We are sad to report the death of Markas Javičius. He was born in 1938 and was a member of the Kaunas Jewish Community, and a client of the LJC Saul Kagan Social Welfare Center. We extend our deepest condolences to his wife, son and many friends and family members.
Eightieth Anniversary of Liquidation and Uprising of Vilnius Ghetto: International Conference “Ideologies of Hate and Hope in Modern Jewish History”
You’re invited to the final event in our commemoration of the 80th anniversary of liquidation of the Vilnius ghetto this year, the international conference “Ideologies of Hate and Hope in Modern Jewish History” in Constitution Hall in Building 1 at the Lithuanian parliament on Tuesday, November 28, 2023.
Participants must register by internet before 3:00 P.M. on Monday, November 27, here: https://bit.ly/40NAUZ3
The conference will be conducted in Lithuanian and English with translations. It is being held through the efforts of the Polish Jewish History Institute, YIVO and the Lithuanian Jewish Community. It will be streamed on the LJC’s facebook page.
Program:
Scout Hike
Scouts and parents are invited to a fall hike Sunday, November 26. The hike is a free event and open to all children and their parents. Please register by internet before midnight, November 24, by clicking here: https://forms.gle/fbDdB1HDhBUQKw976
For more information, contact hike leader Adelina Kofman by telephone at 860581922 or write skautai@lzb.lt.
Ilja Bereznickas Exhibit
The Jewish Culture and Information Center in Vilnius is hosting an exhibit this week till November 26 of works by Ilja Bereznickas, the Lithuanian animator, caricaturist, author and filmmaker. The exhibit celebrates Ilja’s 75th birthday. The Jewish Culture and Information Center is located at Mėsinių street no. 3a/5 in the Vilnius Old Town.
Standing with Israel in Pakruojis
The Pakruojis wooden synagogue hosted an event yesterday to support Israel, organized by the Šiauliai Jewish Religious Community.
Before the Holocaust the wooden synagogue–one of only a handful still standing in Europe–was the center of Jewish life and religion.
The one-day photography exhibit there was actually two related exhibits: 22 photographs out of the 724 victims to mark the 80th anniversary of the Kinder Aktion or children’s mass murder operation in the Šiauliai ghetto collected and arranged by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Authority in Israel and the Šiauliai Jewish Religious Community, and pictures of the 242 hostages taken by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, including babies, children, adolescents, adults and the elderly.
Darna Festival a Success
Thank you to all the participants and attendees for making this year’s Darna Festival to celebrate the International Day of Tolerance a success.
Some snapshots from the festival:
Pakruojis Wooden Synagogue Hosts Photo Exhibit on Kinder Aktion and Hamas Hostages
The Šiauliai Jewish Community is holding a half-day photography exhibit at the wooden synagogue in Pakruojis on November 20 detailing the painful past of the Jewish people and current events.
The first part of the exhibit is a joint project between the Šiauliai Religious Jewish Community and Yad Vashem in Jerusalem to mark the 80th anniversary of the Kinder Aktion or children’s mass murder operation at the Šiauliai ghetto. It only contains a small number of photographs of victims conserved by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial.
The second section features the 240 people taken hostage by Hamas and held in the Gaza Strip, including fathers, mothers, children, teenagers, the elderly and the disabled.
Time: 11:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M., Monday, November 20
Place: Pakruojis synagogue, Kranto street no. 8, Pakruojis, Lithuania
Happy Birthday
We wish Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community member Ieva Rafael a very happy birthday. Since the Šiauliai Jewish Community was formed in Šiauliai in December of 1988, Ieva has been an active participant in community life and a member of the board of executives. Along with everything else she’s done for the Šiauliai Jewish Community, she’s also been responsible for the organization’s bookkeeping over its entire existence.
We wish Ieva endless health, happiness, joy, unceasing energy and that all her dreams come true. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
Jewish and Other Composers Rarely Heard in Lithuania at This Year’s Darna Festival
The Lithuanian Jewish Community and Cvi Parkas are holding the third annual Darna Festival to celebrate the International Day of Tolerance tomorrow, November 16, with a series of readings and musical performances.
The classical music group Duo Andersson, Julija Andersson on violin and brother Paulius on piano, will present a series of rarely-heard classical and contemporary works by Lera Auerbach, Jewish Lithuanian composer Anatolijus Šenderovas and Philip Glass in the Jascha Heifetz Hall on the third floor of the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius. The Darna Festival is free and open to the public.
Darna Festival: Three Extraordinary Photography Exhibits
The Darna Festival happening this Thursday, November 16, to celebrate the International Day of Tolerance will feature three exceptional photography exhibits featuring work by Antanas Sutkus, Andrey Kezzyn and Bartosz Frątczak. All festival events and performances are free and open to the public.
Time: 6:30 P.M., Thursday, November 16
Place: Third floor, Lithuanian Jewish Community, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius
Antanas Sutkus is considered one of the top Lithuanian photographers of the 20th century. Andrey Kezzyn over the past decade has been staging theatrical photographs with actors in costume, and is a stage director himself. Bartosz Frątczak lives in Vilnius and is a teacher, philosopher and journalist as well as photographer. From 2014 to 2018 Frątczak photographed Holocaust survivors and family members, and rescuers. From 2017 to 2019 he documented living Polish World War II veterans.
#Atmintis #Memory #AEPJ
Seniors Club Prays for Israel
The Abi Men Zet Zich Seniors Club meets regularly on Wednesdays and last Wednesday fell on the one-month anniversary of Hamas’s attack on Israel. Many club members have family in Israel and some serve in the military. Our seniors, many of them Holocaust survivors, lit candles and said kaddish for the Israeli soldiers who have died and for the hostages.
Am Yisrael khai.
One Hundred and Two Holocaust Survivors Ask Australians to Denounce Anti-Semitism and Hatred
Photo: Members of the Australian Jewish community participate in a rally in Sydney in late October. Photograph: David Gray/AFP/Getty Images
by Daisy Dumas, November 9, 2023
The broader Jewish community in Australia this week marked 30 days since the October 7 Hamas attacks with vigils and candle-lighting ceremonies
More than 100 Australian Holocaust survivors have united to denounce a wave of “senseless and virulent” anti-Semitism that they fear is growing in the country.
The “last witnesses to the unspeakable horrors of the Nazi regime,” many in their 90s, have penned a letter against abusive incidents that have targeted the Jewish community as Israeli retaliations continue after the brutal Hamas attacks and kidnappings of October 7.
“We are witnesses to the anti-Semitic propaganda that turned our friends, neighbors and the general public against us in Europe. We remember the six million Jewish lives lost because of this hatred,” the 102 Australian survivors wrote in the letter published in the Australian on Thursday.
Attendees Sing Israeli Anthem at Art Exhibit Opening
Visitors had the chance to delve into the world of renowned Litvak artist Simon Karczmar and his artist son Natan last Tuesday evening in Vilnius where a new exhibit of works opened at the Old Town Hall.
The artwork features a romanticized take on daily life in the Dievenishok (Dieveniškės) shtetl and the Bohemian life in Paris.
Attendees were unable to escape the present, however–the brutal war and hostages taken–and sang the Israeli national anthem, HaTikva, “The Hope,” in solidarity with all our friends and family in the Jewish homeland.
Am Yisrael khai.
Ąžuoliukas Choir at Concert Celebrating 100th Birthday of Herman Perelstein
The Ąžuoliukas choir performed at an event held by the Kaunas Jewish Community, the Kaunas city municipality and the Kaunas State Philharmonic to celebrate the 100th birthday of the late Herman Perelstein, the founder of the choir, at the Kaunas State Philharmonic on the evening of November 6, 2023. A short video filmed by a member of the audience has been posted to youtube, viewable below of the choir’s performance with Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas’s introductory address.
Shavl Kinder Aktion Remembered
On November 6, 1943, around 725 Jewish children were abducted from the Šiauliai (Shavl) ghetto and sent to their deaths in Auschwitz.
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, chairmen from the Šiauliai, Kaunas, Palanga, Panevėžys and Švenčionys Jewish Communities, Israeli ambassador Hadas Wittenberg-Silverstein, German ambassador Cornelius Zimmermann, Lithuanian MPs and members of the Jewish Community and general public and students and teachers came together to mark the 80th anniversary of this atrocity in Šiauliai November 6.
Kaunas Jewish Community Holding Concert to Commemorate Herman Perelstein
The Kaunas Jewish Community is holding a concert to celebrate the 100th birthday of Herman Perelstein, the renowned choir director and professor. The concert and birthday party is being called Šefas, Lithuanian for boss. It happens at 7:00 P.M. Monday, November 6, at the Kaunas State Philharmonic, Ožeškienės street no. 12, Kaunas. It will include a performance by the Ąžuoliukas boys choir Perelstein founded, other performances and recollections from students about the man. It is free and open to the public. The Kaunas Jewish Community thanks the Kaunas city municipality and Goodwill Foundation for making this event possible.
Grosse Aktion Marked in Kaunas
Members of the Kaunas Jewish Community and the general public turned out on the last weekend in October to mark the anniversary of the Grossaktion, the mass murder operation during which around 10,000 Jews were taken from the Kaunas ghetto and murdered at the Ninth Fort in a 25-hour period on October 28 and 29, 1941.
The entire population of the Kaunas ghetto was assembled on Democrat Square inside the ghetto where Gestapo officer Helmut Rauca personally selected many of the victims. Rauca later found refuge in Canada, where he opened a holiday resort on a lake in Ontario. He was never tried.
Simon Karczmar Exhibit Opens
Photo: Left: Simon Karczmar and wife
The Old Town Hall in Vilnius will open an exhibit of paintings by Litvak artist Simon Karczmar (1903-1982) at 6:00 P.M. on Monday, November 6. Originally from Dieveniškės, Lithuania, Karczmar moved to Jerusalem later. The exhibit runs till November 30.
Žemaitaitis Update
Lithuanian MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis came under fire last spring for posting anti-Semitic and anti-Israel statements on facebook. He was removed from his party and condemned by other political parties, but when he refused to apologize and continued to make similar posts, the ruling coalition sought to impeach and remove him as a member of parliament. The opposition were initially cool towards the idea, but warmed to it after Hamas attacked Israel two weeks ago. The ruling coalition and speaker of parliament filed a complaint with the prosecutor general alleging the MP was sowing ethnic discord against Jews in Lithuania. The prosecutor’s office is calling the MP a “special witness” because he enjoys parliamentary immunity from prosecution. Žemaitaitis says the impeachment commission was formed outside the bounds of parliamentary regulations and is unconstitutional. All sides agree the commission’s initial findings will have to be adjudicated by a court of law, most likely Lithuania’s Constitutional Court, before proceeding to the next stage in the process. This is the latest installment in the on-going saga.
Impeachment Commission No Longer Inviting Remigijus Žemaitaitis to Testify: MP Intentionally Avoiding Attending Meetings
by Gailė Jaruševičiūtė-Mockuvienė, Lrytas.lt, October 23
As Lithuanian MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis continues to fail to appear at meetings of a special interpellation commission, the commission resolved Monday not to send any more summons to the MP.
“We won’t undertake additional measures. We will simply send an access link to all meetings we hold in the future and will provide the member of parliament the chance to connect and explain his position,” commission chairman Arūnas Valinskas said during the commission meeting held Monday.
Valinskas said Remigijus Žemaitaitis’s refusal to present his own explanations could be interpreted as a conscious effort to discredit the commission’s actions, and might include using loop-holes in the parliamentary statute for that purpose.
Šiauliai Ghetto Doctor’s Testimony Recalls Drowning “Illegal” Newborns
Photo: Šiauliai ghetto territory in 1988, unknown photographer, courtesy Ninth Fort Museum.
by Kristina Tamelytė, LRT.lt, October 15, 2023
“A young girl had to be killed so we decided to drown her,” doctor Aharon Pitsk wrote in his diary in 1942. He died just before the Šiauliai [Shavl] ghetto was “liquidated” with surviving ghetto prisoners sent on to Dachau and Stutthof. Šiauliai had a Jewish population of over 8,000 people before the Holocaust and only a few hundred survived.
The Nazis issued an order it was illegal for Jews to procreate so a newborn was a danger to the family, the community and everyone. Unborn children also posed a danger so ghetto officials encouraged and demanded women get abortions. This was considered the lesser evil, the death of one person instead of several. The children who were born were subject to poisoning. This often wasn’t lethal so “a more effective method” was found.
Pitsk called Lithuania “my homeland” in his diary.