Faina Kukliansky and the entire Lithuanian Jewish Community wish Josif Burshtein a very happy birthday. Formerly chairman of the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community, Josif remains an extremely active and important member of the Community and a member of the LJC executive board. We wish you great health, strength, happiness and the joy of life. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
March 13, 2024
As part of his visit to Paris Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda attended Tuesday in Boulogne-Billancourt the unveiling ceremony of the renewed plaque to Jacques Lipchitz, a Litvak and one of the most prominent cubist sculptors.
At the ceremony Nausėda said despite the fact he lived and worked in Paris, Lipchitz never forgot Vilnius, Lithuania or Lithuanian artists, to whom he referred to his letters as his “dear fellow countrymen,” and whom he mentored and supported when they fled to the West.
“Today we remember Lipchitz with gratitude as ‘the sculptor from Lithuania,’ a great artist who drew on his roots, his love for Lithuania and Lithuanian folk-art to create timeless masterpieces for the whole of humanity,” Nausėda said.
Full press release here.
The Kupiškis regional government staged an event to remember local Righteous Gentiles on March 14, the day before the official Lithuanian day of remembrance, called “Remembering the Rescuers of Jews from the Kupiškis Region.” Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman and Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein attended.
Also attending were Virginija Bunevičiūtė, assistant for cultural projects at the Israeli embassy, and the Lithuanian prime minister’s advisor on cultural affairs Gabrielė Žaidytė, grandson of Righteous Gentiles Vidmantas Markevičius and others.
Participants visited the graves of Markevičius’s grandparents Elena and Juozapas and he spoke about their lives there. On October 10, 1991, they met Sholom Sherenzon, whom they had rescued from the Holocaust, in Israel.
Lithuania marked the Day of Rescuers of Lithuanian Jews on March 15, added to the list of Lithuanian commemorative dates in late 2022. The Nalšia Museum held an event to celebrate this day.
Museum director Nadežda Spiridonovienė led the event and in her opening speech spoke about the facts of the Holocaust in the Švenčionys region and the title of Righteous Gentile awarded by the Yad Vashem Institute to non-Israelis who rescued people from the Holocaust.
Lithuania’s parliament chose March 15 as the day of remembrance in honor of Ona Šimaitė, the first Lithuanian to be awarded the title of Righteous Gentile on March 15, 1966.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the #ŽydiškiPašnekesiai discussion club will hold a discussion on the unusual topic “Why are Lithuanians ashamed of their Righteous Gentiles?” at 5:00 P.M. on Thursday, March 21.
This is a question which Lithuanian politicians, public figures, media and the Church have been avoiding for 33 years now. While the LJC has been calling for years for monuments to commemorate rescuers of Jews at appropriate locations in Vilnius, there has been little or no support for this from outside the Community. Will this ever change?
The discussion will touch upon another topic as well: what went into forming the morality of those who chose to rescue Jews from the Holocaust? After all, most Lithuanians remained passive observers.
Participants include historian Egidijus Aleksandravičius, historian and former minister of culture Darius Kuolys and LJC chairwman Faina Kukliansky. Arkadijus Vinokuras will moderate.
Time: 5:00 P.M., Thursday, March 21
Place: Bagel Shop Café, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius
The discussion will be streamed live via facebook: https://shorturl.at/cnzS3
The Šiauliai Jewish Community together with teachers and students from the Gegužių school in Šiauliai commemorated the Day of Rescuers of Lithuanian Jews at Righteous Gentile Square in the northern Lithuanian city March 15.
March 15 is the Day of Rescuers of Lithuanian Jews, commemorating the historic deeds of noble Righteous Gentiles who saved a remnant of Lithuania’s Jewish population from the Holocaust. If not for them, there would be no Litvaks left in Lithuania.
“Time is ruthless. Every year there are fewer and fewer rescuers and Holocaust survivors left, but the memory of what they experienced and survived can never be forgotten. Let’s celebrate that our children, for now, are able to learn about history from the lips of eye-witnesses, and not just from textbooks. Let’s do everything we can to insure these stories are passed on to our children, grandchildren and the generations to come,” Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, whose family was also rescued by good people, said.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites you to come remember the rescuers and to thank them for their courage and humanity.
Time: 12:00 noon, Friday March 15
Place: Choral Synagogue, Pylimo street no. 39, Vilnius
The Vilnius Jerusalem of Lithuania Jewish Community and the Vilnius Jewish Public Library will hold a discussion on those who rescued Jews from the Holocaust, and what would happen if the Holocaust were repeated. The discussion happens at 6:00 P.M. on Tuesday, March 19, at the Vilnius Jewish Public Library at Gedimino prospect no. 24 in Vilnius. The discussion is intended to mark March 15, the Day of Rescuers of Lithuanian Jews, included on the official state calendar of commemorative days in 2022.
We are deeply saddened to report the death of Rimas Timunas. He was born in 1952. A renowned theater director, he staged Grigoriy Kanovitch’s “Nusišypsok mums, Viešpatie” and popularized Litvak culture on the Lithuanian and world stage. He passed away in Italy from lung cancer.
The Judaica Research Institute at the Martynas Mažvydas Lithuanian National Library invites the public to a concert called “Yiddish from Georgia” to be held on the third-floor atrium starting at 6:00 P.M. on Monday, March 18.
The Yiddish quartet was form by Georgian actress Ana Sanaia in 2022. Receiving great acclaim, Sanaia made the quartet part of her mono-drama Martokina in 2023. That same year, with several other talented musicians including Tamar Rtveliashvili, Ioana Navadze and Aleksandra Lortkipanidze, the quartet became part of the Yiddish Theater in Tblisi, also resurrected by Sanaia after more than a century of absence.
The quartet is vocalist Salome Bakuradze, musician Maria Elene Bezhashvili, actress Sofia Akhuashvili and actress and director Ekaterine Kato Sharikadze, and are well known to radio and television audiences in Georgia. While none of them are Jewish, they all feel a deep and abiding respect for the Georgian Jewish heritage and share an understanding of the contribution the Ashkenazi who spoke Yiddish made in bringing Georgia into Europe.
The program includes songs in Yiddish and Georgian. Lasha Shakulashvili, a lecturer in Yiddish language and culture at Tblisi State University, will also speak on Yiddish culture in Georgia and its connections to Litvak culture.
Photo: Deborah Feldman by D. Umbrasas/LRT
Lithuanian State Radio and Television has featured another Jewish author who appeared at the Vilnius Book Fair last month, Deborah Feldman, author of “Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots,” under the headline “Author of Bestseller ‘Unorthodox’ with Litvak Roots: My Grandmother Is the Only Reason I’m Not Crazy” [Lietuviškų šaknų turinti bestselerio „Neortodoksiška“ autorė: močiutė – vienintelė priežastis, kodėl neišprotėjau].
Feldman recounts trying to sell her book to a publisher, and their response that it was a Jewish story, and why would it be interesting to non-Jews?
The American-born German author grew up in the close-knit Hassidic community of Satmar in Brooklyn, New York. She travelled to Lithuania to launch the Lithuanian translation of “Exodus, Revisisted,” the sequel to “Unorthodox,” at the Vilnius Book Fair. The Lithuanian translation was published by the Baltas Publishing House.
The New York Times bestseller “Unorthodox” tells the story of a young Jewish woman who extracts herself from an ultra-conservative community and has attracted readers around the world. It was made into a Netflix mini-series of the same name and was nominated for 8 Emmy awards.
Full article in Lithuanian here.
The Tolerance Center of the Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum will hold an evening of literature and music to commemorate the Righteous Gentiles who rescued Jews from the Holocaust, happening at 5:00 P.M. on March 17. The Tolerance Center is located at Naugarduko street no. 10 in Vilnius.
The first half of the program is dramatic readings of prose and poetry by Lithuanian actors Vladas Bagdonas and Dalia Michelevičiūtė with musical accompaniment by Petras Vyšniauskas on saxophone and Arkadijus Gotesmanas doing percussion.
The second part of the program includes reflections on the rescue of Jews by Lithuanian artists and public figures. Gotesmanas will talk about how his father escaped being murdered at Auschwitz. Director Gintaras Varnas, poetess, playwright and actress Daiva Čepauskaitė and teacher and writer Vytautas Toleikis will also share their thoughts in a discussion moderated by writer Donatas Puslys.
The event is intended to mark the second Day of Rescuers of Lithuanian Jews, proclaimed an official day of commemoration by the Lithuanian parliament, to fall on March 15 every year.
Last Saturday Litvak scouts took part in an event hosted by the scouts of Panevėžys to celebrate the 167th birthday of Robert Baden-Powell, the father of the scouting movement.
Along with delicious birthday cupcakes, a fun-filled program and the friendly atmosphere of fellow scouts, brother and sister Anastasija and Dovydas also took the pledge. These earnest young scouts now wear the yellow neckerchief of that age-group of scouts. A big hip-hip-hooray! to our newest scouts.
A big thank-you to the organizers and scout leaders and to the Lithuanian Jewish Community for providing transportation and other services.
On March 27 and 28, 1844, more than 1,700 children and elderly were rounded up in the Kaunas ghetto and murdered. The Kaunas Jewish Community invites you to mark the anniversary of one of the greatest Holocaust atrocities in Lithuania.
Time: 4:00 P.M., March 27, 2024
Place: Kaunas ghetto gate, Linkuvos street no. 2, Kaunas
The commemoration ceremony will be followed by a concert at 5:30 P.M. at Vytautas Magnus University, Gimnazijos street no. 7, Kaunas.
Please indicate your intention to attend by sending an e-mail to ieva0102@yahoo.com by March 22.
The Stahlhammer Klezmer Classic Trio enchanted an audience in Kaunas Thursday at Vytautas Magnus University. The trio from Sweden provided food for thought, smiles and maybe even catharsis to some in the audience, according to reports from Kaunas.
The Kaunas Jewish Community sponsored the concert and dedicated it to the late Litvak bard, thinker and novelist Grigoriy Kanovitch, who would’ve celebrated his 95th birthday this year.
Lithuania’s International Commission for Assessing the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania and the Centropa organization based in Austria held three days of workshops for teachers to teach the Holocaust in Kaunas from February 19 to 21. Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein and Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas contributed to the teachers’ workshop.
Wittenberg Silverstein spoke about her grandparents and their experience of the Holocaust. She showed the teachers copies of her grandparents’ testimony for Yad Vashem detailing the murder of family members.
Gercas Žakas spoke to them about his father’s Holocaust story in the Šiauliai ghetto and at the Stutthof concentration camp. He recalled his father completely avoided talking about it later, but in old age and infirmity he revealed his memories of the murder of almost the entire family.
The Visegrad24 news website has been reporting on the conflict with Gaza live from Israel. In a recent interview they spoke with Efraim Zuroff, the director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, about the Holocaust, justice for the victims, justice for the victims of the Hamas massacre on October 7, Israeli security failures and the problem of Islamists migrating to Western Europe and North America and open borders in general.
“It always starts with the Jews, but never ends with the Jews. Hitler wanted to launch a war to destroy the Jews and 50 million people were murdered, and not all of them Jews, far from it. This is what people have to understand: the Jews are like the canaries in the coal mine. They’re the first victims. And if they go after us, be sure that they’ll go after the Christians in Europe and everywhere else because their dream is to take over the world. That’s the problem,” Zuroff said during the interview.
Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein sent a letter congratulating Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky on receipt of the Order of Merit medal presented to her by the Lithuanian president on February 16 in Vilnius.
A copy of the letter can be found below.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes Ukmergė Jewish Community chairman Artūras Taicas a very happy birthday. We are grateful to you for your tireless energy safeguarding and protecting the memory of those who cannot protect themselves from vandals. We all wish you success, happiness, real people and sincere smiles. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
The Lithuanian Jewish Community congratulates Daumantas Levas Todesas, chairman of the Council of Ethnic Communities, for recognition of his efforts in preserving the Litvak heritage in Lithuania, in representing the interests of the ethnic minority communities in Lithuania and in his public activities promoting the integration of minorities into Lithuanian society, as demonstrated by Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda’s presentation to him of the Lithuanian medal the Order of Merit, the Knight’s Cross, on February 16 at the presidential palace in Vilnius.