Rabbi Elchonon Baron: Yom HaShoah Letter on Planned Desecration of the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery by State Authorities

Posted on 14 April 2026 by Defending History


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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Open Letter on Yom Hashoah

by Rabbi Elchonon Baron

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When violent antisemitism is once again rearing its ugly head across Europe, in vile response to the one and only Jewish state facing attempted annihilation on multiple fronts, I am dismayed to see the official organs of the Lithuanian government again assailing the integrity of the sacred Shnipishok cemetery in Vilna, and promoting renewed desecration to the hallowed CURRENT resting place of tens of thousands of our forefathers. Articles in major Lithuanian media outlets earlier today, including those in Lrt.lt and in m.diena.lt.

Rabbi Elchonon Baron answers questions from Lithuanian media during a recent Vilnius Jewish Community protest calling for restoration of the 500 year old sacred Jewish burial site in Vilnius.

This week, I noted with satisfaction that New York City recently designated an historic Lithuanian building with protected landmark status. New York’s Lithuanian population in 1904 (near its peak) was around 15,000, or less than half a percent. Many Lithuanian landmarks there are thankfully protected and preserved, as befitting a free and democratic society. There is an online list.

For comparison purposes, Vilna’s Jewish population was over 50% in the early 20th century (closer to 90% in the city center at many points), yet there are almost no protected Jewish landmarks! For example, out of the approximately 160 standing synagogues that once graced Vilna, there are eight left. Aside from the active synagogue, none of them even have a sign describing their history or status. Recently I stumbled on the case of Epstein’s Kloyz on Geliu St (known in Yiddish as Blumen-gas) with its distinctive style. It is for sale!

Please read the agent’s advertising text which includes the words: “I invite you to inspect this authentic building, which does not belong to the cultural heritage.” What makes this so disconcerting is that Lithuania signed an agreement in 2002 with the USA to “protect and preserve cultural property”. There is an incomplete list of those properties prepared by the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad.

In her March 1, 2015 “Message from the Chair” Lesley Weiss concludes: ‘I am pleased to note that the governments of the United States and Lithuania entered into Commission-negotiated agreement regarding the protection and preservation of certain cultural properties in 2002. The agreement covers the sites identified in this report.’ Epstein’s Kloyz is listed on page 12 as one of the last eight remaining synagogues under protection. When I recently politely brought this matter to the Vilnius Mayor and City Hall, they politely responded that they have no interest at all in cooperating for the preservation of Jewish Cultural Property (correspondence available on request).

Which brings us back to Shnipishok (where the old Vilna Jewish Cemetery, dating to the fifteenth century, is located, in modern Vilnius’s Šnipiškės district. Just because Vilna’s 60,000 Jews (a number that swelled to around 80,000 between 1939 and 1941 due to a major influx of refugees) were almost entirely annihilated by the Nazis with major Lithuanian collaboration (there are lists of tens of thousands of collaborators), and there are only just over 1000 Jews remaining today, most sadly disconnected from their heritage by generations of Soviet tyranny.

Just because The Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Shnipishok was violated by the Czar, and once again by the Soviets, does that give the present Lithuanian government to violate it again, to the point of irreversible destruction? When will the representatives of the Lithuanian government understand that there is no chance that the international Jewish community and rabbinate will allow further desecration. It does not doesn’t matter how many Jews they find who are willing (for the right price, often codenamed “via restitution”) to rubberstamp anything the government wants and then claim it as “Jewish support” (not to mention that the restitution concerned derives from valuations of prewar communal Jewish religious properties that remained ownerless after the genocide.

Painfully signed this Yom HaShoah,

 

This entry was posted in Christian-Jewish Issues, Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok), Opinion, Rabbi Elchonon Baron, USCPAHA (US Commission for Preservation of the American Heritage Abroad), Vilnius and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.
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