Team finds sacred part of Vilnius synagogue razed by the Nazis

For decades, little did the principal of a kindergarten in Lithuania’s capital realise that his office stood on top of a sacred part of Vilnius’ 17th century Jewish temple, once famous across Europe. An international team of archaeologists on Thursday announced the discovery of the most revered part of the Great Synagogue of Vilnius, Lithuania’s major Jewish shrine before it was destroyed by Nazi and Soviet regimes. “We’ve found the bimah, the central prayer platform which was in Tuscan Baroque style. It was one of the central features of the synagogue,” Jon Seligman from Israel’s Antiquities Authority told AFP. “It is really a very exciting development. When we talk about the presentation of the site to the public in the future, this will be one of the central features of the display,” he added. The green and brown, brick and mortar bimah — a raised platform from which the Jewish holy book, the Torah, is read — was unearthed just beneath th