gip`
As,*
\
YNNE MEREDITH COHN
toff Writer
hen Harold Berry was
20, his grandfather
handed him a chart trac-
ing the family's lineage
back hundreds of years. On the chart
was a tiny entry: "Wilno Gaon (Elijah
ben Solomon)."
Little did Berry know that the
innocuous entry referred to one of the
greatest Jewish scholars of modern
times.
At the time, Berry didn't really care.
"When you're 20 years old, you don't
have much of a time sense. You think
the world began with you," says the
lawyer and past president of
ongregation Shaarey Zedek. "[But]
when your own children are
grown...it's a priceless thing to have
genealogy laid out."
Along with Berry and his children,
another Detroit family, the Sallens
(brothers Larry and Alvin), also
descend from the Gaon.
Last month, Berry, his wife Barbara
d six other direct descendants
joined 200 people in Vilnius,
Lithuania, to commemorate the 200th
anniversary of the death of the Gaon.
The university there hosted a con-
erence to mark the Gaon's legacy. The
chief rabbi of Haifa, Shaaryeshuv
HaKohen, and the Israeli ambassador
to Lithuania, Oded Ben Hor, attend-
ed, albeit hesitantly. Lithuanians
egan killing Jews before Hitler's
troops marched into the tiny Baltic
state, and until very recently, any rem-
nant of Judaism had been swept under
the rug.
Now Lithuania wants to make
amends. President Algirdas Brazauskas
told Israel that his nation wants•to
have a good relationship with the
ewish state and "implied that they
would bring justice to the perpetrators
of violence, Berry says. "Nothing has
happened yet."
A member of the Knesset reported-
ly advocated boycotting the confer-
nce, and Haifa's Rabbi HaKohen,
speaking outside the mausoleum
where the Gaon is buried, said he hes-
itated to travel there because "the
Earth calls out with the blood of our
brothers," Berry relates.
Lithuanian Jews have long been
touted as among the brightest and
most scholarly. Before World War II,
30 to 40 percent of Lithuanians were
ewish. "If you omit the Jewish her-
itage of the country, you are diminish-
ing the country's history," says Berry,
Visiting
Their Roots
A Detroiter joins six other
descendants of the Vilna Gaon in
Lithuania 200 years after his death.
0
O
0
0
0
Dr. Jerrold Cooper and Harold Berry, cousins and descendants of the Vilna Gaon,
stand next to a new statue in his memory.
who actually descended from the
Gaon's brother, also a noted scholar.
The conference included the
unveiling of a plaque and monument
in the Gaon's memory. Each descen-
dant gave remarks, and all seven with
their spouses had a private audience
with Lithuania's president.
Gaon translates as "genius." From
the age of 6 1/2, Elijah Ben Solomon
Zalman was known for his Torah
insights. He studied Kabbalah as a
youth as well as secular subjects like
astronomy, geometry and geography,
to better understand Jewish law.
In some ways, the Gaon was an
activist. He violently opposed the
growing Chasidic movement because
he objected to changes in prayer rites
and new customs introduced by that
sect. But more than that, he was wor-
ried that the creation of one new
group might lead to a split in the
Jewish community.
Under the Gaon's leadership,
Vilnius became the center of opposi-
tion to Chasidim. The heads of the
Chasidic movement in Belorussia tried
to meet with him, but he refused.
The Gaon died Oct. 20, 1797.
His grave sits in a massive mau-
soleum in a cemetery surrounded by
an industrial neighborhood.
What does it mean to descend from
scholarly greatness? "It's up to each
one of us to develop our own swing in
life," says Berry, using a golf reference.
"However, the backswing (heritage) is
important. When you admire scholar-
ship and it's part of your background,
consciously or unconsciously you
aspire to [it]. We Jews, as a people,
have this tremendous respect for learn-
ing."
Cooper, Berry's cousin from
Baltimore, sees it differently.
"I was always interested in books
and learning, so it was neat to know I
was descended from the greatest rab-
binical scholar of modern times," says
the Near Eastern studies professor at
Johns Hopkins University. Cooper
formerly chaired the department.
"A lot of Lithuanian Jews in Israel
thought this event shouldn't have hap-
pened because they are still bitter
about the war," Cooper says. "You
have to assume a certain amount of
good will."
"Vilna is coming alive now --- old
town charm, better hotels being con-
structed and the meals were good,"
Berry says. "The city has potential for
tourism and because it was so rich in
Jewish history, Jewish tourism could
be a very positive factor." O
10/3
1997
9