Granted Magdeburg rights by Casimir IV in 1441, the Lithuanian Karaite in Trakai suffered swings of both good and bad fortune over the centuries. They even found time to court controversy, namely during the Nazi occupation of Lithuania during WWII (1941-1944) when the then head of the Lithuanian and Polish Karaite movement Sereya Shapshala famously handed over a list of the names of all Karaite members to protect them from the fate of the Jews.

In the middle of the 1930's, Germany's fledgling Nazi party formally defined the Karaite as not Jewish under the malevolent and sinister 1935 Reich Citizenship Law, a historical fact used by many Eastern European Jews during the Holocaust, who attempted to disguise themselves as Karaite to stay alive.

Shapshala's List as it became known effectively sealed the faith of many Lithuanian Jews, and continues to be an emotive blot on relations between the communities.

Karaite religion and language

Lithuanian Karaite religion's basis is on the Jewish faith with the above-mentioned differences. Originally all religious services were in Hebrew inside a kenesa, which has many similarities to a synagogue but which also witnesses some startling disparities including the necessity to remove footwear before entering the building, something known universally in the Islamic faith but entirely alien to Judaism.

The Lithuanian Karaite language that replaced Hebrew as the official religious language is a unique intermingling of the original Turkic tongue spoken by the community mixed together with local Lithuanian and Polish inclusions. Like the Lithuanian Karaite themselves, the language is dying, with what few remaining members of the total Lithuanian count of around 250 Lithuanian Karaite integrating with western society.

At this rate it's only a matter of time before the community and its culture are gone forever. Trakai remains the spiritual home of the Lithuanian Karaite movement, and shamelessly exploits the Karaite myth for tourism. Visitors are treated to a simplified, watered-down version of Lithuanian Karaite culture including the infamous kibinai, he miniature Cornish pasty-type signature dish of Lithuanian Karaite cuisine.