Vilnius — Then and Now / Film screening and a symposium
The Great Synagogue of Vilna film screening and a symposium in honor of the centennial celebrations of the Jewish Research Institute – YIVO; alongside the exhibition Moï Ver/Moshe Raviv: Modernism in Transition.
The event will be held in English.
Moï Ver was a photographer, painter, and graphic designer who studied at the Bauhaus in Dessau, developed groundbreaking artistic approaches, and introduced the principles of the "New Photography" movement. His work was closely associated with the "New Objectivity" trend, which captivated the imagination of European avant-garde circles. His first major project, carried out in his hometown under the title “The Ghetto Lane in Vilnius,” set the creative trajectory he would follow over two and a half decades of avant-gardist photographic work. In Vilnius, he also collaborated with the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, founded in the city in 1925.
Some of these photographs are currently on display in a comprehensive exhibition marking approximately a century since the beginning of the artist’s work, with a focus on his avant-garde photographic creations.
Photographs of the Great Synagogue of Vilna that were published in the artistic-book The Ghetto Lane in Vilnius, highlights the Vilnius’s status as one of the most significant Jewish cultural centers in Eastern Europe.
The event will include the Israeli premiere screening of the film The Secrets of the Great Synagogue of Vilna in the presence of the director.
About the Film:
Secrets of the Great Synagogue of Vilna | Loïc Salfati, 100 minutes, 2023. English, Lithuanian, English subtitles
A new documentary telling the story of the six-year-long excavation of what was once the largest synagogue in Lithuania before the Holocaust. This synagogue was one of the oldest and most significant religious and cultural sites of Eastern European Jewry—an awe-inspiring architectural gem designed in the Italian Baroque style. It functioned as a central Jewish hub—a house of prayer and a center for learning for the Jews of Vilnius and Eastern Europe. The synagogue was looted and burned during World War II and was ultimately destroyed by the Soviets between 1955 and 1957.
The film documents the process of discovery, documentation, and preservation of the synagogue’s remains in recent years. It was recently rediscovered through excavations conducted by a Lithuanian-American-Israeli team.
This project is part of a growing movement among creators and researchers who focus on communities that have been erased, plundered, and replaced by occupying forces. In recent decades, these scholars and artists have been working to reconstruct the erased narrative and reclaim the way history is recorded.
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About the event:
Greetings by:
Tania Cohen Uzzielli, Director of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art
Audrius Bruzga, Ambassador of Lithuania to Israel
Introduction: The Roots of Photographic Avant-Garde in the Work of Moï Ver Dr. Rona Sela,
Screening of the film The Secrets of the Great Synagogue of Vilna in the presence of the director
Q&A with Loïc Salfati, film director, & Dr. Jon Seligman, archaeologist at the Israel Antiquities Authority
The Great Synagogue of Vilna and its Cultural significance. Dr. Dovile Cypaite-Gile
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About the speakers
Dr. Rona Sela is a curator and researcher of visual history and art, and a researcher of visual aspects of demolished communities and histories that were hidden. She is the curator of the exhibition Moi Ver/Moshe Raviv: Modernism in Transition and the author of a book of the same title.
Loïc Salfati is a French engineer, photographer and film director who has been living in Lithuania since 2002. He is currently deputy director and cultural attaché at the French Institute in Lithuania, where he developed cultural relations between France and Lithuania.
Dr. Jon Seligman is an archaeologist, Director of External Relations and Archaeological Licensing of the Israel Antiquities Authority and director of the excavation in Vilnius.
Dr. Dovile Cypaite-Gile is Head of Historical Research Department, Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History and Researcher at Vilnius University.
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About YIVO
The YIVO was established a century ago in Vilnius. It is the only Vilnius Jewish institution which did not stop operating during the Holocaust and which continues to operate today. After World War II YIVO made its main headquarters at its branch in New York City. This branch took over the institute’s functions as a center for the preservation of Jewish heritage and research.
The 100-year anniversary of the founding of the YIVO was noted back in 2023 in a resolution by the Lithuanian parliament as being of special significance to world culture. Many traces of the institute’s work survived in Vilnius: fragments of its documentation, correspondence, library collection and archives, scattered among several commemorative institutions.
This year Lithuania is holding an anniversary in cooperation with a large number of local and foreign partners with a spectacular program. This event, kindly sponsored by the Lithuanian embassy in Israel, is part of this collaboration.
This program is initiated by Lithuanian Cultural Attache Laura Grybkauskaite and is supported by Loïc Salfati, Lithuanian Culture Institute, Embassy of Republic of Lithuania to the State of Israel in cooperation with Tel Aviv Museum of Art and Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History.
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The number of participants is limited | Advance reservations are required for all participants.
The event takes place near a secure space.