Learning – Page 59 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Happy Birthday to Eugenijus Bunka

We wish Eugenijus Bunka a happy 70th birthday. He created the Litvak Memorial Garden in the Žemaitijan National Park, is a great journalist, ethnographer and public figure.

Bunka was awarded the title of Tolerant Person of the Year for 2019. The award is made annually by the Chiune Sugihara/Diplomats for Life Foundation to Lithuanian citizens who stand up against xenophobia, anti-Semitism, radicalism and expressions of violence in Lithuanian public life by their words and deed.

Eugenijus has long led his father and sculptor Jakov Bunka’s fund, civic initiatives and restoring Jewish memory of Plungė, Žemaitija and Lithuania locally and around the world.

We wish you excellent health and may your life also be illuminated by happiness and joyful moments.

Mazl tov! Bis 120!

2020-12-07

International Day for Tolerance Event Darna on Facebook

The International Day for Tolerance will be marked around the world on Monday, November 16. The Lithuanian Jewish Community has prepared a virtual celebration called Darna which will run from 10 A.M. to 10 P.M. that day, including well-known performers Jurgis Didžiulis, Erca Jennings, Afrodelic and Paulius Kibauskas. It will also include yoga and meditation activities, a discussion on the topic of tolerance and other activities.

The first Darna festival for celebrating the International Day for Tolerance invites the public to celebrate tolerance, harmony and concord, and to do so through the creation of art and community. The LJC had planned to hold the celebration as a real event, but decided to make it virtual because of concerns about the corona virus and to make an entire day’s worth of events available to those homebound.

Event organizer Rafael Gimelstein said: “We are trying to encourage the celebration of human ties and a harmonious and tolerant life through this event. We wanted to bring together all people who think the same way and to commemorate these values through creative work. To show we have very diverse and talented people who are united by a shared idea, and that tolerance is a very topical idea to them.”

2020-11-132020-12-10

Searching for the Synagogues of Pakruojis, They Found Part of the Old Town

by Živilė Kavaliauskaitė

Archaeologists working in Kranto street in Pakruojis, Lithuania, found the foundations of the Winter Synagogue and also uncovered cultural strata from the 17th and 18th centuries of the Old Town there. They were unable to locate a shtibl believed to be located at the Tailors’ Synagogue there. Team leader Dr. Ernestas Vasiliauskas said there is still no comprehensive historical or archaeological studies of the Winter and Tailors’ Synagogues.

Shtetl by the River

Archaeological digs took place at Kranto street no. 8 in Pakruojis in later August and early September. The public entity Archeologijos Centras performed the work by order of the Pakruojis regional administration.

The regional administration is preparing a project for putting the banks of the Kruoja River and the city park in order and the Lithuanian Jewish Community is offering observations for the identification and investigation of Jewish heritage buildings there.

“Almost nothing is known about the sites being sought, except for material from 1938 in an expedition by Chaim Lemchen and the Aušra Museum of Šiauliai, and the research by synagogue researcher Marija Rupeikienė, but this is comprised of just a few sentences. Everyone writes about the Summer Synagogue,” Dr. Vasiliauskas commented.

2020-11-112020-12-09

Condolences

The Lithuanian Jewish Community together with the World Jewish Congress mourn the passing of UK Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.

We have lost an extraordinarily profound intellect and theologian of deep moral convictions. Rabbi Sacks was a moving speaker and a wonderful writer whose teachings reached Jews and Gentiles, connecting Jewish tradition with modern thinking. His writings, especially his weekly Torah portions, will set an example for future generations.

We extend our deepest condolences to Lord Sacks’s wife Eilaine and their family. May his memory remain as a source of great inspiration.

2020-11-09

Vilna Gaon Commemorative Coin Causing Consternation among Collectors

Some coin collectors who weren’t able to purchase the Vilna Gaon 300th birthday commemorative coin issued recently by the Bank of Lithuania are saying the release was a carefully-planned scam for a small group of people to get rich.

Bank of Lithuania officials said they found this reaction strange because anyone who wanted the coin was able to purchase two of them in early sales on the internet. The coin was officially released to the public on October 20, but weren’t available for sale at banks in Vilnius and Kaunas that day. Instead there was a flood of resellers offering the coin at inflated prices. The central Bank of Lithuania sold the coin for 62 euros, while in the initial days of the official release internet speculators offered it for hundreds of euros, and the asking price later climbed.

A week later vendors were asking for up to 990 dollars, or 846 euros, on ebay.com, and one Lithuanian internet commerce site asked for 1,500 euros for one coin. That vendor’s offer was exceptional, but others sold the coin for from 500 to 600 euros.

2020-11-09

World Jewish Congress President Mourns Death of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

NEW YORK–The World Jewish Congress mourns the death of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, the former chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth and one of the spiritual and intellectual giants of contemporary Judaism.

Reacting to the news, WJC president Ronald S. Lauder declared: “The World Jewish Congress and the entire Jewish world are profoundly saddened by the passing of former British Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. A theologian of extraordinary intellectual depth and moral conviction, Rabbi Sacks was a riveting orator and brilliant author who brought the timeless teachings of Jewish scripture to both Jews and non-Jews alike, fusing Jewish tradition with modern thought. His writings, including–and perhaps especially–his commentaries on the weekly Torah portion will be cherished by future generations. He was also a pillar of integrity who inspired Jews and non-Jews alike.

“We extend our deepest condolences to Lord Sacks’s wife Elaine and their family. May they and the whole house of Israel be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem, and may his memory be an everlasting blessing and source of inspiration.”

2020-11-092020-11-09

Dr. Ruth Reches Presents Her New Book on the Holocaust and Identity

The Holocaust is the worst tragedy of humanity in the 20th century and its consequences remain the object of study of famous scholars, historians, artists, film and state directors and the best authors and poets of our time. The sum of their work brings us back into the past, recalling the horrific atrocities of the Nazi era and cautioning us against further crimes against humanity as the Holocaust makes us say and think, “never again.”

The Lithuanian Jewish Community hosted Dr. Ruth Reches’s presentation of her new book on personal identity and the Holocaust on October 19. Besides teaching Hebrew, then becoming acting principal and now principal at the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium in Vilnius, Ruth Reches recently defended her doctoral thesis in psychology.

Her book “Holokaustą patyrusių asmenų tapatumo išgyvenimas” [The Experience of Identity by Holocaust Survivors] is based on her doctoral thesis. She examines how Holocaust-induced trauma changed the identity–self-identity, personality and values system–of its experiencers during the war and long after.

There has been research on how the pain experienced during the Holocaust doesn’t just affect victims directly, but can be passed on generationally, even to the third generation. Ruth Reches, the granddaughter of a ghetto prisoner, drew on her own experience in presenting the book.

“It’s crucial to understand the feelings and thoughts of the people who went through the Holocaust. As time passes we will in the future only have a chance to interpret their emotional legacy. I often think about how the war changed the life of my grandparents. What would they have become if the war hadn’t happened? Who would I be? Even 70 years after the war, Holocaust survivors continue to live with the past. This tragedy affected their emotional, social and spiritual development,” she said.

2020-10-302020-12-14

Israel Thanks Lithuania for Wonderful Gesture, Netanyahu Calls Commemorative Coin Exciting

LRT.lt

The Bank of Lithuania has issued a coin with Hebrew inscriptions commemorating the Vilna Gaon as part of the project to mark 2020 as the Year of the Vilna Gaon and Litvak History. Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday this was an “exciting” moment.

The new coin with a nominal value of 10 euros was issued publicly last week.

“Yesterday I heard that the Lithuanian government minted a coin in honor of Vilna Gaon, who was one of the biggest Jewish philosophers and Torah specialists and one of the greatest people to have been born into the Jewish nation. It’s very exciting to have a European coin with Hebrew letters on it, commemorating one of our greatest people,” Netanyahu said Sunday, adding: “I say this as Israel’s prime minister and as a son of the Jewish nation, but also because my family is related to Vilna Gaon’s family.”

2020-10-282020-12-09

New Archaeological Discoveries at Pakruojis Synagogue Complex

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, Pakruojis regional administration mayor Saulius Margis, administration director Ilona Gelažnikienė, deputy mayor Virginijus Kacilevičius and others attended a lecture by Dr. Ernestas Vasiliauskas presenting new archaeological discoveries at the Pakruojis synagogue complex.

The Pakruojis regional administration reports:

Dr. Ernestas Vasiliauskas gave a presentation October 14 detailing the newest archaeological discoveries in the winter synagogue and shtibl at the Pakruojis synagogue complex. The project “Maintenance of the City Park and the Banks of the Kruoja River in the City of Pakruojis” decided to perform the archaeology in concert with the Cultural Heritage Department of the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture.

There is a lot of surviving information about the summer synagogue in Pakruojis, but very little about the winter synagogue and the shtibl. Senior archaeologist Dr. Vasiliauskas said the wooden synagogue complex built in the 19th century in Pakruojis is unique in Lithuania and blends different architectural styles, including late baroque (summer synagogue), classicism (winter synagogue) and traditional architecture (the shtibl), and was an important part of the cityscape, one of the dominant buildings on the Pakruojis skyline.

2020-10-282020-11-13

Chiune Sugihara Statue Unveiled in Kaunas

A statue was unveiled Saturday to World War II-era Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara. He issued so-called visas for life, saving thousands of Jews from Lithuania and Poland as Nazi Germany advanced on the small Baltic country of Lithuania.

The bronze statue is almost 12 feet high and is located on Kaunas’s famous promenade, Laisvės aleja or Freedom Alley, next to the Metropol hotel where Sugihara continued to issue visas even after being ordered to stop, close down the Japanese consulate and to travel to a new assignment in Berlin. There are numerous stories Sugihara even issued visas from the train as it was pulling away from the station, and that he left blank visas and stamps with Jews in the city so they could make their own visas for life.

The sculpture designed by Martynas Gaubas depicts origami cranes which he says symbolize freedom. An inscription in Lithuanian, Japanese, English and Yiddish, reads: “Whoever saves a life, saves the world.”

2020-10-202020-12-07

Regarding the Activities of the Cantor of the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius

The cantor or khazan is the main singer of prayers at synagogue. At the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius some very famous cantors have sung, including Mordechajus Geršmanas, Noach Zeludkovsky, Abraomas Bernšteinas and Elias Zaludkowsky. World-famous cantor Josef Malovani also sang at the synagogue in 2002 and he was elected honorary cantor of our synagogue as well.

Since 2008 the original and special cantor Shmuel Yatom has worked at the Choral Synagogue. He is well known throughout the Lithuanian Jewish communities and is constantly invited to them. He is the only professional cantor in Lithuania.

The Vilnius synagogue has established rather strict requirements during the current virus outbreak, requirements which are also recommended by the Lithuanian Government, including taking the temperature of all minyan members, use of face masks, disinfecting pews and door handles and constant ventilation of the space.

Torah reading takes place from the bimah, a raised platform intended exclusively for Torah reading. It is a small space where four people just barely fit: the cantor, two minyan members who supervise the reading of the Torah passage to insure against errors and the guest who reads the words of the blessing. All can wear masks, but this is difficult for the cantor, because the words he reads out must be heard throughout the synagogue by all in attendance there.

A recent meeting of the synagogue’s executive board resolved to recommend the cantor temporarily not travel to events at the regional communities.

In the name of the minyan, we apologize to the communities that the cantor of the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius will not be able to participate at their important events for the time being.

Simas Levinas, chairman
Vilnius Jewish Religious Community

2020-10-162020-10-30

Kaunas Commemorates Lea Goldberg

There’s a larger-than-life fresco painted on the wall of a building on Kęstutis street in Kaunas featuring a portrait of celebrated Israeli poetess Lea Goldberg, with a poem by her in Hebrew and Lithuanian. Her family fled their home in this building 85 years ago, with Leah making aliyah and settling in Tel Aviv in 1935, after receiving PhDs from universities in Bonn and Berlin in Semitic and Germanic languages.

Now the Lithuanian city is scheduled to become the European Union’s honorary European Capital of Culture for the year 2022. Now, in the run-up to that auspicious year, local and visiting Jews in Kaunas held a celebration of, perhaps, the town’s most famous poet, as well as its lost Jewish heritage.

Bella Shirin, who has been appointed “ambassador” of Kaunas, Capital of European Culture 2022, recited in selections from Goldberg’s corpus in Hebrew to musical accompaniment. Israeli exchange student Shahar Berkowitz sang Goldberg’s work.

2020-10-152020-11-11

Year of Eliyahu Exhibition

The Torah itself witnesses: I am Wisdom, who found a haven in Eliyahu’s soul, and through him was revealed to the world.

This fragment of the epithet inscribed on the headstone commemorating Eliyahu ben Solomon Zalman reflects well the significance of the Vilna Gaon for Litvak and global Jewish culture. As Lithuanian marks 2020 as the Year of the Vilna Gaon and Litvak Culture, the Martynas Mažvydas National Library is contributing with an exhibit of publications and documents called “The Year of Eliyahu: The Vilna Gaon’s Influence on Litvak Culture.”

The exhibit showcases the Gaon’s biography, personality and intellectual and pedagogical activity as well as his influence over Vilnius Jews, on their mentality and culture. Documents illustrating the sage’s life and works by the Gaon and his followers will be displayed. One of the major items is the pinkos of the synagogue of the Vilna Gaon conserved by the YIVO institute in New York City. This document, a compendium of vital statistics of the Jewish community, will be exhibited using a holographic projection system. The exhibit will also showcase the abundant and diverse Judaica collection conserved at Lithuania’s National Library.

The opening ceremony will be held in the atrium on the third floor at 5:30 P.M. on Tuesday, October 20, and will include a musical performance and installation employing modern audio-visual technology to transform an ancient text into a tale, providing a hint into the Gaon’s thought-processes.

The exhibit will also feature the issue of the Bank of Lithuania’s 10-euro silver coin commemorating the 300th anniversary of the birth of the Vilna Gaon, designed by our own Victoria Sideraitė-Alon, Jūratė Juozėnienė and Albinas Šimanauskas.

2020-10-152020-10-20

Dr. Ruth Reches to Present Her Book on Identity among Holocaust Survivors

Psychologist Dr. Ruth Reches will present her book called “Holokaustą patyrusių asmenų tapatumo išgyvenimas” [The Experience of Identity by People Who Survived the Holocaust] at a special event at 6:00 P.M. on Monday, October 19, 2020, at the Bagel Shop Café at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius. The event in Lithuanian will include a panel moderated by Vytautas Magnus University lecturer and philosopher Algirdas Davidavičius. Guests will be asked to wear masks. Please report your intention to attend by sending an email to info@lzb.lt

2020-10-14

EJC President Kantor Applauds Overdue Decision by Facebook to Ban Holocaust Denial

Monday, October 12, 2020–European Jewish Congress president Dr. Moshe Kantor has welcomed the decision by Facebook to ban Holocaust denial and distortion and to better inform the public about the Holocaust.

“This is a long overdue but an important decision,” Dr. Kantor said. “Holocaust denial is not legitimate debate and is only used as an expression of hatred for Jews, so this decision is not about anything except limiting hate and anti-Semitism.”

Dr. Kantor, who is also the president of the World Holocaust Forum Foundation, welcomed concerted efforts by governments, IT companies and civil society to counter the proliferation of online hatred conspiracy myths and Holocaust denial.

“At a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise and knowledge about the Holocaust among young people is alarmingly low, it is crucial that online platforms continue to become part of the solution, not the problem,” Dr. Kantor said.

“This is an issue that the European Jewish Congress has long advocated for, and we thank Facebook for its regular and productive discussions with us and other Jewish organizations, both at the European and global level,” Dr. Kantor concluded.

Full statement here.

2020-10-14

Come Learn Hebrew

The Lithuanian Jewish Community is again offering Hebrew classes to the general public, starting October 18 and continuing every Sunday. Beginner and intermediate levels are available. To register, send an e-mail to ruthreches@gmail.com

2020-10-13

Facebook Bans Holocaust Denial

Facebook has explicitly banned Holocaust denial for the first time.

The social network said its new policy prohibits “any content that denies or distorts the Holocaust.”

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg wrote that he had “struggled with the tension” between free speech and banning such posts, but that “this is the right balance.”

Two years ago, Mr Zuckerberg said that such posts should not automatically be taken down for “getting it wrong.”

“I’m Jewish and there’s a set of people who deny that the Holocaust happened,” he told Recode at the time.

2020-10-132020-10-16

Monument to Commemorate Makabi Stadium in Kaunas

Photo: A sculpture commemorating the Makabi Stadium in Kaunas. Photographs by Laimutis Brundza

A sculpture by Gediminas Pašvenskas will mark the spot where the Makabi Stadium was opened 100 years on Jonavos street in Kaunas. When you drive along the street today, you’d likely never think there was a soccer stadium here. Opened on October 19, 1920, by the Makabi Jewish athletics and gymnastics association, exactly one year later it was outfitted as a soccer stadium.

“The first stadium was in Ąžuolynas. The second was here, actually, a little bit away from this location where we’re standing now. There was a third in Panemunė, but back then Panemunė wasn’t part of the city of Kaunas, it belonged to the Kaunas district,” Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas, who used to play soccer there, said at the ceremony to unveil the new sculpture.

The arena operated from 1920 to 1940 and held 2,500 people. It had a running track and other facilities as well. “Everything was fine if the ball didn’t go into the Neris River, at which point all the spectators would disperse. They didn’t wait the ten minutes it took to get the ball out of the water,” Žakas recalled.

Lithuanian Makabi president Semionas Finkelšteinas shared his own memories, not just balls going into the water, but water coming into the stadium. In 1931 the river overflowed and covered the entire field.

2020-10-082020-11-09

Righteous Gentile Aldona Radzevičienė-Norvaišaitytė Has Died

Sad news came from Kaunas October 2: Righteous Gentile Aldona Radzevičienė-Norvaišaitytė has passed away. Three years ago the Kaunas Jewish Community celebrated her 90th birthday where she even danced the waltz.

She and her family lived in Vilkaviškis where they rescued the Jews Alper Kirkilovski, Haim Chernevski and the sisters Shenka and Tsipka Verber who had escaped the Vilkaviškis ghetto just before it was liquidated and all of whom survived the war. In 1993 then-president Algirdas Brazauskas awarded Aldona the Life-Saver’s Cross and Yad Vashem recognized her as a Righteous Gentile on Junly 16, 2001.

The Lithuanian Jewish Community mourns the loss of Aldona Radzevičienė-Norvaišaitytė together with her family and many friends. Her memory will always remain vivid in our hearts.

2020-10-082020-10-08

St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra Holding Concert Dedicated to Sugihara

lrytas.lt

As the cultural landscape shifts, new challenges arise, which the St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra of the Vilnius city municipality faces courageously.

At 7:00 P.M. on October 8 the orchestra will hold a concert at St. Kotryna’s Church in Vilnius dedicated to Japanese diplomat and Righteous Gentile Chiune Sugihara to mark the 80th anniversary of his activity in Kaunas and the 120th anniversary of his birth. This is the first time orchestra and its soloists will perform from different locations in countries around the world, connected by internet.

Full article in Lithuanian here.

Tickets available here.

2020-10-08