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Lithuanians at March of the Living in Poland
Members of the Lithuanian public took part April 28 in a March of the Living procession at Auschwitz. People from 25 countries including non-Jews attended.
The event was timed to commemorate the Warsaw Uprising on April 28. Marchers walked about 3.5 kilometers from the Auschwitz museum to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. A group of about 50 people from Lithuania attended. A ceremony to honor the victims took place at the former concentration camp. This began with a word of welcome in 25 languages, including “sveiki,” meaning hello, in Lithuanian. Polish president Andrzej Duda spoke there and used the occasion to compare the war in the Ukraine to the Holocaust.
Survivors spoke of the horror of the camp. Edward Mosberg recalled the murder of his family and spoke about his life history. Torches were lit during the ceremony to symbolize the loss of 6 million murdered Jews. A female university student from Lithuania lit one torch in concert with young people from Germany, Austria, Poland and Israel.
Those who came from Lithuania for the march included Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community chairman Sania Karbelis and other members of the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community, and others.
Following the event participants had the chance to meet Righteous Gentile Chiune Sugihara’s son Nobuki.
Abi Men Zet Zich Club Celebrates 24th Birthday
The club for senior citizens was set up by Lithuanian Jewish Community chairman Simonas Alperavičius and deputy chairwoman Maša Grodnikienė on April 26, 1998, and was later named Abi Men Zet Zich, Yiddish for “just to see you again.” The name was the idea of the late Milan Cheronski. We wish club coordinator and social services director Žana Skudovičienė and all our seniors a very happy anniversary.
Panevėžys Jewish Community Holds Classes to Teach Holocaust, Jewish History
On May 3 students and teachers from the Mykolas Karka primary school in Panevėžys learned about the Holocaust and Jewish history at the Panevėžys Jewish Community. The students didn’t know much about Jewish history so Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman began with the Old Testament and Torah, and Jewish history facts recorded there. The students asked many questions. Kofman talked about the Holocaust as well, pointing out it took place in Panevėžys as well. Some of the students heard the word “Holocaust” for the first time. Many questions and discussions also followed that topic.
For more than 20 years now the Panevėžys Jewish Community has been doing educational outreach in the community with students from the city and district. Gennady Kofman said this was one of the Panevėžys Jewish Community’s main goals.
These events are informal at the table over tea. Students received the Jewish calendar for 5782 published by the Lithuanian Jewish Community and packages of matzo as gifts.
Condolences
Marija Alferovič passed away May 2. She was born in 1938. We extend our condolences to her husband Chaimas and son Michailas.
Historian Ruth Leiserowitz to Present New Publication on Jews from Klaipėda
Ruth Leiserowitz, an historian from Germany, has researched the dramatic forced migration out of Klaipėda, also known as Memel, before World War II. She will present her newest book on the subject called “Žydai Klaipėdoje (Mėmelyje)” [Jews in Klaipėda (Memel)] at the Ieva Simonaitytė Public Library in Klaipėda at 5:00 P.M. on April 29.
The publication is intended to coincide with the 770th birthday of the port city.
Leiserowitz’s father came from Memel and she worked at Klaipėda University after Lithuanian independence, and helped organize the Thomas Mann festival in Nida, Lithuania. She got interested in her research topic because of her Jewish father-in-law who was born in Šilutė, then known as Heydekrug. In 1923 his family left Memelland when it was annexed by Lithuania. She decided to look into the fate of Jewish families forced to leave the region. She says her research is often something like a detective novel.
Kaunas Jewish Community Comes Together to Celebrate Passover Again
After a two-year break the Kaunas Jewish Community has come together again to celebrate Passover. Members attended both Rabbi Krinsky’s seders and a Passover celebration held by the Community with a quiz, music by multiple performers and a lot of fun.
Happy Birthday to Gercas Žakas
We wish Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas a very happy 70th birthday. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
Happy Birthday to Jakovas Mendelevskis
We wish a very happy birthday to Jakov who turned 90 April 26. He is an active member of the minyan at the Choral Synagogue. It’s said a man’s life isn’t measured in years, but in deeds. In that case, given his experience and wisdom, wishing him “bis 120” might not be nearly enough. Mazl tov!
Twelfth Annual Liova Taicas Memorial Tournament in Šiauliai
The Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community will hold their 12th annual Liova Taicas athletics tournament at the Uniqa Arena there starting at 11:00 A.M. on Sunday, May 8. The games are to include indoor soccer, 3-on-3 basketball, volleyball, squash, table tennis and chess. For more information call Rašella at 869910621 or Sania at 864025950.
Condolences
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.
A Physicist of Whom Lithuania Can Be Proud
Original article: obzor.lt, 2022-03-22
Translated from Russian to Lithuanian by Irena Miškinienė, and from Lithuanian to English by Geoff Vasil
My Teacher Joshua Levinson Would Have Turned 90 Today
by professor Pinchos Fridberg,
Vilnius
Joshua Levinson
In the place of an introduction
When you have reached the 80-year mark and have become an old and tired horse who can barely lift his hooves, and they take you funem yarid (Yiddish, “from the fair,” a formulation by the Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem), the faces of your dearest and most beloved people appear before you ever more often, those who have left this world before you. My parents who gave me life. My Teachers who were sent by destiny.
* * *
What Lithuanian Ethnic Communities Think about the Russian Invasion with Arkadijus Vinokuras
Arkadijus Vinokuras will lead a discussion on what Lithuania’s ethnic minority communities think about the Russian invasion of the Ukraine at 5:00 P.M. on Wednesday, April 13, at the Bagel Shop Café.
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!
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:
Some Snapshots from the Commemoration Marking 100 Years since Judith Kaplan’s First Bat Mitzvah
Rabbi Nathan Alfred from Israel led the shaharit prayer service at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius on Saturday, March 19. Female members of the congregation read passages from the Torah in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Judith Kaplan’s bat mitzvah.
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.
Sweet Purim Greetings from Lithuanian Jewish Community Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky
Happy Purim! Hag Purim sameakh!
Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community
Faina Kukliansky’s hamantashen recipe:
For the dough you’ll need:
125 ml milk
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
500 ml flour
100 g butter
1 egg yolk