Kavarskas Old Jewish Cemetery

According to the Kulturos Vertubiu Registras, this cemetery predated the New Jewish cemetery, which was established in 1892.

Jews began to settle in Kavarskas (Pl. Kowarsk, Yid. קאָוואַרסק) in the 18th century. In 1847, there were 342 Jews in the town. In the late 19th century, the town is known to have had a Jewish congregation with a rabbi of its own. In 1897, the Jewish population was 979, or 63% of the total. The Jews were expelled by the retreating Russian army in 1915, and only a half of them returned after WWI. According to the first census of the Independent Lithuanian state, there were 436 Jews in Kavarskas in 1923. A beautiful beit-midrash was built after the war. The community had a Jewish primary school and a library. Zionist organisations were active until the Soviet occupation in 1940. When the Germans invaded in 1941, Lithuanian nationalists murdered 30 Jewish men and women even before the German troops had reached the town. The rest were transferred to Ukmergė and shot on 5 September 1941.