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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
Anna Avidan
Managing director
We really need your support and participation
and would appreciate keeping in touch with you
