Jewish Life in the Baltic States, 1917-1945

Monday, June 9 – Thursday, June 12 2026

Overview

The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), Vytautas Magnus University, and Sugihara Diplomats for Life Foundation are pleased to invite applications for an international conference entitled "Jewish Life in the Baltic States, 1917-1945”, scheduled for June 9-12, 2026, in Kaunas, Lithuania. The conference program is supported by the Kaunas Jewish Community and Kaunas IX Fort Museum.

Commemorating the 85th anniversary of the onset of the Holocaust in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, this conference brings together research on Jewish life in the Baltic states from the dissolution of the Russian Empire to the aftermath of World War II, with particular emphasis on the period immediately before and during the Holocaust. The program is especially addressed to early-career scholars (M.A. students through post-docs) who research Jewish life in the Baltic states within the time period.

Conference presentations will be accompanied by panel discussions with senior scholars, reflecting on developments in the field and providing key insights on professionalization. A cultural framework program will allow participants to engage with filmmakers, artists, and musicians who focus on Jewish life in the Baltic states. The program also includes excursions to places commemorating Jewish life and the unfolding of the Holocaust in and around Kaunas. 

Tuesday, June 9

Vytautas Magnus University, Senate Hall, S. Daukanto g. 28, Kaunas

9:00-9:30 Conference introductions

9:30-11:00 Panel on Professionalization with Eliyana Adler (Binghamton University), Violeta Davoliūtė (Vilnius University), Andrea Löw (Institute for Contemporary History at Munich), and Linas Venclauskas (Vytautas Magnus University)

11:00-11:30 COFFEE BREAK

11:30-12:30 Presentation on United States Holocaust Memorial Museum resources by Vadim Altskan (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

12:30-14:00 LUNCH

14:00-15:45 Panel I: Interwar Jewish Life I Moderator: Ina Pukelytė (Vytautas Magnus University) C.S. Poupko (Vytautas Magnus University) Torah in Transit: The Litvak Students of Slobodka-Hebron Yeshiva and the Tragedy of 1929 Saulė Valiūnaitė (Lithuanian Institute of History) Dr. Vite Levin and her school for Jewish children with special needs Anke Blümm (Erfurt University) “One mother birthed us - Vilne" The forgotten Yiddish painters and sculptors of Yung-Vilne

15:45-16:00 COFFEE BREAK

16:00-17:00 Litvak music of Lithuania

17:00-17:30: Musicians’ discussion with explanation of ethnomusicology

Wednesday, June 10

Vytautas Magnus University, Senate Hall, S. Daukanto g. 28, Kaunas

9:30-11:15 Panel II: Interwar Jewish Life II Moderator: Lara Lempertienė (Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania) Timo Aava (University of Oxford/University of Tartu) Revisiting Jewish Life in Interwar Estonia: The Jewish Self-Government Julijana Andriejauskienė (Lithuanian Institute of History) The Independent Lithuanian State (1918–1940) and Kaunas Jews’ Expressions of Loyalty Johann Nicolai (Independent Scholar) Jewish Public Spheres in Transition: The Rigaer Jüdische Rundschau (1929–1930) as a German-Language Forum in the Baltic States

11:15-11:45 COFFEE BREAK

11:45-13:00 Discussion on Current State of Research with Violeta Davoliūtė (Vilnius University), Lara Lempertienė (Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania), and Ilya Lensky (Museum Jews in Latvia)

13:00-14:00 LUNCH

14:00-15:45 Panel III: Jewish Life in Lithuania until the Holocaust Moderator: Jurgita Verbickienė (Vilnius University) Christa Whitney (Yiddish Book Center/UMass Amherst) Landkentenish in lite: Jewish Descriptions of Lithuanian Lands and Nature, 1918-1946 Dalia Wolfson (Harvard University) A Girl From a Lithuanian Town: The Kovno ‘City Text’ in Yente Serdatsky’s Fiction Dovilė Čypaitė-Gilė (Vilnius University) Uncertain Journeys: Lithuanian Jews Between Emigration and Forced Escape,1939–1940

15:45-16:00 COFFEE BREAK

16:00-17:00 Presentation and discussion with documentarian Saulius Beržinis 

17:00-17:30 Q&A with filmmaker

Thursday, June 11

Vytautas Magnus University, Senate Hall, S. Daukanto g. 28, Kaunas

9:30-11:45 Panel IV: Resistance, Rescue, and Jewish Life in Lithuania during the Holocaust Moderator: Arkadi Zeltser (Yad Vashem) Aušra Stravinskienė (Vilnius University) Kloyzes in Vilnius: Reconstructing the Historical Context, 1940–1943 Tziporah Weinberg (New York University) With Friends Like These: Contingencies of Christian Refuge During the Holocaust in Lithuania Henriette Berry (Technical University of Berlin) "Dos Lid gezungen mit Naganes in di Hent": Representations of Resistance in Jewish Partisan Songs  Yael Barzilai (Haifa University) Art as Lifeline: Commissioned and Forced Artistic Labor in the Kaunas Ghetto 

11:45-12:00 COFFEE BREAK

12:00-13:45 Panel V: After the Holocaust Moderator: Ilya Lensky (Museum Jews in Latvia) Benjamin Arenstein (University of Chicago) Post-Holocaust Masculinity and Pornography in Soviet Latvia: The Case of Josef Schneiders Daiva Price (Vytautas Magnus University) Postmemory and Artistic Responses to the Holocaust: Second- and Third-Generation Litvak Voices Milda Jakulytė-Vasil (Vilnius University) The Language of Remembrance at Sites of Jewish Massacres in Lithuania and Its Evolution, 1944–Present

13:45-14:45 LUNCH

14:45-15:45 Conference Conclusion and Observations with Eliyana Adler (Binghamton University), Andrea Löw (Institute for Contemporary History at Munich), Ina Pukelytė (Vytautas Magnus University), Linas Venclauskas (Vytautas Magnus University), and Arkadi Zeltser (Yad Vashem)

15:45-16:00 COFFEE BREAK

Friday, June 12

Bus Tour of Kaunas Holocaust Historical Sites and Forts IX, VII, & IV

Conference Organizers

The conference organizers are the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), Vytautas Magnus University, and Sugihara Diplomats for Life Foundation. The Kaunas Jewish Community and Kaunas IX Fort Museum are participating as cooperating organizations.

The members of the steering committee include representatives from the following institutions:

• Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

• Vytautas Magnus University

• Sugihara Diplomats for Life Foundation

• International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem

• Center for Holocaust Studies at the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History

• Museum “Jews in Latvia”

• National Library of Lithuania

• Institute of International Relations and Political Science at Vilnius University

• Binghamton University

The organizers will cover the cost of economy class flights and ground transportation to and from the conference, lodging for the conference’s duration and either a stipend for meals or actual meals during the program. Participants must obtain their own health insurance and visas, if relevant.

The conference will be conducted in English.

Questions should be directed to iaprograms@ushmm.org.

Steering Committee Organizers:

This conference has been made possible through the generosity of Sheila Johnson Robbins*, George D. Schwab, Selwyn Haas, and Arkady Suharenko and The Fund for the Study of the Holocaust in Lithuania.

* Deceased