On March 21, students from the Užupis Gymnasium in Vilnius staged a work at the Tolerance Center called "Love Thy Neighbour", which was based on a play written by gymnasium student Karolina Karpavičiūtė. The Jewish and Lithuanian roles were performed by students A.Urbonaitė, U.A.Gaurilčikaitė, I.Gibavičius, V.Kutavičiūtė, A.Matačiūnaitė, N.Dailidaitė, A.Lukytė, V.Černovas, J.Valančauskas, A.Vaitkevičiūtė.

We would like to share with "J of L" readers some of what was printed in the production notes about Karolina Karpavičiūtė, author, director, and performer of the play's principal role – the Gypsy.

"One late winter evening I was gazing out the window at dimly lit Žemaitijos St., which was once part of the Vilna Ghetto territory. The Jewish inscriptions on the former shops were barely legible. A huge crow flew by with a piercing caw, and a long-haired Jewish girl ran down the street. "Dodė", – she whispered as she ran past me.

Before beginning to write this play I read a lot, watched movies, studied and thought. But for a long time my hand hovered over an empty piece of paper – I couldn't write a single word. My head was full of questions that had to be answered first. When I answered them, the play was practically finished. "LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR" is a work which simply came to me – I felt as if someone else had created it, I just put it down.

This play and production are an attempt by myself and young actors to understand what the Holocaust was. An attempt to imagine the people from that time, their life histories, their feelings. An attempt not to judge and not to look for the guilty, even when that becomes outrageously difficult to do. It's an attempt to create an illusion that there is an Almighty, with a human soul which can change this terrible history, but changes nothing... It's a sincere and open attempt to hear, touch, smell, see, feel, dream about one Jewish family which lived through one of the most painful periods in the history of mankind. We were not striving for historical accuracy or professionalism... Our goal was sincerity."

Lietuvos žydų bendruomenės laikraštis “Lietuvos Jeruzalė” 2006.