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LIW Magazine Interview

By ArnasTraveler87

Time does not Stop A historian of Yiddish culture has his work cut out

Author:
Tassos Coulaloglou

The conversation on one of Vilnius’s busiest streets would have been common enough 60 years ago. Two men are sitting over coffee, and discussing old times in Yiddish.

 

Before the Second World War and the Holocaust, it was hard to walk ten steps in Vilnius without hearing Yiddish. Back then, the city was roughly half Jewish, and one of the most vibrant centers in the world for Yiddish and Jewish scholarship.

 

But today, with so few Yiddish speakers left alive, the discussion is being recorded for posterity.

 

It is for this reason that Dovid Katz, a renowned professor of Yiddish, moved to Lithuania permanently in 1998. His mission is
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A Promising Beginning – LIW Featured Author

By ArnasTraveler87

Romain Gary, twice winner of the Prix Goncourt, based parts of his early Books on his childhood in Vilnius

One of the most interesting and colourful 20th-century French novelists was to say about Vilnius: “Perhaps it was here that I was born as an artist.”

 

Romain Gary (his real name was Roman Kacew) was born in the city on 8 May 1914. Later living in Russia with his mother for a while, he returned to Vil­nius for a few years (from 1917 to 1924), and spent several crucial years of his childhood and adolescence at 16 Wielka Pohu­lanka Street (now Basana­vičiaus gat­vė 18).

 

After a one-year stay in Warsaw, he at last reached France, the country of his dreams, to begin to turn into what, in his
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Bonan Tagon, Amiko – LIW Magazine Culture and Society Update

By ArnasTraveler87

Esperanto opens the door

Laimius Stražnickas

Bonan tagon, amiko [Hello, friend]. Are you going on the boating trip?”

This question to young Lithuanian Esperantists is like the herald of spring.

In early May, the trip is all you hear about, along with telephone calls from Esperantists from neighboring countries to ask about the weather in Lithuania.

Everybody takes it for granted that the traditional boating trip in the Aukštaitija National Park will take place. Even the program is always the same, with boating during the day and entertainment at night.

Around a hundred Esperantists spend three days on the lakes, rivers and streams, visiting museums and other places of interest. Birthday celebrations for those born in May, and the initiation ceremony for new members, take place every year.

The tradition …

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