A young musician posing with violin

Violinist Jascha Heifetz as a child

Circa 1908. Portrait of Young Violinist

By the late 1800s, the city of Vilna was known for its art academy, orchestras, and theaters. The father of world-famous violinist Jascha Heifetz (1901-1987) was the concertmaster of the Vilna Theater Orchestra. By the time Jascha was five years old, he was already recognized as a musical prodigy.

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Unless otherwise stated, all artifacts featured in the exhibition come from the YIVO's Archives and Library collections. Digitization of many of these materials has been made possible by the Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections project.

Disclaimer: for the reader’s ease of finding wartime locations on current-day maps, we have at times used the present-day names of those cities and streets as they may be found on modern maps.