OPINION | OLD VILNA JEWISH CEMETERY AT PIRAMÓNT: THE SAGE OF 2015-2025 | EARLIER OPPOSITION |  2023-2024 “WORKING GROUP” ON VILNA CEMETERY | LIST OF MEMBERS | MOUNTING OPPOSITION TO NEW “MUSEUM PROJECT” | USCPAHA  (UNITED STATES COMMISSION FOR THE PRESERVATION OF AMERICA’S HERITAGE ABROAD) | THE CPJCE (COMMITTEE FOR THE PRESERVATION OF JEWISH CEMETERIES IN EUROPE) | THE AJC (AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE) | THE CER (CONFERENCE OF EUROPEAN RABBIS) | THE GWF (GOOD WILL FOUNDATION) | CEMETERIES & MASS GRAVES | HUMAN RIGHTS

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Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky (r.) and Dovid Katz. Photo: Lukas Balandis / BNS

VILNIUS—At a BNS (Baltic News Service) press conference today called by Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky, Vilnius’s one resident rabbi over the last 32 years, he was joined by Defending History editor Dovid Katz, former professor of Yiddish language, literature and culture at Vilnius University. Both pleaded with the Lithuanian government to preserve the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (Shnípishok, modern Vilnius’s Šnipiškės section), where many thousands still lie buried. The oldest recorded stone was from 1487. They called on the government to abandon plans for a convention center and or museum/memorial center, now planned for a dilapidated Soviet-era building (“Sporto rumai”) on the site.

Rabbi Krinsky pointed out that plans to “commemorate” the cemetery are a conceptual nonsense, given that the cemetery is there and needs to be preserved. Prof. Katz cited Vytautas the Great’s 1389 charter granting equal rights to Lithuania’s Jews, specifically mentioning the permanent status of cemeteries.

The event was covered by 15min.lt, alfa.lt, Bernardinai.lt, LRT.lt, and Lrytas.lt.

Rabbi Krinsky issued a much-cited statement on the cemetery in March. Dovid Katz’s writings on the subject are online in Defending History.