Shatt is situated in the Keidan region. Already in the mid-17th century, a Jewish community existed. In 1679/1680 there was a blood libel against the Jews, initiated by a Christian worker and his wife, provoked and supported by priests. Later the tortured Jews were released.

During the period of the Council of Lithuanian Jews, Shatt fell mostly under the Keidan administrative circuit (region). [Joe Woolf's note: Yahadut Lita, Volume III states the circuit of Birzh. Joseph Rosin's version, from Prof. Dov Levin's Pinkhas Kehillot also stated Keidan. Which is correct and how do we find out? Joe Woolf discussed this with Joseph Rosin and it is not clear which years it was under Keidan and which years under Birzh.]

Shatt was amongst the very few towns and villages where Karaites had lived for a long period; and in the 18th century a blood libel accusation was initiated against a Karaite man.

The Jewish population in 1847 was 802, in 1897 it was 1135, 1923-440, and in 1935 approximately 400, and before the Holocaust it was also about 400.

Being far from a railway line and a main highway, the economy of the Jewish community was weak. The Jewish occupations were storekeeping, crafts and transport.

On the 13th May 1832, the chairman of the Jewish community submitted a written complaint to the governor general of Vilna regarding the kidnapping of two Jews boys, Yankel Kurlandchik and Pesach Stein, by the district administration for the military draft. They had been taken on the road between Shadova [Seduva] and Vilki [Vilkija].

Between 1842 and 1911 there were 93 subscribers for the acquisition of rabbinical books [Ada Greenblatt's note: these were the names listed in the HaMeir L'Olom prenumerantum list].

In 1860 there was a major fire. In the fire of 1878, 100 homes were destroyed, amongst them the beit hamidrash and the synagogue. The latter was originally built at a cost of 4000 rubles and took three years. The Squire Montvila assisted those who had suffered from the fire. He also pledged to rebuild the guest house, which he built in 1876. The fire of 1892 destroyed 115 houses. [Ada Greenblatt's note: see list of poor victims of the 1892 Seta fire who required financial aid].

During the famine years of 1868-69 in Lithuania, Montvila provided substantial assistance to Shatt.

A new public bathhouse was built in 1889, which cost 3000 rubles.

In 1890 the entire Jewish Community attended the funeral of the Squire Montvila's wife. It required a journey of 4 verst from the town [According to The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, a verst is a Russian measure of distance equivalent to 3500 feet or 0.6629 mile or 1.067 kilometers. Joe Woolf mentions that the term verst was mentioned frequently amongst the Shatter crowd in Johannesburg.] The chazan Yosef Eliavitz and the synagogue choir sang psalms. It was already 15 years that Montvil had donated money each month for the poor. Before every Pesach he would donate 25 rubles for the maoth chitim fund which provided matzot for needy Jews. A Polish Squire Kaliatkiai also assisted the needy Jews.

On being informed at the last moment that a pogrom was planned for the 29th June 1903, the Rabbi Rabinowitz wrote a plea to the Governor on Shavuot to save the Jews from this pogrom, which was accepted and the pogrom prevented.

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