Heritage – Page 13 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Vilna Gaon Mausoleum Now State-Protected Heritage Site

MadeinVilnius.lt

Lithuanian culture minister Simonas Kairys has added the mausoleum containing the remains of the Vilna Gaon at the Sudervės road cemetery in Vilnius to the list of cultural heritage sites. protected by the state.

In his order he wrote the mausoleum is important in terms of public dignity and should be protected because of its architectural, historical and commemorative significance.

The site and surrounding territory now has a protection status intended to maintain authenticity.

The rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman, known as the Vilna Gaon, lived in the 18th century and is considered one of the most remarkable commentators on the Talmud.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2022-07-11

Vilnius Approves Restoration of Jewish Street

MadeinVilnius.lt

The city of Vilnius wants to reconstruct historical Žydų or Jewish street and decorate the territory of the former Great Synagogue with architectural accents recalling the 16th century. The Vilnius municipality and the Vilniaus Planas group of architects back in May presented the public proposed projects for the restoration of Žydų street and the Shulhoyf. The Vilnius city municipality approved a project this week.

The contours of historical Jewish street were established more precisely according to the location of fragments of street paving boards discovered. The current street trajectory has changed from the historical one and the proposal is to return it to its original course through the deconstruction and removal of existing street and sidewalk pavement. The paving stones on Stiklių street, which becomes Žydų street, would continue on into Žydų street, according to the current plan.

2022-07-112022-07-11

Kaunas Jewish Community Members Tour Western Lithuania

One weekend last June members of the Kaunas Jewish Community made a tour of Western Lithuania. Our guides included Monika from Švėkšna, Živilė from Šilutė, Raimondas from Preila and Rasa from Klaipėda, all of whom taught us about this wonderful region surrounded by water. They explained the rich and painful history of the land.

2022-07-11

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Netflix Hit Stranger Things Slammed for Nazi Prison

by Emma Myers

Netflix has come under fire for using the sites of past atrocities as locations or inspiration for its nostalgic hit show Stranger Things, including a plan to let fans book a themed cell in a former Holocaust prison on AirBnB.

Two of the locations in its fourth season–the final episodes of which were released last week–have dark roots in the real world.

Russian prison scenes were filmed in a former Lithuanian prison used by Nazis during the Holocaust while the show’s fictitious mental hospital was inspired by an infamous U.S. asylum with a similar name.

Mental health and Jewish advocates have criticized the streaming giant for what they see as exploitation of a brutal history. Both locations are also now tourist attractions.

2022-07-102022-07-10

Presidential Palace Reception on Coronation of Mindaugas Day

Photo: Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky and son Rafaelis attended the reception. Photo by J. Stasevičius courtesy Lithuanian State Radio and Television.

The Lithuanian president invited special guests to attend a reception at the presidential palace compound Wednesday to mark Coronation of Mindaugas Day, the day chosen by historians and others to celebrate the coronation Lithuania’s first and only king, Mindaugas, in A.D. 1253 with a crown sent by Pope Innocent IV.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Story of King Mindaugas in brief here.

2022-07-072022-07-07

New Condo Ad in Kaunas: “Lietūkis: A Building with History”

A building built between the two world wars on Vytautas prospect in Kaunas is now undergoing renovation. The architect was Karolis Reisneris, the same architect who designed the Church of the Assumption in Kaunas. Advertisements to purchase apartments have caused controversy because of the phrase “Lietūkis: A Building with History,” recalling the Lietūkis garage massacre in Kaunas in late June of 1941.

Artist Paulina Eglė Pukytė spotted the advertisement on facebook and was surprised by it.

“If the ad campaign is mentioning history, then how can it ignore completely some of the blackest pages of 20th century history connected with the word Lietūkis? The advertisement suggests ‘touching history.’ How should we touch it, and which history?” she said to 15min.lt.

Between the two world wars the compound word “Lietūkis,” made up of Lietuva or Lithuania, shortened to Liet-, followed by ūkis, meaning economy, farm or household, was the name adopted by the Union of Lithuanian Agricultural Cooperatives, which operated in Kaunas from 1923 to 1940. Their headquarters were located at no. 43 on Vytautas prospect. The daylight pogrom and mass murder of Jews was perpetrated at the garage, actually an automobile service and repair station, located on Miško street in Kaunas and still known as the Lietūkis garage, despite abolition of the Lietūkis organization, the Union of Lithuanian Agricultural Cooperatives, prior to that.

2022-07-07

Free Tango Lessons at Israeli Street Food Kiosk

The Cvi in the Park Israeli street food kiosk is hosting free tango dancing lessons open to everyone at the park across the street from the Lithuanian Jewish Community at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius at 7:00 P.M. on July 5. The vocalist Eudardo will perform tango music from Latin America and the Argentine.

Program:

7:00 P.M. – 7:45 P.M. Public tango lesson
8:00 P.M. First portion of concert (Argentine and Latin American tango music)
8:30 P.M. Milonga (tango dances)
9:00 P.M. Second portion of concert
10:00 P.M. Finale.

2022-07-05

One Hundred and Seven Years Late for Dinner

by Grant Gochin

When your grandmother’s last words make it clear that she’s not who you thought she was, you are willing to move all the mountains in Europe to get to the truth

Dinner between cousins was scheduled for Shabbat on Friday, May 14, 1915. How was I to know that the Shabbos meal never took place? Without warning, Russian forces launched a genocidal mass deportation of Baltic Jews deep into Russia. Families were torn apart, lives were destroyed and communities of Jews devastated.

The first inkling I had was on my grandmother’s deathbed. Her final lucid words to me were: “I wish I knew my name. I wish I knew who my family was.” We thought we knew her name–Bertha Lee Arenson. We were wrong.

2022-06-302023-04-17

Vytautas Bruveris’s Presentation at Fifth World Litvak Congress

Lithuanian journalist Vytautas Bruveris gave a presentation at the Fifth World Litvak Congress held in Vilnius last month called “Jews in Lithuania: A Still-Undiscovered or an Already-Lost Shared History?”:

Many here have spoken about the war in the Ukraine. That’s natural, because it is continuation and horrific metastasis of the same story we are all talking about. I would like to talk about a different aspect, however, about empathy. Lithuanian society is showing they are very capable of human empathy and solidarity. We see that especially clearly in the huge and praise-worthy movement to receive war refugees from the Ukraine.

A question arises in this context, however, for me: is it not true that Lithuanian society are most able to feel empathy for those whom they understand as their own people, as participants of the same history?

2022-06-222022-06-22

Guided Tour of Gedimino Prospect Followed by Sabbath Ceremony

Jewish tour guide Mark Psonic will lead a walking tour of Vilnius’s main street, Gedimino prospect, on June 17 as part of a larger event being held by the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s Gesher and Kaveret Clubs.

Those wishing to take the tour will assemble at the bell tower of the Cathedral in central Vilnius at 6:00 P.M. Friday. The walking tour will conclude at the Cvi in the Park Israeli street food kiosk located in the former Petras Cvirka square across the street from the LJC, where the Sabbath will be ushered in in the traditional manner.

The cost per person is five euros with registration by internet till June 15 and no later. Send an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt to register.

2022-06-13

Ger Tzadek Count Potocki Story Likely a Myth

Abraham ben Abraham (Hebrew: אברהם בן אברהם, lit. “Avraham the son of Avraham”) (c. 1700 – May 23, 1749), also known as Count Valentine (Valentin, Walentyn) Potocki (Pototzki or Pototski), was a purported Polish nobleman (szlachta) of the Potocki family who converted to Judaism and was burned at the stake by the Roman Catholic Church because he had renounced Catholicism and had become an observant Jew. According to Jewish oral traditions, he was known to the revered Talmudic sage, the Vilna Gaon (Rabbi Elijah Ben Shlomo Zalman [1720–1797]), and his ashes were interred in the relocated grave of the Vilna Gaon in Vilna’s new Jewish cemetery.

Although the Orthodox Jewish community accepts the teachings about Abraham ben Abraham, including the involvement of the Vilna Gaon, secular scholars have largely concluded that it is a legend.

Jewish Traditions

The Vilna Gaon (1720-1797) was according to the Jewish tradition a mentor to Abraham ben Abraham.

2022-06-072022-06-07

Fifth World Litvak Congress Participants Visit Panevėžys, Pakruojis, Šeduva

A delegation of participants from the Fifth World Litvak Congress travelled to Panevėžys May 25 and were met there by members of the Panevėžys Jewish Community and the local municipality.

Panevėžys city municipality deputy director of administration Žibutė Gaivenienė said: “It is nice to welcome today guests arriving in Panevėžys from the Fifth World Litvak Congress and members of the city’s Jewish community. Panevėžys has long been a multi-ethnic and multicultural city, and the Jewish community has played an important role in the life of the city and the whole district. At certain periods of history Jews constituted a very significant part of the population of the city and were active participants in the city’s economic and service sectors. A larger Jewish community formed in the city in the second half of the 18th century. In the mid-19th century Jews constituted about 60 percent of the city population, and in the early 1920s Jews accounted for about 35 percent of the population. So the Jewish community’s contribution to the development of Panevėžys, and especially its transformation into a modern city, is a great one, and the Jewish legacy in different forms still operates in our daily life.”

2022-06-03

Tour of Žiežmariai Wooden Synagogue and Wanderings of Moses Exhibit

The Vilnius Jerusalem of Lithuania Jewish Community is sponsoring a free tour of the wooden synagogue in Žiežmariai and the exhibit of works of art by Daumantas Todesas currently being held there. Daumantas Todesas himself will lead the tour. Transportation will leave the Lithuanian Jewish Community at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius at 10:00 A.M. on Tuesday, June 7. Registration is required by calling lead secretary Liuba Šerienė at (8 5) 2613003 or by calling+370 685 06900, or by sending an email to office@lzb.lt. Please note that the exhibit of artworks is scheduled to end June 9, so this might be your last opportunity to view it.

2022-06-022022-06-02

Ben Tsiyon Klibansky: Lithuanian Holocaust Perpetrators Turned into Heroes

Lithuanian State Television and Radio LRT.lt interview with Ben Tsiyon Klibansky

Lithuanians are still heroizing people who took part in the Holocaust, regrets historian and author Ben Tsiyon Klibansky. It’s up to the nation’s leaders to start a long-overdue conversation about these painful pages from the country’s history.

Ben Tsiyon Klibansky teaches at Tel Aviv University and researches Eastern European Jewry. This is now a lost world, and the Jews of Lithuania were the cornerstone in this world, Klibansky tells LRT.lt, something he feels it to be his duty to research.

You were born in Lithuania, Vilnius, but now, you live in Israel. Could you tell me more about your connection to Lithuania?

My family was a traditional family. My grandfather was a spiritual leader of the community. … I was a student at the Antanas Vienuolis School for two years, then my parents got permission to leave Lithuania and immigrate to Israel, which had been their dream for many years.

You should understand that it wasn’t because they hated Lithuania, but because of the prophecies of the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, who promised one day we will return to the land of Israel and settle there again. They tried to get permission to leave Lithuania and go to Israel, but it was Soviet Lithuania and the Soviets didn’t let them to go. It took them 13 years, from 1956 when they returned from Siberia until 1969. …

After I finished high school in Israel I started studying at Tel Aviv University. I studied electronic engineering. I joined the army and served for many years. I was a high-ranking officer in the army and when I finished my army service, I got a very good contract in the industry.

2022-06-022022-12-21

Vilnius Municipality, Goodwill Foundation, Lithuanian Jewish Community Sign Memorandum on Great Synagogue

The Vilnius city municipality, the Goodwill Foundation and the Lithuanian Jewish Community have signed a memorandum for commemorating the Vilnius Great Synagogue site by mid-2026. The synagogue site and surrounding area which was home to the synagogue complex will become a Vilnius Great Synagogue memorial square with a Lithuanian Jewish Community information center telling the story of the grand synagogue complex to the wider society.

“Many Vilnius residents know why Vilnius is called the Jerusalem of the North. Faded inscriptions in Hebrew, commemorative plaques and monuments on and around buildings in the former Vilnius ghetto recall the history of Jewish spirituality and learning. We have agreed how we will create a new center of attraction for Lithuanians and foreigners at the site of the Great Synagogue destroyed by the Soviets,” Vilnius mayor Remigijus Šimašius said.

Archaeological investigations of the Great Synagogue site began circa 2010. Archaeologists at the digs discovered part of the bimah, the foundations for two of its columns, the two mikvot ritual bath sites, the location of the large external wall at the back of the synagogue and a portion of the original flooring in the main chamber of worship. They also discovered inscriptions engraved on the walls next to where the bimah stood, naming people and quoting from the Book of Genesis and lines from hymns.

2022-05-302022-05-30

What Is a Litvak?

by Birutė Vyšniauskaitė, lrytas.lt

Jews in Lithuania: a still undiscovered or an already-lost shared history? Human rights, modern anti-Semitism. Recording Lithuanian Jewish culture for posterity. These and many other topics touching on Lithuanian Jewish culture, the Holocaust and culture were discussed the current Fifth World Litvak Congress.

The Congress was supposed to have been held two years ago on the 300th anniversary of the birth of Eliyahu ben Solomon Zalman, the Vilna Gaon, the renowned rabbi, kabbalist and student of the Torah and Talmud. …

[I asked] Faina Kukliansky, the chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community who was born and grew up in Lithuania, what it means to be a Litvak.

“My dad used to say his grandchildren were born in Lithuania and therefore bore the seal of quality, and were fit for export,” Kukliansky joked.

2022-05-25

Fifth World Litvak Congress Begins at Lithuanian Parliament

15min.lt, BNS

The Fifth World Litvak Congress kicked off at the Lithuanian parliament Monday.

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said this congress sends the message that Jewishness isn’t just a thing of the past in Lithuania.

“Today we invite you to an open discussion on the future of Litvak culture and the importance of passing this culture on to our children and grandchildren,” she said. “I am certain the Lithuanian state has an interest in making all Litvaks from around the world feel at home in their native land.”

Parliamentary speaker Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen used the opportunity to talk about the Ukraine.

Besides the academic conference Monday, an exhibit called “Almanach of Litvak Culture in the 21st Century” was also opened. Topics at the conference included fighting anti-Semitism, Litvak history and education, among others.

2022-05-24

Wanderings of Moses: An Exhibit of Works by Daumantas Lovas Todesas

An exhibit of works by Daumantas Lovas Todesas called “The Wanderings of Moses” opened at the Žiežmariai synagogue located at Vilniaus street no. 6 in Žiežmariai on May 23. The exhibit will run till June 9. Visitors can visit from 10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. on weekdays, or arrange a different time for touring the exhibit and synagogue by calling +370 682 19944. This exhibit was jointly organized by the Vilnius Jerusalem of Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Žiežmariai Cultural Center.

2022-05-24

Saul Kagan: Litvak, Conscience of the Claims Conference and Warrior on the Invisible Front

Saul Kagan, who fled Lithuania, spent decades leading the Jewish welfare organization which was primarily responsible for restitution worth more than $70 billion to Holocaust survivors and their descendants.

Saul Kagan came the to the USA in 1940 after losing his mother and brother to the barbarity of the Nazis. In 1951 he became the director of World Jewish Congress responsible for material claims by Jews against Germany. B’nai B’rith and other Jewish organizations brought an unprecedented claim, demanding reparations from “the heirs of the state of the Third Reich,” meaning West Germany, for the Nazi genocide against the Jews of Europe.

Kagan’s agreements signed over the following fifty years demanded the governments of West Germany and Austria and a falange of fascist corporations compensate people who survived the Holocaust for the houses, homes, buildings, furniture, art and other property seized from them during the Nazi era. They also demanded the payment of pensions, stipends and aid to the elderly they otherwise would have had if they hadn’t been persecuted instead, as well as compensation for hundreds of thousands of Nazi prisoners, Jews and non-Jews, used as slave labor by Germany’s industrial giants, corporations such as IG Farben and Krupp.

2022-05-182022-05-20

The Lithuanian Jewish Community Invites You to the 5th World Litvak Congress

The Fifth World Litvak Congress will be held on May 23-26, organized by the Lithuanian Jewish Community. We invite you to join the events and enjoy Litvak culture, heritage, history and music. Share the news with your relatives, friends and colleagues.

Pre-registration is required by filling out the following form:

https://forms.gle/VJa9nMHaHjH4t5Lf6

The program may be found here:

BUKLETAS_EN_1 (1)

>>PROGRAM in Lithuanian

2022-05-162022-05-18