Learning, History, Culture

Painted in Sound: An Interview with Samuel Bak

Painted in Sound: An Interview with Samuel Bak

by Karolis Vyšniauskas, photographs by Ieva Lygnugarytė, sound engineer Adomas Zubė

Samuel Bak is a miraculous survivor of Vilnius Ghetto. Now 88 at his studio in Massachusetts, the prolific painter recalls lost Jewish life in Vilnius for a NARA podcast.

For many decades Samuel Bak didn’t want to come back to Vilnius. It is the city where his father, grandparents and even his best friend, a child at the time, were killed.

But eventually through an initiative by local Lithuanians he returned to the place which formed his childhood memories. Now Vilnius hosts the Samuel Bak Museum, to which the painter has donated more than 50 of his works.

Full text and audio file of interview here.

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Happy Birthday to Mina Frišman

Happy Birthday to Mina Frišman

The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Union of Former Ghetto and Concentration Camp Prisoners wish Mina Frišman a very happy birthday. Our heartfelt wishes for her endless health and many happy days ahead with her children and grandchildren.

Lithuanian Makabi Preparing for 21st World Maccabiah Games

Lithuanian Makabi Preparing for 21st World Maccabiah Games

The Makabi Lithuanian athletics club is training intensively for taking part in the 21st World Maccabiah Games to take place between July 12 and July 26 in Israel. This will be the ninth World Maccabiah Games where the Lithuanian Makabi delegation will compete under the tutelage of president Semionas Finkelšteinas.

The delegation includes 23 people of whom 17 are athletes, 2 trainers (chess and swimming) and 4 coaches. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky is planning to attend the opening ceremony with the Lithuanian Makabi team. The entire team is expecting to make a good showing and to make new contacts and friends as well as learning about the country and culture in the host country, Israel.

Photos: The European Maccabi Games held in Dusseldorf from September 2 to 5, 2021, where all six Lithuanian Makabi competitors won medals.

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One Hundred and Seven Years Late for Dinner

One Hundred and Seven Years Late for Dinner

by Grant Gochin

When your grandmother’s last words make it clear that she’s not who you thought she was, you are willing to move all the mountains in Europe to get to the truth

Dinner between cousins was scheduled for Shabbat on Friday, May 14, 1915. How was I to know that the Shabbos meal never took place? Without warning, Russian forces launched a genocidal mass deportation of Baltic Jews deep into Russia. Families were torn apart, lives were destroyed and communities of Jews devastated.

The first inkling I had was on my grandmother’s deathbed. Her final lucid words to me were: “I wish I knew my name. I wish I knew who my family was.” We thought we knew her name–Bertha Lee Arenson. We were wrong.

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Fayerlakh Jewish Song and Dance Ensemble Celebrates 50th Birthday

Fayerlakh Jewish Song and Dance Ensemble Celebrates 50th Birthday

The Jewish song and dance ensemble Fayerlakh celebrated their 50th birthday on Sunday, June 19, at the Polish House of Culture in Vilnius with performances by musicians, singers and dancers.

The group formed back in the early 70s within the general milieu of Jewish, Lithuanian, Russian and Polish volunteer collectives, including the Yiddish-language People’s Theater. Many of the Jewish volunteer cultural groups–a choir, vocalists, a dance troupe, actors and personnel from the People’s Theater and a popular stage band–later immigrated to Israel and formed the Anakhnu Kan ensemble there. 1971 was also the year Jewish musician Yasha Magid founded a vocal and instrumental group. By 1972 this group had formed its core of enthusiastic musicians and the dance troupe, and held their first concert. That’s the story of how Fayerlakh, at the time the only Jewish song and dance ensemble throughout the Soviet Union, formed in Vilnius.

Kaunas Jewish Community to Commemorate Lietūkis Garage Victims

Kaunas Jewish Community to Commemorate Lietūkis Garage Victims

The Kaunas Jewish Community will commemorate the victims of the Lietūkis garage massacre at 4:30 P.M. on Monday, June 27, at the monument to the victims located at Miško street no. 3 in Kaunas. Following that commemoration participants will go on to the Vilijampolė (Slobodka) Jewish cemetery on Kalnų street and the Žaliakalnis Jewish cemetery on the Radvilėnų highway to commemorate Holocaust victims.

On June 27, 1941, around 50 Jewish men were tortured to death in front of crowd of on-lookers at the Lietūkis garage. The men were simply grabbed at random off the street for the public execution and included people from all walks of life. They were derided and brutally tortured with crow bars and high-pressure water from hoses. The names of most of the victims and executioners remain unknown, although one of the victims was Jurgis Štromas, who had been the director of the Industry and Trade Department at the Lithuanian Finance Ministry.

Vytautas Bruveris’s Presentation at Fifth World Litvak Congress

Vytautas Bruveris’s Presentation at Fifth World Litvak Congress

Lithuanian journalist Vytautas Bruveris gave a presentation at the Fifth World Litvak Congress held in Vilnius last month called “Jews in Lithuania: A Still-Undiscovered or an Already-Lost Shared History?”:

Many here have spoken about the war in the Ukraine. That’s natural, because it is continuation and horrific metastasis of the same story we are all talking about. I would like to talk about a different aspect, however, about empathy. Lithuanian society is showing they are very capable of human empathy and solidarity. We see that especially clearly in the huge and praise-worthy movement to receive war refugees from the Ukraine.

A question arises in this context, however, for me: is it not true that Lithuanian society are most able to feel empathy for those whom they understand as their own people, as participants of the same history?

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Jews of Kaunas Honor Rescuers

Jews of Kaunas Honor Rescuers

On June 9 the Kaunas Jewish Community honored those who rescued Jews from the Holocaust and their family members at an informal gathering.

“When you save one person, you save an entire world,” Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas said.

Child Born in Basement

Several dozen people came to the dinner at the Višta Puode restaurant in Kaunas. They shared their thoughts and impressions and generally chatted. There were songs performed in Yiddish and Hebrew using the Lithuanian folk instrument the kanklės, saxophone and harpsichord. Juozas Straupis was there with his granddaughter Monika. He had only just turned 4 when his mother and father, Bronislava and Juozas, later named Righteous Gentiles, rescued 24 people. They took seven into their home and found safe places for the others among their neighbors. Priests and the community helped take care of these people.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Faina Kukliansky: June 14 Recalls Agony of All Lithuanian Citizens

Faina Kukliansky: June 14 Recalls Agony of All Lithuanian Citizens

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky participated in a commemoration at the Lithuanian parliament to mark the Day of Mourning and Hope and the Day of Occupation and Genocide, and also attended a ceremony at a memorial in Naujoji Vilnia.

“Lithuanian Jews didn’t just experience the tragedy of the Holocaust, but also the repressions of the Soviet regime. The system sought to do away with the Jewish national spirit and the values. All sorts of means were used to achieve this, including the deportations already mentioned, but also communal and personal property seizures, the monument at Ponar blown up because it bore an inscription in Yiddish, synagogues nationalized and the closure of the YIVO institute. The Sovietization of the educational system dealt a huge blow to Jews, with private and communal schools banned. Some of the Jewish schools were destroyed, others were made into state schools where Hebrew was no longer taught and the traditional ethnic curricula–Jewish curricula–formed over many years were abolished. In their place new subjects were introduced, including mandatory Russian language and classes on the constitution of the USSR. The goal was obvious: to erase and replace the identity of the Jewish people. So when we talk about these horrific days in June, we are talking about a tragedy for Lithuanian citizens, no matter what their ethnic identity,” chairwoman Kukliansky said.

June 14 to 18 are remembered in Lithuania as an especially brutal part of history which destroyed the lives of many people of Lithuania, including Lithuanians, Jews, Poles and Russians. There is a public misconception the deportations during those days in 1941 only affected ethnic Lithuanians. Actually more than 3,000 Jews from Lithuania were among the deportees. The Lithuanian Jewish Community marks this painful anniversary annually in common with all the people of Lithuania and we will not forget the pain inflicted on Lithuania during this period in 1941.

Condolences

Markas Gliauberzonas has died following a long battle with chronic illness. He was a member of the Vilnius Jerusalem of Lithuania Jewish Community. We extend our deepest condolences to his daughter Judita and many friends and family members.

Guided Tour of Gedimino Prospect Followed by Sabbath Ceremony

Guided Tour of Gedimino Prospect Followed by Sabbath Ceremony

Jewish tour guide Mark Psonic will lead a walking tour of Vilnius’s main street, Gedimino prospect, on June 17 as part of a larger event being held by the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s Gesher and Kaveret Clubs.

Those wishing to take the tour will assemble at the bell tower of the Cathedral in central Vilnius at 6:00 P.M. Friday. The walking tour will conclude at the Cvi in the Park Israeli street food kiosk located in the former Petras Cvirka square across the street from the LJC, where the Sabbath will be ushered in in the traditional manner.

The cost per person is five euros with registration by internet till June 15 and no later. Send an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt to register.

Tzedekah Lecture

Tzedekah Lecture

Tzedakah or Ṣedaqah, literally “righteousness” in ancient Hebrew, is the duty to charity in Judaism, often directed towards coreligionists living in poverty.

The Talmud says mercy is an essential Jewish characteristic, and that the rich man has a duty to give and the poor man a duty to receive. Giving charity isn’t so much a burden as a privilege and a mitzvah.

During this lecture Natalja Cheifec will present various aspects of tzedekah, including why we are obligated to give, to whom are we obligated to give, when charity should be given, how much should be given, how the giver should behave towards the receiver, charity and numerology, and others.

The lecture and discussion will take place via internet at 5:30 P.M. on June 16, most likely in Lithuanian and/or Russian. Register here: https://bit.ly/3K73kEE

Lithuanian Roots of Holocaust Denial and Distortion

Lithuanian Roots of Holocaust Denial and Distortion

by Evaldas Balčiūnas

Reading through the writings of various Lithuanian historians engaged in “historical memory policy” (an interesting term recalling totalitarian order in and of itself), texts which distort and even deny the Holocaust, I often wonder when it began. It began before the mass murder of Jews in Lithuania.

For instance, the Lithuanian Activist Front’s call to action “Dear enslaved brothers” appeared March 19, 1941, and was published in several versions. At least, two different versions have survived.

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Marking 100th Anniversary of Birth of Matilda Olkinaitė

Marking 100th Anniversary of Birth of Matilda Olkinaitė

The 100th anniversary of the birth of Matilda Olkinaitė took place June 6. She was a Lithuanian Jewish poet from Panemunėlis who was murdered with her family and the neighboring Joffee family in July of 1941 at the Sahara peat bog in the Rokiškis region before larger mass murders began there.

Events to mark the date at the Rokiškis Regional History Museum began with the play “Nutildytos mūzos” [Silenced Muses] by the Rokiškis People’s Theater. This was followed by a screening of the films “Atrandant Matildą” [Finding Matilda] and “Dangaus stulpai – skambančios sinagogos” [Pillars of Heaven: Singing Synagogues], and the opening of a museum exhibit.

Other events were held in her native town Panemunėlis just outside the city of Rokiškis. Rokiškis librarians set up a folk-art monument to honor Olkinaitė on the lawn of the Panemunėlis railroad station near Olkinaitė’s house. People from the Rokiškis People’s Theater also placed a stone monument at the site of Holocaust mass murder victims at the Sahara peat bog where Olkinaitė’s family and the Joffee family were murdered. Flowers were also laid at their family graves.

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Discussion Club #ŽydiškiPašnekesiai with Arkadijus Vinokuras

Discussion Club #ŽydiškiPašnekesiai with Arkadijus Vinokuras

Back in the time of King David, 3,000 years ago, the king was considered the best singer, and under his reign the professional musicians dynasty of the Levites from the tribe of Levi began. Music schools were established for singers of hymns and players of instruments. Hymns and instrumental music accompanied rituals for the offering of sacrifices at the Temple in Jerusalem built by Solomon in 959 BCE. During sacred rituals the priests blew 120 trumpets at the same time.

Of course we won’t go that deep into history. We’ll just discuss the period of Jewish music from Smetona’s Lithuania till today, discussion club #ŽydiškiPašnekesiai initiator Arkadijus Vinokuras promises.

The next discussion is called “Jewish Music: What Is It, and Why Doesn’t It Ever Grow Old?” on June 14, 2022.

The club will meet outside this time at the site of the former statue to Petras Cvirka where the Cvi in the Park Israeli street food kiosk is operating for the summer. The meeting will take place inside the Bagel Shop Café due to rain at 5:00 P.M. It’s open to everyone and will be live-streamed on the LJC facebook page.

Participants are to include Leonidas Melnikas, Boris Traub, Boris Kizner and Masha Dushkina, moderated by Arkadijus Vinokuras. The discussion will likely take place in Lithuanian.

Students from Miami University Visit Community

Students from Miami University Visit Community

Students from Miami University in Ohio recently visited the Lithuanian Jewish Community to learn more about the Jewish community in Lithuania, our history and Jewish life in the country. We baked bagels together at the Bagel Shop Café, gave them a tour of the recently opened Saul Kagan Welfare Center and invited them to our Israeli street food kiosk Cvi in the Park.

#OurCommunitiess #MūsųBendruomenės EVZ Foundation

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Condolences

Anna Kaplan passed away June 6. She was born in 1943. Our deepest condolences to her daughter Tatjana and her family and friends.