Avraham Karpinovitz 2022 — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

In June 2022 we gathered in Beit Vilna to listen to Dr. Mordechai Yushkovsky's lecture on Avraham Karpinowitz and the long acquaintance between them, his work and his sorrow for not being able to record his words.

Throughout his life in Israel, Karpinowitz mourned Vilna and Yiddish. He worked at the Philharmonic Orchestra and lived in the world of art and music. He would return from work at night and sit and write. He used to say: "From Tel Aviv upstairs I go down to Vilna downstairs who will stay upstairs forever."

Most of his characters were not necessarily ordinary Vilna people but thieves, prostitutes and beggars. When asked why he did not write about "normal" characters he replied: "What is normal? Not in the Ponary pits was everyone equal." His goal is for some researcher to open the books he has written and a bundle of Jewish souls to be resurrected before his eyes. Wrong but they are also part of the panorama of Vilnius. Simple characters I would not normally remember and I want to commemorate them.In conversations between them, Dr. Yushkovsky asked that he not leave them in Ponary but bring them here and now but he replied that it would not work out. They do not stick here. Through Karpinowitz's stories, Joszkowski knew Vilna without having been there before. Study tours of the stories were held there. And also made a film there according to his stories. We hope to screen a premiere at the Vilnius House.During a visit by Lithuanian teachers to Israel, it became clear that pre-war Vilnius did not have much expression in Lithuanian literature, and when they arrived in Israel they were amazed to discover how much it is commemorated in the writings of a Yiddish writer. In Vilnius (Vilna) before the war, a literary genre of urban story was created. Vilna story. A story associated with the city.Karpinowitz was asked why he wants to return to Vilnius all the time because he has lived in Israel for so many years and he replied that the longing for Vilna is different. The longing is not related to the desire to return there physically. We do not miss the streets and houses. I remember with a tear the same extraordinary figures.Even in the late nineties I can walk there with my eyes closed.