Trudy Gold
Lithuania: The World They Left Behind
Summary
Ninety percent of South African Jewry trace their origins back to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. For hundreds of years it was the centre of Ashkenazi Jewish life, however as the Commonwealth disintegrated so did the life of the Jews. The bulk of these Jews went on to live under oppressive Tsarist rule.
The pogroms and the carnage of WWI caused many Jews to flee to South Africa. The question remains: what was the destiny of those who remained in independent Lithuania, then under the rule of the Soviets and the Nazis? Trudy explores this and more in this presentation.
Trudy Gold
Trudy Gold was the CEO of the London Jewish Cultural Centre and a founding member of the British delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Throughout her career she taught modern Jewish history at schools, universities, and to adult groups and ran seminars on Holocaust education in the UK, Eastern Europe, and China. She also led Jewish educational tours all over the world. Trudy was the educational director of the student resources “Understanding the Holocaust” and “Holocaust Explained” and the author of The Timechart History of Jewish Civilization.