On the eve of the Shoah the Jewish community of Vilna was the spiritual centre of Eastern European Jewry, the centre of enlightenment and Jewish political life, of Jewish creativity and the experience of daily Jewish life, a community bursting with cultural and religious life, movements and parties, educational institutions, libraries and theatres; a community of rabbis and gifted Talmudic scholars, intellectuals, poets, authors, artists, craftspeople and educators. In the Jewish world it was known as "The Jerusalem of Lithuania" – a spiritual centre of the first order.
Jews have lived in Lithuania since the 14th century. There are different interpretations on how they came to the country yet it has been always recognized that merchants, artisans, and traders are important to the development of the country.
However, over the centuries the Jewish community rode a rollercoaster of turmoil and peace. The Jews of Lithuania were resilient, managing to refine a culture steeped with history, tradition, education, and family.
In the mid-17th century, a Talmud Torah (religious school) was built in the city, and philanthropists established a fund supporting its students. This period saw many well-known Torah scholars settle in the city: the most ancient tombstone in the old Jewish cemetery in Vilna was that of Rebbe Menachem Munsch Bar Yitzhak Hayut from 1636. Rebbe Uri Shraga Feibush emigrated to Jerusalem where he became the president of the Ashkenazi community and was given the nickname "Ashkenazi".
Jews were particularly entrenched in Lithuanian society, and no place was more important than Vilnius, a Great Mother City. Without question, it was the axis of the Lithuanian Jewish world. Vilnius had 105 synagogues and prayer houses. There were six daily Jewish newspapers. Yiddish was the language of choice. Indeed, the city was aptly named The Jerusalem of Lithuania. Over 100 years ago, the beginning of the 20th century, over 100 synagogues excited in Vilnius, some were situated within near lines and courtyards of the old Jews quarter and could hardly be found without help while others stood in the central streets and were visible to all. The majority of the synagogues was demolished during World War II and the Soviet occupation and only 7 buildings are preserved today.
At the end of the 19th century Vilna was a centre of political activity and Jewish culture in which Hebrew and Yiddish literature flourished. In the mid-19th century, a state art school opened in the city which did not impose a Jewish quota. Famous Jewish artists in Vilna included Boris Schatz, who later founded the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, and the painter Chaim Soutine.
With the outbreak of WWI, over 1,600 Jews fled to Vilna from the surrounding areas, as well as from other parts of Poland and Lithuania. In the spring and summer of 1915, tens of thousands of refugees attempting to flee to Russia arrived in the city. Public soup kitchens and child daycare centres were opened and help was also provided to the families of Jews that had been conscripted to the Czar's army.
In September 1915, the Germans took Vilna from the hands of the Czar.
They confiscated food and other merchandise, and abducted Jews for forced labour.
the old wooden synagogues represent both unique elements of Lithuania's cultural experience and part of the history of Lithuanian folk art and architecture. Unfortunately, most of this cultural heritage was destroyed during the Second World War. A particularly tragic case was the example of Jurbarkas, where the local Jewish community was forced to dismember the historic synagogue of the town during the summer of 1941, just before its own brutal annihilation.
At the end of 1918, the Germans retreated from Vilna. For the following two years, Polish, Russian and Lithuanian authorities took turns ruling over the city. In October 1920, the Poles occupied Vilna, and in April 1922 the Polish Sejm declared the city Polish. In this period, Vilna had a population of around 140,000, a third of which was Jewish.
Renowned scientists, teachers, writers, sculptors, and musicians made their homes here. Jewish secular and religious institutions flourished, including Der Yiddisher Visenshaftlicher Institut in the 1920s and 1930s, which published countless scientific works. Vilnius was selected to be its headquarters. Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, and Marc Chagall were honorary members of the board.
Vilnius' Jewish population today is 5,000, a mere five percent of what it once was.
The country is home to but 6,500 Jews, some 200 of whom are Holocaust survivors. Most of the two hundred pre-war communities were decimated, wiped off the map entirely. There is only one Jewish newspaper. Few people speak Yiddish anymore. Today, there remains exactly one synagogue in Vilnius.