The Lithuanian Karaite or Karaim are the smallest ethnic historical community in Vilnius, with just 150 or so remaining members of a people who settled in the region in the 14th century. The Karaite, from whom they get their name, are a Jewish sect who can be traced back to Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) who adhere to the Old Testament and the Decalogue, but don’t accept the Talmud. The Lithuanian Karaite were originally Tatars living on the Black Sea, almost certainly Muslim and who were converted to the Karaite faith in the 13th century. Enigmatic and as yet not properly understood, the Lithuanian Karaite, who number less than 500 nationwide, are on the edge of extinction. During the Soviet occupation, their Moorish-looking kenesa, built in 1922, was closed and made into a warehouse. Like the country’s other remaining kenesa in Trakai, the building is almost always locked.