Lithuanian Jewish Communities |
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Lithuanian Jewish Communities by Nancy Schaumburg and Stuart Schoenburg. New York: Garland Publishing, 1991. |
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Ushpole is located on the banks of the Shventa. It is near Vizhon, Utian (9 miles), and Sviadoshitz. |
| Head-tax records showed a Jewish population of 109 in 1765. In 1847, there were 515 Jews, in 1897 - 691 (out of a general population of 740), and in 1921, according to the data of "Vaad Haaretz", 514. |
| In 1932, a large section of the town burned, including the beit midrash and the large "minyan" with an attached library. |
| The Jews engaged in small businesses, crafts and agriculture. There were 22 artisans, including 6 needleworkers, 4 butchers, 4 bakers, a metal-worker, a carpenter, and 6 others. The children studied in the cheder or at the school in Utian, which was the cultural and social center of the area. |
| From the rabbinate: R. Yakov; R. Naftali-Harats Klatzkin; R. Yisrael-Moshe Halberstat (who served as rabbi in Dubna and afterward in Ushpole. He died in 1872. He was a Torah scholar as well as being versed in the ways of the world.) |
| Natives: R. Eliahu and R. Yisrael-Isser, the sons of R. Naftali-Harats Klatzkin. |
| Additional reference: Chapter on Ushpole by Zvi Takar of Nes Ziona, Israel in the memorial book, Utian un Umghengnt (Utian and Surrounding Areas), Tel Aviv: Committee for Remembrance of Jews from Utian and Surrounding Areas, 1979 (in Yiddish). |
