Holocaust – Page 114 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

The Floodgates Within: Video Art from Israel

Where: NGA Auditorium, Konstitucijos prospect no. 22, Vilnius
When: 6:00 P.M., Tuesday, June 7, 2016

On June 7-8 National Gallery of Arts presents the program of contemporary Isreali video art ‘The Floodgates Within: Video Art from Israel’ curated by Chen Tamir, curator at the Center for Contemporary Art in Tel Aviv. Chen Tamir will present two evenings of video from Israel. Designed to complement one another, these two events will situate Israeli contemporary art within historic, social, and political contexts, and offer a wide overview of experimental video-based art from this unique country.

2016-06-06

Lithuanian Historian: Guards of Massacre Sites Should Also Be Listed as Murderers

VILNIUS, June 6, BNS–Not only those who pulled the trigger should be considered perpetrators of the Jewish genocide in Lithuania–they should include the individuals who transported Jews and guarded the sites of massacres, a local historian says.

Alfredas Ruksenas, a specialist of the Genocide and Resistance Research Center of Lithuania, said that the number of genocide perpetrators could be calculated very roughly.

“Shooters of Jews should include all participants of the operations, even if they did not pull the trigger but facilitated the operations,” Ruksenas said at a discussion at the parliament on Monday.

In his words, the battalions that were conducting the genocide are known, however, establishing a specific person or contribution is a difficult task.

2016-06-06

Lithuanian Citizenship: Only Successful Applicant Is a Dead Jew

by Daniel Lutrin

It was gratifying to see a recent article regarding the plight that Jews of Lithuanian origin (Litvaks) are facing when applying to have their Lithuanian citizenship restored. The article, however, does not hone in on the critical matter at hand, namely the extent to which Lithuanian bureaucrats have gone to deny Jews of their ancestral right to citizenship.

In the background, a meticulous selection process has been underway which is nothing more than a modern manifestation of the same anti-Semitism which saw 95 per cent of Litvaks murdered in the Holocaust (the highest in all of Europe).

Denying Litvaks citizenship has been made easy in Lithuania by declaring, based on nebulous case law, that those Lithuanians who left the country during its years of independence (approximately 1919 to 1940) were not persecuted and are therefore not eligible for dual citizenship.

2016-06-03

You’re Invited to a Chess Tournament

The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the elite chess and checkers club Rositsan and Maccabi invite you to a chess tournament at the Lithuanian Jewish Community at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius at 11:00 A.M. on Sunday, June 19.

The event is dedicated to the memory of interwar Lithuania’s third president and Righteous Gentile Kazys Grinius.

Tournament director: FIDE master Boris Rositsan
For more information and to register, contact: info@metbor.lt, telephone +3706 5543556

2016-06-02

Israelis Visit Panevėžys Jewish Community

A large group of students and teachers from Jerusalem visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community May 26. Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman told the guests about the community’s activities in the Lithuanian city, including social welfare programs, and educational programs conducted with local schools. He also told them about the history of the city and of the Jews there. The guests appeared keenly interested and wanted to know what Jews there thought about Israel. A nun from the sisters of the Love of God was also at the meeting and showed guests pictures of Righteous Gentiles students had made at Marija Rusteikaitė Gymnasium.

2016-06-022017-10-26

On Citizenship for Descendants of Litvaks

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by Sergejus Kanovičius

First, the Litvaks died. Almost all of them.

Then began the first division of property stolen from them (with the “honorable” role played by general Vėtra in this).

After World War II, the Soviets legalized this theft, and no one was supposed to mention it, or even hint of it.

After March 11, 1990, that theft was legalized once again, by limiting dual citizenship and introducing into law the statement that “rights to surviving real estate are restored only to citizens of the Republic of Lithuania.” When I made an application for restoration of citizenship, I was told in a friendly way to include in the application the demeaning statement: “I don’t have any inherited property in the Republic of Lithuania.” And how could I inherit those pits on the margins of forests and villages? How could I inherit those two hundred graves where parents and grandparents lie buried? I don’t have any “property” except for this. Although others might. The fathers of independence have done everything to “protect” us from the completely legitimate property claims of Lithuanian Jews and Vilnius Poles–such an innocent desire that this time everything really would belong exclusively to, sorry, our people.

2016-05-302016-08-23

President of Israel Greets Holocaust Survivor, Partisan Fania Brancovskaja on Birthday

Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Amir Maimon delivered a birthday greeting to Holocaust survivor, Vilnius ghetto prisoner and Jewish partisan Fania Brancovskaja at a small ceremony Friday, May 23, calling her an enduring miracle of hope and passion for everyone. He said her life was spoken of proudly and she serves as an inspiration and reminder to the younger generation.

Full story in Lithuanian

2016-05-30

Darius Udrys: What Does Lithuania Owe Its Jews?

Photo: by K. Čachovskis, courtesy Delfi.lt

Lithuanian Jews have contributed to the creation and success of the Lithuanian state from its very foundation.

This is an indisputable fact. As we sometimes like to say with pride (without thinking too much about what responsibilities history places upon us), the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was for its time a conspicuously liberal state which sheltered and safeguarded many tribal and ethnic groups as its own citizens.

One doesn’t have to look far back in the past to find the contribution made by Lithuanian Jews. Called upon and supported by their community leaders to do so, young Litvaks stood shoulder to shoulder with our grandfathers and great-grandfathers in the battle for Lithuanian independence from 1918 to 1920. As Donatas Januta reminds us in the Lithuanian-American newspaper Draugas, the volunteer battalion established and provisioned by Jews was one of the first armed units of the Lithuanian military. Many of its members were decorated for their bravery and sacrifice with medals, including the Order of the Cross of Vytis.

Lithuania’s Jews didn’t just support Lithuanian independence and consolidation through financing, weapons and their lives, they also supported it politically. Simanas Rozenbaumas, a Jew, successfully represented Lithuania in the Paris peace conference at Versailles and in negotiations with the Soviet Union, and Jews took part in the first Constituent Parliament as well. Jews also strongly supported the return of the Vilnius territory to Lithuania.

2016-05-30

Work to Commemorate and Clean Up Jewish Cemeteries and Memorial Sites Continues in Kaunas

Work to commemorate and clean up Jewish cemeteries and memorial sites in Kaunas continues, performed by the Kaunas municipal administration and city departments. The work was initiated by the Kaunas Jewish Community and Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon and their initiatives have the support of Kaunas mayor Visvaldas Matijošaitis and other ranking city officials.

The photographs below show new information boards and signs at the old Jewish cemeteries in Slobodka (Vilijampolė) and Žaliakalnis neighborhoods and at the operating Jewish cemetery on H ir O Minkovskių street. The gate to the Slobodka cemetery is now being kept locked and automobile traffic prohibited. The territory of the Seventh Fort memorial was cleaned up and there are preparations underway to cut trees blocking the view of the site from the other side of Sukilėlių street. The mass murder grave site at the Seventh Fort should be cleaned up this year with a monument to mark the tragic location.

2016-05-26

Start-Work Ceremony at Wooden Synagogue in Žiežmariai

The Lithuanian Jewish Community’s heritage protection expert Martynas Užpelkis travelled to attend a ceremony in Žiežmariai, Lithuania to mark the beginning of work to renovate the unique wooden synagogue there, one of only a handful of wooden synagogues still standing in Lithuania. He took some snapshots which you can find below.

In related news, the board of supervisors of the Kaišiadorys regional administration, where Žiežmariai is located, approved the region’s membership in what is known as the Association of the Itinerary of Jewish Cultural Heritage, a new tourism network which includes the Kėdainiai, Ukmergė and Joniškis regional administrations now.

On July 30, 2015, the Kaišiadorys regional administration agreed to a 99-year lease agreement for the synagogue, the property of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, to be used by the regional administration without fee. In August an agreement was concluded between the LJC and regional administration on the uses to which the former synagogue could be put and for its restoration. Currently work has begun on the roof and façade and archaeological work is on-going. The regional administration has allocated 24,840 euros for restoration work. Further financing is being sought and the regional administration believes membership in the Association of the Itinerary of Jewish Cultural Heritage could open doors for new partners in Belarus and Poland under the Interreg program.

2016-05-24

In the Dock for Holocaust Denial

The agenda item for commemorating the work of the American Jewish welfare organization the Joint Distribution Committee in the Lithuanian city of Panevėžys came up at city council in August, 2014. The main point was to celebrate 100 years of activities by the Joint in Lithuania and to commemorate the organization in Panevėžys. The proposal made at council was to set up a stele to honor the organization at what was formerly Joint Street, now Zikaro street, in the Lithuanian city.

During consideration one council member, Raimondas Pankevičius, opposed the project. Pankevičius went beyond slandering the activities of the Jewish welfare organization and presented a false history of the Holocaust in Lithuania to his fellow council members.

Over 90% of all Jews living in Lithuania were murdered during the Nazi occupation. Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman went to Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky over the matter of these anti-Semitic statements, who in turn sent a complaint to the Office of Prosecutor General of Lithuania regarding the councilor’s words. Prosecutors began an investigation and laid charges against Pankevičius. At the first court hearing in March, Pankevičius said he had misspoken, and instead of saying “Jewish SS,” meant to say “Jewish police.”

2016-05-24

What Should Be Done with the Law on Dual Citizenship of Several Years Standing

Dear members of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and Litvaks living abroad,

I would like to explain in an understandable way what the current situation is regarding the Lithuanian law on citizenship and its provisions affecting those who seek to restore Lithuanian citizenship without renouncing their current citizenship, whether that be of the Republic of South Africa, Israel, the United States, Great Britain or another country.

To begin, we are not at war, although it almost seems like a war for the Jews in South Africa, and the great majority of Jews in other countries enjoy a higher standard of living than we do. It is also clear the Lithuanian law on restoration of citizenship was not written especially for Jews. We, the Lithuanian Jewish Community, care about the Jews of the world and their legitimate aspirations to restore Lithuanian citizenship. The first question which undoubtedly comes up is, when exactly did Jews lose that citizenship?

Jews who left Lithuania with Lithuanian passports before the war, and those who were deported from Lithuania to concentration camps, and those who were deported to Siberia did not renounce Lithuanian citizenship voluntarily. In fact they formally lost it when Lithuania became independent again as people of non-Lithuanian ethnic origin (it turns out Jews who come from Lithuania are not considered people of Lithuanian origin, and are not members of Lithuanian émigré organizations abroad), and moreover, some of them have “repatriated” from Lithuania.

2016-05-24

Work to Renovate Žiežmariai Wooden Synagogue Begins

A ceremony was held at the unique wooden synagogue in Žiežmariai, Lithuania on May 19, 2016, to mark a new stage in its life: its resurrection. The ceremony marked the beginning of work by the Kaišiadorys Regional Administration and Lithuania’s Cultural Heritage Department to restore the house of worship and featured a concert by the Rakija Klezmer Orkestar and works of Paganini by violinist Gediminas Dalinkevičius.

An allocation of 85,000 euros from the Ministry of Culture to the Kaišiadorys Regional Administration and an additional 24,840 euros from the regional administration are to be used initially to fix the roof and repair the façade, stabilize the building and perform archaeological work. A total of 693,000 euros is needed for reconstruction of the synagogue and additional sources of funding are being sought.

“The Lithuanian Jewish Community agrees to turn the synagogue over for public use because the Jewish community of Žiežmariai no longer exists and the synagogue won’t be used as a house of prayer. The synagogue can be utilized very well for the cultural needs of the region and at the same time remain a place of commemoration for the Jewish community of the area,” LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said.

2016-05-19

Jews: Lithuania’s Misfortune

by Marius Ivaškevičius

It appears we can finally say exactly what all those who today speak publicly about the mass murder of Jews in Lithuania are truly seeking. Either they are doing PR for themselves through this, advertising themselves, because this is trendy in Europe, or their activities are being financed by the Jews themselves.

All of those shocking details, talk about smashing the heads of Jewish infants on trees to save bullets, is nothing other than the scratching of still unhealed wounds with dirty, dilettante fingers.

In this manner the attempt is made to traumatize yet another generation of Lithuanians, our children born in a free Lithuania, because these sorts of actions, instead of inviting repentance or at least sorrow, actually create even greater hatred of Jews, because this is how the natural defensive reaction of the nation operates. Every nation is different, so Germany’s experience doesn’t fit our situation, that is, healing and finally recovering by demonstrating and revealing through education and openness the brutality of the Nazi concentration camps. All that took place in the period after the war, when events were still vivid, but today the murderers and the witnesses have all but died off, so Lithuania must blaze her own trail. It’s not for no reason at all that our intellectuals, chroniclers and commentators say: don’t do it, don’t pick at that wound with your fingers, let it first heal, let it be forgotten. Sometimes forgetfulness is more worthwhile than remembering.

I am from Molėtai. A small town of extraordinary beauty with three lakes inside the town and another three hundred in the surrounding area. There’s no need to say much, everyone knows Molėtai, Lithuanian vacationers’ paradise. During the war, or more precisely, during one day in the summer of 1941, two thousand Jews were shot there. In other words, eighty percent of the population of Molėtai. More than two-thirds of the town’s residents vanished over the course of a few hours and were buried in a mass grave. German Nazis were in command of the massacre. Local Lithuanians did the shooting. These are the cold, hard facts and numbers.

2016-05-19

YIVO Awarded $260,000 by NEH

YIVO Receives $260,000 Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities
May 16, 2016

New York, NY – The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (YIVO) is pleased to announce that is a recipient of a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for the Vilna Collections Project, a seven-year initiative to preserve, digitize and virtually reunite YIVO’s prewar archives and library located in New York City and Vilnius, Lithuania, through a dedicated web portal.

The NEH’s Division of Preservation and Access has awarded $260,000 over two years for the processing, conservation and digitization of rare archival documents rescued from the destruction of the Holocaust. The materials, looted by the Nazis and recovered with the help of the U.S. Army, were brought to New York in the late 1940s. They are a diverse resource on Jewish life, community and culture in Europe. They span the range from handwritten autobiographies by Jewish youth and humble folktales and folk songs to the archives of scholars, such as that of Simon Dubnow, known as the father of Russian Jewish history. They include photographs, Yiddish theater and political posters and the administrative records of Yiddish and Hebrew schools and yeshivas.

As City University of New York historian Jack Jacobs noted in a letter of support for YIVO’s application to the NEH, “It is simply impossible to write a dissertation or do any serious research project related to Eastern European Jewry without consulting the YIVO materials.”

Full story here.

2016-05-18

Litvaks Visit Panevėžys

Gilla Back from Melbourne and Leanne Cohen and her daughter from Johannesburg visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community and toured the city recently to learn more about the land whence their ancestors came.

They examined displays of photographs at the community and talked about their ancestors who lived in the city. Cohen’s antecedents emigrated to South Africa in 1900. They signed the guest book and said it had been a real privilege to walk the streets and breath the air in the city, although the Ponevezh of their relatives no longer exists.

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2016-05-17

Lithuania to Grant 30,000 Euros to Vilnius YIVO Project in 2017

The Lithuanian Ministry of Culture plans to allocate 30,000 euros in 2017 for the Vilnius YIVO project.

The Vilnius YIVO project is a seven-year endeavor to preserve, digitize and join together virtually two pre-war YIVO collections in New York and Vilnius. The project will also attempt to recreate digitally the Strashun library, one of the largest collections of judaica in pre-war Europe. YIVO, the Lithuanian Central State Archives and the Lithuanian Martynas Mažvydas National Library are partners in the project.

The project covers approximately 10,000 rare and unique books and publications and around 1.5 million documents. Material includes literary works, correspondence, memoirs, theater posters, photography, rare books, brochures, newspapers, political pamphlets and documentation of religious and communal activities.

lrkm.lrv.lt

2016-05-17

LJC Chairwoman Speaks on Lithuanian National Radio about Citizenship for Litvaks

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky was one of three distinguished guests on the late morning Aktualiju studijas [News Studio] program on Lithuanian radio May 12.

“This question keeps bothering me: when did the institution of citizenship, when did that institution stop, when was it interrupted? Was it when the person was imprisoned in the ghetto? When he was transported to the concentration camp? Nobody saved those passports anywhere. You see this is such an inhumane, such an unintelligent step when you look to the future. But as the chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community I would like to say, that Litvaks are welcome in our community, with or without a passport, and we would be very proud if our Lithuanian Jewish Community grew thanks to those people who left Lithuania. So we gladly invite and welcome them without regard to their political status,” Faina Kukliansky said during the discussion.

The main topic for the show as “Why don’t we want to grant citizenship to Litvaks?” The introductory blurb for the show was: “Lithuanian Jews–Litvaks–are not just people who have achieved great things in the world, they contributed greatly to the strengthening of the Lithuanian state as well. They sought Lithuanian independence and they fought in the battles for independence [in 1918-1919]. Unfortunately, almost all of them were murdered during World War II. Only a small portion survived. Today some Lithuanian bureaucrats don’t want to grant citizenship to the small group of Jews who want it. Why not?”

The other two guests were former Lithuanian prime minister, current deputy parliamentary speaker MP Gediminas Kirkilas and the historian Alvydas Nikžentaitis.

The audience was invited to call in and pose questions.

2016-05-16

Murder of French Jews at Ninth Fort in Kaunas Remembered

Monument to Holocaust victims, Ninth Fort, Kaunas, Lithuania

A commemoration of the French Jews murdered at the Ninth Fort in Kaunas, Lithuania, took place May 10 at the Ninth Fort Museum. On May 15, 1944, convoy 73 from the Drancy concentration camp in Paris carried off 878 Jews to the Baltic states. Most were taken off the train and shot at the Ninth Fort in Kaunas. Others were transported to a camp in Pravieniškės near Kaunas and then to camps in Estonia. Members of the Association of Families and Friends of the Deportees of Convoy 73 have been coming to Lithuania semi-annually to honor the memory of their murdered loved ones.

Members of the Kaunas Jewish Community attend these commemorations at the Ninth Fort in Kaunas. Close relations between the association and the community have been on-going for more than 10 years now, with informal meetings outside of the official functions as well. Family members who lost loved ones in the transports from France to Lithuania have also forged ties with staff at the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum who have sought to furnish more information on the fates of specific train cars. The Kaunas Ninth Fort Museum has a separate exhibit dedicated specifically to the French prisoners murdered there, including French graffiti still extant on cell walls. In addition, the Nazis sent transports of Jews from Austria and Germany to be murdered at the Ninth Fort.

2016-05-12

Ten Years of Cooperation

It’s been 10 years now since the Panevėžys Jewish Community and the Rožynas Pre-Gymnasium first began carrying out joint projects to encourage tolerance, education and friendship between the peoples who call Panevėžys home. This time the project was about Holocaust commemoration in the Panevėžys region. It’s called “A Bridge between Past and Present.” The project is financed by the Goodwill Fund. Around 200 students from the upper classes participated and learned about the history of the Holocaust. The Panevėžys Jewish Community shared information with Rožynas Pre-Gymnasium pupils and administrators, history teacher Genutė Žilytė and pre-gymnasium principal Aida Adiklienė and provided the information the Panevėžys Jewish Community possesses about the Holocaust in the city and region of Panevėžys.

2016-05-12