An exhibit of miniature drawings by Valius Staknys called Letters will open at the Lithuanian Jewish Community at 5:30 P.M. on November 30. The opening ceremony will include a retrospective of the artist’s life and work. He is best known as a theater director. The exhibit will run until December 18 on the third floor of the Lithuanian Jewish Community.
Professor Says Lithuanian Holocaust Perps Not Just Lowlifes, Included Intellectuals
Professor Saulius Sužiedėlis claims Lithuania could have and should have done more to find and convict Holocaust perpetrators. He said Lithuania doesn’t need to take responsibility for murdered Jews, but needs to recognize Lithuanian collaboration in the Holocaust instead of trying to belittle the significance of Lithuanian participation. The historian said this is harming Lithuania’s reputation which is important for defending national sovereignty. Sužiedėlis said no one would come to the defense of a country with such a poor reputation.
Full article in Lithuanian here.
Faina Kukliansky Says Jews and Lithuanians Need to Resolve Disagreements
Photos: BNS
by Birutė Vyšniauskaitė, www.lrt.lt
Although the scandal caused by writer Rūta Vanagaitė’s statements on the partisan Adolfas Ramanauskas has subsided, Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky believes the tranquility is only temporary. Vanagaitė’s book Mūsiškiai about the mass murder of Jews in Lithuania is soon to appear in English translation. She also enjoys the support of the European Jewish Congress and has many proponents in Israel. In an interview with LRT [Lithuanian Public Radio and Television], Kukliansky said we shouldn’t fear coming scandals.
“I really liked historian Saulius Sužiedėlis’s idea that it’s possible to read a given document or set of documents a number of times and come to different conclusions. It takes special training and understanding to study documents. An elderly grandmother could read the same documents, and while they might be interesting to her, she won’t be able to make sense of them. So, what if a book is written for public relations, seeking profit and to sensationalize readers and listeners?” Kukliansky told LRT regarding the aftermath of the Vanagaitė scandal.
Happy 50th Birthday to Rabbi Krinsky
Happy 50th birthday to Rabbi Krinsky! Mazl tov!
The Lithuanian Jewish Community congratulates Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky on his birthday and thanks him for his efforts and sincere work over many years for the good of our community. A young Jewish generation has grown up in Lithuania accompanied by your teaching and good works. Rabbi, the Jewish community wishes you and your family strength and health and that the Light of the Torah would illuminate all your future work.
Mazl tov. May you live to 120!
Screening of “Aš turiu papasakoti”
The film “Aš turiu papasakoti” (“Ya Dolzhna Rasskazat”) will be screened at the Lithuanian Jewish Community, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius at 6:00 P.M. on November 23. The movie is based on the book by Marija Rolnikaitė about surviving the Holocaust.
The film is open to the public and admission is free. Director Feliks Dektor and producer Eugenijus Bunka will be there.
Tens of Thousands of Jewish Documents Lost during Holocaust Discovered in Vilnius
YIVO announces the discovery of 170,000 Jewish documents thought to have been destroyed by the Nazis. Photo: Thos Robinson/Getty Images for YIVO
NEW YORK (JTA)–A trove of 170,000 Jewish documents thought to have been destroyed by the Nazis during World War II has been found.
On Tuesday the New York-based YIVO Institute for Jewish Research announced the find which contains unpublished manuscripts by famous Yiddish writers as well as religious and community documents. Among the finds are letters written by Sholem Aleichem, a postcard by Marc Chagall and poems and manuscripts by Chaim Grade.
YIVO, founded in Vilnius in what is now Lithuania, hid the documents, but the organization moved its headquarters to New York during World War II. The documents were later preserved by Lithuanian librarian Antanas Ulpis who kept them in the basement of the church where he worked.
Most of the documents are currently in Lithuania but 10 items are being displayed through January at YIVO, which is working with Lithuania to archive and digitize the collection.
“These newly discovered documents will allow that memory of Eastern European Jews to live on, while enabling us to have a true accounting of the past that breaks through stereotypes and clichéd ways of thinking,” YIVO executive director Jonathan Brent said Tuesday in a statement.
United States Senate minority leader Charles Schumer, democrat from New York state, praised the discovery.
“Displaying this collection will teach our children what happened to the Jews of the Holocaust so that we are never witnesses to such darkness in the world again,” Schumer, who is Jewish, said in a statement.
Israeli consul general in New York Dani Dayan compared the documents to “priceless family heirlooms.”
“The most valuable treasures of the Jewish people are the traditions, experiences and culture that have shaped our history. So to us, the documents uncovered in this discovery are nothing less than priceless family heirlooms, concealed like precious gems from Nazi storm troopers and Soviet grave robbers,” he said.
Full story here.
Chess Tournament in Memory of Algimantas Butnoris
A chess tournament in memory of Algimantas Butnoris will be held at 3:00 P.M. Sunday, November 19, at the Lithuanian Jewish Community. For more information please write info@metbor.lt or call 370 6 55 43 556.
Samuel Bak Museum Opens
Painter and Vilnius native Samuel Bak attended a press conference in Vilnius Wednesday to announce the opening of a Samuel Bak museum in Vilnius.
Bak, now based in the US, donated over 50 of his artworks for the museum. Born in 1933, the Jewish painter is a Holocaust survivor. He began drawing and painting in the Vilnius ghetto. After the war he lived in Israel and Western Europe. He and members of his family plan to spend just over a week in Vilnius on their current visit.
Bak is scheduled to be awarded honorary citizen of Vilnius at a ceremony to be held at the Vilnius Old Town Hall. The museum is to open November 17. 2017.
LRT TV Program Author Vitalijus Karakorskis Wins Prize for Intercultural Communication
November 16 is UNESCO’s International Day of Tolerance. Under the UNESCO definition in its Declaration of the Principles of Tolerance, tolerance doesn’t mean a tolerant attitude towards social injustice, nor the renunciation of one’s principles and their replacement with someone else’s. It means everyone is free to hold their own convictions and recognizes the right of others to do the same. It means recognizing people are born with different appearances into different social conditions, learn different languages, behavior and values, and have the right to live in peace and preserve their individuality.
The Ethnic Minorities Department under the Government of Lithuania named winners of its prize for intercultural communication November 13. There were 37 separate works in the running this year, including television programs, articles and interviews.
The judges’ panel awarded the prize to journalist, editor and filmmaker Vitalijus Karakorskis for originality and for discovering incredible connections between the ethnic communities resident in Lithuania in his making of an episode of the Lithuanian public television (LRT) program Menora on the topic of Dr. Jonas Basanavičius and Lithuanian Jews, on the 90th anniversary of the death of the patriarch of the Lithuanian state. They also awarded the prize to Siarhey Haurylenka for exceptional treatment of the cultures of Lithuanian ethnic minorities and the Belarusian language in the LRT television series about culture and history called “Cultural Crossroads: The Vilnius Notebook.”
New Fall Issue of the Bagel Shop Newsletter
After skipping a beat this summer, the newest Bagel Shop newsletter has hit the stands. The fall issue includes a complete news round-up from spring to the present, the usual sections and articles about the history of the Bund, efforts to restore Jewish headstones removed from Soviet-era public works projects around Vilnius to their rightful locations and the history of the Jews of Skuodas. The Jewish Book Corner this issue features a book about the tractate Nazir from the Babylonian Talmud and the Telšiai Yeshiva.
Look for the newest issue at the Bagel Shop Café, available for free, or download the electronic version below:
Polish Nationalist March of 60,000 Worries Jews and Poles
by Cnaan Liphshiz
JTA–The sight of far-right activists waving racist banners and shouting anti-Semitic slogans during a nationalist march in the capital of Poland over the weekend shocked many around the world.
It was an understandable reaction to witnessing tens of thousands in Warsaw marching near what used to be the largest Jewish ghetto during the Holocaust amid shouts of “Jews out” and “remove Jewry from power.”
The march, an annual event which began in 2009 with 500 participants on Poland’s national day, November 11, was not necessarily the largest so far. Similar numbers of marchers showed up last year. But it did showcase the rising strength of Polish nationalists who are feeling emboldened by the conservative government in Warsaw and to some extent by the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president.
AJC Decries Hateful Demonstrators on Poland’s Independence Day
November 13, 2017, Warsaw — AJC is urging the Polish government to speak out clearly against rising hatred inspired by the country’s far right. The call to action comes after a large demonstration filled with neo-Nazi and white supremacist rhetoric that took place in Warsaw on Saturday, the country’s independence day.
“While the joyous 99th anniversary of Polish independence was appropriately celebrated in ceremonies led by president Duda, the day was seriously marred by hateful, far-right throngs that threaten the core values of Poland and its standing abroad,” said Agnieszka Markiewicz, director of AJC’s Warsaw-based Central Europe office. “The growth of xenophobic nationalism in Poland is becoming more dangerous, and we urge the government to condemn unequivocally the phenomenon and take appropriate action to counter it.”
An estimated 60,000 people participated in the “March of Independence,” an annual event organized by far-right groups in Poland that attracted many more people than last year, including some from other countries. Men and women wearing face-masks chanted “pure Poland, white Poland” and “clean blood, lucid mind” as well as “sieg heil” and “Ku Klux Klan.”
“The apparent tolerance shown for these purveyors of hate — and, let’s be clear, that’s exactly what they are — by some Polish government officials is particularly troubling,” said Markiewicz.
Interior minister Mariusz Blaszczak called the large demonstration “a beautiful sight,” adding that “we are proud that so many Poles have decided to take part in a celebration connected to the Independence Day holiday.”
AJC, an organization long involved in Poland and steadfastly devoted to fostering strong links among the U.S., Israel, Poland, and world Jewry, calls on the Polish government to counter all forms of xenophobia and racially-motivated hatred through concerted action. “History has painfully taught us that silence or inaction in such matters can come with a high price,” said Markiewicz.
“As the late President Lech Kaczynski laudably said during the 2008 independence day celebration, ‘Patriotism does not mean nationalism,'” Markiewicz said. “It is an important message worth remembering and reinforcing. Radical nationalism and the spewing of hatred should not be confused with patriotism.”
Shapiro Silverberg
AJC Central Europe Office
Makabi Tennis Tourney
The now-traditional Makabi doubles tennis tournament took place November 12.
Three pairs tied and the final winners, Anatolijus Faktorovičius and son Norbertas Faktorovičius, were decided by number of games won. The family team took first place for the second time. Kęstutis, Faktorovičius’s other son, also took part in tournament successfully and demonstrated a great swing. Danielius Merkinas and Aleksandra Miller took second and Lorensas Baliukonis and Laima Urbšienė took third in fierce competition.
Condolences
Borekh Yudel Katz passed away November 12. He was born September 26, 1931. Our deepest condolences to his wife Mania and son Yevgeny.
The Jewish Contribution to Interwar Kaunas
In the previous century Kaunas had a Jewish population of over 30,000, but now that number barely tops 300. How did people of this ethnicity contribute to Kaunas’s prosperity in the years between the wars? Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas and Jewish document collector Michailas Duškesas spoke to us about Jewish history.
Žakas said Kaunas became one of the centers of concentration for Litvaks. “Kaunas was the cradle of Litvaks, the capital. Before the deportations and mass murders more than 30,000 Jews lived in Kaunas accounting for about 20 percent of the total population. After World War II some came back, for example, my father and his brother returned from the Dachau concentration camp to Lithuania to look for family members. Ten thousand left for Israel, America and many went to Germany after World War II. I had the chance as well to go to America, but I stayed in Kaunas because it is my hometown,” Žakas said.
Document collector Michailas Duškesas stressed Lithuanian Jews, or Litvaks, are respected people in the world. “Litvaks in the world, this is a kind of super-brand, if you say you are a Jew from Lithuania you are considered exceptional, noble and honorable,” he said.
Full text in Lithuanian here.
Kaunas Jewish Community Invites You to a Conference
The Kaunas Jewish Community and chairman of the organizational committee Valentinas Aleksa, also chairman of the Sūduva Regional Scientific, Historical and Cultural Association, invite you to attend the conference “Diplomatic Document of Lithuanian National Self-Respect and Civic Courage in Nazi-Occupied Lithuania in World War Two” on November 14, 2017.
The conference is to be held at the Raudondvaris manor at Pilies takas no. 1 in Raudondvaris in the Kaunas region. Registration from 12:20 P.M. to 12:50 P.M., conference to start at 1:00 P.M.
The conference is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the restoration of the Lithuanian state and to 75th anniversary of the signing of a memorandum by the three heroic Lithuanians third Lithuanian president Dr. Kazys Grinius and former Government members and MPs professor Jonas Aleksa and professor Mykolas Krupavičiaus.
Kaunas regional administration head Valerijus Makūnas is the patron of the conference.
Photos from International Conference Remembrance, Responsibility, Future
Anti-Semitism Will Remain, But It’s Not Always a Threat, US Professor Says
by Rūta Kupetytė, LRT radio program Ryto garsai, www.lrt.lt
Just as anti-Semitism, xenophobia and Romophobia have long existed in the subconscious, so they will remain, but don’t pose an extreme threat. So said US professor of history Saulius Sužiedėlis in an interview aired on Lithuanian national radio.
He said history has shown these kinds of sentiments only became dangerous in certain situations, but in others a nationalist attitude can even be a healthy thing.
Professor Sužiedėlis was in Vilnius to give a presentation at the international conference “Remembrance, Responsibility, Future.”
Several years ago you said there is almost no such Holocaust denial in Lithuania as it exists in the West, because everyone knows the Jews were murdered here, but that there are certain problems of suppression and diminishing of significance, and attempts to down-play Lithuanian involvement in the process. You said that seven years ago. Has the situation now changed?
Sužiedėlis: Let’s remember one thing: there was no greater mass murder in Lithuania than the genocide of Jews in 1941. These are the very worst mass murders in Lithuanian history.
Full interview in Lithuanian here.
International Conference Remembrance, Responsibility, Future Held in Vilnius
To mark the international day against fascism and anti-Semitism, the Lithuanian Jewish Community held a large international conference November 9 called “Remembrance, Responsibility, Future” which attracted well-known scholars and media attention. Speakers discussed whether commemoration of painful historical events can serve as a bridge to understanding contemporary politics and prevent such events in the future.
LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, US ambassador Anne Hall, German ambassador Angelika Viets and deputy chief of mission for the Israeli embassy Efrat Hochtetler welcomed conference participants.
Unique Jewish Archive Emerges in Vilnius
Vilnius, November 3, BNS–As Judaica studies intensify in Vilnius, scholars have identified thousands of important Jewish manuscripts this year which had laid forgotten in a church basement during the Soviet years and were scattered to separate archives for two decades following Lithuanian independence.
Some of the newly identified documents are currently on display in New York City and there are plans to exhibit some of the collection in Lithuania in the near future as well.
Lithuanian National Martynas Mažvydas Library director Renaldas Gudauskas said the identification of ever more documents makes him confident the library currently conserves one of the most significant collections of Judaica in the world.
Hidden at a Church
Vilnius had hundreds of Jewish communal, religious, cultural and education organizations before World War II. YIVO, the Jewish research institute founded in 1925, was an important member of that group. YIVO did work on Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, from Germany to Russia and from the Baltic to the Balkans, collecting Jewish folklore, memoirs, books, publications and local Jewish community documents, and published dictionaries, brochures and monographs.