Obj. ID: 22464
Jewish Architecture  David Strashun’s Kloyz in Vilna (Vilnius), Lithuania

The kloyz was established by the wealthy merchant David Strashun (1755–1842) after 1812. The kloyz housed a yeshiva, headed by Rabbi Avraham Ha-Levi Hurvits (1802–57) until 1832 and afterwards by Rabbi Mordechai Meltser (1797–1883), the future head of the Ramayles Yeshiva. It was a “rather small” kloyz with a women’s section; its interior was decorated with oil paintings.

Already in 1875 a conflict regarding property rights for the kloyz arose; arbiters decided that the entire household belongs to the heirs of Naftali Hirsh Strashun (Strashunskii), son of David Strashun, and that the kloyz remains to function in his courtyard. In 1904 the elders of the kloyz, situated in a wing facing Kvasnoi Lane, tried to register it as a separate property, but unsuccessfully. In 1905 they asked for a permission to convert one window facing Kvasnoi Lane, into a door. Supposedly, this was made with an aim at making the kloyz accessible directly from the street, and not through the Strashun’s courtyard. It could also be regarded as another attempt to claim the property rights to the parishioners. The municipal authority permitted the conversion of the window into the door, but the owner of the household, Moshe Strashun, disputed this decision; at the end, the question was brought to the Senate – the Russian Supreme Court for appeals. It is interesting that during the dispute the elders of the kloyz claimed that it has no name, while the owner of the courtyard stressed that the kloyz is named after his ancestor. In 1916 there were 30 regular worshippers and the kloyz had electric lighting; in 1933 their number reached 54. By 1942 the kloyz was “greatly damaged.” The building does not exist.

From Vladimir Levin, “Synagogues, Batei Midrash and Kloyzn in Vilnius,” in Synagogues in Lithuania. A Catalogue, ed. Aliza Cohen-Mushlin et al., vol. 2 (Vilnius: Vilnius Academy of Arts Press, 2012), p.   321-322.