Vilnius: ‘Jerusalem of Lithuania’

(Image: ©David M. Goehring/ CarbonNYC/ Flickr)

Tired after a busy day and prepared for a casual chat, I meet a summer school student, with whom I’ve arranged to do Hebrew language tandem. ‘Do you mind keeping me company to go to the synagogue?’ Apparently, the person is a second year convert-in-progress to Judaism. ‘Umm, my skirt is kind of short for that…’ Anecdote from cafebabel.com blog ‘Wonderland’

Testimony

by Daiva Repečkaitė @

19/08/10

Tags : religion, lifestyle, blogs, Lithuania, university, Facebook, Vilnius, Judaism.

English [original version]
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I did want to become invisible (and not to meet anyone I know by some chance) – I was the only woman in the building, wearing a skirt and sandals, unable to follow (the men were praying in the ancient Ashkenazi accent, the one where they say adonoy), feeling lost among the 15 or so religious men, whose scattered group looked kind of lonely there and then, amid the end of a regular workday. But my companion was right - nobody paid attention to me. The men were there to pray. Soon after the break I was joined by a young lady I apparently already knew on Facebook, who said she comes to observe the prayer once in a while, guided by interest.

Vilnius is definitely not a boiling marketplace of different religions, and there are even tinier communities around. However, the space and the way the men act in it makes you think about the gap between what you see and the numbers of people the synagogue was planned for…

Read the full post ‘Religious space, gender, strange encounters’ on Wonderland

Image: main ©David M. Goehring/ CarbonNYC on Flickr

by Daiva Repečkaitė @

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Editors - 2010-08-20 12:55:28

Re the sentence 'However, the space and the way the men act in it makes you think about the gap between what you see and the numbers of people the synagogue was planned for…' The author offers an explanation: 'There were many religious jews when the buildings were planned - synagogues were built before the war (200,000 jews in LT, perhaps at least 1/2 religious), then there was was the war, USSR, and opportunity to leave for Israel, leaving 3,500 jews in LT, perhaps 100 or so religious. Apparently, only 15 use this religious space regularly. There is another religious jewish community in kaunas. It's not really a huge building but when they start praying, the sound somehow doesn't fill the space. The point is - the building is very visible, very centrally located. It was planned for a bigger audience but these (mostly older) men seemed to me like one of these recent religious movements - small and basically, the infrastructure for them to continue living the way their ancestors did is gone - except that the building is still there. Now the municipality is considering rebuilding another synagogue that was destroyed during the war'

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Vilnius: ‘Jerusalem of Lithuania’

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