Litvaks – Page 48 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

We Have to Remember the Jewish Tragedy in World War II

The day of victory against Nazi Germany unites the people of all nations. Today as we mark the 75th anniversary of Victory Day not all of us are able to come together in person, but we can prayer for those who didn’t come back from the damned war. We can remember those who were shot in the forests and the pits, our relatives and friends tortured to death in the concentration camps. We can remember and we can honor those who defended our lives and those of future generations.

Today, the photographs and statues from World War II look at us. It is our sacred duty to remember and preserve the tragic stories of every family and the millions of people who suffered from the war.

We do remember and honor the people who risked their lives and those of their families to rescue Jews from the genocide.

On this holy day we, the members of the Panevėžys Jewish Community, laid bouquets of flowers and lit candles of remembrance at the memorials in Panevėžys which recall the brutalities of the Holocaust and for the soldiers who liberated Europe from the Nazi plague.

2020-05-11

Resident Ambassadors Mark VE Day at Jewish Cemetery in Vilnius

The Lithuanian Jewish Community and resident foreign ambassadors to Lithuania marked Victory in Europe day with a small, solemn gathering at the Jewish cemetery on Sudervės road in Vilnius on the morning of May 8. German ambassador Matthias Sonn, Israeli ambassador Jossy Avni-Levy and US ambassador Robert Gilchrist gave short addresses stressing the need to remember the past while looking to a better future.

2020-05-112020-05-11

Video Highlights of the Fifth World Holocaust Forum in 2020 in Jerusalem

Dear Presidents,
Dear Friends,

We are very happy and proud to share with you a video featuring highlights of the EJC event last January – The Fifth World Holocaust Forum – initiated by our President Moshe Kantor and hosted by the President of the State of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, at Yad Vashem.

Nearly 50 heads of state and royalty from across the world, as well as the three leaders of the European Union institutions, gathered in Jerusalem to reaffirm their unity against the upsurge of antisemitism globally and to honour the memory of the victims of the Holocaust.

Although it is difficult to encapsulate such a historic event in a few minutes, the video contains the most beautiful images, and the strongest and most touching excerpts of speeches and musical performances.

We hope this film will bring back precious memories of these emotional two days and allow those who could not be with us to grasp the intensity of the commitment expressed by world leaders for such a noble cause.

Stay safe and best regards,
Raya and the EJC Team

Video: https://eurojewcong.org/media/video-gallery/highlights-of-the-fifth-world-holocaust-forum-jerusalem-22-23-january-2020/

2020-05-08

Lithuanian MPs Defend Noreika

The following open letter appeared on the delfi.lt website. It is called “Reacting to Linkevičius’s Reply on Request to Review Positions on Jonas Noreika, aka General Storm.” Linas Linkevičius is the Lithuanian foreign minister. The two authors of the open letter were Audronius Ažubalis and Laurynas Kasčiūnas, members of parliament in the Homeland Union/Conservatives-Lithuanian Christian Democrats faction. Ažubalis was also a foreign minister in a previous government.

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On April 6 we contacted foreign minister Linas Linkevičius and Vilnius mayor Remigijus Šimašius asking them to review their earlier positions regarding Jonas Noreika, aka General Storm, in light of the final and unappealable decision of the Lithuanian Supreme Administrative Court on April 1. We got an answer from the minister, and thank you for following the law, but from the mayor there was the usual silence, but we’ll talk about the lack of political culture [sic] another time…

Replying to the minister by open letter, we want to raise again respect for decisions by the Lithuanian courts and recall a few essential details which have been forgotten in this discussion of history policy.

It seems as if it’s clear to everyone that officials of a state under the rule of law should not ignore court decisions and laws in their activities. Especially not the fact the Lithuanian Supreme Court rehabilitated Jonas Noreika of the full extent of the Soviet accusation, that is, for cooperating with the Germans.

2020-05-082020-05-20

Lithuania and the Holocaust: Endless Seizures Instead of Healing Wounds (Part II)

part two

by Vytautas Bruveris

What are the methods for Lithuania as a country and society to demonstrate by deeds rather than words true solidarity with the country’s Jewish community, almost completely exterminated in the Holocaust, with the victims and with their descendants?

Why Is There No Basic Number?

So if there’s no national agreement on what should be considered contributing to the Holocaust and what criteria might define this, then does the determination of direct participation in the mass murder of Jews not raise any conceptual misunderstandings?

2020-05-072020-05-20

Lithuania and the Holocaust: Endless Seizures Instead of Healing Wounds (Part I)

part one

by Vytautas Bruveris

After all, this year has been declared not only the Year of the Vilna Gaon but also the Year of Litvak History at the highest level of state.

Moreover, this year Lithuania and the world mark the round anniversary of a date connected with World War II, Nazi crimes and the Holocaust.

At least two such methods have long been clear.

2020-05-072020-05-20

Big Thank You to Svetlana Who Found a Jewish Headstone in Her Garden

Vilnius resident Svetlana Šitelienė contacted the Lithuanian Jewish Community to report her discovery of what appears to be a Jewish headstone, or matzeva, on her farm.

Thank you, Svetlana.

We’ve reached Svetlana and thanked her, and sent her a box of matzo and the Vilnius ghetto diary of Yitzhak Rudasheviski translated into Lithuanian.

Studying the photographs she provided, it appears this might be an unfinished headstone made for someone named Esther, with the surname partially completed. Mrs. Šitelienė said the grave stone might have ended up in her yard 47 or more years ago, and according to relatives it came from the Jewish cemetery near the Palace of Marriage in Vilnius.

2020-05-042020-05-08

Condolences

The Lithuanian Jewish Community sends its condolences to Arkadijus Gotesmanas on the death of his father, Burnitalis Arnoldas Gotesmanas, who passed away at the age of 90. The late Gotesmanas survived Auschwitz and Mauthausen. He died in Brooklyn and was buried there.

2020-05-04

Condolences

South African Litvak Denis Goldberg died of lung cancer just before midnight on April 29 at his home at Hout Bay in Cape Town. He was born April 11,1933. An anti-apartheid activist, Goldberg was tried with Neslon Mandela at the Rivonia trial and sentenced to 22 years in prison. Our deepest condolences to his many friends and family.

2020-05-012020-05-01

Faina Kukliansky Interviewed by Lithuanian Media on Yom haAtzma’ut

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky was interviewed by Lithuanian publicist Donatas Puslys on Yom haAtzma’ut, Israeli independence day, and spoke about what the holiday means to Jews in Lithuania, to her personally and to Jews around the world. She also spoke about the Holocaust, Litvaks living in Israel, the promise Eretz Israel held out to Soviet Jews and the country’s progress over the last 72 years. The interview was conducted in Lithuanian but concludes with warm wishes in Yiddish.

2020-04-30

Yom haAtzma’ut, Israeli Independence Day

Israelis began celebrating 72 years of statehood this year by greeting medical personnel. A torch-lighting ceremony began without an audience in honor of Israel’s doctors, nurses, care-givers, hospital staff and volunteers who have been fighting the Wuhan virus, with many fireworks displays and hospital fly-overs by the Israeli Air Force canceled.

Most Israelis marked Independence Day at home.

Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the nation in a video saying “We’ve never celebrated this kind of Independence Day. We are in a physical sense far from one another, but we’ve never been closer.” Praising hospital workers Netanyahu added “The day will come when embraces return… But we still can’t do this because the pandemic is still here.”

Knesset speaker Benny Gantz lit a torch on the eve of Independence Day and spoke of national unity, saying Israelis must prepare for even more difficult days, and called for creating “a new moral face of the country.”

2020-04-292020-05-07

Kaunas Jewish Community Distributing Sabbath Care Baskets

The Kaunas Jewish Community has redirected efforts under quarantine and is using the telephone and internet to make sure members, especially the elderly, don’t feel cut off from the world.

Many Community members celebrate Sabbath together and miss face-to-face interaction at the Sabbath table. While conditions aren’t allowing that to resume yet, the Kaunas Jewish Community, in the spirit of fellowship and keeping with tradition, is offering a free Sabbath care basket to members so that everyone can celebrate the Sabbath at home. Now members can break challa bread alone but at the same time together. The care baskets contain more than just challa, though, and include other traditional Sabbath dinner dishes.

KJC chairman Gercas Žakas is pleased this initiative has received the approval of the Goodwill Foundation and the interest and support of so many KJC members. One member said: “It really does feel as if you aren’t alone, but are celebrating Sabbath together with the entire community.” Look for the Jewish communities in other cities and towns to do the same thing, Žakas predicted.

2020-04-292020-05-04

Condolences

Moshe Kukliansky has died at the age of 97 in Israel. He was the head of the Kukliansky family and was the uncle of Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community.

Our deepest condolences to his children Alexander, Zinaida, Liliiana, niece Faina, the multitude of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and the entire family.

Moshe Kukliansky was a chemist, a witness to Litvak history and a Holocaust survivor. Faina recalls: “Our big family has lost a noble person who survived the Holocaust and was a great witness to Litvak history, a chemist and a just man filled with the law. That’s what he liked to call other people. After my grandmother Zinaida–the mother of Moshe, Samuel and Anna–was murdered and Moshe was forced to work for local farmers, when he came home my father Samuel used to grab his hands and kiss him. Moshe asked ‘What are you so happy about? Our mother is dead.’ My father, who was 11 then, replied ‘I’m happy you’re still here.’ For me, my children and grandchildren, Moshe was like a father and a grandfather, just as all my aunts and uncles were like parents to me, and cousins like brothers and sisters. It is very sad that our last family member of the older generation has passed away.”

Moshe Kukliansky’s telling of the dramatic story of the family’s survival during the Holocaust was immortalized several years back in a film called the Pit of Life and Torment (Gyvybės ir kančių duobė).

2020-04-292020-05-08

Virtual Lectures: Escape from Ponar and Jacques Lipchitz’s Memories of Lithuania

Please note: the ZOOM platform used for the virtual lectures below is widely known to be unsafe and is considered spyware by competent observers, deployed most likely by China. It can usurp control of cameras and microphones on your computer and telephone. Its use is banned by the U.S. military and U.S. government organizations. The Lithuanian Jewish Community takes no responsibility for those infected by clicking the links below.

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The Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum is sponsoring two virtual lectures called “Story of Escape from Ponar” and “Lithuania in Jacques Lipchitz’s Reminiscences.”

“I am a sculptor from Lithuania,” Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973) used to say to introduce himself at openings of his works in museums and galleries around the world, even though Lithuania had disappeared from the world map when these shows took place. Sculpture and memorial heritage researcher Aušra Rožankevičiūtė talks about Lipchitz’s image of Lithuania and his contacts with Lithuanian artists and thinkers.

2020-04-27

Happy 100th Birthday to Eta Gurvčiūtė

Happy birthday to Eta Gurvčiūtė as she turns 100. Lithuanian Jewish Community member Eta Gurvčiūtė turned 100 April 27. Clear of mind, with no health complaints and her beautiful smile, she is busy receiving greetings and congratulations today. She was graduated from the Sholem Aleichem Gymnasium before World War II.

Many of our other seniors remember Eta because she volunteered at the medical center of the LJC for so many years, later becoming a client herself. She spends her time these days at the Social Care House for Seniors in Vilnius now.

To celebrate her milestone, the LJC is planning a Fayerlakh concert for everyone at her senior citizens’ home. ALthough she’s celebrating her birthday under strict quarantine at the senior center, the Lithuanian Jewish Center tried to send her a present anyway. We managed to have a vase of flowers and a card delivered.

2020-04-272020-04-29

Greetings from Lithuanian Parliament on Gaon’s 300th Birthday

Dear Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Mrs. Faina Kukliansky, dear Lithuanian Jewish Community,

We mark the 300th anniversary of that most exalted Litvak, Eliyahu ben Solomon Zalman, the Vilna Gaon. The parliament of the Republic of Lithuania named this year, 2020, the Year of the Vilna Gaon and Litvak History, to stress the priceless contribution the Jewish community, an inseparable part of our society for 700 years now, has made to Lithuania’s history, culture, learning and consolidation of statehood through your adherence to tradition and social activity.

In all times there have been people who do not conform to the canons of their era, who through their creativity and unconventional thinking have changed the world. The Jewish people have given so much to the world. One of them, the Gaon or Genius of Vilna, Eliyahu ben Solomon Zalman, was a scholar of Jewish texts and law and a Talmud interpreter and scholar. This was a brave challenge during his times but, happily, Eliyahu grew up in an intellectual environment and was supported by his family and appreciated by the community. Rumors about the young sage and his intellect spread far beyond the limits of Vilnius. The Vilna Gaon became the most renowned religious authority and he changed people’s life paths, thought and the concept of Litvak, and turned Vilnius into a Jewish spiritual center, the Jerusalem of Lithuania. This is a priceless historical, cultural and philosophical legacy of the Jews and Lithuanians of Vilnius and Lithuania and of the other peoples who live in Lithuania.

The Year of the Vilna Gaon and Litvak History is a great opportunity for all of us today, in the words of the Gaon, “to see with our own eyes, hear with our own ears and feel with our entire heart” what significant and rich heritage we have in creating the Lithuania of our future. Congratulations!

[signed]
Gediminas Kirkilas, deputy speaker, chairman of the European Affairs Committee
Lithuanian parliament

2020-04-242020-04-24

Anniversary of Gaon Central in Conversation between Israeli and Lithuanian Presidents

April 23 was the 300th anniversary of the birth of the Vilna Gaon, the outstanding Torah-Talmud scholar from Vilnius in the 18th century. Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda and Israeli president Reuven Rivlin called each other to offer congratulations on the occasion.

The Lithuanian president expressed respect for the Vilna Gaon, the Rabbi Eliyahu ben Soiomon Zalman, who put Vilnius on the map as a center for Torah learning. He told the Israeli president the year 2020 had been declared the Year of the Vilna Gaon and Litvak History in Lithuania to honor the Gaon’s bright memory.

“The intellect and erudition of the Vilna Gaon made Vilnius the spiritual center of Jews in Europe, famous throughout the world. It was thanks to him that Vilnius appeared on the world map as the capital of Torah-Talmud scholarship and became the religious center of Judaism. The Gaon’s teaching, based on thoroughness, patience and dedication to revealing spiritual power and to seeking wisdom, is an inspiration in difficult times,” the Lithuanian president said.

President Nausėda emphasized Lithuania remains the home of the large Litvak community spread throughout the world. The Lithuanian Jewish Community maintains active ties with Litvaks living in Israel, the USA, South Africa, France and elsewhere, Nausėda noted.

The two presidents also discussed the health situation in their two countries and measures for restoring economic life. They agreed this time full of challenges the world faces demands special attention to international relations and solidarity between the nations.

At the end of their conversation the Lithuanian president greeted Israel on the 72nd anniversary of statehood and invited the Israeli president to visit Lithuania.

Information from the President’s Communication Group

2020-04-242020-04-29

True Meaning of Leonard Cohen’s Love Song

by Ruth Reches

Most people probably know the song “Dance Me to the End of Love” written in 1984 by Leonard Cohen. Many people consider it a love song with its up and down melody. Leonard Cohen, however, wrote the song as a hymn to death.

Consider the first line in the song: ”
Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin.”

When prisoners at some concentration camps were selected for and taken to be murdered, a group of prisoners played violins to mask the sounds of people being slaughtered. The classical music performed erased the border between beauty and the horrific, between life and death.

2020-04-232020-04-29

Small Gathering Honors Memory of Vilna Gaon at Nominal Grave in Vilnius

The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry reports Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, Lithuanian foreign minister Linas Linkevičius and Israeli ambassador Yossef Levy gathered at what is considered the final resting place of the mortal remains of the Vilna Gaon in the Jewish section of the Sudervės road cemetery in Vilnius April 23, the 300th anniversary of the birth of the Gaon.

The Lithuanian foreign minister expressed the hope events planned to mark 2020 as the Year of the Vilna Gaon which were postponed because of the virus epidemic will take place later in the year.

2020-04-232020-04-28

EBRD Awards Grigoriy Kanovich’s Book Devilspel European Literature Prize

From Noir Press:

PRESS RELEASE

April 22, 2020

Lithuanian author wins €20,000 Literature Prize from European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
The UK publishing house Noir Press is delighted Lithuanian Jewish author Grigory Kanovich has just won the €20,000 EBRD Literature Prize, a prestigious award celebrating literature in translation.

The prize, normally awarded at Bank headquarters in London, was awarded virtually this year because of the quarantine announced by the UK Government. The award was announced on Twitter on April 22.

Rosie Goldsmith, chairwoman of the panel of judges for this year’s prize, said the winning novel “is sincere, it is warm, it is generous. It has the feeling of a very great classic.”

2020-04-232020-04-28