Aug 14 - Welcome to Lithuania

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Vilnius is the Capital of Lithuania and it’s largest city. In the late 1800’s there where over 150 houses of worship. 


The ethnic Lithuanian’s were in the minority at 4%. The remainder of the city was split pretty evenly between Polish, Russian, German, and Jewish populations. Jews couldn’t live in the old town until Sigismund III Vasa , then they each had their own quarter of the old city.


Jewish Quarter was to the North and then leading out the Trakia gates.





The are some truly magnificent churches that miraculously survived WWII.







The Jews didn’t fair so well. Over 70,000 died. 


There is now a thriving population centered around the Jewish Community “Center” and Moroccan Style Synagogue.











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