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Jewish Vilnius
Lithuanian Jews can be traced back to the 13th century. The classic Lithuanian Jew (Litvak) is known in folklore for a love of education, no-nonsense straight-talk and a certain sardonic wit. Jews were settled in Vilna, as the capital was and still is known in Jewish culture (more precisely in Yiddish as Vilne) from around the time of its founding in 1323. By the 18th century Vilna had become the world capital of traditional religious (Talmudic) learning, often referred to as the Jerusalem of Lithuania, or Jerusalem of the North. Towering over the many great Jewish figures the city has produced is unquestionably the greatest ever rabbinic scholar, the Gaon of Vilna (Eyliohu son of Shloyme-Zalmen (1720-1797)). Between the wars, Vilna (at that time under Polish rule and known as Wilno) was a bustling international centre of modern Yiddish culture and scholarship. Within a few years 94% of the 250,000 or so Litvak men, women and children, including the 80,000 Jews living in Vilnius at that time perished in the Holocaust, the highest percentage of genocide in Europe. Almost no Jewish cultural sites or homes of renowned personalities are remembered, although some efforts are finally being made to commemorate some of the city’s more notable Jewish historical figures. Today's small community of 5,000 or so makes bold efforts to maintain its heritage.
