Schnipiski Jewish cemetery is the first Jewish cemetery in Vilnius , which was created in 1487 and closed in 1831 [1] . Now inactive. Located in the area known as Lithuanian Jerusalem [2] . The area covers the entire territory located at the current Sports Palace [1] , which was built directly on the territory of the cemetery [3] . The land of the cemetery was originally legally bought by the Jewish community and belongs to it [4] . (After the restoration of Independence of Lithuania, despite the new laws, no one canceled the act of sale and purchase of the land on which the cemetery is located [4] .) It is under state protection (since 2014) [5] .
| Cemetery | |
| Schnipisk Jewish cemetery | |
|---|---|
 A memorial stone at the place where, as the inscription says, the Vilnius Gaon and Ger-Tsedek were buried | |
| A country |  Lithuania |
| City | Vilnius |
| Building | 1487 |
| condition | de jure - protected by law, de facto - ongoing development attempts |
Content
History
The first Jewish cemetery in Vilnius was created in 1487, and its mention was preserved in a document dated 1592 [1] . In 1831, the cemetery was closed for burial. Subsequently, in 1930 it was completely closed [3] . The cemetery was the burial place of so many prominent figures of Jewish culture, among them the Vilnius Gaon, after the pogrom in 1919, his grave was transferred to the new Jewish cemetery of Sudarves .
Attempts to eliminate a cemetery
Soviet period
In 1949-1950, the graves were liquidated [3] . When its destruction began, the remains of Eliyahu bin Shlomo Zalman with the remains of students and relatives, as well as V. Pototsky, were transferred from him to the Sudyarves cemetery [6] . Among those buried in the cemetery is Rabbi Abraham Danzig (1748-1820), whose most famous work continues to be studied in Jewish religious schools and academies around the world every day [7] .
In 1955, most of the necropolis was demolished [1] . In the 1980s, during the construction of the Sports Palace, they destroyed an additional large part of the graves, and also removed all the external borders of the cemetery [1] . The history of the cemetery was hushed up until 1996, when archaeological excavations were conducted on the site [1] and the graves of Jewish children were found near the Sports Palace [5] .
Independent Lithuania
In 2006, part of the cemetery was built up with Mindaugas apartments, which caused an international scandal [8] . Many prominent rabbis around the world opposed plans to build a congress center, among them Shlomo Zalman Oyerbach, Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, Zvi Rotberg, American Yeshans deans, members of the Kotler and Rabbin dynasties, and many others also protested and asked to use the cemetery’s territory “exclusively for prayer and sacred reflection ” [9] . The Minister of Religious Affairs of Israel, Yitzhak Cohen, also spoke. [10] The speeches of many high-ranking Israeli leaders caused a great international response and the Lithuanian authorities postponed the continued destruction of the cemetery [8] . For the position against the construction of a congress center in the cemetery, the head of the local Jewish community, Faina Kuklanski, fired chief rabbi Haim Burshtein [8] . After his dismissal in response to his persecution, Chaim Burstein showed a link to a secret American diplomatic dispatch with information on the 2009 agreement between the Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe and the Lithuanian government on the terms of the development project. In the correspondence Faina Kuklansky herself was mentioned, who met with the Ambassador of England and the staff of the US Embassy and supported the Committee’s plans and asked for 100 thousand US dollars [8] . The committee also demanded as little publicity as possible for the sake of flexibility. [5] On August 26, 2009, the director of the Department of Cultural Heritage, together with the CPJCE committee and the Lithuanian Jewish Community, signed a non-public agreement on the borders of the cemetery, but in 2015 this agreement hit the media [5] .
October 19, 2011 at the monument at the site of the cemetery was drawn a swastika [11] .
In 2014, Minister of Culture Sarunas Birutis announced that the cemetery is now under state protection, but on February 12, 2015, Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius decided to convert the abandoned Palace of Concerts and Sports into a Congress Center [5] with a site for the Museum of the History of Litvaks (Lithuanian Jews) ) [3] . This caused strong criticism of Jewish religious organizations because of a violation of Jewish tradition, which prohibits disturbing the remains of people resting in the earth [3] . In 2015, the Lithuanian government launched a project to destroy the cemetery and build a development project on it for 25 million euros [8] . In August 2017, US congressmen wrote to Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite and urged official Vilnius to abandon the construction of a congress center at the cemetery, but the Lithuanian authorities did not abandon their idea [8] . US Congressmen, in particular, noted:
The cemetery is a historical landmark of great cultural significance for both the local and international Jewish community, therefore it must be preserved [8]
Native and resident of Vilnius Ruta Blstein [7] wrote a petition of protest against the project, which collected about 50,000 signatures [2] . Jewish activists asked Trump’s administration to intervene [2] . The London Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe also opposed the abuse of the cemetery [2] . On December 30, 2018, Israeli Interior Minister Arie Deri appealed to the Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania with a call to take serious measures in connection with the threat of desecration of the old Jewish cemetery in Vilnius in Pyramont (in today's Shnipishkes) [7] In addition to him, ten more members of the Israeli Knesset appealed with the same request.
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 The old Jewish cemetery in Schnipiskes will be tidied up.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 A historic Jewish cemetery in Lithuania could be destroyed amid a building renovation project - and activists want the Trump administration to step in
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 E. Baker: “The Jewish cemetery is not a place for the Litvak Museum”
- ↑ 1 2 Not only about old Jewish cemeteries
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 Let’s analyze the Sports Palace: recall “recall of hospitality”
- ↑ Vilnius
- ↑ 1 2 3 Israel's Interior Minister Protests Desecration of Old Vilnius Jewish Cemetery
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Jewish cemetery: cannot be left to be built
- ↑ 12 angry congressmen against Lithuania
- ↑ Israeli government demands Lithuania to halt construction in former Jewish cemetery
- ↑ Anti-Semitic attacks in the capital of Lithuania become systematic and permanent
See also
- Zarechensky Jewish cemetery
- Jewish cemetery Sudyarves