Learning, History, Culture

Romania to Open First State-Run Jewish Museum

Set to open in Bucharest in 2018, the museum will focus on Europe’s third-largest Jewish community before the Holocaust

AFP


An honor guard soldier stands during a ceremony at a Jewish cemetery in Bucharest, Romania in February 2012, next to a monument bearing the names of Romanian Jewish refugees killed in 1942 aboard the SS Struma. Around 792 people drowned after the ship was struck by a Soviet torpedo (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Romania, which denied its role in the Holocaust for years, is to open the first state-run museum dedicated to the country’s Jewish community, once one of the largest in Europe before World War II.

The museum, due to open in 2018 in the capital Bucharest, will focus on the persecution of Jews and the Roma, said Alexandru Florian, the director of the National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust.

Read more

Cultural Historian Violeta Davoliūtė: Deportations to Siberia Were Lithuanianized, Catholicized

diskusija-apie-radikaliojo-nacionalizmo-nuotaikas-lietuvoje-51388c8860434-694x480

by Jūratė Juškaitė
manoteises.lt

Historians reckon about 17,000 people were deported from Lithuania during the first Soviet occupation. Cattle cars were sent deep into Russia from June 14 to June 18, 1941, and many of the deportees didn’t survive the first winter. Most people in Lithuania know these facts well, but June of 1941, often called the tragedy of the Lithuanian people, isn’t all that Lithuanian.

Research recently performed by cultural historian Violeta Davoliūtė soon to appear in the book “Population Displacement in Lithuania in the Twentieth Century” (Brill, 2016) attempts to bring the experiences of deported Lithuanian Jews back into collective memory regarding those days in June. The researcher says the narrative of deportations formed during the push for Lithuanian independence in the late 80s and early 90s contained ethnocentric elements and was often too “Catholicized.” Although the official politics of memory seem complicated if only for the widespread “Jewish Communist” stereotype, Davoliūtė says these and similar stereotypes have failed to divide this group of deportees, which is a tight-knit community based on shared experience.

In a recent discussion historian Dr. Arvydas Anušauskas was the first to call the 1941 deportations multiethnic. Why are they called this?

Read more

Ethical Will of Leonidas Donskis: Kaddish for Butrimonys

img_17_105
photo courtesy Milda Jakulytė-Vasil

In line with the expressed wish of the recently deceased Lithuanian philosopher and author Leonidas Donskis, a group will assemble in the Lithuanian town of Butrimonys Sunday, October 23, to say kaddish for the Jewish community murdered there in 1941.

“I would be happy, if while I am still alive, something similar would happen in Butrimonys… I feel a moral obligation to say kaddish there with Jews,” Donskis said in an interview on Delfi TV on July 31, 2016. The interview in Lithuanian is available here.

Kaddish will be performed by Lithuanian Jewish opera soloist Rafailas Karpis.

Time: 3:00 P.M. to 4:00 P.M., Sunday, October 23, 2016
Location: Jewish mass grave site in Butrimonys, Lithuania

Read more

Israeli Antiquities Chief Equates UNESCO with ISIS

EID
A March 31, 2016 picture shows the remains of the Temple of Bel’s “Cella” in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, blown up by Islamic State jihadists. (AFP/Joseph Eid)

by Ilan Ben Zion

UN cultural body’s resolution on Jerusalem akin to jihadist group’s destruction of Palmyra, says Yisrael Hasson

The director of the Israel Antiquities Authority slammed UNESCO on Wednesday for its resolution on Jerusalem holy sites, comparing the UN cultural body to Islamic State jihadists.

Speaking at the opening of the new IAA headquarters in Jerusalem, director Yisrael Hasson said the resolution adopted last week and confirmed on Tuesday put the UN organization in the same league as ISIS jihadists who have destroyed and looted hundreds of archaeological sites in Syria and Iraq to fund their caliphate.

Read more

Anti-Semitism on Steroids

Pasaulio žydų kongreso prezidentas S.R. Lauderis pavadino UNESCO balsavimą dėl Jeruzalės “antisemitizmu, kuris stiprėja nuo steroidų”

World Jewish Congress president Ronald Lauder has characterized a UNESCO resolution on Jerusalem as “anti-Semitism on steroids.”

The UNESCO resolution appears to deny Christian and Jewish ties to the city. Lithuania voted against.

Israel has frozen ties with the UN agency following the vote.

jerusalem-temple

WJC president Lauder condemned the resolution on Jewish holy sites and called it shameful, but cautioned against taking the Palestinian-initiated resolution too seriously, since there is no argument about Jewish ties to Jewish holy sites in the city.

“What happened today in Paris is anti-Semitism on steroids. It is a total travesty and an insult to the Jewish people to pretend that the holy sites in Jerusalem are only Muslim sites, and to ignore the fact that Temple Mount was already the holiest place of Judaism well before the advent of Islam,” Lauder declared.

Read more

Israel Freezes Ties with UNESCO

Baltic News Service reports Israel has frozen ties with UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, following the adoption of two resolutions on occupied East Jerusalem in the run-up to an important vote next week. In a letter to UNESCO director-general Irina Bokova, Israeli education minister Naftali Bennett accused the organization of ignoring millennia of Jewish ties to the holy city and of supporting terror in this manner. He added the Israeli National UNESCO Commission had been instructed to cut all ties with the international organization.

NGO Monitor, an organization which monitors the activities of anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian NGOs, issued a statement on related activities in the Security Council the day after UNESCO adopted the controversial resolution:

“NGO Monitor’s research has focused on the disproportionate political impact of Israeli NGOs and the role of funding provided by European governments. From this perspective, we note the debate over and political responses to the presentation by the director of B’Tselem [the pro-Palestinian Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories ] at a UN Security Council special session (convened by Egypt, Malaysia, Venezuela, Angola and Senegal) on Friday October 11. In this highly politicized statement, he implored the UN to take ‘decisive international action’ against Israel, and made no mention of Palestinian terror attacks or incitement. This event highlights the ways in which influential NGOs distort reality for ideological objectives and contribute to international political campaigns against Israel, under the façade of human rights, bypassing Israel’s internal democratic processes.”

Read more

Mini-Limmud 2016

The LJC and the EJF Mini-Limmud educational conference on Judaism will take place November 25 to 27, 2016, at the Trasalis resort and spa in Trakai near Vilnius, Lithuania. Participants must register between October 19 and 28. For more information contact Žana Skudovičienė, telephone +370 678 81514, email mini.limmud@gmail.com

Happy Sukkot!

sukkot-lzbSukkah at Bagel Shop Café on central Pylimo street in Vilnius

Sukkot, the Jewish feast of tents which is often translated in English as the feast of tabernacles, begins on the evening of October 16 this year, or Tishrei 15 on the Jewish calendar. A booth is built for Sukkot called a sukkah where for seven days the family has dinner, children play and as much time as possible is spent. That’s how it works in warmer climates, and today there are sukkah houses outside homes across Israel. Many Jews build the shelters in their yards or even on apartment balconies.

Why spend time in temporary shelters? The answer comes from Leviticus (Vaikra) 23:42-43: “Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths: That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”

It’s traditional to place the four species or arba minim in the tent or booth during the holiday. These are the etrog (a specific kind of citrus fruit), and branches from palm trees, willows and myrtle trees. Leviticus 23:40: “And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.” The branches and fronds are traditionally used to decorate the booths and waved during the holiday.

Jews often take their evening meal in the shelter and recall the flight of their people from Egypt. However you choose to celebrate the holiday, the Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes you and your family a happy Sukkot!

sukkot3

Israeli Embassy to Present Awards to 3 Lithuanian Righteous Gentiles in Kaunas

The Israeli embassy in Vilnius is holding a ceremony to honor and award three Righteous Gentiles October 21 in Kaunas. The ceremony will confer the Yad Vashem title of Righteous among the Nations upon Antanas Blažaitis (1897-1949), his wife Adelė Blažaitienė (1903-1988) and their daughter Valentina Eugenija Blažaitytė Liutikienė (1927-1993). The Yad Vashem medals and certificates are being awarded posthumously and will be accepted by their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The ceremony is scheduled for 1:00 P.M. on Friday, October 21, at the Kazys Grinius Pre-Gymnasium, Šiaurės prospect No. 97, Kaunas. Those who wish to attend should contact the Israeli embassy before October 20, telephone +370-5-2502510, fax +370-5-2502555, email press@vilnius.mfa.gov.il

The Junta, the Park, and the Sukkah: A Lesson in Community Architecture

building-windows-e

by Andres Spokoiny

We’re more affected by architecture than we might want to believe. The built environment conditions our thoughts and behaviors. Every building sends a message.

Totalitarian regimes know this well; they often have explicit architectural doctrines. Stalinist architecture favored monstrous, colorless buildings, exalting the collective over the individual. Creating monumental structures for Nazi rallies, Albert Speer evoked submission, aligning the crowd toward a single leader, rather than fostering talk among the people.

I have personal experience with totalitarian architecture. Argentinean juntas didn’t build huge buildings (mostly because they embezzled the money allocated for that), but they did renovate many Buenos Aires squares and parks. One of the most emblematic is Plaza Bernardo Houssay, tucked amid University of Buenos Aires buildings. The junta redesigned this space to make it impossible for students to stage demonstrations. The square was filled with irregular steps and levels. A water basin and a new church were built to leave no room for large crowds on the lawn. Beautiful art nouveau benches were replaced by uncomfortable concrete seats, placed so as not to face each other. Ancient jacaranda trees were uprooted, making it unappealing for students like me to fraternize under the baking sun. The traditional Spanish square, which serves as a focal point for diverse people to meet, chat, play dominoes, and philosophize, was no more.

The Jewish people is not particularly known for its architectural exploits. Our most important building in the world is a patched-up, badly eroded wall. Yes, there are great individual Jewish architects, but as a people, words are our forte — not bricks. As we celebrate Sukkot, however, suddenly Jews are forced to become architects. And it’s worth asking: if a building always sends a message, what does the sukkah tell us?

Read more

Sara Lapickaja Has Died

Netekome Saros Lapickajos

Following prolonged illness Sara Lapickaja, 79, died in Ashdod, Israel, on October 11, 2016. An active former member of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, she was also a Yiddish language and literature expert and a held a doctorate in philology. The Lithuanian Jewish Community express our deepest condolences to her surviving family and relatives.

Sara Lapickaja was born in Kaunas on June 14, 1938. She and her 10-year-old brother managed to escape the Holocaust and flee to Russia without their parents, where they were sheltered at an orphanage in the Kirov oblast. Lapickaja was in the first class of the Vilnius Jewish School in 1945, but the school was shut down within several years and she transferred to a Russian school, then graduated from the Vilnius Music School where she received a degree in choir conduction. She taught high school in Vilnius and Kaunas until 1988 while devoting much of her energy to the Jewish community, setting up an amateur volunteer choir which she conducted and helping establish the Jewish kindergarten in Vilnius, among other things.

In 1988 with help from the Lithuanian Jewish community she travelled to Israel on a Soviet passport to study at Bar-Ilon University. In Israel she devoted herself to Yiddish language and literature and earned a master’s degree, then furthered her education in St. Petersburg, Russia, where she successfully defended her doctoral thesis, “Ber Gelpern: Editorial and Educational Work” in 1997. She taught Yiddish language and literature in Israel for many years at Bar-Ilon and other institutes of higher learning.

She had a deep and significant relationship with Vilnius’s famous writer Abraham Karpinovich who wrote in Yiddish. They often attended conferences together, including in Vilnius. Karpinovich devoted much of his creative fervor to Jewish life in interwar Vilnius and after his death in 2004 the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum set up a special room in his name containing much of his archives and other items.

Everyone who knew Sara loved her and we will remember her goodness, sincere and open nature and her goal of being useful to her people.

Let her rest in peace in the Land of Israel.

Panevėžys Jewish Community Visits Auschwitz, Birkenau

Panevėžio miesto žydų bendruomenė lankosi Aušvico ir Birkenau koncentracijos stovykloje

There were many events to commemorate the Holocaust in September at the Panevėžys Jewish Community. In August members of the Panevėžys Community took part in ceremonies marking the anniversary of the destruction of the Jewish communities of Biržai, Kupiškis and Rokiškis.

The series of commemorations of victims ended on September 30 with a trip to Poland where Panevėžys Jewish Community members visited the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps.

During the trip Panevėžys Jewish Community members heard many tragic stories about the events of the World War II era. The tours of the death camps Auschwitz and Birkenau deeply affected children and parents. Over 1.5 million Jews, Russians, Roma and people of other ethnicities were murdered there. The Nazis murdered prisoners in the gas chambers and burnt the bodies of their innocent victims in the furnace.

Read more

The Nazi Hunter: Holocaust Collaborators Can No Longer Be Excused

warsawghetto061016
German soldiers search the belongings of Jews rounded up in the Warsaw ghetto after the uprising in 1943. This year Europe remembers the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the Holocaust (Getty)

By Efraim Zuroff @EZuroff
Thursday, October 6, 2016

Dr Efraim Zuroff is one of the world’s foremost Nazi hunters, as well as a renowned Holocaust historian.

Here, in his first article for talkRADIO, he talks about the widespread refusal to admit the Nazis didn’t act alone

This summer and autumn, we mark the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the systematic murder of European Jewry by the Nazis and their local collaborators in the areas which were then part of the Soviet Union.

The murders were carried out individually by shooting, and the names of places like Ponar, Fort IX, Rumbula, and Babi Yar became bywords for Holocaust atrocities.

Although the historical record of these crimes is crystal clear, and the identity of the perpetrators well-known, the new democracies of Eastern Europe are having great difficulties in admitting that it was not only Germans and Austrians who carried out these atrocities, but that their nationals also played an important role in implementing the Final Solution.

Read more

Returned from Israel to Live in Lithuania

Iš Izraelio sugrįžo gyventi į Lietuvą

“So you’re a Jew-girl? Oh my, how fine!” Bella Shirin gets this reaction from a Lithuanian woman as they chat while waiting at the doctor’s. Born and raised in Kaunas, she went to Israel with her parents during the Soviet era, and two months ago she returned to live in Lithuania.

True Litvak Family

Bella isn’t upset by the stranger’s words. “All of us Jews are fine,” she replies to the surprised Lithuanian woman. “Lithuania and Israel are for me like two children of the same mother. I love both equally. Our families have been in Lithuania from the time of Gediminas. We are true Litvaks,” Bella exclaims with evident pride.

The energetic and svelte 70-year-old greets us in one of the old apartment houses on E. Ožeškienės street. Bella rents a room here. Her courtyard is well known; it’s the site of the “Courtyard Gallery,” with the walls of the surrounding buildings painted with portraits of the Jews who lived here until the Holocaust. “I wouldn’t like my picture taken in front of them. One should know history, recall the past, but look to the future. We need to talk more about bright examples, about living together peacefully,” she explains.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Vytautas Magnus University Students Join City’s Effort to Revive Old Jewish Cemetery in Žaliakalnis Section of Kaunas

In the last several days work was completed in a month-long project to photographically document almost 6,000 headstones. “We are grateful to the Vytautas Magnus University community for this good-will contribution to restoring historical heritage in Kaunas. Eight students responded to our call and truly performed a great and significant deed. Each headstone was photographed from several angles so now we have several thousand photographs total. They will be included in a common data base which will serve in continuation of the project to restore the old Jewish cemetery. Additionally, a web page is being set up right now especially for this project where all the students’ work will be on display as well,: Kaunas city council member and project initiator professor Jonas Audėjaitis said.

The decision to inventory and identify the graves at the old Jewish cemetery in the Žaliakalnis neighborhood of Kaunas was made last fall. To do so comprehensively according to methods required, efforts to renovate the graveyard were undertaken first. The municipal enterprise Kapinių priežiūra [Cemetery Maintenance] removed brush and unwanted bushes, cut the grass, fixed up the fence and did other work urgently needing to be done, and the enterprise plans to continue fixing up the cemetery. Now video surveillance cameras have been placed around the perimeter of the location.

At the end of July there was a volunteer clean-up campaign. In order to revive the abandoned space and commemorate it, Kaunas city leaders and several dozen volunteers cleaned headstones and counted more than 5,800 graves. The decision was made not to move monuments knocked over by vandals at the present time.

Read more

Lithuanian Prime Minister Sends Birthday Greetings to Markas Petuchauskas

Premjeras sveikina Marką Petuchauską jubiliejaus proga

Lithuanian prime minister Algirdas Butkevičius has sent birthday greetings to art history and theater scholar Markas Petuchauskas on the occasion of his 85th birthday.

“You are an important creator of the cultural history of Lithuania and have dedicated many years of your life to the study of art and art history, and especially the development of our theater. Led by mature wisdom and relying upon your wide erudition, you have revealed to us the unique nature of works by famous artists and have painted detailed and colorful pictures of celebrated personalities. You have always been a person of wide horizons and constructive dialogue, and therefore have contributed much to the understanding and to the good cooperation between the Jewish and Lithuanian peoples.

“I sincerely thank you for your great contribution to the spiritual fortification of our state and enrichment of cultural life,” the Lithuanian prime minister said in his birthday greeting.

Book about Lithuanian Public Figure Irena Veisaitė Launched in Paris

Paryžiuje pristatyta knyga apie Lietuvos visuomenės veikėją I. Veisaitę

The Lithuanian embassy in Paris hosted the launch of Yves Plasseraud’s new biography in English, “Irena Veisaitė: Tolerance and Involvement,” October 3. Lithuanian ambassador to France Dalius Čekuolis spoke and said he was happy to have the opportunity to present a French author’s book in English about a noble Lithuanian person who has inspired and set an example of tolerance, and who is an active champion of European values.

The presentation was followed by a discussion with the author, academic and attorney Yves Plasseraud, and the guest of the evening, Irena Veisaitė herself, professor of literature, drama critic and human rights activist. The discussion was moderated by professor Šarūnas Liekis, dean of the Political Science and Diplomacy Faculty at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas. Veisaitė’s daughter Alina also attended with her son and friends.

Veisaitė, born in Kaunas in 1928, is a well-known public figure in Lithuania, a celebrated scholar of the theater, a professor of literature, one of the founders of the Lithuanian Open Society Fund and a member of the Lithuanian national UNESCO commission from 1999 to 2007. She is a member of numerous international and national NGOs and has received many awards and distinctions in Lithuania and other countries. Veisaitė has consistently emphasized the need for dialogue and tolerance even in the most difficult situations life has to offer in all her work.

Read more

Rules for the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community’s Taharat ha’Kodesh aka Choral Synagogue

Vilniaus žydų religinės bendruomenės Taharat ha‘Kodeš sinagogos taisyklės

Adopted by a meeting of the executive board of the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community on September 22, 2016, act no. 06

Introduction

The rules have been put in place in light of ever-more-frequent attacks against Jews in Europe and the growing danger posed by terrorism around the world. These rules must be followed strictly and are aimed at insuring the physical safety and spiritual dignity of those who pray at the Taharat ha’Kodesh aka Choral Synagogue.

The mitnagedim Taharat ha’Kodesh synagogue, built in 1903 and belonging to the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community, is the only synagogue in Vilnius which has survived the Holocaust and the Soviet occupation.

Every Jew has the right to visit and pray at the Taharat ha’Kodesh synagogue on the condition she or he follow the rules provided below.

Rules of Behavior at the Taharat ha’Kodesh Synagogue

1. The synagogue is public place of worship where the proper human respect for the site and the congregation is shown.

2. All synagogue activities, prayer and services are based on mitnagedic traditions.

3. Public order must be maintained during all prayer services and afterwards in the synagogue. Public order means the general rules of public behavior operating in society based on principles of morality and mutual respect.

4. Adherence to these rules insures the normal course of life in society, tolerant communication, civilized manners of resolution of conflicts arising between people and abstinence from aggression in pursuing individual interests. The following are banned in the synagogue: rude or belligerent behavior, issuing threats, demonstrating disrespect to those around you or the location itself through mockery or acts of vandalism, disturbing the public order and peace, use of profanity or lewd behavior, disrupting services, making noise or otherwise disturbing prayer.

5. Prayer services are performed exclusively in one of the halls, rooms and spaces of the synagogue.

6. A person who wants to make a public address at the synagogue must receive permission to do so from the rabbi working at the synagogue.

7. Personal arguments as well as arguments over the performance of prayers and other religious rites are banned in the synagogue. Suggestions on the performance of prayers and other religious rites may be discussed with the rabbi only when prayer and other religious rites are not happening. These rules also apply to the Kiddush and lecture room.

8. The opening and closing times of the synagogue are set by the executive board of the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community and are publicly announced. Security and technical personnel are hired and their working hours are set based on these times. In special circumstances they may be subject to the discretion of the chairman of the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community.

9. The person reading the Torah, leading the prayer service, is designated and hired by the chairman of the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community with the approval of the executive board of the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community. All people in the synagogue during that time must adhere to this established order.

10. People visiting the synagogue must be dressed appropriately. For men, that means wearing a yarmulke (kippah), a hat or a scarf to cover their head. Mobile or cell telephones are prohibited during prayer.

11. People armed with firearms or other weapons, or items which could be used as weapons, are not allowed to enter the synagogue (except for security guards). Also, intoxicated people or people arousing suspicion are not allowed to enter. It is also forbidden to bring in bags containing food products and larger packages (backpacks, purses, suitcases, luggage or other packages). These must be left with the person on duty at the entrance.

12. Without permission from the chairman of the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community, it is forbidden to hold meetings, protests and rendezvous in the synagogue, or to set out a table with food, or to engage in commercial activity.

13. Members of the congregation and visitors to the synagogue are required to obey the directions of the chairman, elder and security personnel operating in the name of the executive board of the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community.

14. People who violate these rules are asked to leave the synagogue and might be barred from entry in the future. Violation of public order and other actions prohibited by the laws of the Republic of Lithuania could also incur legal accountability.

15. The keys to the synagogue and entry to all communication are protected and managed by the chairman of the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community.

16. All people inside the synagogue must obey the orders of security personnel. The security guard is equivalent to the person in charge of performing the functions of public administration.

Shmuel Levin, chairman
Vilnius Jewish Religious Community

Greater Security Measures in Vilnius Following Terrorist Attack at Moscow Synagogue

maskvos-sinagoga

The Lithuanian Jewish Community is alarmed by the armed terrorist attack at a synagogue in Moscow on October 1 and in order to insure greater security has announced a set of rules for the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius, in light of ever-more-frequent attacks against Jews in Europe and the increasing danger posed by terrorism around the world. These rules must be followed strictly and are aimed at insuring the physical safety and spiritual dignity of those praying at the Taharat ha’Kodesh (aka Choral) Synagogue in Vilnius. The rules may be found here: http://www.lzb.lt/en/2016/10/07/rules-for-the-vilnius-jewish-religious-communitys-taharat-hakodesh-aka-choral-synagogue/

On October 1 a synagogue in Moscow was attacked. A security guard was wounded during the attack. There are reports the attacker might have been suffering mental illness. He has been arrested. Armed with a gun, the attacker stormed the synagogue with a canister of flammable liquid as well and threatened to burn down the Jewish house of prayer. He shot the security guard in the head and chest after he tried to refuse the attacker entry.

maskvos-sinagoge

The attacker has been arrested but the police are not reporting any motive for the attack or further details, except that he has been identified as Ivan Lebedev, aged 40, and has been hospitalized for mental illness in the past. About 150 people were gathered at the synagogue for Sabbath services. The attacker reportedly demanded to meet with Moscow’s Chief Rabbi Pinkhas Goldschmidt.

Anti-Semitic attacks of this nature have been rare in Russia and are more often committed in Western European countries with large Jewish communities such as Great Britain and France.

Happy 85th Birthday to Markas Petuchauskas

The Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes professor habil. Markas Petuchauskas a happy 85th birthday! The doctor of art history has written many books on theater and drama over many years.

We wish him continuing health, continuing creativity and hope for another of his wonderful books. Let’s all wish him inspiration, success and love.

Today Markas Petuchauskas is the only person who can speak with real authority about the Vilnius ghetto theater which operated in 1942 and 1943. He was a ghetto prisoner and miraculously survived, as did his mother, after being rescued by good people. For many years he has sought to renew the interrupted dialogue between Lithuanians and Jews, which, he says, is best understood through art.

Happy Birthday! Mazl tov! May you live to 120!