THE GREAT SYNAGOGUE
In the last week of June, I had the privilege of doing the photography for a talented group of archaeologists who were mapping the area of the Great Synagogue of Vilnius [Vilna in Yiddish], Lithuania. I had never given this historic and spiritual center a thought — until now.
Once upon a time, NOT so very long ago, there stood in the middle of the town of Vilna, Lithuania, The Great Synagogue.
THE GREAT SYNAGOGUE
If you are asking yourself the question, “Who cares?” — then first please ask the question, who cares who my great-grandparents were? Or my grand parents, parents, or myself? How does it matter what they thought? Or Plato? Or Confucius, Buddha, Jesus, Martin Luther King, and does anyone care about what you and I think? On the other hand, is not the evolution of human thought one of the most precious of gifts to be nurtured and sustained?
And so it is with this structure that was the hub of a thriving Jewish community. It was the cultural, religious, and intellectual center of Eastern European Jewish thought. In the first half of the twentieth century it was home to scholars, political activists, scientists and artists including violinist Jascha Heifetz, painter Sutinas and poet Moshe Kulbak.
As I walked the streets of Vilnius today, I see young people in jeans and crisp shirts, sipping coffee and eating blintzes and borscht, dining in outdoor cafes, listening to pop music, surrounded by freshly painted old churches and store fronts with glass windows filled with fashion and the ever present amber jewelry from the Baltic Sea.
The remnants of this once bustling Jewish center are obscure, the memory faded. There are those who wanted it to disappear from history — to wipe it and all the centuries of cumulative knowledge off the slate of man’s consciousness. But like the millennia of journeys of the Jewish people before, this is no fairy tale story that was Once Upon a Time and then lost in forgotten cupboards of books.
Hints of the thriving Jewish community that lived and worked in what is now called simply the Old City of Vilnius, can be seen in faded signs above doorways, nail holes where mezuzahs hung, and the shells of empty synagogues. Yet the most significant landmark of all, the Great Synagogue is nowhere to be seen. To understand a little about this structure is to begin to know why it is so important that it be remembered.
The Great Synagogue was not great because of its size, though it was 5 stories tall, 2 below ground and 3 above. It was not great because it attracted so many to prayer, though over 3000 people came to its services.
The Great Synagogue was truly Great because of the depth of soul spirit that emanated from within its walls. It was revered for the wisdom of centuries that reverberated inside its grand hall, and spread throughout its neighborhood. The Schulhoff — the yard and immediate buildings around it — was filled with small study kloyzen [little cloisters] where people would gather to talk about the meaning of life and how to live it and why, and about their relationship to the infinite, to God. There was an enormous bath house, the butcher shop, artisan shops, apartments, and in the early 19th century, the home of the Vilna Gaon, the genius rabbi who transformed the methodology of Jewish study and thinking, attracting seekers of truth, wisdom and peace who would journey for miles by horse, carriage and foot to stand within its walls and learn from its teachers.
The mere mention of the name of this grand structure was awe-inspiring.
Today this holy place of worship lays buried beneath the ground. Like the quarter of a million Jews who were massacred during the Nazi regime, it has become a grave of times and peoples past. Like the few Jews who escaped the terror reeked upon the Lithuanian landscape, the culture and religious practice that lived at this site for centuries was exported to Israel and to other parts of the globe where it now flourishes.
The Great Synagogue began as a small wooden prayer house in 1573. It evolved into a large community home of devotion and was the central focal point of the Jews of Lithuania for nearly four centuries — until it met the grim fate of total physical destruction. But now, thanks to the recognition of its importance by a few astute archaeologists and preservers of Jewish culture, its spirit is being renewed.
So what happened? — STAY TUNED — I HAVE ALMOST COMPLETED THIS, BUT NOT QUITE!!!! joan
The Great Synagogue was built from 1633 to 1635.
Period of Enlightenment XXX
Vilna Gaon —
Prior to World War II and the Nazi invasion of Lithuania on June 24, 1941, XXX Jews lived in Vilnius. After World War II, approximately 2000-3000 remained. With the mass genocide of Jews their homes, places of work and worship were pilfered and ransacked.
Vilna became known as the Jerusalem of Lithuania.
The project —
The objective is to discover the tangible remains of the Synagogue and the Schulhoff. In 2011, a group of archaeologists led by
Back to “so what?!” —
More pictures from this trip —