{"id":2835,"date":"2022-06-01T20:54:27","date_gmt":"2022-06-01T18:54:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gvf.lt\/en\/?p=2835"},"modified":"2022-06-01T20:54:27","modified_gmt":"2022-06-01T18:54:27","slug":"participants-of-the-5th-world-litvak-congress-visited-panevezys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gvf.lt\/en\/2022\/06\/01\/participants-of-the-5th-world-litvak-congress-visited-panevezys\/","title":{"rendered":"Participants of the 5th World Litvak Congress visited Panev\u0117\u017eys"},"content":{"rendered":"

On May 25 participants of the 5th<\/sup> World Litvak Congress visited Panev\u0117\u017eys city. The Congress took place in Vilnius on 22-26 May.<\/p>\n

It is a pleasure to welcome the guests of the 5th<\/sup> World Litvak Congress and members of the city’s Jewish community to Panev\u0117\u017eys today. Panev\u0117\u017eys 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 Panev\u0117\u017eys, 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 Panev\u0117\u017eys, especially its transformation into a modern city, is special, and their heritage in various forms still functions in our daily lives<\/em>, said \u017dibut\u0117 Gaivenien\u0117, Deputy Director of the Panev\u0117\u017eys City Municipality Administration.<\/p>\n

J\u016brat\u0117 Gaidelien\u0117, Deputy Director of the Panev\u0117\u017eys Museum of Ethnography, presented a short pre-war history of Panev\u0117\u017eys Jews and cooperation with the Panev\u0117\u017eys Jewish community.<\/p>\n

At the end of the meeting, the chairman of the Panev\u0117\u017eys 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 Panev\u0117\u017eys City Municipality presented commemorative gifts with the Panev\u0117\u017eys city logo to the congress participants. The meeting took place in a friendly and warm environment.<\/p>\n

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 Panev\u0117\u017eys 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”.<\/p>\n

The participants of the Congress left Panev\u0117\u017eys 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.<\/p>\n

The participants of the 5th<\/sup> World Litvak Congress went to \u0160eduva from Pakruojis, where they also got acquainted with the history of the Jews of \u0160eduva. They visited the place of \u0160eduva synagogues, honored the memory of Jews and the monument erected in the center of the town with the inscription “For all Jews of \u0160eduva” in three languages.<\/p>\n

The participants visited the Jewish cemetery in \u0160eduva, found out about the museum being built in \u0160eduva 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n