I want to attention readers to the comments below from Lithuania in response to this post -- the picture I had posted earlier was just a random shot, not the synagogue burning. Also, locals say this was the third attempt to torch the synagogue in recent months. Latest reports say about 1/3 not 1/2 of the building was destroyed.
My friend Ilya Lempertas in Vilnius, a Jewish historian and guide, has sent me a link to video on a Lithuanian news site that shows the fire damage Sunday to the historic wooden synagogue in the village of Pakruojis. The link to the video is THIS. But I've tried to embed it below (not totally successfully for some reasons). You may have to watch a brief commercial first, and at least on my computer the video is jerky, but it shows close-ups of the damage. Ilya says that according to reports from the scene, some 88 square meters of the roof as well as parts of the ceiling and walls were destroyed. A real tragedy.
This is the second historic synagogue in Lithuania to suffer destruction or serious damage in the past one and a half years. The so-called "Red Synagogue" in Joniskis collapsed in late December 2007. It had been undergoing fitful restoration (along with its "sister synagogue", the so-called "White Synagogue" standing next door to it), but one wall collapsed without warning.