On May 25 participants of the 5th World Litvak Congress visited Panevėžys city. The Congress took place in Vilnius on 22-26 May.
It is a pleasure to welcome the guests of the 5th World Litvak Congress and members of the city’s Jewish community to Panevėžys today. Panevėžys has long been a multinational and multicultural city, and the Jewish community has played an important role not only in the life of the city, but also in the life of the entire region. In some periods of history, Jews formed a very significant part of the city in Panevėžys, actively participating in the city’s economic and service sectors. A larger Jewish community in the city was formed in the second half of the 18th century, they accounted for about 60 percent of the city’s population in the middle of the 19th century, and about 35 percent in the early 1930s. Thus, the contribution of the Jewish community to the development of Panevėžys, especially its transformation into a modern city, is special, and their heritage in various forms still functions in our daily lives, said Žibutė Gaivenienė, Deputy Director of the Panevėžys City Municipality Administration.
Jūratė Gaidelienė, Deputy Director of the Panevėžys Museum of Ethnography, presented a short pre-war history of Panevėžys Jews and cooperation with the Panevėžys Jewish community.
At the end of the meeting, the chairman of the Panevėžys Jewish Community Gennady Kofman thanked for the reception and presented the community badges to the administration staff and the organizers of the meeting, and the Panevėžys City Municipality presented commemorative gifts with the Panevėžys city logo to the congress participants. The meeting took place in a friendly and warm environment.
At the end of the meeting, the participants of the World Litvak Congress and members of the community paid tribute to the memory of the Jews of Panevėžys in the cemetery, got acquainted with the tragic history of the Jewish nation and laid pebbles and flowers at the memorial “Sad Mother of the Jews”.
The participants of the Congress left Panevėžys for Pakruojis, where they visited the only remaining wooden restored synagogue and learned about its history. It was also interesting to find out how such a small town managed to preserve the Jewish heritage to this day, collect historical material with photos, exhibit and tell visitors about Jewish history.
The participants of the 5th World Litvak Congress went to Šeduva from Pakruojis, where they also got acquainted with the history of the Jews of Šeduva. They visited the place of Šeduva synagogues, honored the memory of Jews and the monument erected in the center of the town with the inscription “For all Jews of Šeduva” in three languages.
The participants visited the Jewish cemetery in Šeduva, found out about the museum being built in Šeduva for the lost shtetls, which have not survived to this day. These are the places of communication and living of the Jews: Sabbath candles and challah, Torah lessons, Sabbath dinners.
The participants of the congress thanked the organizers for the tour and interesting stories, and the organizers thanked the participants of the Litvak Congress who were not afraid of the rain and patiently listened to the stories about the history of Jews of Lithuania.
