After a short break, the Bagel Shop Newsletter has returned with a new and much-anticipated end-of-2020 issue. The magazine has shifted to a newsprint folded edition, so the layout is slightly different from earlier issues. We hope you enjoy.
Beigelių krautuvėlė-EN-internet
by Artūras Jančys
Should we restore desecrated Jewish grave markers and set up meditation and commemoration spaces in Jewish cemeteries, or should we leave the dead in peace and leave everything as it was? There is still no one good answer to the these questions.
Several years ago the municipality of Kaunas took resolute steps to include old Jewish cemeteries in the general context of the historical heritage of Kaunas. Students from Vytautas Magnus University were organized and sent to make photographic records, recording almost 6,000 Jewish headstones on film.
Each gravestone was photographed from several different angles resulting in well over 10,000 individual photographs. They will be entered in a general database which will aid in the continuing project to restore Jewish graveyards. The students’ work will also be displayed on a special internet site created for that purpose.
“Traditions are a sacred thing, but even they change, and now there are even female rabbis,” Gercas Žakas, chairman of the Kaunas Jewish Community, said.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Ilan Club invite all children to log on and keep the tradition of celebrating the Sabbath together this Friday, December 18, at 4:00 P.M. on the last day of Hanukkah. We will wish one another well and real Jewish nakhes! Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium Jewish traditions teacher Algirdas Davidavičius will lead the Sabbath celebration. The virtual meeting will take place on Zoom. Please register by sending an email to sofja@lzb.lt or by calling +370 601 46656
The Ilan Children’s Club at the Lithuanian Jewish Community invites children aged 7 to 11 and their parents to spend some time together attending a lesson on emotional literacy from Kamila Gold, a therapeutic education expert and child and young adult mentor. Children who attend will receive an emotional-literacy workbook and parents will receive an autographed copy of the book “Drąsa būti savimi” [Courage to Be Oneself].
Number of participants is limited. The event will be held on Zoom at 1:00 P.M. on December 20. Please register by sending an email to sofja@lzb.lt or by calling +370 601 46656.
by Vytautas Bruveris, lrytas.lt
The country is marking the end of the ceremoniously declared Year of the Vilna Gaon and Litvak History, while the Lithuanian Jewish Community is looking at its front door and thinking it might have to leave its home. Because disagreements with state institutions are driving the Community from its longtime building in the center of the Lithuanian capital, located near the remains of Jewish Vilna and the city’s working synagogue.
Bailiffs and bricklayers in broad daylight have walled off one of the corridors in the building housing the LJC. This is the grotesque turn of events these days resulting from continuing disagreements between the LJC and the Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum along with the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture. And even before this there were also episodes which seem rather odd, for example, letters from the museum to the members of the executive board of the LJC with accusations against the latter’s leadership, attempting to put political pressure directly upon the ethnic community/
With the new wall built, the LJC is now deciding on its future course: whether to dive headlong into legal battles, or simply pack its bags and hit the street. So why is all this happening? Because of disputes on how to share the courtyard which both the museum and the LJC, housed in the same building, claim. Instead of trying to act as moderator and as a moderating force, the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture has done the opposite. The neighbors are there next to each other, but separate.
Photo: UV disinfection being used to clean a laboratory (LeafenLin via iStock by Getty Images)
Tel Aviv University team behind discovery is working on self-cleaning surfaces, including laptop keyboard that kill germs with ultraviolet light every time lid is closed
by Nathan Jeffay
Israeli researchers have found a way to significantly cut the cost of COVID-19-killing ultraviolet lights, and they are working on LED-embedded surfaces that clean themselves.
“We have discovered that it’s easier than previously imagined to disinfect from corona virus using light, and we are already working on exciting applications for our findings,” Hadas Mamane, head of Tel Aviv University’s Environmental Engineering Program, told the Times of Israel.
As the world struggles to disinfect surfaces and public places, there is growing interest in the use of ultraviolet light, which has long had uses in fighting bacteria and viruses. It is not yet widespread in the corona virus fight, but has been deployed, including in transportation via light-emitting robots.
Mamane’s team has made a breakthrough it hopes will expedite its roll-out, namely finding that the desired effect can be achieved with higher-wavelength, or “less energetic” LEDs than previously believed.
Full story here.
Hag Hanukkah Sameach!
On behalf of all the members of the European Association for the Preservation and Promotion of Jewish Culture and Heritage, the AEPJ, we would like to send you our deepest wishes for joy, happiness and health on this Hanukkah 5781.
Chanukah Illuminates the Jewish Heritage of the Mediterranean
Thursday, December 17, 2020–European Jewish Congress president Moshe Kantor has slammed a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) which allows member states to require stunning before religious slaughter of animals for meat as a fundamental attack on the basic rights of Jewish religious expression and practice.
The Court was responding to the question on a preliminary ruling by the Belgian regions of Flanders and Wallonia (and, by extension, other European authorities) to make an EU-law based religious slaughter exception meaningless by banning religious slaughter.
“The right to practice our faith and customs, one which we have been assured over many years was granted under European law, has been severely undermined by this decision,” president Kantor said.
Happy Chanukah to all of you in Israel and around the world.
At Chanukah, we celebrate the victory of the Maccabees.
We remember the miracles of that time. We come together as a family and we light together the Menorah. We sing together Maoz Tzur (מַעוֹז צוּר). Each verse reminds us of the enemies our people has faced, over our long history, and our strength as a community as a people. I have celebrated many Chanukhas and I remember nearly all of them; I love all of them; but this Chanukah is for sure a little different.
This has been a year with all kinds of challenges we have all been dealing with the corona virus pandemic. We have lost loved ones; our schools, synagogues, and community centers have been closed; and we still face great uncertainty about the future. The virus has forced us to stay apart, although in our hearts we feel closer than ever.
Chanukah shows us that united we stand together, we are strong.
May the lights of Chanuka give us all strength and bring light to all Jewish people, wherever they are.
Happy Chanukah and Shalom from Jerusalem.
December 11, BNS–Intellectual, theater expert, literary expert and human rights activist Irena Veisaitė who passed away December 11 was an exceptionally good person and didn’t feel anger despite many tragic life events, Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky told BNS.
“This is a great loss for us. What can you do, people die and let them rest in peace. They say holy people die during the holy days. She died during Hanukkah,” Kukliansky said.
She remembered Veisaitė as an active community member who taught goodness, forgiveness and understanding through the life she lived and in her daily activities.
“This was a unique person who spent half her life in a Jewish family, lived some portion of her life with a family of non-Jewish rescuers and acquired a very varied experience of life, her mother’s death, the goodness of rescuers, she spent some of her life in occupied Kaunas and was sent to Siberia with her rescuers. And despite all these hardships in life, all these problems and losses, she remained very much a person of goodwill. Not just that she was moral and wished everyone well, you’ll almost never hear an ill word about her. Life did not make her angry,” Kukliansky recalled.
Today the world marks International Human Rights Day which began when the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Human Rights Declaration on December 10, 1948. The call to stand up for human rights invites us to get involved and engaged in creating solidarity and societies respecting human rights, and calls on us to learn more about ethnic, religious and cultural communities and the way they live. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky calls it symbolic that this year’s International Human Rights Day coincides with the beginning of the traditional Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, a celebration of victory in perhaps the first battle for freedom of worship and freedom of conscience.
“The victory for our religion two millennia ago has continuity with modern Lithuania where all people have religious freedom. Hanukkah is an opportunity for the broader society to undersant and discover traditional Jewish culture as well as the activities of our community. We believe that it is only through understand and communication that we can overcome miscommunication and stereotypes, to insure respect for the rights of all people living in Lithuania,” chairwoman Kukliansky said.
Respect for human rights is urgent right now, she continued, because Jewish communities around the world are facing anti-Semitic sentiments. The European Union Council has responded to increasing attacks against Jews and all manner of anti-Semitic expressions, and on December 2 adopted a declaration on joint-efforts to fight anti-Semitism. The European Jewish Congress representing the Jewish communities of EU member-states and other European countries is asking national leaders to listen to the words of the declaration, follow it and pay additional attention towards creating a relationship of solidarity with the Jewish communities.
Photo: The IHRA Recommendations for Teaching and Learning about the Holocaust were adopted in 2019 and are now available in eight languages. Credit: Charles Caratini.
Holocaust education helps create a strong foundation for democratic societies and for combating hateful ideologies. One year after the adoption of the Recommendations for Teaching and Learning about the Holocaust, this resource has proven valuable to educators and policymakers across the globe.
The Importance of Holocaust Education
Holocaust education has always been central to the IHRA’s mandate. Both the 2000 Stockholm Declaration and the 2020 IHRA Ministerial Declaration underline the responsibility to promote Holocaust education. After all, it is an important part of “counter[ing] the influence of historical distortion, hate speech and incitement to violence and hatred.” That is, Holocaust education remains fundamental to the preservation of democratic values and pluralistic societies.
This is because learning about the Holocaust gives us a chance to reflect upon important moral, political and social questions. Understanding some of the mechanisms that lead to genocide helps to foster qualities necessary for the development of civic-minded citizens such as critical thinking and societal awareness. It also helps preserve the memory of the victims and survivors of the Holocaust.
Note: Triangular coins with Hebrew inscriptions are known from the ancient Jewish kingdom of Khazaria on the edge of Europe.
All the important Jewish holidays are described in the Torah except for two: Purim and Hanukkah. These two holidays celebrate the victory of the Jews over their enslavers and persecutors. They are celebrated because our sages have decided so, both of them following the revelation of the Torah to the Jews.
Hellenistic rulers ruled the land of Israel from 198 B.C.E. onward. They destroyed Jewish traditions, forbade the reading of the Torah and banned celebrating the Sabbath. They weren’t anti-Semites per se, they didn’t seek the physical destruction of the Jews, they more pressed for the spiritual destruction of Judaism.
After the victory of the Maccabees and the liberation of the Temple in Jerusalem, the Most High apparently emphasized the importance of this event. The vessel of oil intended for the purification of the Temple miraculously lasted eight days instead of one. That was the time needed for making more ritual oil.
Dear colleagues and friends, I greet you on this wonderful, bright and memorable holiday! It is not celebrated by military parades, but by candlelight, with doughnuts and traditional games.
Hag Hanukkah sameakh!
Simas Levinas, chairman
Vilnius Jewish Religious Community
The Lithuanian Jewish Community in partnership with the Lithuanian History Institute and others invites you to a series of virtual discussions called “Litvak History: Directions for Today” beginning December 9. This is the final event to mark Lithuania’s Year of the Vilna Gaon and Litvak History and is open to all who are interested in Jewish culture and history in Lithuania.
Litvak History: Directions for Today
A virtual academic discussion
Live streamcast with synchronous translation to English
The discussion begins at 9:45 A.M. and will run till 4:00 P.M., UTC+2, December 9, 2020. Participants will be able to pose their own questions live.
Event page: https://renginiai.puslapiai.lt/diskusiju-ciklas-lietuvos-zydu-istorija/
Facebook event link: https://www.facebook.com/events/704750490450977
Event program: https://bit.ly/3mGsr5g
For more information contact Marija Navickaitė Kajotienė, tel.: +370 628 71246, marija.navickaite12@gmail.com
December 4, 2020
As Lithuania’s Year of the Vilna Gaon and Litvak History draws to a close, Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda met via internet with Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky and discussed current issues of concern to the Community.
“Lithuanian Jews are an inseparable part of our society and have been since the time of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. For centuries we built our country together, strengthening our learning, culture, business and security. Lithuanian Jews living in their homeland and abroad publicize Lithuania’s name,” the president said.
The Litvak contribution was celebrated around the country and the world as Lithuania marked the 300th anniversary of the birth of the great Lithuanian rabbi and Talmudist Elyahu ben Solomon Zalman, better known as the Vilna Gaon, and the 700th anniversary of Jewish history in Lithuania. The World Litvak Congress scheduled to meet in Vilnius and Israeli president Reuven Rivlin’s planned visit to Lithuania were postponed because of corona virus fears.
Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky presented the Lithuanian president a medallion commemorating the Year of the Vilna Gaon and Litvak History in the name of the entire Lithuanian Jewish Community. The medallion and commemorative coin issued by the Bank of Lithuania bears a symbol composed of the Jewish Menorah and the Post of Gediminas, an early symbol of Lithuanian statehood and power. The medallion also bears an inscription in Lithuanian from Moshe Kulbak’s poem Vilne: “You are a dark cameo set in Lithuania…”
In their discussion the president said the state is solving and will solve issues involving historical memory and will maintain a policy course of intolerance towards expressions of xenophobia.
The head of state thanked the Jewish community for its active role in society and wished the community light and peace as the holiday of Hanukkah approaches.
Communications group of the Office of President
Photo: Kostas Kajėnas
Veisiejai is one of the oldest settlements in Lithuania and was first mentioned in an act in 1253 by Lithuanian king Mindaugas. Later in 1409 Lithuanian grand duke Vytautas also mentioned this town set on the banks of Lake Ančia. The old section of the town has been declared an urban monument.
Town synagogue. Photo courtesy Yad Vashem.
The network of streets, the layout of the square from the latter 18th century and early 19th century, portions of constructions, the panorama of the old town and the natural surroundings are all protected. The town is surrounded on all sides by water and it seems as if you are on an island as the waves of the emerald lake lit by the autumn sun lap along its banks everywhere.
Beginning in the 18th century, Veisiejai became one of the homes of the Lithuanian Jewish communities. Just a few weeks ago on November 3, the 79th anniversary of the extermination of the Veisiejai Jewish community was commemorated. When Nazi Germany went to war with the Soviet Union, Wehrmacht units occupied Veisiejai on the first day of hostilities, on June 22, 1941. At the end of June and in early July the Jews living in different parts of the town were forced into the area around the synagogue and then removed to a ghetto. On November 3, 1941, the once-thriving and large local Jewish community was no more. Soldiers from the Kaunas self-defense battalion aided by local police shot them all. Post-war exhumation indicated at least 1,503 people had been murdered. The corpses were laid in several rows without clothes and shoes, only in their underwear. Only a very few manages to escape and hide in neighboring villages and the forest. Items left behind by the Jews were sold, their farms were inventoried and parceled out to Lithuanian neighbors and some Jewish buildings were turned over to the local municipality.
The History of the Veisiejai Jewish Community
Full text in Lithuanian here.
The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, aka ECRI, adopted an “Opinion on the Working Definition of Anti-Semitism of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)” at its 84th plenary session on December 2. The full text is available here.
IHRA’s working definition begins:
“Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
ECRI noted while many states have adopted the working definition, there are problems applying it legally because of the vagueness of some of the language, and said there are concerns because criticism of the State of Israel might be equated with anti-Semitism in a future redaction. There is also no academic consensus on a definition, the document said.