home 
Then on to Riga, Latvia where it appears that, under the leadership of a young (40-ish), aggressive business man Gresha or Gregori Kroupnikov (and of course many others) the Latvian Society of Jewish Culture has regained it's old property near the center of town, and is responsible for generating a community spirit among the surviving population. We witnessed a rehearsal of beautiful early teenagers (or younger) rehearsing a performance in Yiddish. There aren't too many places left where youngsters are learning that language ...as well as Hebrew and Latvian. The only religious services held in the building are on the High Holidays, but throughout the year there are lessons, and performances, and a wide variety of cultural activities.
As everywhere, the Chabad. or Lubavitcher, has a strong presence in Riga. A handsome 'Bocher' of 22 is the ‘shaliyach’ from Israel, offering yeshiva classes to a fair number of youngsters in the vestry of the large Riga Synagogue. If I were young and not yet spoken for he might even convince me to become Jewish. His activity is in addition to services which take place in the main part of the Shul on Shabbat. The community also operates a soup kitchen and there were real signs of communal life, however poor and aged the remaining people may be.
Our next stop, ever closer to the family shtetlach, was Vilna, known as the Jerusalem of the West, where in its halcyon days forty percent of the population was Jewish, where there were countless Yeshivot, where Jewish scholars and Jewish artists abounded, where my mother lived, Ruth's mother lived, where Sonja lived until she was fifteen and where, if anywhere, Jews felt secure.
One can still capture scenes of yesterday. Though the main part of the ghetto was completely destroyed, some of the original streets and their buildings still exist. It does not take much of an imagination to picture the aged and the learned walking home from their davening, hands folded behind their backs, contemplating the talmudic lesson of the day.
We were privileged to have names of people with whom I'd been in correspondence or had actually met. We were able to come together and learn of their activities, past and present. We were received by Rachile Kostanian, the Head of the Jewish State Museum of Lithuania. A nearly impoverished organization that has on display remembrances of the Vilna Jews, what their lives were like, what happened to them, and what's happening today. One of the displays in the Museum was created by a well known artist now living in Israel, Joel's uncle. Rachile sees it as her mission in life to maintain the Museum as a remembrance to those who perished, that there might at least be the Museum in tribute to their memory. Many with whom we met echoed the same theme. In an ironic twist of fate, Rachile's only child, her daughter, lives in Germany, married to a German.
We met with many others: Misha Jakobas, Director of the Jewish National School, Simon Alperavicius, Executive Director of the Jewish Community of Lithuania, Dovid Gilinsky, President of the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community. Dovid is a young man of approximately 21. To our knowledge he is not a relative. We also met his father Shmuel. The work that all these people are doing, in tying to pick up the pieces and hold the community together is truly inspirational. Misha's school is arguably the cleanest most conducive-to-learning Hebrew Day School that I've seen anywhere. They get minimum State funds. They are inadequately supported by the Teishe Yeshiva in Cleveland, Ohio, an organization with which Lillian's father, of blessed memory was very much involved. Almost all of the kids are products of mixed marriages. Yet, the educational standards are so high that they attract a large enrolment. We were there on Lag B'Omer. All the kids had marched off to the nearby park for commemoration of the holiday. No, there was no shortage of places to leave our financial remembrances. As generous or little as it may have been, we trust that the Gilinsky presence was made to be felt.
A few of us spent time with the Director and Head Archivist at the Lithuania State Historical Archives. Their records are not computerized. Every resource must be carefully researched on an individual basis. From Galinsky Family Genealogy Funds I paid for some general Gilinsky/Gavenda records to be researched. Isaac also paid for some research to be done. They told us that they had almost no records from our shtetlach, and even then, very little from Vilna pre-1941. Our discussion gave emphasis to the story of the man who was born in one country, lived in a second, and died in a third. And he never left home. It could have been the story of Vilna. When it was claimed by Poland, it was Vilna. When it fell under German rule it was called Vilno. It is once again Lithuania and now called Vilnius.