The Lithuanian Jewish Community held a reception for Israel’s new ambassador to Lithuania Yossi Avni Levy and her team last week. Chairmen of the regional Lithuanian Jewish communities attended the event. LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky welcomed the new ambassador’s arrival and introduced him to members of the Community at the event.

Levy is an Israeli writer and diplomat. He has held various posts at Israeli embassies in Bonn, Berlin, Belgrade and Warsaw. His literary work has received the prize of the Israeli prime minister’s office.

Born in 1962, Levy’s mother has roots in Iran and his father in Afghanistan. He was graduated with honors by Hebrew University in Jerusalem in history of the Middle East and Arabic in 1983.

The new ambassador said Lithuania and Israel are good friends. He said Israel appreciates Lithuania is one of a handful of EU member-states which support and defend Israel. With investment and bilateral relations headed in a positive direction, there is reason for optimism, he said.

He said the past will always be with us, and Israel can neither forget the Holocaust, nor that Lithuania before the Holocaust was a center of Jewish spirituality where the community which had lived through a golden age was brutally annihilated. He said it’s important young Lithuanians know what happened in the country from 1941 to 1944. He also said the Lithuanian Jewish Community could be more united at this time.