Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:00in the second third of executions
00:00:03failed. As terrifying and astounding as that may be, it
00:00:07is not surprising. Already in May, in Tennessee, another death penalty
00:00:11failed.
00:00:14And most often, executions fail
00:00:16by injection. Often it is not possible to obtain medication, because
00:00:20manufacturers in Europe often do not want their drugs to be used for this purpose.
00:00:23So they have to look for other ways, as well as other specialists, who
00:00:27would carry out death penalties.
00:00:30sees 27 out of 50 states, although some have halted executions
00:00:33due to a shortage of drugs. Last year, South Carolina changed the method of execution
00:00:37from injection to firing squad, when penalties increased. Last year
00:00:4147 executions were carried out, the most in 15
00:00:45years. Americans, I think, may support the death penalty
00:00:48in theory, but when they encounter it up close, it becomes
00:00:51uncomfortable. The case of Krista Spike is already causing
00:00:54controversy. All attention is focused on Krista, she
00:00:57has become a celebrity and that's terrible, you must
00:01:00remember Colleen, her terrible
00:01:02death. I think the death penalty is simply
00:01:05immoral. We shouldn't do that, as a society. Violence should not
00:01:09lead to more violence. Among supporters of the death penalty
00:01:13is the president. On the very first day of his return to the White House, Donald
00:01:16Trump lifted the federal moratorium on capital punishment, promising aid
00:01:20to the states. In December, an unprecedented execution
00:01:23is planned under his order. The Pentagon chief promises that the 13 soldiers killed
00:01:27by an Islamist at the 2009 base in Texas,
00:01:31Nadal Malik Hassan, who worked as a military psychologist, will be shot.
00:01:35and even more. We will ensure that people can
00:01:38watch this publicly, because people need to understand that for such things there are serious
00:01:42consequences.
00:01:44The execution at Fort Hood, where the attack took place, would be the first military
00:01:48death penalty since '61 and the first
00:01:51firing squad since World War II. Although United States
00:01:54law prohibits broadcasting death penalties, military rules
00:01:58do not prohibit it. Three hundred years ago,
00:02:02public executions were spectacles, for people it was
00:02:05like a picnic, but that ended. There are exceptions,
00:02:09but most countries do not carry out public death penalties. We are in
00:02:12terrible company. North Korea, Iran hold public
00:02:16executions. But they don't broadcast it, as experts warn
00:02:20that the convicted attacker will get a platform for publicity. He
00:02:23showed in every possible way that he sought martyrdom.
00:02:26Trump repeats that the punishment will deter. "You can
00:02:30do anything and nothing will happen, but we are changing that, although
00:02:34it would violate international norms, it would break
00:02:37the absolute prohibition of torture, but it is not
00:02:40enshrined in law, and the administration's conflict with international law
00:02:43is deepening, allegedly due to the persecution of Americans. Washington this week
00:02:47announced sanctions against the International Criminal Court.
00:02:50On Friday, just a few hours after the Nobel Peace Prize
00:02:54laureate was announced, her former judge Navanytėmpiai,
00:02:58warned that in the world, the law of the stronger is returning amidst
00:03:01international attacks.
00:03:04That's all for this week, thank you for watching, soon, Panorama.
00:03:22Do you know that there is a convent? Where is it, what was the public
00:03:26role of the pious women living in it? They were known, angry.
00:03:30atheists denounced, Dr. Jonas Šliupas was also
00:03:33a freethinker, we will tell you about him, about them
00:03:36and about the first discotheques in Lithuania, where they
00:03:40were held, what was
00:03:42the idea played there. Today at 7:30 PM, the history of things
00:03:44on LRT. Instead of an invitation to weigh yourself,
00:03:48a suggestion to hang yourself, instead of a request to bend over,
00:03:51an order to bend over backwards. Such curious situations are told by Lithuanian
00:03:55doctors when they try to help Russian-speaking patients
00:03:58who do not speak Lithuanian. Why, after three decades of independence, do we still
00:04:02not communicate in Lithuanian? Discussion
00:04:05in the program "Not so simple", this Wednesday at 7:30 PM
00:04:08on LRT television. That Monday
00:04:11morning, the residents of Žirnių Street did not need
00:04:14an alarm clock. The plane was seen to lose control, crashed to the
00:04:18ground and its flight ended in a fireball. Exactly one minute
00:04:21after 7, when firefighters pulled out the first
00:04:25body. One was definitely conscious, the second one
00:04:28they pulled out. The Lithuanian catastrophe tomorrow
00:04:32at 9:30 PM on LRT.
00:04:36An army that we don't remember. It was
00:04:38a division, it had everything, and quartermasters and
00:04:42staffs. 6000 volunteers, whom
00:04:45we forgot. They were doomed to lose, maybe
00:04:48hundreds of dead lie in unnamed graves. Will I
00:04:52be able to commit suicide so that I am not taken? The premiere of the
00:04:55documentary film, tomorrow at 7:30 PM on
00:04:59LRT.
00:05:23About 15 years of archaeological excavations in Vilnius
00:05:27Old Town culminated this summer with the uncovering of fragments
00:05:31of the Great Synagogue of Vilnius over an area of almost 1000
00:05:34square meters. This year, the
00:05:38underground part of the former kindergarten
00:05:41was demolished, and it was precisely taking advantage of the fact that the foundations
00:05:44of that kindergarten no longer remained, that we see behind me such
00:05:48a strange-shaped research area, so it is purely
00:05:51a built-up area, so everything we excavated this year was
00:05:55always precisely under that building. The larger
00:05:58the area, the better, well, anyway, most
00:06:02of the archaeological research in Lithuania is related to the
00:06:05development of commercial activities, the construction of buildings in
00:06:08old towns or some large infrastructure
00:06:11areas. In this case, we have such a large area
00:06:15uncovered, we have all the opportunities to perform measurements
00:06:19without rush, then scans, which
00:06:22are only possible, in this synagogue,
00:06:26500 people could pray at one
00:06:29time, but apart from the synagogue, here
00:06:32around, around that synagogue was the so-
00:06:36called Shulhoyf, Shulhoyf translated
00:06:39from Yiddish means.
00:06:42means a synagogue courtyard
00:06:45and there were many other synagogues
00:06:49that corresponded to either the professions of certain groups of people
00:06:53or some
00:06:56interests, where people would gather
00:06:59according to their specific education and
00:07:02work. Archaeological excavations began
00:07:05in 2011, the excavation areas grew from
00:07:09about 15 square meters to 100.
00:07:12However, it was still like fumbling in the dark,
00:07:15although there were plenty of discoveries. Under the floor
00:07:19of the former kindergarten, archaeologists discovered one of the holiest
00:07:22places of the synagogue, the Bima, and later, even a hidden
00:07:25basement beneath it. Year after year, the determination grew
00:07:29to uncover the entire area of the former synagogue. This
00:07:32is essentially, in Europe, probably one of
00:07:35the biggest such surprises,
00:07:38discoveries, it's not even a surprise, everyone knew about
00:07:42that synagogue, everyone knew when it was completely
00:07:45destroyed a,
00:07:48but 85 years began with
00:07:51the Holocaust and nobody did anything, absolutely
00:07:55nothing, no efforts to manage that synagogue or
00:07:58to look for its remains,
00:08:02we formed a group of archaeologists,
00:08:05a group gathered by archaeologist Zenonas Baubonis began excavations, and
00:08:08Professor Jonas
00:08:11Selgmenas, head of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Doctor of Archaeology, was invited to lead them. To collect
00:08:15daktaras Jonas Selgmenas. Surinkti
00:08:18historical data, drawings, iconography, to compare data
00:08:21with archaeological research, to summarize and
00:08:24understand the evolution of the Synagogue as another
00:08:26urban structure, the researchers were assisted by architects
00:08:30Daina and James Ferguson, working in Lithuania.
00:08:33We appeal to Israeli researchers, as well as
00:08:37to Vladimir
00:08:39Levin and Sergey Kravtsov.
00:08:43They are academics and are precisely interested in this
00:08:46topic, among other things, they participated in
00:08:50the preparation of the book "Synagogues in Lithuania" published
00:08:53in 2012. The Jewish quarter
00:08:55in Vilnius began to form at the end of the
00:08:5916th century, when kings granted privileges to the Jewish
00:09:02community.
00:09:03In 1573,
00:09:06the Warsaw Confederation granted equal rights to
00:09:09other religions with Catholics. Noblemen were allowed to build
00:09:13temples of other confessions on their lands. Near German
00:09:16Street, on a plot belonging to Prince Sluckis, the first wooden
00:09:20synagogue was built. When
00:09:23the brick one began to be built, it is not precisely known.
00:09:26In 1593,
00:09:28King Sigismund Vasa granted the privilege
00:09:32to trade, to have a synagogue, a cemetery, a bathhouse, to build
00:09:35houses. A few decades later,
00:09:38in 1633,
00:09:41Vladislovas Kesis. Vasa granted the privilege to create
00:09:44a ghetto. Having bought all the houses, the Jews had to
00:09:47move here within 15 years, it was allowed to build
00:09:51a new brick synagogue, but it had to be
00:09:54set back from the townspeople's houses, its height could not
00:09:57surpass them, and its splendor could not surpass churches and monasteries.
00:10:01One can always say that 1633
00:10:05is that date.
00:10:09Undoubtedly, I just found information that...
00:10:12in 1639 there was a huge
00:10:16pogrom, townspeople, students, and other
00:10:19people who ravaged the synagogue very badly,
00:10:23it talks about the destroyed property, those valuables. There were more
00:10:27pogroms. The synagogue, like the entire city, suffered from
00:10:30fires. Each time it was rebuilt, but its boundaries
00:10:33were determined by the densely built-up quarter and the winding
00:10:37Jewish street next to it. The synagogue facades facing it
00:10:40were monumental, but modest, in the Renaissance
00:10:44style. Smooth facade planes and
00:10:47divided with pilasters and
00:10:51around each plane in the upper part of the facade there were
00:10:55windows, the entrance to the synagogue was from the side
00:10:58facade, it could not be in
00:11:01this direction, towards Jerusalem, according to ritual
00:11:05requirements, therefore it was usually on an axis,
00:11:09if there is an Aron Kodesh, then on the opposite wall on the axis
00:11:12there had to be an entrance, in this case there is an asymmetrical
00:11:15entrance from the courtyard, access through
00:11:19the nave to the main hall of the synagogue, right
00:11:21at the wall. "where
00:11:25you can see the metal strips, there
00:11:27in that place, they are the remains of the former
00:11:31railings, because those stairs were probably of
00:11:35an interesting construction, because they simply had cavities on the side,
00:11:38and when building the kindergarten, those stairs were completely leveled and those
00:11:42strips were broken, bent, most
00:11:45of the surviving synagogue photo fixations were
00:11:49precisely taken from those stairs, although there are quite
00:11:52a few of those synagogue photos, drawings..." and so on, but for example, almost all
00:11:56photos were taken from two
00:11:59angles, and we always see only the central space, where
00:12:02the Aron Kodesh, precisely the Bima, of impressive
00:12:06size, about 25 meters long, over 20
00:12:09meters wide, more than 12 meters high,
00:12:13the main room, the men's prayer hall, was surrounded on three sides
00:12:16by narrow single-story corridors. On the sides were
00:12:20attached single-story rather narrow
00:12:23galleries, the women's gallery.
00:12:25So that was perhaps the primary structure, that space is truly
00:12:29impressive, four columns in the middle
00:12:33and divided with pilasters, connected and
00:12:36such is that space covered
00:12:39with nine cross
00:12:42vaults with such expressive, very
00:12:45beautiful cannelures
00:12:48with an ornate Renaissance pattern. During this summer's
00:12:52archaeological excavations, fully uncovered
00:12:55fragments, that is the place for reading the Torah,
00:12:59as well as for prayers,
00:13:02and also the place of performance for hymns. It is known that in the Great
00:13:05Synagogue of Vilnius there was a choir, which also participated in the services, it
00:13:09is known that it also stood in this place,
00:13:13cantors also performed hymns, most likely a
00:13:17procession took place during the services, descending from
00:13:20the Bima, passing through the passage to the Aron Kodesh,
00:13:24ascending. As I mentioned, the steps were also L-shaped, ascending
00:13:28on one side, taking the Torah and returning on the other side, and
00:13:32ascending on the other side again, well, it's like a whole
00:13:35process, that's why there are these two-sided steps
00:13:39in both the most important places of the synagogue,
00:13:43or the Aron Kodesh, the place for storing the Torah, we don't
00:13:46see it now, it was uncovered during previous years'
00:13:49research, conserved and is again hidden underground,
00:13:53so here you can see two large columns, which
00:13:56were about 9-10
00:13:58high, and also we see two columns in the wall,
00:14:02one better preserved, the other hidden under the thermal pipe and
00:14:06the ruins of one of the columns are visible, and
00:14:09we have investigated other areas outside the boundaries in 22 and
00:14:1324, so the Aron Kodesh is also
00:14:16roughly at the tree line on that side, to imagine how large
00:14:20it was at the back wall of the synagogue, it also had steps, here
00:14:24we have... for illustration, also steps leading from one side and
00:14:28from the other side to the Bima, on the Bima, so it was exactly the same
00:14:31there were also steps, where you climb up one side and
00:14:34go down the other side. In the middle of the 18th century, the men's
00:14:38prayer hall changed little, but the Bima received ornate
00:14:42Rococo accents. Between those four columns were
00:14:45small columns, of course all Rococo plastic
00:14:49forms in three levels and
00:14:52that...
00:14:55entablature was also decorated with cartouches, and lions and
00:14:58vases, a cabinet for the Torah for Eastern use and
00:15:02there were such wooden doors covered with silver
00:15:06and textiles, hangings, curtains and
00:15:09and such panels with the commandments of God above
00:15:13the Aron Kodesh, and the Aron Kodesh itself was elevated,
00:15:17that place with curved steps from two sides. After
00:15:20the Kościuszko Uprising, the Great Synagogue was again
00:15:23damaged. The Russian army shelled the city, a shell hit
00:15:26the synagogue, but did not explode. The reconstruction
00:15:30was already carried out according to the requirements of
00:15:33classical aesthetics. A triangular pediment rose
00:15:36on the southeast side, with two-story wooden
00:15:39galleries and openwork railings.
00:15:42If in the Renaissance period one can assume that there was a roof
00:15:45with an attic, which protected the roof from
00:15:49fire and perhaps also served as a defensive
00:15:52barrier, or some defensive function it could have had
00:15:56to some extent, then the shape of the roof did not change
00:15:59during the classicist reconstruction, but
00:16:02this new element appeared, such a triangular
00:16:05pediment.
00:16:07In 1893, a reconstruction project
00:16:11was prepared, inside the synagogue the prayer hall was expanded
00:16:15by rebuilding the women's gallery. This
00:16:18wall behind me is
00:16:21older, dated to the 17th century, because we know
00:16:24that at first the synagogue was a bit
00:16:27smaller, it only had that central space where the Bima is,
00:16:31so later only in the 18th century extensions were added
00:16:35precisely to that synagogue to increase
00:16:38there was a need for simply more
00:16:41worshipers. It happened in stages, so also for the first
00:16:45time in 24 years, this wall
00:16:49of the central part was found,
00:16:51and now we have a much larger part of it,
00:16:55we can take into account its historical
00:16:58development as well. The women's gallery is exactly behind that
00:17:0217th-century wall, and then where the 18th-century wall is, that
00:17:04part is precisely the women's gallery. In this
00:17:08wall we see such cavities, so
00:17:11these cavities are precisely windows, which were precisely
00:17:14made in the women's gallery, so that light and sound could enter
00:17:17precisely from the central
00:17:21space into the women's section during services,
00:17:24so that's why there are such interesting
00:17:27cutouts, because even in photos you can see that those windows
00:17:30are receding, they are not completely straight, here in this
00:17:34place you can see fallen a... elements of the vault
00:17:38and walls, which we leave as an example
00:17:41of the synagogue's existence. This
00:17:44year for the first time we also have found the remains of the former
00:17:48floor of the women's gallery, where there are also very interesting
00:17:51non-standard tiles, which I personally
00:17:55asked colleagues about, whether they have seen any
00:17:59similar-sized tiles, that they would be, because they are almost
00:18:0250 cm by 50 and quite
00:18:05thick, well, they were most likely made specially to order.
00:18:09Earlier ceramic tiles of the synagogue were already
00:18:12covered by 19th-century terrazzo with ornaments. In general,
00:18:16all these floors, terrazzo, cement and
00:18:20ornaments are not very special. Essentially, you can find
00:18:23very similar ones in late 19th,
00:18:27early 20th-century buildings, especially in stairwells,
00:18:30so practically identical ornaments can be
00:18:34seen there. Yes, those terrazzo
00:18:37floors are really well preserved, but in some
00:18:41places due to the great weight
00:18:44when demolishing the synagogue, fragments of fallen
00:18:48ceilings have also remained, as well as walls, columns, and in some
00:18:51places those terrazzo floors are broken through, so what is very
00:18:55interesting is that under those terrazzo floors
00:18:58you can see the remaining fragments of older
00:19:01floors, in previous years we also knew that
00:19:04there are those decorated floors, that they have slightly
00:19:08different decorations, but this year we saw that those decorations
00:19:11differ on different sides of the Bima, on one side we see
00:19:15flowers with, as I call them, signs of eternity, and on the other
00:19:18side there are such spirals, coiled flower shapes,
00:19:22they differ in different places, here it's probably
00:19:25passages, and those gaps, where there is no
00:19:29decoration, most likely in these places were benches
00:19:33for worshipers to sit in the central space, classical
00:19:36ornaments. These also decorate the Bima's platform.
00:19:40The only motif that perhaps had some stronger meaning was
00:19:44those stars, precisely, where there is also a star at the central entrance,
00:19:47there is also a star on
00:19:50the Bima, in front of the Bima, and also opposite it there
00:19:54are fragments from the Aron Kodesh towards the Bima, well, those are like
00:19:57connecting fragments pointing
00:20:01to each other, well, but also such stars, as I
00:20:04say, can also be found in other places, well, simply that... "they had
00:20:07meaning, well, facing each other, archaeologists are happy
00:20:11to have found impressive column remains, here is a part of one
00:20:15of those large columns and you can see such
00:20:18two decorative elements, and from photos we can
00:20:21identify that this is the highest part that rested on the roof,
00:20:25precisely and precisely not only the
00:20:29plaster has survived, but in this case, fragments of paint
00:20:32have also survived, where you can see that after several layers
00:20:36older, small red and blue elements are hidden,
00:20:39which we also see. Next to the Great Synagogue,
00:20:42archaeologists also discovered fragments of ritual baths
00:20:46(mikvahs). So in this case, we are now standing outside
00:20:50the synagogue boundaries, we also discovered that
00:20:53passage between the synagogue and the bathhouse building
00:20:57in previous years and here you see these
00:21:00large large ceramic pipes, which
00:21:04are precisely such non-standard ones in the city
00:21:07of Vilnius, we immediately notice that they are considerably
00:21:10larger in their size and we see how
00:21:13the foundations of that kindergarten, these blocks
00:21:17destroy them, so undoubtedly. this means
00:21:20that they are older than the kindergarten, that is, early
00:21:2320th century most likely
00:21:26and then when we started cleaning them, we saw
00:21:29that they have manufacturer's marks, here it is also very
00:21:33clearly visible against the sun, simply manufacturer's
00:21:36marks, those manufacturer's marks are English,
00:21:40in this case it's good that we investigated the late 19th and early 20th
00:21:43century site, we identified them by those marks as being
00:21:47two different factories, which in Scotland, so it means
00:21:51it's an import from Scotland, based on that
00:21:54we determined the period during which those pipes could have been
00:21:57laid, because one of those factories closed
00:21:59in 1904, so it means that
00:22:03after that in the very early 20th century
00:22:06very large renovation works of the entire quarter took place.
00:22:09In the early 20th century, the main facade of the Great Synagogue
00:22:13of Vilnius, facing Jewish Street, was blocked by a new
00:22:16building, the library. The Strašiūnas library, this is the very
00:22:20latest, a building from the first half of the 20th
00:22:23century, architect Koroyedovas
00:22:26designed that building, opposite the synagogue,
00:22:29in the initial construction stage, earlier
00:22:33there were commercial
00:22:35shops, a row of commercial shops,
00:22:39simply a single-story building, many images
00:22:42have survived for us precisely with the Strašiūnas
00:22:46library photos and those portals.
00:22:49named Strašūno because he donated a large
00:22:52collection of books, so it was two stories
00:22:56high and quite heavily obstructed
00:23:00the synagogue's structure, the synagogue building
00:23:03itself. Archaeological excavations also reveal
00:23:06about the life of Vilnius townspeople that took place even before
00:23:10the establishment of the Jewish quarter and the construction of the Great Synagogue.
00:23:14We know that a wooden synagogue should have stood in this place in the
00:23:1716th century, but we don't know what the surroundings looked like.
00:23:20Here was a quarter of artisans around, well, that same
00:23:24Stiklių street and all that, it corresponds to that
00:23:27period, precisely, that also in the 16th century economic activity
00:23:31was already taking place here, it was not completely that the synagogue stood in an empty
00:23:34place, we have a very nice cross-section, it very nicely
00:23:38reflects to us precisely all those periods, with what
00:23:42this place precisely encountered, so for example up to this place are
00:23:45disturbances, which are related precisely to the demolition
00:23:48of the synagogue during the kindergarten construction e and
00:23:52precisely during that period further we have
00:23:55in this place such a cement base, so that cement base
00:23:58is precisely in the place where the tiles have survived, so those tiles
00:24:02are precisely on that cement base, so here we have that cement base, which
00:24:06are tiles, which most likely are related to the 18th century
00:24:09with the construction of the women's section, then we have
00:24:13a layer related to the construction of the synagogue from the 18th
00:24:16century and under that layer we have an even
00:24:20older layer, which is dated to the late 16th century
00:24:23and 17th century, here you see precisely now investigated
00:24:26utility pits, which precisely reflect the city life of that
00:24:30period, which are already simply used as
00:24:33waste pits, we also found most likely even earlier
00:24:37wooden building remains, such, and also
00:24:40it shows us how this place was used even
00:24:44before the synagogue, but at the same time it also shows that there was a lively city
00:24:48life precisely in this place. so all the time even before precisely building
00:24:52that brick part. One of the
00:24:55last archaeological discoveries of this year is
00:24:59the unearthed stone-built cellars. The last
00:25:02work, probably this year, is the cleaning of this
00:25:06cellar. This the building stood outside the Jewish Quarter
00:25:09and it, because
00:25:12of its unique architecture, which stands out
00:25:16from other buildings, it was
00:25:19quite large, it also had an inner courtyard, but in this case, this
00:25:23particular part, we didn't know that there
00:25:26was a basement, having found a basement here, we are now trying to clean it up
00:25:30as much as possible, as you can see, it is also quite
00:25:33deep, and its purpose remains
00:25:35unclear for now, but what is interesting about the building
00:25:39itself, as I mentioned, because of its architecture, because of its uniqueness,
00:25:42it was called Gaon's House
00:25:45from around the beginning of the 19th century, most likely because
00:25:49of its shape and such
00:25:52uniqueness , but whether Gaon really lived
00:25:56here, we don't know. It is known from
00:25:59the census that Gaon lived in
00:26:03the adjacent building next to the Jewish Quarter, which was rented out
00:26:07to the Jewish community, and many poor people lived there, and in that same building,
00:26:10the Vilna Gaon also
00:26:13lived, so most likely at least in a part of this
00:26:16building, because as I mentioned, it was a larger one
00:26:20and backed onto the building behind you,
00:26:23so he lived there, and
00:26:26we have now excavated at least part of that building.
00:26:29So here there is not just one basement,
00:26:33we still see another passage to another basement, there are like
00:26:37little doors with preserved hinges, and that building
00:26:40extends all the way to Jewish Street. The Jewish
00:26:43Quarter and the Great Synagogue of Vilnius were destroyed during
00:26:46the Second World War. This is the Jewish Quarter, which is now
00:26:50difficult to call that, because it was demolished
00:26:54after the war and essentially destroyed, it was the most
00:26:57difficult period for the entire Jewish
00:27:00community due to the Holocaust. In 1954,
00:27:04I think, almost
00:27:07the entire quarter was demolished to build these residential apartment
00:27:11buildings from the Stalinist era. According to the new
00:27:15plans for Vilnius, it was decided to level it to
00:27:18the ground when they demolished it, because
00:27:20the synagogue was two meters below ground level, the floors were, so it was simply
00:27:24dumped into that two-meter
00:27:27pit, yes, the so-called pit, into the
00:27:30interior of that synagogue, and that's why many of the finds
00:27:34that archaeologists are now finding are simply in the form of rubble
00:27:38piled up underground and
00:27:41leveled, and of course, around 1964,
00:27:44I think, a kindergarten was built there. The fragments of the Great Synagogue
00:27:47of Vilnius excavated by archaeologists can be seen
00:27:51today as if in a hollow, almost two meters
00:27:54deep. Due to historical prohibitions, when Jewish
00:27:57houses of worship were not allowed to be built taller than Catholic
00:28:01churches, the spaces of synagogues
00:28:03were deepened. In 2004, we found
00:28:07the remains of the former street pavement, and we
00:28:10now know that it was about 1.60m to 1.80m below
00:28:14street level, so in essence, that preserved it,
00:28:17because if it had been higher,
00:28:21similar to the street pavement or anything else, then nothing would have remained
00:28:25of those kindergartens, we would have had those fragments, but they would only be
00:28:28in undeveloped areas, so in this case, I say we have everything
00:28:31preserved and
00:28:33below ground. The research on the Great Synagogue of Vilnius took about 15
00:28:37years. It will continue. Now preparations are underway
00:28:40for the next stage. Efforts will be made to preserve and exhibit
00:28:44the authentic archaeological heritage, but to reveal
00:28:47the former urban structure of the Great Synagogue,
00:28:51to give meaning to historical memory is planned with modern
00:28:54architectural means. We invited
00:28:58architect Massimiliano Fuksas to be
00:29:02"He is a well-known architect
00:29:05in the world, he is of Lithuanian origin, he is
00:29:09essentially Lithuanian, he has a passport,
00:29:13born in Kaunas and lives
00:29:16in Italy and has a studio, so the
00:29:20architects of that studio essentially
00:29:23work on that, the very first project was
00:29:27pro bono, because I have known Massimiliano Fuksas for a long time,
00:29:30and he did" the first pro bono project, then
00:29:34well, but his project is like a drawing
00:29:37and from it, a
00:29:40project needs to be made, but
00:29:45is already formed,
00:29:47now to restore or to have plans
00:29:51to restore all that Shul, well, it's practically
00:29:54impossible, that's why we're focusing on
00:29:58the Great Synagogue, and we also don't want to rebuild that
00:30:01Great Synagogue. because today
00:30:04we don't have such a need for that
00:30:07synagogue to be restored as a synagogue, a replica
00:30:11of a synagogue should exist, the history of the synagogue should exist,
00:30:14but it is our
00:30:18community's future center, our culture
00:30:22will not be forgotten, Yiddish
00:30:26and Hebrew will be taught there,
00:30:28and we have nothing left but memory.
00:30:32So that is our
00:30:35goal, to somehow perpetuate
00:30:39that memory, so that
00:30:41people can remember what
00:30:45was here, how it was, and what disappeared. The memory of
00:30:48the thriving Jewish Quarter and the Great Synagogue in Vilnius Old Town
00:30:52must be revived and remind us that it was one
00:30:55of the largest and most important religious and cultural centers
00:30:58in Eastern Europe.