Heritage – Page 11 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Yom haShoah at Ponar

A ceremony was held to commemorate Yom haShoah, the Israeli Holocaust day of remembrance, on Tuesday at the Ponar Memorial Complex outside Vilnius. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas and Palanga Jewish Community chairman Vilius Gutmanas were joined there by Israel’s ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein, US ambassador Robert Gilchrist, Japanese ambassador Tetsu Ozaki, French ambassador Alix Everard, Lithuania’s deputy minister of culture Albinas Vilčinskas and U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad chairwoman and attorney Starlet “Star” Jones Lugo. Jones spoke with students from the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium at the event, emphasizing the importance of remembering the victims and preserving the Litvak heritage. Jones is a panelist on the controversial all-female liberal American television talk show “The View” on the American Broadcasting Company or ABC network.

2023-04-202023-04-20

Passover in Panevėžys

The Panevėžys Jewish Community celebrated Passover in common with Jewish communities around the world starting on April 7. Besides the men, women, children and elderly of the community, the Panevėžys Jewish Community also received guests from Vilnius and Chicago at the seder table.

Kobi Katz, wife Rita and daughter Shelly from Israel visited Panevėžys for Passover as well, and spoke with Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman about family roots in the Lithuanian city. They also praised attorney and chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community Faina Kukliansky for her help in locating documents concerning Kobi’s grandparents, and information about the burial of Katz relatives in Vilnius. Kobi Katz was born in Vilnius in 1967. At the age of ten he left for Israel where he resides till now. His grandfather Israel Moshe Kleiman was born in Panevėžys in 1898. The Katz family finally had the chance to visit Jewish locations in Panevėžys and said they would return next year to do the same.

2023-04-172023-04-17

Why Are Thousands Flocking to a Small Town in Central Lithuania?

A special place in the center of Lithuania: why does “Jewish” mean “backwards,” and why are packed buses arriving in this small town?

The small town of Krakės in the Kėdainiai region of central Lithuania is a special place. When you get there, you feel as if you’ve stepped into a different world. The community’s café Svetainė [Parlor] looks like an ordinary café, but thousands of people from all over Lithuania come by every year. It’s the Jewish cuisine which draws these people to Krakės.

A small group of enthusiasts from the Lithuanian town came up with a Jewish culinary and cultural education program called “One hundred and fifty years in the Jewish neighborhood: why Jewish means backwards.”

Krakės community center director Daiva Dubinkienė said initially the idea was to establish a cozy café in town, but the idea immediately grew to include an educational program.

The Life section of 15min.lt interviewed community center director Daiva Dubinkienė and the cook Lina Gaučiene, who makes Jewish dishes.

Q. We are meeting at the Svetainė café. When you cross the threshold, it really seems as if you’ve entered a different reality. It’s a cozy spot.

2023-04-172023-11-20

News from Kaunas

During the last few weeks the Kaunas Jewish Community hosted a number of events looking at history and commemorating significant figures. There was discussion at these events of timeless matters as well: adhering to one’s values, the resolution and choice to be free and preserve humanity, the courage to understand and accept the traumas of the past and being open to the truth however painful or unpleasant it might be.

Tadas Daujotas and the Gyvybės žygis [March of the Living] organization held a meeting with international March of Life/March of the Living founder and author of the book “Breaking the Veil of Silence” [Die Decke des Schweigens] Pastor Jobst Bittner from Germany.

The restored grave of Klaudijus Dušauskas-Duž [aka Kłaŭdzi Duž-Dušeŭski, Клаўдзі Дуж-Душэўскі, Клавдий Степанович Дуж-Душевский, Klawdziy Duzh-Dushewski] was also unveiled in a ceremonial setting. He rescued Jews in Lithuania during the Holocaust and created the red and white Belarussian flag. The ceremony took place on March 25, Belarus Freedom Day, commemorating the first independent but short-lived Belarussian state in 1918.

2023-04-042023-04-04

Great Synagogue Listed as Protected Heritage Site

The site of the former Great Synagogue in Vilnius with associated mikvot has been listed as a state-protected cultural heritage site, according to Baltic News Service.

The Lithuanian Culture Ministry issued a press release Thursday naming this site and the site of the first Lithuanian gymnasium in Vilnius was established on Basanavičiaus street. The YIVO occupied part of the latter space at its inception in 1925 before moving headquarters to Vivulskio street in Vilnius. The ministry reports state protection means more opportunities for funding protection and restoration of these sites.

The exact date the synagogue was built isn’t known. The Great Synagogue with adjacent ritual purification baths was part of a larger complex of synagogues, libraries and schools located around the Great Synagogue and the home of the Vilna Gaon.

Ownership of the ruins of the Great Synagogue and mikvot were passed to the Goodwill Foundation in 2020. Various plans for commemorating the site have been proposed, but so far the most likely is a humble protected excavation exhibit showcasing the subterranean main hall with bimah and floor.

Photo: Tunnel dug by archaeologists leading to central bimah, by Valdas Kopūstas, courtesy BNS.

2023-03-312023-03-31

Nancy Sasson Travels to Panevėžys Seeking Family Roots

Last week Nancy Sasson from the United States arrived in Panevėžys seeking genealogical information about her family. She believes her grandfather and perhaps great-grandfather lived in Panevėžys. She was accompanied by her old friend from Lithuania Vaida Zlatkutė and a guide who travelled from Israel to help.

Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman received them warmly and he and the Israeli guide gave the two women a tour of the city, pointing out significant Jewish locations and telling the Litvak story, the many important cultural contributions Litvaks made and the horrific end they suffered.

Nancy Sasson was visibly moved during the tour down the streets and sidewalks once traversed by her forebears.

2023-03-312023-03-31

Opening Ceremony for Restored Kupiškis Public Library and Former Great Synagogue

The Panevėžys Jewish Community reports on the ceremonial re-opening of the restored Great Synagogue in Kupiškis which has housed the Kupiškis Public Library since 1950:

“Following reconstruction for six years on March 24 the Kupiškis Regional Public Library housed in the former Great Synagogue of Kupiškis was ceremoniously reopened.

“To the musical accompaniment of the Rakja Klezmar Orkestar Lithuanian culture minister Simonas Kairys, Kupiškis regional administration mayor Dainius Bardauskas, Kupiškis Regional Public Library director Algirdas Venckus and Infes corporation director Arvydas Markevičius together cut the ribbon re-opening the building.”

Full story in Lithuanian with more photographs from the opening ceremony available on the Panevėžys Jewish Community webpage here.

2023-03-29

Sunday Quiz: Why Is This Night Like No Other?

Next Sunday’s quiz at the Bagel Shop Café is called “What Is Passover?” As usual, accomplished circus clown and investigative journalist Arkadijus Vinokuras will lead the fun, and shut-ins will be able to at least watch on the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s facebook page. It all happens at 2:00 P.M. on Sunday, April 2. Be there or be late to the table.

2023-03-272023-03-27

New Holocaust Play from Klaipėda Coming to Vilnius

The Klaipėda Jewish Community theater Šatil is preparing to stage the play “Man baisus pasaulis, kuriame nėra tavęs” [A World Without You Horrifies Me] based on the work of Maja Tarachovskaja (Майя Тараховская, Maya Tarakhovskaya) in Vilnius.

The play tells the story of a Jewish girl named Mirka who escaped from a train on the way to a death camp. She is forced by circumstances to make the hard decision to leave her son with the villager woman who rescued them in order to save her newborn baby.

“And I left, in the night, for nowhere, leaving to that woman two priceless gifts: I gave her you, and the only existing photograph of your father,” a heartbroken Mirka says in the play.

The play, directed by Nerijus Gedminas, is in Russian and will debut Tuesday, April 11, at the Russian Drama Theater at Jono Basanavičiaus street no. 13 in Vilnius.

2023-03-272023-03-27

Synagogue Restored in Kupiškis

One of the synagogues in Kupiškis, Lithuania, which houses the town’s public library has been undergoing restoration for the last six years. On Friday, March 24, Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, Israel ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein and US ambassador Robert Gilchrist visited the synagogue and saw the results of the reconstruction work.

“A large Jewish community lived in Kupiškis before the war,” chairwoman Kukliansky said. “They were almost all exterminated by the Nazis and local collaborators. It is right that their story is remembered, if only eighty years later, and that the residents of Kupiškis who come here or pass by outside will see this building and be reminded of the great contribution Jews made to the community’s success.”

Jews settled in Kupiškis sometime in the 17th century. In 1682 bishop Mikołaj Pac (Mikolajus Pacas in Lithuanian) issued a permit for the construction of a synagogue. Around 2,661 Jews accounting for 71% of the population lived in Kupiškis in 1897. During the period between the two world wars there were three working synagogues in the town, adjacent and forming a courtyard, with the Great Synagogue on the northern side, the Small Synagogue on the south and the Hassidic synagogue on the western side. The Great and Hassidic synagogues survive. In 1950 the Great synagogue building was used as the town’s public library. The entrance way into the library has a commemorative plaque with a citation from the Book of Isaiah, 56:5: “I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off,” in Hebrew, English and Lithuanian. The first floor of the building is now being used as a library with the second storey as space dedicated to the Jewish community.

2023-03-272023-03-27

ORT Technicum in Vilnius: A Window to the Future

The Lithuanian National Martyna Mažvydas Library will host an exhibit called “The Vilnius ORT Technicum: A Window to the Future” as part of the 700th birthday celebrations for the city of Vilnius. The exhibit will talk about the history of the Jewish vocational institution and the importance of acquiring a craft or trade for economic survival in the early 20th century. Work by students and original documents and textbooks in Yiddish will be displayed. The exhibit will also include a projection of documents from the library’s Judaica center projected on windows located at Islandijos street no. 3, formerly Gdansk street where the ORT operated starting in 1925. The light show is to take place from 8:00 P.M. to 4:00 A.M. during the entire course of the exhibit at the library. The main exhibit will be demonstrated on the fifth floor of the national library. The exhibit will run from April 4 to May 31 during the library’s working houses and is open to the public. An opening ceremony is scheduled for 6:00 P.M., April 4, in the atrium on the fifth floor.

More information is available in Lithuanian here.

2023-03-23

New Publication of Shur’s Entries: A Chronicle of the Vilna Ghetto, 1941-1944

Grigoriy Shur’s Vilnius ghetto diary has been reissued with support from the Goodwill Foundation, with a new cover and new introduction.

Perhaps the most informative of the several Vilnius ghetto diaries, Shur’s manuscript was originally published in Lithuanian translation by the Era publishing house in Vilnius in 1997 with partial funding from the Lithuanian Culture Ministry, and was roundly ignored by the general public.

The new edition is the same translation published by Era back in 1997 by Nijolė Kvaraciejūtė and Algimantas Antanavičius. It contains the same introduction by Pranas Morkus and forward by Vladimir Porudominsky, but adds a new and short introduction by the writer Vytautas Toleikis, who surveys recent Holocaust literature published in Lithuanian, including his keen observations about the book “Mūsiškai” [Our People] by Rūta Vanagaitė and Efraim Zuroff, or more precisely, how Lithuanian nationalists responded to it. Here’s a rough translation of part of Toleikis’s introduction:

2023-03-202023-03-29

YIVO to Digitize Treasure Trove of Leftist History

New York Jewish Week–YIVO has launched an eight-year project to digitize its Jewish Labor and Political Archives, widening access to some 3.5 million pages related to Jewish revolutionary, socialist and labor movements in Europe and America.

The project, the largest archival digitization project in the history of the Jewish research institute, will shine a light on the Jewish Labor Bund whose archives survived the Nazis and form the core of the collection.

Founded in Vilna in 1897 by Jews influenced by Marxism, the Bund played a central role in organizing Jewish trade unions and aligned with various socialist parties in pre-WWII Europe. It administered a massive network of secular Yiddish schools, stood up against anti-Semitism and supported an underground network against the Nazi genocide, activities kept up by members who managed to flee to New York in the early 1940s.

That history is reflected in the journey of the archive materials which were seized by the Nazis but were later rediscovered in France after the German army’s retreat. In 1951 the Bund Archives was brought to New York, and transferred to YIVO in 1992.

2023-03-14

European Days of Jewish Culture 2023

Organizers and coordinators of the European Days of Jewish Culture for 2023 events met in Paris in late February and decided upon the theme “Citizens, equality, rights and values” for this year’s celebrations.

Most meetings and seminars took place at the Shoah memorial in Paris with meetings on the second day at UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

The European Days of Jewish Culture are scheduled to begin on the first Sunday in September, 2023.

2023-03-13

March 11, Restoration of Lithuanian Independence Day

Dear readers,

March 11, 1990, meant rebirth for the Jews of Lithuania. When the country regained independence, the surviving Jewish community began to unite. This was the beginning of restoring our ethnic identity, of active ethnocultural life, and finally we all began to talk openly about the Holocaust and the role played by ethnic Lithuanians.

We have rights and freedoms in independent Lithuania. We speak courageously about what isn’t right, and we initiate change. We host guests and we travel. Our children and grandchildren live here and the whole world is now open to them. Our home is here and we are an integral part of Lithuania.

So congratulations and greetings on this holiday which belongs to all of us, March 11.

Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community

2023-03-132023-03-13

Insider’s Look at the EDJC Organizers and Coordinators Meeting for 2023

PARIS, FRANCE–The EDJC Organizers and Coordinators Meeting 2023 took place from February 22 to 23 with the majority of its sessions and workshops occurring at the Memorial de la Shoah and a final session and closing ceremony concluding the meeting at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. The bi-annual meeting for organizers and coordinators of European Days of Jewish Culture activities occurs in an extraordinary context and under the umbrella of an exceptional program the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values program of the European Union.

Organizers and coordinators of the European Days of Jewish Culture had the opportunity to spend two full days together in the city of Paris with the aim of training and reflecting upon how to work with the 2023 edition’s theme of memory. The theme of memory is particularly relevant to the EDJC, as it allows us to explore and remember the rich history of Jewish culture and heritage. The festival provides participants with an opportunity to learn about Jewish culture and history, as well as to reflect on the rôle of memory in shaping our understanding of the past and the present.

During the meeting, attendees witnessed the uncovering of the poster of this year’s edition designed by Nikola Radic Lucati, Founder of the Center for Holocaust Research and Education in Belgrade, Serbia. Participants had the opportunity to participate in training sessions and workshops on the theme of memory, as well as to attend coordination meetings and networking events.

Full story here.

2023-03-072023-03-07

2023-03-07

Purim Wouldn’t Be the Same without Hamentashen

Purim starts tonight at sundown when the 14th day of the month of Adar begins on the Jewish calendar. One of the constituent features of Purim is the traditional pastry known as hamentashen. Although everyone has their own special recipe, Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky makes her family’s version with poppy-seed filling, the traditional Litvak treat. The recipe dates beck to the period between the two world wars.

“This recipe was probably used earlier and recalls the time when the aroma of the pastry filled the Vilnius Old Town and many other cities and towns where Jews lived in Lithuania. Although you can purchase this version now, it’s always more fun to make it yourself,” she commented.

Happy Purim! Hag Purim sameakh!

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Faina Kukliansky’s hamantashen recipe:

2023-03-06

State Protection Proposed for Great Synagogue Ruins

The ruins of the Great Synagogue and attached ritual Jewish bath in Vilnius has been proposed as a site for protection by the state.

The State Cultural Heritage Commission approved that recommendation but the actual listing of the site is up to the Lithuanian minister of culture. The site has architectural, archaeological, historical, commemorative and sacred features.

The State Cultural Heritage Commission said in a press release: “The archaeological, architectural, historical, commemorative and sacred significance of this complex in the Vilnius Old Town is undisputed.”

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2023-03-06

Preparations for Marking Yom haShoah in Alytus

A delegation from the Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel headed by director Arie Ben-Ari Grodzensky visited Alytus, Lithuania, yesterday and met with mayor Nerijus Cesiulis and staff to discuss commemorating Yom haShoah, Israel’s Holocaust remembrance day on the 25th of Adar, in the town southwest of Vilnius. The delegation visited the synagogue recently restored there and the mass murder site in Vidzgiris forest to pay their respects to the victims of the Holocaust there. The plan is to mark Yom haShoah in Alytus on April 17.

2023-03-032023-03-03