The beginnings of the Jewish community in Baisogala date back to the late 18^th century.[1.1] Its emergence was probably connected to the town charter and market rights granted to Baisogala in 1791, including the right to hold three fairs per year.[1.2] During the first years of the community’s existence, the dead were buried in the cemetery in Grinkiškis.

A burial society was established in the town in 1801. A pinkas was kept since 1813. The spiritual life of this small community focused around the local synagogue, charity brotherhoods, and the study of books. The community was struck by famine in the 1860s. It received aid from the Jewish kehilla in Memel (near Klaipėda). In the years 1862–1881, the local Rabbi was Avraham ben Rafael Grushkin, succeeded in the late 19^th century by Shmuel Avigdor Feivelson and Aharon Bakst. In 1847, the community had 461 members – 229 men and 232 women.

Secular and Zionist trends emerged in Baisogala in the later 19^th century. At the time, many young Jews attended secular schools and joined the Khibat Zion movement. Shraga ben Moshe Lifshitz of Baisogala published an article on the Torah in the Hamelitz magazine. Books from the Petersburg-based publishing house “Enlightenment among the Jews of Russia” were imported to the town. The names of numerous local residents could be found on the list of donors to Palestine (1898–1899). In 1897, Baisogala had 634 Jewish residents, constituting 53% of the total population.[1.1.1] A number of important figures spawned from the community, including Moshe-Chaim Mervis, who later became the rabbi of Cape Town, Rabbi Nachum ben Azriel Kaplan, Rabbi Meir Atlas, Rabbi Baruch-Moshe Feivelson, and the co-founders of Hovevei Zion in the United States: Rafael Grushkin, Eliezer Atlas, and Moshe Mirlis.

A great fire broke out in Baisogala in 1911. The Hamodia magazine published a call for help signed by, among others, Avraham-Yitzchak ben Baruch Feivelson, who served as local rabbi since 1900. The community was on the verge of collapse. The Talmud Torah school was nearly in ruins and the headquarters of the Bikur Cholim brotherhood and the synagogue were in a state of complete disrepair. One of the reasons for such a state of affairs was the rapid decrease in the number of community members due to emigration. Even before the outbreak of World War I, only 15 Jewish families – about 100 people – resided in Baisogala.

In 1915, the retreating Russians deported the local residents deep into the Empire. After World War I, only some of the resettled inhabitants returned to Baisogala, where they found their houses taken over by Lithuanians and their synagogue demolished. Six Jewish families built new houses near the railroad station.

After Lithuanian Jews were granted autonomy, five members of the local management committee were elected. The committee was very active. Its head was Yehoshua Kaufman; the secretary was Menachem Wiezman. In 1923, there were 106 Jews in Baisogala (48 men, 58 women), constituting only ca. 6% of the population. In the first elections to the Lithuanian Parliament held in 1922, 29 Jews voted for the Democratic Party. Not a single vote was cast for the Religious Orthodox Party.

In the summer of 1923, accusations of ritual murder were made in the town. The relations between Jews and their neighbours took a hostile turn. On 21 June 1923, the committee in Baisogala sent a detailed report on the situation to the National Jewish Committee in Kaunas.

In the interwar period, Jews mostly made a living from trade, peddling, cultivation of orchards and fields, and poultry farming. The local Jewish farmers were commonly called Baisagoler Pupkis – the “Offals of Baisagola.” In 1931, Jews owned three shops – two selling fabrics and one grocery shop. In 1937, there were six Jewish craftsmen in the town: three butchers, a baker, a glazier, a metal worker, and an ironmonger. On the initiative of Rabbi I. S. Feivelson, who returned to Baisogala from the interior of Russia, donations were collected from the former residents of the town living in South Africa and the USA. One of them, Tsvi Traub from Brooklyn, donated $3,000 to the community. The funds were used to build five houses, renovate the cemetery, and erect a modern two-storey building to be used as a mikveh. The last rabbi of Baisogala was Ichaak Rabinovitz.

After the outbreak of World War II, only a handful of Jews remained in the town. When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Lithuanians gathered the entire community and drove them to Krakės, where they were murdered alongside local Jews on 2 September 1941.[1.1.1] Not a single member of the Jewish community of Baisogala survived the Holocaust.

Bibliography

• “Baisogala,” [in:] The Encyclopedia of Jewish life before and during the Holocaust, vol. 1, eds. S. Spector, G. Widoger, New York 2001, p. 79.
• “Baisogala,” [in:] Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, vol. 1, eds. F. Sulimierski, W. Walewski, Warsaw 1880, p. 98.
• Lewin D., “Baisogala,” [in:] Lita. Entsiklopedia shel ha-yishuvim ha-yehudiyim le-min hivasdam ve-ad le-ahar shoat milkhemet ha-olam ha-shniya, eds. D. Lewin, J. Rosin, Jerusalem 1996, pp. 171–179.