The Gesher and Kaveret Clubs of the Lithuanian Jewish Community are to screen a Russian-language version of the film the Zookeeper’s Wife (2017) at 7:00 P.M., May 22, 2017, on the third floor at LJC headquarters located at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius. The American film is about the rescue of Jews from the Holocaust by the Warsaw Zoo zookeeper and his wife. For more information, call Žana Skudovičienė at 370 678 81514.
Meet LJC Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky and Watch the Film Dialogue with Joseph by Elžbieta Josadė
We kindly invite Jewish young people and the general public to a screening of a documentary film by Elžbieta Josadė called Dialogue with Joseph on at 7:00 P.M. on May 18 at the Pasaka Theater (Šv. Ignoto street no. 4/3, Vilnius). After the film you may meet and discuss with film director Elžbieta Josadė and editor Rareş lenasoaie. Entrance is free to the public.
Dialogue with Josef was honored with a special jury award at the international competition Jihlava IDFF 2016 in the Overseas category and Best Central and Eastern Europe Documentary Film subcategory. The national premiere was November 2016 at the Scanorama film forum.
About the film:
“Joseph paints the earth and the sky with no other ambition than to observe and to gain a better understanding of the landscape‘s visual structure. Shyly, the filmmaker follows her father in his work and in this so particular space which surrounds him.“
At 6:00 P.M., just before the screening of the film, we invite young people from the Jewish Community to an informal meeting at the restaurant La Boheme (Šv. Ignoto street no. 4/3, Vilnius, right next door to the Pasaka Theater) with Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky. We will discuss Jewish heritage, future prospects for the Jewish community and other issues.
Israeli Ambassador Emphasizes Importance of Unity in Lithuanian Jewish Community
In an interview with Lietuvos žinios partially republished by the Baltic News Service on May 17, Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Amir Maimon said unity is important for any community, as the Lithuanian Jewish Community prepares to elect a new chairman or chairwoman.
He noted the Lithuanian Jewish Community is small, and hoped disagreements among members could be solved so that larger issues could be tackled.
Vilnius Jewish Community executive board member Simonas Gurevičius circulated a petition two weeks ago for the ordering of elections for the chairmanship of the national community. The petition calls for an earlier regime for elections. The text claims changes to the regulations reduced the influence of the non-Vilnius regional communities. Gurevičius has offered himself as a candidate for the post at elections in May. Current chairwoman Faina Kukliansky hasn’t announced her candidacy.
In the interview ambassador Maimon also said Lithuania and Israel could do better in cooperating to protect Jewish heritage.
Israeli Ambassador Says Names Not Numbers at Holocaust Mass Murder Sites
Lietuvos žinios
For centuries the Jewish community was an inseparable part of Lithuania, but this isn’t completely understood now. The legacy of the once-thriving Jewish communities is not receiving the attention it’s due. Lietuvos žinios spoke with Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon about whether Lithuania is a friendly country for Jews, how our mutual understanding is evolving and what still needs to be done to improve relations.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
Thank You
LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky received the following thank-you note from the granddaughter of a Lithuanian woman who rescued Jews from the Holocaust.
Hello,
My grandmother Stasė Minelgienė (a recognized Righteous Gentile) asked me to thank you for the card [debit card] which she received as a gift. She also asked me to wish you a nice day, good health and the highest success.
Respectfully,
Her granddaughter,
N. Žvirblytė
Kabbalas Shabbos
Come meet the Sabbath with the LJC’s Gesher Club.
Time: 7:30 P.M., Friday, May 19, 2017
Location: d’Eco Bar and Restaurant, Dominikonų street no. 15, Vilnius
Cost: 10 euros
Please call Žana Skudovičienė at 370 678 81514 to reserve a seat.
Happy Birthday to Ilja Lempertas!
The Lithuanian Jewish Community congratulates Ilja Lempertas on his 60th birthday and hopes he never stops sharing his youthful energy with all around him. Birthdays creep up on us even when we don’t expect them, so let’s celebrate them and the onset of a beautiful spring. Happy birthday, Ilja!
Mazl tov!
Lithuanian Jewish Community Celebrates Leonidas Melnikas’s Birthday
The Destinies program of evening cultural events celebrated the birthday of Lithuanian musician and composer Dr. Leonidas Melnikas last Thursday, May 11.
The evening began at the Jascha Heifetz hall at LJC headquarters in Vilnius with the airs of a tango, an overflow crowd and the birthday boy smiling on stage. Leonidas Melnikas is a piano player, organ player, musicologist, a tenured doctor, the head of his cathedral at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater, chairman of the academy’s senate and professor. He’s also a member of the board of directors of the Lithuanian Jewish Community. He turned 60 Thursday.
The birthday celebration was part of the Destinies program of evening cultural events initiated and organized by LJC deputy chairwoman Maša Grodnikienė, who used the occasion to honor the memory of Melnikas’s father Isaiah Melnik, who would have turned 110 that same day. He was a well-known pharmacist at the Vilnius Central Pharmacy (on what is now Gedimino prospect) and at the Žvėrynas Pharmacy in Vilnius, where he made his own preparations in his time. He survived both Stutthof and Dachau. He was beloved by all and was a calm and warm person who enjoyed attending all sorts of concerts. His son Leonidas’s musical career began when his mother took him to the Ąžuoliukas school. His first teacher was the famous pianist Nadežda Duksdulskaitė. “My entire childhood was illuminated by my parents, the very best, the very wisest people, and family remains extremely important to me,” Melnikas said of himself before embarking on a performance of tango melodies with violinist Boris Traub, cellist Valentinas Kaplūnas and accordion player Gennady Savkov.
Attend Opening Ceremonies for New Judaica Studies Center
The Judaica Studies Center of the Lithuanian National Martynas Mažvydas Library was officially established May 3, 2017, but will only open to the public May 22 and May 23 with several events and exhibitions.
The Center’s main function is to further research on the Jewish documentary heritage, carrying out educational and informational projects and publicizing the results. The Center is an open enterprise and aimed at educational cooperation. According to its mission statement, the Center actively publicizes information about the Jewish textual heritage at its events, in the national and international media and on the internet, and also conserves collections of modern Judaica publications.
Program:
May 22
1:00 P.M. Opening ceremony (foyer, fifth floor)
2:00 P.M. Launch of exhibit People and Books of the Strashun Library (exhibit hall, third floor)
May 23
1:00 P.M. Samuel Kassow (USA) lecture Uniqueness of Jewish Vilna (conference hall, fifth floor)
2:30 P.M. Presentation The Vilnius YIVO Project (conference hall, fifth floor)
Full announcement in Lithuanian at the Lithuanian National Martynas Mažvydas Library web page here.
Dukstyna Primary School of Ukmergė Tours Sugihara House in Kaunas
Vida Pulkauninkienė, coordinator of the Tolerance Education Center at the Dukstyna Primary School in Ukmergė (Vilkomir), and a group of students from the Center visited the Sugihara House museum in Kaunas May 15. They viewed the memorial exhibit there, a chronicle of events in Kaunas from 1939 to 1940, a virtual exhibit of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara’s deeds in Lithuania and an audio-visual exhibition about the daily life of Jewish refugees in Lithuania. They also learned about how Jews saved themselves, travelling to Kobe, Japan, on the visas Sugihara issued, then on to the USA, New Zealand and other countries.
Museum director Simonas Dovidavičius led the tour.
The group also visited the site of the former Slobodka ghetto in Kaunas, guided by Daiva Žemaitienė, also a Tolerance Education Center coordinator.
The Ukmergė Jewish Community set up the field trip as part of a continuing education project with financial aid from the Goodwill Foundation.
Pakruojis Wooden Synagogue Restored
Following renovation, the wooden synagogue in Pakruojis, Lithuania, is to open its doors to the public Friday. The synagogue is to house the Pakruojis Regional Juozas Paukštelis Library. The women’s gallery and a permanent exhibition will remind visitors of Jewish life and history in the region. The Pakruojis synagogue was built in 1801 and is believed to be the oldest surviving wooden synagogue in Lithuania. It was renovated and painted in 1885.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
LitvakSIG Delegation Visits Lithuania
LitvakSIG delegation visit Tolerance Center, Vilna Gaon Museum, Carol Hoffman third from left
The Litvak genealogical web site LitvakSIG‘s board of directors have recently been travelling around Lithuania as part of their important work. The board currently includes nine members: Amy Wachs, Barry Halpern, Carol Hoffman, Dorothy Leivers, Garri Regev, Jill Anderson, Phil Shapiro, Ralph Salinger and Russ Maurer. Six of the nine board members visited Lithuania this past week to meet with archivists and members of the Vilnius and regional Jewish communities. We managed to interview Carol Hoffman at the Bagel Shop Café in Vilnius last Sunday.
§§§
Tell us something about yourself.
My names is Carol Hoffman. I was born and raised in the United States. My father was born here in Lithuania in 1892 in Kapčiamiestis, in Yiddish it’s Kopcheve. My mother was born in the United States but her mother was born in Kapčiamiestis, in Kopcheve, in about 1858. So my entire family from my mother’s side and from my father’s side are Litvaks.
So, my entire family are Litvaks, they’re from the same place, from the same shtetl, and I was raised with a strong sense of being my brother’s keeper. I came to Israel in 1972 with three young children and a husband and we settled in the northern part of Israel. I worked as a librarian and a teacher of computer science in the university for many, many years, and I retired seven years ago when began working full-time as a volunteer for LitvakSIG. This is my seventh or eighth or ninth trip to Lithuania, I’m not sure. My first trip was in 2000. I had never been here. I met Regina Kopelevich on the border and we went to … Kopcheve and then to Vilnius. So I feel the strong sense of roots.
The Origin of the Idea of Innate Rights
Leo Strauss (1899–1973) was a [Jewish] German and American political philosopher and political philosophy historian. He was born in Germany and served as a translator for the German army during World War I. In 1932 he moved to Paris and in 1934 to Great Britain where he worked at Cambridge. From 1937 to his death he lived and worked in the USA, teaching political science and philosophy at New York City, Chicago and Annapolis.
He developed the idea of what was called natural right, claiming human rights and freedoms are inherent and independent of citizenship and other external factors. …
[Strauss’s Natural Right and History] is being published for the first time in Lithuania…
Full story in Lithuanian here.
Makabi Spring Tennis Tourney 2017
from left: invited guests K. Zdanavičius and V. Navickas, Makabi president S. Finkelšteinas, tournament winners A. and N. Faktorovičius
A doubles tennis tournament was held by the Makabi Lithuanian athletics club at SEB Arena in Vilnius May 14. Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon competed among the others. All participants received medals and prizes. The winners were awarded nice prizes and lunch.
First prize went to the father-and-son team of Anatolijus and Norbertas Faktorovičius who won 10:9 in the final fierce match with Vilius Navickas and Kęstutis Zdanavičius.
Third place went to Grigorij Khiterer and Šolomas Subičius.
Australian Human Rights Commish Meets Lithuanian Human Rights Coalition at LJC
Australian human rights commissioner of the Australian Human Rights Commission Edward Santow met with representatives of the Lithuanian Coalition of Human Rights Organizations at the Lithuanian Jewish Community May 11.
Santow is visiting Lithuania to learn more about NGOs operating in the field of human rights in Lithuania and about violations of human rights in the country. The visit to Lithuania and other partner states is part of Australia’s bid for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council.
At the LJC meeting Santow said he was the first Jewish Australian human rights commissioner and expressed delight at how active the LJC is. He stressed the importance of inter-institutional cooperation in carrying out projects in human rights protection and advocacy and hailed the LJC’s latest project, “Drafting and Publicizing Recommendations for Combating Anti-Semitism and Romophobia in Lithuania,” with financing from EVZ in Germany.
Maceva Litvak Cemetery Catalogue
Litvak Cemetery Catalogue MACEVA 2016.
This Newsletter contains an overview of activities of Litvak Cemetery Catalogue MACEVA in 2016.
Švenčionys (Svintsyán). It is believed that this cemetery was established during the 15th century. This is one of the oldest and largest cemeteries of Lithuanian Jewry, encompassing an area of 39670.00m2. We had expected to find approximately 2000 graves. Our work with students has found closer to 3,000 surviving graves. Approximately 1200 tombstones still have full, or partially legible inscriptions.
Prior to World War II, the cemetery was larger, it was devastated during the war and beginning in 1941, locals began to plunder stone monuments for construction material. Many tombstones were damaged and uprooted, black marble tombstones were considered particularly desirable.
The current condition of the cemetery is mediocre.
Many of the gravestones are fully, or partially buried, giving us limited ability to access the inscriptions. Many gravestones are leaning or have already collapsed.
The city of Svencionys has no directional signs indicating the location of the cemetery. …
Full catalog here.
NGO Monitor Complaint Forces Important Revision of UN Report
At the end of March, NGO Monitor sent a complaint to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, raising concerns that special rapporteur Michael Lynk had included Manal Tamimi in his report targeting Israel. Tamimi, who is affiliated with anti-Israel NGOs, was described as a “leader of the protest movement” and given the prestigious title of “human rights defender”–defined by the UN as an individual who advocates for peace and universal human rights.
In fact, Tamimi’s Twitter feed is filled with calls to violence, anti-Semitic images and offensive language (to understate the case). In August of 2015, for example, Tamimi called for a “third intifada” and for people to rise up and kill “all these Zionist settlers everywhere” (see tweets below).
Yesterday, in response to NGO Monitor’s complaint, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights removed Manal Tamimi from the report. We will continue to expose the extreme bias of the special rapporteur and the UN Human Rights Council.
Birthday Evening with Dr. Leonidas Melnikas at the Lithuanian Jewish Community
The organizers of the Destinies series of evening events are pleased to invite you to come celebrate the birthday of professor Leonidas Melnikas at the Lithuanian Jewish Community.
Program:
Dr. Leonidas Melnikas on piano, Boris Traub on violin, Valentinas Kaplūnas on cello, Gennady Savkov on accordion
Participating:
Silvija Sondeckienė and composer Audronė Nekrošienė-Žigaitytė, president of the Union of Lithuanian Musicians.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Thursday, May 11
Location: Third floor, Lithuanian Jewish Community, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius
Event planned and moderated by Maša Grodnikienė, deputy chairwoman, Lithuanian Jewish Community.
A New Litvak Logo
We have a new Litvak logo designed by Viktorija Sideraitė-Alon.
The Lithuanian Justice Ministry has granted permission to use the national Lithuanian symbol of the pillars of Gediminas as part of a Lithuanian Jewish Community logo trademark. The patent process for making the Litvak symbol a Lithuanian Jewish Community trademark is being completed right now.
The posts, pillars of columns of Gediminas was used as a coat of arms or insignia by Lithuanian grand duke Vytautas the Great beginning in 1397, following its use by his father grand duke Kęstutis, and has been employed by many other Lithuanian and Polish leaders since then. The Jewish community, living in Lithuania for approximately 700 years no, is an indivisible part of Lithuanian society in the political and historical sense. Many peoples have called Lithuania home over the centuries and the Jewish community has also made significant contributions to the state, the culture and the economy. Incorporating the pillars of Gediminas into a Litvak logo makes perfect sense and corresponds to what the current Lithuanian state openly declares, namely, pride that Lithuania has been open, tolerant and diverse over the centuries.
Let’s Draw Jerusalem
Let’s Draw Jerusalem, an exhibit running from May 11 to May 31 in the children’s and young adult literature section of the the Lithuanian National Martynas Mažvydas Library.
From May 11 to 31 the Lithuanian National Martynas Mažvydas Library’s children’s and young adult literature department space will host a national exhibition of drawings by Lithuanian students called “Let’s Draw Jerusalem,” marking the 25th anniversary of the opening of diplomatic relations between the State of Israel and the Republic of Lithuania.
Over 80 drawings in the exhibit come from nine municipalities around the country, including Elektrėnai, Rokiškis, Birštonas, Jurbarkas, Kretinga, Kėdainiai, Molėtai, Utena and Alytus, the result of contests sponsored by the Israeli embassy in 2016 and 2017 also called “Let’s Draw Jerusalem.” In one location the contest was changed to “The Bridge of Friendship between Israel and Lithuania,” since that contest began just as the two countries were celebrating the 25th anniversary of the opening of diplomatic relations this year. Winning drawings in the 6 to 10, 11 to 14 and 15 to 18 age groups have been put on public display at the national library, portraying how the children and young people creatively visualize Jerusalem and friendship between the two states. More than 800 students from 59 schools took part under the direction of over 90 teachers, with help from teachers in other disciplines including history, ethics and geography.