Other events in Baltic States

The Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum will on Thursday present to the public its new branch – the Centre of Litvak Culture and Art, informs LETA/BNS.

Litvaks' material and non-material cultural heritage will be collected, researched and popularized at the new center in various forms. It will be also involved in protecting the Lithuanian Hewish community's ethnic identity, strengthening and developing ties with Litvaks residing around the world, and cooperating with other Lithuanian and foreign museums and private collectors, the museum said on Thursday.

The Centre of Litvak Culture and Art is expected to become a center of attraction of Lithuanian citizens and foreign tourists and will continue tourist's northern path of European Jewish culture.

Staff at the center will pay special attention to spreading information and educating people to counter negative stereotypes, deep-rooted myths and the causes of anti-Semitism signs, as well as fostering citizenship and respect for the homeland, promoting tolerance and mutual understanding in the society.

"One of the main goals of the Centre of Litvak Culture and Art's expositions is to promote visitors' empathy and understanding that culture of Lithuanian Jews is not alien and is part of Lithuanian and the world's culture," the museum said.

Jews came to Lithuanian in the XIV century, and Vilnius, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, became an important center of Jewish culture in the XVIII century and was later dubbed "Northern Jerusalem".

The Nazis and their Lithuanian collaborators killed over 90 percent of Lithuania's pre-war Jewish population of more than 200,000 during World War II.