Arkadijus Vinokuras will moderate a discussion on Jewish contributions to Lithuanian statehood from 1918 to 1940 and from 1988 to 2022 as part of the #ŽydiškiPašnekesiai series of talks at the Bagel Shop Café in the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius at 5:00 P.M. on January 12. This is the eve of January 13, an important date in modern Lithuania’s history, the morning on which Soviet tanks attacked and killed citizens defending the Vilnius television tower in 1991. Participants are to include father of Lithuanian independence Vytautas Landsbergis, Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky and Lithuanian MP and signatory to the 1990 Independence Act Emanuelis Zingeris, among others.

Musical accompaniment is to be provided by Vytas Mikeliūnas on violin and Darius Mažintas on piano performing Lithuanian and Jewish songs. The discussion will be held in Lithuanian. Those wishing to attend may come in person or watch the live-feed on the LJC facebook page.

Moderator Arkadijus Vinokuras is an accomplished writer and journalist, and has served in the Lithuanian National Defense Department, and later as a Lithuanian National Defense Ministry representative for Scandinavia and the United Kingdom. He is the initiator of the #ŽydiškiPašnekesiai discussion club as well.

“This discussion by the #ŽydiškiPašnekesiai club could be controversial in the eyes of the Lithuanian public. We will destroy myths about disloyal Lithuanian Jews and many will learn things they didn’t know, things which, we hope, will change minds,” Vinokuras said about the upcoming discussion.