Eisiskes — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

Yiddish: Eyshishok
Belarussian: Eishyshki
Polish: Ejszyszki
Russian: Eishishki

A city in southeastern Lithuania

Eisiskes is located on the border between Lithuania and Belarus, and 38 miles (61km) southwest of Vilnius (Vilna). Until World War I (1914-1918) Eisiskes was part of the Vilna Province in the Russian Empire. During the interwar period it was included in the Novogrudok District, Poland. After World War II (1939-1945) Eisiskes was part of the Soviet Union; since the 1990s it has been part of Lithuania.

Among the notable figures from Eisiskes was Professor Yaffa Eliach (1937-2016). When she was four years old Eliach and her family escaped the Nazi massacre of Eisiskes’ Jews and spent the war in hiding. They later immigrated to the United States where she founded the Center for Holocaust Studies at the Yeshiva of Flatbush in Brooklyn, New York. Additionally, she gathered 6,000 photographs of the Jews of Eisiskes (92% of the Jews living in Eisiskes at the outbreak of World War II), 1,500 of which are featured in the “Tower of Faces” exhibition in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

HISTORY

Jewish sources indicate that Eisiskes was home to one of the oldest Jewish communities in Lithuania. Jews also made up a large percentage of the city; during the 18th century Jews made up about half of Eisiskes’ population. By 1820 approximately 80% of the population was Jewish.

By the middle of the 19th century there were 660 Jews living in Eisiskes. Religious institutions and professionals included two beit midrashes (battei midrash), in which 80 young married men studied Torah, 2 dayanim (religious judges), 3 kosher butchers, and 2 beadles (shammess). A society for the study of Talmud was also established in 1897. Rabbi Joseph of Lippnishok served as the rabbi of the community. Toward the end of the century Rabbi Benzion Sternfeld, a passionate advocate for traditional education and the author of Shaarei Zion, served as the community’s rabbi.

Throughout the 19th century Eisiskes was known as a place for advanced Torah scholarship, on the same level of the yeshivas of Mir and Volozhin. Famous Torah scholars studied and taught at Eisiskes, including Rabbi Israel Meir HaCohen, the author of Hefez Chaim, Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, Rabbi Moshe Danishevski, one of the founders of the Zionist movement HaMizrachi, and Rabbi Mordecai Flongian of Vilna (Vilnius).

A number of events spurred growth in the Jewish population of Eisiskes. The 1882 May Ordinances of Czar Alexander III, which prohibited Jews from living in the villages, prompted many to come to live in Eisiskes. With the establishment of both battei midrash, increasing numbers of young married men arrived in Eisiskes to study.

The men who came to study at the yeshivas in Eisiskes were an important part of the local culture. This group was referred to as the “Kibbutz Prushim” (Collective of Abstinents); according to local tradition, the group was originally founded by Rabbi Moshe Halevy Hurwitz at the beginning of the 19th century. These students were supported by the wealthy members of the community, together with the community’s craftsmen. Eisiskes continued to attract men to its yeshivas until World War I.

In 1895 Eisiskes was completely destroyed by fire. It was rebuilt shortly thereafter, this time with stone houses and paved streets.

A heder metukkan opened in Eisiskes at the beginning of the 20th century, which offered a curriculum of secular subjects in addition to religious studies. It operated until around 1920, when a Hebrew school was founded in the community. This new school quickly became a social and cultural center for both Hebraists and Yiddishists.

In addition to its educational institutions, the Jewish community of Eisiskes also operated a welfare fund for loans without interest, as well as a fund for the sick. After the outbreak of World War I an aid committee was also established in order to help the refugees who arrived in Eisiskes in order to escape the war. Founded with the help American Jews, the aid committee provided food and accommodations for the needy.

Culturally, Zionism was popular in Eisiskes, but became particularly influential after World War I. The community’s first Zionist society was founded in 1897 and led by Isaac Vilekansky. A branch of the Poalei Zion organization was established in 1902, and was followed in 1905 by Rak Ivrit (“Hebrew Only”), an organization for children, and Hamerkaz, which sought to teach adults the Hebrew language.

A number of Zionist youth movements were established after World War I. The first to be established were Herut V’Techiya (“Liberty and Revival) in 1919 and Pirhei Zion for children. The Brenner Club was founded in 1922, founded in 1924 by HaShomer HaZair. Later youth movements included the Revisionist Zionist group Betar, HeHalutz HaMizrachi, and HeHalutz; the latter last two trained youth for agricultural work in preparation for immigration to Palestine.

The Bund was also active in Eisiskes, as were a number of communist organizations. Other cultural institutions included a theater troupe and a public library; a Hebrew library was added in 1918.

Most of the Jews of Eisiskes worked as traders, while some owned land, worked as tanners, or worked as farmers. The latter, however, lost their land in the 1920s, when it was given to the local Christian farmers as a result of an edict of Czar Nicholas I. Those who worked in trade dealt mainly in horses, skins, fabrics, paints, haberdashery, and ironware. The trade was conducted in shops and on the weekly market days. At the end of the 19th century a match factory was established in Eisiskes, which employed scores of young Jewish women. A bank was founded in 1909. A merchants’ union was established in 1919. In 1929 a craftsmen’s union was formed, which trained Jewish artisans in how to obtain professional recognition; the union enrolled approximately 80 members.

A number of Jews emigrated from Eisiskes during the interwar period. Many left for the United States, while others moved to Vilna or other cities. This was due in part to the economic depression that occurred in the wake of World War I. Adding to the global economic crisis was a more local one; during the 1930s the government opened a number of shops in the district, which had a negative impact on the Jews of Eisiskes, who made their living as craftsmen. Additionally, during the 1930s a wave of anti-Semitism broke out in Poland. Jews in Eisiskes and throughout the country were the victims of anti-Jewish riots, as well as other forms of violence and discrimination.

In 1925 there were about 2,500 Jews living in Eisiskes (70% of the total population). In 1939, on the eve of World War II, about 3,000 Jews were living at Eisiskes.

THE HOLOCAUST

World War II broke out on September 1, 1939; on September 17 the Red Army occupied Eisiskes and a revolutionary committee, headed by a Jewish communist, was quickly formed. Zionist activities were banned, and the school became a Yiddish school for the working class. A month later Eisiskes came under Lithuanian rule. Zionist activity was permitted to resume, and the school was permitted to revert back to Hebrew.

Because Eisiskes is located close to what was then the border between Lithuania and Russia, the town became a transit station for Jewish refugees from occupied Poland. A committee was formed to help the refugees, led by Rabbi Shimon Rosovsky.

Lithuania was annexed to the USSR in June 1940. Once again, Zionist leaders were arrested and Zionist activities were prohibited. Additionally, the Hebrew language was banned and Jewish shops were confiscated. At the same time, Eisiskes’ Jews were given the opportunity to lead the local communist party and the Komsomol (communist youth).

On June 21,1941, Germany attacked the USSR, and on June 23 the German Army occupied Eisiskes. Shortly thereafter Jewish men between the ages of 14 and 60 were conscripted for forced labor on the roads. That July a Jewish committee was established by the Germans, who chose its members via lottery. The committee was ordered to collect jewelry and gold and silver coins from the community, which were then sent to Germany. Jews were subject to discrimination, violence, and public humiliation, such as when 250 Jews were assembled in the market place and their beards were cut.

When the Germans turned the administration of Eisiskes over to the Lithuanians and rumors were spreading about mass extermination of Jews, Rabbi Shimon Rosovsky called upon the leaders of the community to collect money in order to purchase weapons for self-defense. Meanwhile, the Lithuanian chief of police declared that if the Jewish community could give him thousand gold rubles he would protect them.

On the eve of Rosh HaShana 5702 (September 1941), the Jews were ordered to relinquish their valuables and assemble at the battei midrash and the synagogue. Additionally, about 1,000 Jews from the nearby small towns of Valkininkas and Salcininkai were brought to Eisiskes and assembled in a stable. The members of the Jewish council advised the community to flee; 490 Jews attempted to escape, but most of them were shot by the Germans and by Lithuanian police.

After two days without food or water all of the Jews in Eisiskes were taken to the marketplace, where they were surrounded by the Lithuanian police and Germans. The next morning, led by the chief of police, the Jewish men and boys were taken to the Jewish cemetery, where they were killed and buried in a mass grave. The women and children were taken to the Christian cemetery and killed on the following day. Rabbi Rosovsky was ordered to witness the massacre until he too was shot by the Lithuanian commander. In total, approximately 3,000 Jews from Eisiskes, and another 1,000 Jews from Valkininkas and Salcininkai were killed.

The Jewish community was not reconstituted after the war. A monument was erected in the Jewish cemetery where the mass killing took place. A plaque in Yiddish, Lithuanian, and Russian reads “Approximately 1,500 Jewish men were murdered in this place on September 26-27, 1941 by the Hitlerite murderers and their local accomplices.” Two more monuments were erected later, one for the men who were killed, and another for the women and children.

Beit Hatfutsot