Jews in lithuania

Lithuanian students retrace Holocaust history on memorial day, confront country's role in massacres

Around 600 non-Jewish Lithuanian students participated in the March of the Living commemorations held in Vilnius and Ponary, Lithuania, where 70,000 people were killed during the Holocaust.

SEPTEMBER 28, 2026|ByMILLA WOLMAN

Lithuanian teenagers marched to sites where Jews from their towns were murdered during the Holocaust.

The Malisoff family sits for a photo in 1907. Pavel Malisoff and his wife Michla sit in the center.

How a new tool in Lithuania helps people read letters from their Jewish ancestors

The tool also has the potential to support the descendants of Jews who were persecuted during the Holocaust as they prepare materials to confirm their eligibility for repatriation or citizenship.

SEPTEMBER 10, 2026|BySHIRA LI BARTOV/JTA

Workers excavate the central floor and bimah of the Great Synagogue in Vilnius, Lithuania, July 22, 2026. (Shira Li Bartov)

Archaeologists uncover treasures of Vilnius’ Great Synagogue as Lithuanian Jews dispute its future

Vilnius was a major center of Jewish thought, famed for both its religious tradition and modern secular Jewish culture. It was home to the 18th-century Vilna Gaon, a highly influential sage.

AUGUST 5, 2026|BySHIRA LI BARTOV/JTA

LITHUANIA’S PRESIDENTIAL palace in the foreground, as seen from the tower of Vilnius University.

Vilnius marks 700 years, but Lithuanian Jews reflect on darker era

Vilnius 700 events are scheduled through the end of the year, ensuring that the tensions over history and memory in the city continue to simmer.

SEPTEMBER 24, 2023|ByEMILY TAMKIN/JTA

Discovery in Lithuania: archeologists find ruins of Great Synagogue

Archeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority have found mikves, bathhouses, and other fascinating finds.

AUGUST 18, 2017ByTIRAN GOLDSTEIN

Volunteers, students and archaeologists excavate two recently uncovered mikves once belonging to the Great Synagogue of Vilna.

The Lietūkis Garage Massacre

AUGUST 8, 2017ByDOV SEGAL

Lithuania reconsiders plans to build atop destroyed Jewish cemetery

Rabbis and activists met with the Lithuanian ambassador to the US to discuss the convention center to be built on top of the former Snipiskes Cemetery.

FEBRUARY 22, 2017ByJTA

A RED ROSE is pictured during the March of the Living to honor Holocaust victims in Paneriai, near Vilnius, Lithuania, in 2012.

Jewish Holocaust victims were neighbors and fellow citizens

The project is based on the fact that there are 227 Holocaust mass murder sites in Lithuania scattered all across the country.

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016ByEFRAIM ZUROFF

Hope for change in Lithuania

Let us all hope that the new spirit on display in Moletai will mark the beginning of a new era in Lithuania.

AUGUST 31, 2016ByEFRAIM ZUROFF

Lithuanian citizenship law part of ‘healing process’ for Litvaks

While a sudden influx of Jews to Lithuania is not expected, the government’s amendment has multi-faceted ramifications.

JULY 14, 2016ByTAMARA ZIEVE

Lithuania easing restrictions for Jews to reclaim citizenship

South African Jewish community – home to tens of thousands of former Litvaks – lauds government decision.

JULY 14, 2016ByTAMARA ZIEVE, JTA

Wiesenthal Center protests Lithuanian neo-Nazi march

The annual march, which was timed to coincide with the anniversary of the Baltic state’s independence from Russia in 1918, was smaller than that of previous years.

FEBRUARY 17, 2016BySAM SOKOL

Lithuanian Jews call for government to publish list of Nazi collaborators

The Genocide Center has given the government a list containing 2,055 names of supposed perpetrators but Vilnius neither published it nor made any attempt to investigate the people concerned.

FEBRUARY 14, 2016BySAM SOKOL

A man walks past a sign at a commemoration place during the March of the Living to honor Holocaust victims in Paneriai near Vilnius, Lithuania

Lithuanian Jewish community accused of Holocaust distortion

The Genocide Center, as it is known, has been harshly criticized by Jewish organizations in the past for controversial stances.

NOVEMBER 5, 2015BySAM SOKOL