News

A screening of the documentary “LITVAKS: from Vilnius to Jerusalem”, organized in cooperation with the European Friends of Israel (EFI), to introduce the rich and vibrant Litvak culture that once thrived in Lithuania until the World War II and Litvak descendants that survived the Catastrophe.

The event will take place on 7th of November, in the European Parliament in Brussels. The movie screening will be preceded by the speech of Mr. Amos EIRAN, Honorary Consul of Lithuania in Israel and followed by a cocktail reception.

Litvaks are Jews with roots in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (present-day Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, and the northeastern Suwalki region of Poland), speaking mostly Yiddish, widely known for their spirituality, rational mind and great love for education. Throughout the centuries until the World War II, Vilnius was cultural, economic and spiritual center of the Litvaks. With 110 Synagogues, 10 yeshivas, numerous print houses, rich libraries, schools, vibrant network of Jewish cultural, public and charity organizations, Vilnius was known to the World as “the Northern Jerusalem”. It nurtured World-famous personalities such as Vilna Gaon Rabbi Eliyahu, violinist Jascha Heifetz, legendary humorist Motke Chabad, expressionist painter Chaim Soutine and many others. Among the present-day Litvak descendants – President of Israel Shimon Peres, Nobel Prize laureate Aaron Clug, singer Leonard Cohen.