UKMERGE

UKMERGE (Pol. Wilkomierz; Rus. Vilkomir), city in Lithuania. The Jewish community of Ukmerge is first mentioned in a document of 1685. In the census of 1766, 716 Jews were counted there, and by 1847 their number had risen to 3,758, the majority of whom were engaged in commerce and crafts, including tanning. The community of Ukmerge was renowned for its conservatism. M.L. Lilienblum\>\> lived there during the 1860s and it was there that he began his public career and literary activity. The community continued to develop and by the 1880s the number of Jews reached 10,000. A period of decline followed, however, when the town was bypassed by the railroads which were built at that time. In 1897 there were 7,287 Jews (54% of the total population) and 6,390 (49%) in 1910. At the beginning of May 1915 the Jews were expelled from Ukmerge, together with those of the province of Kovno. Some returned after the war and in 1923 there were 3,885 Jews (37% of the population). During the period of independent Lithuania (1918–40), Jewish life in Ukmerge prospered. A yeshivah ketannah (preparatory yeshivah) which prepared pupils for the larger Lithuanian yeshivot was established and there were also two secondary schools, Hebrew and Yiddish. The last rabbi of Ukmerge, R. Joseph Zussmanowitz (of Palestinian birth), ranked among the most prominent Lithuanian rabbis. With the annexation of Lithuania to the Soviet Union in June 1940, religious and nationalist Jewish life was systematically destroyed. A year later, Ukmerge fell into the hands of the Germans. On Sept. 18, 1941, the Jews remaining in Ukmerge, together with those of the neighboring towns, were assembled in the nearby forest and massacred. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Słownik geograficzny królestwa polskiege, 13 (1893), 535–41; Yahadut Lita, 3 (1967), 303–6. (Yehuda Slutsky)