“Empty, boarded up, gone, pulled up the roots,” these are the words opera soloist Rafailas Karpis used to describe extant Jewish synagogues in Lithuania following a trip he made through northern Lithuania with Beata Nicholson, a noted Lithuanian journalist and television personality who produces a cooking show called “Keliauk ir ragauk. Lietuva” [Travel and Taste: Lithuania]. Karpis said the wooden synagogues of Lithuania used as store houses or sports gyms during the Soviet era are still being used as such in many locations. But not at the synagogue complex in Joniškis, rebuilt at the initiative of the local communities, where Beata and Rafailas will spend most of their time during the upcoming episode.
Full article in Lithuanian here.