Elija-Leiba Fainberg passed away January 17. He was born in 1930. The Lithuanian Jewish Community extends our deepest condolences to his son Markas and all his loved ones.
Condolences
We are saddened to report the recent death of Marijaša Graužinienė. She was a member of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and a client of the LJC’s Saul Kagan Welfare Center. Our deepest condolences to her daughters Tatjana and Rima.
Condolences
We regret to report yet another death January 4, that of Svetlana Pugačiova. She was born in 1945 and was a member of the Community in long standing and a client of the Saul Kagan Welfare Center. Our deepest condolences to her husband Valerijus, son Stanislavas and daughter Eliza.
Condolences
Markas Lifšicas passed away January 24. He was born in 1975 and was a long-standing member of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and more recently a client of the Saul Kagan Welfare Center. Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky and the entire Lithuanian Jewish Community extend our condolences to his father Jakovas and sister Liza.
Condolences
With deep sadness we report the death of Svetlana Plenkivskaja on January 1. She was born in 1943 and was a client of the Saul Kagan Welfare Center and a member of the Union of Former Concentration Camp and Ghetto Prisoners.. Our sincere condolences to her sister, son and many friends and relatives. Rest in peace, Svetlana.
Condolences
With deep sadness we report the death on December 23 of long-time Community member and Saul Kagan Welfare Center client Liubov Indenok. She was born in 1930. We extend our condolences to her daughter Galina and other loved ones.
Condolences
Frume Malka Kučinskienė died December 22. She was born in 1933. She was a long-time member of the Kaunas Jewish Community, a Holocaust survivor and a client of the Saul Kagan Welfare Center. We extend our deepest condolences to her family and friends but also to Lithuania for the loss of this friend who suffered so much but never lost her inner light.
Condolences
Community member and Social Center client Zoja Archangarodskaja passed away December 22. She was born in 1930. Our deepest condolences go to her husband Ilja and friends and family members.
Condolences
We are saddened to report the death on December 8 of Kaunas ghetto inmate Kęstutis Deltuvas. He was born in 1931. He was a member of the Union of Ghetto Prisoners and a client of the Saul Kagan Welfare Center. Our deepest condolences to his widow Angelina, son Ričardas, daughter Dalia and grandson Ričardas.
Condolences
With deep sadness we report the death of Henry Kissinger. He was born May 27, 1933, to a German Jewish family and went on to serve as secretary of state and national security advisor under US presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, and remained the main voice of American foreign policy under president Jimmy Carter. He was the architect of US foreign policy who engineered the withdrawal of US troops from South Viet Nam “with dignity” (for which he was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973), Nixon’s overture to Red China, NATO’s peacekeeping mission in Yugoslavia–calling for the “Finlandization” of the constituent break-away republics–and of policy surrounding the dismantling of the Soviet Union and the emergent Russian Federation. An outstanding proponent of the State of Israel, although he refused to take up the cause of Soviet refuseniks as antithetical to US interests–and he seemed to have a personal antipathy towards Soviet Jews–, in more recent times he was an outspoken proponent for peace in the Ukraine, calling upon NATO to take Russia’s security concerns seriously and for the parties involved to develop a real post-Cold War security architecture for Europe which would take Russia’s legitimate security interests into account. He died aged 100. Our deepest condolences to his many friends and family members.
Condolences
We are sad to report the death of Markas Javičius. He was born in 1938 and was a member of the Kaunas Jewish Community, and a client of the LJC Saul Kagan Social Welfare Center. We extend our deepest condolences to his wife, son and many friends and family members.
Condolences
We are sad to report the death of Boris Pojurovskis in September. He was born in 1936. We extend our deepest condolences to his wife, daughter Eleonora and grandson Artūras as well as to his many other relatives and friends.
Condolences
We are sad to report Galina Knyš passed away November 8. She was a member of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and a client of the Saul Kagan Social Services Center. We extend our deepest condolences to her daughters Nina and Marina, and to her many friends and family members.
Litvak Memorial Garden Remembers Fallen Israeli Police Officer from Lithuania
The Litvak Memorial Garden in Plungė has added a new metal apple to the sculptured metal apple orchard there to commemorate Martynas Kuzmickas, an Israeli police officer from Lithuania who was killed by Hamas in southern Israel two weeks ago.
Condolences
Lidija Karpenko passed away October 16. She was born in 1947 and was a member of the Jewish community and a Social Center client. Our deepest condolences to her daughter Irina, other members of her family and all who knew her.
Condolences
Long-time member and Saul Kagan Social Welfare Center client Rubin Gandleris has passed away. He was born in 1941. We extend our deepest condolences to his son Michailas, his entire family and his many relatives and friends.
Condolences
We are deeply saddened to report the death of Ida Vileikienė, a long-time member of the Šiauliai Jewish Community. The Šiauliai Jewish Community sends our deepest condolences to her husband Petras, daughter Svajonė and grandson Donatas.
Šiauliai Jewish Community
Statement by Lithuanian Jewish Community, All 32 Constituent Members, about the War in Israel and the Situation in Lithuania
When terrorist group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 the world witnessed acts of incomprehensible brutality where women, children, the disabled and the elderly were taken hostage and murdered, taken hostage and used as human shields, and publicly tortured and executed.
We say with no reservations at all that Israel is a sovereign state. No one has the right to attack Israel, to invade Israel’s territory and to murder the people of Israel. There can be no justification nor mercy of any kind for the murderers.
Today, 50 years later, the words of beloved Israeli prime minister Golda Meir sound prophetic: we had a secret weapon in the war: there was no alternative. Again Israel is fighting for survival.
This brutal war is especially painful to the members of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, there is no Jewish family in Lithuania whose members haven’t been touched by these terrific events. Our close relatives are fighting on the front lines, healing the wounded, rescuing people buried in rubble, helping those who are stuck and who could die. We are extremely proud of them.
Our thoughts and hearts are with our parents, brothers, sisters, children, grandchildren and friends who remain in Israel. With every person fighting for our historical homeland. With everyone who is experiencing the horror and loss.
Unfortunately it isn’t just our relatives in Israel who have found themselves in danger, but also in Lithuania. In the country where we were born, grew up and work, the country which we love, whose citizens we are, anti-Semitism is spreading, not just on the social media and at protests, but from the podium at the Lithuanian parliament, and even children are being attacked: they are being threatened and hurt on purpose. Yesterday a Bolt taxi driver of dark complexion who didn’t speak Lithuanian asked a minor, a child, what his ethnicity was, and when he found out his passenger was Jewish, he refused to take him to school. This is certainly not the only and not the worst incident, but it’s very illustrative of the situation.
These kinds of incidents make our community feel unsafe, but we are concentrated and unified, we are unified both by our thousands of years of history, but also by the future.
We are inn close cooperation with the Lithuanian Police Department and other security structures. Ee are in continual contact with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Lithuanian embassy to Israel and international Jewish organizations. We are exchanging information and sharing data.
Despite the shock of it all, we are striving to help Lithuanian citizens stranded in Israel as well, and to help Israeli citizens in Lithuania to fly home. We are providing information, consulting, helping to provide solutions to the unexpected problems which have come up all at once.
We thank Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda, speaker of parliament Viktorija Čmilyte-Nielsen and prime minister Ingrida Šimonytė for the firm support for Israel and the Lithuanian Jewish Community they have expressed. We are very encouraged Lithuania has condemned unequivocally the actions of the terrorists and has stood for the right and just side.
We are extraordinarily grateful to the people of Lithuania as well who have sent us their messages of condolence and support and who are praying for our brothers and sisters taken hostage by the terrorists. At the same time we caution people should assess critically the information they receive and only share news from official Israeli institutions and agencies.
Am Yisral khai. The people of Israel live.
Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community
Condolences
We are sad to report the death of long-time member of the Švenčionys Jewish Community and teacher Galina Kozlova. She was born in 1938. The Švenčionys Jewish Community, its chairman Moishe Shapiro and the entire Lithuanian Jewish Community extend our condolences to her sons Aleksei and Boris, her grandchildren and her many friends and relatives.
Condolences
Martynas Kuzmickas, an Israeli soldier, died Saturday during Hamas’s attack on Israel. He was born in Lithuania and moved to Israel in 1995 at the age of 17. Our deepest condolences to his sister Evelina and his many friends and family members.