Today’s been both hugely productive and incredibly exhausting. Here are a few photos of the synagogue in Linkuva, which was a highlight of the trip, though only one of several.
Linkuva Synagogue:
Online, accounts of visiting Linkuva make it sound as if the building is hard to find. It’s not; it’s about a one minute walk from the town square and a map on the post office in the town square shows exactly where it is.
Online accounts also make it sound as if it’s hard to recognize the building, but the date it was built is on it and uses the Jewish year. There is also Hebrew on the other side.
The building is in disrepair. A local told our guide that a farmer from a nearby town takes care of it. She wasn’t able tell us which streets belonged to the shtetl and which didn't, but I think it’s a fair guess the older houses right beside the synagogue probably were Jewish homes.
Of course, Linkuva is an active town with just under 2k people (according to 2005 data). So it doesn’t all look like this.
There are shops:
A church (that’s a converted monestary):
And many well-kept homes that belong to private individuals, so I didn’t photograph them out of respect. But I didn’t want you to think it was all ramshackle.
This was just the first of several key moments from today, but I’m pretty warn out, so more on what we found after we leave Lithuania.
Tomorrow is our last day, though we’re already sure we will be back.