VILNIUS, Sept 21, BNS — A special working group is to be established in the Lithuanian Government for dealing with the problems of the Jewish communities, Government Chancellor Alminas Mačiulis said.

This decision came last week during meetings with American Jewish Committee international affairs director Rabbi Andrew Baker to discuss emerging problems.

“We decided to create this entity, whatever we call it, a working group or commission, which would include institutions of the Jewish community, including Mr. Baker, and the Government. And step by step we will solve these problems,” Mačiulis said.

 Mačiulis said he will immediately propose to the prime minister to create this expert group. 

He also said Baker had named several problems during the meeting, including the preservation of Jewish architectural heritage, cemetery preservation and return of assets belonging to real people.

“Problems were named, including of course return of assets. Not the return of religious but rather personal assets to those who are not citizens… our laws do not allow the return of property to non-citizens. We also discussed providing dual citizenship and tasks for taking care of Jewish heritage heritage sites,” he said.

The Government Chancellor said integrated territorial investments and Jewish religious communities’, i.e., Goodwill Fund funds could be used for maintenance of Jewish heritage sites.

Baker told reporters Thursday said it wasn’t just restoration of Jewish assets or protecton of cultural heritage sites that was on the table, but that Lithuanian educational curricula speak too little to the life of Jews in Lithuania before World War II.

“The story of the life and traditions, of the cultural tribute of the Jews of Lithuania is long, it stretches back many centuries. But this isn’t reflected in the educational materials in schools. We have noticed that we only find out about information about Jews in discussions of the Holocaust, but there is nothing about what happened earlier. I emphasize, that in some cases we only hear about Jews when there is discussion of the beginning of Christianity 2000 years ago, when we suddenly disappear. We know what significant Jewish life took place in Lithuania. People think this should be part of the educational curriculum,” Baker said.

Historical sources cite Jewish settlement in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by the end of the 14th century, whle Jewish quarters began to appear in the cities by the beginning of the 16th century, and this condominium became universal throughout Lithuania by the mid-17th century.

During World War II the Nazis in Lithuania, often aided by Lithuanian collaborators, murdered 90 percent of the more than 200,000 Jews who lived in Lithuania.