THE INCREDIBLE IMPORTANCE OF THE VILNA SHULHOYF
Author: Rabbi Elchonon Baron
Here is a promotional tourism film highlighting Vilna in the 1930s, apparently for the Warsaw Jewish market (based on the Yiddish accent). The actual Yiddish narration is much richer than the English subtitles.
Warsaw was ten times the size of Vilna, as was it's Jewish community then. By the late 1930s, both Warsaw and Vilna had become increasingly secular. My late father, the legendary Rabbi Leib Baron z"l, remarked that when he arrived in Vilna in late 1939, he had complete culture shock, as in this great Jewish city one couldn't distinguish a weekday from the Sabbath.
I find it rather interesting that with this background context, several minutes of this film are dedicated in awe to Vilna's main Jewish holy sites, namely the Shnipishok cemetery and the Vilna Shulhoyf (Synagogue courtyard) with its unparalleled '20 Synagogues' (actually 14, plus another 6 community organizations). Unfortunately, instead of understanding the huge importance of this Lithuanian national heritage treasure and committing to its restoration, the Lithuanians have handed this extremely valuable property to two jews for destruction by commercial development. It is a real indication of the sorry state of affairs in Lithuania, even though it is apparently the richest repository of Jewish Heritage outside of Israel. It seems as if the Lithuanians are continuing the Soviet policy of erasing all Jewish heritage and history. I am still hoping that some Lithuanians who care about their national heritage will come forward to save the Shulhoyf before it's too late!
The amazing thing about these two jews is that not only have they destroyed the Vilna Jewish Community (as any jew in Vilna will tell you) and destroyed all semblance of Yiddishkeit in Vilna (chasing out rabbis, closing the mikveh and kosher establishment, refusing to host seders, fighting with Chabad, and much more), they have taken control of this Jewish community property worth tens of millions for their private fund, and are now asking the Claims Conference to use Jewish restitution funds to develop their private commercial venture! There seems to be no limit to chutzpah!
