"The plan is not a hard closed proposal. It is intended to stimulate further discussion, relating to issues driving a future vision for the Jewish cemetery."
Last week, the Save Vilna Coalition released a proposal for the restoration of the Snipiskes Jewish cemetery.
The proposal provides for broad collaboration between the international and Lithuanian Jewish community, acknowledging that it will be implemented:
Under the auspices of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER), the official body under which all rabbinical and religious matters in Europe fall;
In compliance with Jewish law;
In recognition of the educational and historical value, which the restored cemetery could generate;
In appreciation of the significant economic benefit, which Jewish heritage tourism could add, to the Lithuanian economy;
Establishing the Sports Palace as a monument, for the exclusive memory of the 230,000 Jewish martyrs who perished in the Holocaust;
In recognition that according to Jewish law, the cemetery cannot be used for any purpose other than as a resting place for the deceased;
In opposition to the development of a museum in the Sports Palace, which would violate Jewish law and be a desecration to the Jewish religion.