FEATURE
LITA Lives
I was so inspired by this new project that
aims to reignite the spark for all things
Lithuanian inside each and every one of us,
that my very distant connection to Lithuania
became top of mind I BY CHANDREA SEREBRO
3000 Jews are living in Lithuania today.
Products like Lita Lives Yiddish
fridge poetry (below) are
keeping this burgeoning
community alive.
20 JEWISH LIFE
ISSUE 82
relying on international funding to survive.
But now, Justine Seeff and Mendi Katz
have brought Lita (the Yiddish for Lithuania, also a term of endearment) alive
through their amazing project, Lita Lives.
This cutting-edge initiative combines the
poignant act of remembering those who
have passed, by getting a local Litvak to say
Kaddish for a lost loved one on your behalf,
with inspired marketing of local Lita products, like their premium vodka and other
Lithuanian inspired Jewish trinkets such as
Yiddisher fridge poetry and colourful kippot. But, where the project is truly unique,
what they call the blockbuster part of the
endeavour, is that they have topped it all
off with an exciting social media platform,
called the Shtetl Network. This sets about
PHOTOGRAPHS: SUPPLIED
IT IS A RARE TREAT TO MEET PEOPLE WITH SUCH A
joy and passion for what they do that it
can take a seemingly unimportant thing in
your own life and make it the new ‘wow’
factor just by virtue of their excitement.
This is how I felt meeting with the might
behind an amazing new initiative to bring
back to life the Lithuanian spark in all of us,
while at the same time bringing mu ch needed support to the Jewish community that
still lives there. Because, contrary to what
people may think, Lithuania – Jewish Lithuania – is alive and well, and growing Jewishly, although financially it is on the brink.
From a thriving community of 250 000
Jews before World War II, Lithuanian Jewry was all but wiped out in the space of
about four murderous years, and has now
shrunk to three thousand Jewish souls,