Jefimas Libmanas died on July 25. He was a member of the Lithuanian Jewish Community for many years and a client of our Social Center. He was born in 1935. Our deepest condolences to his widow Tatjana as we grieve along with his many friends and family members.
Condolences
Mendelis Askotskis passed away on July 24. He was born in 1928. He was a Community member of long standing and a client of the Community’s Saul Kagan Welfare Center. We extend our deepest condolences to his daughter Mira and all his many friends and family.
Roots: Save Our Trees Protest at Romain Gary Square in Vilnius
The small square–actually more of a triangle–on Basanavičiaus street in Vilnius with a sculpture of Litvak writer in French and diplomat Romain Gary as a boy was the sight of a fairly large protest Wednesday last week.
Several hundred people came to protest plans by the adjacent cafė to cut down some larger trees around the sculpture.
The cafė owner claimed the trees weren’t rooted in soil and had simply grown over pavement, and posed an obstacle to renovating the terrace there.
Protestors called for tree specialists to make a determination about root-depth. Last Friday the Vilnius city municipality rescinded permission to remove the nine trees until experts have had a chance to look at the situation.
New Installations in Anykščiai Mark Jewish Heritage Sites
BNS, July 23, 2023
Two new artistic installations now grace the Old Town in Anykščiai, Lithuania, north of Vilnius intended to commemorate the former Jewish population.
The Anykščiai municipality reports a sculptural relief by professor Romualdas Inčirauskas and Zita Inčirauskienė called “Memorial Marker for the Former Synagogues” was installed at the site of the former synagogue at Šaltupio street. It reportedly includes portion of a map of the town from 1925 with the sites of six former synagogues marked.
The same artists installed a bench in front of the building located at Baranauskas Square no. 7. There are seven human figure sculptures on top of the bench back to symbolize the days of the week with the Sabbath represented as a rabbi.
Panevėžys Esperanto Club Celebrates 100 Years
Photo: Panevėžys Esperanto club members with their club flag in 1930.
The Revo Esperanto Club in Panevėžys recently celebrated its 100th birthday and Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman delivered a greeting there from Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, wishing members success in their meeting. Kofman also delivered an address, quoting from a book that the first Esperanto enthusiasts in Panevėžys were Jewish and talking about Jewish contributions to the Esperanto movement.
Revo Esperanto Club director Vida Kulikauskienė presented a short history of the club and said Esperanto might have begun there with Lithuanian Esperanto pioneer Aleksandras Dambrauskas, also known as Adomas Jakštas. Of course the artificial language was invented by Lazer Zamenhoff writing under the pseudonym Dr. Esperanto. Zamenhoff lived at various times in Lithuania and Poland but published the initial book in Poland. It quickly became popular in Lithuania and especially among Lithuanian Jews. At a certain point Soviet authorities banned the Esperanto clubs in the Soviet Union as possible avenues for foreign espionage, but eventually lifted the ban.
Condolences
Abramas Goldfarbas, a client of the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s Saul Kagan Social Center, passed away July 15. He was born in 1934. Our deepest condolences to his widow, family members and friends.
Shalom, Akmenė Event Returns
The third annual iteration of the Shalom, Akmenė event in the European Days of Jewish Culture series was held at the Akmenė Palace of Culture over the weekend, educating locals on Jewish culture, life and heritage.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community’s Bagel Shop Café brought baskets of fresh bagels and Litvak snacks to the event. The Jewish market as well. Participants talked about Jewish cuisine and especially bagels, and shared the history and best recipes for this world-renowned food item.
The theme for the upcoming 2023 European Days of Jewish Culture is memory. The European Days of Jewish Culture will conclude this year on September 3 with an event in Vilnius.
Some snapshots from the most recent Shalom, Akmenė event can be found here.
Commemoration of the Liquidation of the Šiauliai Ghetto
July 15 was the 79th anniversary of the extermination of the Šiauliai or Shavl ghetto where around 6,000 Jews were then imprisoned from a total population of 14,000 Jews on the eve of war, including refugees from Poland, this remainder having already been murdered by that time.
Members of the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community gathered at the monument marking the location of a former gate to the ghetto, which consisted of two sections, as had the ghetto in Vilnius. The victims were remembered with flowers, candles and stones.
Lithuanian Liberal Union Party: Worst Wave of Anti-Semitism in 20 Years, at Least on Facebook
The Lithuanian news site delfi.lt published an opinion piece on July 7 co-authored by Lithuanian MP and head of the Liberal Union Party Eugenijus Gentvilas and Marijus Gailius, the party’s press representative, outlining patterns they found leading to anti-Semitism on facebook among Lithuanians:
Disinformation Conglomerate: How Anti-Vaxers Become Anti-Semites
A strong wave of anti-Semitism has swept over the country over the last two months, whose dimensions and harm are comparable to what took place 20 years ago when publisher Vitas Tomkus published his series of articles in his newspaper Respublika called “They Rule the World” back in February of 2003. This time, though, the anti-Semitic attack is probably more dangerous, because it isn’t being sown by a single unethical writer, but by a large group of people, be they evil-minded or naïve, on the social networks. Furthermore the anti-Semitic campaign continues and there is no end in sight.
At the tip of the spear of the anti-Semitic narrative crafted and continuing to be promoted is member of parliament Remigijus Žemaitaitis. On May 9 he posted and later repeated a line of Lithuanian folk anti-Semitism. Since then the MP has posted more than 10 posts and entries disparaging the Holocaust and, without an history education, tendentiously “researching” the role play by people of Jewish ethnicity in the commission of crimes against the Lithuanian people. Historian Nerijus Šepetys provided a frank assessment of the politician’s version of history: “He will say anything at all and mixes it all up.” On July 4 the parliamentary faction leaders from the ruling coalition parties condemned Žemaitaitis’s “intentional and directed anti-Semitic attacks which trivialize the Holocaust, hatred sown for one ethnicity and provocation of public and national disorder.” They called for a procedure to be initiated to make an inquiry into the MP’s alleged breaking of his oath of office and his constitutional accountability.
Congratulations to Lara Lempertienė
Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda presented the Lithuanian medal “For Merit” to Lara Lempertienė, director of the Judaica Research Center of the Lithuanian National Library, on July 6, Lithuania’s State Day, Coronation of Mindaugas Day. She received the award in recognition of her work at the Center going beyond textual research and including exhibits, publications, presentations at international conferences and presenting the Litvak cultural legacy in Lithuania and abroad. The Lithuanian Jewish Community congratulates Lara on yet another Lithuanian state award and wish her continued success.
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.
Greetings on Coronation of Mindaugas Day
Greetings on Lithuania’s Coronation of Mindaugas Day, or State Day, July 6.
For centuries Jews and Lithuanians with others have created and built Lithuania, and have worked hard for the country’s welfare and success.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community and chairwoman Faina Kukliansky send our greetings to everyone on this holiday and wish you peace, happiness and concord.
Classical Music Concert
Photo: Violinist Atis Bankas and pianist Victoria Korchinskaya-Kogan.
The Vilnius Jerusalem of the North Jewish Community and the Lithuanian Jewish Community invite you to a free concert of classical music performed by violinist Atis Bankas and pianist Victoria Korchinskaya-Kogan.
Born in Kaunas, Atis Bankas moved to Canada in 1981 and joined the national symphony orchestra in Toronto. Korchinskaya-Kogan is the heiress of a family of famous violinists and began playing piano at the age of 5, performing a public concert at the age of 6 in Moscow.
Time: 6:30 P.M., Tuesday, July 18
Place: Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius
Young Adventurers Club Day Camp
The Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium and the Lithuanian Jewish Community invite children aged 6 to 15 to an unusual summer day camp involving travelling and hiking from 8:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. on August 14 to 16. Participants will meet at the Sholem Aleichem school in Vilnius. For more information, call Vilma at (+370) 659 41244. Registration here.
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:
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
Lithuanian Archivist Seeks Lost Documents among Cape Town Litvaks
Lithuanian state radio and television reports on efforts by Juozapas Blažiūnas, the director of the Lithuanian Literature and Art Archive, for making a working trip to South Africa following expeditions to Australia and New Zealand as well as Argentina and Uruguay to seek a legacy of lost documents, netting the archive over 800 kilograms of paper.
In an article entitled “Kraštas, kuriame ‘pinigai semiami saujomis,’ arba, ką PAR [sic] veikė 2015 žemaičių” [The Country Where ‘Money Is Taken by the Fist-Fulls,’ or, What Were 2,015 Žemaitijans Doing in the Republic [sic] of South Africa?], chief archivist Juozapas Blažiūnas writes:
“Why did we travel there? About 90% of the 80,000 Jews living in South Africa are of Lithuanian origin (the so-called Litvaks), and this is the largest Litvak community in the world. And it wasn’t just Jews, Lithuanians also travelled to the distant country seeking success, for example, according to the newspaper Lietuva, from 1892 to 1895 some 2,015 Žemaitijans [an ethnic subgroup in Lithuania] travelled to South Africa just through the port of Bremen [Germany] alone.”
Litvak Artists in Paris
Lithuanian state radio and television reports on a new exhibit in Vilnius called Litvak Artists in Paris, demonstrating for the first time here a comprehensive exhibit of works of art by the Litvak ensemble living in Paris before and between the two world wars. Lithuanian state media spoke with Litvak art expert and curator of the exhibit Vilma Grandinskaitė, PhD.
Q.: What story does Litvak Artists in Paris tell?
A. The exhibit talks about the Litvak artists, the wave of Lithuanian Jewish migration to Paris, with Paris the destination most desired by artists at that time. We can differentiate three different waves of migration. The first was in the latter half of the 19th century with Mark Antokolski, the first Jewish sculptor from our Lithuania. Antokolski set up a studio in Paris. Many artists soon flocked to it, his followers. The second wave was students from the Vilnius School of Drawing, including Marc Chagall, Michel Kikoïne, Jacques Lipchitz, Emmanuel Mane-Katz and Chaïm Soutine. Gradually with Chagall the news spread of Paris as the Promised Land, a Mecca of the arts, and one after another artist began moving there. The third wave involves Lithuania in the interwar period when Arbit Blat, Max Band [Maksas Bandas] and Jacob Messenblum [Jacques Missene] left.
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.