Jewish Vilna Before the War

My mother was born in a small village (shtetl) about two hours from Vilnius. To Jewish people the name of the capital of Lithuania is Vilna and it was a center for Jewish scholarship for many centuries. Before WWII Vilna had a Jewish population of around 100,000 or 45% of the total inhabitants. There were 110 synagogues and 10 Yeshivas (schools of learning). In the 2005 census the entire country counted 2000 Jewish people.

Jews began living in Lithuania as early as the 13th century and by the 14th century they had rights as citizens and so Jews from other parts of Eastern Europe began emigrating there. Unfortunately this acceptance did not last and for the next two hundred years they were subjected to discrimination and pogroms. When Lithuania became part of the Russian Empire things did not improve.

Sign at the entrance to the Jewish quarter says "Street of the Jews". It would eventually be the gate of the ghetto where Jews from Vilna and other places were gathered before deportation.

In the Jewish quarter it's clear that most of the population was poor and these are the homes no longer occupied by Jewish people. We can get a little bit of idea of what daily life might have been like.

The back side of the dwelling opened to this courtyard while the front might have been a shop or was closed off from the street. This afforded some protection from harm.

The communal refrigerator, stocked with ice and shared by all the families in the courtyard.

Much of the quarter was leveled after the war and this is now a park and playground. The path you see would have been a very narrow alley with dense housing on both sides.

Gaon Street, named for the Vilna Gaon, the most famous of the scholars in Vilna. He was a talmudist, kabbalist, and leader of the non-Hasidic Jewish community. He was said to be a genius who know talmud from the age of 9 and even wrote a book on mathematics.

This sculpture was modeled after drawings of the Vilna Gaon who lived in the 18th century. By the age of 20 other Rabbis were submitting questions on Jewish law to him for explanation. Legend says he knew the whole bible by the age of four. This sculpture is located next to the site of the Great Synagogue of Vilna, destroyed in WWII.

This Russian kindergarten is located on the site that was the Great Synagogue of Vilna. It is currently abandoned.

The Great Synagogue of Vilna was built in 1630 on the site of a smaller synagogue that had been built in 1572. Permission was given to the community to build this large stone structure. It could hold up to 5000 worshippers.

The synagogue was heavily damaged in World War II and completely leveled by the Russians in 1955.

Currently excavations are taking place inside the Russian kindergarten building and so far they have found the ritual bath and a few other important stone objects.