Evening to Give Thanks to Rescuers of Jews in Kaunas

“It’s difficult to express in words our gratitude and respect. It is our duty to remember not just the victims of the Holocaust, but also those brave people who risked their lives and those of their families to rescue Jews, sometimes their neighbors, sometimes friends, but more often complete strangers,” Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas at an annual evening event to give thanks to rescuers and their children , grandchildren and now even great-grandchildren. He thanked those in attendance for their close and war ties with the Jewish Community and for so enthusiastically attending Jewish Community events.

Singer Judita Leitaitė, pianist Rūta Mikelaitytė-Kašubienė and violinist Paulina Daukšytė performed at the event. Kristina Kazakevičiūtė, the daughter of a rescuer and an actress at the Kaunas Chamber Theater, read some profound poetry and then lightened the mood with some Jewish jokes. Participants in school tolerance education centers also attended and there were discussions of how to teach Jewish culture to school pupils in a more interesting way. The evening ended with the presentation of small gifts.

Read more

Litvak Artist on Exhibit at LJC

Solomon Teitselbaum’s paintings will go on display at the Lithuanian Jewish Community exhibit called “In Search of Spiritual Support” with an opening ceremony at 5:00 P.M., May 25, 2017, on the third floor of the LJC, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius. Prints will be available for purchase at the opening.

Good Will Foundation Invites Public to Book Launch, Concert

Good Will Foundation Invites Public to Book Launch, Concert

The Goodwill Foundation invites you to a presentation of Rūta Guzevičiūtė’s book “Wanderings of Jewish Costume in Time and Space” and a Jewish music concert at the Lithuanian Jewish Community, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius at 6:00 P.M. on Thursday, June 1. The group of well-known musicians will perform for you: dr. Marija Krupoves-Berg – vocals, Andrius Balachovičius – accordion, Arkadijus Gotesmanas – percussion, Borisas Kirzneris – violin.

Update: Vilnius Jewish Community Conference WILL NOT TAKE PLACE May 24

Dear members of the Vilnius Jewish Community,

I would like to inform you that the meeting called for 6:00 P.M., May 24, 2017, of the conference of the Vilnius Jewish Community (VJC) is not sanctioned for the following reasons:

1. Secretary of the VJC executive board meeting Simon Gurevičius failed to apprise the chairwoman of the VJC of the contents of the agenda by the executive board of the VJC within the time-frame defined in the articles of incorporation and regulations of the VJC, whereas under the requirements of the legal acts of the Republic of Lithuania the meeting secretary must first of all draft the contents of the agenda in collaboration with the chair and provide the presiding chair the opportunity to present criticisms and suggestions, correct portions of the agenda and only then is the official act for the meeting agenda signed;

2. The secretary of the meeting of the executive board in presenting the proposed agenda and not providing the opportunity for making criticisms and amendments has violated point 8.3.4 of the VJC regulations, which require performance of this within five days of the preceding meeting;

3. In not drafting the agenda with the chair of the VJC and in not drafting together the text of the announcement for the VJC conference, the secretary of the meeting of the executive board of the VJC on his own initiative and wantonly published it as a paid advertisement in the April 22, 2017, (Saturday) edition of the newspaper Lietuvos rytas;

4. Furthermore, in personally on his own volition posting the announcement, the secretary of the meeting of the executive board of the VJC violated the April 19, 2017, resolution of the executive board of the VJC in his April 22, 2017, announcement on the calling of a VJC conference in the newspaper Lietuvos rytas by saying that he alone was holding and organizing the conference, instead of the organizational committee. “Concerning all questions related with the conference, please contact Simonas Gurevičius, email simonas.gurevicius@gmail.com, telephone +370 659 96 690.” Information about the candidates should be accessible equally and uniformly, and therefore one of the candidates cannot personally assume all functions connected with the provision of information about the elections;

5. The same situation occurred in the choice of venue for the VJC conference, the venue for the VJC conference (conference hall, Karolina Park Hotel, Sausio 13-osios street no. 2, Vilnius) was chosen without consulting the chairwoman of the VJC;

6. The announcement presented by the secretary of the meeting of the VJC conference to the newspaper Lietuvos rytas at his own behest concerning the upcoming meeting of the VJC conference is rescinded because it was not drafted in conformity to the laws of Lithuania with a decision adopted by the executive board of the VJC and was drafted without consultation concerning its contents.

Based on the above material, I would like to inform you that a new meeting of the executive board of the VJC will be called in the near future (with a preliminary date of June 8 of this year) where it will be decided anew on the issue of the date, venue and agenda of a conference of the executive board of the VJC in 2017.

Respectfully,

Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Vilnius Jewish Community

Vilnius Jewish Community Conference WILL NOT TAKE PLACE May 24

We would like to inform you the conference of the Vilnius Jewish Community announced by one member of the executive board of the Vilnius Jewish Community acting on his own volition and without general consent to be held 6:00 P.M. on May 24 (notice was made in the April 22 issue of the newspaper Lietuvos rytas) will not take place, and that the announcement of the meeting is retracted by the Vilnius Jewish Community.

Community members will receive an announcement about the 2017 conference of the Vilnius Jewish Community in the near future when the date, venue and agenda for the future conference is confirmed by the executive board of the Vilnius Jewish Community.

Faina Kukliansky,
Community chairwoman

Important Information for Social Programs Department Clients

The Social Programs Department of the Lithuanian Jewish Community has learned members of the Vilnius Jewish Community have been getting telephone calls with requests for information about the assistance and/or compensation they are receiving and asking for personal information. If this happened to you, you WERE NOT called by the Social Programs Department which is not conducting any such surveys.

Please be careful and critical, telephone scammers are very good at what they do. Do not divulge any information to people you don’t know over the telephone or by email. These criminals specialize in gaining the confidence of their victims in order to steal their money. If you received a suspicious telephone call, please report it to the Social Programs Department immediately:

telephone (8 5) 2613 003
email info@lzb.lt

Launch of Judaic Studies Center

The exhibition “People and Books of the Strashun [Mefitse Haskalah] Library” opened May 22 to mark the public launch of the Judaic Studies Center at the Lithuanian National Martynas Mažvydas Library. Dr. Lara Lempertienė, director of the new center, is the curator of the exhibition and the designer was Center researcher Miglė Anušauskaitė.

The exhibit documents the Mefitse Haskalah Jewish Public Library located on what was then Strashun Street from 1902 to 1940 (and which became the Vilna ghetto library under Herman Kruk until 1943), but also pays homage to Mattityahu Strashun (1817-1885), the bibliophile whose collection was housed at the Strashun Library proper, next to the Great Synagogue, but large portions of which passed through the Strashun street library during the Holocaust. The exhibit includes items from the collections of the Lithuanian national library as well as documents on load from YIVO, the Lithuanian Central State Archive, the History of the Lithuanian State Archive and the Lithuanian Art Museum.

National library general director Dr. Renaldas Gudauskas opened the exhibit at the ceremony Monday. YIVO director Jonathan Brent and Frida Shor, the author of an article about the Strashun Library, were also there.

Read more

Meeting with LJC Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky at Panevėžys Jewish Community

Members of the Panevėžys Jewish Community turned out May 17 to meet Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky. She provided a brief synopsis of LJC activities and answered questions. Afterwards there was discussion of social welfare issues and an exchange of opinions about current events and trends within the LJC.

“Thank you, Faina, for your assessment of the Panevėžys Jewish Community, for sharing your insights and for answering questions of concern to us. We are not just the Panevėžys Jewish Community, but also part of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, so these sorts of meetings are important to us and pleasant,” Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman said.

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthdays to all our members and clients born in May:

Vilnius

Basia Markus
Fania Brancovskaja
Jurijus Greismanas
Nelja Voronova
Mere Leja Zagin
Arkadijus Kogan
Ženia Sokolovskaja
Mira Imbrasas
Liudmila Kovner
Arkadij Kac
Sofja Vysockaja

Klaipėda

Michail Kravec

Visaginas

Ilja Skulovič

Šilutė

Galina Lopatkina

Contest Winner’s Trip to Strasbourg

Viktorija Stundžytė, a tenth-grader from the Dukstyna School in Ukmergė (Vilkomir) and a participant in her school’s Tolerance Education Center, took part in the awards ceremony for the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania’s nation-wide contest “On the Trail of Suffering for Freedom and Struggle” held in Vilnius May 5. The high-school student and her teachers visited the Museum of Genocide Victims, the Lithuanian parliament and the Palace of Teachers, where the awards were presented. Viktorija won a trip to Strasbourg.

She submitted an entry about the woman Stasė Ruzgytė-Staputienė who lost her mother in childhood, was adopted and experienced the Soviet and Nazi occupations. Viktorija set the story down in 100 pages after transcribing and typing it.

Viktorija called the project an invaluable experience which she will be able to use in her life and pass on to her children and grandchildren to remind them what goes on in this world. “As I was listening to the audio recording sometimes I wanted to go to the places about which she spoke, but sometimes I just wanted to be a heroine and get all those people out of there so they wouldn’t have to suffer anymore and experience everything the people in these recordings experienced,” she said about her work.

Read more

Oldest Wooden Synagogue in Pakruojis Opens after Renovation

The renovated wooden synagogue in Pakruojis, Lithuania, was opened to the public on May 19.

Jews settled in Pakruojis in the 1710s. The majority were merchants and they contributed heavily to the growth of the local economy. The growing Jewish population affected the growth of the town and its social life. In 1787 and 1788 the town suffered large fires. Only 5 of 42 Jewish homes survived. The Jewish population grew right up until World War I. In 1939 there were 120 Jewish families living in Pakruojis.


Footage by Skirmantas Jankauskas for lzb.lt

Pakruojis teacher Janina Mykolaitienė recalls the Jews who lived there:

Read more

Simonas Gurevičius Announces Candidacy for Chairman of Vilnius Jewish Community and Lithuanian Jewish Community

To members of the Lithuanian and Vilnius Jewish Communities

Simonas Gurevičius
economist, lecturer, long-time Jewish Community volunteer, former executive director of Lithuanian Jewish Community
www.facebook.com/simonas.gurevichius
www.facebook.com/simonas.gurevichius.public.page
simonas.gurevicius@gmail.com

As many already know, several months ago I decided to become a candidate for the post of community chairman. This decision didn’t arise out of nothing, but was the result of several years of watching the community’s activities, of conversations with community members, of discussions which often concluded with calls, encouragement and requests I contest the post. My candidacy for this demanding and honorable post is the natural result of long-term and intentional action. My activities and life in the community, after all, began in my childhood.

Over the last few years the community has changed and I am no longer able to remain on the sidelines. I know and believe I can return to the community’s its lost essence, without devaluing that part of the community’s work which has been beneficial over those years.

After more than 10 years of volunteer work at the community, I spent the same amount of time performing as the executive director of the Lithuanian Jewish Community. This was very intense work requiring much experience, broad understanding, knowledge and talent. This was one of the most significant periods in my work-life, demanding responsibility and very complex, when I spent more time at community events and engaged in community projects than I did at home. But this period was also one of the most meaningful. During that period I lived constantly with the idea of the community’s development and improvement, and its beautiful future.

Read more

Condolences

Vaclovas Petras Baltusevičius, a member of the Kaunas Jewish Community, passed away May 17. He was born June 16, 1940. We express our sincere condolences to his loved ones.

LJC Support to Rescuers

The Lithuanian Jewish Community’s Social Programs Department is continuing the project begun in 2014 in 2017 to provide aid to elderly WWII-era rescuers of Jews from the Holocaust, financed by the Goodwill Foundation.

Seventy-six Righteous Gentiles received personal letters wishing them good health and wellness. Each rescuer will receive up to 326 euros this year.

Arkadijus Vinokuras Announces Candidacy for Chairman of Vilnius Jewish Community

To members of the Vilnius Jewish Community

Arkadijus Vinokuras,
writer, journalist, actor
http://www.vinokuras.lt/cv/
arkadijus@vinokuras.lt

Hello.

Today I made a deeply-considered important decision not easy for me and my family, to become a candidate for chairman of the Vilnius Jewish Community. The main consideration in my decision was that only one candidate is seeking to assume the posts of chairman of the Vilnius Jewish Community and the Lithuanian Jewish Community pretending to be a democrat. The reality is different: the rules for a democratic election have been violated. In the name of personal and group interests, without regard to any principles of democratic elections, cynically dividing the community. And completely forgetting that the community is not a business enterprise, the chairman/woman is not an average manager, and the post of chairman is not a career step or a source of income. In the political, cultural and social sense, and finally in the sense of seriousness and solidarity, this division does not benefit any member of the Jewish community.

…

Transparency. This is a basic requirement for any candidate. A candidate should not have any problems with law enforcement, the tax inspectorate or the social insurance fund. What the future chairman of the VJC needs least of all is the specter of trials or debts. I myself am a member of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party’s Ethics and Procedures Commission and a member of the Lithuanian Journalists Union. I don’t have such specters. Unfortunately, candidate … Simonas Gurevičius possibly does, which he hasn’t made public. It is a matter of public record the Vakonda Group company has accused him of fraud, taking part in the embezzlement of 77,965.34 euros. This case has reached the Lithuanian Prosecutor’s Office. I would like to immediately stress the principle of the presumption of innocence which says a person is not guilty until proven otherwise. All the same, it would be intelligent and honest for every candidate to take care of similar accusations before announcing, so that there wouldn’t be any suspicions or lingering shadows. Therefore I sincerely hope Simonas Gurevičius does just that as quickly as possible.

…

Full announcement in Lithuanian here.

Meeting with LJC Chairwoman Turns Ugly

What was billed as a short meeting for young Jews to meet and discuss matters with Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky last Thursday turned into a heated, high-stakes verbal brawl, lasting well beyond three hours instead of the one scheduled.

The discussion took place at La bohème restaurant right next to Pasaka Theater in Vilnius, which screened free of charge the Litvak film Meetings with Joseph. The theater managers delayed the start because the audience were all holed up in a back room at the restaurant next door, but finally came over and announced the film was starting. Of the fifty or so people present, only three appeared to leave to watch the film.

Tempers flared almost as soon as the chairwoman appeared. Daniel Lufshitz launched into some sort of tirade, fresh from his new-found celebrity as a young and upcoming wise man of Chelm following his youtube posting “Jew Wars” which managed to attack and alienate just about every Jewish institution in Lithuania, without foundation. One suspected it was intended to be comedy when he blurred out the backs of the heads of attendees of Simonas Gurevicius’s out-of-order meeting at the Conti Hotel in Vilnius, but in person there were no laughs to be found. Instead he berated Faina Kukliansky, hurling at best vague accusations of mismanagement, and then claimed to be a member of the Vilnius Jewish Community. Daniel Lufshitz, a native-born Lithuanian Jew who migrated to Israel but came back recently, was the subject of some controversy last year when he was courted to become some sort of Jewish representative for the Vilnius City Council and began making media appearances. Then, the LJC had to issue a public announcement that he was not a member of the Community and did not represent the Community in any way. This time Faina Kukliansky gently contradicted him, reminding him he was a not a member of the Vilnius Jewish Community, at which his pique visibly rose, he claimed he had a paper in writing that he would become a member after elections, that therefore he was a member now and she was a liar.

Read more

Litvak Gatekeeper Attempts to Interfere in LJC Elections via Internet Invective

by LJC staff

Self-proclaimed gatekeeper of all things Litvak, professor without portfolio or classes Dovid Katz has taken exception with a new logo trademarked by the Lithuanian Jewish (Litvak) Community for no other reason than that he detests the Lithuanian state.

Never mind he has subjected himself to a potential damages suit by using the new trademark without permission on his web site, Katz is apparently, in his own mind, in the heat of an election battle for the future chairmanship of the LJC. Except he isn’t a candidate, has no constituency and has consistently sought to sow discord within the Community’s ranks, playing sides against one another. One semi-recent example: his public complaints against Rabbi Borshtein, after whose contract was not renewed, Katz attempted to create an international scandal involving alleged “big money” attempting to usurp Jewish cemeteries in Lithuania for construction projects.

Seeing an opportunity to attack what he believed to be a new weak link, Katz took exception with the new trademark logo conceived by a 100% ethnic Litvak architect and designer. Her crime? She used a symbol of Lithuanian statehood in conjunction with a menorah.

Read more

Lithuanian Maccabee Games to Celebrate 100th Birthday of Lithuanian Makabi

Time: May 21, 2107
Location: Tauras Sports School, Žygio street no. 46, Vilnius

Program

12:00 noon Basketball (3 x 3), free-throw contest

1:00 P.M. Lithuanian Maccabee Games opening ceremony

1:30 P.M. Indoor soccer

3:00 P.M. Volleyball

1:30-4:00 P.M. Ping-pong, chess

4:50 P.M. Ceremony, meal, awards

Responsible parties:

Soccer: Gercas Žakas
Basketball: Gercas Žakas
Volleyball: Gercas Žakas
Ping-pong: Michailas Duškesas
Chess: Daniel Dubrovin
Secretary: Olga Bliumenzon

Participants: Teams from Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Panevėžys, Šiauliai, Ukmergė and other towns. Director of Lithuanian Maccabee Games: Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club president Semionas Finkelšteinas. Lithuanian Maccabee Games senior referee: Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club executive director Michailas Duškesas

Note: the program might change following final applications from all teams

Director Sought for New Jewish Kindergarten

The Lithuanian Jewish Community has announced a candidate search for the best person to fill the post of director of the planned private Jewish kindergarten Shalom. Requirements include perfect fluency in Lithuanian and specific levels of proficiency in English, Russian and Hebrew.

Full details in Lithuanian here.