The shameful destructive work in the Jewish cemetery in Vilna continues constantly, even now the enormous bulldozers are creating great havoc among the Jewish graves. Great personalities such as the Beer Hagolah and the Chayei Odom are buried in this ancient and revered cemetery.

The episode began with the decision of the previous mayor to permit a building firm to set up a large construction project on the site. Now, with the appointment of the new mayor, an effort was made to take advantage of the short visits to Jerusalem of both the new mayor and Rabbi A. Schlesinger, who was on a flying visit to Israel to participate in a wedding.

The new mayor, Joses Ambras, seemed a pleasant person willingto listen to the severe problem of the destruction of the Jewish cemetery. During his stay in Israel for the 25th International Conference of Mayors of Capital Cities, taking place in Jerusalem, he agreed to meet with the RCE delegation headed by the Rabbi of Machzikei Hadass in Geneva late one evening in his hotel room in Mezudat David (Citadel of David) Hotel in Jerusalem.

Those participating in the meeting were Rabbi Avraham Yafe-Schlesinger, Rabbi of Geneva and Head of RCE Cemeteries Dept.; Rabbi Levi Masotov, responsible for contact with Government authorities in the EU; Asra Kadisha representatives; Rabbi Avraham Abba Turetsky, Manager ofRCE Cemeteries Dept. in the RCE Jerusalem branch, and the mayor’s advisory staff.

The members of the delegation thanked the mayor for consenting to meet them so late at night, while the mayor from his side seemed eager to meet Rabbi A. Schlesinger in person. During the meeting, Rabbi A. Schlesinger expressed the pain of the Jewish people across the world at the destruction and desecration taking place in Vilna still today in one of the most important cemeteries of the Jewish people. With some irony, Rabbi A. Schlesinger remarked, “Vilna is like Jerusalem to us, and you are its Mayor! You have a great responsibility to save the cemetery from the dreadful desecration taking place there.”

“Now that we are sitting tonight in Jerusalem, you can feel what it means to be Mayor of “Jerusalem of Lithuania”, and you must help the Jewish people. This cemetery is as important to us as a Jerusalem cemetery, you must take action to halt this shameful desecration taking place in your city. Save the cemetery!” pleaded Rabbi Schlesinger. The Mayor seemed very moved by his words, and promised those present that as long as he was acting Mayor of Vilna he would not allow any construction firm to desecrate graves. “Now we have to come up with a plan to prevent the continued construction on the site, which began before I took office”. He promised to study the subject thoroughly and to do whatever he could to stop this construction.

The mayor invited Rabbi A. Schlesinger to be his guest in Vilna, to assess the situation from close, and to take action to restore the honour of the great personalities and the other Jews buried in the cemetery. Rabbi Levy Masotov in coordination with the mayor’s staff is planning the visit in the near future.

The participants left the meeting in good spirits, hopeful that despite the continued desecration, a step had been taken towards the halting of the excavations.

Following the meeting with the mayor, the participants also met with the President of the American Jewish Congress, Mr. Richard Gordon, who also promised to take action and do his best on this matter.