Press Release
December 11, 2018
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky was elected in May of 2017 legally, in keeping with all the requirements of law, the Vilnius Regional Court confirmed, annulling an earlier finding by the Vilnius District Court and rejecting a claim by the Vilnius Jewish Community against the legality of the decisions made by the LJC conference.
“The principle of the rule of law triumphed in the case of the legitimacy of the LJC elections. The work of the Lithuanian Jewish Community should be directed towards the continuity of community traditions and the needs of members, to solving the most urgent problems and celebrating Jewish life in Vilnius and throughout Lithuania. We should all focus on that which is truly important rather than on destructive activities. Now, after this exhausting legal argument has ended, it is time for the community to come together and continue our work together. Jews must be united, we must take care of one another and those around us, and work needs to replace disputes,” LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said.
According to most members of the LJC association, responsibility for sowing discord among people, for the wasted time and resources and for dividing the community falls upon Vilnius Jewish Community chairman Simonas Gurevičius, who sought that all the most important issues concerning the activities of the LJC would only be approved by votes from the Vilnius Jewish Community. The legitimacy of his own election as head of the VJC is the subject of a separate court case. Now that the courts have rejected the unfounded claims, the entire community will have to work for some time to rebuild what has been destroyed, to overcome the discord and slander which has been created.
The dispute between the Jewish organizations arose over a difference of opinion regarding representation at the annual conference, which is also the venue for elections and where the most important decisions in the Community are voted upon. The Lithuanian law on associations stipulates that each member of an association, without regard to the number of its members, has one vote at a general meeting (conference) of members, thus insuring the equal rights and equal decision-making power of all members of the association.
Earlier, the regulations of the LJC said regional Jewish communities have a number of votes proportionate to their membership. The LJC board, seeing this difference between the law and organizational regulations, voted in April of 2017 to insure the legitimacy and transparency of the upcoming reporting/elections conference by delegating one vote to each representative representing each associate member of the LJC.
The Vilnius Regional Court upheld the soundness of this decision earlier in mid-2018 in another case. The court found that LJC regulations which exclusively favored one member of the LJC–the Vilnius Jewish Community–null and void.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community has adhered to the Lithuanian law on associations last year and this year in Community conferences which adopted the most important decisions on the organization’s work, including the election of the leadership and financial and activities reporting.
For more information, contact:
The Lithuanian Jewish Community, email: info@lzb.lt , telephone +370 5 2613 003, +370 672 40942 (Monika Antanaitytė)