| Abstract [eng] |
The goal of the work is to represent historic Jewish cemeteries in Lithuania, to accentuate their importance and the need for their conservation, and to overview the situation of preserving and research of cultural heritage. In the work the problems of Jewish cemeteries research problems are discussed, and the heritage preserving experience abroad is presented. Although the interest towards Jewish history and culture has arisen in Lithuania by end of the 20th century, and the heritage of this minority has been identified as an organic part of the Lithuania’s cultural heritage, alienation of everything which is not Lithuanian proper is still very much rooted within the society. Thus, the objects of Jewish culture are in many cases conceived as relics of foreign culture that should not be preserved or studied. In meanwhile, the old Jewish cemeteries could and should be the object of multidisciplinary research: historical, religious, ethnographic, genealogical. The information they held could be used in studies of the Jewish history and culture in Lithuania, as well as Lithuania’s cultural history. Nevertheless, in Lithuania there is a lack of interest towards the Jewish cemeteries. There is no single scholarly work which would unite theoretical and practical information on Jewish cemeteries as an important cultural source and their preserving. In many European countries much more attention is directed to historic Jewish cemeteries. In spite of many problems concerning their preserving, conserving and research that could be compared to those existing in Lithuania the cemeteries are constantly studied. The reason is a difference in attitude towards the cemeteries as a cultural and informational source. Although the historic Jewish cemeteries in Lithuania are identified as objects of heritage and included in the Registry of Immovable Cultural Values (presently, 113 old Jewish cemeteries are on the list), neither institutions for preserving of cultural heritage, nor the Jewish community or scholars of different disciplines are really involved in their comprehensive study. The reasons of this situation are as follows: - lack of evaluating of old Jewish cemeteries as a source of information; - not concerning the Jewish cemeteries as cultural heritage; - lack of skills for research of the Jewish cemeteries (knowledge of Judaism and Jewish burial tradition, Hebrew and Yiddish languages); - lack of tradition and methodic of cemeteries research; - lack of financing and time for the research. |
