Supplementary Materials Associated With JewishGen’s English Translation of the

Rokiskis and Environs Yizkor Book

 Introduction by Philip Shapiro

In 1952, the Rakishker Landsmanshaft of Johannesburg published the 626-page Yiddish-language Yizk-bukh fun Rakishok un umgegnt (Memorial Book for Rokiskis and its Environs). A copy of the original book can be seen at http://yizkor.nypl.org/index.php?id=2563.

Over the course of more than two decades, JewishGen’s Yizkor Book Project (“YBP”), under the leadership of Tim Baker, led an effort to translate the book into English.  The translation was completed in 2016 and is posted at https://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/rokiskis/rokiskis.html. 

The YBP decided that when the book was fully translated it would publish the English translation in book form with a supplement of relevant materials about the Rokiskis-area communities that were not available to the Rakishker Landsmanshaft in 1952.  In the fall of 2016, Joel Alpert, the editor of the YBP’s “book-in-print” program, asked Philip Shapiro, whose ancestors lived in the Rokiskis area, and Philip’s wife Aldona, who is a native of Lithuania’s “highlands” region, to identify possible materials for inclusion in the supplement and, where necessary, secure the necessary copyright approvals. 

From October 2016 until April 2017, Philip and Aldona contacted numerous archives, museums, libraries, historians, and individuals searching for images, documents, and original family histories that could be included in the supplement.  Additionally, very high priority was given to creating the most comprehensive list possible of the Jews from the Rokiskis area who were victims of the Holocaust, a task which was undertaken by Barry Mann. 

Since the book version of the translation and supplement could only show images in black-and-white, some color images that could not be understood in black-and-white format were not included in the printed version.  Other color images were included but lost some of their vibrancy when printed in black-and-white format.  Fortunately, JewishGen’s KehilaLinks website for Rokiskis can present of all of the collected materials in their original appearance.