1.
Litvak World
Learn. Remember. Share. Create

2.
“Litvak is not just the
name of the place, it is
a unique character
and a major culture.”
Shimon Peres
President of the State of Israel

3.
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, Tel
z, Plungian, Kelm, Shedova

4.
The Holocaust
During the Holocaust (Shoah) over
90% of the local Jews were
annihilated

5.
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

6.
We can’t let Litvaks’ culture melt with the time
 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

7.
Historians, journalists, public figures acknowledge:
 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

8.
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

9.
What we find in the local archives

10.
Looking for information in the old newspapers

11.
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

12.
From personal archives to www.litvakworld.com

13.
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

14.
Our objectives
•
•
•
•
•
•
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

15.
Jerusalem of the North
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
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”

16.
Board members
Antanas
Zabulis
Anna
Avidan
Chairman
of the
Board
Managing
director
Rolandas
Valiūnas
Aleksandr
Černov
Ričardas
Jarmalavičius
Managing
partner of
LAWIN
Law firm
President of
Lithuanian
Chess
Federation
Chairman of
the Board of
Publicum
Group

17.
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

18.
The collected information you can find on the map
Press EXPLORE
HISTORY
option in
menu panel
Search by categories
Search in virtual map

19.
Find objects by place, period, category or type
Find objects by place, period, category or type
Press the icons on the map
Select object from the list

20.
Litvak shtetls

21.
Litvak cemeteries

22.
Litvak synagogues

23.
Former Litvaks’ cultural heritage real estate
objects

24.
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

25.
Our video projects: interviews with Holocaust witnesses
Josif
Levinson
Josif
Bondar
Emilija
Brajinskienė
Maria
Bondar
Judita
Rozina
Stanislovas
Rubinovas
Irena
Veisaitė
Rachel
Kostanian
Antanas
Urba

26.
Publishing virtual exhibitions of Litvak artists’ works

27.
Arranging virtual exhibitions of modern Litvak artists from
Lithuania: Solomon Teitelbaum

28.
Arranging virtual exhibitions of modern Litvak artists from
other countries: Saadia Bahat

29.
Collecting and publishing Litvak recipes

30.
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.

31.
Virtual rebuilding of the Great Synagogue of Vilna

32.
Partnership with the Vilna Gaon Jewish State
museum

33.
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

34.
Inside the hiding place “Malina”

35.
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.

36.
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.

37.
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.

38.
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.

39.
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.

40.
Our Facebook page: stay in touch with us
www.facebook.com/litvakworld

41.
Facebook page: news, discussions, sharing, interesting facts

42.
We kindly invite Litvaks from all over the world
 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

43.
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

44.
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