Learning, History, Culture

A Game to Remember

A Game to Remember

“A Game to Remember”: Immerse Yourself in Stories That Change the World

The Lithuanian Jewish (Litvak) Community and its partners are launching “A Game to Remember,” an innovative project where history comes to life through interactive detective games. We invite you to travel back in time and experience the stories of Holocaust survivors ina new, engaging way.The European historical experience serves as a fundamental pillar of the European Union’s values. Today, as we face historical distortions, threats of war, and rising hatred, the preservation of memory and education about the events of the past century are more important than ever. We must remember the destructive power of authoritarian regimes, the significance of resistance, the tragedy of the Holocaust, and other historical turning points.

Only by understanding the past can we strengthen democracy and build a more peaceful future. The Lithuanian Jewish (Litvak) Community, together with a team of educators from Lithuania, has developed an interactive tool based on the principles of a detective game. This tool helps students expand their knowledge and gain a deeper understanding of Holocaust history in Lithuania. The educational research is based on Icchokas Rudaševskis’s “Vilnius Ghetto Diary.”

During the session, participants will solve a series of interconnected detective tasks and puzzles, ultimately leading one of the investigation teams to uncover the mystery of the study.

Who Are We?

We are an international team from five European countries: Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, and Spain. Our mission is to collect and preserve Holocaust testimonies, transforming them into powerful educational tools.

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Jewish Scouting Camp

Jewish Scouting Camp

An overnight Jewish scouting camp will be held April 29 to 30 in a scenic natural setting. There will be a terrific program and the opportunity to meet other scouts. For more information and to register, send an email to scout leader Michail Adomas Kofman at skautai@lzb.lt. There is a significant discount for early enrollment and for siblings from a single household.

Charles Commemorates Child Refugees in Hamburg

Charles Commemorates Child Refugees in Hamburg

BERLIN (AP)–King Charles III commemorated the more than 30,000 people, mostly German civilians, who were killed in the Allied bombing of Hamburg almost 80 years ago as he visited the northern city Friday on the last leg of his first foreign trip since becoming monarch.

The attack in July 1943 carried out by British and American planes using incendiary bombs was a response to Nazi Germany’s deadly aerial raids on Britain. It resulted in a firestorm which destroyed large parts of the city and remains a painful memory in the Hanseatic port’s proud history.

Charles laid a wreath at the ruined church of St. Nikolai, now a memorial site, and listened to Hamburg’s bishop Kirsten Fehrs read the Coventry Litany of Reconciliation written to commemorate the destruction of the English city of Coventry by German bombers in 1940.

Earlier, Charles and Camilla visited a memorial to the Kindertransporte, or children’s transports, when more than 10,000 Jewish children found refuge from Nazi Germany in the U.K. in 1938.

Full story here.

Passover Drawings Sought

Passover Drawings Sought

Every Jewish family celebrates the ancient holiday of Passover, commemorating the exodus from slavery in Egypt, and every family has their own holiday traditions. With that in mind, the Lithuanian Jewish Community is inviting the youngest members of the community to draw pictures about Passover and send them in by e-mail to katrina@lzb.lt before April 13. Every young artist can expect to receive a package of chocolate-coated matzo.

New Book of Names at Yad Vashem

New Book of Names at Yad Vashem

Since its establishment Yad Vashem has endeavored to gather the names of the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, one of its central missions. Yad Vashem’s Book of Names is the unique result of meticulous and painstaking work that commemorates 4,800,000 men, women and children whose details have been gathered and uncovered over the years, through Pages of Testimony, the location of various Holocaust-era documents, cooperation with memorial sites and more, which are memorialized in Yad Vashem’s Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names.

The Book of Names actualizes the inconceivable number of Holocaust victims, and displays their names together with their dates of birth, hometowns and places of death, when known. The information is printed on pages measuring two meters high and one meter wide, with the details illuminated by a gentle beam of light that shines from between the pages. The massive dimensions of the Book of Names testify to the enormity of the collective and unimaginable loss for humanity as a whole and for the Jewish people in particular. The last pages of the book are empty, symbolizing the names that are yet to be retrieved, documented and commemorated, and which perhaps never will be.

Designer: Chanan De Lange

The Book of Names was produced with the generous support of Marilyn and Barry Rubinstein, USA.

Opening: March 29, 2023.

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Great Synagogue Listed as Protected Heritage Site

Great Synagogue Listed as Protected Heritage Site

The site of the former Great Synagogue in Vilnius with associated mikvot has been listed as a state-protected cultural heritage site, according to Baltic News Service.

The Lithuanian Culture Ministry issued a press release Thursday naming this site and the site of the first Lithuanian gymnasium in Vilnius was established on Basanavičiaus street. The YIVO occupied part of the latter space at its inception in 1925 before moving headquarters to Vivulskio street in Vilnius. The ministry reports state protection means more opportunities for funding protection and restoration of these sites.

The exact date the synagogue was built isn’t known. The Great Synagogue with adjacent ritual purification baths was part of a larger complex of synagogues, libraries and schools located around the Great Synagogue and the home of the Vilna Gaon.

Ownership of the ruins of the Great Synagogue and mikvot were passed to the Goodwill Foundation in 2020. Various plans for commemorating the site have been proposed, but so far the most likely is a humble protected excavation exhibit showcasing the subterranean main hall with bimah and floor.

Photo: Tunnel dug by archaeologists leading to central bimah, by Valdas Kopūstas, courtesy BNS.

Nancy Sasson Travels to Panevėžys Seeking Family Roots

Nancy Sasson Travels to Panevėžys Seeking Family Roots

Last week Nancy Sasson from the United States arrived in Panevėžys seeking genealogical information about her family. She believes her grandfather and perhaps great-grandfather lived in Panevėžys. She was accompanied by her old friend from Lithuania Vaida Zlatkutė and a guide who travelled from Israel to help.

Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman received them warmly and he and the Israeli guide gave the two women a tour of the city, pointing out significant Jewish locations and telling the Litvak story, the many important cultural contributions Litvaks made and the horrific end they suffered.

Nancy Sasson was visibly moved during the tour down the streets and sidewalks once traversed by her forebears.

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Lithuanian-Born Yiddish Poet Rivka Basman Ben-Haim Dead at 98

Lithuanian-Born Yiddish Poet Rivka Basman Ben-Haim Dead at 98

Yiddish poet Rivka Basman Ben-Haim died last week at the age of 98, the Jerusalem Post reports. She was the last living Yiddish poet of her generation.

She refused to call herself a Holocaust survivor. The person who entered the Nazi camps, she explained, did not survive, but died, and a different person emerged. Rivka found comfort in their new families, friendships and in love.

She was born in Wilkomir [Ukmergė], Lithuania. Her father and brother were murdered. She spent around two years in the Vilna ghetto and was then sent to the Kaiserwald concentration camp in Riga.

Full Jerusalem Post story here.

More information about Basman’s Litvak origins and life here.

Shalom Discussion Club to Meet

Shalom Discussion Club to Meet

Natalja Cheifec’s Shalom discussion club is planning to meet for an open-ended discussion at 5:30 P.M. on Wednesday, March 29, on the zoom internet platform. To receive login credentials register at https://bit.ly/3q0j7hg and when you’re filling out the questionnaire don’t forget to mention the topics you’d like to see discussed by the club. Wednesday evening’s meeting will include a link to a film which will be a topic for discussion as well.

Matzo on Sale

Matzo on Sale

Matzo has arrived for Passover and is available in 450 gram for 5 euros and 1 kilogram boxes for 10 euros at the Lithuanian Jewish Community, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius, on workdays except Tuesday, from 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.

Sunday Quiz: Why Is This Night Like No Other?

Sunday Quiz: Why Is This Night Like No Other?

Next Sunday’s quiz at the Bagel Shop Café is called “What Is Passover?” As usual, accomplished circus clown and investigative journalist Arkadijus Vinokuras will lead the fun, and shut-ins will be able to at least watch on the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s facebook page. It all happens at 2:00 P.M. on Sunday, April 2. Be there or be late to the table.

New Holocaust Play from Klaipėda Coming to Vilnius

New Holocaust Play from Klaipėda Coming to Vilnius

The Klaipėda Jewish Community theater Šatil is preparing to stage the play “Man baisus pasaulis, kuriame nėra tavęs” [A World Without You Horrifies Me] based on the work of Maja Tarachovskaja (Майя Тараховская, Maya Tarakhovskaya) in Vilnius.

The play tells the story of a Jewish girl named Mirka who escaped from a train on the way to a death camp. She is forced by circumstances to make the hard decision to leave her son with the villager woman who rescued them in order to save her newborn baby.

“And I left, in the night, for nowhere, leaving to that woman two priceless gifts: I gave her you, and the only existing photograph of your father,” a heartbroken Mirka says in the play.

The play, directed by Nerijus Gedminas, is in Russian and will debut Tuesday, April 11, at the Russian Drama Theater at Jono Basanavičiaus street no. 13 in Vilnius.

Synagogue Restored in Kupiškis

Synagogue Restored in Kupiškis

One of the synagogues in Kupiškis, Lithuania, which houses the town’s public library has been undergoing restoration for the last six years. On Friday, March 24, Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, Israel ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein and US ambassador Robert Gilchrist visited the synagogue and saw the results of the reconstruction work.

“A large Jewish community lived in Kupiškis before the war,” chairwoman Kukliansky said. “They were almost all exterminated by the Nazis and local collaborators. It is right that their story is remembered, if only eighty years later, and that the residents of Kupiškis who come here or pass by outside will see this building and be reminded of the great contribution Jews made to the community’s success.”

Jews settled in Kupiškis sometime in the 17th century. In 1682 bishop Mikołaj Pac (Mikolajus Pacas in Lithuanian) issued a permit for the construction of a synagogue. Around 2,661 Jews accounting for 71% of the population lived in Kupiškis in 1897. During the period between the two world wars there were three working synagogues in the town, adjacent and forming a courtyard, with the Great Synagogue on the northern side, the Small Synagogue on the south and the Hassidic synagogue on the western side. The Great and Hassidic synagogues survive. In 1950 the Great synagogue building was used as the town’s public library. The entrance way into the library has a commemorative plaque with a citation from the Book of Isaiah, 56:5: “I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off,” in Hebrew, English and Lithuanian. The first floor of the building is now being used as a library with the second storey as space dedicated to the Jewish community.

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ORT Technicum in Vilnius: A Window to the Future

ORT Technicum in Vilnius: A Window to the Future

The Lithuanian National Martyna Mažvydas Library will host an exhibit called “The Vilnius ORT Technicum: A Window to the Future” as part of the 700th birthday celebrations for the city of Vilnius. The exhibit will talk about the history of the Jewish vocational institution and the importance of acquiring a craft or trade for economic survival in the early 20th century. Work by students and original documents and textbooks in Yiddish will be displayed. The exhibit will also include a projection of documents from the library’s Judaica center projected on windows located at Islandijos street no. 3, formerly Gdansk street where the ORT operated starting in 1925. The light show is to take place from 8:00 P.M. to 4:00 A.M. during the entire course of the exhibit at the library. The main exhibit will be demonstrated on the fifth floor of the national library. The exhibit will run from April 4 to May 31 during the library’s working houses and is open to the public. An opening ceremony is scheduled for 6:00 P.M., April 4, in the atrium on the fifth floor.

More information is available in Lithuanian here.

New Publication of Shur’s Entries: A Chronicle of the Vilna Ghetto, 1941-1944

New Publication of Shur’s Entries: A Chronicle of the Vilna Ghetto, 1941-1944

Grigoriy Shur’s Vilnius ghetto diary has been reissued with support from the Goodwill Foundation, with a new cover and new introduction.

Perhaps the most informative of the several Vilnius ghetto diaries, Shur’s manuscript was originally published in Lithuanian translation by the Era publishing house in Vilnius in 1997 with partial funding from the Lithuanian Culture Ministry, and was roundly ignored by the general public.

The new edition is the same translation published by Era back in 1997 by Nijolė Kvaraciejūtė and Algimantas Antanavičius. It contains the same introduction by Pranas Morkus and forward by Vladimir Porudominsky, but adds a new and short introduction by the writer Vytautas Toleikis, who surveys recent Holocaust literature published in Lithuanian, including his keen observations about the book “Mūsiškai” [Our People] by Rūta Vanagaitė and Efraim Zuroff, or more precisely, how Lithuanian nationalists responded to it. Here’s a rough translation of part of Toleikis’s introduction:

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Senior Citizens Visit High School Freshmen

Senior Citizens Visit High School Freshmen

As part of the “From Generation to Generation” project by the Anu Museum of the Diaspora in Israel, seniors from the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s social center met with 9th-grade students from the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium in Vilnius to share thoughts and bridge the generations.

A few weeks ago the high school students visited the Seniors’ Club at the LJC. This time the seniors went back to school where they were given a tour of the facilities including the modern classrooms, labs and an art exhibit currently on display there. Our seniors also attended a Sabbath ceremony with students from all grades. The students presented drawings they made to the seniors as gifts. Seniors and students later met in the library and shared stories, which were recorded and will be sent to the Anu Museum in Tel Aviv.

Getting Acquainted in Panevėžys

Getting Acquainted in Panevėžys

The Union of People with Disabilities from the Panevėžys Region hosted a two-day getting-acquainted session with the Lithuanian Jewish and Roma communities.

The activities over the two days were intended to teach about other ethnic communities living in the same area, their traditions and culture, and to stop the spread of stereotypes anti-Semitism and Romophobia.

The program was prepared in concert with specialists from #PadėkPritapti #LietuvosŽydųBendruomenė and #Lietuvosžmogausteisiųcentras.

You can find out more about upcoming getting-acquainted sessions here:
https://www.lzb.lt/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/2-dienų-patyrimo-kelionė-INFO-4.pdf

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