anti-Semitism – Page 24 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

MP Rakutis Quits Commission Chair over Holocaust Comments

Delfi.lt, BNS

Conservative Lithuanian MP Valdas Rakutis has resigned as chairman of the parliament’s Commission on the Battles for Freedom and State Historical Memory following criticism of his statements about the Holocaust.

“Asked by the leadership of the Homeland Union/Lithuanian Christian Democrat [Conservative] Party and parliamentary faction, accepting political responsibility, and not wanting the very important work of the Commission on the Battles for Freedom and State Historical Memory to be made more difficult by this statement of mine, and also following the Western political tradition, I have decided to take the honorable step and to withdraw from the post of chairman of this commission,” the MP said in a statement released Friday. “I hope this step will help calm unnecessary tension both within the country and abroad with our important strategic partners, and will allow for further discussion to develop in a constructive direction,” he said.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2021-01-292021-02-01

Statement by LJC Chairwoman on Recent Holocaust Denial by Lithuanian MP

You Are Quiet Again, as You Were in 1941

A comment on the silent state and the vociferous Rakutises

The Lithuanian Jewish Community, along with tens of thousands of Lithuanian Jews who were captured on the streets, locked in ghettos, marched to pits and shot and buried there, often close to their own hometowns, or shtetlakh, as Jews call them, where for centuries they had lived in common with Lithuanians–we are again guilty. Member of parliament of the Republic of Lithuania Valdas Rakutis in his commentary has said nothing new, and only repeats the mendacious and misleading narrative which has gone on for decades: We ourselves, the Jews, are guilty for the extermination of 95% of the Jews who lived in Lithuania before World War II.

I have met many such Rakutises, they always say the same thing. It is horrific that today these Rakutises also speak confidently in the parliament of the Republic of Lithuania, they are published and quoted, and again and again they blame those who were escorted by their neighbors to collection points in 1941, to synagogues, and from there to margins of forests and gravel pits, for the horror of the Holocaust.

It is said that all those who remained looked on in silence as the columns of Jewish men, women and children were marched along the streets of the towns in broad daylight. And now we have the same sort of situation: there isn’t much reaction at all to the lie of these Rakutises. The majority remain silent. There are some soft noises from his fellow party members, a few observations and speculations that maybe “Rakutis was mistaken,” but nothing even close to the precise and sharp uncompromising reaction demonstrated by the foreign embassies to Lithuania. The German, Israel and US ambassadors to Lithuania were among the first to condemn clearly and publicly Rakutis’s statement. The European Jewish Congress also responded as did the Jewish communities living abroad. The words by the Lithuanian MP didn’t slip by unnoticed by any of the Western states, where they react without excuse or compromise to open or hidden attempts to distort history and to expressions of anti-Semitism.

2021-01-292021-02-10

Lithuanian Jewish Community Chairwoman Demands Investigation for Holocaust Denial

DELFI.lt and BNS

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky reacted to MP Valdas Rakutis’s statement on the Holocaust by demanding the Office of General Prosecutor initiate a pre-trial investigation on Holocaust denial and distortion.

“Representing the Lithuanian Jewish Community, I demand … the prosecutor general begin a pre-trial investigation on Holocaust denial and distortion.

“Slaps on the hand don’t satisfy us. We, citizens of Lithuania, Jews living here, demand the rule of law and defense of our basic rights. And in the end, you should feel shame before those whose blood soaks the land of Lithuania,” Kukliansky said in a statement to the press.

The Office of Prosecutor General said they would consider beginning an investigation after they receive a complaint. “Currently this complaint has not yet been received, but if it is received, it will be considered in the prescribed manner and the corresponding decision will be made,” Office of Prosecutor General press representative Elena Martinonienė told BNS.

2021-01-292021-03-12

Jews and Communists Share Blame for Holocaust, Lithuanian MP Says on Holocaust Day

(JTA)–The U.S. ambassador to Lithuania has accused a senior Lithuanian lawmaker of distorting the history of the Holocaust and blaming Jews for it.

Robert Gilchrist, who took up the post in February last year, made the charge following a speech Wednesday by Valdas Rakutis, a member of the Seimas, Lithuania’s parliament, and chairman of its commission on historical memory.

“There was no shortage of Holocaust perpetrators among the Jews themselves, especially in the ghetto self-government structures,” Rakutis said in the speech, which took place on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. “We need to name these people out loud and try not to have people like them again.”

Rakutis also said that two wartime collaborators with Nazi Germany, Kazys Škirpa and Jonas Noreika, were not to blame for the fact that more than 95% of Lithuanian Jewry was murdered, mostly by locals and often by followers of the two leaders.

The speech prompted rare recrimination from the U.S. ambassador as well as from advocates who monitor anti-Semitism in the region.

“It is shocking that on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, of all days, a member of Seimas should espouse distortions regarding Holocaust collaborators in Lithuania and shamefully seek to accuse Jews of being the perpetrators,” Gilchrist wrote on Twitter under the official account for the U.S. Embassy in Vilnius.

Efraim Zuroff, director of Eastern European affairs at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said in a statement: “Rakutis has clearly demonstrated that he is totally unsuited to head the Seimas committee on national memory, unless lying about Lithuanian history is the main requirement for the post.”

2021-01-282021-01-28

Ona Šimaitė: First Lithuanian Righteous Gentile Who Lived the Spirit of the National Anthem

Excerpts from Ona Šimaitė’s memoirs and Rimantas Stankevičius’s book “Gyvenusi tautos himno dvasia” [She Lived the Spirit of the National Anthem].

The Name Which Became Legend

Ona Šimaitė:

“I was too close to Jews during their time of great misfortune not to express my wonder at their unbreakable heroism and moral fortitude in the face of the death of their people on the other side of the barb-wire fence of the ghetto. You could say any people would have been broke physically and morally if they had to experience what every single Jew experienced. The Jews in the ghetto were heroes who never called themselves that.

“During that horrific time for Jews (and for all people of conscience) I often used to think that after it was all over, what the Jewish people had experienced would open the eyes of many people, and that we would only know about the hatred of Jews in archives and museums.

“But I was very wrong.

“Only a small portion of non-Jews remember the horrible means the Nazis used to exterminate thousands of Jews, and how Jewish children, women and the elderly were murdered.

“And shame to those who forget by whose hands this was accomplished, and who saved Jewish lives.”

2021-01-282021-02-01

No More Lies. My Grandfather Was a Nazi.

The author’s grandfather, Jonas Noreika. Family photograph

In Lithuania, he was celebrated as a hero. But we can’t move on until we admit what he really did.

by Silvia Foti

Ms. Foti is a journalist and the author of the forthcoming “The Nazi’s Granddaughter: How I Learned My Grandfather Was a War Criminal.”

When I was growing up in Chicago during the Cold War, my parents taught me to revere my Lithuanian heritage. We sang Lithuanian songs and recited Lithuanian poems; after Lithuanian school on Saturdays, I would eat Lithuanian-style potato pancakes.

My grandfather, Jonas Noreika, was a particularly important part of my family story: He was the mastermind of a 1945-1946 revolt against the Soviet Union, and was executed. A picture of him in his military uniform hung in our living room. Today, he is a hero not just in my family. He has streets, plaques and a school named after him. He was awarded the Cross of the Vytis, Lithuania’s highest posthumous honor.

On her deathbed in 2000, my mother asked me to take over writing a book about her father. I eagerly agreed. But as I sifted through the material, I came across a document with his signature from 1941 and everything changed. The story of my grandfather was much darker than I had known.

Full story here.

2021-01-282021-02-09

When No Eye-Witnesses Remain: LJC Invites Public to Internet Discussion on Holocaust

To mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Lithuanian Jewish Community is holding an internet discussion called “When No Eye-Witnesses Remain” at 2:00 P.M. on Wednesday, January 27, at https://www.facebook.com/zydubendruomene

LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, who helped initiate the virtual conference and plans to take part, said: “There are ever fewer Holocaust witnesses who can take an active part in educating society. When the last eye-witnesses die, all responsibility for preserving memory will pass to the younger generations. Memory of the Holocaust should become simply an history lesson where dates, names and locations are the most significant. It should be an eternal lesson in human moral values which moves the heart as well as the mind.”

Watch live, starting at 2:00 P.M.:

2021-01-27

Remembering and Honoring Holocaust Victims: Global #MesPrisimename/ #WeRemember Campaign

by Nadežda Spiridonovienė, historian, museum specialist, Nalšia Museum

Lithuania along with the United Nations marks Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27. Only by preserving the memory of the victims of the Holocaust can we create a safe future for humanity, the kind in which no anti-Semitism, racial, ethnic and religious hatred and discrimination would remain.

We remember the tragedy of the extermination of 6 million European Jews on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

What happened to people during the Holocaust? What happened in Švenčionys where Lithuanians, Jews, Tartars, Ukrainians, Poles, Russians and other peoples lived together? Where within a territory of a few kilometers people prayed at Catholic church, five synagogues, the Orthodox church and other houses of prayer? What happened 80 years ago to people if there was such a catastrophe, and what can the younger generation do today to insure it never happens again?

2021-01-272021-01-27

They Aren’t Beating Jews on the Street and Drawing Swastikas on Our Backs, But There’s Still a Lot of Hate

According to the Lithuanian Jewish Community, there are currently about 5,000 Jews living in Lithuania, constituting less than one percent of the country’s total population. Despite their small demographic spread, members of the Jewish community living in Lithuania continue to encounter a lack of tolerance and expressions of hate. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky says that although no one is beating Jews or drawing swastikas on their backs, there could be a lot more respect and the sense of shared humanity.

No lack of angry comments, go back to Israel

“Thirty years of independence have expanded our society’s horizons and made us more tolerant of one another. Travelling in other countries people begin to recognize diversity and realize we are all different. Even so, when some positive information appears in the public space about Jews and supportive of this community in Lithuania, there come endless disgusting comments and hate speech,” Kukliansky said.

She revealed she had experienced a number of anti-Semitic attacks in her life and therefore would never allow herself to think of another person as somehow lesser because of their ethnicity, race or other characteristics.

2021-01-26

Implementing the IHRA Definition of Anti-Semitism for NGO Funding

About the speakers

Prof. Gerald Steinberg is founder and president of NGO Monitor and professor emeritus at Bar Ilan University. His current research focuses on the politics of human rights, soft power and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). His book “Menachem Begin and the Israel-Egypt Peace Process: Between Ideology and Political Realism” was published in 2019.

Ellie Cohanim served as deputy special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism at the U.S. Department of State. Former deputy special envoy Cohanim helped inform and carry out policies and related initiatives that aim to counter global anti-Semitism at the State Department.

Mike Whine is a senior consultant at WJC. Between 2010 and 2012 he acted as lay advisor to the Counter Terrorism Division of the Crown Prosecution Service. In September 2013 he was appointed UK member of the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), a human rights agency of the Council of Europe.

Olga Deutsch is vice president at NGO Monitor where she works with elected officials around the world. Olga brings extensive experience in international politics and Europe-Israel relations, and expertise in advocacy and building effective strategies to combat delegitimization, BDS and modern anti-Semitism.

The Institute for NGO Research, 10 Yad Harutzim , Jerusalem, 9342148 Israel

2021-01-252021-01-28

More on the #MesPrisimename Campaign to Remember the Victims of the Holocaust

International Holocaust Remembrance Day will be marked around the world January 27 and the Lithuanian Jewish Community has and is inviting the people of Lithuania to join the #MesPrisimename (#WeRemember) campaign to remember the Jewish communities of Lithuania’s cities and towns exterminated in the Holocaust, the survivors and the rescuers.

“We remember the tragedy of the destruction of six million Jews of Europe every year at this time. We invite everyone–heads of state, politicians, the entire academic and education community and all the people of Lithuania–to remember on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day the people who were murdered in the flames of the Holocaust. This is our shared loss, the loss of the entire country,” Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said.

“We appeal to the entire academic and education community: use the opportunity this day provides and give attention to educating young people on commemorating the victims of the Holocaust. Hold virtual meetings with older members of the Jewish communities who remember these horrific periods of history. We still have the unique opportunity to speak directly with the eye-witnesses of these events, so let’s use it,” she added.

2021-01-252021-01-28

Internet Discussion: When All Eye-Witnesses to the Holocaust Are Gone

The Lithuanian Jewish Community is holding an internet discussion on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, called “When All Eye-Witnesses to the Holocaust Are Gone, There Must Still Be Public Commemorations.” The internet discussion is scheduled for 2:00 P.M. Wednesday.

Participants are to include LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, writer and law professor Justinas Žilinskas, Institute of the History and Archaeology of the Baltic Region Hektoras Vituks, Human Rights Monitoring Institute executive board member and philosopher Paulius Gritėnas and director of the Media and Democracy Program of the Vilnius Policy Analysis Institute Donatas Puslys. Šeduva Jewish Memorial Fund director and writer Sergejus Kanovičius is to moderate the event.

Those interested in “attending” are invited to go to the LJC facebook page for the event or youtube channel at the designated time and date.

2021-01-252021-01-27

#MesPrisimename Campaign to Mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day

The annual commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day takes place on January 27, the day Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated, and this year will mark the 76th time the United Nations’ commemorative day has been marked.

The Lithuanian Jewish Community wants to use this day to teach young people about the Holocaust and to hold virtual meetings between young people and survivors.

The LJC invites you to join the #WeRemember campaign on social media, which is called #MesPrisimename in Lithuanian. You can make a sign or inscription with either variant and photograph yourself with it, then post it with these hashtags, and send it projects@lzb.lt before January 25.

2021-01-192021-01-25

Lithuanian Jewish Community Chairwoman on Importance of January 13 to Nation’s Jews

Photo: Faina Kukliansky, by Vidmantas Balkūnas, courtesy 15min.lt

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky remembers January 13. Lithuanian Jews, who restored their community finally 30 years ago after decades of restrictions, took part in events in those days [in 1991] Nowadays when they talk about the struggle for freedom, members of the community emphasize the greatest gift: the opportunity to speak freely.

What do you remember personally about that fateful night at the TV tower, the Lithuanian Radio and Television building and the parliament? What does the Jewish community remember about these events?

Jews did the same thing as everyone else in Lithuania. We have collected the recollections of our community members of that fateful night. They watched the television broadcast until it was cut off and they went to the barricades, in Vilnius but also in Kaunas and other cities.

We were there where the majority of Lithuania was. I remember when I travelled from Varėna during that time and saw the road full of tanks. At that time I had an elderly guest from America who said he was seeing tanks for the first time in his life.

On that particular night my friends and I–all of us were together with our young children–followed events, held vigil, waiting for our husbands who were there in the crowd by the barricades or who were doing their job as doctors.

My children are now grown up and always remember that night and the tension. It wasn’t clear what would happen and the tanks were already in place in the city. We didn’t have any information, we had seen the final frame when E. Bučelytė had to quit the [television] studio. We learned that night from medics that there were dead and wounded people.

2021-01-182021-01-25

Anne Frank Statue in Boise Vandalized with Swastika Stickers

Dozens of local business leaders signed on to a letter to Boise and Idaho’s political leaders decrying recent vandalism at the Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial.

An unidentified person or group placed nine stickers on the memorial with a swastika and the words “we are everywhere” sometime between late December 7 and early December 8. The stickers were promptly removed and community members quickly showed up to place flowers, signs saying “love is everywhere” and other materials near the statue of Frank at the center of the memorial.

“This kind of attack has no place in our city and the message behind it has no place in our community. We are saddened, angered, and disgusted by the desecration, defamation and vandalism of the memorial,” the letter said.

Full article here.

2020-12-22

EJC President calls EU Court of Justice Ruling “Heavy Blow to Jewish Life in Europe”

Thursday, December 17, 2020–European Jewish Congress president Moshe Kantor has slammed a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) which allows member states to require stunning before religious slaughter of animals for meat as a fundamental attack on the basic rights of Jewish religious expression and practice.

The Court was responding to the question on a preliminary ruling by the Belgian regions of Flanders and Wallonia (and, by extension, other European authorities) to make an EU-law based religious slaughter exception meaningless by banning religious slaughter.

“The right to practice our faith and customs, one which we have been assured over many years was granted under European law, has been severely undermined by this decision,” president Kantor said.

2020-12-172020-12-17

Candle of Solidarity on Hanukkah Menorah for International Human Rights Day

Today the world marks International Human Rights Day which began when the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Human Rights Declaration on December 10, 1948. The call to stand up for human rights invites us to get involved and engaged in creating solidarity and societies respecting human rights, and calls on us to learn more about ethnic, religious and cultural communities and the way they live. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky calls it symbolic that this year’s International Human Rights Day coincides with the beginning of the traditional Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, a celebration of victory in perhaps the first battle for freedom of worship and freedom of conscience.

“The victory for our religion two millennia ago has continuity with modern Lithuania where all people have religious freedom. Hanukkah is an opportunity for the broader society to undersant and discover traditional Jewish culture as well as the activities of our community. We believe that it is only through understand and communication that we can overcome miscommunication and stereotypes, to insure respect for the rights of all people living in Lithuania,” chairwoman Kukliansky said.

Respect for human rights is urgent right now, she continued, because Jewish communities around the world are facing anti-Semitic sentiments. The European Union Council has responded to increasing attacks against Jews and all manner of anti-Semitic expressions, and on December 2 adopted a declaration on joint-efforts to fight anti-Semitism. The European Jewish Congress representing the Jewish communities of EU member-states and other European countries is asking national leaders to listen to the words of the declaration, follow it and pay additional attention towards creating a relationship of solidarity with the Jewish communities.

2020-12-112020-12-18

One Year Implementing IHRA Recommendations for Teaching, Learning about the Holocaust

Photo: The IHRA Recommendations for Teaching and Learning about the Holocaust were adopted in 2019 and are now available in eight languages. Credit: Charles Caratini.

Holocaust education helps create a strong foundation for democratic societies and for combating hateful ideologies. One year after the adoption of the Recommendations for Teaching and Learning about the Holocaust, this resource has proven valuable to educators and policymakers across the globe.

The Importance of Holocaust Education

Holocaust education has always been central to the IHRA’s mandate. Both the 2000 Stockholm Declaration and the 2020 IHRA Ministerial Declaration underline the responsibility to promote Holocaust education. After all, it is an important part of “counter[ing] the influence of historical distortion, hate speech and incitement to violence and hatred.” That is, Holocaust education remains fundamental to the preservation of democratic values and pluralistic societies.

This is because learning about the Holocaust gives us a chance to reflect upon important moral, political and social questions. Understanding some of the mechanisms that lead to genocide helps to foster qualities necessary for the development of civic-minded citizens such as critical thinking and societal awareness. It also helps preserve the memory of the victims and survivors of the Holocaust.

2020-12-11

Council of the European Union Declaration on Fighting Anti-Semitism

The Council “today approved a declaration on mainstreaming the fight against anti-Semitism across policy areas”:

“With this declaration the Council emphasizes that the fight against anti-Semitism is a cross-cutting issue involving various levels of government and policies at local, national and European levels. Awareness of anti-Semitism therefore needs to be raised across policy areas and responsibilities. The EU member states have agreed to mainstream the prevention and countering of antisemitism in all its forms.”

Felix Klein, Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight against Anti-Semitism, said: “Anti-Semitism is an EU-wide phenomenon. To counter it effectively, we need an appropriate set of European instruments and a sufficient basis. This is precisely the approach taken by the declaration, which I greatly welcome. In my view, tackling anti-Semitism as a comprehensive and networked task extending across policy areas and levels of government is a real milestone.”

The Council of the European Union furthermore “expresses its concern at the increase in threats to Jewish people in Europe, and the resurgence of conspiracy myths, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the increase in anti-Semitic incidents and hate crime.

“It stresses that anti-Semitism has developed into various forms and must be combated with complementary public policies. Illegal hate speech and online terrorist content must be removed promptly and consistently by internet service providers. A strong and systematic judicial response to anti-Semitic acts is also necessary.

“Education about the Holocaust, anti-Semitism and Jewish life remains one of the most important tools in preventing anti-Ssemitic prejudices. Sharing good practices to foster media literacy and awareness of conspiracy myths is also key.

“The member states also welcome the European Commission’s decision to make the fight against anti-Semitism a priority, as well as the strengthening of the institutional basis for the coordinator on combating anti-Semitism and fostering Jewish life,” the Council of the European Union reported here.

2020-12-072020-12-07

ECRI Says Anti-Semitism Incompatible with Values, Wants National Strategies from Member-States

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, aka ECRI, adopted an “Opinion on the Working Definition of Anti-Semitism of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)” at its 84th plenary session on December 2. The full text is available here.

IHRA’s working definition begins:

“Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

ECRI noted while many states have adopted the working definition, there are problems applying it legally because of the vagueness of some of the language, and said there are concerns because criticism of the State of Israel might be equated with anti-Semitism in a future redaction. There is also no academic consensus on a definition, the document said.

2020-12-072020-12-11