anti-Semitism – Page 2 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Remigijus Žemaitaitis Is a Cynical Demagogue and Liar

by Gercas Žakas, chairman, Kaunas Jewish Community, writing in the newspaper Kauno diena

After Remigijus Žemaitaitis’s party Nemuno aušra [Dawn of the Nieman River] received significant support from voters at the polls in the first round of voting, the Kaunas Jewish Community has been watching to see what the final outcome of elections to parliament will be. We have observed even before the second round of voting how the rhetoric of the political parties has changed regarding Žemaitaitis.

It would be hard to find a more cynical character. A demagogue and a liar. Divisive and slinging mud. His speeches contain many lies and accusations against his opponents and ethnic minorities of imaginary crimes. Now he’s trying to squirm out of the situation, again lyving that he hasn’t said anything bad about Lithuanian Jews. If some party nonetheless does enter into a coalition government with him, it would demonstrate that there are no principles nor values when it comes to the struggle for power. That nothing is sacred.

Read Žemaitaitis’s social media posts. In May of last year he posted on facebook: “For how much longer will our politicians go down on bended knee to the Jews who murdered our people, contributed to the hunting down and torture of Lithuanians and the extermination of our country;” “There was a Jewish Holocaust, but there was a bigger Holocaust of Lithuanians in Lithuania. The murder and torture of Lithuanians, the rape of women and the separation of children from their parents was a pleasant attraction and a joyous moment” and “The Lithuanian nation must never forget the Jews and Russians who contributed so greatly to the destruction of our people.”

2024-10-282024-11-11

Kamala Calls Trump Hitler and Chants “Never Again”

by Geoff Vasil

The Kamala Harris campaign in the US presidential election has shifted strategy to attacking her opponent as a fascist, Nazi, Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin all rolled into one. At a campaign rally Monday Kamala called Trump a would-be dictator and with raised fist chanted “Never again!” On Tuesday she spoke from a podium outside the White House and quoted unnamed sources in an Atlantic magazine article who claimed Trump had once expressed admiration for the loyalty of Hitler’s generals. Trump’s former White House chief-of-staff John Kelly told the New York Times Trump had expressed “envy” for Hitler’s generals and that the Atlantic magazine’s report was true. Whether true or fabricated, someone forgot to consider military chief-of-staff Claus von Stauffenberg and his “generals’ plot,” meaning their attempted assassination of Hitler at the Wolf’s Lair, or maybe that is the subtext of the alleged quote. There have been two assassination attempts against Trump so far and the FBI, supposedly in charge of all domestic counter-intelligence in the US, claimed Iran has sought to hire contract-killers to shoot him as well.

Republicans are saying the Harris camp has gone into desperation mode with less than two weeks to go till November 5, the nominal day of elections. Most polls show Trump creeping up into a lead in the seven swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada. Pollsters and political watchers have been calling Pennsylvania the key state for victory, but Trump has concentrated on North Carolina and serving president Joe Biden and former candidate Bernie Sanders have been campaigning for Harris in New Hampshire, which was thought to be solidly in the Democrat camp already.

Some observers have pointed out Harris only has one path to victory at this point, victory meaning 270 or more electoral college votes. She would have to win all three Rust Belt states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania plus one vote from Nebraska which is one of only two states–the other is Maine–to apportion electoral college votes. All other states are winner-take-all. Trump, on the other hand, has multiple paths to the magic number 270 and while the three aforementioned states had been called the Democratic Party’s fortress or “blue wall,” pollsters now think Trump will win in Pennsylvania and could also take Wisconsin. While most pundits claim the race is too tight to call, other pollsters who have been correct in the past say Trump might win “easily,” meaning by a significant majority of electoral college votes, but probably will not win by a “landslide” as Ronald Reagan did in 1980. Optimists in the Trump campaign say they could win former Democrat stronghold states such as New Jersey and maybe even New York, and newly-minted Democrat majority states such as Virginia, although external polling data don’t seem to support that optimism.

2024-10-242024-10-24

President’s Alleged Fight against Anti-Semitism: How to Avoid Victory

by Virgis Valentinavičius, LRT.lt

President Gitanas Nausėda has spent a year and a half ignoring the fact anti-Semitism is recognized at the parliamentary level in Lithuania, and as elections were approaching he rejected proposals to create a cordon sanitaire [buffer zone] against radicals, but he finally saw the light. Just a few months before elections the president reluctantly admitted there is no place in government for anti-Semites, but from that time as well he berated proponents of this cordon sanitaire idea because, supposedly, they were motivated by immoral electoral interests.

The official called the head of state in the constitution had a partial epiphany of the threat posed by anti-Semitism, but there it ended. The story began in May and June of 2023 when Remigijus Žemaitaitis began tossing around anti-Semitic statements in public. The prosecutor found Žemaitaitis had posted anti-Semitic texts on facebook on May 8 and June 13, 14 and 15, 2023. Žemaitaitis posted anti-Semitic texts on facebook, such as: “Besides Putin another group of beasts has appeared in the world: Israel;” Lithuanian Jews together with Russians exterminated the village and population of Pirčiupiai on June 3, 1944″ and “our government representatives don’t care at all about the murder of our Lithuanians by the Jews who lived in Lithuania from 1941 to 1944.”

2024-10-242024-10-28

Vilnius Jerusalem of Lithuania Jewish Community Takes Al Jazeera to Task

The Vilnius Jerusalem of Lithuania Jewish Community posting on https://www.vilniauszydai.lt has taken strong exception to an Al Jazeera television report on a pro-Hamas protest held in Vilnius presumably months ago which included editorial content linking the Palestinian cause to the Lithuanian struggle for independence from the Soviet Union. The Community said it was disgusting and shameful to hold street marches in support of terrorism.

The pro-Hamas website palestina.lt for some reason provided a translation from Arabic (Al Jazeera mainly broadcasts in English) of the report and editorial (translated back into English here):

“There are demonstrations taking place in Lithuania to express solidarity with Palestine. From the beginning of the war in Gaza activists have held many events in public spaces in the capital Vilnius [sic, two at most]. Participants demand an end to the genocide of Palestinians. The demonstrations are being organized by palestina.lt to bring public attention to events in Palestine, to counter the pro-Israeli narrative dominant in the country’s media, to condemn the close relationship Lithuanian politicians have with Tel Aviv and to emphasize there was also oppression, deportations and colonization in the history of Lithuania dating from the Russian Empire’s period of rule (1795) through the Nazi occupation right up until the restoration of independence.”

The Jerusalem of Lithuania Jewish Community countered:

2024-10-232024-10-23

Yehuda Bauer is Dead

Holocaust survivor and scholar Yehuda Bauer passed away October 18. He was 98. He was buried at Shoval kibbutz in the Negev.

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, the entire Community and the World Jewish Congress mourn the passing of Yehuda Bauer and extend our deepest condolences to his family members and all who knew him.

WJC president Ronald Lauder said: “I was deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Prof. Yehuda Bauer, who taught generations of students and others about the Holocaust. I will never forget our last discussions at the International Forum on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism in Malmö, Sweden, in October 2021 and the passionate speech he gave on that occasion.”

2024-10-23

Germany Thwarts Planned Attack on Israeli Embassy in Berlin by Islamic State Supporter

by Maya Gur Arieh, October 20, 2024

The suspect, a Libyan citizen, was accused by Germany of supporting the terrorist ideology of the Islamic State.

A suspected supporter of Islamic State who intended to carry out an attack with firearms on the Israeli embassy in Berlin has been arrested, the Public Prosecutor General of Germany announced Sunday.

The suspect is a Libyan citizen who was only identified as “Omar A” in official statements and media and was accused by Germany of supporting the terrorist ideology of ISIS,. In order to plan and carry out the attack, he exchanged information with an alleged member of ISIS in a Messenger chat online.

The man was detained on Saturday in Bernau, a locality outside of Berlin.

Full story here.

2024-10-22

Ninth Fort Authoritarian Regime Reading Contest

The Ninth Fort Museum in Kaunas hosted their 6th reading of texts by students called “Silent Wall, Touched by Words” last week.

Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas addressed the students, judges and audience, saying: “In my name and that of Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky I thank Ninth Fort Museum director Marius Pečiulis and the entire staff for holding this important event, and I thank the students and the teachers who have prepared them, for their time spent, sincerity and sensitivity.”

The students read texts about the Holocaust, the Nazi era and the Soviet era in Lithuania. The Ninth Fort Museum includes a tunnel system were Jews were imprisoned before being shot inside the Ninth Fort. Exhibits include cells with extant graffiti by murdered Jews. In the Soviet era the Ninth Fort was a de facto Holocaust memorial, if not in name, with a monumental abstract Soviet statue which remains the center piece of the museum grounds. After Lithuanian independence they became a museum showcasing Soviet atrocities as well as Nazi crimes.

2024-10-22

EU Foreign Ministers Call for Fighting Anti-Semitism More Actively

Foreign ministers from the EU member-states adopted another declaration October 15 for fostering Jewish life in Europe and combating anti-Semitism, the EU Council of Ministers reported.

The declaration said the current level of anti-Semitism in the EU was alarming.

“The Council demands taking more resolute actions in fighting this,” the declaration announced.

It also addressed Holocaust denial and distortion along well other forms of anti-Semitism.

2024-10-17

October 7 Commemoration Turns Ugly in Australia

Photo: Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon greets Australian foreign minister Penny Wong at a memorial event in Canberra. (Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS)

Monday didn’t start out easy for Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese. He and his entourage were heckled and picketed before they managed to enter the venue in Melbourne where an October 7 anniversary commemoration was being held.

One woman outside called him “fuckwit” and told him to go away. Others held pre-printed signs also instructing him to leave. At the vigil Australian Jews also expressed shock Albanese was attending, along with former Victoria premiers Jacinta Allen and Dan Andrews. The event was organized by Zionism Victoria and president of the organization Yossi Goldfarb delivered a scathing message to Albanese himself, sitting in the front row, saying the Labor government’s foreign policy vis-à-vis Israel and its handling of pro-Hamas protests domestically had led to an unprecedented surge in anti-Semitism in Australia.

Former Israeli ambassador to Lithuania and now to Australia Amir Maimon also spoke at an October 7 event held at dusk at the Israeli embassy in Canberra, saying:

“Remembering the horror, reliving the anguish and imagining the terror is painful, yet today we must confront those memories. This was not just a terrorist attack. It was an attempt to erase us. Over 1,200 innocent souls were ripped from our world that day. We did not start this war, but we are determined to win this war, not just for our own sake, but for the sake of the free world. This isn’t just another conflict. This is a battle between good and evil, between life and the forces of destruction.”

Opposition leader Peter Dutton received numerous standing ovations at an October 7 commemoration in Sydney.

2024-10-09

Somber Tone as Seniors Citizens Celebrate Rosh Hashanah on Eve of October 7

Senior citizens and elderly members of the Lithuanian Jewish Community gathered for a different kind of Rosh Hashanah celebration at the LJC in Vilnius on the weekend.

With the anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 invasion and mass murder of Israelis last year, there was less of the usual music and fun and more prayers in Yiddish and Hebrew performed by Choral Synagogue cantor Shmuel Yaatom. The cantor’s wife Natalja Cheifec spoke about the history and traditions of Rosh Hashanah and the role of the woman in the Jewish family.

2024-10-09

October 7 Commemoration at the Choral Synagogue

Members of the Lithuanian Jewish Community from throughout Lithuania, students from the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium in Vilnius, special guests from Israel, foreign ambassadors and others gathered at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius Monday to remember Hamas’s invasion of Israel, massacre of 1,200 Israelis and the taking of 250 Israelis, Americans, French and Thais hostage on October 7 last year.

Maya Parizer and Raz Shifer were witnesses to the atrocities and spoke at the synagogue.

Israel’s ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein delivered a moving and somber address there as well.

A special thank-you to the Palanga Jewish Community, the Kaunas Jewish Community, the Israeli embassy and the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium for their help and participation.

2024-10-08

Day 365 of the Iranian Hostage Crisis

by Geoff Vasil

Monday will be day 365 of the Iranian hostage crisis. On October 7, 2023, Iranian forces took over 250 Americans, Israelis, French and Thais hostage in Gaza, brutally raping, burning, shooting and murdering another 1,200 people. Around 50 were released on humanitarian grounds and it is believed that of the 101 remaining at least half are now dead.

Day 365 is approaching the 444 days of captivity of the 53 American hostages Islamic Republic revolutionaries in Iran held at the former American embassy complex in Teheran which began in November of 1979.

On April 24, 1980, then president Jimmy Carter sent a hostage-rescue team to Iran to bring them home. The operation during that election year in the United States was a failure, but proponents of the Carter campaign for a second term later made allegations it was sabotaged from within, namely by colonel Oliver North and then-pilot Bob Gates, who later became the head of the CIA. Those allegations were never proven sufficiently.

What did happen, though, is that the leaders of the Iranian Islamic revolution upended talks with the Carter administration and announced in October of 1980 they would not release the hostages until after the November election for president in the United States. Carter’s team had hoped to strike a deal with the Ayatollah Khomeini in order to gain American votes for a second term.

2024-10-062024-10-08

Danish Police Believe Israeli Embassy Blasts Caused by Hand Grenades

Photo: Police at Copenhagen Central Station on Wednesday, where they arrested suspects in relation to explosions near the Israeli embassy north of the city center. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT/Ritzau Scanpix

Two blasts early Wednesday near the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen were likely caused by hand grenades, Danish police said.

“Two explosions occurred at 3:20 A.M. at the Israeli embassy. It is our preliminary assessment that it was due to two hand grenades,” Jens Jespersen of the Copenhagen police told a press conference, adding that three young Swedes had been arrested.

Police in both Denmark and Sweden said Wednesday they were probing incidents involving explosions or gunfire around Israeli embassies in their capitals.

In Denmark police arrested the three Swedish nationals after two blasts were reported in the “immediate proximity” of the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen in the early hours.

2024-10-042024-10-04

Knife-Wielding Masked Teenagers Take Over Palace of Sports in Old Jewish Cemetery

Photo: Police at Palace of Sports by Paulius Skučas

A group of 50 masked, knife-wielding teenage boys has turned the crumbling Palace of Sports complex built on top of the old Jewish cemetery in Vilnius into their gang clubhouse and have threatened pedestrians in the area, including children, with their weapons, as well as attacking a lone security guard in charge of the site, according to Paulius Skučas, an LNK television reporter who posted on Instagram as well as did a Lithuanian state radio interview about the situation.

Skučas posted photos of the incident on Instagram with textual explanations:

This is how the Palace of Sports looked after the massive attack by teenagers this evening. Police and security stood guard for several hours. It seems the gang of teenagers are so uncontrollable and undetainable that all the residents of the surround neighborhoods and buildings have become hostages.

2024-10-042024-10-04

Iran Fires on Israel

Iran fired 181 mainly ballistic missiles at Israeli cities Tuesday evening. Iran claimed they fired over 400 missiles including a new hypersonic missile. Israel reported one death of an Arab in Jehrico and some damage to buildings in Tel Aviv, a missile hitting near the Ayalon Mall and damaging a school with no one inside. Iran claimed they had delivered a crippling blow to the Jewish state and had only targeted military and intelligence installations. The first volley appeared to target Mossad HQ in Tel Aviv but apparently were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Arrow anti-missile systems. The Kingdom of Jordan and the United States reportedly helped intercept incoming Iranian missiles. A Pentagon spokesman said American warships off the coast fired 11 interceptor missiles at incoming Iranian missiles. The United States and the United Kingdom condemned Iran’s attack while the prime minister of Australia again called for deescalation. Two Islamic terrorists from the West Bank murdered 6 Israelis and wounded another 12 using a knife and a gun at a transit station in Jaffa just before Iranian missiles were fired.

2024-10-022024-10-02

Superpower Israel Goes It Alone in Proxy Wars with Iran

Following an operation coup against Hezbollah, Israel targeted and killed almost all of the terrorist organization’s top leaders including the supreme leader on Friday, despite calls from the United States, France, Great Britain, Canada and Australia to Israel to work out a ceasefire with the Iranian-backed proxy army in Lebanon. Israel also says it has destroyed all but one battalion of Hamas, also an Iranian proxy, again despite international calls to Israel to make peace with the terrorists attacking the country. Israel also bombed Houthi positions in Yemen over the weekend, another proxy army funded and armed by Iran. News reports Sunday and Monday claimed the new president of Iran and/or the supreme leader the Ayatollah were taken to allegedly safe locations in case Israel decided to bring the war back to Tehran.

2024-09-30

Correction

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.

2024-09-262024-09-26

Australian Internet Legislation Aimed at Fighting Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, Not Anti-Semitism

by Geoff Vasil

The Jerusalem Post reported last week the Australian Government under the Labor Party prime minister Anthony Albanese had sent legislation to parliament “to combat hate crimes and doxxing, with severe penalties for offenders. The move comes in response to a rise in anti-Semitic incidents.”

A casual look at Australian news and politics over the past year shows clearly the legislative package isn’t aimed at fighting anti-Semitism but is intended to add legal teeth to the Albanese Government’s attempts to control both facebook and twitter content.

On October 9, Australian time, before the IDF had even completely quelled Hamas’s invasion into “mainland” Israel, pro-Hamas activists stormed the Sydney Opera House chanting “gas the Jews.” A single Israel supporter was stopped there by police before he could unfurl his Israeli flag and was detained by New South Wales police for the crime of supporting Israel. A later investigation by NSW police claimed the bloodthirsty mob had actually chanted “Where’s the Jews?” despite fairly clear audio to the contrary. As if “Where’s the Jews?” were some sort of attempt at Borat-like Judaeophobic humor rather than yet another, not much different call to genocide.

2024-09-172024-09-30

Pathetic State of Jewish Cemetery in Panevėžys

The state of the old Jewish cemetery in the New Town section of Panevėžys requires emergency action, according to Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman.

The cemetery is thought to have been established for the burial of the first Jewish and Karaïte settlers in the northern Lithuanian city and surrounding areas.

The Panevėžys regional administration adopted a resolution for maintaining the old Jewish graveyard back in 2019 but hasn’t followed through on the ground. Time, disregard and the weather have since taken a greater toll, which prompted Kofman to seek additional redress from the Panevėžys regional administration.

“The main section of the old Jewish cemetery in the New Town neighborhood has been abandoned and allowed to fall into ruin, with fallen trees knocking over headstones, overgrown grass and shrubbery, felled trees and branches left unremoved. We would be grateful if administration staff could come, formulate a maintenance plan and finally care for this unique historic city location,” Kofman said.

2024-09-162024-09-16

Jewish Communities Warn of Urgent Threat amid Alarming Rise in Anti-Semitic Attacks at Austrian Parliament Conference

September 11, 2024

Brussels, September 11, 2024–The European Jewish Congress (EJC) strongly endorses the joint statement issued at the Austrian Parliament conference addressing the disturbing rise in anti-Semitism following October 7th as an affront to democracy and human rights, and are supported by parliamentarians and policymakers from across the world.

The conference titled “Never Again? Democracy Cannot Tolerate Antisemitism” organized on the initiative of Austrian National Council president Wolfgang Sobotka convened parliamentarians from 22 nations, including speaker of the Israeli Knesset Amir Ohana, members of the European Parliament, EU officials and Jewish community leaders from around the world, to confront the escalating anti-Semitic threats with a united and decisive response.

The joint statement condemned the alarming surge in anti-Semitic violence, demanding the immediate and unconditional release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and calling for stringent oversight of online anti-Semitism and reinforced security for Jewish institutions. It also underscored the pressing need to address the growing anti-Semitic climate on university campuses.

2024-09-16