Alternate names: Eišiškės and Эйшышкі [Lith], Eshishuk and איישישוק / איישישאָק [Yid], Ejszyszki [Pol], Eishishki and Эйшишки / Ейшишки [Rus], Eišišķes [Latv], Aisheshuk, Aishishak, Aishishuk, Eishishuk, Eishyshok, Eyshishkes, Eyshishok, Aišiškės. 54°10' N, 25°00' E, 38 miles SSW of Vilnius, 23 miles NNW of Lida in Šalčininkai region near border with Belarus. Eisiskes is in Lithuania today, unlike most of Lida District, which is in Belarus. Situated on a small group of hills and surrounded by marshy valley of Verseka and Dumblė Rivers, the rivers divide the town into two parts with the northern part called Jurzdika. January 2008 Eišiškės population was 3,610. (NOTE: clicking the link to Šalčininkai region as of 2/2023 takes you to the Jewishgen sign on page first)

Yizkors: Eishishok, koroteha ve-hurbana (Jerusalem, 1960) , "Aishishuk"; its history and its destruction: documentaries, memories and illustrations(Israel, 1980), There once was a world: a 900-year chronicle of the shtetl of Eishyshok (Boston, 1998).

Aleksandrovo / Zemaiciu Namiestis

Jews in Eisiskes

• Webpage in Lithuanian- use a browser translation app. Unfortunately has many ads

Holocaust

• Simon Wiesenthal Center Archives & Library. The Center used to have much material online that is no longer.
• German troops arrived in Eišiškės on June 23, 1941. On September 21, 1941, SS Mobile Killing Squad with Lithuanian auxiliaries entered the town. 4,000+ Jews from Eishishok and neighboring towns and villages were imprisoned in three synagogues and then taken in groups of 250 to the old Jewish cemetery where SS men ordered them to undress and stand at the edge of open pits where Lithuanian auxiliary troops shot them to death. The new cemetery was destroyed in 1953 and turned into the yard of a kindergarten. Some private Jewish buildings survive and are protected as part of the urban heritage. One school is now a library, while another was demolished. No Jews live in the town today.
  
• Testimony of Nathan Ballon from Eisiskes, who was in Voronovo during WWII, from records at the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives
• US Holocaust Memorial Museum has hundreds of matches on Eisiskes.
• Eye-witness to Holocaust murders of Eisiskes women and children
• List of Pages of Testimony for former residents of Eisiskes at Yad Vashem compiled by Judy Baston
• List of Holocaust Victims (Necrology) from Eisiskes compiled from various sources by Judy Baston
• Film: There Once Was a Town on YouTube, late 2020
  

Landsmanshaftn and other organizations

• JGSNY Home Page, Incorporation papers location for a Landsmanshaft for Eisiskers: See "NY Landsmanshaftn and other organizations. Pull down "JGS Resources" and select  "Incorporation Papers" to get there.
• Eisisker Landsmanshaftn burial society plots in New York City - courtesy of JGSNY , Jewish Genealogical Society of New York Enter 'Eisiskes' into the town search box. (Down for updating as of 6/30/215)
• HaMelitz Lithuanian Charity Donors Database Entry for Eisiskes

Trips

• Judy  Baston's 1997 trip for the making of "There Once was a Town"
• trip in 2000 to Eisiskes, report and pictures donated by Sidney Kuperberg 

Famous Sons

• • Eliezer Elijah b. Solomon Ẓebi Hirsch Deiches (1797-1881) was rabbi in Voronovo and Eisiskes, born and died in Vilnius. See Jewish Encyclopedia online under Deiches
  • Rabbi Benyamin Ha-Cohen Shekowitski (1871 - 1938), last Maggid of Minsk. His father was from Eisiskes, his mother a Dolinski from Radun. See pp 124 - 128, Yaffa Eliach, There Once was a World, Little Brown, 1998.
  • Löb Hirsch Deiches (generally called Aryeh Ẓebi b. David) "son of Rabbi David of Eishishuk" died 1891. See Jewish Encyclopedia online under Deiches

Other

• Naomi Blitz, "From Eishyshok to Perth", AVOTAYNU, Winter 2015, vol  XXXI, No. 4
• Ellis Island Arrivals listing Eisiskes as their last place of residence compiled by Judy Baston
• Wikipedia
• Tombstones dating from as early as 1097 were at the former Jewish cemetery, making Eshishok one of the oldest Jewish settlements in Eastern Europe. IAJGS International Jewish Cemetery Project
• Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego (1880-1902), II, pp. 319-320: "Ejszyszki". (link went stale in Nov 2021; will reinsert if it ever works again)
• Barbara Proko's translation of the Slownik entry
• Shtetl Finder (1980), p. 23: "Eshishuk".
• Pinkas HaKehilot, Poland, Vol. 8 (2005), pp. 124-129: "Ejszyszki".
• Lithuanian Jewish Communities (1991), pp. 95-96: "Eishishok (Eisiskes)".
• Encyclopedia of Jewish Life (2001), pp. 358-359: "Ejszyszki".
• Еврейская энциклопедия (1906-1913), "Ейшишки".
  
• JGFF JewishGen Family Finder
• YIVO's on-line photograph collection