Litvak World

Learn. Remember. Share. Create

Shimon Peres

President of the State of Israel

“Litvak is not just the name of the place, it is a unique character and a major culture.”

Yiddishland

At the beginning of the 20th century the Jewish population here reached 7 million people, 95% of whom were speaking Yiddish

The names of the small towns (shtetls) in Yiddish sounded like: Vilna, Kovno, Shavli, Ponevezh, Yanishok, Telz, Plungian, Kelm, Shedova

The Holocaust

During the Holocaust (Shoah) over 90% of the local Jews were

annihilated

Forgetting destroys the history, remembering creates the future

50 years after WWII, during the Soviet times, we did not know the word “Holocaust”

Jewish issues had to be avoided, It was forbidden to learn Hebrew

Even those who survived did not speak about Holocaust in their families

Modern generation has been educated that there were no battles in Lithuania during WWII, so the war had no significant impact on the everyday life in Lithuania

The revival of the Lithuanian Jewish culture and preservation of the heritage will pay a great respect and honor in the memory of those who perished

It will reveal an extremely rich Litvak culture for us, living today

It will play a significant educational role for the younger generations

We can’t let Litvaks’ culture melt with the time

that we still know very little about the tremendous cultural contribution that Jews had once made to Lithuanian culture

the value of the high level of tolerance and a unique co-existence of nations in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which we should learn and follow

Historians, journalists, public figures acknowledge:

Where one can find information about Litvaks’ heritage today?

The massive amount of materials related to the Litvaks’ heritage remains tucked away in public and personal archives

An abundance of websites, yet the majority of them is in Lithuanian, covering only some particular issues

Materials are mostly in Lithuania, remaining inaccessible for most people from other countries

What we find in the local archives

Looking for information in the old newspapers

Our main idea in creating www.litvakworld.com

Bringing the hidden to the surface: taking history from drawers and

personal archives to the virtual world of Litvaks

From personal archives to www.litvakworld.com

Our aims

• revive the history of Litvaks and reinstate it into the history of Lithuania

• revitalize the ties between Litvaks and Lithuania

• serve educational purposes for people all over the world

• promote the ideas of tolerant societies

• to spread knowledge about Litvaks’ history and cultural heritage

• to reveal and share real family stories• to support scholars, volunteers, organizations who

make efforts to shed light on unexplored areas of the heritage of Lithuanian Jews

• to install signs related to the Litvaks’ history in Lithuanian towns and countryside

• to film Holocaust witnesses’ interviews• to translate the documents and other information

that we have here in Lithuania into English

Our objectives

Our organization is called “Jerusalem of the North”. It

is a non-profit organization established in 2011 on the

initiative of companies and private individuals

Jerusalem of the North

Founders:Antanas Guoga

Aleksandr ČernovAnna Avidan

Aleksandr SoloveičikJonas Garbaravičius

Asia Fuondation, “LAWIN”UAB “IDW Baldeta Project Development”

UAB “JeruLita”UAB “Kenova Group”

UAB “Publicum”AB “Šiaulių bankas”

UAB “Vičiūnai Group”

Board members

Aleksandr Černov

President of Lithuanian Chess Federation

Anna Avidan

Managing director

Rolandas Valiūnas

Managing partner of LAWIN Law firm

RičardasJarmalavičius

Chairman of the Board of Publicum Group

AntanasZabulis

Chairman of the Board

www.litvakworld.com

information becomes much more accessible

everything is stored in one place and one language

history remains in a virtual space for future generations to see and to learn

The collected information you can find on the map

Search by categories Search in virtual map

Press EXPLORE HISTORY option in menu panel

Find objects by place, period, category or type

Select object from the list

Press the icons on the map

Find objects by place, period, category or type

Litvak shtetls

Litvak cemeteries

Litvak synagogues

Former Litvaks’ cultural heritage real estate objects

Partnership with the United States Holocaust Museum

The Litvak World website has been incorporated in WorldCat and in the USHMM Library’s catalog

The databases on Litvak history can be accessed

through our web portal

Our video projects: interviews with Holocaust witnesses

JosifLevinson

Emilija Brajinskienė

JuditaRozina

JosifBondar

MariaBondar

StanislovasRubinovas

IrenaVeisaitė

RachelKostanian

Antanas Urba

Publishing virtual exhibitions of Litvak artists’ works

Arranging virtual exhibitions of modern Litvak artists from Lithuania: Solomon Teitelbaum

Arranging virtual exhibitions of modern Litvak artists from other countries: Saadia Bahat

Collecting and publishing Litvak recipes

The Virtual rebuilding of the Great Synagogue of Vilna

Our idea is to virtually reconstruct and thus symbolically bring back to life what used to be sacred to Litvaks – the Great Synagogue of Vilnius.

You can leave your trace in this unique project by placing your own brick in the walls of the virtual synagogue.

Virtual rebuilding of the Great Synagogue of Vilna

Partnership with the Vilna Gaon Jewish State museum

A diary of a boy from the Vilna ghetto

commemorating the 70th anniversary of the liquidation of the Vilnius Ghetto, together with the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum we have set up an interactive audio-visual hideout exposition in the museum

the audiovisual installation for the first time gives visitors the opportunity to hear fragments of a 14 years old boy hiding in the Vilna ghetto during the WWII (Yitskhok Rudashevsky’s diary) which has been unknown for years

Inside the hiding place “Malina”

Published book “The Shtetl of Musnik”

We have supported the publishing of the book “The Shtetl of Musnik. The Story of the Zilber Family” by Dov Barry Sidelsky, translated from English to Lithuanian. The story tells about a lawyer from Lithuania who was Nelson Mandela’s spiritual mentor during all his life.

Published book “Lithuania: the promised land”

We have supported the publishing of the book “Lithuania: the promised land” by Vilius Kavaliauskas. We are planning on translating the book into English.

Current projects: “Smuggled in Potato Sacks”

We have agreed upon the copyright with the authors of the book “Smuggled in Potato Sacks” for translating it into Lithuanian. The book tells the stories of 50 Jewish kids who were rescued from the Kovno ghetto by Lithuanian families. The book will be also gifted to the Lithuanian schools.

Current projects: QR codes in the old Vilna

We are going to raise funds for developing an APP and placing QR codes on former Vilna ghetto buildings that used to be of greater importance in the life of the ghetto.

Current projects: an album of Litvak art

We are planning to publish a collective art album of works by Litvak artists. The album will include works from personal collections in Lithuania. The album is a great way to collect all of those incredible works in one publication, which will give the general public the opportunity to see those works and become acquainted with Litvak art.

Our Facebook page: stay in touch with us

www.facebook.com/litvakworld

Facebook page: news, discussions, sharing, interesting facts

to visit our website, to investigate and share the history of the shtetls

to join us building a global Litvak community, sharing ideas, questions, contacts, information

to recommend candidates for the Advisory Board of the project

support our investigations and restoration projects to come and see Lithuania, to visit the former

shtetls, and we would be happy to assist you in this journey professionally, providing with all the necessary information before the trip and with all the facilities during it

We kindly invite Litvaks from all over the world

We would appreciate help in

finding relevant information related to the history of Lithuanian Jews (articles, documents, pictures, family stories, etc.)

raising funds for translations and publishing articles and books on Litvaks’ heritage

funding the rewards of experts who explore the history of Lithuanian Jews and help to maintain high authenticity of the virtual museum’s content

raising funds for the restoration of Jewish cultural objects

Let’s contribute to the preservation of Litvaks’ heritage together

All donations, large and small, are vital to our work For 10 $ you can help to acquire a copy of one

document from the Lithuanian state archive For 500$ you can pay a one month salary for our

internet portal content manager For 1000$ you can contribute to translations from

Lithuanian into English For 5000$ you can support publishing of a book For 10000$ you can contribute to the development

of an application or a mobile version of our portal