Jewish museum to open outside a former shtetl in Lithuania
The state of the art museum will be build around the small town of Šeduva
The architects of Warsaw’s award-winning POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews will design a state of the art Jewish museum outside a former shtetl in Lithuania.
The museum, slated to open in 2019, will be part of the Lost Shtetl memorial complex inaugurated in 2015 in and around the small town of Šeduva. It will be located across the road from the town’s restored Jewish cemetery, which is part of the complex.
Sergey Kanovich, the founder of the Šeduva Jewish Memorial Fund, said the museum will be designed by the Finnish company “Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects,” which designed POLIN. Preliminary images show it incorporating several connected structures.
Architect Rainer Mahlamäki said in a statement that the design was inspired by ancient Lithuanian architecture as well as by the neighbouring old Jewish cemetery and the rural landscape surrounding the site.
Besides the cemetery, the Lost Shtetl complex already consists of a memorial sculpture in the centre of Šeduva, and memorials at the sites of three Holocaust mass executions of Jews near the town.
A historical study about Šeduva’s Jews also was carried out as part of the project along with a documentary film.
The museum will use advanced technologies to tell visitors about the history and culture of Šeduva and similar Litvak shtetls, Kanovich said. He said the core exhibition, curated by Millda Jakulyte, would centre on the “lifestyle, customs, religion, social, professional, and family life of Šeduva Jews” but visitors would also learn about the fate of local Jews during the Shoah. “Visiting the ‘Lost Shtetl’ will be a history lesson which will allow national and international visitors to learn about the lost Litvak shtetl history and culture,” Kanovich said.
Lahdelma & Mahlamäki’s POLIN Museum, whose building opened in 2013 and core exhibition in 2014, has won several international awards. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, the chief curator of POLIN’s core exhibition, is on the international team of advisors for the Šeduva museum.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
