Judaism in Lithuania | True Lithuania
True Lithuania

Judaism in Lithuania

Lithuania is so important in the Jewish history that Vilnius is sometimes called the “Jerusalem of the North”. It is here that the famous Talmud commentator Elijah (Gaon of Vilnius) lived in the 18th century. Jews once made the majority of inhabitants in a few Lithuanian towns and a significant minority in many others. The type of Judaism followed in the Lithuania's prime yeshivas influenced Judaism worldwide.

Jewish religious communities have been massively drained by emigration since mid-19th century, but the Nazi German Holocaust (1941-1944) and the Soviet atheist policies (1945-1990) proved to deal the final blow to most of them, leading to an abandonment of the yeshivas and many synagogues. Soviets then destroyed many religious structures, among them Jewish cemeteries (reusing some gravestones for entertainment buildings) and the Vilnius Great Synagogue. These Soviet policies were not unique to Judaism as other religious groups shared a similar fate (atheist Jews, on the other hand, were influential in the Soviet Union, this hastening the decline in Judaism followers).

An abandoned synagogue in Alytus (Dzūkija region). ©Augustinas Žemaitis.

What has survived is still impressive albeit only two synagogues are working now (in Vilnius and Kaunas). In some cities and towns, such as Alytus, Kėdainai, Pakruojis, Švėkšna or Joniškis, there are former synagogues still standing, some of them converted to another use, but many others abandoned and derelict. Approximately 80 synagogues survive, 13 of them wooden. They are usually harder to spot than the local churches because of the lack of tower and a less visible location.

A legacy of the Soviet occupation is that only 30% percent of Lithuania’s ethnic Jews are of the Jewish faith (nearly half of them aged 60+), with most younger Jews now professing no religion. This led to serious disagreements between religious and secular Jewish communities over who is the real descendant of the interwar Jewry and who should receive back the buildings that were nationalized by the Soviets and compensations. The new religious possibilities after years of a spiritual vacuum also caused disagreements inside Vilnius Jewish community over what type of Judaism should be followed in Vilnius Synagogue (Hassidic Chabad Lubavitch that made inroads to Lithuania in the 1990s or the traditional Litvak).

That said, 2010s saw a limited rebirth of the Jewish faith and after a long hiatus, it became possible to see some Jews in the traditional Orthodox clothes, although very few and mainly around the Vilnius synagogue at the prayer time.

Renovated synagogues in Joniškis. Like most renovated synagogues, they are no longer used for religion, even if returned to the Jewish community. ©Augustinas Žemaitis.

Article written by Augustinas Žemaitis

Click to learn more about Lithuania: Religions Leave a comment
Comments (0) Trackbacks (0)
  1. This tiny page on the Jewish population of Lithuania was like a mirage! I am looking for my grandparents’ families. My father was born in Edwardsville, PA (near Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, PA, USA) in 1914 and was one of 11 siblings. Evidently there was a huge number of Lithuanians who settled in Pennsylvania. His parents died in a house explosion where they had a store in the front of the structure. The horrific event made the local newspapers, so I’m hoping that perhaps others are looking for relatives from the family who may have settled in that same town in Pennsylvania too. I am the youngest of the grandchildren (64). My cousin who is the authority and holder of the family tree recently learned that our grandfather’s Americanized surname of “Robinson”, was “Rabinowitz” (sp?) which would have been his father’s name who immigrated to the US,(don’t have the year, but can find out) .Our grandmother’s maiden name was “Budnitsky” and I know she had family in the same Pennsylvania area as t hey are mentioned in the article about my grandparent’s death, but none of the Robinson’s ever spoke about their mother’s family. How can we learn more about our Lithuanian family when there is little trace of them left in Europe?

    • You may read more about emigration from Lithuania to Pennsylvania (and what they have left behind in the form of heritage) on our page here – http://global.truelithuania.com/category/usa/pennsylvania/ . It has little information on Jews, however, as they were few in numbers there compared to Catholics and often integrated into synagogues with other Jews rather than establishing separate syngagogues and organizations for Jews from Lithuania (as Catholics from Lithuania did with churches and societies), and did not participate in non-religious Lithuanian organizations.

      As for searching for the roots back in Lithuania, often, you need to know three things to succeed:
      *Name(s) – not only surnames
      *Date(s)
      *Location(s) – of births, etc.

      All three may be approximate – e.g. Americanized name or date in a particular year(s) rather than an exact date. The more approximate it is, the more work needs to be done by an archival search specialist (as he e.g. has to view several years of data) but it is still possible. Sometimes, when a surname is rare, a location may be guessed from it. However, if the surname is popular and you know only the surname, it will be most likely difficult to find anything sure: as you would find hundreds of people with similar surnames all over Lithuania (birth records, etc.) and couldn’t know which one of them was in your family.

      We provide heritage search services in the archives if needed.

    • ms, sufrin, my grandparents came over in the early 1900’s or late 1800’s. they came over with the name gilman but somehow when they entered the U.S it was changed to gelerman. they settled in the west end of boston where all the migrants lived in tenements together in sections. eventually the italians moved to the north end of boston the irish moved to south boston and the jews moved to roxbury and then to dorchester i am 78 years of age. i traced my grandparents from the west end of boston to dorchester a suburb south of boston. my father and his twin brother were born in the U.S but some of the siblings were born in lithuania thats all i know.


Leave a comment

No trackbacks yet.