Yesterday Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky attended a press conference at the Lithuanian parliament and made comments which have become the object of speculation by the media and by social media posters.
The joint press conference with the LIC chairwoman, Lithuanian MP and chairman of the parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee Emanuelis Zingeris, MP Žygimantas Pavilionis and MP Liudvika Pocienė was called to discuss rising anti-Semitism in Lithuania.
Asked by reporters for comment, LJC chairwoman Kukliansky said words to the effect Lithuania’s foreign partners were concerned by reports a political party known for its anti-Semitic remarks led by a man the Constitutional Court of Lithuania found guilty of spreading ethnic discord could come to power.
Pressed for further comment, chairwoman Kukliansky said, to paraphrase in translation: “I heard there is a very stern letter by a German ambassador regarding this.”
She was referencing a statement by Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda speaking to Lithuanian state television’s LRT Forumas broadcast who said (in unofficial translation): “These statements, which may seem as if are innocent little jokes and short songs, have travelled very far indeed. And they have travelled to those partners of ours whose support to us is so crucially important. I mean Germany.”
The Lithuanian Jewish Community and our chairwoman would like to correct the record and quell possible speculation by stating that chairwoman Kukliansky wasn’t referring to Germany’s ambassador to Lithuania Cornelius Zimmermann, nor to any other specific German diplomatic or political official. She only attempted to relay what she had heard the president say on state television, if getting some of the details perhaps slightly wrong.
Chairwoman Kukliansky and the Lithuanian Jewish Community apologize for any misunderstanding regarding this matter.
We would also like to say that during this period of intensifying anti-Semitic attacks we are very grateful to a number of foreign embassies which have provided us constant great and staunch support, including the embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany. In gratitude for that support, LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky has sent written thank-you letters expressing our collective appreciation for their consistent and strong support to ambassador to Lithuania Cornelius Zimmerman, German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier and chancellor Olaf Scholz.