Why since last year hasn’t the Lithuanian Migration Department followed the law on citizenship currently in force, under which since April of 2011 people of Jewish ethnicity and ethnic Lithuanians who emigrated between 1918 and 1940 and their offspring have the right to Lithuanian citizenship? This question, recently aired in Israel, has been heard by members of the ruling majority and opposition in the Lithuanian parliament, but no one has been able to offer a clear explanation to Litvaks.
Until the middle of last year, about one thousand requests by Litvaks from Israel, South Africa, America and other countries for restoration of Lithuanian citizenship had been granted.
In their requests, Jews from Lithuania have argued that their parents and grandparents were forced to leave the country because of specific internal and external dangers and lack of security. This meets the requirements listed in the law on citizenship for acquiring citizenship.
When the Migration Department under the Lithuanian Interior Ministry began rejecting requests by Litvaks for citizenship, Litvaks, not understanding why the law in force on citizenship was being ignored, began seeking redress in Lithuania’s courts.
Currently the Migration Department has rejected about 200 requests by Litvaks, and about ten of these parties are litigating and awaiting decisions by the courts.
Applications Rejected, Court Battles
“Last year the High Administrative Court rejected several requests by with Lithuanian origins for Lithuanian citizenship based on the Constitutional Court’s finding our country’s citizenship may only be granted in exceptional circumstances, and that the person who left Lithuania is required to prove he or she emigrated due to dangers to him or her personally. This finding by the courts was repeated several times, so we began to follow it in assessing requests for dual citizenship by people whose ancestors left Lithuania before the Soviet occupation which took place in 1940, acting director of the Migration Department Evelina Gudzinskaitė told Lithuanian National Radio and Television.
She confirmed Jews who received a negative answer from the department and whose ancestors came from Lithuania and left before 1940 had begun court appeals.
Gudzinskaitė also did not deny information about cases obtained by LRT.lt which show one person receiving citizenship while another in the same family is denied, although they both have the exact same ancestors.
“This could have happened in cases where the connection with ancestors was not traceable. People must provide us all the information they have, and we also collect all available information. It does happen, though, that we don’t find information which would prove the peoples’ ancestors are the same people. Especially when names and surnames are different,” she offered as explanation.
Currently Migration Department representatives have to go to court in cases by about ten people of Jewish ethnicity who would like to acquire Lithuanian citizenship. Three of them have already lost their cases in lower courts and have appealed to the High Administrative Court.
“Although the law on citizenship hasn’t been amended, we are required to follow findings by the court, because this is an inseparable part of the legal system,” Gudzinskaitė said.
Ministers Admit Problem Exists
Lithuanian foreign minister Linas Linkevičius has admitted numerous time he and other government representatives have had to confront recently the fact many Jews of Lithuanian origin are experiencing problems regarding citizenship.
“The case law has changed,” Linkevičius has been saying laconically recently in response to questions about complaints by Litvaks applying for citizenship in our country.
Many Litvaks received negative answers on citizenship when Saulius Skvernelis was the interior minister. Now the former minister refuses to talk about what caused that.
When Skvernelis still occupied that post, parliamentary opposition leader conservative Andrius Kubilius wrote him on behalf of Litvaks, but received no clear reply to his questions.
“I went to both Linas Linkevičius and Saulius Skvernelis, but I got no answers. On Friday the new interior minister Tomas Žilinskas informed me he had already signed and sent me an answer, which has still not reached parliament due to bureaucratic procedures. I hope I will receive that answer very soon,” Kubilius said.
He said he was embarrassed during a recent trip to Israel when confronted by Jews from Lithuania because he wasn’t able to provide them a clear answer on what had changed, preventing them from making use of the law on citizenship currently in force. “It’s a good thing I had already sent queries to Linas Linkevičius and Saulius Skvernelis. This fact allowed me to stop the complaints by Litvaks for a little while.”
Recently new interior minister Žilinskas told LRT.lt the Migration Department had been forced to reject requests by some Litvaks for citizenship because it was required to follow court decisions. “As a person and as a citizen I’m in favor of granting Litvaks Lithuanian citizenship, but we don’t have the right to ignore findings by the courts. We are now waiting for what the High Administrative Court rules. But so far, in court cases with Litvaks, we haven’t lost a single case,” he said.
Thorough Explanations Sought
Kubilius said he’s considering the idea of amending the law on citizenship so that neither Litvaks nor ethnic Lithuanians who left Lithuania before the 1940 occupation won’t have to go to court when applying for citizenship.
Member of the ruling majority in parliament and head of the parliamentary committee on law and order Julius Sabatauskas thinks the law doesn’t need amending. “The courts are required to base their decisions on the laws in force, not one someone’s desires or lack of desire,” he said.
Sabatauskas said a meeting with Interior Ministry, Migration Department and Judicial Council representatives is already scheduled for May 11 to provide explanation on the situation that has come about.
“The law on citizenship provides for returning Lithuanian citizenship to people who had citizenship before 1940, or their offspring,” Sabatauskas stated.
Citizenship: Origin and Ancestors
Darius Degutis, the Lithuanian ambassador to Israel from 2009 to 2014 who has also worked in South Africa, said that many of the Litvaks he’s met living in South Africa and Israel usually want to get back the Lithuanian citizenship their parents or grandparents had in order to honor, preserve and pass on their ancestors’ nostalgia and sentiments for the land of their birth.
The Lithuanian diplomat said he had many times been present and witnessed how Litvaks returning to the birthplaces of their ancestors break down and cry. He witnessed this while escorting Litvaks on visits to the homes of their ancestors in Šeduva, Žagarė, Kaunas and other Lithuanian locations.
Some of them after visiting the country even decided to engage in business here, or move portions of their profitable businesses abroad here.
This is what Brian Joffe, whose grandfather lived in Žagarė, did. Joffe lives in South Africa and is the owner of one the world’s largest wholesale food distributors, Bidvest. Joffe acquired the Nowaco enterprise operating in Kaunas.
Robert Brozin, with 1,500 restaurants around the world, has been travelling to Lithuania annually since 2004 and is also entertaining plans to set up shop in the land of his forefathers.
Another Litvak who wishes to remain anonymous has renovated the Jewish cemetery and Jewish community buildings in Šeduva, donated funds for a local medical facility and bought a modern ambulance for the community there as well.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
