Vilnius Jewish Religious Community chairman Shmuel (Simas) Levinas visited the site of the Great Synagogue July 18 where an international team of archaeologists are now working for their second summer. Dr. Jon Seligman acquainted the chairman with current work, including the discovery of two well-preserved ritual baths with original tiles and a well-developed water system. The pieces discovered are washed by volunteers and excavated earth is sent through sieves to find smaller items. Some of the volunteers, mainly from the USA and Israel, and Dr. Seligman have Litvak roots.

On July 19 Dr. Seligman and fellow archaeological dig director professor Freund visited the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius and had a chance to see for themselves the revival of Jewish religious life taking place there.

The visitors saw the synagogue’s Torah scrolls and were especially interested in the scroll donated by Judah Passow which originates in the time of the Vilna Gaon. They were impressed by a matzo-making machine contrived after World War II at the synagogue and were most interested in fragments of the former Great Synagogue preserved at the Choral Synagogue, including plaques with prayers. The two visitors donated Vladimir Levin’s book History of the Synagogues of Vilnius to the library at the Choral Synagogue.

The Tolerance Center of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum screened the NOVA documentary about Jewish Vilna which aired earlier in the spring on the PBS network in the United States on July 18. The event space was filled with audience members and staff had to find additional chairs for the large crowd. Many sat in the upstairs balcony overlooking the space. Also in attendance were current and former staff from the Vilna Gaon museum and MP Emanuelis Zingeris. The audience was mainly interested members of the Lithuanian public including a large number of young Lithuanians.

Speaking before the film, museum director Markas Zingeris praised the documentary about archaeological digs at the site of the former Great Synagogue in Vilnius and at the Holocaust mass murder site Ponar just outside the Lithuanian capital.

Deputy chief of mission at the United States embassy to Lithuania Howard Solomon also called the film important and reiterated long-standing US support for the Lithuanian Jewish community.

Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Amir Maimon noted Israelis remember the heroes as well as the victims during Holocaust commemorations, and said his personal hero was Fania Brancovskaja, the FPO partisan present in the audience. He also expressed the hope the documentary would be shown throughout Lithuania.

from Jewish Heritage Europe

The second season of archaeological excavations is under way at the site of the destroyed Great Synagogue in Vilnius and the surrounding Shulhoyf complex of Jewish buildings. A team of Israeli, Lithuanian and American volunteers began work on July 10 and will continue until July 21.

The objective is to continue last year’s work  researching the water system of the complex developed in the 18th century and two mikvaot, ritual baths. Plans are to open “an area … probably near the entrance staircase descending into the synagogue and around the area of the bimah.”