Yitzhak Segal passed away April 21 at the age of 84 following a long battle with chronic illness. He as an inmate of the Kaunas ghetto. We mourn the loss of our friend and a sincere, just and principled man. Our condolences to his wife Tereza and son Markas as well as all the other friends and family who have been left behind.
Yom haShoah
On April 28 the world will mark Yom haShoah, Holocaust Day. The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites everyone to attend a ceremony to commemorate Holocaust victims on that day. The commemoration will take place at the Ponar Memorial Complex outside Vilnius at 12 noon on Thursday, April 28. It is expected to last 30 minutes. This is an initiative by the Lithuanian Jewish Community.
Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community
A bus will transport people from the LJC at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius. Prior registration is required by calling 868506900 or sending an email to office@lzb.lt
LJC Calls on Government, Institutions to Stop Repeated Vandalism at Ponar Memorial
The Lithuanian Jewish Community is upset by continuing attacks at the Ponar Memorial Complex mass murder site. We do not understand the apathy demonstrated by the institutions responsible and have written Lithuanian prime minister Ingrida Šimonytė and interior minister Agnė Bilotaitė demanding rapid action to stop these repeated attacks and to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said:
“The continuing attacks at the Ponar mass murder site transgress all bounds. This is a holy site for the entire Lithuanian Jewish community and the Lithuanian state. We all understand what is signified by the letter Z which was written on the memorial commemorating Holocaust victims.
“State institutions can no longer pretend this is not Lithuania’s responsibility because, despite the nice words, nothing is happening. The representatives of the state likely think it’s sufficient to attend a commemoration once per year at Ponar and the rest of the year the memorial complex can swim in garbage, and host drinking parties. Although the Lithuanian state took the memorial complex under its protection back in 1991, it apparently sees no need up to the present time to actually maintain it. The infrastructure there is lacking and security there is best illustrated by the events of recent days. Is it so difficult to set up even a minimal security system there, even just video cameras? Is the state saving money this way? What sort of signal does this send about the state’s attitude towards the Holocaust in Lithuania and the tragedy of the Jews of Lithuania? We will not stay silent and look on passively as swastikas and the letter Z are drawn at sites which are sacred to us. We will not stay silent because we know what kind of signal this is sending to us as a community. The entire Lithuanian Jewish Community is disgusted, insulted and hurt, and we will not allow this to go on.”
LJC Condemns Vandalism at Ponar, Demands Quick Response by Authorities
The Lithuanian Jewish Community condemns the recent cynical vandalism at the Ponar Memorial Complex mass murder site. Institutional and public apathy regarding such attacks is unacceptable.
We demand the responsible institutions this disgusting vandalism as quickly as possible. We are convinced that this practice of never finding anyone responsible for anti-Semitic crimes in Lithuania cannot go on. This is on the same scale as the recently reported bombing of the Babi Yar Holocaust memorial in the Ukraine.
Happy Birthday to Polina Zingerienė
Dearest Polina,
The Union of Former Ghetto and Concentration Camp Prisoners and the entire Lithuanian Jewish Community wish you a happy birthday this milestone year.
We don’t count the years in life, they fall to the ground like white petals. They fly on the wind and never stop. But sometimes we are allowed to look back. Forget the difficult days. Only remember the joyous ones and may this milestone birthday be woven of dreams.
We wish you happiness and good health. Many more, and may that refrain echo many more years. Mazl tov! Bis 120!
Condolences
Mark Isakovič of Radviliškis passed away March 29. He was born in 1925. We extend our deepest condolences to his daughter Vera and his grandchildren.
Grant Gochin Takes Case against Jonas Noreika to Parliament
Grant Gochin has taken his case against two findings of history concerning WWII-era Lithuanian Holocaust perpetrator Jonas Noreika to the Human Rights Committee of the Lithuanian parliament. The two findings of history released by the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania in 2015 and 2019 claim among other things Noreika was in charge of a resistance movement which actually rescued rather than exterminated Lithuanian Jews in Šiauliai and Telšiai. Gochin has been disputing the two findings since they were published in the Lithuanian courts and elsewhere without result.
Letter to the parliament’s Human Rights Committee:
Synagogues of Ukraine, Past and Present
by Abby Seitz
The borders of modern-day Ukraine encompass parts of what was once the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569-1795), the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867-1918), the Russian Empire (1721-1917) and the former Soviet Union (1922-1991). The history of Jews in Ukraine goes back over 1,000 years; sources in the Cairo Genizah note a Jewish presence in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, as early as 930 CE. Throughout Ukraine’s history, Jews could be found in major cities and in shtetls alike.
Many synagogues were built from the 13th through the 18th centuries, especially in the region of Galicia. Few of these structures remain. Synagogues were a common target during pogroms which hit with full force throughout the 19th century; additionally, many Jewish community buildings were destroyed by Nazi forces during World War II.
In the second half of the 20th century, nearly all surviving synagogues were confiscated by the Soviet Union and used for a variety of state purposes, ranging from storage warehouses to opera houses. Upon declaring independence in 1991, the newly sovereign state of Ukraine returned many synagogues back to remaining Jewish communities. Today, a small number of historical synagogues have been restored and continue to serve as hubs of Jewish prayer and education. Other synagogues are permanently gone, with only a plaque nearby to remind passersby of the Jewish community that once gathered there.
History Repeats: Granddaughter of Jew Rescued in Ukraine Saves Rescuers’ Descendants
LRYTAS.LT
The cousins Lesya Oroshko, 36, and Alyona Chugai, 46, are two people among millions who fled the Ukraine after Russia invaded. Their story recounted in the Washington Post is unusual.
The two cousins landed in Israel last week and were met there by Sharon Bass, 46, whose Jewish grandmother was rescued and taken in by Lesya’s grandmother during the Holocaust. Bass said she was honored to take in the cousins and so pay back for their family’s endless goodness shown almost 80 years ago. She said she was overtaken by a sense of history repeating itself.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
LJC Holds Purim Celebration for Ukrainian Refugees
The Lithuanian Jewish Community held an event to introduce refugees from Ukraine about the Jewish holiday Purim.
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky met with families who arrived a week ago from Ukraine and taught them the traditions of Purim, including Hamantashen, the pastry usually shared during this holiday.
“The story of Hamantashen pastry brings hope. And if you can kindle hope in people, you enrich yourself as well, and you can look at life in a different way. Jews know what it means to be a refugee. No one wanted to take us in, and we lived through horrific times. We cannot allow the children of today to have such sad eyes. We must extend a helping hand and inspire hope in them and their parents,” Faina Kukliansky said.
On War, Women and Sunflowers
The Pakruojis synagogue will host this event at 3:00 P.M. on Friday, March 18. Neringa Latvytė will give a presentation called “We Were All Heroines: Experiences of Jewish Women in World War II.” An exhibit of photographs by Sošana Zaksaitė (1906-1959) featuring snapshots from the lost Jewish world will open at the synagogue and be presented by Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community chairman Sania Karbelis. Later in the afternoon Alina Shakhova from Kharkov in the Ukraine will perform a song. Everyone is invited to attend. The street address and telephone number for the Pakruojis synagogue is located to the right of this page.
Condolences
Lithuanian Jewish Community member Raja Kerbelienė, wife of Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community chairman Sania Kerbelis, has died. She was born in 1935. Our deepest condolences to her widowed husband, grandchildren Dovydas and Simonas and all her many relatives and friends.
Happy Birthday to Dita Zupavičiene-Šperlingienė
Kaunas ghetto survivor and Holocaust researcher Dita Zupavičiene-Šperlingienė celebrates her 100th birthday March 10. We all wish her a very happy birthday and many more. Mazl tov! Bis 220!
What Lithuanian Ethnic Minority Communities Think about the War in Ukraine: Our Position and Israel’s
Note: Postponed due to illness. A later date for the discussion will be announced.
With the majority of people in Lithuania appearing to support the Ukraine in the current conflict with Russia, Israel’s position doesn’t seem to make sense. At the same time, the majority population of Lithuania is questioning the Lithuania Jewish Community’s position regarding the war.
To address these questions and to discuss the atrocious current events coming out of the war, the #ŽydiškiPašnekesiai discussion club is holding its fifth round entitled “What do the Lithuanian ethnic minority communities think about Russia’s aggression against the Ukraine? The position of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and of Israel.”
The panel discussion will take place at the Bagel Shop Café located at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius on Wednesday, March 16. You are invited to attend in person or watch on facebook. Speakers will include conservative Lithuanian MP Emanuelis Zingeris, cultural historian Violeta Davoliūtė, Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky and a surprise guest. Arkadijus Vinokuras will serve as moderator on the panel. The discussion will take place in the Lithuanian language.
For more information and to view live, see the announcement on facebook here.
Note: Postponed due to illness. A later date for the discussion will be announced.
LJC and Partners Begin S4Change Project
The Lithuanian Jewish Community in concert with the Lithuanian Human Rights Institute and the Padėk Pritapti organization are carrying out a project called S4Change which will assess anti-discrimination policies in Lithuania, present comprehensive recommendations and increase resistance among teachers and young people to anti-Semitic, anti-Roma and xenophobic narratives. Besides assessing the state of anti-Semitism and Romophobia and providing recommendations to legislators and national institutions to encourage a strategic response the discrimination and xenophobia, the project will work to increase Roma resilience to hate narratives in society and will hold workshops for Roma children, young people and women. The project will work with teachers and students in the majority population to encourage critical thinking regarding anti-Semitism, Romophobia and xenophobia with teaching workshops and an additional “inconvenient cinema” class for educators to acquire teaching methods and aides. The project will hold an international conference intended to strengthening the state’s strategic response to anti-Semitism, Romophobia and xenophobia and will include a public education campaign.
The full name of the project is “S4Change: Strategy for a Change in Anti-Discrimination Policies in Lithuania” and is financed jointly by the EU’s Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Program. The project will run from February of 2022 to January of 2024.
Grant Gochin Brings New Suit against Genocide Center
South African born Los Angeles-based Litvak Grant Gochin is bringing another lawsuit against Lithuania’s Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania, or Genocide Center, over the latter’s mendacious claims Lithuania Nazi collaborator Jonas Noreika actually let an underground anti-Nazi network to rescue Jews. Gochin says Noreika was directly responsible for the murder of his relatives in Šiauliai and calls Genocide Center apologies and equivocations Holocaust denial.
Condolences
Arkadijus Šeinker, one of the last survivors of the Riga ghetto and the Stutthof and Dachau concentration camps, passed away on February 13 in Lörrach, Germany. He was born in Riga on May 4, 1921. Our deepest condolences to his wife Hanna, sons Ilya, Igal and Garik, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Šiauliai Resident Ida Vileikienė Donates Medals to Museum
Ida Vileikienė [was] scheduled to donate Lithuanian and Yad Vashem medals awarded to her adoptive parents Zofija and Adolfo Staškas to a local museum at a ceremony there on THursday, February 10.
Ida Vileikienė is one of only a handful of surviving city residents who were imprisoned in the Šiauliai ghetto. She was born in the ghetto in the summer of 1942. Following several operations to murder the children of the Šiauliai ghetto, her parents Aaron and Liuba Rozengard sought a safe haven for their daughter and turned her over to Zofija. The Staškas family protected and raised them.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
Photo album on facebook here.
Condolences
The Union of Former Ghetto and Concentration Camp Prisoners mours the passing of Jevgenija Kolman. She was born in 1934 and was a prisoner in the Kaunas ghetto. Deepest condolences are extended to her daughter Diana, son Eduardas and her many friends and relatives. Her loss is our loss.