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Article: Lithuanian moved to rebuild Jewish Quarter in Vilnius.
- Article from:
- Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL)
- Article date:
- January 21, 2003
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Chicago Tribune. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Alex Rodriguez
VILNIUS, Lithuania _ The sidewalks of Zydu Street, a winding cobblestone lane in the heart of Lithuania's capital, once bustled with the din of peddlers and cabarets, with streetside marionettes lampooning Neville Chamberlain and theaters performing Shakespeare in Yiddish.
Zydu Street anchored this 680-year-old city's Jewish Quarter, renowned in Europe as a citadel of Yiddish learning and Jewish culture. Europe's top Talmud scholars studied there. So did musician Jascha Heifetz, who was 5 when he played violin at the quarter's Imperial School of Music.
The quarter flourished for more than three centuries. Then, in a span ...