Over the weekend LJC scouts went to Panevėžys to celebrate with fellow scouts the birthday of Robert Baden-Powell.
On January 24, 1908, the Boy Scouts movement began in England with the publication of the first installment of Robert Baden-Powell’s “Scouting for Boys.”
Besides celebrating their founder’s birthday, the Jewish scouts from around Lithuania met up with other scouting groups, did handicrafts, built snow forts and snowmen and learned more about the natural environment in Panevėžys.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Fayerlakh ensemble invite you to a Purim celebration.
The celebration will include the traditional Purimshpil carnaval, costume contest, live music and other diversions.
Attendees are expected to dress up for the occasion. Tickets are €30 for adults and €20 for children 13 and under.
Tickets and more information available by calling +370 687 79309.
When: 4:00 P.M., Sunday, March 5
Where: Bagel Shop Café, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius
The open-source RODA (Repository of Authentic Digital Objects*) platform has been chosen to digitize and conserve our European Jewish legacy.
The international J-Ark European Jewish Community Archive project was started in early 2021 and will continue till early 2023, creating and testing a long-term storage platform for digital content. This digital Jewish archive will include selected video, audio, visual, photographic and other materials connected with the history of the Lithuanian Jewish Community since the restoration of Lithuanian independence.
The Lithuanian translation of Lithuanian Jewish writer Lea Goldberg’s children’s book “Room for Rent” will be launched at the Vilnius Book Fair Sunday with a special panel discussion including the translator, Antanas Jonynas, designer Sigutė Chlebinskaitė who designed the format for the Yitzhak Rudashevski Vilnius Ghetto Diary published in Lithuanian several years ago by the Lithuanian Jewish Community and writer Daiva Čepauskaitė. Israel’s ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Silverstein is also expected to attend.
Goldberg wasn’t born in Lithuania but spent much of her childhood in Kaunas. She returned to Kaunas after World War I and attended university there. She went on to win the Israeli National Prize for her varied literary work in Hebrew.
The book launch and panel discussion will start at 12 noon on Sunday, February 26, in hall 5-3 at the Lithuanian Expo Center in Vilnius, the venue for the annual Vilnius Book Fair.
“Vilna. Žydiškojo Vilniaus istorija” [Vilna: The History of Jewish Vilnius] by Israel Cohen, 2nd edition, 2023, translated by Miglė Anušauskaitė, 384 pages.
The Vilnius publishing house Hubris has published a Lithuanian translation of British writer and early proponent of Zionism Israel Cohen’s book “Vilna: A History of Jewish Vilnius.” The author was born in London to a family of Jewish immigrants from Poland. He worked as a correspondent for the Times of London, the Manchester Guardian, Manchester Evening Chronicle and Jewish World. The book was first published in 1943 by the Jewish Publication Society as part of a series showcasing Jewish communities in various countries for English speakers.
More information in Lithuanian here. See below for an excerpt from the original English edition.
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“Slaptoji Kauno žydų geto policijos istorija” [Secret History of the Kaunas Ghetto Police] by anonymous Kaunas ghetto police officers, published 2021, translated by Aistis Žekevičius from the English edition edited by Samuel Schalkowsky, 504 pages.
A unique document written in Yiddish by Kaunas ghetto police between 1942 and 1943. It lay buried in Slobodka for years and was discovered in 1964 when construction was underway at the site, and turned over to the Soviet KGB. It was translated to English and published in the USA in 2014.
The United States asked Cyprus to arrest Israeli professor Gal Luft on charges of weapons trafficking, following Luft’s internet posts concerning Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden and brother Jim Biden.
“I’ve been arrested in Cyprus on a politically-motivated extradition request by the US. The US, claiming I’m an arms dealer. It would be funny if it weren’t tragic. I’ve never been an arms dealer. The US Department of Justice is trying to bury me to protect Joe, Jim and Hunter Biden. Shall I name the names?” Luft wrote in a twitter post.
Gal Luft is the co-director of Washington, D. C.,-based the Institute for Analysis of Global Security and has been an outspoken critic of the Biden administration’s foreign policy.
Luft says he has information about corrupt business deals by Joe Biden’s son Hunter and how they have had an influence over the Office of the President’s foreign policy decisions. Luft was detained for allegedly violating US sanctions against Libya and China and allegedly shipping arms to both countries. He denies all such allegations. He further said the Biden regime should be worried by the information he possesses.
by Arkadijus Vinokuras
Conservative Party candidate for Vilnius mayor Valdas Benkunskas yells in his political advertisements: “A mayor without circuses!” Kaunas mayor Visvaldas Matijošaitis, frightened by public debate, echoes the sentiment: “Kaunas doesn’t need a circus!” The press frequently carries headlines such as “Politics Is Not a Circus,” “Circus in the Political Arena,” and so on. It’s horrifying, wherever you look, there’s that damned circus again. Really?
Let me first take care of the myth the circus is worthy of derision. First, for example, the flying trapezist: if he were to act like the MP Petras Gražulis, Ramūnas Karbauskis, Visvaldis Matijošaitis or Valdas Benkunskas, he’d kill himself after attempting his first salto mortale. The flame appearing in the hands of the circus magician would burn him up immediately, and the trick of sawing the young female assistant in half would result in her real dissection. In other words, the professional circus has nothing in common with the political balagan.
This is also proven by the fact the largest American circus, Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Baily Circus, has revenues reaching $98 million annually. Another US circus, Circus Circus, has annual revenue of $160 million and employs 1,500 people. There are around 300 circuses operating in the United States. Cirque du Soleil, Inc. pays a circus actor from $6,000 to $10,000 per month. (The largest circus in Scandinavia is the Cirkus Scott, to the premieres of which the entire ruling elite of Sweden turn out. King Carl XVI Gustaf often attends with the royal family. In the 1989-1990 period this circus paid me €6,000 per month. How long did my performance take? Ten minutes. This was a gigantic sum back in those days, even in Sweden.)
Traditions are a treasure we pass on from generation to generation. We are glad to be able to share that treasure with others and to see how children grow up and take their children to the Lithuanian Jewish Community youth clubs.
It is so important for the younger generation of Jews to learn and practice our traditions from a very early age, so the Dubi Mishpocha Club welcomes you and your children aged 0 to 3 every Wednesday from 10:30 A.M. The club is located inside the LJC.
For more information, contact LJC programs director Žana Skudovičienė by e-mail at zanas@sc.lzb.lt.
Last week two Jewish men were shot as they left synagogue in the space of 24 hours in the predominantly Jewish Pico-Robertson neighborhood of Los Angeles. A suspect has been arrested, 28-year-old Jaime Tran, known for his anti-Semitic rants on the internet and death threats sent by e-mail to former classmates.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper speaking to media at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in LA said the men were only wounded.
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky expressed her and the Community’s support and prayers for the affected community in Los Angeles.
“This event shows yet again that we must not remain silent when there are outbreaks of hatred. Only in that way will we stop evil from taking root,” she commented.
Roseanne Barr, who described herself as ethnically Russian, Polish and Lithuanian Jewish in her autobiography (Roseanne: My Life as a Woman, New York 1989, Harper and Row), has staged a comedic comeback on the documentary channel of America’s most-viewed television personality, Tucker Carlson.
Barr said she was blackballed, or “canceled,” by Hollywood after she tweeted disparaging remarks about Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett in 2018. Barr wrote of Jarrett: “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=v.” Jarrett then claimed she was a “person of color” because she had Persian ancestry, and that the “ape” reference was therefore racist. Barr countered she thought Jarrett was white, and that the charge of racism was purely political, stemming from Barr’s support for the policies of then-president Donald Trump. The American television network ABC promptly canceled Barr’s revamped “Roseanne” series and removed all references to it from their website.
Barr is no stranger to controversy. She parodied the American national anthem at a nationally-televised baseball game in 1990, which then-president George H. W. Bush called “disgraceful.” Her first series “Roseanne” ran from 1988 to 1997, outliving the bush presidency, and was updated by ABC in 2018 with most of the same members of the cast, albeit 20 years older.
by Olga Ugriumova
The municipality of Trakai invited the public to a Shrovetide ball in the town, including pupils of local schools and community members. The poster announcing the event calls it a winter fair in the charming town with a “Svetelių eisena marga.” This can be translated as a “gaudy procession of strangers or foreigners.” The poster continues to the effect that Jews, Hungarians, beggars, doctors, cranes, bears, roosters, Gypsies and all sorts of blockheads and horrific monsters will turn out for the winter festival and see the sun.
Full article in Russian here.
In the 19th century there were five working synagogues in Panevėžys and a strong and widely-celebrated Jewish community. The Rabbi Eliyahu David Rabinowitz-Teomim, also known by the acronym ADeReT, lived and worked in Panevėžys from 1871 to 1891 and was the head of the community. He later served as the rabbi of Mir in what is now Belarus, and went on to lead the Ashkenazi community in Jerusalem.
His great-grandson Rabbi Reuven Yeshua Koehn paid a visit to the Panevėžys last week and presented a portrait of his famous great-grandfather as a gift to the Panevėžys Jewish Community. He also met with the mayor of the city and presented a project currently being conducted in Israel to build a Litvak Heritage Center. The Center’s displays will include various Lithuanian shtetls and cities including Panevėžys.
Rabbi Koehn also visited the local regional history museum. Students from his yeshiva are expected to visit Panevėžys in late April.
Antanas Terleckas passed away at the age of 96 during the night of February 16. He was a former dissident and political prisoner, a staunch supporter of Lithuanian independence, a human rights advocate and the founder of the Lithuanian Freedom League. The Lithuanian Jewish Community extends our condolences to his friends and family members.
After a short vacation, the Knafaim Club for youth aged 13 to 17 has reopened, ready to receive members and friends every Friday at 6:00 P.M., with different games and activities to improve Jewish and general knowledge, followed by a ceremony to greet the Sabbath. For more information, contact programs director Žana Skudovičienė at zanas@sc.lzb.lt or call+370 678 81514.
The Bagel Shop Café hosted the first quiz in what is to become a regular event. Last Sunday’s topic was Jewish Music. Participants didn’t just squeeze their brains, they also sang, trying to recall the tops songs from various historical eras. It’s safe to say most of the participants learned some new facts along the way. The moderator, writer Arkadijus Vinokuras, was accompanied by son Saulius, with help formulating questions from Sholem Aleichem music teacher Ūla Marija Barbora Zemeckytė. While the initial plan was to hold the quizzes every Sunday, the plan now is hold one per month on a Sunday, so stay tuned for the next round. You can check here or consult the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s facebook page.
A Lithuanian translation of interwar Jewish author Kalmen Zingman’s book “On the Spiral Staircase” was recently published by the Hubris publishing house. Goda Volbikaitė translated it.
What can this novel written in 1925 and only now available in Lithuanian tell today’s readers? First of all, it talks about Kaunas. The translation of this book is also a kind of proof Kaunas wasn’t just a Lithuanian city. People of other ethnicities also lived there whose works can (and should) be listed in our literary canon. We spoke with the translator of this book about the little-known figure of Kalmen Zingman, spiral staircases, the Aleksotas aerodrome, Slobodka and Yiddish literature.
Just three years before his death, Zingman wrote in his diary: “I feel like that wonderful time when I will be recognized and famous isn’t far off.” Unfortunately his dream was not to come true. Why do you think Zingman wasn’t successful in literature and recognition?
For truth’s sake, it has to be said that no Yiddish writer working in Kaunas in the period between the two world wars got famous. We are talking about around 30 authors in total who lived in Kaunas for a shorter or longer time.
It’s very clear why they didn’t become famous in the Lithuanian context: there was a lack of interwar translations from the Yiddish language into Lithuanian, just as there is in our time. I should say Lithuania is still just in the early stages of discovering Yiddish literature. Sutzkever and Kulbak are better known now, and some rarer names such as Matilda Olkin and Yitzhak Rudashevski. But basically whole strata of Yiddish literature made in Lithuania are still unknown to the Lithuanian reader.
The Israeli International Museum Anu in Tel Aviv, the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium and the Lithuanian Jewish Community are conducting the “From Generation to Generation” project, bringing ninth graders together with seniors from the Community. The first meeting this year happened last week.
Sholem Aleichem principal Ruth Reches said: “Children especially enjoy this project and the seniors appreciate it as well. This moving and meaningful bringing-together of different generations makes people care, enriches the soul and let’s us understand one another better.”
LJC program director Žana Skudovičienė said the first meeting was very friendly, and marked the Tu b’Shvat holiday, with delicious dates from Israel. “It was very nice and warm. We discovered we shared interesting relatives in other countries. There was a lot of emotion because of that, and these will be good memories,” she confided.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites you to a new series of quizzes on Sundays on Jewish history. Writer Arkadijus Vinokuras will moderate the quiz at the Bagel Shop Café on Sundays with a new topic every week. Come and show off your knowledge, or just come to learn something new. The first quiz will be held at 2:00 P.M. this Sunday, February 12, at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius. The topic will be Jewish music, with musc professor Leonidas Melnikas offering his expert opinion as judge. Register by sending an email to katrina@lzb.lt.
Antakya Jewish community leader Saul Cenudioglu remains missing but the body of his wife has been found, according to the newspaper Haaretz. Days of major earthquakes have rendered much of the area around Syrian-Turkish border including the small town of Antakya an urban wasteland. The number of known dead is now approaching 20,000.
World Jewish Congress vice-president Maramas Stern and Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky express their deepest condolences in the face of this indescribable tragedy. The WJC is in contact with the Jewish community in Antakya and is attempted to send aid to the earthquake victims there.
“In these difficult times we extend our deepest condolences to the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria. Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have lost family members, with those experiencing trauma and who have lost their homes,” WJC executive vice-president Maramas Stern wrote in a letter circulating among Jewish communities around the world.
“We grieve together with the family members of those who have perished and we are praying for all victims and those missing. We wish you strength in this difficult moment,” LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky wrote.
According to a blog post by Grant Gochin in the blog section of the Times of Israel internet site, Jonas Noreika’s granddaughter Silvia Foti has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023.
Although the Nobel Prize committee has historically refused to release the names of nominees for 50 years, according to Gochin’s blog post:
“[Former Beverly Hills] mayor [and current Council Member John] Mirish proudly announced that Silvia Foti has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Foti is the granddaughter of an apex mass genocidal murderer of Jews in Lithuania, Jonas Noreika. She bravely exposed her grandfather’s crimes and Holocaust fraud by the government of Lithuania. Foti is the first non-Jewish Lithuanian in history ever to be nominated for the most prestigious peace prize in the world.”
If selected for the prestigious recognition, Foti would joint earlier female writers who received the prize including indigenous Guatemalan Rigoberta Menchu who won the Nobel peace prize in 1998, Belarus’s Svetlana Alexandrovna Alexievich who won the prize in literature in 2015 and 2018 peace prize recipient Nadia Murad Basee Taha, the Yezidi human rights activist from Iraq.
Silvia Foti has written an extensive biography detailing her grandfather’s Nazi activities during the Holocaust in Lithuania published in English and Lithuanian.
Grant Gochin’s blog post with an interesting story about the Lithuanian consul in Los Angeles here.