Several days ago the global Jewish community marked Yom haShoah, the day of remembrance of Holocaust victims and heroes. A large contingent of Litvaks from the Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel travelled to Lithuania to mark this commemorative date. They commemorated Holocaust victims in Alytus and Zarasai, where most of them had family roots.

On Monday the group went to Alytus, commemorating victims at the memorial to mass murder victims in Vizgiris Forest just outside town, where Jews from Alytus and the surrounding areas were killed. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, Israel’s ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein, German ambassador Matthias Sonn, Alytus mayor Nerijus Cesiulis and Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel director Arie Ben-An Grozdensky whose father’s family came from the nearby shtetl Miroslav honored the victims of the Holocaust there.

The emotional ceremony was conducted in the newly-restored synagogue in Alytus which is being utilized by the local community now as an audio-visual center. Cantor Shmuel Yaatom offered a prayer at the synagogue, the first Jewish prayer performed there in many decades.

The lost Jews of Simnas were commemorated with the lighting of candles, the placement of stones and prayer.

A ceremony in Zarasai as moving as the one in Alytus took place Tuesday. The mass murder site in the Krakynė Forest was the destination of a march of the living who followed the final steps of the victims murdered there.

Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel deputy director Grisha Deitch signed a cooperation agreement with newly-elected Zarasai mayor Nijolė Guobienė during the meeting in Zarasai. The Zarasai Regional History Museum presented a good and informative exhibit on the former Jewish community there.