History of the Jews in Lithuania – Page 19 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Lithuania’s Self-Generated Problem

Photo: Poster honoring Kazys Skirpa. Translation: “A Nation which respects itself should know its heroes: Diplomat Colonel Kazys Skirpa First volunteer who raised the flag of Lithuania on Gediminas Tower on January 1, 1919, the head of the Lithuanian Activist Front, organizer of the June 1941 uprising. The Nation knows its heroes!”

Hate against minorities is supposedly illegal in Lithuania. Lithuanian MP Žemaitaitis spewed obscene tropes against Jews which did not make sense in the 1200s, nor in 1941, and not now, either. In subsequent posts, Žemaitaitis called for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Lithuania.

The Austrian, German, American and Israeli ambassadors issued statements condemning Žemaitaitis, as did the prime minister of Lithuania. The Lithuanian Jewish Community has requested Žemaitaitis be referred to the public prosecutor for hate crimes charges.

Superficially, the case is straightforward. The crimes are obvious, the law is clear, there is no question of his guilt. Hate is simply hate. But, the Government of Lithuania has a problem.

2023-05-152023-05-18

Happy Birthday

We wish a very happy birthday to Sergejus Kanovičius. Mazl tov. Bis 120!

2023-05-10

Two Hundred Historians Back Polish Holocaust Expert under Attack

In a letter of support, historians and scholars worldwide said that the Polish attack on Holocaust scholar professor Barbara Engelking harmed attempts “to understand the processes that allowed the Holocaust to take place.”

Two hundred historians, including senior Holocaust scholars from Israel and around the globe, signed a letter in support of professor Barbara Engelking, a Polish historian who has been under attack in her homeland after she said the Poles did not do enough to help Jews during the Shoah.

“We, the undersigned scholars of the Holocaust Era, the Second World War, and Modern and Jewish History, express our firm support for Professor Barbara Engelking and for academic freedom, in the face of an unbridled and unfounded attack by politicians, media, and other public figures. … We can attest to the fact that she is a scholar of impeccable personal and professional integrity. Her scholarship adheres to the highest academic standards, for which she has earned worldwide esteem,” the historians wrote.

2023-05-10

Lithuanian MP Denounces Israel for Razing Palestinian School EU Financed

Lithuanian MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis, chairman of the Freedom and Justice Party formed of two rival liberal parties to contest municipal elections in Vilnius in 2014, denounced Israel’s destruction of a school in Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The US, Israeli and German ambassadors called for him to apologize for the remarks, first made on facebook on Monday, May 8, repeated in parliament Tuesday, the same day Israel started bombing the Gaza Strip in what it calls Operation Shield and Arrow. Despite the demands of the ambassadors and his fellow MPs, Žemaitaitis said he won’t apologize.

On Tuesday he told parliament assembled: “I want to emphasize this school was fully financed by the European Union, by Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Bulgaria, Germany, Spain and the other countries. … And if we believe that it’s alright to allow in the 21st century some country to blow up or destroy these kinds of sites of another country, then ask yourselves, what sort of moral and political values do you live by today? Mine are much higher than you think.”

2023-05-102023-05-11

Litvak Community Leaders Mark Victory Day in Israel

On May 8, VE Day, or Victory in Europe Day, the heads of several constituent communities in the Lithuanian Jewish Community, including LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas and others, marked the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps and the capitulation of Nazi Germany to allies during a trip to Israel.

Shmuel Yatom, the chairman of the Vilnius Religious Jewish Community, performed a prayer prayed by victims on the way to Treblinka in Sderot, Israel.

The Litvak leaders are in Israel for workshops sponsored by the European Commission for more effective implementation of the EC’s strategy for fighting anti-Semitism and fostering Jewish life in the European Union.

They visited Sderot on the border with the Gaza Strip which saw Israeli counter-attacks last night and into the morning of May 9. The Israeli town is known as Israel’s bomb shelter capital because of frequent rocket attacks from Gaza. They also planned to meet the mayor of Ashkelon, and to take part in a ceremony honoring Mordechai Aneliwicz, an organizer of the Warsaw Uprising. The LJC is planning a joint conference with the Poland’s Jewish Historical Institute this fall to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the destruction of the Vilna ghetto.

2023-05-092023-05-09

Lithuanian Jewish TV Program Features Faina Kukliansky’s Herring Appetizer Recipe

The Jewish program Menora on Lithuanian state television has included a segment on the popular Jewish appetizer made with minced herring. This particular herring appetizer is truly Litvak in nature. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman put on a kitchen apron and shared her family recipe for making the snack with the Lithuanian television audience. The segment is included in the April 30 broadcast available in Lithuanian here.

2023-05-082023-05-08

Markas Zingeris in Memoriam

The Jewish discussion club #ŽydiškiPašnekesiai invites the public to attend a special panel to remember Markas Zingeris, who died unexpectedly recently.

Over fifty years of work Markas has left us a rich inheritance: thoughts, ideas, texts, books, plays, poetry and the Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum, where he served as director since its inception for several decades. His keen insights and very rational thinking had a deep influence on the development of Lithuanian society and politics following independence as well as before. He always demonstrated a spirit of openness, tolerance, rationality and ethical behavior.

Panelists to include Emanuelis Zingeris, Markas’s brother and MP; Emilis, Markas’s son; Violeta Davoliūtė, professor of philosophy and the history of ideas at Vilnius University, cultural historian, Holocaust researcher and colleague of Markas and Gytis Padegimas, a famous Lithuanian theater director who was a close confident (appearing via internet at the discussion club). Actor, popular writer and journalist Arkadijus Vinokuras will moderate the conversation which will be live-streamed on facebook with the help of his son Saulius.

The event is to take place at the Bagel Shop Café at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius at 5:00 P.M. on Wednesday, May 10. The live-stream will be made available on facebook by following this short URL: https://rb.gy/uok94

2023-05-052023-05-05

Joint Statement on the Dialogue on Holocaust Issues

May 3, 2023

The text of the following statement was released by the Governments of the United States of America and the Federal Republic of Germany.

Begin Text

The Governments of the United States of America and the Federal Republic of Germany announce significant progress in their Dialogue on Holocaust Issues. Secretary of State Blinken and then-Federal Foreign Minister Maas launched the Dialogue in 2021 to counter the rise in Holocaust denial and distortion — a dangerous development that undermines freedom, democracy, and security — and to contribute to a world in which knowledge about the Holocaust is abundant, based on facts, and serves as a foundation for tackling today´s challenges at an early stage. The U.S. Department of State, the German Federal Foreign Office, the German Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum participate in the Dialogue. They have completed initial projects in three priority areas:

2023-05-042023-05-04

EU Anti-Semitism Working Group Meets in Bucharest

Photo: European Commission coordinator for combating anti-Semitism and fostering Jewish life in Europe Katharina Schnurbein and LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky.

The European Union’s working group for implementing strategies for combating anti-Semitism is meeting in Bucharest, the capital of Romania. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky is there discussing the issues in Lithuania and other countries with high-ranking European Commission and international organization officials.

More than 80 guests, European Commission officials, representatives of different international organizations and local Jewish communities along with specialists from across the EU as well as guests from the Ukraine and Moldova are attending the three-day conference organized by the Government of Romania and the EC. The point is to discuss how to fight anti-Semitism, including implementing national strategies, discussing progress made in implementing the EU strategy for combating anti-Semitism and fostering Jewish life in Europe, lurking dangers, Holocaust distortion and denial and the value of preserving memory.

2023-05-03

Happy Birthday to Bronislava Lisiūtė

The Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes a very happy birthday to honorary member of the Panevėžys Jewish Community Bronislava Lisiūtė. Mazl tov. Bis 120!

2023-05-03

Makabi Three-Day Sporting Camp in Mid-May

The Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club invites athletes and the athletically-inclined at any and all levels of proficiency to a three-day sporting festival at the Pailgo perlas recreational area on a scenic lake 30 kilometers outside Vilnius. The celebration will include more than just sports in a beautiful natural setting, with a Sabbath celebration, singing, dancing, concerts, bonfire parties, fishing and swimming, among other activities. Sports include badminton, kayaking, ping-pong, volleyball, soccer and perhaps others, depending on the weather. The camp will run from April 19 to 21, but attendees aren’t required to spend all three days there. For more information and to register, send an email to info.maccabilt@gmail.com.

2023-04-25

Agreement to Restore Women’s Gallery at Žiežmariai Wooden Synagogue.

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky and U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad chairwoman Star Jones have signed an agreement for the restoration of the women’s gallery at the recently restored Žiežmariai wooden synagogue. The Commission pledged $75,000 for carrying out the restoration, with the LJC responsible for implementing the project.

“This is an extraordinarily important project for the preservation of Litvak culture. The Žiežmariai synagogue is a unique example of wooden architecture. There are only a handful of wooden synagogues still standing in Europe as a whole. I am so happy Ms. Star Jones, representing an influential US organization, appreciates the importance of Litvak culture and has decided to contribute to its preservation. The solution of cultural heritage problems and the preservation of historical memory, after all, are the best avenue for separate peoples to engage in dialogue,” chairwoman Kukliansky said following the signing of the agreement.

Star Jones was recently appointed by the executive branch and is making her first tour of Lithuania and has visited a number of sites, including the Ponar Memorial Complex outside Vilnius. The agreement for restoring the women’s gallery is her first international agreement in her post as director of the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. She is a professional attorney and has wide name recognition as one of the panelists on the left-wing ABC television talk show “The View.”

2023-04-252023-04-25

Interview with Markas Zingeris: Life is an Illusion, but a Complex and Colorful One

by Ignas Staškevičius, from recordings made on June 27, 2018, and June 26, 2019, in Vilnius

Q.: Mark, let’s begin with this question: how do you understand yourself?

A.: I believe I don’t understand myself fully.

I understood myself once in 1991. When I unexpectedly found myself [in a crowd] in Kaunas, defending the last… Defending… What sort of defense was that? Across the street from the so-called last free television station on Daukanto street I unexpectedly found myself in a crowd because I wanted to replace the announcer who was proclaiming in English: “S.O.S., nations of the world save us, this is the last free station in Lithuania!” But he was whining this over the air like some sort of famished kitten, so I decided the nations of the world wouldn’t understand a word of what he was saying, and I offered to replace him. I walked eleven kilometers from my house buried in snow, it was January, buried up to the door handle. No automobiles were driving. I walked eleven kilometers to the center of Kaunas because I decided to help, and there I found thousands of people and found myself facing tanks which were snoozing on the next street over. They weren’t moving, they were idling, and the barrels were so long that my entire classroom of students could’ve sat on one barrel. So then I went to the hotel across the street, back then there were these pay telephones which cost two kopeks, I inserted them and called the editorial office, saying: “You need to replace the announcer, what is he mumbling over there? Nobody understands him at all. You need a person who speaks English normally if you want to announce to the world you are perishing.” But they had already found someone, there was this woman from California in Kaunas at the time, and I finally heard abroad American pronunciation, a broad normal southern accent which reminded me of Voice of America a little bit, and everything was fine.

2023-04-232023-04-23

Condolences

With deep sadness we report the death of Markas Zingeris at the age of 76. He had struggled with heart problems for several years. The author of numerous novels, poet, long-time director of the Vilna Gaon Museum and a life-long promoter of Litvak culture, he is survived by his brother Emanuelis Zingeris. We extend our deepest condolences to his colleagues, many friends and family.

2023-04-212023-04-21

Polish President Mentions Ponar at Warsaw Uprising Ceremony

April 18 marked the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising. Polish president Andrzej Duda invited the presidents of Israel and Germany, representatives of the major global Jewish organizations and others to a commemoration of the historic act of mass resistance during WWII which was held in Warsaw. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky also received an invitation and attended.

In his speech, Duda talked about the largest act of resistance by civilians to the Nazis. They knew they were outnumbered and faced defeat, but fought anyway, he noted. President Duda mentioned Ponar outside Vilnius as one of the main mass murder sites during the Holocaust. Some foreign media noted Duda failed to talk about Nazi collaborators, others said he wasn’t able to because of Poland’s new law forbidding discussion of Polish complicity in the Holocaust.

2023-04-202023-05-03

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 at the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community

The Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community began celebrating Passover April 5, beginning with the seder in the evening, the first one on the evening of April 5 led by Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky’s sons. On April 6 members of the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community gathered at the Žemaitis restaurant for the second evening’s seder. Community chairman Naum Gleizer greeted the celebrants who were served the traditional Passover dishes. Community member Vadimas Kamrazeris provided for the Jewish music at the restaurant, which led to sing-alongs and dancing.

2023-04-192023-04-19

Passover in Kaunas

The Kaunas Jewish Community sent in some snapshots from Passover celebrations in Lithuania’s second city. The holiday celebration there included the traditional dishes, a concert, dance music and even a quiz for people to test their knowledge of Passover.

2023-04-192023-04-19