According to Rosa Bielioiskiene, Chief Curator of the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum, the newest of the synagogues is close to one hundred years old. The oldest of these Baroque buildings (dating from the seventeenth century) were scattered in villages across the country like Valkininkai, Jubarkas, Saukenai and Vilkaviskis. These villages once had sizable Jewish populations and in some cases were completely Jewish. Construction of wooden synagogues continued until the early part of the twentieth century, with more than twenty-three constructed between the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. After World War I, almost nine percent of the total population of Lithuania was ethnically Jewish, and up until the Second World War there were 500 to 600 different kinds of Jewish prayer houses in the country.

Because of the abundance of forestland in Poland, the settlers were experienced in using wood. Lithuania’s vast woodland (similar to Poland’s in its magnitude) made construction of the synagogues simple and affordable. There is no definitive evidence as to whether Jews or Lithuanians actually built the structures, but it is generally assumed that Jews at least ordered the construction to their specifications. They were able to tell the workers how to build what they wanted. Later, into the twentieth century, professionals and architects were hired.

Generally, wooden synagogues took on the appearance of barns so as not be conspicuous. To avoid competition with the churches located in the center of town, synagogues were usually erected in areas reserved for the Jewish quarter. But there are conflicting stories about where Jews lived. According to some people we interviewed, Jews were scattered throughout the village and lived wherever their shops were located. Others claimed Jews lived in specific areas. In either case, for safety, buildings were enclosed and monumental. There were often no significant details on the façade to identify them.

In Kurkliai, a village of 117 families, located about 100 kilometers northwest of Vilnius, we found the synagogue behind several very old wooden cottages. Built somewhere between 1915 and 1939, it is similar in style to eighteenth-century Romanticist/Historicist architecture. The square building is one story, with a little corner tower and a small peaked roof that accommodated stairs to the women’s balcony. The façade is plain with some elements of Moorish styling in the window frames; narrow and high with a peaked triangle as a crown. A Star of David can be seen on the facade of the building. It is not known what the glass in the windows actually looked like. Today the windows have been boarded up.