This week’s Shtetl of the Week is Daugai (Doig). It is a small town in southern Lithuania on a peninsula in Lake Daugai.
Jews settled here from the late 16th century. By the 18th century a community had formed. Jews here ran shops, workshops, flourmills and farms. They had a synagogue (or maybe two!), a Tarbut Hebrew school, and a library.
Rabbis like Avraham-Tzvi HaCohen Katz and Nochum Sher guided the community. Support from relatives abroad, including Boston’s Anshe Dowig society, helped sustain local life.
Most of Daugai’s Jews were killed during the Holocaust, however it was a town with several successful survival stories. Today, the old synagogue building, cemetery, and some old wooden houses still preserve Jewish traces in the former shtetl of Doig.
Read the full story to discover more about the Daugai’s Jews here: DAUGAI | DOIG
Litvak Shtetls 