2006 Before the project got off the ground

VILKAVISKIS
A small town in Southern Lithuania
Where the Jewish Community is no more

Over a period of 20 years I built a family tree going back to 1732. During this process I discovered one branch of the Salinger family had lived in Vilkaviskis from at least 1804 till 1941.

In 2002 my eldest daughter and I made a tour of the all the villages where Salinger's had lived since 1732 including Vilkaviskis. During our brief visit I sadly could find no evidence of Jewish life there.

By 2006 I felt that it was time to  begin the process of rediscovering the history of Jewish Vilkaviskis.

The process of writing to the Mayor and getting his permission to work in the Jewish cemetery.

Later, I visited Lithuanian Ambassador to Israel,
H.E. Asta Skaisgirytė Liauškienė  in Tel Aviv

This site was built by Ralph Salinger of Kfar Ruppin, Israel
It is built to the glory of the Jewish Community of Vilkkaviskis
You can contact me with any comments at salinger@kfar-ruppin.org,il

On returning from the war in Lebanon in 1982 and the birth of my first daughter I started to feel that I wanted to discover my "roots".  My parents survived the Holocaust and yet they told me nothing of their past.

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