Listy do Wilna

Years 1928–1948 were extremely important for Hajji Seraya Shapshal – an Orientalist and the spiritual leader of Karaims working in these years in Vilnius. In the first decade of this period he was a prolific researcher and an active spiritual and social leader in the what was then the Second Polish Republic nota bene very tolerant towards Karaim religion. The second decade of this period includes the years of the Second World War, the first short years of independent Lithuania along with the years of its German occupation, and, finally, a few years of the not less problematic Soviet rule. Seraya Shapshal’s played a key role in these hard times as the spiritual and secular leader of the Karaim community. The correspondence between him and Ananiasz Zajączkowski is therefore an extremely important source of information not only on Seraya Shapszal, but also on the whole Karaim nation.