Note to researchers: This collection is currently closed in preparation for the Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Collections Project.

The collection relates to Jewish communities situated in the part of Lithuania that formed the independent Republic of Lithuania from 1919 to 1940.  The bulk of the materials relates to the period of Jewish national autonomy in Lithuania, 1919-1923, and to its subsequent demise, 1923-1926.  These records originated in the Ministry for Jewish Affairs of the Lithuanian government and in local Jewish communities.      The smaller part of the collection, which covers the years 1844-1918 and 1926-1940, consists of miscellaneous communal and private records which were acquired at various times by YIVO in Vilna and by the Kaunas branch of the S. An-Ski Historical and Ethnographic Society.      General records of the Ministry for Jewish Affairs, the Jewish National Council, and the Jewish parliamentary group in the Lithuanian Diet. Minutes of meetings, reports, statistics. Decrees relating to Jewish minority rights. Records regarding municipal elections. Records of the Conference of Jewish Communities, 1920. Files of several departments of the Ministry.      Records of Jewish communities in the period of Jewish national autonomy, 1919-1926. Correspondence, vital statistics, minutes of meetings of the community councils. Local election materials.  There are about 110 communities included, with extensive files for the communities of: Anyksciai (Anikst), Birziai (Birzhe), Vilkaviskis (Vilkavishki), Ukmerge (Wilkomir), Jonava (Yaneve), Mariampole, Panevezys (Ponevezh), Prienai (Pren), Kedainiai (Kaidan), Kretinga, Radviliskis (Radvilishok), Raseiniai (Rasayn), Siauliai (Shavl).      Miscellaneous communal records, 1844-1940, including *pinkasim* (registers) of the communities, charitable societies and burial societies. For the most part, the materials are from Kaunas (Kovno).      Miscellaneous materials on Jewish political parties, including Zionist groups, Jewish aid societies, commercial and trade associations, mainly 1920s and 1930s.      Records of the S. An-Ski Historical and Ethnographic Society in Kaunas, 1922-1940, including minutes, correspondence with members, appeals for support, financial files.  Materials on Jewish life in Lithuania, mainly about education and theater.  Photographs of: the Ministry for Jewish Affairs; the first Zionist Congress in Lithuania; personalities, including rabbis; Jewish towns and landmarks.