click on the 'Lithuanian Shtetls' Link above to see information and links to the many Shtetls located in Lithuania. They do remember! A Lithuanian woman walking past the Jewish Memorial to the Jews Murdered in the Holocaust. This statue is located in the "Jewish Ghetto Park" in Svencionys.
Photo taken by Ted Margulis, August,1994 in Svencionys Lithuania (Liutuviskai, Lietuvi, Litovskiy, Litewski, Litauische) is situated along the Baltic Sea. The main seaport is Memel (under German rule) and today it is known as Klaipeda. Lithuania is an independent country that was formerly occupied by Russia. Jews from central Europe first settled in the country during the second half of the 14th century. Jews, in this country, enjoyed tremendous political and cultural influence that reverberated throughout the entire Diaspora. What's a Litvak? The borders of modern Lithuanian have nothing to do with being a Litvak. In fact, in Yiddish a Lithuanian (non-Jew) is called a "Litviner," not a Litvak. I'm not exactly sure, but the term Litvak means anyone who lived under Lithuanian rule in the 16th to 17th century, which includes a vast area to the east, south, and west of Lithuania today. This would include Bialystok in Poland, Minsk in Belarus and beyond. Moreover, in the 19th century, Litvaks moved all over, into what is Poland today - to Lodz where they set up the textile industry. It is also estimate that about 1/3 of Warsaw's Jewry in the late 19th century was Litvak, even though Warsaw was not part of the traditional Litvak homeland. Warsaw, like Lodz, was a town of immigration, and Litvak streamed there to find work and set up businesses. From a posting by Harold Rhode on LitvakSig on 2-17-98 Litvak comes from the word 'Lite' which is Lithuania in Yiddish. It applies to Jews in the ill-defined borders of the Dukedom of Lithuania in the 17 and 18th centuries, which included parts of Belorussian and Poland, but not most of Latvia (Courland). It also refers to Yiddish speakers with a Litvak accent, a version of Yiddish that extended through the Lomza-Suwalki and Vitebsk Guberniyas, a least. From a posting by Zvi Griliches Sept. 5, 1995 Censuses from as early as 1670 have been located in the Lithuanian State Brest-Litovsk and Grodno, today both are located in Belarus, were originally part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Duke Vitold gave the Jews from Poland charters to establish themselves in these two communities, similar to those granted by Bolislav the Pious to the Jews of Great Poland. Some of those Jews originally came from Oriental countries, including a few of them from Khazar stock. The border between Lithuania and Courland was always a subject of
disputes and disagreements. Documents for 1473, 1505, 1535, 1541, to
1545 are published by K. Gadebush. "Livlaendische Bibliothek nach
Alphabetischer Ordnung". Riga, 1777. Th. 1. Ab. 2 ## 71, 101, 128, 134,
138. Many Jewish records from four formerly (Southern) Lithuanian districts are known to be in the State Historical Archives of Belarus in Grodno; other Jewish records for the same towns are in Vilnius. Vilnius (Vilna) once had a population that was 55 percent Jewish and at the turn of the century was called the 'Jerusalem of Lithuania'. That ended with a genocide beginning in the summer of 1941 that was finished, for most part, by November of the same year. My wife Shirley and I traveled the road from Vilnius (Vilna in Yiddish) to Memel (Klaipeda today), with a short detour to Plunge where we had the opportunity to meet the only Jew left in that small town --- Yossel Bunka. You may (or perhaps will) hear of Yossel if you ever travel Lithuania, for he is a world renown wood sculpture. Most of what he hand carves deals with either a Jewish or Holocaust theme. I have several of his wood carvings on my desk top hutch to remind me of our meeting. This will be a story that I must tell you, while I've got your attention. It's worth sharing. Shirley and I used an interpreter while traveling Lithuania and he was explaining something to Yossel, who would then reply in Lithuanian when both of us detected a Yiddish word coming from Yossel. My wife speaks Yiddish, so she asked Yossel if he too spoke Yiddish and he answered with a rather surprised yes. Then Shirley apologized for her rather crude use of Yiddish and stated that she hadn't really had the opportunity to speak Yiddish for more than 50 years. Yossel looked at both of us, and we could see a tear roll down his cheek, as he said to us in Yiddish "neither have I!" That moment will always be treasured by the three of us as we had found a common ground. My maternal grandmother's family had lived in both Plunge and Telsai, which is only a few miles further down the road, which explains why we were there visiting the area. Our travels also took us to Klaipeda where my great grandparents (Cohen) had lived until their deaths in the late 1800s. We spent a night in Klaipeda. We also did a day trip to Svencionys, a small shtetl near the border of Belarus where family had also lived. We received from Galina Baranova, the Chief Archivist of the State Historical Archives in Vilnius, a number of documents that she had found relating to my ancestors including Revision Lists. By the way, Galina was born in Russia and has lived in Lithuania for many years. Lithuania Home Page - don't be fooled by the display as it does contain much information as you work through the links. A very moving photo essay by Laurence Salzmann, who spent a month in Lithuania photographing the remaining Jews can be viewed at Typical Lithuanian Street in 1994. Note the Soviet Style Apartment
Books published by the Jewish State Museum of Lithuania can be purchased by writing to: "A Book Review" - "Lituanie Juive, 1918 - 1940" authored by Joost van Beek of "Accessible Vital Records For Jews, Germans, Ukrainians and Poles in Galicia, Volhynia, Lithuania and Latvia- A Second Zabuzanski Collection" available at the downtown branch of the Vancouver Public Library. Other Libraries may also have a copy. Brian Lenius is Chairperson and Editor of East European Genealogist. "Afrikaner Yidishe Tzeitung" - just one of many articles available at this site "A Jewish Life Under The Tsars: The autobiography of Chaim Asonson, 1825-1888" - authored by Ira Leibowitz. To read the review of the gook, which gives some insight into life in that period in Serednik, Russia (now Seredzius, Lithuania) as well as in Shadova (Seduva), Kurtovian (Kurtuvenai), Mitau (Jelgava, Latvia) and Telz (Telsai) Published in Totowa, N.J. by Allanheld, Osmun & Co., 1983. Translated from the Hebrew by Norman Marsden. 287 pages, ISBN: 0865980667 "AJHS Manuscript Catalog" "A Look at the Censuses of Poland" - authored by Gayle Schlissel Riley and published in the Nov/Dec. 2000 issue of Heritage Quest "Annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry" - author Oshry Efroim Buy from Amazon.com "Barak - Soldier Number One" authored by Ben Caspi and Ilan Kfir and published by Alfa Communication in Tel-Aviv, May 1998. This is Ehud Barak's biography and includes information about a small Jewish community in Lithuania where a grandfather is killed by Goyim. "Can Jewish Genealogists Successfully Research 18th Century Poland?" - authored by Sallyann Amdur Sack and published in Avotaynu Vol. XVI, No. 3 Fall 2000 "The Case of Zheimelis" (The Expulsion of the Jews from Lithuania in the Spring of 1915") - authored by Anatolij Chayes and published in St Petersburg. Translated by Gordon McDaniel. There are a lot of excellent articles at this site http://www.jewishgen.org/litvak/whatsnew.htm "The Children of the Vilna Gaon" - authored by Chaim Freedman. One of the important books published by Avotaynu was "Eliyahu's Branches: The Descendants of the Vilna Gaon and His Family." It documents more than 20,000 descendants of this great Jewish scholar. Equally important, its author, Freedman, theorized on the genealogy of the immediate descendants of the Gaon -- his children and grandchildren--from the scant documentation available when the book was published. Freedman recently stated that one of his theories, that the Goan's son Avraham Vilner was born in 1765, has been confirmed. A 1795 Vilna census/tax list includes Abraham and records his age as 30. Information about the book
can be found at http://www.avotaynu.com/gaontree.html The Complete Bibliography of the Works of Professor Dov Levin, 1945-2000" "Crime and Punishment" - compiled by Advocate Joseph Melamed. It is a very comprehensive history of the Holocaust in Lithuania. The history of the Holocaust in most of the larger cities and towns is given in detail. Several thousand of the known perpetrators of the mass murder in Lithuania are listed by name. There is an Association known as "Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel. They publish a newsletter, Gachelet, in Hebrew, Yiddish and English. Their address is 1 David Hamelech Blvd., Tel Aviv 64953, Israel. "Demographic and social-Professional Structure of the Jewish Community in Vilnius" - based on the Census of 1784. "The Gaon of Vilnius and the Annals of Jewish Culture"; Materials of the International Scientific Conference, - compiled by Dr. Lempertas and Edited by Larisa Lempertiene. Published by University Publishing House in Vilnius in 1998 "Eliyahu's Branches: The Descendants of the Vilna Gaon and his Family" "Experiences with Jewish Genealogical Requests and a review of the records stored in the Lithuanian State Historical Archives": authored by Galina Baranova, Chief Archivist of the State Historical Archives in Vilnius - LITVAKSIG online Journal "The Expulsion of the Jews from Lithuania in the Spring of 1915" - a description of political events preceding and accompanying the expulsion of Jews from the western part of Kovno Guberniya, based on the periodical press of 1914-1915, the stenographic minutes of the State Duma, and publications primarily from the interwar period - authored by Anatolij Chayes and published in the February, 2000 issue of LITVAKSIG Journal You can also find week-to-week reports in English-language Jewish newspapers of the era, such as the Jewish Chronicle of London. "Fighting Back" - the story of Jewish soldiers in the Lithuanian Division of the Red Army during the years 1941-1945. The second, revised edition, was published in 1997 by Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc. 160 Broadway, East Building 9th Floor, New York City. Phone: 1 (212) 374 0100. Professor Dov Levin was the author and he indicated that he has hundreds of files of interviews he conducted to create "First Telsai Martyrs 1914-1918" - an article - "From Here to Kovno" - an article - "From Yerushalayim d' Lita" - authored by Debbie Berliner and published in the July, 2000 issue of LITVAKSIG Journal HaMagid - the first weekly Hebrew newspaper appearing from 1856 to 1903. Jeff Marx Rabjamarx@aol.com has information on this subject. Jeff has created a full index to shtetl names which appear in the donor lists of HaMagid for all issues between 1856 and 1900. Though each issue is entirely in Hebrew, the year, volume, month and day are printed in English letters on the front page of each weekly issue. Pages are also numbered. City and town names appear in slightly larger fonts and are often in bold face. Usually they appear under the Hebrew word "nedavot" (donations), and are, more often than not, found in the supplement section to the weekly issue. Jeffrey Maynard mentioned that there are 70 lists from 57 locations - almost For the most part, all that is available in HaMagid, according to Jeff Marx, is a name on a list. These lists may enable one to ascertain that a specific family member was actually living at a given date and was residing in a particular city or shtetl as of that date (give or take a few months' lag between the time the donation was made and the donor's name was published in HaMagid) Now and then, the donor may be identified as coming from a smaller town outside the city where the collection took place. Now and then, in HaMagid, the donor is listed with other family members and their relationship is spelled out ("son-in-law of so and so" or "son of so and so") Finally, when donors are listed in descending order of contributions, it provides a slight clue as to the family member's economic status in the community. While, for the most part, the donor lists in HaMagid do not yield any other significant pieces of information, other than the name, they are worthwhile checking for those rarer times when a 'gem' may be found. The HaMagid Persian Famine Donation Lists - Donors from Lithuania - 1871 and 1872 provide a resource of the names of over 40,000 Jews from the Pale of Settlement, including over 5,000 Lithuanian Jewish heads of families. Microfilms of HaMagid are found at the following repositories: Brown University; Columbia University; Cornell University; Harvard University; Hebrew College, Boston; Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati and Los Angeles; Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem; Jewish Theological Seminary, New Your; Library of Congress; New York Public Library; Northwestern university, Chicago; Stanford University; University of Ann Arbor; University of California, Berkeley; Washington University, St Louis; Yale University "Heroism and Bravery in Lithuania, 1941-1945" - authored by Alex Faitelson in 1996 a Lithuanian Jew who lived in Kaunas, and who entered the Jewish Resistance when he was about 18. He was imprisoned in the Ninth Fort of Kaunas, from where he organized a daring escape with 63 other people. "Hidden History of the Kovno Ghetto" published by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1997 and can be viewed on the Museum's web site. "Holocaust in Lithuania 1941-1945, The: A book of Remembrance." A four volume set records and documents over 50,000 Lithuanian Jewish Holocaust victims and edited and compiled by Rose Lerer Cohen and Saul Issroff. "In Jewish Autonomy in Poland and Lithuania until 1648 (5408)" authored by Professor Shmuel Cygielman and published in Jerusalem, 1997. "Jewish Cities, Towns and Villages in Lithuania Until 1918" - authored by "Jewish Craftsmen in Kaunas Guberniya" - an article by Anatolij Chayes in which the author surveys the typical documents preserved in the Russian State historical Archives and much more The Jewish Family History Foundation - dedicated to the preservation, acquisition and dissemination of Jewish records from archives and other repositories in Eastern Europe "Jewish Kahals in 18th Century Lithuania" - The Gaon of Vilnius and the Annuals of Jewish Culture. Materials of the International Scientific Conference, (Vilnius, September 10-12, 1997). Compiled by Dr. Lempertas, Edited by Larisa Lempertiene and published in Vilnius by University Publishing House in 1998 "The Jewish State Museum of Lithuania" - authored by Rachel Kostanian - available at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. It provides a condensed history (with photographs) of the Jewish State Museum and of Lithuanian Jewry and includes a summary of ongoing publication projects. "Jewish Vital Records, Revision Lists and Other Holdings in the Lithuanian Archives" (English) authored by Harold Rhode and Sallyanne Sack and published by Avotaynu, Inc. in Teaneck, NJ in 1996 "The Jews of Lithuania" - authored by Masha Greenbaum is a history of a "Kaisadorys and Zasliai Cemeteries" - an article - "Kaunas Archive Resources" - an article - "The Kovno Ghetto: A Buried History" - a video produced by A&E TV Channel "Jewish Life in Lithuania" ("Zyclu gyvenimas Lietuvoje") 2nd edition published by the Anne Frank House and the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum in Vilnius and produced in cooperation with the Lithuanian Institute of History, the Centre for Civic Initiatives and the Centre for Textbook Research. It offers an insight into Jewish life and culture, Jewish-Lithuanian coexistence, the Holocaust, the role of the Jewish Community and anti-Semitism now-a-days in Lithuania. The book can be ordered from Aidas Zandaris, Leidykia "Zara" Box 2699, LT-03007 Vilnius Lithuania. Email info@zara.lt or aidas@zara.lt Sites are in Lithuanian but look to the right where you will see "How to Buy" with a British flag. Click on this link for English instructions. "Landscape and Memory" - authored by Simon Schama - has a large section devoted to Lithuania "The Last Days of Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps, 1939-1944" in English, is a translation of Yiddish diaries of Herman Kruk, a Bundist activist from Warsaw, who fled to Vilna at the beginning of WW II. The book is published jointly by YIVO and Yale University Press with assistance from the Nusach Vilna Society and was edited by Professor Benjamin Harshav, Blaustein Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at Yale, and translated by Barbara Harshav. Available from JewishGen Mall at "in the context of discussing the borders of Lithuania, he comments that the borders of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania are honored to this day only by the Jews: the whole area with its capital in Vilna is called in Yiddish Lite (Litah) and its Jews, the Litvaks, are "marked by a distinct Yiddish dialect and mentality for learning, different customs of cooking, and a sense of cultural superiority." From a posting by H. Elliott Lipschultz "Light One Candle" - authored by Solly Ganor in 1995 deals with the Kovno, Lithuania Ghetto. "Lite" (Volumes 1 and 2) - At the end of October 2001, Lite (Lithuania) Contact Max Heffler max@texsys.com if you have a particular town/name you wish translated, and he can determine the amount it will cost to have it translated A translator should run about $25 per page. The Yizkor Book web pages contains translated tables of contents and lists names appearing in each 1000+ page book. "Lithuanian Archives in the Past and at Present" - authored by Laima "Lithuanian Jewish Communities" - authored by Nancy and Stuart Schoenberg is an excellent descriptive book of the many shtetls of Lithuania. A good resource. Lithuanian Names, City Directories and Census, Military Records, Death Records and a host of other Lithuanian information using the Zemaitis Genealogy and Family History web site at Type in a surname in the search box. If you type in the name Zemaitis, you'll find a lot of interesting information. "Lituanie Juive 1918-1940" a book review by Joost van Beek and published in "The Litvaks" - authored by Dov Levin, a professor at Hebrew University and "Litvaks and the Founding of Brandeis University" - authored by Steven Weiss and published in the July, 2000 issue of LITVAKSIG Journal "Litvaks and Their Calendars or How to Navigate Between the torah Portion and the Hebrew, Gregorian, and Julian Calendars" - authored by Jacob Bleadon and published in the April, 2000 issue of the LITVAKSIG Journal LITVAKSIG "The LITVAKSIG Poetry Page" - "The Lords' Jews, Magnate - Jewish Relations in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the 18th Century" - authored by M. J. Rosman. It an an informative work of research on the "Arrendator" or lessee system. Published in Cambridge, MA by Harvard University Press in 1990 "The Lost Wooden Synagogues of Eastern Europe" - features a journey by filmmaker Albert Barry to Lithuania to try to find the few remaining wooden synagogue buildings still standing. Information about the film and how to order a copy is available at "The Militias of Magnate's Towns in Belorussia and Lithuania in the 16th to 18th Centuries" - authored by Anatol Hrtckiewicz. In Kwartalnik Historyczny, 77, no. 1 published in Minsk in 1970 "Native Realm - authored by Czeslaw Milosz and also the author of "The Issa Valley" "New Sources of Genealogical Information in the Kaunas Regional Archives" - authored by Vitalija Gircyte, Chief Archivist of the Kaunas Regional Archives LITVAKSIG Online Journal "Once Upon A Time in Lithuania" - authored by Naomi Alexander who was appointed artist in residence at the Europas Parks Sculpture Museum in Vilnius is published by David Paul. The book includes illustrations of more than 130 of Naomi's drawings and paintings accompanied by a historical overview of Lithuanian Jewry by Professor Aubrey Newman. "On Foreign Soil" - an autobiographical novel authored by Falk Zolf and If this site is down, try "On the Front Line in Lithuania, 1915" - stories of Jewish Eyewitnesses, by Anatolii Chayesh, translated by Gordon McDaniel and appearing in the August, 2001 issue of the LITVAKSIG Journal "Pinkas Hakehillot: Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities from their foundation till after the Holocaust: Lithuania" - "The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 18th Century 1697-1935" (Liberty's Folly) - authored by Jerry Tadeusz Lukowski and published by the Cambridge University Press in 1951 "Privilege to Jews Granted by Vytautas the Great" - authored by Stanislovas Lazutka and Edwardas Gudavichius in English and Russian and published in Moscow by the Jewish University of Moscow in 1993 "Researching 18th-Century Census and Tax Lists from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania" - see Avotaynu Vol. XVII, No. 3, Fall 2001 "Revisiting Roots in Lithuania" - authored by Hedy Pagremanski Page and "The Rosen Legacy" - authored by Claire L. Datnow. The Rosen Legacy waves a complex tapestry that ranges across time and space, chronicling the fate of nine generations of Rosens and the Torah they inherit. Through the lives of its custodians the Torah becomes entangled in astonishing and brutal events shaping the fate of a family, a people, and a nation. At the heart of the novel is an intriguing question: how does a family's sacred legacy shape the identify of those who inherit it? Excerpts from this book are available at
http://www.jewishgen.org/Litvak/excerpts_ "Scrolls of Testimony" - authored by Abba Kovner in 2001 relates to the Kovno Ghetto. "The Shtetl and I" - authored by Dvora Rogovin Helberg ""On Sunday, Elul 17th , 5702, (8/30/1942), the Vishnive ghetto was annihilated. The church bells began ringing early in the morning, announcing to the gentiles of the surrounding villages about the slaughter. By the thousands, they poured into town, filled its streets and gathered near the synagogue. They watched the victims burning, some still alive." (from the Vishnive Memorial Book, Published in Israel, 1972). Read the book at "The Tale of a Litvak" - authored by Morris S. Schulzinger and published in 1985 by Philosophical Library, New York. Contains references of Balbarishok, Grodno, Halinke, Kovno, Lazde, Mariyampole, Serei, Vilna and Yagustov. The book mentions these families: Dunsky, Frankel, Golden, Goldin, Gootman, Gurvitz, Horwitz, Krutzel, Leemon, Lucas, Marmet, Prebell (Pribulsky) Ravad, Rutshtein, Schulzinger, Sereisky and Slavaticki. The author was born in Serei in 1900 and later lived in Cincinnati until his death. "There Once Was A World" authored by Masha Greenbaum and Professor D. "Unbelievable Truth" - authored by Jeanne Ran Tcharnyi who was born in "Unmarked Lives" mount an exhibition of textile artistry inspired by doing Litvak genealogical research "Using Litvak Naming Patterns to Derive Names of Unknown Ancestors" - is an article written by Harold Rhode and published in Avotaynu Vol. XI, No. 3 Fall 1995 issue of Avotaynu Videos by Alexanders Feigmanis, the well-known genealogist is available. http://www.jewishgen.org// then go to the "mall". "The Vievis Jewish Cemetery" - an article - "Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum" - an article - "What Does a Litvak Look Like?" - an article by Judith Shulamith Langer-Surnamer Caplan asking "How many of you have ever wondered what a Litvak looks like '?" and published in the July, 1999 issue of LITVAKSIG "What Rite or Ritual for Prayer Was in General Use Among the Jews in Lithuania?" - authored by Shalom Bronstein and published in the June, 2000 issue of LITVAKSIG Journal "Yahadut Lite" - Historical Introduction in Hebrew, authored by Israel Klausner -vol. I, published in Tel-Aviv in 1968. The multivolume work on the Jews of Lithuania, "Yahadut Lite," has articles "Yidishe Shtetl un Shtetlach in Lita" - authored by Berl Kagan. "Yidishe Shtet, Shtethlekh un Dorfishe Yishuvim in Lite: biz 1918: Historish- Biografishe Skitses" (Jewish Cities, Towns and Villages in Lithuania until 1918) http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/translations.html Yizkor Book Project - Martin Kessel is the Project Manager kessel@jewishgen.org Very few Lithuanian towns have individual Yizkor books, but there are other "Zeimelis Jewish Cemetery" display photographs of Jewish memorial Matzevot in Lithuanian shtetls "Zemaiciu Naumiestis Cemetery Visit" - an article - http://www.jewishgen.org/Litvak/journal.htm
LITVAKSIG http://www.jewishgen.org/Litvak/HTML/OnlineJournals/Journal.htm General I would suggest to the researcher of the following sites, to also check the My thanks to Davida of the LITVAKSIG who so graciously offered to make Sites of Pre-war Jewish Residences in Lithuania - a map is located on the |
Books