Vilnius opens museum on culture and identity of Lithuanian Jews

A new exhibition centre focusing on the culture and identity of Lithuanian Jews has opened in Vilnius, where the Gaon Museum of Jewish History explores the everyday lives, current and historic, of the region's Jews, also known as Litvaks.

The museum, housed in a former Jewish grammar school, was officially opened by Lithuania's Minister of Culture, Simonas Kairys in late January.

"If you take a history book, Jews are usually portrayed through the tragedy of the Holocaust, whereas this museum tells a completely different story," Gaon Museum Director Simonas Strelcovas said.

"The museum shows what is not in the textbooks - culture, traditions, religion, writing, cuisine, games, customs, famous personalities," he said.

The centre also focuses on famous people with Lithuanian-Jewish roots such as singer Leonard Cohen (1934-2016) and Nobel Prize winner in chemistry Aaron Klug (1926-2018). A whole floor is dedicated to the life and work of painter Rafael Chwoles (1913-2002).

Vilnius was once known as the Jerusalem of the North, with the Jewish population making up 40% of its inhabitants before the outbreak of World War II, when Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union and also by Nazi Germany.

During the German occupation between 1941 and 1944, the Nazis and local collaborators murdered more than 90% of the 200,000 Jews living in Lithuania at the time.