Litvaks – Page 26 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Panevėžys Jewish Community Celebrates 30th Birthday

On July 24 members, partners and friends of the Panevėžys Jewish Community gathered to celebrate the organization’s 30th birthday. Chairman Gennady Kofman thanked active members of the community in carrying on Jewish tradition and preserving Jewish heritage and gave special thanks to supporters and partners for their contribution in expanding the Community’s activities.

Community members recalled how the Community was formed and paid respects to its first chairman, the journalist Anatolijus Fainblumas, and others. Sincere words of gratitude went to Righteous Gentile Jonas Markevičius’s son Vidmantas and daughter Janina, who have helped promote the Community as well in the local community. Thanks were given to executive board members Jurijus Grafman and his wife Svetlana. Deep gratitude was expressed for the Lithuanian Jewish Community and its chairwoman Faina Kukliansky.

Chairman Kofman told the 30-year story of the Community. On July 8, 1991, the Panevėžys Jewish Community was officially reconstituted and articles of incorporation filed at the Panevėžys municipality. Goals and duties were set then: “To develop the national consciousness of members, to raise the level of culture and spirituality, to conduct our activities based on exemplary behavior and sincerity, to cooperate with all sorts of democratic organizations and religious confessions,” etc.

2022-08-01

Emannuel Levinas’s Grandson Thinks This Time Best since World War II

Although the war in the Ukraine continues, David Hansel, the grandson of French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas with Lithuanian roots, currently visiting Kaunas, thinks things have never been so peaceful as now. He rejects claims of genocide in the Ukraine by either side in the conflict. In an interview with Lithuanian state radio and television, he shared his ideas about the country of Lithuania, where his family members were murdered in the Holocaust. He attended a five-day series of events about his grandfather held in Kaunas by the Emmanuel Levinas Center of the Lithuanian Health Sciences University and by other faculties at that university and a French organization. Although he says he isn’t a philosopher, he felt the duty to protect his grandfather’s legacy. He said he is a practicing Jew, but that it’s based on what he learned from his grandfather.

Full interview in Lithuanian here.

2022-07-28

Limmud in the Woods 2022

The annual international Limmud conference will be held August 19 and 20 in the woods of south Estonia. To register, go to the Limmud page here. For more information, check out Limmud’s facebook page here.

2022-07-28

Lithuanian Makabi Athletes Happy with Showing at World Maccabiah Games

from lrytas.lt

Athletes from the Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club have concluded competition at the 21st World Maccabiah Games in Israel which ran from July 12 to July 26 with around 10,000 athletes from over 60 countries. Lithuanian Makabi athletes won 6 medals, making these games among the most successful since Lithuanian Makabi was reconstituted. Table tennis player Gerda Šišanovaitė won a gold medal in singles competition and Ignas Šišanovas took silver also in singles matches. Swimmer Michailas Trusovas is coming home with silver in 50-meter freestyle competition. The youngest member of the delegation, 13-year-old Eduardas Šeras, won silver in heated chess matches in the 16- to 18-year-old category.

2022-07-27

Condolences

With deep sadness we report Jakovas Mendelevskis passed away at the age of 91 on July 26. He had been deported from Lithuania by the Soviets and was a member of the minyan at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius.

2022-07-27

Lithuanian Makabi Athletes Earn Medals at World Maccabiah

Congratulations to Rafael Gimelstein who took silver in tennis competitions at the World Maccabiah Games taking place in Israel, and to his proud mother Faina Kukliansky. Congratulations also to Alan Rinkevič who won silver in fencing on the international team along with athletes from France and Sweden, and a hearty congratulations to all our other Lithuanian Makabi athletes and trainers who are making such an excellent showing in so many sports.

2022-07-25

Happy Birthday to Gennady Kofman

The entire Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman a terrific milestone birthday. He has done so much to collect and share information about the city’s once numerous Jewish community, and always finds the time and energy to meet and help travellers looking for their roots and to teach school children and the wider community about the Holocaust. Mazl tov. Bis 120!

2022-07-19

Condolences

Richard Freund passed away in Charlottesville, Virginia, on July 14 due to complications involving a bone-marrow transplant he received 18 years ago. He was 67. Freund was a frequent visitor to Vilnius and a friend of the Lithuanian Jewish Community. Besides annual summer digs at the Great Synagogue site in Vilnius, revealing many new facts and the existence of surviving elements and a few surprises at that site, he also headed the non-invasive investigation of the escape tunnel dug by the brenner kommando at Ponar, Jews who were forced to exhume corpses, burn the flesh and crush the bones, who themselves were slated for death upon completion of their task aimed at hiding Holocaust crimes. The rediscovery of the tunnel was featured in an hour-long documentary by NOVA on the American public television network PBS. Freund also led the effort to map the lost Jewish shtetl of Rumshishok (Rumšiškės) just outside Kaunas flooded in the post-war period to create a hydroelectric generation station, and worked on a number of other Jewish sites in Lithuania. He also used non-invasive techniques to investigate the Warsaw ghetto in 2021.

Freund always found the time in the middle of his work to explain his finds to interested on-lookers, and presented his findings to the Lithuanian Jewish Community in a series of presentations in Vilnius.

We mourn his loss and extend our deepest condolences to his widow Eliane, his three children Eli, Ethan, and Yoni and his many other family members and friends at the University of Hartford and around the world.

2022-07-18

Happy Birthday, Emanuelis

We wish Emanuelis Zingeris a very happy milestone birthday this July 16. Mazl tov. Bis 120!

2022-07-18

Lithuanian Team at Maccabiah World Games Opening Ceremony

The Lithuanian Makabi delegation along with 10,000 other participants marched in the opening ceremonies for the 21st Maccabiah World Games in Israel.

We are very proud of our athletes who this year are the sole representatives of the Baltic states at the Jewish Olympics. Good luck!

2022-07-18

Who Are the Degenerates Now?

Grant Gochin

In a study by the UN titled ”History under Attack,” António Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, stated: “Understanding the history of the Holocaust is crucial to safeguarding our future. This is particularly crucial as we see some seeking to rewrite history or to whitewash and rehabilitate those who committed crimes against humanity. If we fail to identify and confront the lies and inhumanity that fueled past atrocities, we are ill-prepared to prevent them in the future.” This article borrows heavily from this UN study.

UN Findings

The UN finds that Holocaust distortion is just as pernicious as Holocaust denial. Holocaust distortion depends upon and spreads antisemitism. It threatens the ability to remember and learn from the past by misrepresenting the historical record. It is an attack on truth and knowledge. It feeds on and spreads antisemitic tropes and prejudices, and threatens our understanding of one of the most tragic and violent histories–the genocide of six million Jews.

2022-07-14

Jewish Headstones Removed from Vilnius Hill

Jewish headstones used to construct stairs up Vilnius’s Tauras Hill (Góra Bouffałowa aka Tauro kalnas) during the Soviet era began to be removed Monday, the Vilnius city municipality reported.

Illegible headstones will be taken to the old Jewish cemetery in the Šnipiškės neighborhood next to the Palace of Sports for alleged safe-keeping, according to Vilnius city officials. Those with legible inscriptions will be brought to the old Jewish cemetery on Olandų street for research. According to the city, the removal of the headstones was coordinated with representatives of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and Lithuania’s Cultural Heritage Department.

Photograph by Saulius Žiūra.

Full text in Lithuanian here.

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Condolences

Michail Rositsan passed away July 11, 2022. He was born in Belarus in 1955 with roots in Lithuania. He completed a law degree in Lithuania, founded a business and often travelled across the Atlantic. He founded a factory producing mannequins which were exported to dozens of countries and his business card contained an address in Vilnius and in Toronto. In 2014 he served as Israel’s honorary consul in Lithuania. Together with his brother Boris he founded the Rositsan and Maccabi Elite Checkers and Chess Club in Vilnius. His brother served as president of the club and passed away in 2021. Our deepest condolences to his family and friends.

2022-07-11

Vilna Gaon Mausoleum Now State-Protected Heritage Site

MadeinVilnius.lt

Lithuanian culture minister Simonas Kairys has added the mausoleum containing the remains of the Vilna Gaon at the Sudervės road cemetery in Vilnius to the list of cultural heritage sites. protected by the state.

In his order he wrote the mausoleum is important in terms of public dignity and should be protected because of its architectural, historical and commemorative significance.

The site and surrounding territory now has a protection status intended to maintain authenticity.

The rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman, known as the Vilna Gaon, lived in the 18th century and is considered one of the most remarkable commentators on the Talmud.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2022-07-11

Vilnius Approves Restoration of Jewish Street

MadeinVilnius.lt

The city of Vilnius wants to reconstruct historical Žydų or Jewish street and decorate the territory of the former Great Synagogue with architectural accents recalling the 16th century. The Vilnius municipality and the Vilniaus Planas group of architects back in May presented the public proposed projects for the restoration of Žydų street and the Shulhoyf. The Vilnius city municipality approved a project this week.

The contours of historical Jewish street were established more precisely according to the location of fragments of street paving boards discovered. The current street trajectory has changed from the historical one and the proposal is to return it to its original course through the deconstruction and removal of existing street and sidewalk pavement. The paving stones on Stiklių street, which becomes Žydų street, would continue on into Žydų street, according to the current plan.

2022-07-112022-07-11

Judith Tsik Was Born July 7 in Gargždai

The Yiddish poetess Judith Tsik, also known as Yehudis and Yudis and the pen-name Judika, was born July 7, 1898, in Gargždai, Lithuania.

Encyclopaedia Judaica:

YUDIKA

YUDIKA (Yudis (Judith ) Tsik; 1898–1988), poetess. She was born in Gorzhd (Gargždai), Lithuania. Poverty forced her family to send Tsik to live with an aunt in Eastern Prussia, then annexed to Germany.

2022-07-11

Kaunas Jewish Community Members Tour Western Lithuania

One weekend last June members of the Kaunas Jewish Community made a tour of Western Lithuania. Our guides included Monika from Švėkšna, Živilė from Šilutė, Raimondas from Preila and Rasa from Klaipėda, all of whom taught us about this wonderful region surrounded by water. They explained the rich and painful history of the land.

2022-07-11

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Netflix Hit Stranger Things Slammed for Nazi Prison

by Emma Myers

Netflix has come under fire for using the sites of past atrocities as locations or inspiration for its nostalgic hit show Stranger Things, including a plan to let fans book a themed cell in a former Holocaust prison on AirBnB.

Two of the locations in its fourth season–the final episodes of which were released last week–have dark roots in the real world.

Russian prison scenes were filmed in a former Lithuanian prison used by Nazis during the Holocaust while the show’s fictitious mental hospital was inspired by an infamous U.S. asylum with a similar name.

Mental health and Jewish advocates have criticized the streaming giant for what they see as exploitation of a brutal history. Both locations are also now tourist attractions.

2022-07-102022-07-10

Presidential Palace Reception on Coronation of Mindaugas Day

Photo: Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky and son Rafaelis attended the reception. Photo by J. Stasevičius courtesy Lithuanian State Radio and Television.

The Lithuanian president invited special guests to attend a reception at the presidential palace compound Wednesday to mark Coronation of Mindaugas Day, the day chosen by historians and others to celebrate the coronation Lithuania’s first and only king, Mindaugas, in A.D. 1253 with a crown sent by Pope Innocent IV.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Story of King Mindaugas in brief here.

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