New Market-Town / “Shtetl” Open-Air Museum To Be Built In Rumsiskes, Lithuania
By Elliot Matz, BACC Board Member and Creator Of The Rumsiskes Market-Town Museum
Coordinated by John Lostys
Tuesday, April 15th, 2025
7:00 PM ET (Eastern Time / New York)
Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88287009112?pwd=EGrtxLrjt6ZG7I4quYXuCIs5e5L0Xo.1
This project will create an addition to the existing Open-Air Museum of Lithuania at Rumsiskes, and will focus on recreating and portraying how Christians, Jews, and other minorities lived in traditional Lithuanian market-towns/"shtetls" during the centuries prior to World War I.
Prior to WWI, there were more than 1,500 market towns in Eastern Europe. The two largest populations were Christians (Russian Orthodox, Ukrainian Orthodox or Roman Catholics) and Jews. The daily life and cultures of these residents was complex, rich, and fraught with issues that are ripe for exploration and understanding. Prior to the two World Wars, for a variety of reasons hundreds of thousands of people emigrated from these towns, and there are millions of their descendants in diaspora. During World War II the Jewish populations that had remained were eviscerated and the traditional market town life was destroyed.
The museum will be the only open-air museum in the world that offers visitors the opportunity to see and understand the daily life of the residents of such towns. In addition, in collaboration with Yeshiva University in the United States and Vilnius University in Lithuania, the museum will engage in research on how individuals and distinct communities interacted, including the role of ethnic, religious, gender, and other distinct identities in everyday life.