Honored Guests Visit Panevėžys Jewish Community
Williams Tcath, the president of the Gendel/Hendel family association, and a group of fellow travellers visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community this June. His grandfather Salomon Hendel was a merchant of pre-made clothing and died in 1916. His descendants have banded together to form an association of families who left Panevėžys after 1919 with 416 members.
Mr. Tcath looked through the archives and photo albums of the Panevėžys Jewish Community, and left an inscription in the guest book.
The point of their trip to Panevėžys was to collect information and photographs concerning the families belonging to their association and to make known the contributions made by these families to life in Panevėžys at that time. Members of the delegation had numerous documents which they gave to the Panevėžys Jewish Community. They only had one day in Panevėžys and then travelled on to Vilnius.
Israeli Ambassador to Lithuania Commemorates Holocaust Victims in Jurbarkas
Israel’s ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Wittenberg-Silverstein visited the western Lithuanian town of Jurbarkas, or Yurburg in Yiddish, on July 3, according to the Jurbarkas Regional Administration webpage jurbarkas.lt.
The ambassador began her visit at the V. Grybas Museum where Jurbarkas regional mayor Skirmantas Mockevičius and museum director Rasa Grybaitė received her.
At the Jurbarkas Regional Library the ambassador met with regional administration director Rūta Vančienė, culture and sports department director Aušra Baliukynaitė, senior department specialist Akvilė Sadauskienė and library director Rasida Kalinauskienė. They discussed opportunities for cooperative work.
Lithuanian MP Scoffs at Ultimatum: Apologize or Face Impeachment
Parliamentary whips of the parties in the ruling coalition issued an ultimatum Tuesday to MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis to either apologize for anti-Semitic statements he made on facebook before the NATO summit meeting in Vilnius on July 11 or face impeachment and removal from parliament.
Opposition parties refused to sign on to the statement.
Žemaitaitis said in response: “I don’t see why I should apologize.”
“They can go bravely forward and initiate my impeachment, but let’s wait and see what the European Court of Human Rights and the people have to say about that,” he added.
Nazi Hunter’s Long Search for Hidden War Criminals
Photo: Efraim Zuroff and Simon Wiesenthal at the Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. Photo courtesy the Simon Wiesenthal Center
Efraim Zuroff, an American Israeli historian and Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), has been tracking down thousands of Nazi war criminals hiding out in all corners of the world since 1978. In a phone call from Jerusalem where he currently resides he told the Jewish Press: “I’m the only Jew in the world who prays for the good health of the Nazis. Of course, only the ones who can be brought to justice.”
Zuroff was instrumental in getting laws passed in Canada, Australia and Great Britain which enabled prosecution of Nazi war criminals who came to those countries under false pretenses. He’s been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in Serbia and granted honorary citizenship of the Serbian city of Novi Sad [bombed by NATO in 1999 in contradiction to the vote in the UN Security Council] for exposing a Hungarian police officer who rounded up thousands of Serbian civilians and was accused of taking part in executing them. He has also been honored with the Order of Duke Trpimir for his work combating Holocaust revisionism in Croatia, and received the Gold Medal for Merit in Serbia for exposing the truth about the suffering of World War II victims.
Born in 1948 in Brooklyn to an Orthodox family, Zuroff’s yeshiva upbringing was extremely important to him. He explained: “I’m from a family of people who devoted their lives to Yeshiva University.” Zuroff received his PhD in Holocaust history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem after graduating from YU with honors in history. The focus of his dissertation was the Vaad Ha-Hatzalah committee who rescued Orthodox rabbis and yeshiva students from the Holocaust, about which he later wrote a book titled “Response of Orthodox Jewry in the United States: The Activities of the Vaad Ha-Hatzalah Rescue Committee, 1939-1945.”
Garage Victims Remembered
The annual commemoration of the Jewish victims tortured and murdered at the Lietūkis garage in Kaunas took place last week at the site on Miško street with kaddish performed for the dead as well at the Jewish cemeteries in the Slobodka and Žaliakalnis neighborhoods.
The Lietūkis garage massacre became one of the most notorious episodes in the Holocaust in Lithuania. Jewish men were rounded up at random and brought to the automobile service station were they were attacked with picks, crowbars and shovels, and water houses were stuffed down their throats and turned on till their stomachs burst. Around 68 Jews were killed there after enduring hours of torture.
According to German statistics from 3,500 to 4,000 Jews were murdered in Kaunas between June 24 and June 30, 1941, but the peculiarity of the Lietūkis garage atrocities was that they were committed by local Lithuanians rather than Nazis. German soldiers appeared only as spectators and didn’t intervene. The names of most victims and perpetrators remain unknown. The German Wehrmacht photographer who was there recalled:
Holocaust Victims Commemorated in Palanga
A ceremony to commemorate the Jews murdered in the Holocaust was held in Palanga on June 27 at the monument in Birutė Park. Jews settled in Palanga in the latter half of the 15th century. A Hebra Kadish or Jewish funeral society was established there in 1487. In the 17th century Jews comprised a significant section of society there and contributed heavily to the development of the city. In 1540 King Sigismund I the Elder granted a charter to the Jews to build the first synagogue and other religious structures there. The Jewish cemetery appeared that same year. In 1662 around 40 Jews called Palanga home. In 1693 Palanga’s Jews received the right to purchase and own land, build houses and engage in trade. Jews pioneered the tourist industry there with property and room rentals, hospitals and boarding houses. These economic activities led to the city becoming a summer resort destination. Palanga had a Jewish Bank, Hebrew language schools or heder and the synagogue. When Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Jews were rounded up and killed en masse in Palanga. Hundreds were murdered with more than 300 individuals murdered on June 27 and around that number again on October 12.
World Premiere at Vilna Ghetto Judenrat to Celebrate Vilnius’s 700th Birthday
Contemporary composer Michael Gordon will present the premiere of his work Resonance in the courtyard of the Youth and Lėlė Theaters accessible at Arklių street no. 5 at 9:00 P.M. on July 5. The courtyard was the home of the Judenrat in the Vilnius ghetto, the Jewish council set up by the Germans. The composer’s family came from Vilnius. The composer will give a talk the next day at Rūdininkai square across Rūdininkų street from the Judenrat at 2:00 P.M. on Thursday, July 6.
Tickets for the concert may be purchased here: https://shorturl.at/gE178
Prosecutor Seeks Expert Opinion on MP’s Anti-Semitic Statements
by Milena Andrukaitytė, BNS, June 28, 2023
Lithuanian prosecutor general Nida Grunskienė says the decision on whether controversial statements by Lithuanian MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis might have sown discord can only be made after receiving conclusions from experts.
“There are two pre-trial investigations launched. They haven’t been combined at this time, tasks have been assigned to experts and in one case expertise has been requested from the Court’s Expertise Center in order to determine if the statements by the member of parliament is incitement to hatred of a certain group of people. Only after receiving the finding, the expertise protocol, can the prosecutor make a decision,” Grunskienė told reporters at the Lithuanian parliament Wednesday.
EJC, Bulgarian Jewish Community Condemn Neo-Nazi Vandalism in Sofia
The European Jewish Congress and the Bulgarian Jewish Community have condemned neo-Nazi vandalism in the center of Sofia after their violent disruption of an LGBT festival.
Supporters of the far-right group Vazrahdane prevented the broadcasting of a film that was part of the program of the LGBT festival Sofia Pride and vandalized shops with swastikas and stars of David.
Chairman of the Shalom organization of Jews in Bulgari Alexander Oscar condemned the far right group and its leaders and called public authorities to take action.
The European Jewish Congress expressed their deep concern over rising nationalism and anti-Semitism in Bulgaria in a post on their website dated June 26.
Library Named after Litvak Novelist in Home Town
The public library in Jonava, Lithuania, has been renamed the Grigoriy Kanovitch library. The late Litvak writer came from Jonava originally.
At the naming ceremony the writer’s son, Sergejus Kanovičius, also a writer, quoted from an interview made with his father several years ago:
Q.: If you could be anywhere in an instant, which location do you hold most dear?
A.: I’d go back to my childhood. To Jonava, on the banks of the Vilija [Neris River].
Israel’s ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein and Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky both attended the ceremony at the town hall as well. Both women thanked the city council and the library for the name-change. The library awards a Gigoriiy Kanovitch literary prize annually.
“A few days ago my father would have celebrated his 94th birthday and tomorrow would be exactly 82 years since he and his family were forced to leave Jonava, as he believed, for life. I am extraordinarily grateful that after so many years you have brought his memory back to Jonava, to his childhood on the banks of the Vilija,” his son said.
Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel Speaks Out
ICAN Issues Travel Advisory for Vilnius NATO Summit 2023
Advisory Includes Interactive Maps and Guides to Ensure Culturally Sensitive Visit to Vilnius
June 21, 2023
WASHINGTON, D.C.–The Israeli-American Civic Action Network (ICAN), a leading U.S.-based non-governmental organization, is launching a culturally sensitive website and issuing a travel advisory for attendees of the NATO Summit 2023 in Vilnius, Lithuania. The advisory aims to provide attendees with crucial information about certain sensitive historical sites within the city, fostering an environment of intersectionality and understanding.
“ICAN is committed to promoting understanding and respectful engagement during the NATO Summit,” said Dillon Hosier, ICAN CEO. “Our travel advisory and website resources are designed to help attendees navigate Vilnius in an informed and sensitive manner, acknowledging the internalized oppression that can result from historical distortions.”
The travel advisory identifies several locations in Vilnius associated with Holocaust denial and distortion. These sites, which include monuments and plaques, present a distorted view of historical events, leading to a dangerously corrosive form of cultural appropriation further undermining Lithuania’s already vulnerable Jewish population. ICAN encourages attendees to avoid visiting these locations during their stay in Vilnius to ensure focus remains on the important discussions and collaborations of the NATO Summit.
Full advisory here.
Silvia Foti and J’Accuse at the Vilnius Jewish Public Library
Silvia Foti was present for a screening of the Holocaust documentary J’accuse at the Vilnius Jewish Public Library Monday. She’s featured in the film along with Litvak Grant Gochin. The film was shown with Lithuanian subtitles. It’s estimated around 20 to 25 people attended, mainly older people.
Against Anti-Semitism in Name Only
by Geoff Vasil
Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda has joined the chorus, the other two heads of state, the prime minister and the speaker of parliament, in declaring Lithuania has zero tolerance for anti-Semitism. At the same time, the state and the nation continue to glorify, lionize and commemorate, often enthusiastically, Lithuanian Nazis who were complicit in Holocaust crimes and responsible for the death of nearly every Lithuanian Jew.
The state-funded Lithuanian Academy of Sciences has removed the Jonas Noreika plaque on its walls “for repairs” even though permission was never granted by any state or municipal body to place the plaque there. Its latest incarnation was the work of enthusiastic Lithuanian neo-Nazis. Streets, schools and squares retain the names of known Holocaust perpetrators with commemorative plaques and statues to them scattered across Lithuania.
At the same time, the ruling coalition, aka the Lithuanian Government, has engaged in rank censorship for two and a half years now, along with a complicit media and law enforcement bodies. This has created a virtual atmosphere of full-fledged fascism and conformity in the country, with straight-up propaganda de rigueur on a range of topics.
Commemoration of Garage Victims
The Kaunas Jewish Community will hold a ceremony to commemorate the Jewish victims murdered during the barbaric Lietūkis garage incident in Kaunas in the early days of World War II this June 26 at 4:00 P.M. at the statue to the victims at Miško street no. 3, moving afterwards to the Slobodka Jewish cemetery on Kalnų street and then to the Žaliakalnis Jewish cemetery on the Radvilėnų highway.
Lithuanian Jewish Community Statement on Anti-Semitic Statements by a Member of the Lithuanian Parliament
The Lithuanian Jewish Community is saddened by the recent anti=Semitic statements and posts made by member of the Lithuanian parliament Remigijus Žemaitaitis in some of the media, social networks and even at the Lithuanian parliament itself. It must be said that these sorts of expressions haven’t appeared in Lithuania in a very long time, and that the Jews who live in Lithuania, 80 years after the liquidation of the Vilnius ghetto, had hoped there would be no more such expressions. All the more so as the war continues in Ukraine and people who comprise an ethnic minority can be used by the aggressor as a tool for inciting social conflict and dividing society.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community believes this act by the member of parliament intentionally sows ethnic discord and is a distortion of historical memory as well as a continuation of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” promulgated by the security service of the Russian tsar over a century ago.
We feel ashamed of the county in which we live and which we love and respect. Its citizens cannot elect to parliament a member who can allow himself to descend to making the following statements:
“It seems that besides Putin another group of animals has appeared in the World: ISRAEL. One group razes schools with tanks, the other group uses tractors,” the politician wrote on his facebook page. “After these kinds of incidents, it’s no surprise why these sorts of statement arise: ‘A Jew climbed a ladder and fell down accidentally. Children, take a stick and beat that little Jew to death…'”
MP Žemaitaitis Steps Up Anti-Semitic Posts
Lithuanian member of parliament Remigijus Žemaitaitis who came under scrutiny several weeks ago for anti-Semitic posts on facebook has stepped up his attacks on Jews during Lithuanian prime minister Ingrida Šimonytė’s working visit to Israel this week, according to Lithuanian media reports.
According to Tele3 news, on Tuesday Žemaitaitis released a new flurry of facebook posts blaming Jews for the Soviet deportation of Lithuanians, claiming Lithuanians experienced a greater genocide than Jews did in the Holocaust and blaming Jews for this alleged genocide. He published a list of alleged Jewish perpetrators of Lithuanian genocide and claimed Soviet Jewish partisans had committed mass murder in Pirčiupiai, a village in southern Lithuania near the town of Varėna. He also referred to Jews as “a subspecies,” presumably of Homo sapiens and presumably meaning subhuman.
Besides misspelling the name of the village, historian Algimantas Kasparavičius told Tele3 news he got the facts wrong: a Nazi SS unit destroyed that village and murdered 119 inhabitants on June 3, 1944, as revenge for several German soldiers murdered by Soviet partisans in the area.
Renovated Wooden Synagogue in Kurkliai Opens Doors
Last weekend one of the few extant wooden synagogues in Europe opened its doors to visitors following renovation work. Last December Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky signed an agreement with the Anykščiai Cultural Center: in exchange for renovation, the center will enjoy the use of the building for its activities.
Chairwoman Kukliansky commented: “There was a significant Jewish community in Kurkliai before World War II which was lost following the tragic events of the Holocaust. The reconstructed building will soon fall into ruin again if it isn’t used. We are therefore very glad the Anykščiai Cultural Center and the whole regional community stood shoulder to shoulder to outfit the building for a new life. This is yet another wonderful example of cooperation between the Lithuanian Jewish Community and municipal and regional governments as well as cultural centers.”
The synagogue building will include an exhibit about the Kurkliai Jewish community and Jewish life in the village located about midway between Anykščiai and Ukmergė just north of Vilnius.
Black Ribbon Day in Lithuania
June 14 is officially the Day of Mourning and Hope in Lithuania but colloquially Black Ribbon Day, marking the beginning of Soviet deportations of Lithuanian citizens in early June, 1941. Jews were hugely overrepresented among the victims of the Soviet deportations to Siberia and Central Asia. Those who survived and managed to return to Lithuania found the entire Jewish community and their families had been slaughtered.
Photo courtesy the Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum.