Page - 34 - in Mobile Culture Studies - The Journal, Volume 4/2018

34 Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal 4 2o18 Katy Beinart | Khlebosolny/Bread and Salt Rokiskis and Obeliai: Offere II (2012) “In the area beyond Synagogue Gatve, where old wooden houses are laid out along dusty un-tarmacked roads, we find Rokiskis Jewish cemetery. It is overgrown and neglected, mature silver birch trees grow out of some of the gra- ves, the most recent of which date from 1940. The Jewish population ceased to exist here after that. The graves are hard to decipher, Dad traces the fragile letters with his finger, trying to make them out and trying to remember his Hebrew alphabet. Behind us is a hill, overgrown with very tall grasses and wild plants. Our guide Zigmas explains that this is also part of the burial ground. We pick our way gingerly between old graves, buried in vegetation, and half expect to see protruding bones.” “We reach the windmill on the main road, and follow a small track into what seems to be someone’s allotment. Behind the vegetable patch is the Obeliai Jewish cemetery, marked by a wonky picket fence. It looks like a wildflower meadow.”67 We returned to the Obeliai cemetery the next day and combed through headstones in the long grass. We could not find any with our family name. We made a performance, Offere II, walking towards each other through the headstones and flowers, and meeting in front of the gravestones to perform the Khlebosolny ritual, sharing bread and salt, in an echo of the film 67 Katy and Rebecca Beinart, ‘Offere II’, Origination (blog), 6 August 2012.