[1] During the second half of the 17^th Century and during the 18^th Century, Jewish tax collectors and leaseholders were living in Kovno.  Jewish merchants from Trakai, Grodno and Brest traded with Kovno. One of the most important trade routes followed the Nieman. Logs and grain were sent from and through Kovno to Konigsberg .  Perhaps Jews were dwelling across the river, in Panemune, at this time. (Dov Levin, The Litvaks, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, 2000, pp. 25, 46,48).   In addition, from the late 15th Century until the early 18th Century, Jews were often discouraged from living in Kaunas and were, on occasion expelled.  Many lived, as a result, across the Vilia River in Slobodka.  It is possible that they also lived across the Neimon River , in Panemune. (See Yahadut Lita, Vol. III , IV, R. Hasman, D. Lipec, et al, Igud Yotzai Lita B'Yisrael, Tel Aviv, 1967, 1984).

The 1784 Revision list of the Jewish Community of Kaunas and Vilijampole ( Feb. 12^th, 1784 ) lists 22 heads of households consisting of 70 inhabitants living in “Panemune”.  It is likely but not entirely certain that the Panemune referred to in this list is Aukstoji Panemune.   (It may, instead, refer to Panemune Pozailis).   In support of this being Aukstoji Panemune is that, first of all, Panemune was not split off officially from the Kovno area until 1795, when Kovno came under Russian control and Panemune under Prussian rule.   Thus, it is entirely possible for towns on the opposite side of the Neiman River from Kovno (that is, on the left bank) to have been in the same Jewish district.  In addition, of the ten other identifiable towns that appear in this list, four of them are found on the Aukstoji Panemune side.   Furthermore, Rokai, just south of Aukstoji Panemune, is one of the listed towns.  If Rokai is listed, how much the more so would Aukstoji Panemune be listed, which was even closer to Kovno.

 [2] Pinkas HaKehillot (Ed., Dov Levin , Poland , Vol. IV, Warsaw   and its Region, 1989,

Lithuania , 1996, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem , p. 496) states that in 1792 there were 490 inhabitants of Panemune but does not indicate how many of the 490 families Jews were. Berl Kagan (Yidishe Shtet, Shtetlech un Dorfishe Yishuvim in Lite, Simcha Graphic Associates, N.Y., 1991) states that in 1797, Panemune had 490 inhabitants, mostly Jews, who lived in 51 households. 

[3] Jan Wasicki, Prussian Descriptions of Polish Towns From the End of the 18^th Century Bialystok Department, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, 1964.  The high percentage of Jews among the Panemune population was probably due to the fact that Panemune was privately owned at that time. The inhabitants, like the majority of Lithuania ’s Jews, probably made their livelihood by, “…leasing estates, and running hostelries, distilleries, breweries and taverns”.  (Dov Levin, The Litvaks, op. cit., p. 53).

[4]  (See Kagan, Op. Cit.)

[5] Only if there had been a birth, marriage or death reported during this time, would a family have been entered into the records.  ( Kaunas Birth, Death, Marriage Records, Death Records, Panemune Frentzele).

[6]  1843-1845 Tax Report from Jewish Community of Poniemon Frentzela (CWW 1835, Archiwum Glowne Akt Dawnych/Central Archives of Historical Records, Warsaw) states that there were 647 men and 572 women.  In addition, there were another 5 Jewish families on the outskirts of Panemune, consisting of 47 individuals.  5 of the 236 families in Panemune were of the 1st class, 100 of the 4th class and 52 of the 5th class.

[7] During the second half of the 19th Century, Jews began moving into urban centers.  Thus, in 1847, the combined Jewish population of Kaunas and Slobodka was 7,000, while by 1864 it had grown to 16,500.  By 1915, the Jewish population of Kovno had reached 40,000.  (See  Yahadut Lita, Op. Cit.).

[8] (See 1875 Judel Bragsten application to Vistas i Riket (Civildepartementets Konseljakt, Riksarkivet (National Archives), Stockholm, Sweden) and Encyclopedia Judaica (Keter Publishing house ltd, Jerusalem, Israel, 1971, "Cantonists"; Independent Suwalk  & Vicinity Benevolent Association and Relief Committee,  Jewish Community book for Suwalk & Vicinity, Tel Aviv, New York,1989.  The law of 1827 forced Jews, ages 20-25, (though children 12-18 could be substituted) to serve in the Russian army for twenty-five years.  Exemptions were given to craftsmen, factory workers, farmers, rabbis and those registered in one of the three merchant guilds. The conditions were eased, somewhat, under the reign of Alexander II, in 1856. In 1874, a general draft was instituted for all 20 year old males. (See Dov Levin, The Litvaks, op. cit., pp. 67, 72, 73.)

[9] Bernard Horwich, (My First Eighty Years, Argus Books, Chicago, 1939, p. 2)  gave  the number of households as 100.   Birth, Marriage and Death records from Kaunas together with the 1872 Supplement to HaMagid (#6, Lyck, Feb. 7, 1872 ) show at least 130 households.  Assuming that the contributors found in the 1872 Supplement did not constitute all the inhabitants of the town, and assuming that not every family in Panemune might have a birth, marriage or death from 1870-1879 and hence would not appear in vital records,  leads to the conclusion that the number of households was even higher.   It should be noted that the birth records from 1860-1879 indicate an average of two children per family of the families bearing children.   Though Horwich states that there were only four Christian households in the town at this time, this seems highly unlikely.

[10]  This was out of a general population of 1,575.  (See Pinkas HaKehillot, Op. Cit., p. 496).  Approximating five to a household, would make 155 households.  (See Jewrejskaja Enciklopedia (1897?) and Evrejskaya Entsiklopediya (St. Petersburg, 1906-1913, Vol. IX, pp. 339-341).

[11] See Dov Levin, The Litvaks, Op. Cit., pp. 30, 76.   75 Jewish households representing several hundred Jews from neighboring Alexota, for example, were sent either to Vilna or to Minsk .  (Galina Baranova, “More 1915 Eviction Data: Part I”, Landsmen, Vol. 11, Nos. 1-2, July, 2001.  Data extracted from Fond #1010- Chancellery of the Suwalk i Government, Lithuanian State Historical Archives).

[12]  Kagan, (Op. Cit.), states that 9,000 out of 20,000 Kovno Jews returned at this time.

[13] In 1923, 25,000 Jews were now found in Kovno, versus 40,000 in 1915.  The Kovno daily, the Idishe Shtime, carried, in 1920, messages from some Jewish inhabitants of Kovno to relatives in America .  (See Idishe Shtime, 4/18/1920).

[14] See 1921 Census of Poland ; Landsmen, Vol. 9, Numbers 2-3, June, 1999, p. 13. The Blackbook of Localities Whose Jewish Population was Exterminated by the       

Nazis, (Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel, 1965, "A. Panemune") stated that in 1921 there were 18 Jewish families. If each family numbered 4 children, this would correlate with the 1921 census numbers.

[15]  (See Kagan, Yidishe Shtet, p. 382.)

[16]  1925 tax list of Panemune Jewish community, Lithuanian kehilot collection, "Panemune", YIVO.

[17] If the Panemune listed in the 1784 revision list of the Jewish community is Aukstoji Panemune (see above), then it can be also stated that in 1784, Panemune belonged to the Jewish district of Kovno and Vilijampole.

[18] See 1843 Tax Report of Panemune Jewish Community (Op. Cit.) which states that Yankiel Glattshtein had been employed since 1824 as a shames; Panemune Death Registry, 1826-1837).

[19] See 1843-1845 correspondence from the Jewish Community of Panemune to the Augustow Depts. of Religious Affairs and Industry, seeking for reimbursement for funds expended in the rebuilding of the mikvah and petitioning for additional money to replace its straw roof with tiles.  (Poniemon Frentzela files, CWW 1835, AGAD, Warsaw).

[20] See Prenumeranten List, Pardes HaBinah.  He was not, apparently there by 1843, as the 1843 Tax Report (Op. Cit.) shows no rabbi in Panemune for that year.

[21] Panemune Birth and Marriage Records were recorded as early as 1857 by the Kaunas and Viliampole rabbinate.  The majority of the marriages which involved Panemune’s Jewish inhabitants are recorded as taking place in Kaunas between 1857 and 1922.  Panemune did have at least one rabbi during this time, Benjamin Meisels, though it appears that certain events were, at the very least, recorded by the Kaunas Jewish authoritites.

[22] 10/8/1857 blueprint: “Plan of the Wooden Synagogue Located in Poniemonin” and “Plan of the Wooden Schul Located in Poniemonin” (RAGAD, Warsaw, “Poniemon Frentzela” file, CWW 1861). The synagogue was build just to the right of the schul.

[23]  One side of the cemetery bordered the river. The earliest remaining gravestone found in the cemetery, is 1840.  In 1928, cement pillars bordered the cemetery.  After WWII, the cemetery was destroyed.  (Wolf Bregstein letter to Jeffrey A. Marx, 4/18/1987; interview with Zalman Shaymes, 5/4/88; Horwich, Bernard, Op. Cit.).  It is probable that the Jews of Panemune were always buried in the Panemune cemetery.  First of all, it would have been too cumbersome to transport the body across the river.  Even if they had done so, the only Jewish cemetery in the Kaunas area before 1862, was in Slobodka, on the other side of Kaunas .  This would have been too long a distance to travel for burial.  (See Yahadut Lita, Vol. II, "Kovno", Op. Cit.).  The 1864 marriage registration of Judel Chaimowitz Bregstein states that 3 announcements of his wedding had been made in the Panemune synagogue.

[24] Taken from Galina Baranova’s compilation “Jewish Businesses in Marjampol District 1911-1915”, in Landsmen, Vol. 12, Nos. 3-4, Dec. 2002, pg. 42.