Kupiskis, Lithuania

Kupiskis, known in Yiddish as Kupishok, was home to 1,444 Jews before World War II. Today no Jews live in Kupiskis. Amazingly, however, there are nearly 60 people around the world researching their Jewish ancestors from this small Lithuanian town. Most of them are listed in the JewishGen Family Finder. For more information on the Kupishok SIG (Special Interest Group), please contact the SIG coordinator, Ann Rabinowitz or the Webmaster, Linda Cantor. According to Where Once We Walked, the authoritative gazetteer of Eastern European Jewish communities published by Avotaynu, the town is located 101 km E of Siauliai; 55°50'/24°58'.

View location via MapQuest  (Then click your browser's "Back" button to return here.)

Many Jews arrived in Kupiskis from Spain or Cologne, Germany.  There is an account of a document, which unfortunately was destroyed during the First World War, detailing the history of one Kupiskis family (the Trapidos) as far back as the expulsion from Spain in 1492. One interesting anecdote about the Jewish community in Kupiskis relates the story of the manager of the Jewish community's bank. At some point in time, this trusted official stole all the money in the bank, and disappeared, sending nearly 300 families into bankruptcy.

Click on map on right to see a larger version

Kupiskis References and Research Sources Kupiskis Album Kupiskis people and their stories Care Packages and How the Mail Got Delivered   Grigori Gershuni - famous revolutionary    In Memoriam of important Kupishokers Kupiskis Prayer Book  found in Mayor's house  Kupishok Memories by Israel Trapido Kupishok: The Memory Stronger, by Stanley Mayersohn (includes maps) Kupiskio Zydu Liaudies Bankas / Kupischker Judische Volks-Bank Landsmanshaftn in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Israel, and New York   My Father's House, by Shlomo Kodesh, 1995  Ode to Kupishok by Rabbi Michael Mayersohn  Performing Artists - Kupishokers in the Cultural, Entertainment, and Performing Arts  Photographs Descendants Kupiskis Families  School and Youth Group Photos   Kupiskis Records Birth Records Index Cemetery Information - New York, NY,  Morristown, N.J., Kupiskis, and Vilnius     Death Records Index Lithuanian Internal Passports Lithuanian telephone directory - 1930 Lithuanian telephone directory - 1938 Marriage Records Index Holocaust Information in Kupiskis     Holocaust victim list:  Holocaust victim list:  Names of 800 persons murdered in Kupiskis - summer of 1941 Legal Actions against Nazi collaborators Wall of Memory Holocaust Memorial - Description and photos of the Memorial and its Dedication         Yad Vashem testimony regarding Kupiskis Published and On-line References to Kupiskis Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust From The Annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry by Ephraim Oshry, z'l (1914-2003)  (Reprinted by permission of the publisher, The Judaica Press, Brooklyn, N.Y.) Funken, Kupishok in the1930's, description in the newspaper Funken Jewish Cities, Towns and Villages in Lithuania, by Berl Kagan The Jewish Colonial Trust - Judische Colonialbank The Jewish Community of Kupiskis, by Ausra Jonusyte, Kupiskis Ethnographic Museum JewishGen Family Finder Kupiskis, Napoleon and the 1830-1861 Rebellions    Kupiskio Zydai, by Linas Tatarunas and Asta Visinkaite, Centre for Studies of Culture and History of East European Jews  Kupiskis in the records of the Joint, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee  Links - on-line references to Kupiskis   Lite - Description of Kupiskis from Lite, Dr. Mendel Sudarsky, Uriah Katzenelenbogen, J. Kissin, and Berl Kagan   Lithuanian Jewish Communities, by Nancy Schoenburg and Stuart Schoenburg (Reprinted by permission of the publisher, Jason Aronson, Inc Northvale, N.J.) Maps on maps.lt - street maps and satellite views of modern Kupiskis  Shtetl Finder by Chester Cohen, 1980, 1989 The Memory of my Kupiskes Grandfather - Ivor Feinberg, from VilNews    The Yiddish Thing - Life In The Shtetl - Kupiskis, Lithuania  - by Ann Rabinowitz U.S. Department of State - Joseph Jaffe Letter Vignettes from Africa by Ann Rabinowitz Where Once We Walked by Gary Mokotoff and Sallyann Amdur Sack

Kupiskis Train Station (old station, year unknown) Originally, the station was designed for a location in the center of town.  However, the City elders did not want to pay the expected bribe to have this accomplished.  Therefore, the railroad company built the station outside town and people then had to walk quite a bit or hire a wagon or carriage to take them there. This photo shows the original wooden railroad station with a group of railroad employees.  This is how it looked when many of our ancestors started their trip to the outside world.  As you will note, the station sign states both of the old names of Kupiskis which were Slawinski and Kupischki.  (photo courtesy of Cindy Warren)

Kupiskis Train Station in 2004 This is closer to how the station looked when immigrants left in the 1920's and 1930's.   (photo courtesy of Clive Moss)

Copyright, 2012 Kupiskis SIG