UPDATE APR 2022: The book “Jews in Memel” is printed!
Purchase a digital copy for 1,98 EUR here:
Link to Publisher Vilnius University Press

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Jews in Klaipeda (Memel)
ŽYDAI KLAIPĖDOJE (MĖMELYJE)

The book about the Jewish life of the city before the war has been published. Thanks to the Department of National Minorities at the Government of Lithuania, which sponsored this project. Thanks to all the descendants who allowed a look into their photo albums and thanks to the tireless research work of Ruth Leiserowitz.

From the English summary of the book printed in Lithuanian.

“How to tell the story of a Jewish minority of a city where most of the material heritage was lost in the fighting at the end of World War II? Neither a library nor an archive of the Memel Jewish community exists today. A large part of the Jewish inhabitants of the city and the Memel region perished in the Holocaust. Therefore, for a long time it seemed that this Jewish chapter of the city could not be reconstructed. However, all over the world, there are Jewish families who connect their roots with today’s Klaipeda. They managed to flee Europe at the end of the 1930s. In their language, they also took with them memories of their old hometown. From their photo albums come the pictures, with the help of which the Jewish life of the town and the region is described. (…..)”