Telšiai. A Book of Memory
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Telšiai. A Book of Memory is a collection of memoirs by Jews from Telšiai who survived the Holocaust. The book preserves the memory of a once vibrant community and tells its story through personal experiences.
It belongs to the tradition of memorial books known as yizker-bikher (Yiddish) or sifre zikaron (Hebrew). These works were created and published by Holocaust survivors who settled across the world after the war, seeking to commemorate their destroyed communities.
Such books typically combine warm, often nostalgic recollections of life before the war with testimonies of the community’s tragic destruction during the Holocaust. Their authors are not professional historians, but witnesses—people who experienced these events themselves. For this reason, the narratives can be subjective, yet they remain an invaluable source for understanding the everyday life, culture, and traditions of Jewish communities in Europe.
In Lithuania, access to this type of material has long been limited due to a lack of translations. Telšiai. A Book of Memory is the first publication of its kind in Lithuania to be fully translated into Lithuanian and supplemented with scholarly commentary. It offers a unique insight into the Jewish community of Telšiai in the 19th–20th centuries, including the history of the renowned Telz Yeshiva and its students.
The book also forms the basis of the narrative presented in the Telz Yeshiva exhibition. Here, visitors encounter not a single, anonymous historical account, but a mosaic of personal stories told by people of different ages and life paths. Through these voices, former residents of Telšiai reveal the rich and often little-known world of the local shtetl.
The book is available in Lithuanian (print edition) at all branches of the Samogitian Museum “Alka”.
Updated: 2026-04-01
This project brings to life the history of the Jewish community of Telšiai through one of the most important sources of memory—the Telšiai Memory Book.
Cities, streets, and buildings can be seen as maps of memory. Following such a path, Philip Shapiro, President of the U.S.-based organisation Remembering Litvaks, Inc., visited Telšiai in 2018 together with his wife Aldona. Tracing the story of his grandfather, a student of the Telz Yeshiva, this journey became the starting point for rediscovering the memory of the local Jewish community.
During their visit to the Samogitian Museum “Alka”, the Shapiro family encountered a unique publication preserved in the museum’s collection—the Jewish memorial book Telšiai (Israel, 1984), compiled by I. Alperovičius. Written in Hebrew and Yiddish by Holocaust survivors from Telšiai, this book had long remained inaccessible in Lithuania due to language barriers.
The first translation efforts began on the initiative of Philip and Aldona Shapiro. Volunteer translators Roza Bieliauskienė and Sergejus Kanovičius translated the first texts into Lithuanian. The work proved complex, requiring specialised knowledge of religious terminology, as well as significant time and resources.
In 2020–2021, marking the Year of the Vilna Gaon and the History of the Jews of Lithuania and the 80th anniversary of the destruction of the Telšiai Ghetto, the Samogitian Museum “Alka” implemented two projects dedicated to the Memory Book. Supported by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and Telšiai District Municipality, these initiatives resulted in the first full Lithuanian translation of the Telšiai Jewish Memory Book from Hebrew and Yiddish.
Today, this publication offers a unique insight into the life of the Jewish community of Telšiai, the history of the Telz Yeshiva, and the cultural world of the local shtetl. It also forms the basis of the narrative presented in the Telz Yeshiva exhibition, where visitors encounter personal stories instead of an anonymous historical account.
Acknowledgements
We are sincerely grateful to Remembering Litvaks, Inc., Philip and Aldona Shapiro, David and Sara Shapiro, the David and Barbara B. Hirschhorn Foundation (USA), Abraham Groll (JewishGen), and Joyce B. Volpert for their financial support.
We thank museum professionals Irma Kontautienė, Ajida Stančienė, and Regina Bartkienė for initiating the translation process, and historian Janina Bucevičė for organising academic conferences based on the book.
We are also grateful to Dr Lara Lempertienė, Hap Ponedel, and Joel Alpert for their expert consultations. The publication includes commentaries by Dr Lara Lempertienė and Goda Volbikaitė, helping readers better understand Jewish culture and traditions.
Due to the poor quality of some original illustrations, selected images have been replaced with materials from the collections of the Samogitian Museum “Alka” and the Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum.
We thank editor Nijolė Laukytė and poet Irena Daubarienė for their contribution to the publication.
Project manager: Loreta Norvaišienė
Updated: 2026-04-01
