Žagarė

Žagarė
City
200px Žagarė Manor
Coat of arms of Žagarė Coat of arms
Žagarė is located in Lithuania Žagarė Location of Žagarė
Coordinates:
Country	Lithuania
Ethnographic region	Samogitia
County	Šiauliai County
Municipality	Joniškis district municipality
Eldership	Žagarė eldership
Capital of	Žagarė eldership
First mentioned	1633
Granted city rights	1924
Population (2005)
• Total	2,028
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)

Žagarė (, see also other names) is a city located in the Joniškis district, northern Lithuania, close to the border with Latvia. It has a population of about 2,000.

Names

Žagarė's name is probably derived from the Lithuanian word žagaras, meaning "twig". Other renderings of the name include: Latvian: Žagare, Polish: Żagory, Yiddish: Zhagar זשאַגאַר‎.

History

The foundation of Žagarė dates back to the 12th century. It was an important centre of Semigallian warriors, who fought against the Livonian Brothers of the Sword and the Livonian Order. The cult of Barbora Žagarietė, servant of god, originated in the town in mid-1600s.

It long had a Jewish population who contributed to its culture. Yisroel Salanter (1810–1883), the father of the 19th-century Mussar movement in Orthodox Judaism, was born there. Isaak Kikoin (1908–1984), a renowned Soviet physicist, was also born there. During World War II and the German occupation, the Germans set up a Jewish ghetto in Žagarė, to hold Jews from Šiauliai Ghetto. In a massacre of the Einsatzgruppe A at the Yom Kippur the 2nd. October 1941 all Jews where cruely killed by the Lithuanian population at the marketplace and buried in Naryshkin Park. The blood was flowing to the Svete River and the Fire brigade had to wash it away.

Geography

Today Žagarė is the administrative centre of the Žagarė Regional Park, known for its valuable urban and natural heritage.

Famous people

• Louis Bookman
• Sidney Hillman
• Isaak Kikoin
• Phoebus Levene
• Yisroel Salanter
• Kalonimus Wolf Wissotzky. Founder of Wissotzky Tea
• Barbora Žagarietė

Literature

• Rose Zwi: "Last Walk in Naryshkin Park" 1997 ISBN 978-1875559725 A Familie chronicle of her two families of origin Yoffe and Reisen. This account tells the story of Lithuanian Jews caught in the sweeping history of the first half of the century in Europe.

External links

• Website about the city
• Entry in JewishGen Database