by Aurelija Servienė

Last week was special for Jews. On September 23 the Day of Genocide of Lithuanian Jews was marked. To mark the day, a club of mentally disabled people in Žemaitija called Telšių Atjauta [Empathy of Telšiai] under their chairman Kazimieras Mitkus did a good deed: they cleaned up the Jewish cemetery in Telšiai.

Mitkus said the club engages in activities which are unusual for similar organizations. He said they strive to make the activities meaningful for the community as well as organization members.

“One of the sectors we care for and maintain is the Telšiai Jewish cemetery. Last week was special, in that we took the initiative without waiting for anyone else and cleaned up the cemetery. In the belief that there might be guests coming this special week,” the club chairman commented.

While they were engaged in the clean-up two Jews from Israel arrived at the cemetery. The visitors were reportedly pleasantly surprised to find club members had undertaken such a beautiful gesture without monetary recompense. One of the visitors turned out to be a former resident of Telšiai who had left to live in Israel. Not only was it possible to talk to him in Lithuanian, he still spoke the local Žemaitijan dialect.

Mitkus encouraged people not to stop doing good deeds, no matter how naïve or impractical it might seem at times. “The life-motto of every person should be: let’s try to the best of our abilities to do that which we would like from others, and it’s only a matter of time until the favor returns. Let’s go by the slogan of the [Lithuanian] Samaritans [Association]: ‘Let’s hurry and do something good!'”