The Kaunas Jewish Community is planning an evening of classical music dedicated to those who rescued Jews during the Holocaust at 6:00 P.M. on December 27 at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas. Actor and director Aleksandras Rubinovas will speak about the Righteous Gentiles who saved Jews 80 years ago. The event is free to the public but prior registration is required at https://forms.gle/1vzWccjif3yduBFv6
For more information call+370 652 19204 or write ieva0102@yahoo.com
Lithuania’s International Commission to Assess the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania held their final Road of Memory event in the Lithuanian town of Telšiai on December 9. The Commission held these processions in concert with other organizations at different locations in Lithuania from June till now to mark the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Holocaust. This final procession included local politicians, foreign ambassadors, students from local schools and others. Miša Jakobas performed kaddish, a number of speakers spoke indoors and out, and the musical group Klezmer Klangen Vilne performed.
Aleksandras Štarkas performed works by Mozart, Beethoven, Paganini, Tartini, Massenet, Saraste and Bloch at the Lithuanian Jewish Community recently. He was accompanied on piano by Aušra Marija Banaitytė.
Štarkas was born in Vilnius. From 1961 to 1972 he attended the M. K. Čiurlionis Art School. In 1977 he was graduated from the Lithuanian State Music Conservatory. For ten years he played in the Lithuanian chamber orchestra conducted by Saulius Sondeckas and played in Lithuanian National Philharmonic orchestras for another three years. In 1987 he moved to Israel and began playing in the Israeli Philharmonic orchestra the same year, where he remained in 2021. Štarkas performs in concerts with different chamber orchestras around the world and has won international renown.
December 10, 2021, marks 94 years since the birth of Vilnius ghetto diarist and victim Yitzhak Rudashevski.
Lithuanian MP Rita Tamašunienė, a representative of the Polish Electoral Action/Union of Christian Families party and the alderwoman of the Lithuanian Regions faction in parliament, Thursday announced plans to reintroduce legislation for a Law on Ethnic Minorities drafted back in 2013. It met with disapproval from the Lithuanian parliament’s Legal Department and Law and Order Committee earlier for possibly violating the Lithuanian constitution.
The legislation attempts to define basic principles for protecting the rights and freedoms of ethnic groups, to regulate protection of ethnic minority education, use of languages and cultural values, and to regulate NGO activities.
The draft law provides: “in administrative territorial units where a given ethnic minority lives closely together, local institutions and organization use the (local) language of that ethnic minority along with the state language.” It also says street signs in such areas may include ones in the local minority language alongside Lithuanian signs.
by Zigmas Vitkus
By invitation of the mayor of Ukmergė, a public discussion was held in Ukmergė (Vilkomir) on December 2 concerning the problem of historical commemoration of captain Juozas Krikštaponis, an officer of the Second Lithuanian Auxiliary Police Battalion. Lithuanian History Institute historian Mindaugas Pocius delivered an extremely important report there detailing his comprehensive and repeated research on this man’s activities during World War II and demonstration Krikštaponis as an officer in a unit which served the Nazis from October to December of 1941 had taken part in the mass murder of thousands of Jews and Soviet POWs in Nazi-occupied Byelorussia.
The Ukmergė administration which has long postponed addressing this problem will have to decide soon what to do with the statue located in the town center dedicated to “the commander of the Lithuanian partisan military district Vytis who died in 1945” in battle with NKVD troops, a man who, as the facts show, was also a war criminal.
Full text in Lithuanian here.
A Lithuanian History Institute historian says it’s a mistake to issue awards to commander of the partisan Vytis military district captain Juozas Krikštaponis and to commemorate him in Ukmergė (Vilkomir) and elsewhere.
Mindaugas Pocius who works at the institute’s Twentieth Century History Department said: “There are no doubts among historians regarding Krikštaponis’s participation in the mass murder of Jews and other civilians. We need to put an end [to this controversy].” He was speaking last Thursday at a discussion held by the Ukmergė regional administration, the Lithuanian History Institute and the Ukmergė Jewish Community on the life and person of Juozas Krikštaponis.
The former partisan commander is commemorated and lauded in Ukmergė as a fighter in the post-WWII liberation struggle, but historians say they have determined he was a Holocaust perpetrator. Pocius says bestowing state awards on him was done too hastily and a mistake was made in not doing comprehensive research on Krikštaponis’s biography before commemorating him. A stone monument was erected in his honor and a street named after him in Ukmergė in 1996. In 1997 Dalia Kuodytė, director of the Center for Research of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania, provided him the status of military volunteer. In 2002 president Valdas Adamkus issued a decree promoting Krikštaponis posthumously to the rank of colonel, based on the recommendation of Lithuanian defense minister Linas Linkevičius.
“Of course neither the Defense Ministry nor the President’s Office had complete information. They went by [Genocide] Center’s recommendation, which at that time had not performed research on Krikštaponis’s biography and knew nothing about his activity during the war,” Mindaugas Pocius said.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
The Panevėžys Jewish Community held their annual Holocaust quiz for high school students on December 2 this year, the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Holocaust in Lithuania. Four teams of students competed.
Before the quiz the high school students watched a documentary film about the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex where more than 1.5 million people were murdered, more than one million of them Jewish men, women, children and elderly.
Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman said it wasn’t just Jews who suffered from the barbaric actions planned by the Nazis in World War II against humanity. Europeans of other ethnicities also suffered because of their religion, ethnic origin, traditions and disabilities. Nonetheless, six millions Jews were exterminated simply because they were Jews.
Members and guests gathered in the courtyard of the Panevėžys Jewish Community to waatch the lighting of the first Hanukkah light. Song and dance began the holiday according to Jewish tradition. Hanukkah is a holiday which symbolizes freedom, light, hope and good wishes for our families and friends.
Two thousand and two hundred years, a miracle occurred when there was only enough oil for one day. The oil lasted for eight days. This was one of the major miracles in those times. Therefore Jews today celebrate the eight days of Hanukkah in their homes, lighting a candle for each day. We read three prayers and light the first Hanukkah light on the first day.
We read out greetings from our friends and colleagues, and Israel’s ambassador to Lithuania Yossi Avni-Levy greeted us on the holiday of Hanukkah, wishing us light and happiness in our hearts, and he sent on Israeli president Isaac Herzog’s video greeting, as well as those from Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky. Young and old were presented small gifts and holiday packages at the holiday table.
The high holiday spirits imparted hope and joy for our future.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community looks on in surprise and with concern at statements issuing from the press secretary of the Communist Chinese Foriegn Ministry claiming Jews and other ethnic minority communities in Lithuania are suffering “serious discrimination” and pressure, the LJC said in a press release.
Although there is public and free dialogue between the LJC and Lithuanian government institutions concerning commemoration of the past and other painful chapters of history regarding the Holocaust, we vigorously reject any and all accusations Jews are experiencing discrimination in Lithuania today.
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said: “Lithuania is a democratic country which respects its Jewish citizens and safeguards the rights of all its citizens. While we sometimes have differing opinions regarding heritage and property destroyed during World War II by the Nazis and their Lithuanian collaborators, or regarding unreturned property, we are nonetheless and active and free part of Lithuanian society. In our country we freely express our views, and we support open and public dialogue with institutions and other groups of society. It is absolutely unacceptable attempting to draw our small community into a solution of bilateral and international disagreements through mendacity and manipulation.”
The Godo culture bar in Kaunas will mark the 90th anniversary of the death of interwar Lithuanian crooner and comedian Danliu Dolskis on Friday, December 3. Algirdas Šapoka and Kaunas city museum specialist Aušra Strazdaitė-Ziberkienė will talk about his life.
Event organizer Šapoka said: “The commemoration of his death will be constituted of two parts: we will talk about his personality with historians, after which there will be an evening of Lithuanian music. Just as he used to appear, here on a small stage in a restaurant or bar on Freedom Alley. The artist, after all, froze to death with a bottle of beer in hand.”
Full story in Lithuanian here.
Dear Community members,
An exceptional Hanukkah Evening: we’ll light the seventh Hanukkah candle while tasting and discussing wine.
Do you know which wine goes with what dish at the dinner table? Wine expert Edvinas Gurinas will be present at this wine tasting and you’ll learn which wine is appropriate for different dishes through tasting. Traditional Jewish snacks and dishes will be served. We’ll learn why some wine/food combinations work while others put a damper on taste and mood.
Please register by sending an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt. Space is very limited. The event will take place at 5:00 P.M. on December 4at the Bagel Shop Café.
The Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club held their annual tennis tournament November 27 with both amateurs and tennis veterans taking to the courts. In the open group the winners were Danielius Merkinas in first place and Norbertas Faktarovičius taking second, and in the veterans group the winner was Eduardas Gurvičius. Ilja Bereznickas also made a good showing in the veterans group. The matches were followed by impassioned discussions of the play and plans for the future.
Panevėžys mayor Rytis Račkauskas held a reception for Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Yossi Avni-Levy. They spoke about projects taking place in the Lithuanian city and opportunities for cooperation.
“I thank the ambassador and the embassy for their attention to Panevėžys. For many years now we’ve enjoyed intense cooperation between the municipality and the Israeli embassy. I hope and believe our cooperation with our sister-city Ramla and with the embassy will only continue to grow in strength,” Račkauskas said.
The Israeli ambassador met with the Panevėžys Jewish Community and visited Jewish historical and commemoration sites including the former Rabbinate, yeshiva, Jewish high school and the Yavne school following the meeting with the mayor.
The Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum is launching two editions of YIVO linguist Zelig Kalmanovich’s diary written in the Vilnius ghetto, in Lithuanian and English, titled Hope Is Stronger than Life. The book will be presented at 5:30 P.M. on Wednesday, November 24, at the Samuel Bak Museum, aka the Tolerance Center, at Naugarduko street no. 10 in Vilnius.
The Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community is pleased to announce the first-ever appearance by the Lanzheron troupe from Odessa performing “Teza from Our Yard” at the Stairs Galley at Žemaitės street no. 83 in Šiauliai at 3:00 P.M. on Sunday, November 28, the first day of Hanukkah. “Teza” is about life-stories of Jews with a lot of interesting and funny passages with a distinctly Odessan sense of humor. The main character is played by renowned Ukrainian actor Vitaliy Bondarev. Galina Panibratets is the director. The play is in Russian.
Reservations are required and tickets cost 7 euros, or 3.50 euros for seniors, students and children. Please call 841 200 643 or write an email to toma.galerija@gmail.com to register.
Attorney Viktoria Akhmedov who has lived for 20 years in multicultural Israel is happy she’s maintained ties with Lithuania. In her free time the young woman teaches Lithuanian children Hebrew and feels this helps reduce the stress of adaptation for their families and helps them find points of convergence between the two cultures.
Vitorkia believes helping Lithuanian families adapt is in a certain sense her calling. Her own parents moved to Israel to live when she was just 10 and she remembers the difficulties inherent in adapting to a new life. The hardest part at the beginning was communicating in a foreign language.
The Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club, an associate member of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, held their annual conference and presentation of the past several years’ activities at the Bagel Shop Café in Vilnius on November 21. Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Žakas Gercas moderated the meeting of members of the board, athletes and special guests. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman delivered a welcome speech and noted the significance of the Makabi club for the Lithuanian Jewish Community as an athletic and cultural movement. She invited Makabi members to participate more in Jewish cultural life and holiday celebrations and to celebrate their Jewish roots.
Makabi president Semionas Finkelšteinas presented a report on the club’s activities over the last three years, noting good results from the Maccabee Games in Budapest, the annual Fun Run and continual operation during the global virus panic.
The Kaunas Jewish Community is pleased to invite you to a concert called “Born in Kaunas, Renowned throughout the World: A Concert in Memory of the Brothers Oskar and Hermann Minkowski” at 6:00 P.M. on Monday, November 22, at the Kaunas State Philharmonic located at E. Ožeškienės street no. 12 in Kaunas.
Actor and director Aleksandras Rubinovas will tell the story of Oskar and Hermann Minkowski.
The concert will feature compositions by Litvaks and contemporary Israeli composers performed by the Vilnius St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra.
If you’d like to attend, please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/modjciNNQ1eaixHt7