With deep sadness we report Puna Dvorskis passed away May 22. He was born in 1940. Our deepest condolences to his children on the death of their beloved father.
Ninth Forth Memorial Sculptor Dies
Photo: LRT
Lithuanian Public Radio and Television and BNS reported Wednesday the sculptor Alfonsas Vincentas Ambraziūnas died on May 7 at the age of 86. He was known mainly for the large Soviet-era memorial statue at the Ninth Fort in Kaunas where Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. Initially the statue was dedicated to all victims of fascism.
Full article in Lithuanian here.
Condolences
Vitalina Timofeyeva passed away May 1. She was born in 1937. Our deepest condolences to her sons and loved ones.
Condolences
The Lithuanian Jewish Community sends its condolences to Arkadijus Gotesmanas on the death of his father, Burnitalis Arnoldas Gotesmanas, who passed away at the age of 90. The late Gotesmanas survived Auschwitz and Mauthausen. He died in Brooklyn and was buried there.
Condolences
South African Litvak Denis Goldberg died of lung cancer just before midnight on April 29 at his home at Hout Bay in Cape Town. He was born April 11,1933. An anti-apartheid activist, Goldberg was tried with Neslon Mandela at the Rivonia trial and sentenced to 22 years in prison. Our deepest condolences to his many friends and family.
Condolences
Moshe Kukliansky has died at the age of 97 in Israel. He was the head of the Kukliansky family and was the uncle of Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community.
Our deepest condolences to his children Alexander, Zinaida, Liliiana, niece Faina, the multitude of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and the entire family.
Moshe Kukliansky was a chemist, a witness to Litvak history and a Holocaust survivor. Faina recalls: “Our big family has lost a noble person who survived the Holocaust and was a great witness to Litvak history, a chemist and a just man filled with the law. That’s what he liked to call other people. After my grandmother Zinaida–the mother of Moshe, Samuel and Anna–was murdered and Moshe was forced to work for local farmers, when he came home my father Samuel used to grab his hands and kiss him. Moshe asked ‘What are you so happy about? Our mother is dead.’ My father, who was 11 then, replied ‘I’m happy you’re still here.’ For me, my children and grandchildren, Moshe was like a father and a grandfather, just as all my aunts and uncles were like parents to me, and cousins like brothers and sisters. It is very sad that our last family member of the older generation has passed away.”
Moshe Kukliansky’s telling of the dramatic story of the family’s survival during the Holocaust was immortalized several years back in a film called the Pit of Life and Torment (Gyvybės ir kančių duobė).
Condolences
The Lithuanian Jewish Community extends our deepest condolences to the friends and family of noted writer and producer Felix Dektor who passed away at the age of 89 in Jerusalem. He was born December 21, 1930, in Minsk to a family of Litvaks. He lived there until being evacuated to the Ukraine and then Siberia during the Holocaust.
Graduated from the History and Philology Faculty of Vilnius University in 1955, Dektor continued studies at the Gorky Institute of Literature in Moscow including in Lev Ozerov’s literary translation seminar. Dektor translated a number of Lithuanian writers into Russian, including books by Justinas Marcinkevičius, Juozas Požėra, Alfonsas Bieliauskis and Mykolas Sluckis. His best-known translations were perhaps the novels of Icchokas Meras on Jewish death and valor during the Holocaust (Ничья длится мгновенье (Вечный шах) and На чём держится мир).
Dektor was removed from the Writers’ Union of the Soviet Union in 1975 in response to his publication and distribution of the Jewish cultural and educational magazine Tarbut.
Condolences
We sadly report the death of Pranas Algirdas Dargys on April 4, 2020. He was born in 1933. We send our deepest condolences to his beloved wife.
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Our deepest condolences to EJC executive director Raya Kalenkovoa on the death of her beloved mother Sophie Berchader, who died at home surrounded by her loving family.
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Levas Markmanas has passed away. He was born in 1948. Our deepest condolences to Eduardas Pogosovas on the loss of his beloved father.
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Leonid Štarkman passed away on March 15. He was born in 1937. Our deepest condolences go to his daughter Svetlana.
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The Lithuanian Jewish Community expresses its deepest condolences to Vytautas Landsbergis and his family on the death of his beloved wife Gražina who passed away March 11.
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In sadness we report the death of Boris Berin on January 20. He was born in 1927. Our deepest condolences go to his children.
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Ruvinas Bechakas passed away February 3. He was born in 1939. Our deepest condolences to his son.
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Leiba Munic passed away February 1. Our deepest condolences to the family on their loss.
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The Lithuanian Jewish Community extend our deepest condolences to Michailas Tarasovas on the death of his beloved mother.
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Isaakas Demantas passed away in late January. We have lost an amazingly sensitive and sincere friend. Orphaned by the Holocaust, he made his own way in life from the age of 13. An active member of the Jewish community and the Union of Former Ghetto and Concentration Camp inmates, he passed away at the age of 91.
Our deepest condolences to his soulmate Mina Frišman and sons Arkadijus and Vladimiras, to his grandchildren and to his friends Ieva and Monia who came to his aid when misfortune struck and Isaakas was hospitalized.
Condolences
Elina Malomuž passed away January 12. She was born in 1962. We extend our deepest condolences to her mother Natalija and her daughter Olga. May you find comfort and strength of spirit in this difficult time of loss.
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In great sadness we report the death on January 15 of the long-time, active member of our community Vladimir Vakhman at the age of 77. He was born September 24, 1943, in Nazi-occupied Kiev. He only survived by being hidden until the Soviet army liberated the Ukrainian capital. Actually he didn’t see the light of day until then. Vakhman was well known to collectors and book lovers in Vilnius. Readers of Obzor know his translations from Lithuanian to Russian. Vladimir Vakhman will stay in our hearts forever as a conscientious fellow traveller who was always ready to help others. Our deepest condolences to his widow and children.
Condolences
Simonas Dovidavičius passed away December 14. He was deputy chairman of the Kaunas Jewish Community, the founding light and director of the Sugihara House museum in Kaunas, highly educated, a tour guide and a good friend. His loss is a great loss to the Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Kaunas Jewish Community. Our condolences to his many friends and loved ones.
Those wishing to bid him farewell may do so at the St. Anthony of Padua Church in Kaunas, Radvilėnų highway no. 15A, Kaunas, on Tuesday, December 17, beginning at 5:00 P.M. He will be buried at noon on December 18 at the Aleksotas Jewish cemetery in Kaunas.
