"Litvakworld" Exploring and preserving the Jewish heritage in Lithuania. Presentation...

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 Černov

Anna Avidan

Aleksandr Soloveičik

Jonas Garbaravičius

Asia Fuondation, “LAWIN”

UAB “IDW Baldeta Project Development”

UAB “JeruLita”

UAB “Kenova Group”

UAB “Publicum”

AB “Šiaulių bankas”

UAB “Vičiūnai Group”

Board members

AleksandrČernov

President of

Lithuanian Chess Federation

Anna Avidan

Managing director

RolandasValiūnas

Managing partner of

LAWIN Law firm

RičardasJarmalavičius

Chairman of the Board of

PublicumGroup

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

Choral synagogue in Vilna

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

EmilijaBrajinskienė

JuditaRozina

JosifBondar

MariaBondar

StanislovasRubinovas

IrenaVeisaitė

RachelKostanian

AntanasUrba

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”

Next step: publishing Yitskhok Rudashevsky’s diary

We are going to raise

funds for translating and

publishing the diary

written by Yitskhok

Rudashevsky into

Lithuanian and to present

the books to Lithuanian

schools. The English

version needs to be

published again, as well.

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.

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

Your are invited to share your memories

Fill in a short registration form

Put down main information

Indicate location

Add description

Insert images, audio and video files

Add new fact

Your fact will appear on the historical map of the

former Yiddishland

http://www.litvakworld.com

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

Antanas Zabulis

Chairman of the Board

antanas@litvakworld.com

Anna Avidan

Managing director

anna@litvakworld.com

We really need your support and participation

and would appreciate keeping in touch with you