The core of the project
“Bat Kama At” is a historical, educational and artistic project about the history and culture of Lithuanian Jewry, through the lens of Jewish education for women in Telz during the interwar period. The project aims to maintain and deepen the knowledge in the history and the culture of Lithuanian Jews and to highlight aspects of this history that have been neglected. The project includes the developement of this website, the publication of the documents recently discovered in the Lithuanian State Archives, a public art exhibition and installation. The project seeks to pay tribute and memorialize the Jewish population of Telz and the approximate 500 women/girls that were massacred in 1941 during the Holocaust.
The project includes the following components:
A research project : Gathering documents, testimonies, and photographs relating to the lives of the 500 girls and women who were massacred in December 1941 in Telz, Lithuania (today Telsiai), the town where my parents grew up. The search for photographs and the conduct of interviews of the remaining witnesses are yielding unedited materials. The collected information about the young girls and woman will be gathered on the page 500 faces, 500 names, Through interviews, a number of girls have been identified by their name or biographical information. At the Lietuvos Centrinis Valstybes Archyvas, a collection of 485 documents with inestimable information about the Telsiai Jewish school system for girls – elementary as well as secondary (Gymnasye Yavne), has been identified. All these information will be digitized and organized on this website.
An Experience of living history : High school teachers and students in Lithuania, France, Israel, and the United States will study the interwar Jewish educational system in historical context. Each class or group will conduct an original research that will lead to a public presentation of creation work. The faculty of the Telsiu Vincento Boriseviciaus Gimnazija School, the most prestigious Catholic high school in Telsiai, Lithuania and a group of students are involved in the project. At the close of the fact-gathering and research phase, each this first group will be invited to express in artistic terms its own vision of the acquired knowledge and experience in a media format to be exhibited at the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum.
An installation and encounter will present 500 portraits grandeur nature of the young girls and women of Telz. The installation will be set up for 24 hours in Telsiai and be filmed. The posters will bear a photograph, a name, or a story, or it will be blank if all of these elements are missing. After Telz, the 500 portraits will be ready to travel to other places, ideally great spaces around museums or open public spaces (gardens, parcs). The video made in Telsiai will travel with them. The installation, and/or the video are conceived to be presented together with the creations of the classes.