Last Thursday, October 1, Israel’s first ambassador to Lithuania visited the Švenčionys region. Ambassador Amir Maimon with assistant Ana Maizel came at the invitation of Švenčionys regional administration board member Darius Velička.

During the official meeting regional administration director Rimantas Klipčius and the heads of administration departments presented the region and its attractiveness to foreign visitors and investors.

Ambassador Maimon expressed the hope Jewish contributions to the region’s and Lithuania’s economic development and prosperity in the pre-war period would be assessed appropriately and that the legacy of Jews who lived there before and after the Holocaust preserved. He called for following all Jewish traditions at Jewish burial sites and for better up-keep of old cemeteries and mass murder sites.

After the reception and meeting at the regional administration, ambassador Maimon and delegation visited an herbal pharmaceutical factory and the Švenčionys Zigmas Žemaitis Gymnasium before noon. In the afternoon the embassy delegation visited the Intersurgical company and the Fisheries Service at Meškerinė village.