Obj. ID: 22462  Leib Leizers’ Kloyz in Vilna (Vilnius), Lithuania

Leib Leizers’ Kloyz at former 8 Żydowska (today Žydų) Street, Leib Leizers’ courtyard.
The house bordering with the shulhoyf was bought in 1759 by Arie Leib son of Eliezer (d. 1783). The kloyz which he founded there is mentioned in 1776; the Mishnah Society was established in this kloyz in 1785. In the 20th century mostly members of families, who once lived in the courtyard, prayed there.128 A special custom in this kloyz was to lit a candle with a wick made of 345 threads on the yor-tsayt of Moses (345 is the numerical value of his name). In 1916 there were 40 regular worshippers and two Talmudic scholars on a grant; the kloyz possessed six apartments in the same building, the rent of which provided means for its existence.

The kloyz was situated on the first floor in the northwestern wing of the building. It was entered from the courtyard through a portal with a semicircular gable and carved doors, probably made in the second half of the 19th century. According to Yaffe, it was a “medium size” kloyz without a women’s section, with a “beautifully painted” interior. Moshe Vorobeichic (1904–95) has apparently captured this interior in his photograph.

By 1942 the kloyz was “heavily damaged.” After WWII the entire building was razed.

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.  304.