The official opening ceremony for a new memorial commemorating the memory of the Jews of Jurbarkas, Lithuania — in Yiddish, Yurburg.
The event will have several parts, including a concert at 2:30 pm by the choral group Aukuras from Klaipėda, at the Apparition of Christ Orthodox church. At 3:30 there will be a look back at the Synagogue Square Memorial Project at the Grybas Museum at Vydūno street no. 31, and at 4:30 there will be a meeting and discussion with the authors and creators of the memorial at the Jurbarkas Regional Public Library at Vilniaus street no. 4.
The municipality approved renaming the junction of Kauno and Kranto streets in the town center – The Synagogue Square.
This square, adjacent to the historical location of Yurburg’s two major Synagogues, was chosen as the site for a memorial dedicated to the Jewish Community of Yurburg. In April 2016, mayor Skirmantas Mockevicius asked Amir Maimon, the Ambassador of the State of Israel to the Republic of Lithuania, to contact Israeli sculptor David Zundelovitch and his creative group CAN New Artists Collegium with a request to design and create the future memorial, with is a sort of urban land sculpture.
Click to see the Facebook page for the memorial
Dr Sofiya Dyak, Nikita Kadan and Professor Philippe Sands discuss the evolution of the practices of Holocaust remembrance and its public discourse in Ukraine: How are these tragic events remembered across different communities and why? How to deal with histories of lands subjected to multiple occupations and mass murder across communities? How to write a historic narrative for the country, which is still in a state of war?
This event is part of Holocaust Memorial Day.
Dr Sofiya Dyak is the Director of the Lviv Centre of Urban History, a private institution which initiated a number of important initiatives commemorating Jewish community presence in Lviv in partnership with Lviv’s municipality, including the Space of Synagogues memorial. In 2017, the centre hosted the “Un-named” project, reflecting on mass violence in Ukraine between 1931 and 1945. The project included visual work by Nikita Kadan, Ukraine’s contemporary artist. Similarly, Professor Philippe Sands traced his family history back to Lviv, with the city becoming the focus of much of his literary work and intellectual reflection.
with Dr Magdalena Waligórska, and Dr Natalia Romik, respondent, and with Prof François Guesnet, Chair
European Humanities University (EHU) and the Center for Belarusian Community and Culture in Vilnius will host a premiere presentation of “Extermination” — an audiovisual installation about the Great Synagogue of Grodno, which was constructed in the 16th century and was rebuilt many times after devastating fires.
Kseniya Shtalenkova (lecturer in the Academic Department of Humanities and Arts at EHU, Philosophy PhD candidate) is the project curator and Viktoryia Bahdanovich (fourth-year student of the BA program in Visual Design) is the project production designer and executive producer.
The “Extermination” audiovisual installation is a monologue on the history of the place as well as an individual experience of a person in time and space.
The installation has been created as a part of the project on “Preservation and Actualization of Former Synagogues in Belarus for the Benefit of Local Communities” by Stsiapan Stureika, Professor of Humanities and Arts at EHU. Project research conducted for the work on the installation was conducted with the participation of EHU students.
The presentation will be delivered in Russian with subtitles in English.
Register by November 26.
Click here to register on Zoom (or for in-person attendance)
The event will be also streamed online via EHU’s Facebook page.
NOTE: you can attend the event physically at the Belarusian House (Vilniaus g. 20) by pre-registration at the same link to register on Zoom
A gathering of Lithuanian Jews and descendants, which includes an academic conference, a cultural fest, guided tours to Jewish heritage in several towns and cities around the country — Vilnius, Kaunas, Panevėžys, Šeduva, Pakruojis — and more.
Click here to see the full program
Pre-registration is required by filling out the following form:
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