Learning, History, Culture

Criminal Case against Former MP Žemaitaitis Begins

Criminal Case against Former MP Žemaitaitis Begins

On Tuesday the Vilnius Regional Court began hearing a criminal case against former MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis who is accused of inciting hatred. Prosecutor Justas Laucius speaking on behalf the state prosecution noted that in his facebook posts, the politician spoke disparagingly of people of Jewish origin, accusing them of committing a massacre in the village of Pirčiupiai and the “Holocaust of Lithuanians,” ELTA reports.

Žemaitaitis stated in court he is currently unemployed and registered with the Employment Service. He also said he is currently a candidate for parliamentary elections to be held in the fall.

Prosecutor Laucius read out the indictment, indicating that Žemaitaitis is accused of inciting hatred towards persons of Jewish nationality, mocking persons of Jewish nationality and publicly approving of international crimes, denying them or grossly belittling them.

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News from Šiauliai

News from Šiauliai

Last week the Šiauliai Jewish Community received a guest from Australia. Brendan Conen from Melbourne came searching family roots. Specifically, his grandparents and great-grandparents who were born in Šiauliai, Pašalotas, Pumpenai and Varniai. He was looking for their addresses in order to view their homes. On Sunday he planned to visit the Šiauliai Jewish Community to help in the group-cleanup of the courtyard and garden and to help out in receiving visitors to the Righteous Gentiles exhibit which just opened.

European Day of Jewish Culture 2024

European Day of Jewish Culture 2024

This year’s topic is family.

The Lithuanian Jewish Community is celebrating the European Day of Jewish Culture this Sunday, September 1, with a full day’s program of events, lessons, workshops, discussions and exhibits. All events are free and open to the public, but registration is required for most of the events below.

Here’s the program:

11:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M. First Hebrew lesson for the whole family with Ruth Reches at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius. Ruth will soon be forming new classes for studying Hebrew. Register here: https://bit.ly/4g5jZbW

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Nazi Propagandist Leni Riefenstahl Had Polish Jews “Removed” from Set in 1939

Nazi Propagandist Leni Riefenstahl Had Polish Jews “Removed” from Set in 1939

Film suggests Nazis’ lead propagandist had role in 1939 massacre

Letter in Leni Riefenstahl archive appears to claim her set instructions led to deaths of Polish Jews, says director

A new documentary on the Nazis’ favorite film-maker and lead propagandist Leni Riefenstahl suggests she was a direct witness to murderous crimes of the Third Reich she later claimed to have known nothing about and might even have contributed to one atrocity herself.

The film Riefenstahl which premieres at the Venice film festival at the end of August also claims the propagandist admired the party and its henchmen until her death at 101 in 2003, a sentiment which ran counter to her insistence she was not signed up to the Nazi cause.

Written and directed by Andres Veiel, the documentary is the first to have had full access to Riefenstahl’s estate. It gives fresh details about claims that the film-maker was witness to one of the first massacres of Polish Jews while briefly working as a war reporter.

Riefenstahl followed Adolf Hitler to Poland at the start of the second world war in September of 1939 and saw the atrocity take place in Końskie, a town in south-central Poland.

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Jonas Šliūpas Museum in Palanga to Host Street Play and Discussion on Yiddish Humor

Jonas Šliūpas Museum in Palanga to Host Street Play and Discussion on Yiddish Humor

The Jonas Šliūpas Museum and the Palanga Jewish Community invites you to a day of Jewish culture this Sunday with circus and drama director, street-theater creator and comedian Adrian Schvarzstein from Argentina and Lithuania’s historical dance expert and choreographer Jūrate Širvytė who will present the street-play Arrived.

Arrived was born in Sri Lanka in 2015 and was first performed in Lithuania in 2017 under the title Malina.

Actor and comedian Schvarzstein will follow the play up with a discussion on Yiddish humor at the Jonas Šliūpas Museum. In between the play and the discussion the Palanga Jewish Community and the Bella Toscana bakery are promising to provide Jewish culinary heritage treats to attendees. All events are free.

Time: 2:00 P.M. to 3:30 P.M., September 1.
Location: The street-play begins at the Ramybė Café at Vytauto street no. 54, followed by Litvak treats in the courtyard of the Jonas Šliūpas Museum at Vytauto street no. 23a and the discussion at that same location in Palanga.

Righteous Gentiles Exhibit in Šiauliai

Righteous Gentiles Exhibit in Šiauliai

The Šiauliai District Jewish Community invites you to an exhibit featuring Righteous Gentiles who rescued Jews from the Holocaust in Lithuania. Called “Righteous Gentiles: Not Afraid to Die, They Became Immortal,” the exhibit opens at 6:00 P.M. on September 3 in the courtyard of the Šiauliai Jewish Community located at Višinskio street no.24 in Šiauliai.

The exhibit will cover the life and times of forty Righteous Gentiles in Lithuania who went against society at the time and risked everything, including the lives of their families, to do the right thing.

On September 9 the exhibit moves indoors at the Šiauliai Jewish Community and will run till September 30, with viewing hours from 9:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. Those wishing to make an appointment or seeking more information may call +370 685 47619.

Condolences

We are saddened to report the death of Elli Rubin on August 10. He was born in 1941. He was a member of the Community and a client of the Saul Kagan Welfare Center. Our deepest condolences to his widow Aldona, children and many friends and family members.

European Day of Jewish Culture Coming September 1

European Day of Jewish Culture Coming September 1

The European Day of Jewish Culture celebrated on the first Sunday in September falls on September 1 this year. This year’s celebration will feature Yiddish and Hebrew lessons at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius and a walking tour of Jewish Vilna with guide Viljamas Žitkauskas. The students from Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium are planning performances and the Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club is also sponsoring activities.

Jewish song and dance ensemble Fayerlakh will hold a concert and Raimondas Savickas is planning an open-air art workshop. Julija Patashnik will conduct an Israeli dance class, celebrated author and animator Ilja Bereznickas’s books and animated films will be featured and the Bagel Shop Café will provide the culinary education component.

An exhibit by Litvak artist Theo Tobiasse will open at the LJC in Vilnius, cantor Shmuel Yatom will perform a blessing of families and stand-up comedian Žilvinas Kerbelis is to perform. The Cvi Park Israeli street food kiosk space will host a concert including violinist Dalia Dėdinskaitė, Glebas Pyšniakas on cello, tenor Rafailas Karpis, Tadas Motiečius on accordion and others.

Stay tuned for more details and registration information.

Lithuanian Jewish Community Statement on Genocide Center’s Newest Report on Kazys Škirpa

Lithuanian Jewish Community Statement on Genocide Center’s Newest Report on Kazys Škirpa

The Lithuanian Jewish Community representing 32 Lithuanian and foreign Jewish organizations categorically rejects the latest report and conclusion by the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania regarding Kazys Škirpa.

We note that a ban on propagating totalitarian and authoritarian regimes and their ideologies has been in force in Lithuania since May of 2023. Under this law symbols of totalitarianism and authoritarianism–statues, street names, names of squares and other of other public locations–cannot be instituted, and those which are currently in existence must be removed from public space. The LJC is convinced Kazys Škirpa, whose publicly-made anti-Semitic statements and incitement to get rid of Jews gave rise to a wave of violence with such tragic results, should not be honored. Statues and commemorative plaques in his honor are a gigantic insult to the memory and relatives of the hundreds of thousands of Lithuanian Jews murdered in the Holocaust. All the more so bearing in mind that until now Lithuania has not established a national memorial commemorating the more than 200,000 victims of the Holocaust, our fellow citizens. Neither is there any monument paying honor to the heroism of Lithuania’s rescuers of Jews who risked their own lived and those of their families.

The International Commission to Assess the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania set up by the president of Lithuania has recognized the activities of the Lithuanian Activist Front and the Lithuanian Provisional Government, both led by Škirpa, as anti-Semitic. Chairman of the Commission’s Nazi Crimes Subcommittee Millersville University professor Saulius Sužiedelis stated: ” This is a statue to a man who led an organization which promoted violence against Lithuanian citizens of other ethnicity and which incited anti-Semitism. This is not a subjective judgment or interpretation, all of these statements are founded on historical facts, sources and documents.”

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New York Times Reporter Implicated in Hit-List Targeting Australian Jews

New York Times Reporter Implicated in Hit-List Targeting Australian Jews

Natasha Frost admits she shared private chats from a post-October 7 WhatsApp group with 1 person, and says she didn’t intend what followed; 600 members used the chat to talk about surging anti-Semitism in Australia

The New York Times said Friday it had taken “appropriate action” against its reporter after it came to light Melbourne-based Natasha Fronst had leaked private details from a WhatsApp group in which some 600 Australian Jewish creative workers had sought support amid surging anti-Semitism.

Natasha Frost told the Wall Street Journal she had shared the information with one person outside the group and had not intended for it to be widely disseminated.

Frost, whose New York Times bio page still says she writes for the newspaper’s Europe Morning Briefing newsletter, downloaded some 900 pages of WhatsApp messages from the group earlier this year, according to a WSJ report last week.

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German Court Upholds Conviction of 99-Year-Old Nazi Concentration Camp Secretary

German Court Upholds Conviction of 99-Year-Old Nazi Concentration Camp Secretary

BERLIN–Germany’s highest court has upheld the guilty verdict of a 99-year-old woman convicted as an accessory to mass murder at a Nazi concentration camp.

German Jewish leaders applauded the decision announced Tuesday by the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe.

“It is not about putting her behind bars for the rest of her life,” said Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. “It is about a perpetrator having to answer for her actions and acknowledge what happened and what she was involved in.”

Irmgard Furchner was secretary to Paul-Werner Hoppe, the SS commander of the Nazi German concentration camp Stutthof outside Danzig, now Gdansk in Poland. She was convicted in 2022 as accessory to more than 10,000 murders which were committed there during her employment from June 1, 1943, to April 1, 1945. She was also convicted of attempted murder in five cases. Dozens of survivors testified at the trial.

The judges agreed that Furchner through her work knowingly supported the murder of 10,505 prisoners by gassing, by terrible living conditions in the camp, by transfer to the Auschwitz death camp and by forced death marches at the end of the war.

Full article here.

Geršonas Taicas: Researching My Family’s Genealogy Grew into a Passionate Hobby

Geršonas Taicas: Researching My Family’s Genealogy Grew into a Passionate Hobby

interviewed by Katrina Zeiter

On the topic of Litvak history and personalities, one of the Community’s most active members, Geršonas Taicas, always provides interesting facts and facts unknown even to seasoned researchers. Celebrating his 75th birthday this year, his greatest passion is genealogy. Like a fish in its natural element, he dives into the archives, discovering incredible connections which force us to consider history from another perspective, and also helping Litvak descendants scattered around the world find their family roots. A Litvak himself, he can speak for hours on the notable chef and cooking author Fania Lewando, the crooner Daniel Dolskis and former British prime minister Boris Johnson, but in this interview we spoke about the genealogist’s own story which serves as a mirror of a period in Lithuanian Jewish life which fewer and fewer now remember.

What are your first childhood memories?

I was born in Ukmergė [Vilkomir] in 1949 to a family who had been incarcerated as “enemies of the people” at a gulag in Krasnoyarsk in Siberia. My father Alter was an accountant and my mother Masha was a teacher.

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Arie Ben-Ari Grodzensky Visits Panevėžys Jewish Community

Arie Ben-Ari Grodzensky Visits Panevėžys Jewish Community

Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel chairman Arie Ben-Ari Grodzensky visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community last week where he learned about Community activities, met members and viewed archival documents. He noted progress in conserving and commemorating the Litvak heritage in Panevėžys.

Grodzensky was born and raised in Lithuania and also serves on the executive boards of the Goodwill Foundation and the Lithuanian Jewish Community.

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News from Šiauliai

News from Šiauliai

Members of the Šiauliai Jewish Community and friends from Germany Saturday toured Lithuania’s Kurtuvėnai Regional Park. They took in the visitors’ center, some of the beautiful landscapes, learned about the history of the town of Kurtuvėnai and visited a barn museum at the manor estate there.

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Visitors to Panevėžys

Visitors to Panevėžys

A delegation of directors and students from the Leikund Yeshiva in New York City visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community recently. Most of them were members of the Frank family as well. They were interested in Litvak history and visited some of the mass murder sites. Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman told them about the history of the Jews of Panevėžys and about the Panevėžys Jewish Community’s activities. After visiting the Panevėžys Jewish Community the group went on to tour Jewish sites in Panevėžys including the Jewish cemetery, different locations in the city and Holocaust mass murder sites in the area.

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Commemoration of Sania Kerbelis

Commemoration of Sania Kerbelis

Members and friends of the Šiauliai Jewish Community gathered at the Community building Monday to commemorate the late Sania Kerbelis who served as chairman for many years.

Special guest Rabbi Kalev Krelin provided a simple and enlightened exegesis of Torah as the basis for his eulogy of Sania and reminded those assembled that the best commemoration and compensation of loss is prayer and good works.

Community member Ričardas Pikelis recited his poem in memory of Kerbelis.

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News from Šiauliai

News from Šiauliai

Architect Tauras Budzys visited the Šiauliai Jewish Community recently. He’s the person behind the project begun back in 2018 to mark the graves of Righteous Gentiles in Lithuania with a special symbol. He and Šiauliai Jewish Community leaders agreed to hold an exhibit of Lithuanian Righteous Gentiles in Šiauliai in early September. The exhibit was created by Budzys and Barbora Karnienė and features the names, biographical facts and numbers of Jews rescued by 45 Righteous Gentiles in Lithuania.

Samudaripen Commemorated in Lithuania

Samudaripen Commemorated in Lithuania

Samudaripen or Roma Genocide Day was marked August 2 at the Ponar Memorial Complex in Lithuania.

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky was one of the speakers at the event and said:

“Eighty years have passed since the war and we are gathered officially here for only the sixth time. With our whole heart we sympathize with our fellow Roma and feel your tragedy.”

She said the tragedy of the Roma was just as painful as that of the Jews, the difference being pre-Holocaust Jews lived in shtetls and their names, families and significant biographical facts were largely known, whereas we don’t even know the exact number of Roma victims of the Holocaust in Lithuania.

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