The Panevėžys Jewish Community received visitors from France: Mr. Matt Nguyen and his mother. The warm meeting with Community members was more than just a search for roots, it was a return to the place where their family called home more than a century ago.

Nguyen’s father was Maurice Hendel, aka Moshe Lozer Gendel, who immigrated from Panevėžys to the United States in 1922, although the family hearth isn’t Panevėžys but Pastovys now in Belarus (Postavi). Following the path of Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaheman, the Hendel family moves to Panevėžys during the First World War. Moshe’s future wife Rochel Lea Tuvman moved later from Vidžiai, Lithuania, to Panevėžys. They built a family together in Panevėžys, traces of which remain to this day.

Moshe died at the Panevėžys Jewish Hospital in 1938 and was buried in the city’s Jewish cemetery. The cemetery was destroyed during Soviet times to build a city park. Moshe’s mother, sister and daughter-in-law remained in Panevėžys during the Holocaust and were murdered there.

The surviving members of the family prepared for their trip to Lithuania with selections from their family archive including period photographs, documents and other historical material connected with the family’s life in Panevėžys (Ponevezh). They donated copies of these documents and photographs to the Panevėžys City Jewish Community to be included in the Community’s archives, a priceless gift which will be used to preserve the city’s Jewish history and to pass it along to future generations.

The Community had a very warm meeting with the family who viewed a photo exhibit, learned about the Community’s activities, met Community members and signed the guest book.

Panevėžys Jewish Community administrator Alvydas Budavičius took the pair of visitors to the remaining synagogue in Panevėžys and told them about its history, architecture and meaning to the local Jewish community. The visitors weren’t able to hide their disappointment with the current physical condition of the synagogue.

Nguyen and mother thanked Community members for the warm reception and Community chairman Gennady Kofman for his careful attention to their previous email correspondence. They also thanked Panevėžys Jewish Community administrator Alvydas Budavičius for the time he spent with them and his stories about the history of the Jews of Panevėžys, and for taking them to the dilapidated synagogue in the northern Lithuanian city.

Every guest or group of guests the Panevėžys Jewish Community receives enrich our knowledge of Jewish life and especially Jewish family life in the city, serving to bridge the gap between generations and fill in spots left blank by the Holocaust. These visits are chance to make contact with Litvaks scattered around the world and the Panevėžys Jewish Community welcomes every such opportunity.