Kupiskis, Lithuania

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Kupiskis, known in Yiddish as Kupishok, was home to 1,444 Jews before World War II. Today no Jews live in Kupishok. Amazingly, however, there are nearly 60 people around the world researching their Jewish ancestors from this small Lithuanian town. Most of them are listed in the JewishGen Family Finder. For more information on the Kupishok SIG (Special Interest Group), please contact the SIG coordinator, Ann Rabinowitz or the SIG Secretary, Linda Cantor. According to Where Once We Walked, the authoritative gazetteer of Eastern European Jewish communities published by Avotaynu, the town is located 101 km E of Siauliai; 55°50'/24°58'.

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Many Jews arrived in Kupiskis from Spain or Cologne, Germany.  There is an account of a document, which unfortunately was destroyed during the First World War, detailing the history of one Kupiskis family (the Trapidos) as far back as the expulsion from Spain in 1492. One interesting anecdote about the Jewish community in Kupiskis relates the story of the manager of the Jewish community's bank. At some point in time, this trusted official stole all the money in the bank, and disappeared, sending nearly 300 families into bankruptcy.

Kupiskis References and Research Sources Birth, Marriage & Death Records from Kupiskis Birth Records Index Marriage Records Index Death Records Index Cemetery Information - New York, NY,  Morristown, N.J., Kupishok, and Vilnius   Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust From "The Annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry" by Ephraim Oshry, z'l (1914-2003)   (Reprinted by permission of the publisher, The Judaica Press, Brooklyn, N.Y.) Funken, Kupishok in the 1930's,  description in the newspaper "Funken" Holocaust victim list: Names of 800 persons murdered in Kupiskis during the summer of 1941 In Memoriam  Jewish Cities, Towns and Villages in Lithuania, by Berl Kagan The Jewish Community of Kupiskis , by Ausra Jonusyte, Kupiskis Ethnographic Museum    JewishGen Family Finder Kupishok Memories by Israel Trapido Kupishok: The Memory Stronger, by Stanley Mayersohn (includes maps) Kupiskio Zydai, by Linas Tatarunas and Asta Visinkaite, Centre for Studies of the Culture and History of East European Jews  Kupiskio Zydu Liaudies Bankas / Kupischker Judische Volks-Bank    Kupiskis District Municipality Web Site Landsmanshaftn in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Israel, and New York   Lite - Description of Kupiskis from Lite by Dr. Mendel Sudarsky, Uriah Katzenelenbogen, J. Kissin, and Berl Kagan   Lithuanian Internal Passports Lithuanian Jewish Communities, by Nancy Schoenburg and Stuart Schoenburg (Reprinted by permission of the publisher, Jason Aronson, Inc Northvale, N.J.) Lithuanian telephone directory - 1930 Lithuanian telephone directory - 1938 My Father's House, by Shlomo Kodesh, 1995  Ode to Kupishok by Rabbi Michael Mayersohn  Photograph Album - visit with our Kupishok families, see school and youth group photos Shtetl Finder by Chester Cohen, 1980, 1989. Where Once We Walked by Gary Mokotoff and Sallyann Sack, published by Avotaynu Yad Vashem testimony regarding Kupiskis   Wall of Memory Holocaust Memorial - Description and photos of the Memorial and its Dedication

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Jewish schoolchildren in Kupishok, 1929    The teacher, Leiba Jakobson, has been identified for us by     Joe Winston, her cousin.     (photo courtesy of Phradie Kling, in memory of Mary Cohen Kling and Samuel Cohen,      Paterson,  NJ USA)

Kupiskis Train Station (old station, year unknown) Originally, the station was designed for a location in the center of town.  However, the City elders did not want to pay the expected bribe to have this accomplished.  Therefore, the railroad company built the station outside town and people then had to walk quite a bit or hire a wagon or carriage to take them there. This photo shows the original wooden railroad station with a group of railroad employees.  This is how it looked when many of our ancestors started their trip to the outside world.  As you will note, the station sign states both of the old names of Kupiskis which were Slawinski and Kupischki.           (photo courtesy of Cindy Warren)

Kupiskis Train Station in 2004 This is closer to how the station looked when immigrants left in the 1920's and 1930's.               (photo courtesy of Clive Moss)

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Encyclopedia Judaica KUPISKIS (Lith. Kupiskis, Kupiskiai; Yid. Kupishok; Rus. Kupishki), town in N.E. Lithuanian S.S.R. Tombstones from the 17th century have been found in the local Jewish cemetery. There were 1,350 Jews living in Kupiskis in 1847 and 2,661 (71% of the population) in 1897. During World War 1, in May 1915, the Jews were expelled from Kupiskis, and only part of the Jewish population returned there after the war. The community numbered 1,444 (54%) in 1923, and continued to decrease in the interwar period, many of the youth emigrating to South Africa and Eretz-Yisrael. The Jewish people's bank there had 369 members in 1929. As Kupiskis was one of the few towns in Lithuania with a considerable community of Hasidim, there were two officiating rabbis. The community had three synagogues, a yeshivah, a talmud torah, and three schools (Yavneh, Tarbut, and a Yiddish school). After the German occupation the community was annihilated.

Copyright, 2008 Kupiskis SIG