Vilnius, September 13, BNS–Knesset speaker Yuli-Yoel Edelstein is to meet Lithuanian politicians Wednesday.
The schedule for his visit includes meeting Lithuanian prime minister Saulius Skvernelis, president Dalia Grybauskaite and parliamentary speaker Viktoras Pranckietis.
The three-day visit includes visits to the Ponar Memorial Complex, the Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Sholem Aleichem school.
Sugihara Week celebrations in Kaunas drew a large number of guests from Japan, including his eldest son Hiroki’s widow Michi Sugihara and the only surviving son Nobuki Sugihara.
Mr. Sugihara laid a wreath and observed a minute of silence for the Jews murdered in Garliava, a suburb of Kaunas. The scion of the Sugihara legacy said his father inculcated in him an interest in history and taught him respect for those who didn’t escape.
by Loreta Ežerskytė, Gimtoji žemė, the newspaper of the Ukmergė region
For more than 60 years now the mass murder of 12,000 Jews has been marked on the first Sunday in September in the Pivonija forest near Ukmergė [Vilkomir]. The commemoration happens at noon at the mass grave. Those who cannot attend, whose family members or other loved ones are buried here, mark the tragedy by lighting candles and praying at home. On Sunday many candles burned in Israel, the United States, South Africa and other countries whither fate sent Jews from Ukmergė.
The commemoration of the third-largest Holocaust mass murder site in Lithuania was attended by members of the Ukmergė Jewish Community and a large contingent of Jews from the Panevėžys, Šiauliai, Vilnius and Kaunas Jewish Communities as well as from other cities and countries. Regional administration head Rolandas Janickas and municipal administration director Stasys Jackūnas attended, and US embassy Vilnius deputy chief of mission Howard Solomon attended for the second year in a row.
A group from the Dukstyna primary school and local residents also attended the commemoration. Ukmergė Jewish Community chairman Artūras Taicas told those in attendance about how Jews were brought in groups there 76 years ago: “They were brought by the Nazis and local collaborators. No one had any mercy for the women or children, never mind the men. They all suffered the same fate. They were murdered because they were Jews. Only a few individuals survived, those who were deported. In the Taicas family only my grandfather survived, and that’s why I am standing here…”
Dr. Aurelijus Zykas, the director of the Asian Studies Center of Vytautas Magnus University which formerly occupied the second floor of the Sugihara House museum in Kaunas, characterized Japanese diplomat and Righteous Gentile Chiune Sugihara this way in an interview granted to the “What’s Happening in Kaunas” webpage. Dr. Zykas was one of the organizers of the Sugihara Week celebration in Kaunas from September 2 to 9.
Full interview in Lithuanian here.
Kaunas residents got to learn more about Japanese culture during Sugihara Week. A Japanese kite festival and Japanese and Jewish art workshops became keynotes of the celebrations.
On Thursday the Jurgis Dobkevičius Pre-gymnasium hosted an extraordinary event. Students flew rendako and rokkaru kites (kites flown in train and six-sided Japanese fighting kites, respectively). Japanese who came for the festival brought 30 rendako-type kites. Arranged in three long trains of kites, they appeared as a snake of three colors in the air. High school students in Iwate Prefecture in Japan made the kites. The kite festival was dedicated to the memory of the victims of the large earthquake and tsunami in eastern Japan in 2011.
The event at the school included a Japanese drum performance.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
A story told through dance at the Kaunas railroad station bridged peoples and eras. This was where Japanese diplomat and Righteous Gentile Chiune Sugihara issued his final “visas for life” through the train window as he and his family departed for Berlin. Choreographer and dancer Kyrie Oda (織田 きりえ) and dancer Love Hellgren of Sweden (with Jewish roots) have lived in Kaunas for several years and belong to the Aura dance troupe. They have performed their “Aušra” [Dawn] routine in Norway, Japan, Sweden and Great Britain. They performed the same piece inspired by the deeds of Sugihara at the Sugihara House museum and the historic Hotel Metropol (est. 1899, where Sugihara and family spent their last night in Lithuania before leaving on September 1, 1940) in Kaunas as well. Photos by Jonas Petronis here.
Residents of Rokiškis, guests and representatives of the Panevėžys Jewish Community gathered in the hall of the Rokiškis Regional History Museum on the afternoon of September 8. They gathered for an event to celebrate the European Day of Jewish Culture. Event organizer Neringa Danienė presented the program, the first part of which honored Molėtai Regional History Museum director and Lithuanian linguist Viktorija Kazlienė. Visitor from the USA F. Shapiro presented her the Ruvin volunteer award and thanked her for promoting Jewish heritage and for her contribution to the march of memory in Molėtai.
Dear Friends,
Please find below EJC’s statement following the anti-Semitic attack on a French Jewish leader and his family near Paris.
Kind regards,
The EJC team
European Jewish Congress (EJC)
Tel : +3225408159
Fax : +3225408169
Web : www.eurojewcong.org
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EJC Calls on French Authorities to Root Out “Societal Anti-Semitism”
after Jewish family assaulted near Paris
Brussels, Monday, September 11, 2017–The European Jewish Congress (EJC) has called for stronger measures to be taken by French authorities in the wake of an attack on a French Jewish leader and his family who were assaulted in their home near Paris in an anti-Semitic attack. The attack took place just days after it was reported that a former principal at a preparatory school for teenagers in Marseille said that he regularly advised Jews not to attend his institution for fear of harassment by other students.
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky and AJC international Jewish affairs director Rabbi Andrew Baker met Lithuanian prime minister Saulius Skvernelis and discussed current events and matters of interest to the Lithuanian Jewish Community. Rabbi Baker said Holocaust survivors are still facing the problem of restitution of lost property. LJC chairwoman Kukliansky called for the formation of a group of legal experts and the initiation of consultations while there are still living Holocaust survivors in order to solve the problem of property restitution to victims of the Nazi regime. Lithuanian legislation prevented many people from making claims to their property on time. PM Skvernelis listened attentively to suggestions on how to solve the complex problem of Jewish property restitution which chairwoman Kukliansky said need to be deliberated and solved.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites you to a presentation of a book about the famous 20th century Lithuanian performers and teachers Aleksandras Livontas and Olga Šteinberg. The author of the book is cultural expert and professor Dr. Rita Aleknaitė-Bieliauskienė.
Participants are to include students of Aleksandras Livontas and Olga Šteinberg, including musicians, teachers, national figures and professors: violinist, teacher and doctor of the humanities Dr. Algis Gricius; pianist and teacher Veronika Vitaitė, pianist Aleksandra Žvirblytė, violinist Kristina Domarkienė, violinist Gediminas Dalinkevičius, pianist Povilas Jaraminas and music scholar Vaclovas Juodpusis.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Thursday, September 14
Location: Third floor, Lithuanian Jewish Community, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius
The evening will be moderated by Maša Grodnikienė, the initiator and organizer of the Destinies series of discussions, concerts and meetings with remarkable people.
Lithuanian Jewish Community members and staff gathered to clean up the Jewish cemetery on Sudervės road in Vilnius on Sunday, September 10.
Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon pitched in, as did LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky with her grandchildren. Community members, administrative staff and rabbis all came out to perform a small mitzvah in the run-up to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. They raked up leaves, gathered garbage and sorted it for recycling, tended abandoned graves and cleaned and beautified the only working Jewish cemetery in Vilnius.
Thank you to all the volunteers for your good work!
A week has passed during which Lithuanian remembered her shtetlakh. The fourteenth celebration of the annual European Day of Jewish Culture has taken place in Lithuania, this year with the theme “Diaspora and Heritage: The Shtetlakh.” Lithuanian towns which used to be called shtetlakh hosted events, tours of surviving old towns and Jewish residential sections, interesting talks on the former life of Litvaks there. The word shtetl was heard much in Lithuania after the Holocaust, with the loss of the former Litvak world and the Yiddish language.
This year the European Day of Jewish Culture was observed in more than 20 towns and cities, including Alytus, Jurbarkas, from Kaunas to Žasliai and Žiežmariai, Kelmė, Klaipėda, Kretinga, Molėtai, Palanga, Pakruojis, Pandėlys, Pasvalys, Pikeliai, Šiauliai, Šilalė, Jonava, Joniškis, Kupiškis, Darbėnai, Šeduva, Švėkšna, Ukmergė, Zarasai and Želva.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community thanks all the participating cities and towns for remembering the shtetlakh and the Jews who lived, traded, created and built there. They deserve to be remembered. Many cities and towns held lectures, conferences, exhibits, concerts and film screenings this year.
LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky also thanks the organizers of the events at the Jewish Community for their interesting program, and thanks the participants and speakers who spoke about the remaining traces of the shtetlakh in Lithuania. We thank Fania Brancovskaja, Vytautas Toleikis, Sandra Petrukonytė, Ilona Šedienė, Rimantas Vanagas and Antanas Žilinskas not just for their interesting presentations, but also for their own work, books and research on Jewish history, contributing to making the shtetlakh part of the heart of our country, without which Lithuania is impossible to imagine.
Thank you also to the Bagel Shop Café for the tasty Jewish dishes, the Sabbath ceramics exhibit and the holiday atmosphere, and to the Fayerlakh ensemble for the wonderful concert!
Our sincere thanks to everyone.
Dear members, staff and friends,
Please join us this Sunday morning for a clean-up of the Jewish cemetery at Sudervės road no. 28, Vilnius, beginning at 10:30 A.M. Thank you!
“This year Lithuania and Israel mark the 35th anniversary of diplomatic relations. We value what our countries have in common and seek to become even closer,” Lithuanian foreign minister Linas Linkevičius said at the function.
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky traveled with the Lithuanian delegation to Israel and met with Litvaks living there, who congratulated her on her re-election as chairwoman and wished her the highest success. The meeting was warm and hospitable with home-made dishes made by Litvaks. They agreed in discussions to work together with the Jews of Lithuania and in the near future to discuss broad possibilities and goals in that cooperation.
The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry reported meetings with Israeli leaders included positive assessments of growing bilateral economic cooperation, growth in trade, increases in tourism and successful cooperation in research and development. They also discussed security threats in their respective regions and agreed to push for more cooperation in the fields of energy, defense and cyber-security.
15min.lt
For Japanese people he is a hero, known to all, from the youngest child to the oldest person. The diplomat Chiune Sugihara is also well known in Lithuania. Even so, greater attention to his life and deeds is only know being paid. A group of scholars, public figures, politicians and diplomats from Lithuania and Japanese discussed Sugihara’s extraordinarily heroic deed at a conference in Kaunas September 6.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
Events for the Sugihara Week being celebrated in Kaunas are scheduled from September 2 to 8.
Sugihara Week is a series of events to commemorate Japanese diplomat and Righteous Gentile Chiune Sugihara’s life and deed. From 1939 to 1940 Sugihara and Dutch consul Jan Zwartendijk saved over 6,000 Jewish lives from the Holocaust by issuing so-called visas for life.
“Consul Sugihara has become ever more known in the world and I am happy ever new ways to commemorate his heroism are appearing. It is significant that this wonderful initiative for a Sugihara Week came from Kaunas, which is the epicenter of the entire Sugihara story,” Toyoei Shigeeda, Japan’s ambassador to Lithuania, said.
Kaunas, September 4, BNS–A group of painters dressed in white just arrived from Japan gathered at the residence and now museum of famous interwar Japanese diplomat and Righteous Gentile Chiune Sugihara Monday to help in the renovation of the building.
Tokon International chairman Keiichi Yasuda, whose company sent the painters, told BNS the painters wanted to help and make people happy.
“There are many companies which do everything for money, but money doesn’t bring happiness, the meaning of life is not money, but happiness, and we wanted to do something to help make people happy,” Mr. Yasuda said.
Saturday a week-long celebration of Japanese diplomat and Righteous Gentile Chiune Sugihara began in Kaunas, Lithuania. The audience learned of Sugihara’s life-saving mission in concert with Dutch consul Jan Zwartendijk which resulted in over 6,000 Jews being saved from the Holocaust. The events included creative workshops, lectures, screenings of films, concerts and exhibits for young and old.
by Ona Šimaitė
translated by Gloria Berkenstat Freund
At the time of the Second World War, Lithuanian-Jewish relations took on a sharply tragic form that could not have been imagined in earlier times. As a Lithuanian woman, it is bitter for me to assert that during the years of the worst torture of the Jews by the Germans, not all of the people in my country showed an elementary, humane sympathy to their Jewish neighbors of many generations and the worst of the Lithuanians–to my great pain!– even had their hand in the extermination.
The Lithuanian Special Squad (Ypatingasis Bûrys) together with the Nazis murdered Jews in a series of places. Such scoundrels as Babialis, Piragius and others will remain accursed not only by Jews, but also by Lithuanians.
Lithuanian police divisions not only carried out Hitler’s orders to kill Jews, but in many localities they themselves asked to do the mitzvah [commandment, usually translated as “good deed”) of murdering Jews or they randomly initiated various persecutions. I had more than one occasion to watch how Lithuanian policemen fined Jews for trifles and how hard-hearted and malicious they were during the deportations of Jews in the ghetto. Even leading the Jews to death, deeply degenerate Lithuanian policemen did not have the elementary tact not to show–during the last tragic hours of thousands of lives–their animal-like fury.
Jews in the Radom ghetto, May, 1941. Photo courtesy German Bundesarchiv.
by Ieva Elenbergienė
“The Holocaust is not just a horrible story which happened a long time ago and to someone else. If we want humanity never to experience genocide again, we must understand that this is our history, not just ‘theirs,’ which happened not ‘somewhere’ but right here, to us,” political science professor Dovilė Budrytė said during our interview. Budrytė teaches at Georgia Gwinnett College, part of the higher education system of the US state of Georgia, which awarded her for best teaching within the state college and university system. Her list of publications includes books on traumatic experience, memory and multiculturalism.
Presenting the events of history in a human context, they become closer to us, they become visible through the prism of personal experience. So in teaching the Holocaust, is it possible to speak very emotionally about human nature?
“Now, as the world faces war and ecological crises, it’s popular to research how people act in catastrophes, how they resist, how human dignity is preserved. The history of the Holocaust is the basis for so-called resilience studies. It’s interesting to look at, for example, how some Jews entered into armed resistance while others were passive, believing they needed to be patient and wait for the situation to improve. But how would I act in that sort of situation? What does it mean to be not just a victim or a perpetrator, but an observer? After all, that category of people was the largest in Lithuania during the Holocaust. Is the role of witness innocently guilty? This is a very broad question which applies today to us as well. In the US, for example, we and the students talk about elected senators and presidents whose policies, let’s say, some people really don’t like and even seem threatening. The students think about ‘what will I specifically do now? Will I even lift a finger? What must happen for me to act? And what will I do? And why?'”