A conference and inspection tour took place in Pušalotas, Lithuania, June 15, of the synagogue there known as “Yoshke’s house” which also included a Jewish primary school. The synagogue was built by Howard Margol’s great-grandfather, all of whose relatives lived in Lithuania during Tsarist times. One of Margol’s relatives is former Israeli prime minister and long-time leader of the Labor Party Ehud Barak.
The inspection tour in Pušalotas included members of the Panevėžys Jewish Community, Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Amir Maimon, members of the Pušalotas community, officials from the Lithuanian Cultural Heritage Department and staff from the Lithuanian Jewish Community, Pasvalys regional administration chairman G. Gegužinskas, Lithuanian MP A. Matulas, Pušalotas township alderwoman P. Stravinskienė and Pušalotas community chairman A. Kumpauskas, among others. They inspected the synagogue which is in critical condition. For 75 years it hasn’t been used as a synagogue and was left derelict for some time. Margol and family had a commemorative plaque placed on the synagogue and put the old Pušalotas Jewish cemetery in order in 2005. The external structure of the synagogue is intact and authentic, and it could be restored and used by the local community.
Pušalotas community chairman A. Kumpauskas and local residents raised the idea during the inspection of restoring the synagogue and using it meetings, concerts and exhibitions connected with the town, and thus forming a Pušalotas-Pakruojis-Joniškis tourist route where synagogues have been restored. The main task at present is to harmonize the project and seek supporters abd state approval.
Ambassador Maimon, LJC heritage specialist Martynas Užpelkis and community chairman Kumpauskas presented a vision of the project. LJC executive director Renaldas Vaisbrodas spoke and said this idea was important to Lithuania and to Litvak descendants living around the world. Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman expressed support for the project. Kofman and other members of the Panevėžys Jewish Community toured the old Jewish cemetery in Pušalotas. In 1941 there were about 1,600 Jews living in and around Pasvalys. Jews constituted a large portion of the population of Pušalotas before the Holocaust, the chairman noted.
