Jurbarkas Synagogue Square Memorial to revive Lithuanian-Jewish common history

“We are creating this memorial not only for Jurbarkas, but for all people in Lithuania, because we think it’s high time that we say: this is our common history, we have something to remember and something to preserve, something to be ashamed of and something to be proud of,” David Zundelovitch, a Lithuania-born Israeli sculptor who is creating the monument, said on Monday.

Skirmantas Mockevičius, mayor of the municipality of Jurbarkas, expects that the monument will help write the town’s history that the young generation will know and understand.

“I do hope that this page of the town’s history will be primarily for young people,” he said.

The project by Zundelovitch and his creative group CAN New Artists Collegium is dedicated to the Jewish community of Jurbarkas, known as Yurburg in Yiddish, and their rescuers.

The memorial will be located in Kauno Street where one of Europe’s most beautiful wooden synagogues once stood. It will consist of a number of symbols that will show the historical connection between the Jewish community and the town.

The general layout will be based on the image of the nearby Nemunas River. Its stone “waves” will be covered with the surnames of the Jewish families that once lived in Jurbarkas, written in English and Yiddish.

The central element of the monument will resemble the town’s old wooden synagogue.

The Synagogue Square Memorial’s budget is estimated at 180,000 euros, of which some 60,000 euros have been raised to date.

According to Zundelovitch, if the necessary amount of funds is raised, the project should be completed by the end of the year.