RASEINIAI

RASEINIAI (Rus. Rossieni), city in W. central Lithuania. The community there, which included karaites , numbered 4,247 in 1797, 2,649 in 1847, and 3,484 in 1897 (46.7% of the total population). Raseiniai was one of the centers of the haskalah movement in Lithuania. abraham mapu and senior sachs lived there. According to the 1923 census, there were 2,305 Jews living in Raseiniai (43.7% of the total), most of whom were occupied in small trade and crafts, with a number in business on a larger scale. The Jewish People's Bank had 600 members. Communal institutions included a Yavneh primary school, a Hebrew secondary school, and a yeshivah. Raseiniai was occupied by the Germans a few days after the outbreak of the German-Soviet war in 1941. The more prominent Jews were murdered first, followed by the men, and ultimately the women and children. A few families who managed to escape survived until the liberation. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Z. Kadish, in: Lite, 1 (1951), 1383–86; N. Ben-Ḥayyim, ibid., 1576–77; Lite, 2 (1965), index; Yahadut Lita, 1 (1959), index; 2 (1967), 359–60. (Joseph Gar)