Vilnius (Yiddish - Vilne) made Lithuanian Jews especially famous in the world. Compared to other cities, Jews settled here quite late, in the 1487th century. on the other side. It is true that a document is often mentioned in which it was said that already in 1567 there were Jewish graves here; however, the document has not survived, it is impossible to clarify this information, and the available knowledge about the laws and customs of that time makes us believe that this information is not correct. Jews living in Vilnius were mentioned for the first time in 1593. in the document. But then they did not have the right to buy houses, they could only rent them; Jews acquired the right to buy buildings in Vilnius only in XNUMX. In the beginning, they could live only in the lands that did not belong to the magistrate, called jurisdics. XNUMXth century at the end of the XNUMXth century they were allowed to settle and buy property in the Jewish, St. Mykolos and Mėsinių streets; they could also live on Vokiečių Street, but the windows of their apartments could not face the street.
In the old town the Jewish quarter was formed. According to 1784 at the time of the census, about 5000 Jews lived in Vilnius; in 1897 according to the census data, there were about 64000 of them here, or 38,8% of the total population of the city. After the First World War, their number decreased somewhat, in 1923. there were 55000 Jews (33,3% of the total population), and on the eve of the Second World War, in 1939, Jews were 27,9% of the city's population, about 60000 people.
Before they had the right to build buildings, the Jews had set up a synagogue in Duke Sluška's house; later the famous Vilnius Synagogue was built. Religious thought began to develop intensively in the city. 40th century in the first half, there were 2500 prominent rabbis in Vilnius, although there were only about XNUMX Jews living at that time. And in the XNUMXth century. here arose the great genius Gaon Eliyahu. Since then, Vilnius has become a recognized spiritual center. It is called the Lithuanian Jerusalem. There are various versions of why Vilnius was so singled out. According to one of them, 333 sages of the city memorized the entire Talmud. Anyone who has seen the huge folios of the Talmud can imagine what it means to memorize 64 such volumes.
Well, it's a legend. The reality is that before the Catastrophe, Vilnius was definitely the most famous center of traditional Jewish culture. On the eve of the Second World War, there were more than 110 synagogues and 10 yeshivas, the most famous of which was Ramailes. Then there was a common saying: you should go to Łódź for money and Vilnius for wisdom. The world recognition of Vilnius is also shown by the dream of the hero of our great literary classic Sholom Aleichem's story "If I Were a Rothschild" - to found a huge charity society so that it would provide all Jews with income, so that everyone would live in harmony, study the Talmud in yeshivas, and there would be a chief yeshiva over all yeshivas, " of course, in Vilnius".
Source: Lithuanian Jewish Community (http://litvakai.mch.mii.lt/)
