Siaulenai, Lithuania

Lithuanian Jewish Communities  

By Nancy and Stuart Schoenburg.  Published by Jason Aronson(A member of the Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group). 

Reprinted by permission of the publisher.  All rights reserved

SHAVLAN (SIAULENAI) Shavli District

Shavlan is located near Shavli (21 miles), Radvilishok (11), Tzitovian (8), and Shidlova (9).

In the center of town was a round markeplace.  From it extended 3 roads, one to Shavli and Tzitovian, another to Radvilishok and the third to Shidlova.

The Jewish community dated back over 400 years ago. 

In 1766, the Jewish population was 331; in 1847, it was 535; in 1897 – 547, 53% of the general population; in 1921 – 105; and in 1923 – 237.

The synagogue was built in the mid-seventeenth century.  It had a beautiful holy ark of carved wood, which was a work of art.  Not far from the synagogue was the old Jewish cemetery.

A blood libel in the nearby village of Dirvianishuk occurred in 1861.  It roused a storm at the time among Russian Jews.  A young Jew who fought with his father, Yankel Isaacsohn, vowed revenge.  On the eve of Pesach, he put a bottle of wine in the Holy Ark and told the local Polish Count that his father and other Jewish community leaders had slaughtered a Christian boy for the Pesach ritual.  The father was arrested and the authorities ordered an investigation.  The investigators, who hated Jews, certified the libel.  Fearing danger from the peasants, Jews requested a new investigation.  Governor General Nazimov consented and sent Squire Tolstoy and the scholar L. Livnada to reinvestigate.  In this investigation, the young man and other witnesses admitted that they had given false testimony.  Isaacsohn was released and his son was sentenced to hard labor.

Because of the small Jewish population, there was no Hebrew school.  Jewish children attended the Lithuanian school.  There was a Jewish library and reading room. 

From the rabbinate:  R. Shaul bar Moshe-Meshil Lurie; R. Shmuel Rabinovitz (5632/1872); R. Mordechai-Uri Semonov; R. Mordechai Krieger (died in 5667/1877); R. Zev-Wolf Broide (5663-5675/1903-1915); R. Shmuel Hanich 5681/1921); R. Yisrael Rosendorf (died in 5689/1929); and the last rabbi, R. Akiva Berlin.

Native: R. Hillel-Arye Lifshitz.