After a two-year break, a team of international archaeologists is returning this summer to continue excavations at the site of the Vilna Great Synagogue and Shulhoyf in Vilnius — and they are welcoming volunteers.
The excavations will take place July 8-26. If you are interested in participating, please contact lead archaeologist Jon Seligman at [email protected]. No stipends are available, however, and volunteers will need to make their own way to Vilnius.
The excavations, the team said, “will focus on the area of the synagogue to the left of the Aron Kodesh, up until the eastern wall of the building, with the hope of discovering remnants of the original mikvah of Vilna, which is described in 19th century Rabbinical literature but has since been lost.”
The Great Synagogue was built in the early 1600s in Renaissance-Baroque style. It became the center of Jewish life in Vilnius (Vilna), towering over the Shulhoyf, a teeming complex of alleyways and other Jewish community buildings and institutions including 12 synagogues, ritual baths, the community council, kosher meat stalls, the Strashun library, and other structures and institutions.
It was ransacked and torched by the Nazis in World War II, and the postwar Soviet regime torn down the ruins and in the 1950s built a school on the site.
Archaeologists have been excavating at the site since 2016, after first preparing the way with group-penetrating radar scans. Major finds have included the foundations of the Ark and the Bimah, and the discovery of two ritual baths (mikvehs).
Further excavation, the project said, “exposed the floor area between the Bimah and the Aron Kodesh, including its stairs. On the floor of the synagogue were the destroyed remains of the four huge columns which once supported the roof.”
In the 2019 and 2021 excavation seasons, it said, “excavations focused on further exposure of the Bimah, rebuilt by the Yesod, a community benefactor, during the 18th century. Parts of the columns, the colourful floor and the balustrade of the readers table were found.”
The most important find of the excavation was of an important memorial inscription. The Hebrew inscription, engraved on a large stone slab, is a complex rabbinic text filled with biblical allusions, symbolism, gematria, and abbreviations. The text describes the donation of a Torah reading table in 1796 in honour of R. Hayim ben Hayim and of Sarah by their sons, R. Eliezer and Shmuel. The inscription notes the aliyah (emigration) of Hayim and his wife Sarah to Eretz Israel, the Land of Israel. The interpretation of the inscription shows the use of multiple messianic motifs. Historical analysis identifies the involvement of the Vilna community with the support of the Yishuv (the Jewish community in Ottoman Palestine) and the aliyah of senior scholars and community leaders at the end of the 18th and early 19th centuries. Amongst these figures were Hayim ben Hayim and Sarah, with Hayim ben Hayim going on to represent the Vilna community in the Land of Israel as its emissary, distributing charitable donations to the scholarly Ashkenazi community resident in Tiberias, Safed, and later Jerusalem.
The 2024 excavation season is sponsored and partnered by a number of organizations and institutions in Lithuania, Israel, and the United States. They include the Good Will Foundation; the Jewish Community of Lithuania; the Israel Antiquities Authority; Kulturos paveldo išsaugojimo pajegos; the Center for Jewish Art, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design; Duquesne University; Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum; University of Wisconsin in Eau Claire.
Read the 2024 season announcement on Facebook
Read our post about the 2021 discoveries, with video reports
Read our post about the 2019 discoveries with more details and links to earlier articles
Access the project’s Facebook page for more pictures and updates
2 comments on “Lithuania: After a 2-year break, archaeologists return to the excavations of the Vilna Great Synagogue this summer, and welcome volunteers”
looking forward to coming and volunteering…
My great grand uncle RABBI JACOB JOSEPH was leading figure in the Vilna community in the late 19th century until he accepted a position to come to the United States in 1897 to become the Chief Rabbi of New York City