Learning – Page 65 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Statement on Anti-Semitic Activities

Lithuanian Jewish Community, Pylimo street no. 4, LT-01117 Vilnius, telephone (8) (5) 261 3003, fax (8) (5) 2127915, email info@lzb.lt

to:

Office of Prosecutor General,
Rinktinės street no. 5A, LT-01515 Vilnius
email: generaline.prokuratura@prokuraturos.lt

cc:

President of the Republic of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda
email: kanceliarija@prezidentas.lt

Speaker of the parliament of the Republic of Lithuania Viktoras Pranckietis
email: Viktoras.Pranckietis@lrs.lt

Statement
On Anti-Semitic Activities

May 27, 2020
Vilnius

The Lithuanian Jewish Community constantly monitors information about expressions of anti-Semitism and provides the corresponding information on these expressions and the reaction by state institutions to it to international institutions fighting anti-Semitism.

Recently the LJC learned two members of the Lithuanian parliament’s National Security and Defense Committee at the committee’s sitting of May 20, 2020, raised their arms in salute to one another in the fashion which prevailed in Nazi Germany (an excerpt of the meeting was posted on youtube at https://youtu.be/2ZATZiDvSdI). Raising the arm in this manner (with two fingers raised higher) unavoidably leads to Jewish people associating the salute with the worship and lionization of Hitler and the intentional and brutal degradation and extermination of Jews.

Following thorough examination of this video material one has to come to the conclusion it contains public derision, degradation and incitement to hatred of Jews based on their ethnicity (and perhaps other ethnic groups as well who were persecuted by the Nazis). It is clear from the recording that members of the parliament of the Republic of Lithuania, to whom high moral standards are applied, are performing this action.

For some reason their colleagues at the sitting (other members of the National Security and Defense Committee and members of cabinet) tolerated this in silence, neither disciplining nor condemning their two “fellow thinkers.”

We do not gainsay the possibility the recording was fabricated. In that case it incurs no lesser liability, because this sort of recording also seeks the same aims, to divide the ethnic communities living in Lithuania.

It should be noted the excerpt from the meeting which carried the date and the appellation “Nazis in the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania” was neither composed nor posted by the LJC.

Article 25 of the constitution of the Republic of Lithuania enshrines the right to express one’s convictions and the right to provide information which cannot be restricted except by law when it is necessary to protect public health, personal honor and dignity, privacy, public morality or for the defense of the constitutional order, while part 4 of this same article provides freedom of expression does not include criminal actions such as sowing ethnic, racial, religious or social discord, calls to violence and discrimination, slander and libel and disinformation.

One instance of restriction on the freedom of self expression is contained in article 170 of the criminal code of the Republic of Lithuania. Incitement against any ethnic, racial, religious or other group of people doesn’t necessarily include the call to commit a specific violent or criminal act; public derision and degradation are sufficient grounds, something which we observe in the aforementioned video material.

Attempts against people committed with offense, derision or slander against specific groups and groups of people is sufficient grounds for state institutions to assign priority to fighting racist statements in terms of irresponsible use of the right to self expression which does harm to the dignity or even safety of a portion of society or groups of people (European Court of Human Rights in the case Tor Fredrik Vejdeland and others vs. Sweden, February 9, 2012).

The composition of the crimes defined in both parts 2 and 3 of article 170 of the criminal code are formal: they are help to have been committed by the public performance of the acts enumerated, without regard to the consequences of these acts.

Therefore, based on the arguments and information above, we request you initiate a pre-trial investigation for the anti-Semitic crimes alleged in this statement (the act defined in article 170 of the criminal code or other crimes defined in the criminal code).

Appended: photographs (2) from the May 20, 2020, meeting of the National Security and Defense Committee of the parliament of the Republic of Lithuania.

Respectfully,

Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman

2020-05-292020-06-30

MP Audrys Šimas Sends Letter to LJC

May 28, 2020

To: Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community

Dear Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman,

I am writing this letter in the desire to express my sorrow over a gesture which currently is being escalated in the public space, which I allegedly made in the wish to offend, degrade or otherwise negatively affect the people of Lithuania. I respect Lithuania’s democracy and the people living in our country of all ethnicties, and therefore would never offend or insult even one of them.

I apologize that this artificially hyped situation has forces you to talk about the most painful periods of history marked with the lives of innocent people.

I ask you accept my apology and regret that there is an attempt to draw your Community into unfair political games which do harm to the reputation and ethical stature of politicians.

[signed]
Audrys Šimas, member of parliament

2020-05-292020-06-10

Hitler Supporter Comes Out at the National Security and Defense Committee of Lithuanian Parliament

by Rimvydas Valatka, political analyst, LRT.lt

The May 20 meeting of the Lithuanian parliament’s National Security and Defense Committee has reached a new low in this session of parliament. While voting on the Government’s annual report one member voted “for” with the Nazi Hitler salute.

The video recording in which this man who respects the Nazis and insures the defense and security of our state doesn’t let us identify him at first glance.

The Hitler proponent filmed in the National Security and Defense Committee of Lithuanian Parliament appears with his back to the camera and is wearing a sanitary mask. Even so, the member of parliament held his arm in the Nazi salute for a significant amount of time. As if to show specially and so everyone would see how loyal he is to Government leader Skvernelis. At least he didn’t yell “Heil mein Fuehrer” or “Heil Skvernelis!”

2020-05-282020-06-04

Shavuot Begins May 28

Shavuot is the holiday which celebrates the receiving of the Torah. This marks the day the Jewish people received the Law. It is celebrated on the 6th day of Sivan on the Jewish calendar. This is a state holiday in Israel.

Shavuot means “weeks” in Hebrew. It is the seventh week from the second day of Passover. It marks the day when Moses received the Ten Commandments of G_d on Mount Sinai. They were written on two stone slabs. These are known in Hebrew as “Aseret haDvarim” and in Greek as the Decalogue.

2020-05-282020-06-02

Request to Investigate Video

May 26, 2020

To:

Viktoras Pranckietis, speaker of parliament, pirmininko.sekretoriatas@lrs.lt

Dainis Gaižauskas, chairman, National Security and Defense Committee, Dainius.Gaizauskas@lrs.lt

Request to Investigate Video

For at least several days now there has been a video posted to youtube in which two members vote by raising their hands in the manner done in the Third Reich during a meeting of the Lithuanian parliament’s National Security and Defense Committee. The video is accompanied by an audio track in which a member of parliament seems to warn these two the meeting is being filmed.

The video appears under the title “Naciai LR Seime” [Nazis in the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania] with the note it comes from the May 20, 2020, meeting of this committee.

This video recording has caused great concern in the international arena and raises suspicions anti-Semitic sentiment is growing rapidly in Lithuania. It is becoming dangerous for Jews to live here because these sorts of salutes were used by the Nazis and their collaborators (who were also Nazis) when the Jews were exterminated in Lithuania and Europe.

The Lithuanian Jewish Community requests an inquiry into whether the two MPs did vote with a “sieg heil” salute and whether the other MP really did warn them as heard in the audio, and to report the results of this investigation to the LJC.

Comments under the youtube posting name one of the MPs who apparently gave the Nazi salute as Audrys Šimas, a member of the Peasants and Green Union faction in parliament.

The video seems to show another MP, identified as Arūnas Gumuliauskas, returning the salute. The MP warning the two not to do that because the meeting was being filmed, according to the audio track, was conservative Laurynas Kasčiūnas.

Please check this information and make a determination on the identity of the MPs involved.

Whether the recording is real or fake, it does harm to the reputation of the Lithuanian parliament and moreover the entire country. It has caused concern and anger among Jews in Lithuania and around the world.

We do not find it credible that in Lithuania only Jews have seen this video nor that members of parliament and law enforcement institutions whose job it is to respond have not seen it. We very much hope an investigation is already underway.

The video is posted here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZATZiDvSdI

Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community

2020-05-272020-06-29

Liba Mednik Commemorated in Širvintos, Lithuania

A stele with a bas-relief and inscription was erected at a ceremony in Širvintos, Lithuania, May 19 to commemorate Liba Mednik (Mednikienė), who fought for Lithuanian independence when the first republic was being created in the early 20th century.

Sculptor Romualdas Kvintas designed the memorial to look like a Jewish headstone, a stone slab with inscription, and with a bronze image of the woman attached in bas-relief fashion. The bronze portion of the monument was cast and installed on the stone by the sculptor Mindaugas Šnipas by request of the Vilnius Jerusalem of the North Jewish Community. Kvintas has done a number of large stone sculptures on Jewish themes.

Mednik, who was born in 1875, lived through the entire tragedy of the Jewish people in Lithuania, fighting for Lithuanian independence and the interwar Republic, and being murdered in the Holocaust in Lithuania. According to historian Stanislovas Dačka, she was murdered in the Pivonika forest near Ukmergė (Vilkomir) with about 12,000 other Jews from the area in early autumn of 1941. Širvintos, her hometown, lies about 15 kilometers to the southeast of Ukmergė.

Vilijus Kavalauskas celebrated her in his book “Lietuvos karžygiai: Vyties Kryžiaus kavalieriai,” calling her a unique and strong character. During the Lithuanian conflict with Poland in 1922 and 1923, Liba Mednik collected military intelligence and distributed it to the Lithuanian military and Lithuanian partisans. She sent documents garnered from Polish headquarters and money to the Lithuanian fighters, Kavaliauskas reports.

2020-05-222020-05-28

Lithuanian Web Site: Let’s Learn about Lite, the Great Synagogue and the Vilna Gaon

by Karolina Aleknavičė, 15min.lt

This year, 2020, has been declared the Year of the Vilna Gaon and Lithuanian Jewish History, and it’s a good opportunity to learn about the authentic culture which thrived for whole centuries in our neighborhood.

We spoke with Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum Jewish culture and identity exhibit coordinator Saulė Valiūnaitė, Vilnius University historian Dr. Akvilė Naudžiūnienė and Kėdainiai Multicultural Center director Audronė Pečiulytė about Lite, the Litvaks who lived here, Vilnius as the Jerusalem of the North and the Gaon, Eliyahu, who lived there.

Lithuanian Jewish History an Integral Part of Lithuanian History

Valiūnaitė told 15min.lt Lithuanians’ attitude towards Jewish history has changed over the last 15 years. “It’s inspiring that in Vilnius and other Lithuanian cities there are ever more initiatives appearing, and most importantly, a desire to commemorate the history and heritage of the Jews who lived there. Some do this by setting up commemorative markers, others by organizing events or writing books about the Jewish history of their cities and towns,” she said.

2020-05-21

Beverly Hills Speaks Out Same Day Lithuanian Prosecutor Drops Case

In response to this claim to the Lithuanian Public Prosecutor:

https://ggochin.wordpress.com/2019/12/02/complaint-to-public-prosecutor/

the following denial has been received:

2020-05-20_035122

There is no purpose in seeking truth or Justice inside Lithuania. The State has formed a unified position to protect historical revisionists and to lie about their Holocaust perpetrators. This is consistent with their Courts, Ethics watchdogs, and government departments. They will not allow any review of facts within Lithuania. Further cases inside Lithuania serve only as stepping stones to reach the European Court of Human Rights.

Therefore, truth is only able to come from outside of Lithuania. In that regard, the City of Beverly Hills reviewed the following data:

https://ggochin.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/city-resolution.docx

City-Resolution and unanimously voted for the following resolution:
Item_D-15_Agenda_Report

https://eutoday.net/news/politics/2020/beverley-hills

Full text here.

Note: the district prosecutor’s rejection to initiate a pre-trial investigation linked to above cites Lithuanian court precedent claiming criminal prosecution is not always the best way to stop socially harmful acts. The LJC notes Lithuanian prosecutors have never attempted to apply existing law to domestic promoters of anti-Semitism and Holocaust deniers. For more recent examples of this, see here and here.

2020-05-202020-06-12

Ninth Forth Memorial Sculptor Dies

Photo: LRT

Lithuanian Public Radio and Television and BNS reported Wednesday the sculptor Alfonsas Vincentas Ambraziūnas died on May 7 at the age of 86. He was known mainly for the large Soviet-era memorial statue at the Ninth Fort in Kaunas where Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. Initially the statue was dedicated to all victims of fascism.

Full article in Lithuanian here.

2020-05-20

Beverly Hills City Council Condemns Lithuanian Holocaust Distortion

The City Council of Beverly Hills, California, passed a resolution condemning Lithuania’s official distortion of the history of the Holocaust and World War II Tuesday, calling upon the Government to halt all such efforts and the Lithuanian parliament to refrain from approving a proposed resolution declaring Lithuania and her people “occupied” and therefore innocent of complicity in the Jewish genocide.

The resolution singled out efforts to white-wash “anti-Soviet hero” Jonas Noreika.

It cited the city’s recent adoption of the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism, a 2016 California state bill aimed at fighting the BDS (boycott, divestment, sanction) movement against Israeli policies and the council’s recent honoring of U.S.-resident Litvak Grant Gochin for his efforts to fight Lithuania’s Holocaust distortion. The text of the resolution also says the Lithuanian government uses intimidation tactics against those who speak out against its Holocaust distortions.

2020-05-202020-05-27

Daniel Dolskis: Founder of Lithuanian Stage Music Who Entertained Pre-War Kaunas

by Rasa Murauskaitė, Lithuanian national public radio and television, LRT.lt

Lithuanian Public Radio and Television continues stories in the the Stones of Memory series intended to commemorate Litvaks in Lithuania and around the world. The third story concerns Daniel Dolskis (Danielius Dolskis, Dolski), one of the founders of the Lithuanian estrada popular music tradition.

Although he only lived a few years in Kaunas, Lithuania, during the interwar period, Dolskis quickly became a legend of real Lithuanian estrada musical culture.

“Onytė, come dance with me,” Dolskis used to say when inviting Lithuanian girls to dance.

“The Man Who Entertained Kaunas” wrote one Lithuanian paper of Dolskis in the period between the two world wars. Actually the truth is somewhat different about the crooner born to a family of Vilner Jews by the name of Broides, a name connected with the musical nightlife at Kaunas’s famous interwar restaurants and clubs such as Metropol, Konrad’s Café and others.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2020-05-19

In the Spotlight: William Stern

Mr. William Stern was born in Budapest in 1935; after the Nazi occupation of Hungary in March 1944, he and his family were taken to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. They survived the War and emigrated to New York in 1952 where Mr Stern pursued studies first at Yeshiva University and subsequently at Harvard Law School.

It was during his stint at Harvard Law School that Mr Stern discovered the many risks and temptations which face a student when he leaves his home environment and suddenly becomes enmeshed in a totally new and different culture. He was shocked at seeing some of his friends shed their tradition and previous way of life in just a matter of months. Having married a young lady resident in London, Mr Stern moved to England in 1960. Early in his career, he established in London in 1971 a kosher canteen which welcomed students of Imperial College, located opposite his offices at Albert Court. This canteen has been going strong for the past 45 years and is presently catering to 30-35 Imperial College students every day of the academic year.

When he expanded his business to Lithuania, Mr Stern discovered the presence in Kaunas of approximately 100 Israeli medical students. He felt that during the 6-year period which medical studies require, many of these students might lose not only their Israeli but also their Jewish identity. In 2010, he established the Jewish Club which grew and developed over the years into the Jewish Centre Kaunas. Its aim is to provide the Jewish students in Kaunas a home away from home and prevent the loss of Jewish identity which otherwise might occur.

2020-05-19

Prosecutor Drops Pre-Trial Investigation of Anti-Semitism Yet Again

This time the Vilnius district attorney’s office reported they dropped an investigation into an article containing anti-Semitism and sowing ethnic discord on the internet page of the weekly newspaper Laisvas Laikraštis. The pre-trial investigation was begun at the request of Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky.

“I can’t even count anymore how many times both the Community and I have sent these requests in. Dozens. So far all investigations have been halted because investigators never seem to find any evidence of a crime,” Kukliansky commented.

She said the Community will continue to publicize each and every complaint and each and every rejection, even if the spreaders of hate receive extra publicity for their articles and comments because of it.

2020-05-182020-06-02

Hundredth Anniversary of Jewish Faction in Lithuanian Constituent Parliament

Photo: One of the first sittings of the new Lithuanian parliament took place at the City Theater. In front is the presidium, to the left, sitting, are Naftalis Fridmanas, Petras Radzevičius, Ladas (Vladas) Natkevičius, first deputy speaker Jonas Staugaitis, Sspeaker Aleksandras Stulginskis, second deputy speaker Justinas Staugaitis. Right, seated: Zigmas Starkus. Kaunas, 1920. Courtesy Vytautas the Great Military Museum.

The Jewish Faction in Lithuania’s Constituent Parliament

The first parliament elected after Lithuanian independence in the early 20th century caused a global sensation.

This year comes 100 years after the first universal democratic elections for a Lithuanian parliament. One feature of what Lithuania calls its Constituent Assembly was the Jewish faction of parliamentarians, something almost impossible to imagine today following the extermination of upwards of 95% of all Lithuanian Jews in the Holocaust.

to be continued

2020-05-152020-05-18

On Vytautas Bruveris’s Series of Articles “Lithuania and the Holocaust: Endless Seizures Instead of Healing Wounds”: Comments by Lithuanian Readers Contain Indications of Crime

by professor Dr habil. Pinchos Fridberg

Information

In the first week of way the internet site of the Lietuvos Rytas newspaper featured a series of articles in Lithuanian by Vytautas Bruveris called “Lithuania and the Holocaust: Endless Seizures Instead of Healing Wounds.”

Part One, May 1, 2020: https://www.lrytas.lt/lietuvosdiena/aktualijos/2020/05/01/news/lietuva-ir-holokaustas-vietoj-zaizdu-gydymo-nesibaigiantys-traukuliai-i-dalis–14716722/

Part Two, May 2, 2020: https://www.lrytas.lt/lietuvosdiena/aktualijos/2020/05/02/news/lietuva-ir-holokaustas-vietoj-zaizdu-gydymo-nesibaigiantys-traukuliai-ii-dalis–14716738/

Part Three, May 3, 2020: https://www.lrytas.lt/lietuvosdiena/aktualijos/2020/05/03/news/lietuva-ir-holokaustas-vietoj-zaizdu-gydymo-nesibaigiantys-traukuliai-iii-dalis–14716742/

2020-05-132020-05-22

Lithuanian Jewish Community Statement on May 9 Incident

The Lithuanian Jewish Community has asked the Lithuanian Office of Prosecutor General and the commissar general of the Lithuanian Police Department to investigate a so-called action held by motorcyclists in Vilnius on May 9, 2020, during which Nazi symbols and other attributes were used.

The media report the bikers dressed in Wehrmacht uniforms rode through the Vilnius OId Town playing march music from the Third Reich and rode in circles around the embassy of the Russian Federation on Latvių street.

“As you know, the distribution and demonstration of Nazi and Soviet symbols are banned by law in Lithuania and involve criminal accountability. We would like to emphasize the marches mentioned have painful associations for Jews because it was this sort of music which was played during selections at concentration camps during World War II,” the statement from the LJC reads.

Although the participants in the action did wear Nazi uniforms, it appears the police took no actions and didn’t stop the ride.

The LJC has received a report an LJC member who saw the motorcyclists near the Old Town Hall in Vilnius reported it to a police patrol nearby. The officers gave assurances the bikers would be punished, but Lithuanian Police Department representative Ramūnas Matonis told reporters there were no arrests for sowing ethnic discord anywhere in Lithuania on May 9.

The LJC therefore is now requesting:

1. an internal investigation and determination of the identities of the officers who were on duty in the police patrol at the Old Town Hall and an explanation on why the bikers were not cited.

2. determination of the identities of the people who rode around Vilnius dressed in Nazi uniforms and played Third Reich march music loudly.

3. an explanation on what instructions police street patrol officers receive and whether they are trained to recognize hate crimes and expressions of anti-Semitism.

4. to tell us whether the May 9 incident will be addressed in a future meeting of the special working group formed by the Lithuanian interior minister for fighting hate crimes and hate speech in Lithuania.

Visual material presented by the media shows this public violation was known at the time of its commission (URL: https://www.delfi.lt/news/daily/lithuania/pergales-diena-vilniuje-aplink-rusijos-ambasada-vazinejo-i-nacistines-vokietijos-karius-panasus-motociklininkai.d?id=84241879 )

2020-05-122020-05-15

Watch Litvak Cantor Melavonis in This Video

The Genesis Prize Fund has posted a video clip called Jews in Music to do honor to exceptional achievements by Jews in music. The Fund presents the prize annually and Jews in Music debuted in 2016. The prize ceremony is held in honor of violin virtuoso Yitzhak Perlman. Among the musicians included in the video below are Yosef Melovanis, Leonard Cohen, Carole King, Vladimir Vysotksky, Idan Raichel, Martha Argerich, Paul Simon, Yevgeniy Kissin, Billy Joel, Adam Levine, Drake and many others.

2020-05-11

Resident Ambassadors Mark VE Day at Jewish Cemetery in Vilnius

The Lithuanian Jewish Community and resident foreign ambassadors to Lithuania marked Victory in Europe day with a small, solemn gathering at the Jewish cemetery on Sudervės road in Vilnius on the morning of May 8. German ambassador Matthias Sonn, Israeli ambassador Jossy Avni-Levy and US ambassador Robert Gilchrist gave short addresses stressing the need to remember the past while looking to a better future.

2020-05-112020-05-11

Remembering the Victims of World War II

On the day marking the end of World War II in Europe, Victory Day, May 8, a small group gathered at the Jewish cemetery on Sudervės road in Vilnius to honor the victims of WWII, including Holocaust victims. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky was there with German ambassador Matthias Sonn, U.S. ambassador Robert Gilchrist, Israeli ambassador Yossy Avni-Levy, deputy Lithuanian foreign minister Dalius Čekuolis and Vilnius municipal administration director Povilas Poderskis.

2020-05-082020-05-11

Video Highlights of the Fifth World Holocaust Forum in 2020 in Jerusalem

Dear Presidents,
Dear Friends,

We are very happy and proud to share with you a video featuring highlights of the EJC event last January – The Fifth World Holocaust Forum – initiated by our President Moshe Kantor and hosted by the President of the State of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, at Yad Vashem.

Nearly 50 heads of state and royalty from across the world, as well as the three leaders of the European Union institutions, gathered in Jerusalem to reaffirm their unity against the upsurge of antisemitism globally and to honour the memory of the victims of the Holocaust.

Although it is difficult to encapsulate such a historic event in a few minutes, the video contains the most beautiful images, and the strongest and most touching excerpts of speeches and musical performances.

We hope this film will bring back precious memories of these emotional two days and allow those who could not be with us to grasp the intensity of the commitment expressed by world leaders for such a noble cause.

Stay safe and best regards,
Raya and the EJC Team

Video: https://eurojewcong.org/media/video-gallery/highlights-of-the-fifth-world-holocaust-forum-jerusalem-22-23-january-2020/

2020-05-08