The entire Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes Fayerlakh director Laurisa Vyšniauskienė a very happy birthday. May your days be filled with health, appreciation of your important work, talented people and many happy moments. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
Youth Seminar in Latvia
People aged 18 to 40 are invited to attend a seminar for participants from the Baltic states and the Ukraine from September 14 to 17. There is also the possibility for children aged 6 to 12 to attend as well.
The seminar will include a Jewish New Year/Rosh Hashana celebration and participants will learn about European social programs and spend evenings with the Erasmus+ program group.
The seminar will be held at the seaside Minhauzena Unda Hotel.
Register here: https://forms.gle/h5K55tfGKziBPpca8
Jewish Community of Balbirishok Remembered
A stone stele marking the site of the synagogue which once served the Jewish community in Balbirishok (Balbieriškis) was unveiled in the small Lithuanian town last week.
Attending the unveiling ceremony were Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas, US embassy chief of mission William Kendrick, Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein, educational program coordinator of the International Commission for Assessing the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania Ingrida Vilkienė, representatives of the Prienai regional administration and the Balbieriškis aldermanship and a large contingent of local residents and students from the Balbieriškis primary school’s Tolerance Center.
LJC chairwoman Kukliansky welcomed the audience and said she was impressed and pleased the truly significant role played by Litvaks in the history of the town was being remembered and appreciated.
European Day of Jewish Culture Events in Vilnius
September 3rd is coming. The first Sunday in autumn, the day the Lithuanian Jewish Community will again celebrate the European Day of Jewish Culture, a day the Community has celebrated for a decade now. As in previous years, all events across Europe to celebrate the day are modeled on a general theme. This year it’s memory. This topic is like a bridge leading to the Jewish cultural legacy which remains to a great extent unknown by the wider population. #Atmintis or Memory doesn’t end on the first Sunday in September, of course, and in September and October the Lithuanian Jewish Community will hold and coordinate events throughout Lithuania.
Below you’ll find the events program for September 3, all of which are free and open to everyone.
Register here: https://bit.ly/459c4nZ
#EŽKD2023 #EDJC2023 #Atmintis #AEPJ #LietuvosŽydų(litvakų)Bendruomenė #CviParkas #BeigeliųKrautuvėlė Kultūros Paveldo Departamentas Tautinių mažumų departamentas prie Lietuvos Respublikos Vyriausybės #mūsųbendruomenės #OurCommunities
Sunday Quiz on Great Litvak Artists
This Sunday’s quiz will test your knowledge of Litvak artists, their influence on art history, what stands out in their work and why Litvak artists are important on the world stage. Prizes are to include falafels, wine and other goodies. It all takes place starting at 5:00 P.M. on Sunday, August 20, at the Israeli street food kiosk in Petras Cvirka Square across the street from the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius. Everyone is welcome.
Grotesque Commemoration of Evil
by Grant Gochin
Fearing stigmatization and persecution, Lithuanian rescuers of Jews awarded the “Righteous among the Nations” designation, often hid it from their neighbors and family members for decades. Today, the Lithuanian Government honors these Rescuers on a national level (as they should have from the very beginning). Unfortunately, the Lithuanian honors are not sincere and are just another performance. Jewish people who were saved are reduced to vehicles for Lithuanian virtue signaling.
“Righteous Among Nations” Lithuanians comprised only 0.04% of the Lithuanian population. These genuine heroes are now used by the State as an alibi for anyone who is Lithuanian, i.e. the 0.04% are presented to the public as the stereotypical norm, while the 99.96% of Lithuanians who were not “Righteous Among Nations”, are negated or their deeds rewritten. This is clear Holocaust distortion.
Krikštaponis
The case of Juozas Krikštaponis is far more illustrative of Lithuania then, and now. Krikštaponis was a vicious, genocidal murderer. But, he “only” murdered Jews. So, for Lithuania this is not any impediment to national honors. Lithuania honors so many murderers of Jews, that it appears this could be a standard for national hero status.
Condolences
Adasa Skliutauskaitė has died. She was born in Kaunas on May 5, 1931. Skliutauskaitė, a Litvak, was an accomplished illustrator of children’s books and magazines. She also painted and made lithographs. Our deepest condolences to her children, relatives, friends and those who knew her through her work.
Outdoor Israeli Dance Classes Continue
Julija Patašnik continues her outdoor Israeli dance workshops with the next meeting from 5:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M. on Friday, August 18, at the Israeli street food kiosk in Petras Cvirka Square in the park across the street from the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius. Everyone is welcome regardless of age or dancing ability.
Panevėžys Jewish Community News
Deputy chief of mission Erez Golan and cultural attaché Virginija Bunevičiūtė from the Israeli embassy visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community. They asked Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman about community activities and he gave them a tour of Jewish heritage in the Lithuanian steeped in Jewish historical, cultural and religious lore. Golan was keen to learn more about educational programs in local primary and high schools. The Israeli delegation also visited a famous local theater, met with municipal representatives and that same evening presented the Israeli Film in Your Town project, an Israeli cinema retrospective, at the Garsas movie theater. The first screening was Blaumilch Canal, a 1969 Israeli comedy written and directed by Ephraim Kishon depicting the madness of bureaucracy through a municipality’s reaction to the actions of a lunatic.
“We Jews like to laugh at ourselves on film as well as in life,” Golan told moviegoers.
Lithuanian film critic Auksė Kancerevičiūtė also spoke to the audience about Israeli film.
The Garsas movie theater will hold two more showings in the series: on August 24 they will screen Turn Left at the End of the World (2004) and on August 31 Abulele (2015). All shows are free and with Lithuanian subtitling, a gift from the Israeli embassy to the city of Panevėžys.
Happy Birthday to Samuel Bak
The Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes Samuel Bak a very happy milestone birthday. We think you are one of the most remarkable painters of the 20th century. You cut right to the heart of human nature in your work, infusing even the most tragic historical events with meaning and recalling for the world the lost world of Jewish Vilna. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
Discussion Club on Litvak Artists in Lithuania and the World
The #ŽydiškiPašnekesiai Jewish discussion club is to discuss the influence Litvak painters have had and do have on Western art styles. It’s not a one-way street, of course: Litvak artists were also influenced by primitivism, Renaissance realism, impressionism, surrealism, pop-art and so on. So of course one hour won’t suffice. We’ll have to go minimalist this time around. Panel speakers include Shmuel Tatz from New York, a serious art collector, and Raimondas Savickas, a serious artist, along with a number of other experts, thinkers and artists.
Location: Israel street food kiosk in Petras Cvirka Square, Vilnius.
Time: 5:00 P.M., Wednesday, August 16
A Special Meeting
There are so few Litvaks left in the world that every encounter brings forth unexpected and extraordinary feelings and excitement. This time was even more unusual became the Lithuanian Jewish Community received an extraordinary visitor by the name of Marc Berenson.
He’s a professor at one of the most esteemed universities in the world, at King’s College London’s Russia Institute. He’s a specialist in Eastern politics and security who has written a number of academic works and speaks Russian and Ukrainian fluently. He’s also special to us because he’s related to Senda and Bernard Berenson. Senda Berenson Abbott was born in Butrimonys near Alytus in Lithuania and immigrated to America. She was the first champion of women’s basketball in the USA, the author of the first book on women’s basketball and is sometimes fashioned the mother of women’s basketball worldwide.
Her brother Bernard was one of the most renowned and influential audio-visual art historian and critic. Great-grandson professor Marc Berenson is in Vilnius looking for more information about his family history and roots. World Lithuanian Student Organization president Dovydas Šotland-Juzefovičius brought him to the LJC and introduced him to LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky. The professor expressed keen interest in current events, culture and Community activities as well as the past.
“It is a moving experience to return to where your family came from,” Berenson said.
Lithuanian Jewish Community Calls for Immediate Removal of Statue Commemorating Juozas Krikštaponis in Ukmergė
The De-Sovietization Commission convened by the Lithuanian parliament has presented recommendations to the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania (hereinafter Genocide Center) that the statue commemorating the partisan Juozas Krikštaponis in Ukmergė (Vilkomir) be removed. Unfortunately, instead of taking concrete actions to remove this statue commemorating a person responsible for the murder of thousands of Jews, the Genocide Center has sent a request to the Lithuanian Office of Prosecutor General to rescind this man’s status as a Lithuanian partisan fighter. This is clearly an attempt to prolong the process and to place responsibility on a different agency.
“Krikštaponis’s culpability in the Holocaust is not disputed. This is shown by the documents the Genocide Center has collected and in their own finding of history concerning him. Carrying out mass murder is a crime which is not annulled by other good deeds. In marking the 80th anniversary of the anti-Nazi resistance and liquidation of the Vilnius ghetto, this monument to Krikštaponis is an insult to the memory of all the victims and to their surviving family members,” Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman and attorney Faina Kukliansky said.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community calls upon the Genocide Center to take immediate action based on the recommendations by the De-Sovietization Commission to remove this statue to Krikštaponis from the city center of Ukmergė.
Roma Genocide Day Marked in Ponar
Tuesday a small gathering met at the Ponar Memorial Complex outside Vilnius to remember Roma victims of the Holocaust, known as Samudaripen in Romany. The mass murder of Roma began in Lithuania in 1942. Although there isn’t precise information available, it is thought about 500 Roma, or every third Roma, was murdered in Lithuania.
Representatives of the Lithuanian and Estonia Roma communities, foreign ambassadors, Lithuanian Foreign and Culture Ministry officials, a representative of the Vilnius municipality and members of the Lithuanian Jewish Community attended the ceremony. Konsuela Mačiulevičiūtė sang the Roma anthem and Marius Jampolskis read passages from the book “I Am Karol” detailing the experiences of a Roma boy in a concentration camp.
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky spoke, saying the fate of Jews and Roma was very similar during the Holocaust.
“Yesterday I was in a Lithuanian town where half the population were Jews until World War II. When I spoke with municipal government representatives there, it seems this was news to them. Of course that was 80 years ago, but someone is living in their houses even now. They might even be using their knives and forks when they eat,” she noted.
“It was just like this with the Roma who lived throughout Lithuania. If one day we just forget that these people were a part of our society, if we fail to mark the dates of mass murder, that will be horrible, we will impoverish ourselves. All the more so if we forget the people who were brutally murdered, who were deprived of life then, and who continue to be deprived of respect and memory. This must not happen,” Kukliansky warned.
Rugelakh Now Available at Bagel Shop Café
As the Lithuanian Jewish Community counts down the days to the New Year 5784, the Bagel Shop Café has come up with some new menu items. One of them is rugelakh, the amazing pastry traditionally served during Shavuot and Rosh Hashanah. The name comes from the Yiddish root “rugel” meaning little twist or tie.
Removal of Monument to Lithuanian Nazi Collaborator Stuck
Although Lithuania’s De-Sovietization Commission sent a recommendation to the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania [hereinafter Genocide Center] for the removal of a statue commemorating [Nazi collaborator and Holocaust criminal] partizan Juozas Krikštaponis located in Ukmergė [Vilkomir], it appears a decision on the matter has been postponed. Genocide Center says since Krikštaponis’s status as a volunteer soldier hasn’t been annulled, it would be wrong to remove the monument stone honoring him. The Genocide Center says its leadership has asked the Lithuanian prosecutor general to remove his status as a volunteer soldier.
De-Sovietization Commission chairman Vitas Karčiauskas as well as people filing complaints about the statue are all unhappy with this decision by the Genocide Center and believe this is an attempt to postpone addressing the controversy. They say Krikštaponis’s role in Holocaust crimes is obvious and that the stone commemorating him needs to be removed.
Genocide Center deputy general director Vytas Lukšys reported the Genocide Center had signed a request to the Lithuanian Office of Prosecutor General Tuesday [July 25] for voiding Krikštaponis’s status as a volunteer soldier. He said they did so because it would be wrong to remove the marker commemorating Krikštaponis as long as he is recognized as having been a volunteer soldier.
Farewell Party for Outgoing US Ambassador
Last week we bade farewell to outgoing US ambassador to Lithuania Robert Gilchrist. We thanked him for three and a half years of sincere friendship, genuine care, infectious energy and reliable partnership, as well as for his real interest in Litvak history and traditions, constant attention to culture and resolute support of the Lithuanian Jewish Community in all initiatives. We also saluted his lack of patience with all forms of anti-Semitism and discrimination. Immediately upon arrival, ambassador Gilchrist got involved with Holocaust commemoration and never passed up an invitation to attend a Holocaust event, even when COVID-19 was a threat. We thank him for his great contribution to sustaining the Jewish communities in Europe and for the attention he gave to regional Jewish communities as well. We wish him the best of luck and success in all his new postings and appointments. Until we meet again!
Condolences
Aleksandras Rutenbergas has passed away. He was an active member of the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s board of directors and dedicated his life to preserving the Litvak legacy. Our deepest condolences to his son, family members and many friends. Those wishing to say farewell may attend the wake at the Nutrūkusi styga funeral home at Ąžuolyno street no. 10 in Vilnius from 4:30 P.M. to 9:00 P.M. Thursday, July 27. The burial will take place at 4:00 P.M. on July 28 at the Jewish cemetery on Sudervės road in Vilnius.
More Vandalism at Pivonija Holocaust Memorial outside Ukmergė
“This is the eighth act of vandalism in seven months. Although we’ve gone to all the authorities asking for protection for the memorial and the mass grave, this site continues to be vandalized,” Ukmergė Jewish Community chairman Artūras Taicas said.
Located just 4 kilometers outside Ukmergė (Vilkomir) the memorial in the Pivonija Forest marks the mass grave of 11,000 Jews murdered there.
Taicas said that his calls to police over earlier incidents went unheeded.
“Frankly, I don’t believe and I don’t believe in officials who think the desecration of graves is trivial,” Taicas added.
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman brought up the issue at a meeting with Ukmergė mayor Darius Varnas in June.
“It’s difficult to believe the police with modern equipment for criminal investigations can’t track down the owners of four-wheel off-road vehicles who continually disturb this Jewish site of eternal rest. There really aren’t a lot of these vehicles around and it would be possible to check tire treads. Furthermore, mobile telephone records would show who was using them. There’s not just one or two solutions to this, there are many, so one begins to think this is being avoided intentionally,” Kukliansky commented.
Tisha B’Av
Thursday, July 27 is the ninth day of the month of Av, Tisha b’Av, on the Jewish calendar.
Tisha b’Av commemorates the destruction of the First Temple of Solomon ca. 587 BCE and the Second Temple in 70 CE in Jerusalem and is traditionally a day of fasting and mourning. Observance includes five prohibitions, the main one being a 25-hour fast. The Book of Lamentations is read in the synagogue followed by the recitation of kinos, liturgical dirges for the Temple and Jerusalem. Since the day has become associated with other major Jewish tragedies, some kinos recall other events, including the murder of the Ten Martyrs in ancient Rome, pogroms against medieval Jewish communities and the Holocaust.
According to tradition, the sin of the Ten Spies is the real origin of Tisha b’Av. In the Book of Numbers, 13:1-33 when the Israelites accepted their false report of the Promised Land, they wept, thinking God could not help them. The night the people wept and wailed was the ninth day of Av, which then became a day of weeping and misfortune for all time, according to tradition, following which the Jews were made to wander the desert for 40 years.