Mazel tov to the writer and longtime Jewish heritage activist Sergey Kanovich, who has been chosen to become the new director of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum in Vilnius.
Kanovich won a competition for the post, which has a five-year term, organized by the Lithuanian Culture Ministry, a ministry announcement said. It said four candidates had participated in the competition.
Kanovich is the founder of Maceva, the Litvak Cemetery Catalogue and was a founder and former CEO of the Lost Shtetl museum in the town of Šeduva, which opened last year. Kanovich, the Ministry announcement noted, “created the concept of the museum and its exposition.” He is the son of the noted Lithuanian Jewish author Grigory Kanovich (1929-2023).
In January 2025 the Lithuanian Jewish Community appointed Kanovich Coordinator of Jewish Heritage Projects, and in 2018, Lithuania’s then-president Dalia Grybauskaitė awarded him a high state honor, the medal of the order “For Merit to Lithuania,” for his work to preserve Lithuanian Jewish heritage.
The Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum (VGSJM) is a national institution under the Ministry of Culture. It has several branches, including the Lithuanian Jewish Culture and Identity Museum, the Samuel Bak Museum, the Holocaust Exhibition, and the Paneriai Memorial and Information Center.
See the Culture Ministry announcement