Links to the Shtetl Coordinators for each town exist. If you do not see a coordinator for "your" town, please consider volunteering!

NOTE:   ShetlSeeker gives the following other towns with the same or sound-alike names:
 VAICIULISKIAI 5523 2501, Lithuania, 49.8 miles NNW of Vilnius
 VAICIULISKIU (VAICIULISKIAI), 5523 2501 Lithuania , 49.8 miles NNW of Vilnius
 VASILISHKI, VOSYLISKIO (VOSILISKIS), 5530 2333, Lithuania, 89.7 miles NW of Vilnius
 VASIL'CHUKI 5217 7858, Russia, 1670.2 miles E of Moscow

If your family tradition lacks specificity, it may be possible to determine which is the town of origin of your family by checking Beider's Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire

Other Names

View Wasiliszki via MapQuest (Latitude 53°47´, Longitude 24°51´)

(Then click your browser's "Back" button to return here.)

Pictures

• Old pictures of Vasilishki
• More old pictures of Vasilishki
• The plaques on the Holocaust Memorial
• YIVO's marvelous on-line photgraph collection has 5 pictures of Vasilishki.  Although the site asks you to register - it's free - that can be tricky & you can still see pictures w/out registering. Thanks to Varda Epstein for this information.  Enter the town name as I've spelled it here.
  

Background Information

• Memoirs of Isidore Remz, born in Vasilishki
• Vasilishki: In the middle of the 19th century, there were only a few Jewish families. One Jew was Isaac Freedman, grandfather of the Hebrew Author, Alef Friedman. (from the Yizkor Book)
• Military discharge papers of Gosel Tabelitsky, donated by David Taylor
  
• Information on Wasiliszki
• More information on Vasilishki

Yizkor Book -note that this brings up 2 titles, one below the other

• Yizkor translation
• Yizkor Necrologies Database

Holocaust in Vasilishki

• War crimes in Vasilishki from the report of the Soviet Extraordinary Commission, translated by Aleksander Solts
• War criminals in Vasilishki from the report of the Soviet Extraordinary Commission, translated by Aleksander Solts
• List of victims  from the report of the Soviet Extraordinary Commission, translated by Aleksander Solts and  Shoshana and Arthur Stiftel; this link is to a browsable form. It will be searchable from the Jewishgen databases once the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's translation of the entire lists is online.
• The story of Saul Kushner, who survived the May 1942 mass murders in Vasilishki.  Donated by Jay Avilev.
  

Trip to Wasiliszki

• Read about Lida District Research Group member Judy Baston's recent trip to Wasiliszki

Famous Sons

• Noach Bas, one of the founders of Tarbut Schools, was from Vasilishki.  He was extremely active in Grodno's Jewish Community and appears in many pictures in the Grodno Yizkor Book Use your browser's "find" feature to find him in this captions list.
• The scholar Senior Sachs spent a year at the Bet Hamidrash in Wasiliszki.  See the Jewish Encyclopedia online
  
• Rabbi Elijah ben Benjamin Schick, (1809- 1876), Rabbi in Lida for a time; born in Vasilishki. See the Jewish Encyclopedia online
  

Former Residents Abroad

• Read Varda Epstein's story about the Kopelman and Yanowsky (Yanovsky) families in Israel and the US
• Journalist & author Jack Bass has roots in Vasilishki

Web Pages for individual localities

• Under construction, contact Gerre Wade
• Vasilishki Coordinator: Mitzi Rosenblatt

Information on individual localities

• Gierniki has an entry in Slownik, which can be bought on CD now. The entry used to be online.
• Papernja
• Wasiliszki
• IAJGS Cemetery Project has an entry.  Find "VASILISHKI"
• There are Landsmanshaftn cemetery plots in the New York area. From the Jewish Genealogical Society of New York Home Page,  click on "10,200 Burial Societies in the NY Metro Area" under "Exclusive Resources".  Enter "Vasilishki" into the search box.
• Incorporation papers location for 2 Vasilishker Landsmanshaftn From the Jewish Genealogical Society of New York Home Page,  click on "New York Landsmanshaften and Other Organizations" under "Exclusive Resources".  Look for Wasilishk i
• The building currently being used as a library and cultural center in Vasilishki was a Synagogue.  Behind it is the

 foundation remains of a Yeshiva and in front, the foundation of the place where they baked matzah.

1921 Census (published 1923)

• Sobakince administrative district
• Wasiliszki administrative district

Former Residents of Vasilishki abroad

• In Vermont:  Gelke (Rose)Navitsky left Vashilishki and settled in St.Albans,Vt where  there was a large Litvak population as in Burlington,VT. A lot of Litvaks are  buried in the Ohavi Zedek cemetary in Burlington. Her sister Celia  Press helped to found the Beth El synagogue in St.A. She and her husband Joseph  gave the land in 1905. Names like Shapiro,Greenfield,Neiburg and Harris figure  prominently in the synagogue history.  This information thanks to Gelke Navitsky's granddaughter, Phyllis Grodzinsky Campbell.

Would you like to connect with others researching Vasilishki? Click the button to search the JewishGen Family Finder database. 

General Information Entries from the 1929 Polish Business Directory

Clicking on highlighted locality names will bring up the 1929 business directory listings.

NAME OF LOCALITY	LAT/ LONG	DISTRICT/ UCHASTOK	YIZKOR	OTHER REF.	DESIG- NATION	town comprised of:	TOWN	POWIAT/ District	JUSTICE OF THE PEACE	ADMINIS- TRATIVE COURT	POPU- LATION
Gornofel		Lida uezd - second uchatok					Wasiliszki
Gromki	5350 2440	Lida uezd - second uchatok					Wasiliszki
Hlinkowszczna		Lida uezd - second uchatok					Wasiliszki
Kleshnyaki/ Kostenevo/ Kostsenevo	5347 2444	Lida uezd					Wasiliszki*
Koscieniewo		Lida uezd - second uchatok					Wasiliszki
Kronki	5347 2446	Lida uezd					Wasiliszki*
Lebiodka IV		Lida uezd - second uchatok					Wasiliszki
Niewisza Wolszynki		Lida uezd - second uchatok					Wasiliszki
Papernja/Papernya	5347 2459	Lida uezd					Wasiliszki*
Wasiliszki/Vasilishki /Wasiliski/Vasilishok/ Vasiljkov/Vasiliski/ Wasilishki/	5347 2451	Lida uezd - second uchatok	- X -		gmina wiejska	Gornofel, Hlinkowszczna, Koscieniewo, Lebiodka IV, Niewisza Wolszynki	Wasiliszki	Lida
Wasiliszki/Vasilishki/ Wasiliski/Vasilishok/ Vasiljkov/Vasiliski /Wasilishki/	5347 2451	Lida uezd - second uchatok	- X -	Rech Pospolitaya, Grodno Pavet (Grodno Region) end of 16th c.; Grodnenskaya Gubernya (Grodno Gubernya): beginning of 20th c.; Fond 151 Grodno Archives; EE: V: 343 [9 lines]. during WWII in Vileyka district?	miasteczko (small town)		Wasiliszki	Lida	seat	Wilno	1,874

Grodno (Belarus): Belorussian Historical Archive in Grodno; from Elyashevich
opus
151: Vasilishki synagogue, in Lidski yuzd, #272, 5 chronicles, 1874-1897

Lida Town Listings Lida District Home Page

Compiled by Ellen Sadove Renck     HTML by Irene Newhouse Updated by EIN 2002 Copyright © 1999-2002 Ellen Sadove Renck

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