History of the Jews in Lithuania – Page 64 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Locating the Lost Shtetl of Rumšiškės: Targum Shlishi Supports Team from University of Hartford

(Miami, July 7, 2019)—This summer a team from the University of Hartford is working to locate the lost shtetl of Rumšiškės (Rumsheshok) in Lithuania, which is now located under Lake Kaunas. Home to approximately fifty Jewish families who were massacred in 1941, the village was abandoned and the Soviets later created a dam, resulting in the village’s remains now being under water. Filming throughout the process will document the work, which will result in a documentary film, museum exhibitions, and presentations in Lithuania and the U.S. Targum Shlishi’s grant is helping to support the five-person student team, which is led by archaeologist Richard A. Freund, a professor at the University of Hartford who has headed the university’s Vilna Excavation Projects for the past four years.

Project Background and Scope

“This is a unique program for students to work on. The students will document our summer excavations and create a documentary film that will show our underwater search for the lost village of Rumshishok,” Freund explains. “We will be working with high-tech, robotically-operated vehicles and professional divers to find the village and we will work with our ground penetrating radar equipment to identify the location of the mass grave of the Jews of Rumshishok which will ensure that no future development can take place at that site.”

2019-07-082019-07-08

More Events to Mark 75th Anniversary of the Destruction of the Kaunas Ghetto

July 11

6:00 P.M. Screening and discussion of the film Gitel directed by Robert Mullan, 2016, at the Vincas Kudirka Public Library, A. Mapu street no. 18, Kaunas.

7:00 P.M. Thematic tour “Holocaust in Lithuania” at the Ninth Fort Museum, Žemaičių highway no. 73, Kaunas.

8:00 P.M. Screening and discussion of the film “Devil’s Arithmetic” directed by Donna Deitch, 1999, at the Ninth Fort Museum, Žemaičių highway no. 73, Kaunas.

July 12

5:00 P.M. Free guided tour called “Voices of Hope” starting at the Kaunas Municipal Museum, Petrausko street no. 31, Kaunas. Registration required, call (8 37) 731 184 or email mkp.kasa@kaunomuziejus.lt

2019-07-082019-07-11

Grigory Kanovich: I Tried to Create a Written Monument to the Lithuanian Jews

He is the last Lithuanian Jewish author with first-hand experience of the shtetls, the small Jewish towns which vanished from the face of the earth in 1941.

”I have tried to create a written monument to the Lithuanian Jews”, says Grigory Kanovich in an interview with Baltic Worlds.

Kanovich turns 90 this summer. At 85 he stopped writing when he published his last book, Shtetl Love Song. The book Devilspel, from which an extract is published in this issue of Baltic Worlds, was written back in 2002 but not translated into English until now.

Kanovich has lived in Israel since 1993, and his son Sergey has helped in translating our questions into Russian and then translating the answers into English. First his father only answered three of the questions, and he was too tired to continue, but the following day came the rest of the answers.

Full text here.

2019-07-08

LJC Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky Awarded Star of Lithuanian Diplomacy

URM.lt

Lithuanian foreign minister Linas Linkevičius awarded a Foreign Ministry award called the Star of Lithuanian Diplomacy to Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky July 5.

The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry’s highest award was bestowed on chairwoman Kukliansky in recognition of her active involvement in organizing international dialogue and important agreements, cooperation between the LJC and Foreign Ministry, her contribution to making the Goodwill Law a reality and the active involvement of the LJC under her leadership in projects at Lithuanian diplomatic offices.

“I am proud of our friendship and cooperation. This is vital to the interests of our state. Your work goes beyond just leading the Jewish community, and your work for the good of Lithuania is very visible,” Lithuanian foreign minister Linkevičius said.

2019-07-052019-07-10

Archaeological Dig Resumes at Great Synagogue Site in Vilnius

The summer archaeological dig at the site of the former Great Synagogue in Vilnius is set to resume this year starting July 1 and running to July 19. The team includes archaeologists from Lithuania, the USA and Israel. The continuing exploration of the site is being supported by the Goodwill Foundation in partnership with the Israeli Antiquities Authority and the Lithuanian Jewish Community.

In 2011 the team discovered the exact boundaries and fragments of the former building. In 2016, 2017 and 2018 they explored the former mikvot, or bathhouses used for ritual purification and located the central bimah of the synagogue.

This year they hope to continue exploring the remains of the building and to locate the aron kodesh, the ark used to house the Torah scroll in synagogues. Within the first three days of digging the team had already uncovered the rear entrance to the main hall of the subterranean synagogue, a set of descending steps located near the mikvot.

2019-07-012019-07-08

Events to Mark 75th Anniversary of Destruction of Kaunas Ghetto

Events have begun in Kaunas to mark the 75th anniversary of the liquidation of the ghetto there. On June 15 the Kaunas Drama Theater staged Getas [Ghetto] directed by G. Varnas and on June 29 the Kaunas City Museum invited the public to a free guided tour called Voice of Hope where museum specialist Aušra Strazdaitė-Ziberkienė told of the Jewish musicians who worked at the Kaunas State Drama Theater and the music school, the conservatory and other venues, and their contribution to establishing and enriching Lithuanian music and popularizing Lithuanian composers. She also spoke about the tragic mass murder of the Jews in the Holocaust. The tour was followed by a screening of Seserys [Sisters] by L. Kopač and D. Selčinskaja telling the story of the rescue of Danutė Pomerancaitė, the accomplished violinist.

Those who missed the event can attend repeat performances at 5:00 P.M. on July 12 and 12 noon on July 13. Please register either by calling (8 37) 731 184 or by sending an email to mkp.kasa@kaunomuziejus.lt

More information about the tour is available in Lithuanian here.

2019-07-012019-07-01

Lietūkis Garage Victims Remembered in Kaunas

The anniversary of the Lietūkis Garage massacre was commemorated on June 28, 2019. On June 27, 1941, during the first days of the Nazi invasion, the horrific torture and murder of Jewish men was carried out at the Lietūkis agricultural cooperative’s garage, now Miško street no. 3 in Kaunas.

Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas led the commemoration and recalled the events. Rokas Makštutis on clarinet and vocalist Vitalij Neugasimov performed a musical rendition of the horror which moved many in the audience to tears.

The commemoration was followed by other commemorations at other mass murder sites including the Jewish cemetery in Slobodka, the Seventh Fort and the Jewish cemetery in Žaliakalnis. Kaunas Hassidic Synagogue Religious Community chairman Iser Shreiberg said a prayer in memory of the Holocaust victims.

2019-07-012019-07-05

Righteous Gentile Commemoration Architect: They Were Better People

Bernardinai.lt

by Augminas Petronis and Gediminas Šulcas

“At first it was very frightening to carve another person’s headstone. Yes, I have hands, I have carved this and that, but to carve on someone’s headstone… I sat with the sculptors for a month, and they told me: ‘It will be ten times easier than you imagine.’ But I was getting ready for it as if for a flight into space, and I hung the first commemorative sign for my uncle, just in case I ruined something…” said Tauras Budzys, the Vilnius architect who thought up and implemented a project to hang commemorative symbols on the headstones of rescuers of Jews.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2019-07-01

Lithuania Faces Challenges Celebrating 2020 as Year of Vilna Gaon and Litvak History

Several months of silence have ensued since the publication of a shocking “explanation” with the features of gross Holocaust denial issued by a Lithuanian state institution, the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania, published with no author attributed.

The “explanation” from this Lithuanian national historical research institution claims “the inhabitants of occupied Lithuania did not understand ghettos as part of the Holocaust” in attempting to vindicate Jonas Noreika’s culpability in establishing the Šiauliai (Shavel) ghetto, isolating Jews and seizing their property.

The Lithuanian Jewish Community not only believes these statements violate article 170-2 of the Lithuanian criminal code, but also desensitize the public to the Holocaust, and possibly intentionally and calculatedly encourage conflict in society and belittle and debase the memory of brave Lithuanians who rescued Jews from the Holocaust.

Just after marking the anniversary of the horrific Lietūkiis garage massacre and as we mark the 75th anniversaries of the destruction of the Kaunas and Šiauliai ghettos in coming days, we feel it is important to recall the roots and origins of the Holocaust in Lithuania.

2019-07-012019-08-08

Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of the Liquidation of the Šiauliai Ghetto

The City of Šiauliai and the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community invite you to attend events to mark the 75th anniversary of the liquidation of the Šiauliai ghetto on July 15, 2019.

11:30 Placing of flowers, wreaths and stones at the base of the monument stone marking the gate of the Šiauliai ghetto (on the corner of Trakų and Ežero streets).

12:00 Official ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the liquidation of the Šiauliai ghetto at the Haim Frankel Villa Park.

3:00 Unveiling ceremony of plaque commemorating Right Gentile father Jonas Borevičius, SJ (Vilniaus street no. 245).

4:00 Ceremony to honor the victims at the Kužiai mass murder site at Norutaičiai village, Kužiai aldermanship, Šiauliai region.

5:30 Ceremony to honor ghetto inmates sent to concentration camps at the Radviliškis train station.

Artūras Visockas, mayor, city of Šiauliai
Naum Gleizer, chairman, Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community

2019-06-28

Honorary Member of the Panevėžys Jewish Community

World War II began in 1939. Jews didn’t know this was the onset of hell for the entire world and especially for the Jews themselves. More than 60 million people died, and 6 million of them were Jews. Jews were shot and tortured to death in the concentration camps and ghettos.

Today the world community is grateful to those who saved Jews during the Holocaust.

Teresė Giedrikaitė is a frequent visitor to the Panevėžys Jewish Community. She is the daughter of Emilija and Juozas Giedrikas, who were awarded posthumously the Lithuanian order of the Life-Saver’s Cross. She is an honorable member of the Community. She was invited to attend the unveiling of the new Holocaust memorial in Biržai, Lithuania, but was unable to attend due to poor health. She spoke in an informal setting at the Community, telling the story of her parents who rescued Jews during the war.

She recalled painful memories lodged deep from childhood with tears in her eyes. She was four at the time. Neither time nor Soviet deportation has erased the painful recollections. Her parents hid a Jewish newlywed couple from Kaunas in their home in the small town of Vabalninkas.

2019-06-272019-07-01

European Commission Considers Security of European Jewish Communities

A meeting convened by the European Commission to discuss challenges facing Jewish communities in Europe was held on June 20 in Brussels.

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky spoke at the meeting, thanking Lithuanian law enforcement institutions for long and productive cooperation, but stressed Lithuania is one of only a few European countries without a systematic policy for safeguarding Jewish sites and institutions.

The LJC has adopted all security measures meeting European standards by itself and with help from the Security and Crisis Center under the European Jewish Congress.

2019-06-27

The True State of the Jewish Cemeteries in Vilnius

The True State of the Jewish Cemeteries in Vilnius. Part of a Proud Past Which Must Be Protected

In the international sphere there has been no respite regarding preservation of the old Jewish cemetery in Vilnius (in the historical neighborhood of Piromont, now known as Šnipiškės): petitions are being circulated, the issue has even been raised in the United States Senate and there is the attempt being made to put a halt to plans to renovate the Palace of Sports building there. But are these disputes over the now-destroyed cemetery sufficiently well-founded?

The Soviet Era Destroyed the Šnipiškės Jewish Cemetery and Buried Its Memory

It’s important to look at the history of the Šnipiškės cemetery. The old Jewish cemetery in Vilnius established in 1592 or 1593 (although other sources say 1487) was for all intents and purposes closed in 1830, after which part of the cemetery was destroyed, with another part surviving to the end of World War II.

The Executive Committee of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic adopted a resolution on October 15, 1948, to close the old Jewish cemetery. At that time it had an area of just over three hectares, a quarter of the size of the Užupis Jewish cemetery on Olandų street in Vilnius.

2019-06-262019-08-08

Remember Those Who Rescued Children from Druskininkai Summer Camp in 1941

When World War II came to Lithuania, the children were on summer vacation, many at Communist Youth and pioneer summer camps in Palanga, Kačerginė and Druskininkai. Stasys Sviderskis (1920-2011) was assigned leader of the youn pioneer camp in Druskininkai, where of the 150 or so children, 70 were Jewish.

Stasys was recognized a Righteous Gentile by Yad Vashem in 1997 and Lithuanian president Algirdas Brazauskas awarded him the Life-saver’s Cross. His elder brother Alfonsas saved Jews from the Kaunas ghetto and was named a Righteous Gentile by Yad Vashem in 1980.

When the war arrived on June 22, 1941, Stasys Sviderskis didn’t wait for instructions and collected all the children in his care to send them east away from hostilities. On the first day of war he managed to put the children on a train to Vilnius which continued a long journey to cities in the east in the Soviet Union. Despite the many dangers which confronted him, Sviderskis evacuated all of his wards out of Nazi-controlled territory and so all the Jewish children were saved. He was named a Righteous Gentile on October 6, 1997, with Yad Vashem also publishing a list of the children he rescued.

2019-06-252019-06-27

Yale University President Peter Salovey Visits Lithuanian Jewish Community

Yale University president Peter Salovey visited the Lithuanian Jewish Community on the last day of his visit to Lithuania on June 21.

Salovey, a descendant of the famous Soloveitchik family of rabbis who were followers of the Vilna Gaon, maintains close connection with his Litvak roots in Kaunas and Volozhin. One of his relatives was Max Soloveitchik, a Zionist who was a member of the first interwar Lithuanian parliament, an attorney and who actively fought for recognition of Lithuania’s independence at the Paris Peace Conference. He later became Lithuanian minister of Jewish affairs.

Peter Solovey is known for his theory of emotional intelligence. With John D. Mayer, he significantly expanded the scope of the concept and authored several of the field’s seminal papers, arguing people have widely ranging abilities pertaining to emotional control, reasoning, and perceptivity. In contrast to earlier theories of intelligence which held emotions in rivalry to reason, Salovey and Mayer claimed emotion could motivate productive outcomes when properly directed. He worked to develop models and tests of emotional intelligence such as the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test. Salovey’s second area of research is in health psychology, where he applied social psychology principles to investigate the efficacy of information and education in promoting HIV risk reduction, early cancer detection and quitting smoking

2019-06-252019-07-01

Leonidas Donskis: When Will the Truth Finally Set Us Free?

Bernardinai.lt

In marking the anniversary of the June Uprising of 1941, let’s look at what the late Leonidas Donskis wrote in 2010.

I will admit that reading commentaries by political analyst Kęstutis Girnius on the Lithuanian Provisional Government and the Lithuanian Activist Front, and the allegedly small amount of academic research and documentation on these phenomena, I find myself hardly able to believe that a person whom I consider one of the soberest and keenest of our political commentators could write this. Without quoting from his earlier statements on radio and in print on this issue, I will present a link to a new comment by Kęstutis Girnius.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2019-06-25

Enchanting Pflaumen-Tzimmes

Bagel Shop Café cooks have been sharing some of the secrets of Litvak cooking this summer with the managers of a small restaurant in Merkinė, Lithuania, called Šilo kopa. They’ve been making bagels, herring and pflaumen-tzimmes together.

Pflaumen-tzimmes is a stew made of plums and beef often made for the Sabbath table and Rosh Hashanah.

Bagel Shop Café cook Riva remembers this dish well and still makes it according to a simple recipe: about 1.5 kilograms of beef (from the forequarter), bone, about 15 to 20 plums, about 1.5 kg of potatoes and 1 onion, which is later removed. Laurel leaves aren’t required, only salt. The flavor is enhanced by several tablespoons of caramelized sugar added at the end.

The beef is boiled with the onion for about 2 hours, the onion is removed, the plums are added for about an hour and later the potatoes. When everything has been boiled sufficiently, add 3 to 4 tablespoons of liquefied caramelized sugar.

2019-06-212019-06-21

Vilnius YIVO Headquarters Commemorative Plaque Ceremony Held

The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry and the Lithuanian Jewish Community invited guests and the public to a ceremony to unveil a plaque near the site of the former Vilnius headquarters of YIVO on Vivulskio street in Vilnius June 20. Those attending included deputy to the LJC chairwoman professor Leonidas Melnikas, the heads of YIVO, Lithuanian foreign minister Linas Linkevičius, Lithuanian culture minister Dr. Mindaugas Kvietkauskas, Jewish partisan Fania Brancovskaja and the mayor of Vilnius.

YIVO began in Vilnius in 1925 and was originally housed in the apartment of its founder and prime mover Max Weinreich on Basanavičiaus street (aka Pogulanskaya, Pogulnaka and Wielka Pohulanka street) in Vilnius. Dedicated to research on the language, literature, culture and history of Jews in Eastern Europe, the institute collected a large mass of documents and archive material from local Jewish communities before the Holocaust.

Architect and designer Victoria Sideraitė-Alon designed the new YIVO plaque.

Although much of YIVO’s material was lost during the war, some made its way to the provisional war-time headquarters in New York, which became world headquarters following the war.

2019-06-212019-06-26

Soloveitchik Family Exhibit Opens June 25 in Kaunas

Vytautas Magnus University pro-rector for international relations professor Ienta Dabašinskienė and Dr. Vilma Gradinskaitė are presenting a new exhibit about the famous Soloveitchik family of rabbis from Kaunas in Kaunas at the Valdas Adamkus Presidential Library located at Daukanto street no. 25 on June 25. Peter Salovey, an American psychologist, professor and president of Yale University, comes from this family and is scheduled to receive the regalia of an honorary doctorate at Vytautas Magnus University on June 20.

The Soloveitchik family is known for its many accomplished rabbis and Talmudic scholars. Their roots reach back to the early 18th century in Lithuania. They are Levites who are commanded by the Torah to sing in the Temple in Jerusalem. The surname comes from the diminutive of the Russian word for nightingale. The Kaunas branch of the family gave rise to the famous rabbinic dynasties in Volozhin and Brest-Litovsk.

The exhibit will run till the end of September.

2019-06-202019-06-26

Some Glimpses of the Unusual New Holocaust Memorial in Biržai

A ceremony to unveil the unusual new Holocaust memorial in the Pakamponys forest outside Biržai in northern Lithuania took place June 16 with over 50 people from around the world attending. Also attending were Lithuanian MPs, ambassadors, visitors from other towns and local residents and young people.

Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman, a member of the executive board of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, represented the LJC at the ceremony and presented a thank-you letter to Biržai regional administrator Vytas Jareckas. Sofia and Michael Tabakina of Israel, who arrived in Panevėžys on June 14 and who are frequent visitors, also attended the ceremony. Sofia’s family came from Panevėžys, Šiauliai and Biržai. Her ancestors were murdered in Biržai. As many Litvaks living in Israel do, every year Sofia Tabakina visits sites where her relatives were murdered in Lithuania.

2019-06-202019-07-01