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Controversy rages over building on a Lithuanian Jewish heritage site
Vilnius, the capital of independent Lithuania, once part of Poland and a Polish-Lithuanian state centuries ago is historically a major center of East European Jewish scholarship and thought. The city is now involved in a controversy on preserving that heritage.
The dispute concerns plans to build a modern conference center on the site of an old Jewish cemetery in Vilnius, where prominent rabbis and other members of a once vibrant community and center of religious study were buried. The burial site has already been severely damaged when a combined sports hall and swimming pool — now falling into disrepair — was built in 1971 when Lithuania was part of the Soviet Union.
The Lithuanian government and its state property management company Turto Bankas have been moving ahead with plans to refurbish, convert extend the sports hall into a conference center — at a cost of at least EUR 30 million. Authorized since 2009, the project expects to soon announce tenders seeking companies to build and to later operate the conference center with a capacity of 4 000 visitors, Tomas Bagdonas, a spokesman for Turto Bankas said recently.
Building plans moving ahead while celebrating the Gaon of Vilne
