Fania and Lazar Levando — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

Fania Lewando-Fiszelewicz (born in 1888, killed in 1941) and Lazar Lewando (born in 1880, killed in 1941).

Founders and owners of a vegetarian restaurant in Vilnius.

In the 1930s, there was a popular restaurant in Vilnius called “Dieto-Jarska Jadlodajnia” (the “Vegetarian Bistro”) where Fania Lewando served delicious dishes based on her original recipes. Even the renowned modernist artist Marc Chagall left an entry in the restaurant guest book.

Fania was not only a great chef but also a pedagogue – she taught local women how to cook vegetarian food at a culinary school which she herself established, and compiled these detailed recipes in her book entitled “Vegetarian Cookbook: 400 Meals Made Exclusively from Vegetables”, published in 1938.

In 1941, while fleeing the Nazis as they were occupying Vilnius, Fania and Lazar fell into the hands of the Soviet army. Their subsequent fate is not known.

The Stumbling Stones commemorating Fania and Lazar Lewando are laid at Vokiečių g. 14 in Vilnius on the former site of the restaurant “Dieto-Jarska Jadlodajnia”.

Lewando and her husband died during World War II, and it was assumed that all but a few family-owned and archival copies of her cookbook vanished along with most of European Jewry. But in 1995 a couple attending an antiquarian book fair in England came upon a copy of Lewando's cookbook. Recognizing its historical value, they purchased it and donated it to the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City, the premier repository for books and artifacts relating to prewar European Jewry. Enchanted by the book's contents and by its backstory, YIVO commissioned a translation of the book that will make Lewando's charming, delicious, and practical recipes available to an audience beyond the wildest dreams of the visionary woman who created them.