Diaspora by Ilnit Chernic
A memorial commemorating the extinct Jewish community of Jurbarkas in western Lithuania was dedicated this weekend.
World-renowned Israeli designer and sculptor David Zundelovich said his Synagogue Square Memorial “is dedicated to [the] many generations of the Jewish people [who lived] in this town, and the tragic end of this community.
Jews settled in Jurbarkas during the 17th century. By 1790, the town was home to over 2,500 Jews and boasted a wooden shul and a cemetery, both believed to be among the oldest in the region.
By the late 19th and early 20th Century, the community was thriving with schools, synagogues and businesses, with Jews making up between 32% and 43% of the town’s population over the decades.
Jurbarkas’s Jewish community came to a tragic end, along with hundreds of years of Jewish history, when the Nazis invaded Lithuania in June 1941.
“Also, this monument is dedicated to those who saved Jews, and thus this memorial is tightly connected to the Litvak history as a whole,” he said in a statement. “It is the first memorial of its kind. I am happy that we have completed the memorial, with the help of so many good-willed people.”
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