A Profile of JeruLita’s Founder, Yulik Gurevich
The following was written as Tour Review from clients on Tripadvisor.
Perfect Tour Guide
Yulik Gurevich has truly spoiled us – he has been our guide, historian, psychologist, and secular rabbi.
He taught us with stories, music and pictures.
He introduced us to books and movies.
Most of all, whatever his feelings about regimes or governments, he has continued to love people, in the manner of Yiddish writer Chaim Grade.
His constant refrain is: “Context Matters.”
At the death pits of Ponar, using YouTube, he played ‘Shtiler, shtiler …’ and in the Choral Synagogue in Vilna, he played the chazannas of Gershon Sirota.
At the site of the Singing Revolution in Tallinn, we listened to Arvo Part’s ‘Salve Regina’. Part of it, we learned, was Estonian.
In the shadow of the Rusalka memorial, he played Rene Fleming singing Dvorak’s ‘Song to the Moon’.
We spent 20 wonderful minutes listening to the great organ in Riga’s Dome Cathedral.
Yulik shared his enthusiasm for Art Nouveau architecture with us but never lost sight of why we had come to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
Vilna and Kovna Ghettos
We toured the Vilna and Kovna ghettos. He guided us through the searing, unspeakable horror of the Ninth Fort, and the sites of the Rumbula and Bikerniek Forest massacres. He gently supported us at the site of the mass grave near Krok where my father’s mother, siblings, and nephews were murdered.
And he showed us Paige’s ancestral villages – Dusetos, Kamajai, and Zemel.
Our visit to Tallinn was a joyful experience and a good way to end the trip.
Yulik has spent his life in Lithuania except for one year studying in Israel.
His father fought the Nazis in the same Lithuanian Division as my late uncle Yankel Sharov, my cousin Shulamit’s father.
He was always punctual, very accommodating, and sensitive to our needs. He really took good care of us.
We started our pilgrimage at Vilna airport with Yulik our guide. We ended it at Tallinn airport with Yulik our friend….
