Administrative divisions of Lithuania Lithuanian: "rajonas"): Kaunas Region with 23 districts, Klaipėda Region with 16 districts, Šiauliai Region with 24 districts, and Vilnius Region with 24 districts. The townships were abolished and the districts were further subdivided into apylinkės. In 1984 there were 527 apylinkės in Lithuania. Both regions and districts were named after their capitals. Three exceptions were: Smėliai District had its capital in Ukmergė (also capital of Ukmergė district), Panemunė District – capital Garliava, and Klaipėda District – capital Gargždai. In addition to districts, there were five (Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai, and Panevėžys) region-administered cities (Lithuanian: "srities pavaldumo miestas"). They had similar
History of the Jews in Lithuania the lands between the Baltic and Black Seas that would become part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The later and much larger stream of immigration originated in the 12th century and received an impetus from the persecution of the German Jews by the Crusaders. The traditional language of the vast majority of Jews of Lithuania, Yiddish, is based largely upon the Medieval German spoken by the western Germanic Jewish immigrants. The peculiar conditions that prevailed in Lithuania compelled the first Jewish settlers to adopt a different mode of life from that followed by their western co-religionists. In Lithuania of