Dorbyan is a small town in the Lithuanian district of Samagothica, located inland and about 15 miles from the Baltic Sea.
The earliest mention of Dorbyan is in 1566 AD when the locality was mentioned as the estate of the noble Tytschovitch family. The place remained an agricultural estate until the year 1701, when it received commercial privileges allowing it to hold its own market. This is believed to have attracted the first Jewish settlers to the location, mostly from another nearby, far older Jewish settlement named Loigzim. Jews eventually came to dominate the economy of the town and occupied almost the entire central area.
Although Dorbyan never grew beyond shtetl size, the community prospered and gradually acquired many of the amenities available to larger Jewish communities. It reached its peak in the late 1800's and around the turn of the twentieth century, when it would have boasted a Jewish population of almost 2000 inhabitants.
Thereafter the Jewish community diminished rapidly as the townsfolk opted for the more attractive lifestyles offered by the new world, South Africa and Palestine. The population dropped to 500, but was later increased by the arrival of Jewish refugees from other areas occupied by the Nazi Germans.
In 1941 the Nazis invaded Russia and in the course of their actions overran Dorbyan. This spelt the doom of the town's Jewish population, of whom 99% were massacred. Today there is no Jewish presence in Dorbyan. The synagogue and all other Jewish institutions were destroyed, leaving the Jewish cemetery as the only surviving memorial to the Jewish occupation. Some of the homes once occupied by Jews still exist, and older villagers still have memories of the families who occupied them.
The earliest mention of Dorbyan is in 1566 AD when the locality was mentioned as the estate of the noble Tytschovitch family. The place remained an agricultural estate until the year 1701, when it received commercial privileges allowing it to hold its own market. This is believed to have attracted the first Jewish settlers to the location, mostly from another nearby, far older Jewish settlement named Loigzim. Jews eventually came to dominate the economy of the town and occupied almost the entire central area.
Although Dorbyan never grew beyond shtetl size, the community prospered and gradually acquired many of the amenities available to larger Jewish communities. It reached its peak in the late 1800's and around the turn of the twentieth century, when it would have boasted a Jewish population of almost 2000 inhabitants.
Thereafter the Jewish community diminished rapidly as the townsfolk opted for the more attractive lifestyles offered by the new world, South Africa and Palestine. The population dropped to 500, but was later increased by the arrival of Jewish refugees from other areas occupied by the Nazi Germans.
In 1941 the Nazis invaded Russia and in the course of their actions overran Dorbyan. This spelt the doom of the town's Jewish population, of whom 99% were massacred. Today there is no Jewish presence in Dorbyan. The synagogue and all other Jewish institutions were destroyed, leaving the Jewish cemetery as the only surviving memorial to the Jewish occupation. Some of the homes once occupied by Jews still exist, and older villagers still have memories of the families who occupied them.