Temporary capital of Lithuania Temporary capital of Lithuania The temporary capital of Lithuania () was the official designation of the city of Kaunas in Lithuania during the interwar period. It was in contrast to the declared capital in Vilnius, which was under Polish control from 1920 until 1939. Currently, the term "temporary capital", despite having lost its meaning, is still frequently used as a nickname for Kaunas, the second largest city in Lithuania. During World War I, Lithuania declared independence on February 16, 1918. The declaration stated that Lithuania would be a democratic republic with Vilnius as its capital. This claim was based on
Jerusalem of the West Jerusalem of the West "Jerusalem of the West" was a term historically used by Jews to describe a non-Jewish city west of Jerusalem where the Jewish diaspora nonetheless enjoyed significant influence, freedom (of religion), and numbers, usually in Western Europe or Maghreb. Possibly its most persistent use was that of the Jews of Amsterdam. In Europe, Amsterdam was commonly associated with the term and was called "Jeruzalem van het Westen" in Dutch. Sephardic Jews from Spain and Portugal first settled there in the 17th-century and in 1672, there were an estimated 7,500 Jews living in the city. Holland had a