Eišiškės (pronunciationⓘ, Polish: Ejszyszki, Russian: Эйши́шки/Eishishki, Belarusian: Эйшы́шкі/Eishyshki, Yiddish: אײשישאָק/Eyshishok/Eishishok) is a city in southeastern Lithuania on the border with Belarus.

It is situated on a small group of hills, surrounded by marshy valley of Verseka and Dumblė Rivers.

According to Yaffa Eliach,"Local Jewish folklore had its own account of how the name of the town came into being: Once upon a time in the early days of the shtetl, a man came home and was greeted by his wife with a special treat of freshly cooked varenie (preserves), made from the berries that grow in such abundance in the region.

Not realizing they were still sizzling hot, he took a big bite and scorched his tongue, which caused him to yell "Heishe-shok!"

"[5]Eišiškės is mentioned for the first time in the Treaty of Königsberg (1384) between Grand Duke Vytautas and the Teutonic Knights.

Protected by the castle and boasting a church built by Vytautas, the town became one of the important trading centers in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

At the end of the 17th century, in hopes to revive the economy, Eišiškės were granted Magdeburg rights and became known for its horse and cattle markets.

During World War II, the town witnessed some fighting between the Polish Armia Krajowa, Nazi Wehrmacht, and Soviet Red Army.

[11] In the Holocaust, German troops came in Eišiškės on June 23, 1941, and on September 21, 1941, an SS Einsatzgruppen entered the town, accompanied by Lithuanian auxiliaries.

More than four thousand Jews from Eishishok and its neighboring towns and villages were first imprisoned in three synagogues and then taken in groups of 250 to the old Jewish cemetery where SS men ordered them to undress and stand at the edge of open pits.

The history of Jewish Eyshishok has been documented in the book There Once Was A World by Yaffa Eliach, professor at Brooklyn College,[5] and popularized in the Sibert Honor-winning children's book The Tower of Life: How Yaffa Eliach Rebuilt Her Town in Stories and Photographs by Chana Steifel and Susan Gal (Scholastic Press, 2022).

[13] Today Poles form a majority: they constitute some 80% of the population within the Šalčininkai District Municipality.

[10] The former synagogues are either destroyed or abandoned, including one that was reconstructed into a sport hall by the authorities of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic.

After the war, the school was rebuilt and classes commenced in three languages: Russian, Polish, and Lithuanian.