ZHAGARE (Žagare) (or Zhagory; Yiddish name: Zager), a town (since 1950) in the Ionishki district (Lithuania). Known since 1495; traditionally divided into Žhagare and Old Zhagare. A document from 1731 states that Zhagare is inhabited exclusively by Jews and adorned with ‘fine houses’. After1795, as a result of the third partition of Poland, it became part of the Russian Empire. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was a town in the Zagory district of the Vilna province, and since 1842, in the Kovno province. Zhagare's proximity to Courland determined the influence of the Haskalah movement on the life of the Jewish community. On the other hand, the influence of the centres of traditional Jewish learning that existed in Lithuania was also felt. According to the 1766 census, 840 Jews lived in Žagarė and 313 in Senasis (Old) Žagarė. In 1847, the Jewish community of Senasis Žagarė consisted of 1,225 Jews, while the ‘New Zhagarė Jewish community’ consisted of 2,266 Jews.

According to the 1897 census, there were 1,629 Jews in Old Zhagarė (out of a total population of 2,527) and 3,814 in Žagarė (out of 5,602). The founder of the religious-ethical teaching Musar, I. Salanter (Lipkin), the doctor and public figure M. Mandelstam, and the founder of the famous tea company K. Z. Vysotsky were born in Zhagare. In the 19th century, there were several synagogues and cheders, a Jewish school for boys, a Talmud Torah, and four yeshivas, one of which was headed by Z. V. Lipkin (?–1858). In 1893, a Jewish school for girls was opened. For many years, Zhagare was the centre of the Musar movement.

In the 1880s and 1890s, there was a sharp increase in the number of Jews from Zhagare who emigrated to South Africa and the United States. In 1887, associations of emigrants from Zhagare were established in Philadelphia, and in 1895 in Johannesburg. During World War I, in 1915, most of the Jews of Zhagare were deported to the interior of Russia. Many of them did not return to Zhagare, and most of those who did return emigrated to the United States, South Africa, and Eretz Israel.

After World War I, the Jewish community in Zhagare fell into decline. In 1923, there were 1,928 Jews living in the city. In 1939, there were about a thousand Jews living in Zhagare. German troops occupied Jagare on 25 June 1941. The vast majority of Jews did not manage to evacuate. In early July 1941, the Jews of Zhagare were confined to a ghetto, where Jews from neighbouring settlements were also brought. On 2 October 1941, all Jews were shot and buried in ditches in Naryshkinsky Park.

After the end of the war, only a few Jews remained in Žagarė; in 1959, there were seven, and in 1989, only one. In the early 1990s, three plaques with inscriptions in Russian, Lithuanian and Hebrew were placed at the site of the mass shooting of Jews.