Židikai, Lithuania
  Alternate names: Zhidik [Yid], Zhidiki [Rus], Zydyki [Pol], Židiku, Zidik, Zidikiai, Zydikiai 56°19' 22°01'
On the Way First Impressions My Discovery Nearby Video of Cemetery
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It was at this graveyard that we found my great great grandmother’s grave stone – Esther Lentin. We didn’t expect to find it and we had no idea that it would be there. We were obviously taken by complete surprise as it was one of the only remaining upstanding gravestones and was somehow also the brightest and most striking in colour – it was quite an incredible feeling.
"I clamber over the bushes and start to look at the various gravestones. At first I can’t really read any of the inscriptions at all, they are too covered in moss to be clear and they are dusty and dirty after years of neglect. For some reason, and I’m not sure why, I’m drawn to this one gravestone which is tall and made of reddish stone. It is quite ornate and low and behold I see that I can read what it says. It is one of the only ones that is legible and all of a sudden I see the words Zalman Lentin with an ‘ein’ after the ‘lamed’ – I call Abba over saying I think I’ve discovered Zalman’s grave. I’m very excited and my adrenalin is pumping – it’s as if I’ve found a crown jewel in the middle of a field – well I have! I’m bewildered and don’t really know what to think. Is this really happening? Is it possible to just stumble over something like this?
On closer inspection I discover that it says on the first line the dear and important wife of …. the second sentence is hard to read and then…(Esther), Ishta (Hebrew for wife), of Zalman Lentin, possibly in Yiddish. Then it says the Hebrew date. What date is it? I try and call Imma immediately but her phone isn’t working. From the middle of a Jewish graveyard in the middle of nowhere in Lithuania to Jerusalem (how ironic). I get my mother to work out the date which she reckons is 1907, which makes sense as she possibly may have died at that time and that might be her Hebrew name. There is no doubt at all that it says Zalman Lentin on the gravestone – no doubt at all.