On April 5, 2017 the World Jewish Congress and Vilnius Jewish Public Library organized Dr. Mordechay Yushkovsky's open lecture "The Passover Motifs in Yiddish Literature and Folklore".

The academical director of the WJC International Yiddish Center at the World Jewish Congress, Dr. Mordehay Yushkovsky told the audience that the holiday of Pesach (Passover) signifies one of the most important events in the Jewish national history – liberation from the Egyptian slavery, thus the whole yearly cycle turns around this important celebration. It is very natural that Pesach-related activities and motifs path their way into Jewish traditional folklore and literature.

As Dr. Yushkovsky pointed out, direct descriptions or story-telling in the light of Pesach preparations or celebrations have been inevitably and creatively tuned into Yiddish literature as an abundant source of life experiences.

Pesach and its historical context gave birth to very colorful proverbs, sayings and metaphors, for instance: 'Egyptian darkness', 'Mannah from the skies', 'Plagues of Egypt', 'Broken as Pesach matzo' (about coy girls).

Lots of poets and writers could not avoid Pesach topics and allusions. Sholom-Aleichem should be mentioned as the most outstanding of them. Some of his stories are dedicated to events directly and exclusively related to Pesach; he treated it as one of the basics of the Jewish culture and national self-identity.