The central Jewish bank in Kaunas
( " Centralinis Zydu Bankas " )
was one of the most important banks
in the first Republic ( 1920-1939)
and the most important one
in Lithuania's Jewish community.

Aleksandras Ziselis Machtas
studied economics in Brussels
after finishing high school.
He started working in the bank
when the Machtas family
returned to Kaunas in 1921 .

He began as a ground floor clerk.
As he was very good at languages
he began to climb up the ladder
in the bank that it's main goal
was the cooperation between Jews
from different countries in Europe
as well as in Lithuania itself.

About a decade later on
he was unanimously appointed
as the general manager
of the prestigious bank.
He held the post until 1936.
The year the Machtas family
decided to move to Tel Aviv.

for more on that click here

The senior managers took a photo
with the general manager.
( second from left ).
Their names are written down in Hebrew.
From right to left :
Landoy,Shpshilevic,Brodny and Zbarsky.
(English spelling might be incorrect).

Some of the many
employees of the bank
also took a photo
with the general manager
( first on the right ).
We do not know their names.

The vast majority of them of course
were of the Jewish community.
What has happened to them ?
How many of them survived the horror ?
How many of those stayed in Lithuania ?
How many of those went abroad ?
We do not know.
We can only hope.

What we do know for sure
is that the impressive building itself
and the front of it in particular
is not the same nowadays
as it used to be back then.
Also the interior is quite different ...

for more on that click here