History of the Jews in Lithuania – Page 96 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Pre-Internet Viral: Songs of the Vilna Ghetto

by Geoff Vasil

The ORT Sholem Aleichem Gymnasium in Vilnius had a special guest Monday. Eli Rabinowitz from Perth, originally Cape Town, tries to make it to Lithuania every summer, and says he’s been here seven times now in the last six years. He comes from a long line of Litvaks in South Africa and has been quietly going to schools around the world to get them to teach their students the Partisan Song.

For those who don’t know what that means, there is a world-famous song which came out of the Vilnius ghetto, one treated as a sort of national anthem in Israel, where people stand at attention when it is sung. Most people in Vilnius and Lithuania today have never heard it, but over the decades before the internet came along, the song went viral in slow motion.

2017-05-312017-06-22

Much Noise, Few Jews

photos by V. Ščiavinskas courtesy of lrytas.lt

Faina Kukliansky Says Election of Simonas Gurevičius as Vilnius Jewish Community Chairman Invalid

Is this an insurgency against the current leadership of the community, or also against dialogue with the Lithuanian state? This question needs to be asked because of the growing conflict among Lithuanian Jews.

Lithuanian Jewish Community (LJC) and Vilnius Jewish Community (VJC) chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said she still hasn’t decided whether to offer hew candidacy for a second four-year term. But long-time former Simonas Gurevičius, who left the community earlier, is already attacking the current leader on all fronts.

Incidentally, one of Gurevičius’s main supporters is US Jewish activist Dovid Katz, who constantly accuses the Lithuanian state of anti-Semitic policies.

2017-05-262017-06-02

Arkadijus Vinokuras: A Community Divided

15min.lt

Yesterday, on May 24, 2017, in an uprising against Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, the 15 men of the executive board conducted, according to the current chairwoman, illegitimate elections, thus dividing the community.

I, Arkadijus Vinokuras, a legitimate candidate, refused to take part in these elections for three reasons, which can be summed up in the cynical words of newly elected [sic] Vilnius Jewish Community chairman Simonas Gurevičius: “The unity of the community is important. But unity was never a synonym for idiocy. The community is united in pursuing its goals, in improving conditions, in mutual aid, in growth, in perfection, in other positive matters. Not in silence over dishonesty and apathy.” Did you get it? The unity of the community is considered a synonym for stupidity. Apparently striving for the unity of the community (but not confusing this in any way with a uniform opinion) is also idiotic. That the new “chairman” considers members of the VJC idiots and fools, and that the defense of morality has become a farce, was shown by him immediately during the election, when I withdrew from the elections and that very same minute a new candidacy was raised “in the name of democratic elections.”

Why I Refused to Participate

First. Because of the moral dilemma. There are 2,200 members in the Vilnius Jewish Community. These elections for the post of VJC chairman were attended exclusively by Gurevičius’s supporters, just 260 people. I, on the other hand, want to be a candidate for all members, regardless of whether they are proponents or opponents. That’s the correct and fair way. Thus my legitimate hopes and expectations as a legitimate candidate were not satisfied.

Second. Only Gurevičius’s supporters participated in these “elections.” He was elected by 246 people. I cannot countenance these elections turned farcical with no chance for an independent candidate.

Third. These elections didn’t contain even a trace of democracy. First of all, the conflict which arose between the executive board and the chairwoman was born in immorality. Whether there were good grounds for it or not, I won’t get into, I won’t go into the legal arguments. But it’s not just the legal aspect that matters in this small community, it’s the aspect of fairness and justice. So the chairwoman was accused of usurping power and manipulating the regulations of the VJC. All the problems of the VJC were placed at the feet of the chairwoman.

Flawed Regulations

But–at least the question arises in my mind–where were these members of the executive board of the VJC, these allegedly intelligent 15 men, these last four years? Why didn’t they over the course of those years do anything to change these flawed rules and regulations which allowed for manipulations using these regulations as seen fit and as desired by the chair and the executive board? Why did these 15 men, who placed the blame for the conflict on one woman, begin this conflict which has led directly to the schism in the community?

2017-05-262017-06-02

Evening to Give Thanks to Rescuers of Jews in Kaunas

“It’s difficult to express in words our gratitude and respect. It is our duty to remember not just the victims of the Holocaust, but also those brave people who risked their lives and those of their families to rescue Jews, sometimes their neighbors, sometimes friends, but more often complete strangers,” Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas at an annual evening event to give thanks to rescuers and their children , grandchildren and now even great-grandchildren. He thanked those in attendance for their close and war ties with the Jewish Community and for so enthusiastically attending Jewish Community events.

Singer Judita Leitaitė, pianist Rūta Mikelaitytė-Kašubienė and violinist Paulina Daukšytė performed at the event. Kristina Kazakevičiūtė, the daughter of a rescuer and an actress at the Kaunas Chamber Theater, read some profound poetry and then lightened the mood with some Jewish jokes. Participants in school tolerance education centers also attended and there were discussions of how to teach Jewish culture to school pupils in a more interesting way. The evening ended with the presentation of small gifts.

2017-05-252017-06-21

Launch of Judaic Studies Center

The exhibition “People and Books of the Strashun [Mefitse Haskalah] Library” opened May 22 to mark the public launch of the Judaic Studies Center at the Lithuanian National Martynas Mažvydas Library. Dr. Lara Lempertienė, director of the new center, is the curator of the exhibition and the designer was Center researcher Miglė Anušauskaitė.

The exhibit documents the Mefitse Haskalah Jewish Public Library located on what was then Strashun Street from 1902 to 1940 (and which became the Vilna ghetto library under Herman Kruk until 1943), but also pays homage to Mattityahu Strashun (1817-1885), the bibliophile whose collection was housed at the Strashun Library proper, next to the Great Synagogue, but large portions of which passed through the Strashun street library during the Holocaust. The exhibit includes items from the collections of the Lithuanian national library as well as documents on load from YIVO, the Lithuanian Central State Archive, the History of the Lithuanian State Archive and the Lithuanian Art Museum.

National library general director Dr. Renaldas Gudauskas opened the exhibit at the ceremony Monday. YIVO director Jonathan Brent and Frida Shor, the author of an article about the Strashun Library, were also there.

2017-05-23

Contest Winner’s Trip to Strasbourg

Viktorija Stundžytė, a tenth-grader from the Dukstyna School in Ukmergė (Vilkomir) and a participant in her school’s Tolerance Education Center, took part in the awards ceremony for the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania’s nation-wide contest “On the Trail of Suffering for Freedom and Struggle” held in Vilnius May 5. The high-school student and her teachers visited the Museum of Genocide Victims, the Lithuanian parliament and the Palace of Teachers, where the awards were presented. Viktorija won a trip to Strasbourg.

She submitted an entry about the woman Stasė Ruzgytė-Staputienė who lost her mother in childhood, was adopted and experienced the Soviet and Nazi occupations. Viktorija set the story down in 100 pages after transcribing and typing it.

Viktorija called the project an invaluable experience which she will be able to use in her life and pass on to her children and grandchildren to remind them what goes on in this world. “As I was listening to the audio recording sometimes I wanted to go to the places about which she spoke, but sometimes I just wanted to be a heroine and get all those people out of there so they wouldn’t have to suffer anymore and experience everything the people in these recordings experienced,” she said about her work.

2017-05-23

Happy Birthday to Fania Brancovskaja

Dear Fania,

May all your days be beauty-filled and may the smile never fade from your face. We wish you excellent health. Be happy and live long! May you live to 120!

Mazl tov!

2017-05-232017-05-26

Oldest Wooden Synagogue in Pakruojis Opens after Renovation

The renovated wooden synagogue in Pakruojis, Lithuania, was opened to the public on May 19.

Jews settled in Pakruojis in the 1710s. The majority were merchants and they contributed heavily to the growth of the local economy. The growing Jewish population affected the growth of the town and its social life. In 1787 and 1788 the town suffered large fires. Only 5 of 42 Jewish homes survived. The Jewish population grew right up until World War I. In 1939 there were 120 Jewish families living in Pakruojis.

Footage by Skirmantas Jankauskas for lzb.lt

Pakruojis teacher Janina Mykolaitienė recalls the Jews who lived there:

2017-05-222017-05-26

LJC Support to Rescuers

The Lithuanian Jewish Community’s Social Programs Department is continuing the project begun in 2014 in 2017 to provide aid to elderly WWII-era rescuers of Jews from the Holocaust, financed by the Goodwill Foundation.

Seventy-six Righteous Gentiles received personal letters wishing them good health and wellness. Each rescuer will receive up to 326 euros this year.

2017-05-222017-05-26

Meeting with LJC Chairwoman Turns Ugly

What was billed as a short meeting for young Jews to meet and discuss matters with Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky last Thursday turned into a heated, high-stakes verbal brawl, lasting well beyond three hours instead of the one scheduled.

The discussion took place at La bohème restaurant right next to Pasaka Theater in Vilnius, which screened free of charge the Litvak film Meetings with Joseph. The theater managers delayed the start because the audience were all holed up in a back room at the restaurant next door, but finally came over and announced the film was starting. Of the fifty or so people present, only three appeared to leave to watch the film.

Tempers flared almost as soon as the chairwoman appeared. Daniel Lufshitz launched into some sort of tirade, fresh from his new-found celebrity as a young and upcoming wise man of Chelm following his youtube posting “Jew Wars” which managed to attack and alienate just about every Jewish institution in Lithuania, without foundation. One suspected it was intended to be comedy when he blurred out the backs of the heads of attendees of Simonas Gurevicius’s out-of-order meeting at the Conti Hotel in Vilnius, but in person there were no laughs to be found. Instead he berated Faina Kukliansky, hurling at best vague accusations of mismanagement, and then claimed to be a member of the Vilnius Jewish Community. Daniel Lufshitz, a native-born Lithuanian Jew who migrated to Israel but came back recently, was the subject of some controversy last year when he was courted to become some sort of Jewish representative for the Vilnius City Council and began making media appearances. Then, the LJC had to issue a public announcement that he was not a member of the Community and did not represent the Community in any way. This time Faina Kukliansky gently contradicted him, reminding him he was a not a member of the Vilnius Jewish Community, at which his pique visibly rose, he claimed he had a paper in writing that he would become a member after elections, that therefore he was a member now and she was a liar.

2017-05-22

Lithuanian Maccabee Games to Celebrate 100th Birthday of Lithuanian Makabi

Time: May 21, 2107
Location: Tauras Sports School, Žygio street no. 46, Vilnius

Program

12:00 noon Basketball (3 x 3), free-throw contest

1:00 P.M. Lithuanian Maccabee Games opening ceremony

1:30 P.M. Indoor soccer

3:00 P.M. Volleyball

1:30-4:00 P.M. Ping-pong, chess

4:50 P.M. Ceremony, meal, awards

Responsible parties:

Soccer: Gercas Žakas
Basketball: Gercas Žakas
Volleyball: Gercas Žakas
Ping-pong: Michailas Duškesas
Chess: Daniel Dubrovin
Secretary: Olga Bliumenzon

Participants: Teams from Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Panevėžys, Šiauliai, Ukmergė and other towns. Director of Lithuanian Maccabee Games: Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club president Semionas Finkelšteinas. Lithuanian Maccabee Games senior referee: Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club executive director Michailas Duškesas

Note: the program might change following final applications from all teams

2017-05-182017-05-22

Meet LJC Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky and Watch the Film Dialogue with Joseph by Elžbieta Josadė

We kindly invite Jewish young people and the general public to a screening of a documentary film by Elžbieta Josadė called Dialogue with Joseph on at 7:00 P.M. on May 18 at the Pasaka Theater (Šv. Ignoto street no. 4/3, Vilnius). After the film you may meet and discuss with film director Elžbieta Josadė and editor Rareş lenasoaie. Entrance is free to the public.

Dialogue with Josef was honored with a special jury award at the international competition Jihlava IDFF 2016 in the Overseas category and Best Central and Eastern Europe Documentary Film subcategory. The national premiere was November 2016 at the Scanorama film forum.

About the film:

“Joseph paints the earth and the sky with no other ambition than to observe and to gain a better understanding of the landscape‘s visual structure. Shyly, the filmmaker follows her father in his work and in this so particular space which surrounds him.“

At 6:00 P.M., just before the screening of the film, we invite young people from the Jewish Community to an informal meeting at the restaurant La Boheme (Šv. Ignoto street no. 4/3, Vilnius, right next door to the Pasaka Theater) with Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky. We will discuss Jewish heritage, future prospects for the Jewish community and other issues.

2017-05-182017-05-19

Israeli Ambassador Says Names Not Numbers at Holocaust Mass Murder Sites

Izraelio ambasadorius: ant Holokausto kapaviečių turėtų būti ne skaičiai, o žmonių vardai

Lietuvos žinios

For centuries the Jewish community was an inseparable part of Lithuania, but this isn’t completely understood now. The legacy of the once-thriving Jewish communities is not receiving the attention it’s due. Lietuvos žinios spoke with Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon about whether Lithuania is a friendly country for Jews, how our mutual understanding is evolving and what still needs to be done to improve relations.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2017-05-18

Thank You

LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky received the following thank-you note from the granddaughter of a Lithuanian woman who rescued Jews from the Holocaust.

Hello,

My grandmother Stasė Minelgienė (a recognized Righteous Gentile) asked me to thank you for the card [debit card] which she received as a gift. She also asked me to wish you a nice day, good health and the highest success.

Respectfully,
Her granddaughter,
N. Žvirblytė

2017-05-18

Lithuanian Jewish Community Celebrates Leonidas Melnikas’s Birthday

The Destinies program of evening cultural events celebrated the birthday of Lithuanian musician and composer Dr. Leonidas Melnikas last Thursday, May 11.

The evening began at the Jascha Heifetz hall at LJC headquarters in Vilnius with the airs of a tango, an overflow crowd and the birthday boy smiling on stage. Leonidas Melnikas is a piano player, organ player, musicologist, a tenured doctor, the head of his cathedral at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater, chairman of the academy’s senate and professor. He’s also a member of the board of directors of the Lithuanian Jewish Community. He turned 60 Thursday.

The birthday celebration was part of the Destinies program of evening cultural events initiated and organized by LJC deputy chairwoman Maša Grodnikienė, who used the occasion to honor the memory of Melnikas’s father Isaiah Melnik, who would have turned 110 that same day. He was a well-known pharmacist at the Vilnius Central Pharmacy (on what is now Gedimino prospect) and at the Žvėrynas Pharmacy in Vilnius, where he made his own preparations in his time. He survived both Stutthof and Dachau. He was beloved by all and was a calm and warm person who enjoyed attending all sorts of concerts. His son Leonidas’s musical career began when his mother took him to the Ąžuoliukas school. His first teacher was the famous pianist Nadežda Duksdulskaitė. “My entire childhood was illuminated by my parents, the very best, the very wisest people, and family remains extremely important to me,” Melnikas said of himself before embarking on a performance of tango melodies with violinist Boris Traub, cellist Valentinas Kaplūnas and accordion player Gennady Savkov.

2017-05-182017-05-25

Attend Opening Ceremonies for New Judaica Studies Center

The Judaica Studies Center of the Lithuanian National Martynas Mažvydas Library was officially established May 3, 2017, but will only open to the public May 22 and May 23 with several events and exhibitions.

The Center’s main function is to further research on the Jewish documentary heritage, carrying out educational and informational projects and publicizing the results. The Center is an open enterprise and aimed at educational cooperation. According to its mission statement, the Center actively publicizes information about the Jewish textual heritage at its events, in the national and international media and on the internet, and also conserves collections of modern Judaica publications.

Program:

May 22

1:00 P.M. Opening ceremony (foyer, fifth floor)
2:00 P.M. Launch of exhibit People and Books of the Strashun Library (exhibit hall, third floor)

May 23

1:00 P.M. Samuel Kassow (USA) lecture Uniqueness of Jewish Vilna (conference hall, fifth floor)
2:30 P.M. Presentation The Vilnius YIVO Project (conference hall, fifth floor)

Full announcement in Lithuanian at the Lithuanian National Martynas Mažvydas Library web page here.

2017-05-18

Dukstyna Primary School of Ukmergė Tours Sugihara House in Kaunas

Vida Pulkauninkienė, coordinator of the Tolerance Education Center at the Dukstyna Primary School in Ukmergė (Vilkomir), and a group of students from the Center visited the Sugihara House museum in Kaunas May 15. They viewed the memorial exhibit there, a chronicle of events in Kaunas from 1939 to 1940, a virtual exhibit of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara’s deeds in Lithuania and an audio-visual exhibition about the daily life of Jewish refugees in Lithuania. They also learned about how Jews saved themselves, travelling to Kobe, Japan, on the visas Sugihara issued, then on to the USA, New Zealand and other countries.

Museum director Simonas Dovidavičius led the tour.

The group also visited the site of the former Slobodka ghetto in Kaunas, guided by Daiva Žemaitienė, also a Tolerance Education Center coordinator.

The Ukmergė Jewish Community set up the field trip as part of a continuing education project with financial aid from the Goodwill Foundation.

2017-05-17