Old Jewish Cemetery in Vilnius, Lithuania Under State Protection

The following excerpt is from the August 9, 2016 edition of the Baltic Times.

Lithuania-Jewish-Cemetery_350pw

An old Jewish cemetery in Vilnius has been registered among cultural objects protected by the state, under a decree signed by Lithuania’s Culture Minister Sarunas Birutis on Friday.

Data provided by the Jewish Community of Lithuania indicates that the old Jewish cemetery on Olandu Street was used from 1828 to 1940, with about 70,000 individuals buried there. The cemetery was demolished during Soviet rule between 1961 and 1963.

Read the full article.

About Leland Meitzler

Leland K. Meitzler founded Heritage Quest in 1985, and has worked as Managing Editor of both Heritage Quest Magazine and The Genealogical Helper. He currently operates Family Roots Publishing Company (www.FamilyRootsPublishing.com), writes daily at GenealogyBlog.com, writes the weekly Genealogy Newsline, conducts the annual Salt Lake Christmas Tour to the Family History Library, and speaks nationally, having given over 2000 lectures since 1983.

2 Replies to “Old Jewish Cemetery in Vilnius, Lithuania Under State Protection”

  1. Thank you for the report. As is often the case, there are two sides to a story. While for now the newer historic Jewish cemetery in Vilnius (18th-19th century), not (yet) desired by the property developers and their politician friends is indeed the object of both real and PR ‘good deeds’, it is widely felt that this is a political/media cover-up for the real story: that the Old Jewish Cemetery (15th – 19th centuries), where many thousands still lie buried, including some luminous Lithuanian-Jewish scholars of the last millennium, is being desecrated by plans to have the multi-million dollar National Congress Center right on top, in spite of pained protest and heartfelt pleas from people around the world, and in spite of Wikileaks and media revelations about the iffy rabbis from London who allegedly offer “permissions” for such projects in return for financial considerations. See http://www.DefendingHistory.com (please scroll down front page);
    Local & international opposition (http://defendinghistory.com/75558/75558);
    Section on the subject (http://defendinghistory.com/category/jewish-cemetery-piramont-snipiskes-shnipishok);
    My own take (in Times of Israel): http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/lithuanias-liveliest-cemetery/;
    Jerusalem Post report: http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Lithuanian-PM-Sports-complex-in-Jewish-cemetery-to-be-built-with-proper-respect-413226;
    JTA: http://www.timesofisrael.com/its-a-jewish-smackdown-over-lithuanian-sites-alleged-graves/
    With all good wishes,
    Dovid Katz (www.dovidkatz.net)

  2. Correction to my comment: The reference to the “newer historic Jewish cemetery in Vilnius (19th-20th century)” was misstated as “18th-19th century” — Apologies!

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