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The Jewish Community of Siauliai

by Jeffrey Maynard

Prologue

Vital Statistics of the Jewish population:

1776 687 paying head tax ¹
1847: 2,565 ²
1858: a small number out of 6,886 ³
1864: 3,787 ⁴
1897: 7,062 ⁵
1902: 9,848 out of 16,968 ⁶
1928: 5,338 out of 21,878 ⁷
1939: 8,000 out of 32,000 ⁸
1945: 500 ⁹

Thus by the turn of the 20th century the Jews were a majority of the population and in 1939 they were a quarter of the total population. The remaining Jewish community today is a relative handful.

Notes

[1]. Yahadut Lita, Volume 3, Tel Aviv 1967.
[2]. Yahadut Lita.
[3]. Shimon Cohen, Korot HaYehudim BeSiauliai, Kaunas, 1938 (hereafter Cohen)
[4]. Berl Kagan, Yidishe Shtet, Shtetlech, Un Dorfishe Yishuvim in Lite, New York, 1991 (hereafter Kagan).
[5]. ibid.
[6]. ibid.
[7]. Siauliai Almanack
[8]. Rabbi Ephraim Oshry, The Annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry, New York 1995, p.246.
[9]. ibid.