Holocaust – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Pistorius Visits Ponar

German defense minister Boris Pistorius visited Ponar Wednesday to pay his respects to victims of the Holocaust in Lithuania. He was accompanied by Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky.

Pistorius said despite his tight schedule during his visit to Lithuania, he couldn’t imagine visiting the country without visiting Ponar. Ponar is a mass murder site just outside Vilnius where at least 70,000 Jews were murdered, although the number of dead is sometimes estimated much higher. Ethnic Poles and Soviet POWs were also murdered there in lesser numbers.

“That Mr. Pistorius found the time to honor victims of the Holocaust demonstrates how important it is to remember the scope of tragedy, even eighty years later, which can be caused by incautious political action and manipulation of man’s basest instincts,” Kukliansky commented.

Lithuanian national defense minister Dovile Šakalienė, German ambassador to Lithuania Cornelius Zimmermann and Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein also attended the wreath- and stone-laying ceremony.

2025-01-242025-01-24

Screening of Izaokas at Vilna Gaon Museum’s Litvak Museum

The Litvak Culture and Identity Museum will show the film Izaokas for free at 4:00 P.M. on Sunday, January 26. The event includes an introduction by film critic Izolda Keidošiūtė and a discussion between her and actress Severija Janušauskaitė who plays a role in the film.

The film begins with a Lithuanian murdering the Jewish man Izaokas at the garage massacre in Kaunas in 1941. The perpetrator is haunted by visions of the crime and an increasing sense of guilt for years afterwards.

The screening is in honor of the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust proclaimed by UNESCO in 2005 on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army in 1945. That anniversary is Monday.

The film is in Lithuanian.

Time: 4:00 P.M., Sunday, January 26
Place: Litvak Museum, Pylimo street no. 4A, Vilnius

2025-01-232025-01-23

Kaunas Jewish Community Honors January 13 Victims with Concert

The Kaunas Jewish Community hosted a concert last Sunday to remember the victims of January 13, 1991, when Soviet troops stormed the Vilnius television tower, killing and wounding civilians holding vigil there. The list of victims include Titas Masiulis whose family rescued Jews from the Holocaust.

Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas thanked the musicians and the Israeli embassy for making possible the arrival of saxophonist Amit Friedman, who will go on to tour Lithuania with a series of concerts to be announced.

2025-01-222025-01-22

Šiauliai Jewish Community Marks Holocaust Day with Sutzkever Reading

The Šiauliai Jewish Community will mark the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust at 6:00 P.M. on January 27 with a reading event called “Prayer to Myself” based on texts by the poet Abraham Sutzkever at the Šiauliai District Jewish Community at Vileišio street no. 24 in Šiauliai.

2025-01-20

Klaipėda Jewish Community Hosts Play for Holocaust Day

The Klaipėda Jewish Community’s Shatil Theater is to perform a play called “Man baisus pasaulis, kuriame nėra tavęs” [A World without You Frightens Me] on Sunday, January 26, to mark the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust on January 27.

The play is about a young Jewish woman called Mirka who escapes a train transport to a death camp and her decision to leaver her new-born son with a female villager who had saved her. The play is in Russian and is based on the original work by Asia Kotliar.

UNESCO declared the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust on January 27 in 2005. January 27 is the day in 1945 when the Red Army liberated Auschwitz.

The play starts at 6:30 P.M. on January 26 at the Palace of Fishermen at the Culture Center in Klaipėda.

2025-01-20

Happy Birthday

Irena Giedraitienė celebrated a milestone birthday Tuesday. An engineer by profession, she is also an accomplished photographer with many exhibits under her belt. The LJC and the Union of Former Ghetto and Concentration Camp victims wish her continuing good health, strength of spirit, love and quality time spent with friends and loved ones. We wish her continued success in carrying out the goals she has set for herself. Happy birthday, Irena. Mazl tov. Bis 120!

2025-01-15

Condolences

Petras Kaplanaitis passed away January 9. He was born in 1933 and was a member of the Klaipėda Jewish Community. We extend our deepest condolences to his brother, daughters and many friends and family members.

2025-01-13

Truth at Last

by Grant Gochin

The government of Lithuania’s threats of criminal charges against me remain open. These threats were instigated as an intimidation tactic to silence me. My supposed crime was investigating the truth about who perpetrated the Holocaust in Lithuania.

I began my efforts towards exposing the truth about the Holocaust in Lithuania in the early 2000s. I was perplexed by the apparent acquiescence of some major Jewish organizations to the rampant Holocaust frauds committed by the government of Lithuania. My repeated outreach made me realize that if I did not address the issues myself, they would be ignored. Over the course of the past 15 years, this revelation has repeatedly proven itself to be accurate.

Approximately thirty legal actions I launched against Lithuania displayed how resolutely the Lithuanian government coalesced to invert Holocaust truth, while continuing their intimidation tactics against history researchers and activists. The Lithuanian courts took instruction from members of the government to deny legal review of governmental Holocaust fraud. Historical researchers such as Evaldas Balčiūnas and Andrius Kulikauskas were insulted, intimidated and threatened by the Lithuanian government simply for conducting research on inconvenient subjects and exposing the truth.

There was an attempt to bribe documentarian Michael Kretzmer to create a falsified narrative. Their conduct revealed to Kretzmer the country’s Holocaust inversions. His response was to make the documentary J’Accuse! which revealed to the world the full ghastly truth about Lithuania’s Holocaust frauds.

2024-12-23

Jewish Charity Helps 83 Righteous Gentile Holocaust Heroes Celebrate Holidays

by Michelle Rosenberg

In its largest one-time seasonal award, Jewish Foundation for the Righteous sends £250k to rescuers in 10 countries including Australia, Hungary, Romania and Sweden

The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous is sending more than £254k to 83 Righteous Gentile rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust living in 10 different countries–the largest one-time seasonal award in the foundation’s history.

The JFR provides financial stipends for aged and needy Righteous Gentiles, helping to repay a debt of gratitude on behalf of the Jewish people for their heroism.

Since its founding, the foundation has provided more than £35 million to an estimated 3,600 rescuers in more than 34 countries.

As the years pass since the Holocaust the number of living rescuers has dwindled. The remaining Righteous Gentiles receiving this year’s holiday awards live in Australia, Belarus, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden and Ukraine.

Full story here.

2024-12-23

Condolences

Mina Levina passed away Wednesday, December 18. She was born in 1937 and was a member of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and a client of the Saul Kagan Welfare Center. We extend our deepest condolences to her family members and friends.

2024-12-19

Condolences

Tamara Adrinovskaya has died. She was born in 1934 and was a member of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and a client served by the Saul Kagan Welfare Center. We extend our deepest condolences to her daughter Liudmila, her grandchildren and many loved ones.

2024-12-19

Goodwill Foundation Board Members Meet Speaker of Parliament

The co-chairpeople of the Goodwill Foundation–Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky and American Jewish Committee International Jewish Affairs Department director Rabbi Andrew Baker–have met with the new speaker of the Lithuanian parliament and former prime minister Saulius Skvernelis.

They discussed the Middle East and the rising tide of anti-Semitic incidents in Europe. Speaker Skvernelis affirmed Lithuania is a safe country for Jews.

“The fight against anti-Semitism must be a constant on the political agenda. Everyone knows my views of the Holocaust and anti-Semitism from the time when I was prime minister, and my views haven’t changed even a little. We will not tolerate expressions of anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial or disrespect towards Holocaust victims. I believe we as a country under the rule of law will judge anti-Semitic expressions as a legal matter, and our newly-formed ruling coalition will be a reliable and trustworthy partner in that,” Skvernelis said during their meeting.

2024-12-192024-12-19

Ghost of Facebook Past Comes to Haunt Rookie MP

On Wednesday, December 11, the Lithuanian parliament’s Ethics and Procedures Commission met to discuss facebook posts made in the past by newly-elected MP Petras Dargis, who belongs to the controversial Nemuno Aušra party led by Remigijus Žemaitaitis.

In the posts in question, Dargis published an indecent picture of a prostitute leaning into the driver’s side window of an automobile, saying, “I’ll do everything your wife doesn’t.” The speech balloon of the driver says, “Can you make me a tasty goulash?”

More troubling are older posts dating back to September of 2011 where Dargis repeats anti-Semitic jokes. In one, a father asks his sons how the good Santa Claus differs from the evil Jew. Santa is good and the Jew is bad, one says. Another chimes in: Santa gives gifts from out of his bag, but the Jew takes them and puts them in the bag. That’s all true, the father says, but more importantly, Santa enters by coming down the chimney, and the Jews exits by going up the chimney.

2024-12-172024-12-17

Condolences

Boris Spevak has died. He was born in 1932 and was a long-standing member of the Klaipėda Jewish Community and more recently a client of the Saul Kagan Welfare Center. He passed away on December 10. Our deepest condolences to his children, relatives and many friends.

2024-12-122024-12-12

Condolences

Nina Baitlerytė passed away December 10. She was born in 1937. She was a member of the Šiauliai Jewish Community for many years and was beloved by all. The entire Lithuanian Jewish Community mourns her loss and extends our deepest condolences to her sister Frida and her many loved ones.

2024-12-12

IHRA Member-State Reps Meet in London

Delegations and representatives of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance met in congress in London from December 2 to 5 to discuss current events in Holocaust and Roma genocide commemoration, education and combating anti-Semitism. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky was part of Lithuania’s legation.

The plenary session discussed rising anti-Semitism in Europe and conflicts in the Middle East.

Eric Pickles who serves as chairman of IHRA said Jews are more afraid now than ever before, making fighting hatred and preserving memory more important than ever as well.

Lithuanian ambassador for special assignments Arvydas Daunoravičius led the Lithuanian legation. Other members of Lithuania’s team were chosen by the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry, Education Ministry, Ethnic Minorities Department, the International Commission for the Assessment of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania and the Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum. Kukliansky represented the Lithuanian Jewish Community among the Lithuanian delegates.

2024-12-12

Šakiai Commemorates Lost Jewish Community

The town of Šakiai in the Marijampolė district in extreme western Lithuania paid homage to its once vibrant Jewish community with a series of presentations followed by the unveiling of a metal sculpture of a boy on November 28.

The Zanavykai Museum began events with a series of lectures about Jews from Šakiai, the history of Jews in the town and their historical legacy. Lost Shtetl Museum senior academic correspondent Jolanta Mickutė and director of the Vincas Kudirka Museum at the Lithuanian National Museum Vida Palionienė spoke on the town’s former Jewish community and regional historian Gražina Žemaitienė spoke about Jewish life in nearby Kudirkos Naumiestis.

The speakers and audience moved to the town square following these presentations where a metal statue by Kęstutis Dovydaitis portraying a school boy was unveiled by Kęstutis Dovydaitis, MP Darius Jakavičius and mayor of the Šakiai regional administration Raimondas Januševičius. Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas, and other guests attended the events along with local residents and students.

2024-12-042024-12-04

Recipe for Murder

by Liova Kaplanas

Many Jews visit Lithuania to tour the paths of the slaughter of our families, also known as death tourism. Lithuania has much to offer tourists: forests, lakes, an extraordinary number of death-pits containing our murdered Jewish families, cool summers, lovely open parks, destroyed Jewish heritage and foods we Jews remember from our childhood, including potato latkes with sour cream, smoked salmon, pickled herring, kishke, kugel and potato kneidels. These food recipes are originally Jewish recipes, appropriated by Lithuania, and now claimed as theirs. Visiting Lithuania is almost akin to taking a step back in time, just, without living Jews. The sights, smells, recipes and foods are reminiscent of our grandparents before they were slaughtered. Some Jewish heritage remains, and plenty of Lithuanian heritage is intact.

Those visiting Lithuania will be only slightly surprised to discover another unpleasant heritage recipe–a recipe for murder!. And not just a plain recipe, but a recipe officially, legally and governmentally registered in the official Lithuanian “Register of Folk Heritage!” It should be absurd and unbelievable, but, unfortunately, it’s true.

Lithuanian parliament member Remigijus Žemaitaitis re-popularized this Lithuanian National Folk Heritage “recipe” in his election campaign, exploiting it to win in excess of 15% of the national vote in Lithuania’s most recent election. The wording of this heritage “recipe” is:

2024-11-252024-11-25

Labyrinths of the Old Town: A Tour for Community Members

Lithuanian Jewish Community members are invited to a special tour next Saturday in Vilnius called Labyrinths of the Old Town led by accomplished guide Markas Psonikas. The tour will invoke the mediaeval aura of the courtyards of the Old Town and continue on to the secrets and discoveries of the present day.

The cost is 7 euros per person. Registration is required by sending an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt before 12:00 noon on November 28.

Time: 11:00 A.M., Saturday, November 30
Place: starting point to be announced following registration
Duration: ~2 hours

2024-11-252024-11-25

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