Our town, Neishtot
(Žemaičių Naumiestis, Lithuania)

55°22' / 21°42'

Translation of
Ayartenu Neishtot

Edited by: Yaacov Lipshitz

Published in Kfar Azar, 1982




 

Acknowledgments

Project Coordinator

Benjamin Lesin

 

 

This is a translation from: Ayartenu Neishtot Our town, Neishtot,
ed. Yaacov Lipshitz, Kfar Azar, 1982 (H, Y 75 pages).


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Dedication for the Translation of the Neishtot Yizkor Book:

I dedicate this translation in memory of the Neishtot Jews who lost their lives in the Holocaust. I dedicate this translation to those inhabitants of Neishtot who made Aliyah to Eretz Yisroel before and after the Holocaust and who helped build a wonderful country of which Jews the world over are profoundly proud.

 
 
Preface to the English Translation of the Neishtot Yizkor Book:

The original booklet was published in 1982.  I took on this project so that today’s generation and generations to come who are not fluent in Hebrew will have a glimpse into the past where our ancestors came from. With the help of native Hebrew speakers, I translated the Hebrew and Yiddish almost verbatim with changes only to accommodate syntax and grammar differences.

I translated the essays pages 1-54. Pages 55-58 contains lists of those living in Israel (at the time of the original publication), and those who had died in Israel. Page 59 is a list of those living in the Diaspora (at the time of the original publication). The page that follows (not numbered) is a hand drawn map of Neishtot by Shlomo Berlowitz. This is followed by five pages of photographs (not numbered). These last 10 pages were not translated.

Special thanks to Mrs. Rachel Grossman whose help with the translation was indispensible. Special thanks to Eglė Bendikaitė, a native of Neishtot, who is a PhD. in history. Her thesis was “The Zionist Movement in Lithuania”. To research the original sources she learned Yiddish and presently teaches Yiddish at the Yiddish Institute in Vilnius She is also a researcher of Jewish Lithuanian projects. (Egle_Bendich@yahoo.de) She translated the Hebrew names of shtetls into their proper Lithuanian names and spelling, as well as German cities into proper German. (This will aid genealogist researching shtetls.)

Purposely, we retained Vilna instead of the Lithuanian Vilnius, Kovno instead of Kaunas, and Neishtot instead of Žemaičių Naumiestis.

 
 
Neishtot Yizkor Book Translator's Preface:

I am the descendant of a long line of rabbis who served in Neishtot-Tavrig. One of the rabbis was the brother of the Vilna Gaon, Rav Avraham Ragoler ( 1722-1804). My grandfather, Rav Yaakov Moshe Lesin, ZTL” was the last rabbi (1925-1939). His oldest son, my father, Rav Yisroel Meir Lesin married Malke Glatt (also of Neishtot) in 1940 and immigrated to the US in 1941. They had three children, Shlomo born in 1942, Benjamin in 1943, and Hennie in 1949.

I am an orthopedic hand surgeon in Los Angeles. I have been to Lithuania and Neishtot 15 times since 1988. I founded the Institute of Righteous Gentiles (of Lithuania). This organization which has recognized and assisted Lithuanian righteous gentiles since 1989 is in its twilight, as their numbers are rapidly dwindling, along with the rapidly dwindling Jews of the generation of the Holocaust.

Maceva, (we would spell it “Matzevah” in English) is a Lithuanian organization dedicated to restoring the Jewish cemeteries in Lithuania. In November 2014 they cleaned up the Neishtot cemetery. They photographed and catalogued the 309 tombstones.

 
Benjamin Lesin, MD
July 2016

 

 

 

 

  In Memoriam Y. Lifshitz, z”l 2
1. In Memory of Our Town Neishtot Y. Lifshitz 3-4
2. Memorial for Our Town Martyrs Who Were Killed in the Holocaust Rabbi Avraham Akiva Rudner 5-9
3. Our Town, Neishtot - Memories Chassia Adar Lifshitz 10-15
4. The Chalutz in Our Town Aryeh Zaks 16-17
5. Neishtot, A Zionistic Town Avraham Binyaminovitz 18-19
6. Institutions and Youth Movements in Neishtot Binyamin Robinson 20-22
7. Our Town That is No Longer Binyamin Robinson 23-29
8. About The Ruins of Neishtot From the Archives of Lithuanian Jews 30-34
9. The Destruction of Neishtot Jews Ezriel Glick 35-41
10. Unzer Shtetl (Our town) [Yiddish] Eliyahu Feit 42-43
11. “Eicha” (Lamentations) Our Town Neishtot Shlomo Berlowitz 44-50
12. Destruction of Our Town Neishtot Raphael Lasky 51-55
13. Neishtot Our Town [Yiddish] Yitzchak Wolpert 56-57
14. Pain and Hope [Yiddish] Yitzchak Wolpert 58-60
15. My Daughter's Six Names Moshe Milner 61-69
16. List of Former Neishtot Citizens, in Israel* 70-72
17. List of Deceased Former Neishtot Citizens, in Israel. * 72-73
18. List of Former Neishtot Citizens, abroad * 74
19. Map of Neishtot Sketched by S. Berlowitz 75
 
* These lists translated into English are available in Preserving Our Litvak Heritage by Josef Rosin,
Edited by Joel Alpert, Published by JewishGen, Inc, League City, Texas, 2005 p.701-703.

 


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