This week we turn our attention to Anykščiai, a small town in northeastern Lithuania where traces of Jewish life can be felt at every step. Known in Yiddish as Aniksht, it was a place where the Jewish community played an essential part in local trade, crafts, and everyday life for a few centuries.
Jews settled in Anykščiai in the 17th century. By the end of the 19th century they formed nearly 70% of the population, running shops around the bustling market square, operating felt-making workshops, and opening the town’s first gas station and only bus line. Narrow lanes such as former Palestine Street, present Sinagogų Street, and the old shulhoif (synagogue yard) still suggest what the shtetl once looked like.
Several heritage sites survive today:
– the former Feldman hotel and restaurant, once the departure point of the weekly bus to Kaunas;
– the Rapoport brothers’ shop;
– the Shoemakers’ Kloyz, easily recognized by its tall post-war chimney;
– the old Jewish cemetery on Kęstučio Street, quietly overlooking the town.
Artists born in Anykščiai have helped preserve this memory. Sculptor Romualdas Inčirauskas created several installations dedicated to the town’s Jewish heritage, while a sculpture in the center honors Rudolf Baranik, the Anykščiai-born painter who became an important figure in American art.
Anykščiai also carries one of the earliest and most tragic chapters of the Holocaust in Lithuania. In June 1941, the destruction of the community began; around 1,500 Jews were murdered in nearby forests, with memorial sites today marking the places where the community’s final traces remain.
Today, visitors can explore these locations on foot, following a route that leads from the market square to the former synagogues and onward to the cemetery and memorials. Anykščiai is a town that invites remembrance of its people, their work, their resilience, and the world they built along the banks of the Šventoji River.
Read more → Jews in Anykščiai surprised locals with the town’s first gas station and its only bus
Read more → Photo gallery: Anykščiai | Aniksht
Litvak Shtetls 