Jeanette Anderson is attempting to trace the town of birth, recorded as
Wesse, Poland (Russia) in her mother's family tree album, of her great
grandfather Alfred Lewis, born 1855 and immigrated to Australia via
Manchester England in 1888.
She wrote: "Google searches seemed to indicate Wesse may also be pronounced
Jesse? Using JewishGen, I have come up with Jejse [Polish], Belarus (also
known as Yeysi, Jaisa, Jaisi, Jajsi, Ya'isi)."
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I believe you are on the wrong track identifying the town of Wesse, Poland
(Russia). By the way, Vilna, Russia is now Vilnius, Lithuania, not Belarus.

The key is accurate pronunciation of foreign alphabets. Generally, the
letter /W/ was pronounced /V/ whereas the letter /J/ was pronounced /Y/.

For Polish and Russian alphabet pronunciation, see Routes to Roots
Foundation - Archive Database -Foreign Alphabets <
http://www.rtrfoundation.org/webart/ForeignAlphabets--Polish.pdf > and <
http://www.rtrfoundation.org/webart/ForeignAlphabets--Russian.pdf >.

Obtain all possible family documents in Australia and England, including
ship manifests and naturalizations (if available), that may name your GGF's
and other family members' town of birth.

Keep in mind that, presumably, your great grandfather's original surname in
Russia was not LEWIS and his original given name was not Alfred.

Results of (phonetically like) and (sounds like) searches in JewishGen
Gazetteer for Wesse do not include an obvious match except for one
possibility, Laczno, Laka, Wiese in Poland, located 126.7 miles NNW of
Warszawa, not a significant Jewish community. Polish letter /L with stroke/
is pronounced /W/ and Polish letter /a with ogonek/ is pronounced /an/ or
/am/ but the town was also called Wiese.
< https://www.jewishgen.org/Communities/LocTown.asp >

Do you know or have you contacted Hec Alcock in Victoria, Australia who
posted a similar inquiry to RootsWeb in August 2014 about his GGF Alfred
LEWIS >from Wesse Poland Russia and Manchester, England?

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/POLAND-ROOTS/2014-08/1406913107

Good luck!
Bette Stoop Mas
USA