Heritage – Page 2 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Ninth Fort Authoritarian Regime Reading Contest

The Ninth Fort Museum in Kaunas hosted their 6th reading of texts by students called “Silent Wall, Touched by Words” last week.

Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas addressed the students, judges and audience, saying: “In my name and that of Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky I thank Ninth Fort Museum director Marius Pečiulis and the entire staff for holding this important event, and I thank the students and the teachers who have prepared them, for their time spent, sincerity and sensitivity.”

The students read texts about the Holocaust, the Nazi era and the Soviet era in Lithuania. The Ninth Fort Museum includes a tunnel system were Jews were imprisoned before being shot inside the Ninth Fort. Exhibits include cells with extant graffiti by murdered Jews. In the Soviet era the Ninth Fort was a de facto Holocaust memorial, if not in name, with a monumental abstract Soviet statue which remains the center piece of the museum grounds. After Lithuanian independence they became a museum showcasing Soviet atrocities as well as Nazi crimes.

2024-10-22

Palanga Jewish Community Invites You to Herring Lecture at Jonas Šliūpas Museum

Herring fishing and consumption stretches back millennia and became an integral part of Jewish cuisine centuries ago. The Jonas Šliūpas Museum is hosting a lecture by Jewish cuisine specialist Dovilė Rūkaitė on the Jewish culinary history of herring at 5:00 P.M. on Wednesday, October 23, in Palanga.

The museum recently opened an exhibit called “From the North Sea to the Christmas Table” about herring which included an interesting archaeological find: part of a cover and barrel for a 19th-century herring selection and conservation system.

Rūkaitė plans to speak on the significance of Jewish merchants and populations in popularizing the fish in Europe and will also discuss some of the classic recipes which use herring.

Time: 5:00 P.M., October 23
Place: Jonas Šliūpas Museum, Vytauto street no. 23A, Palanga
Duration: About 1 hour

The lecture is free and open to the public.

2024-10-22

Jewish Scouting Season Opens

Weekly meetings of Jewish scouts are taking place again starting at 3:00 P.M. this Sunday at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius. The gathering should last around one hour. Jewish scouting teaches scouts Jewish culture, civic-mindedness, responsibility, independence and a number of other skills and values, and includes a lot of fun and games as well. This group is intended for scouts and potential scouts aged 6 to 18. FOr more information contact Michail Kofman by telephone at 860645o94 or send an email to skautai@lzb.lt.

2024-10-222024-10-22

Women’s Club Meeting Friday

Dear reader,

The Women’s Club will be expecting you again this Friday, and this meeting will be especially fun and delicious as we make quiches and pastries.

This time of year is special, the High Holy Days, and we cannot avoid the holiday spirit. THis Friday we celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, Sukkot, when we sit down at the table together with our families and also treat those who come by. So, dear homemakers, we will learn to make the Israeli dish pashtida, sometimes called a kugel, which resembles a quiche, and layered apple pastries.

A good time is guaranteed.

Please register before noon on Thursday by sending an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt or by calling (+370) 678 81514. Space is limited.

Time: 6:30 P.M., Friday, October 18
Place: Bagel Shop Café, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius

2024-10-15

Knife-Wielding Masked Teenagers Take Over Palace of Sports in Old Jewish Cemetery

Photo: Police at Palace of Sports by Paulius Skučas

A group of 50 masked, knife-wielding teenage boys has turned the crumbling Palace of Sports complex built on top of the old Jewish cemetery in Vilnius into their gang clubhouse and have threatened pedestrians in the area, including children, with their weapons, as well as attacking a lone security guard in charge of the site, according to Paulius Skučas, an LNK television reporter who posted on Instagram as well as did a Lithuanian state radio interview about the situation.

Skučas posted photos of the incident on Instagram with textual explanations:

This is how the Palace of Sports looked after the massive attack by teenagers this evening. Police and security stood guard for several hours. It seems the gang of teenagers are so uncontrollable and undetainable that all the residents of the surround neighborhoods and buildings have become hostages.

2024-10-042024-10-04

Šiauliai Jewish Community Remembers the Murdered Jews of Žagarė

Šiauliai Jewish Community members are planning to leave the Šiauliai Jewish Community building at 10:00 A.M. on Sunday, October 6, to reach the town square in Žagarė where a ceremony to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust will be held. Everyone is invited to attend.

2024-09-30

Remembering the Holocaust Victims in Švenčionys

Traditionally there is a commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust in Švenčionys held the first Sunday in October. We remember the Jews tortured and murdered, and those imprisoned in the ghetto set up in the town square and later murdered at nearby Platumai village. You are invited to attend the commemoration this year on October 6.

Program:

11:00 A.M. – 11:30 A.M. Remembering the victims in a gathering at the Menorah statue in the central park

12:30 P.M. Paying respects to the victims at the mass murder site in Platumai village approximately 13 kilometers to the west of Švenčionys

2024-09-26

Day of Genocide of Lithuanian Jews Marked in Kupiškis

Photos by Miglė Zakarauskaitės and Aušra Jonušytė

Local residents and politicians commemorated Lithuania’s Day of Genocide of Lithuanian Jews September 23 at a monument to Holocaust victims at the Jewish cemetery there and visited an older Jewish cemetery in the once-thriving shtetl, laying stones gathered from streets in the town.

The same day the public library housed in the restored synagogue held a lesson on Jewish life in Kupiškis for students in grades 1 through 4.

2024-09-262024-09-26

Day of Genocide of Lithuanian Jews Marked at Ponar

The Lithuanian Jewish Community, Lithuanian politicians and foreign ambassadors marked the Day of Genocide of Lithuanian Jews September 23 at the Ponar Memorial Complex outside Vilnius.

LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky spoke at the event, saying among other things: “I have several requests by the Lithuanian Jewish Community. First, I want to know the names of the people who were murdered here. And throughout Lithuania as well, where 400, 500, 600 Jews were murdered in every town. Where are their names? … The Lithuanian Jewish Community also wants to know the names of the murderers. Many years ago now we were promised they would be made public, but they remain unknown to us. I am convinced it has to be made very clear who was a murderer and who was a rescuer. So I would like to ask sincerely the lists of those are known now at least be made available to us.”

Also attending and speaking were Lithuanian MP Emanuelis Zingeris, Israeli ambassador Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein with Israeli embassy chargé-d’affaires Erez Golan, German ambassador Cornelius Zimmermann, US ambassador Kara McDonald, speaker of Lithuanian parliament Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, prime minister Ingrida Šimonytė and others. Choral Synagogue cantor Shmuel Yaatom performed kaddish. Vilnius Religious Jewish Community chairman Simas Levinas also participated.

2024-09-252024-09-25

Holocaust Commemoration in Pabradė

A Holocaust commemoration was held September 23 in Pabradė, a town in eastern Lithuania on the border with Belarus. September 23 is Lithuania’s Day of the Genocide of Lithuanian Jews. The event was held under the umbrella of the Memory Road civic initiative in cooperation with the Švenčionys Jewish Community, the Pabradė Municipal Culture Center, the Pabradė aldermanship and 6th, 7th and 8th graders from the Rytas Gymnasium in Pabradė under the tutelage of history teacher Danguolė Grincevičienė.

Participants walked the path along which Jews were marched to their deaths to the mass murder site there. Švenčionys Jewish Community chairman Moshe Shapiro and history teacher Danguolė Grincevičienė spoke to the students about the former Jewish community there.

2024-09-242024-09-24

Remembering the Holocaust in Nemenčinė

A ceremony was held in Nemenčinė (Nementchin, Niemenczyn) just north of Vilnius Friday at the site of the former synagogue to remember the approximately 500 Jews from that once-thriving shtetl murdered in the Holocaust.

Those attending the ceremony included Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, Israeli ambassador Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein, Tammy Nguyen representing the US embassy, Lithuanian MP Rita Tamašunienė and Vilnius regional administration mayor Robertas Duchnevičius, among others. Students from the Sholem Aleichem school in Vilnius staged brief presentations. The participants proceeded on to the mass murder site several kilometers away where Choral Synagogue cantor Shmuel Yaatom prayed for the victims.

2024-09-24

Evening to Remember Righteous Gentile Ona Šimaitė in Kaunas

The Kaunas Jewish Community invites you to an evening to remember Righteous Gentile Ona Šimaitė at the Vincas Kudirka Public Library, A. Mapu street no.18, Kaunas at 6:00 P.M. on Thursday, September 19.

Author of a biography in Lithuanian and researcher Rimantas Stankevičius will speak at the event hosted by the historian Linas Venclauskas. Rokas Makštutis will provide musical accompaniment.

2024-09-19

Day of Genocide of Lithuanian Jews in Panevėžys

You’re invited to attend a commemoration of the Day of Genocide of Lithuanian Jews to be held in in Panevėžys, Lithuania, starting at 1:00 P.M. on Monday, September 23.

Program:

1:00 P.M. Opening ceremony and wreath-laying at “Sad Jewish Mother” statue on Memory Square on Vasario 16-osios street.

1:30 P.M. Trip to mass murder site in Kurganava Forest.

2:00 P.M. Trip to Holocaust memorial site in Žalioji Forest.

3:30 P.M. Screening of Yad Vashem film about the Holocaust at Panevėžys Jewish Community

Please indicate your intention to attend by calling the chairman of the Panevėžys Jewish Community at 8 611 20882 or the administrator at 8 610 17608.

2024-09-192024-09-19

Mirages: A New Look at Old Shtetls

The Regional History Museum of the Jonava Culture Center has put on a new exhibit of photographs by Iveta Bajorinaitė called Mirages of the Shtetl accompanied by texts by the late Grigoriy Kanovich showcasing the Lithuanian town and Jewish shtetl then and now. Renowned Litvak writer Kanovich grew up in Jonava.

During the opening ceremony last week, Iveta Bajorinaitė spoke about her quest to locate and photograph locations in the current urban landscape which correspond to with archival photographs.

Šeduva Jewish History Museum aka the Lost Shtetl senior curator Milda Jakulytė-Vasil, Kėdainiai Regional History Museum director Rimantas Žirgulis and Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas continued the opening ceremony with a panel discussion called “How Do We Tell the Story of the Shtetls?” Among the other ideas shared, they agreed the most important answer to that question was taking the initiative and working steadfastly towards that goal. They shared their personal experiences in organizing exhibitions and events and utilizing urban spaces.

The Regional History Museum of the Jonava Culture Center’s project “Stories of the Shtetls” is financed by Lithuania’s Cultural Heritage Department and the Jonava regional administration with the Šeduva Jewish History Museum aka the Lost Shtetl as a partner in the project.

2024-09-17

Visitors to Panevėžys Jewish Community

Celesta and Harriet Sollod from San Francisco visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community recently. Their grandfather was Isaac Neviarsky who with his brother was Nathan and sister Yeta left Ponavezh in 1895 and travelled to Baltimore in the United States. Their father was Hirsh Aaron who was deported with other Jews from the Kovna guberniya during the First World War in 1915. He went to Petrograd where a maternal relative of the Semakovich family lived, becoming a renowned medical doctor to the Russian tsar.

Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman received the visitors and spoke to them about the history of the Jews of Panevėžys and the Community’s activities. The two women then went to view Jewish sites in the area including the Jewish cemetery and several Jewish mass murder sites.

2024-09-162024-09-16

Pathetic State of Jewish Cemetery in Panevėžys

The state of the old Jewish cemetery in the New Town section of Panevėžys requires emergency action, according to Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman.

The cemetery is thought to have been established for the burial of the first Jewish and Karaïte settlers in the northern Lithuanian city and surrounding areas.

The Panevėžys regional administration adopted a resolution for maintaining the old Jewish graveyard back in 2019 but hasn’t followed through on the ground. Time, disregard and the weather have since taken a greater toll, which prompted Kofman to seek additional redress from the Panevėžys regional administration.

“The main section of the old Jewish cemetery in the New Town neighborhood has been abandoned and allowed to fall into ruin, with fallen trees knocking over headstones, overgrown grass and shrubbery, felled trees and branches left unremoved. We would be grateful if administration staff could come, formulate a maintenance plan and finally care for this unique historic city location,” Kofman said.

2024-09-162024-09-16

Twelve Thousand Pivonija Holocaust Victims Remembered

People gathered at noon on the first Sunday in September for the annual commemoration of the approximately 12,000 Jews murdered in the Pivonija Forest outside Ukmergė (Vilkomir) this year as in years past. Ukmergė Jewish Community chairman Artūras Taicas began the ceremony with an address and Kaunas Jewish Community member Iseris Šreibergas said kaddish. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kuklianksy, members and heads of regional LJC affiliates, local politicians, local school children and ambassadors to Lithuania including Israel’s Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein attended the ceremony.

2024-09-10

Visitor to Panėvežys

Brendan Cohen from Melbourne, Australia, visited the Panėvežys Jewish Community August 30. He had sent genealogical documents to the Community before his trip. Cohen sought to learn which of his relatives had been murdered in the Holocaust in Panėvežys and surrounding areas. Chairman Gennady Kofman received the guest and shared the results of searches of the Community’s archives.

2024-09-10

Two Events Held in Honor of Chaim Frenkel

Last Sunday two events were held in honor of Chaim Frenkel in Šiauliai: a stele marking the first soccer stadium in Šiauliai was unveiled in the central part of the city and the fourth Chaim Frenkel soccer tournament was attended by 10 soccer teams including Šiauliai Makabi. Frenkel helped build the soccer stadium in the period between the two world wars..

2024-09-10

Dance Symphony from the Jeursalem of the North

A music and dance play based on Jievaras Jasinskis’s “Symphony from the Jerusalem of the North” is returning to the stage for two performances.

Time: 6:00 P.M., September 19
Place: Alytus Town Theater, Alytus, Lithuania

Time: 6:00 P.M., September 24
Place: Saulė Concert Hall, Šiauliai, Lithuania

2024-09-10