Naum Dvorkin passed away August 17. He was born in 1940. Our deepest condolences to his wife Jelena and son Eduardas.
Kaunas Jewish Community Holds Training for Home-Care Workers
Elderly Kaunas Jewish Community members and their children always welcome the help provide by home-care workers.
Staff at the Social Programs Department of the Lithuanian Jewish Community coordinate this activity for every regional community, who face new challenges because of the virus.
LJC Social Commission member and epidemiologist Dr. Ela Gurina and Social Programs Department coordinator Snieguolė Zalepūgienė held special training classes for home-care providers in Kaunas, focusing on the corona virus, the correct use of personal protection and how to work under these extreme conditions.
Congratulations to Kaunas Jewish Community Chairman Gercas Žakas on Unanimous Re-Election
On July 29 the Kaunas Jewish Community held their reporting and elections conference. Despite summer vacations and renewed fears of the corona virus, a large contingent of members of the Kaunas Jewish Community turned out to express their will. Many who weren’t able to come authorized family members or friends to vote for them. Gercas Žakas gave a positive assessment of his activity to date in the post of chairman and was re-elected unanimously with just under 200 votes.
Amehaye 2020
The Amehaye summer camp has been holding camps for children for two weeks in the summer for several years now. The program was just as rich and interesting this year and the children failed to grow bored over two weeks of learning and friendship. Special attention is giver to Jewish traditions at the camp. In summer the main and most fun events take place in nature and everyone seemed to enjoy the games and sports. Educational discussions were also held in nature.
The program included a lesson on Israel and how to make humus. Some of the boys celebrated their mar mitzvahs at camp. The young campers also learned how to prepare other Jewish dishes from matzoh and how to make challa for Sabbath. They also celebrated Sabbath with the traditional rituals, prayer and lighting of candles.
A children’s psychologist visited the camp and delivered an interesting lesson. Campers also entered the chemistry laboratory and took part in incredible experiments. Two excursions also took place: one to the Safari Park in Anykščiai, Lithuania, and the other to Druskininkai, Lithuania, where the young people learned to make the Lithuanian pastry šakotis.
A bubble party was held the last day of camp and the official closing ceremony included releasing balloons into the sky after making a wish, followed by the Sabbath celebration.
Tomas Venclova: Conscience is Greater Than Independence
by Gabija Strumylaitė, 15min.lt
After spending forty years in exile, the professor returned to Vilnius in 2018; here he actively participates in Lithuanian cultural life and courageously expresses his opinion on topics important to the country and the world. The website 15min.lt spoke with Tomas Venclova about the meaning of independence, principles of liberalism, historical memory, ethnic minorities and other issues.
This year has also been named the Year of the Vilna Gaon and of Litvak History. What do you think, do Lithuanians understand and appreciate sufficiently the Jewish legacy? What should we be doing to honor these people? Do we need, for example, to rebuild the Great Synagogue, or establish a modern museum of Jewish history?
In this regard I think we are doing better compared to the situation over ten years ago, never mind earlier periods. I’m not just thinking about Jewish affairs, but those of other ethnic minorities as well: Poles, Russians, Belarussians, Karaïtes, Tartars.
There is a large amount of latent distrust of minorities in Lithuania overall. I will mention another minority about which there has been a lot of concern lately: the Roma. The great majority of the Lithuanian public are prejudiced against them, and this is senseless and unnecessary, and needs to be corrected.
Lauder on Leadership: You Have to Stand Up and Fight Every Single Day
If ever there were a Jewish leader who puts his money where his mouth is, it is Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress and arguably the de facto leader of the Jewish world.
Thanks to him, thousands upon thousands of Jewish children in central and eastern Europe have received an education; the fight against continued and renewed antisemitism remains front and centre of the Jewish world’s priorities; enormous amounts of art, once looted by the Nazis, have been returned to many heirs of Jewish victims of the Holocaust; and funding has been put in place for both maintenance of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial, and the proposed memorial to the dead at Babi Yar, the site of the notorious 1941 massacre of almost 34,000 Jews in Ukraine.
And yet, as Lauder, in his trademark New York growl, tells it, it could all have been so different. “What would have happened to me,” he wonders, “if I had not gone to Vienna?”
Full interview here.
Dutch Government Halts Funds to Terror-Linked NGO
As a direct result of NGO Monitor research, the Dutch government froze €8 million in funding over three years to the Palestinian NGO Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC). The Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Development announced an external investigation into UAWC’s ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a group responsible for terror attacks since the 1960s.
Our research shows that since 2013, UAWC has received nearly $20 million from the Netherlands. During the past year, NGO Monitor researched and published its findings in a detailed report, briefed officials, and wrote a number of open letters to Dutch officials on this issue. The evidence we provided led to a number of parliamentary questions that triggered the announcement. This follows significant developments with the EU, including BADIL’s refusal to sign an EU contract with an anti-terror clause.
NGO Monitor welcomes the Dutch decision and urges officials to implement strict guidelines to prevent future misuse of public money. NGO Monitor, in partnership with groups such as UKLFI and CIDI, will continue to hold governments accountable for their NGO funding.
Read our research cited in the Jerusalem Post.
Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club Invites Members to Mini-Maccabiah
Dear members of the Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club,
We will hold a mini-Maccabiah to commemorate the Year of the Vilna Gaon and the 30th anniversary of Lithuanian Makabi between 11:00 A.M. and 3:00 P.M. on Sunday, August 30, at the Tauras School of Athletics located at Žygio street no. 46 in Vilnius. Your local teams are invited to participate in the following competitions:
1. Indoor soccer (7 players plus trainer)
2. Basketball (5 players and a trainer)
3. Volleyball (8 players plus trainer)
4. Ping-pong (men’s, women’s)
5. Badminton (men’s, women’s)
6. Swimming (men’s, women’s)
7. Chess (men’s, women’s)
Our school has good soccer players and we encourage children who play soccer or who are interested in it to register as soon as possible. Our gymnasium’s soccer team might get new uniforms as well. Makabi is preparing a surprise here.
Rules and regulations will be determined when the exact number of teams and players becomes clear. Please contact tautvilija@gamail.com or call 865746071 to register and for more information.
Also, the Makabi Club is holding our annual fun-run starting in Vingio park in Vilnius on Saturday, September 5, so stay tuned for the exact schedule for that.
WJC Applauds Facebook Banning M’Bala for Anti-Semitism
NEW YORK–The World Jewish Congress (WJC) welcomes Facebook’s decision to ban Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala, a French extreme political activist notorious for spreading anti-Semitic hate speech, Holocaust denial and violent ideology. Facebook informed the WJC of its decision to ban Dieudonné from Facebook and Instagram. Dieudonné has been condemned by French courts on several occasions and again recently for negationist and ant-Semitic statements. Previously YouTube removed a channel linked to Dieudonné.
WJC president Ronald S. Lauder said, “The World Jewish Congress has been on the forefront of urging social media platforms to exercise their authority to block those who disseminate anti-Semitic hate, including Dieudonné. Dieudonné has been using social media to do harm for far too long. Freedom of expression by no means gives anyone the right to incite hatred and anti-Semitism, online or anywhere else.
“While we welcome Facebook’s actions, Dieudonné is just one notorious case among many others. Countless others continue to spread hate and antisemitism on social media platforms. The World Jewish Congress urges Facebook and other platforms to prioritize banning those who spew dangerous anti-Semitic rhetoric. Our safety and future is dependent upon social media companies taking this hate seriously.”
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About the World Jewish Congress
The World Jewish Congress (WJC) is the international organization representing Jewish communities in 100 countries to governments, parliaments and international organizations.
Evening of Poetry and Music with Sergei Kanovich and Boris Kizner
The Lithuanian Jewish Community invite you to a attend an evening of poetry and music with writer Sergei Kanovich and violinist Boris Kizner at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius. Sergei Kanovich will read passages from his poems and prose and Boris Kizner will perform works from his repertoire on violin. It begins at 6:00 P.M. on Tuesday, August 11, at the Choral Synagogue located at Pylimo street no. 39 in Vilnius. Entry is free to the public and no RSVP is required. Visitors will be required to wear face masks and the event will be filmed.
LJC Member Leonidas Melnikas Interviewed
The Catholic newspaper and website Bernardinai has published an interview with long-time Lithuanian Jewish Community member and pinaist professor Leonidas Melnikas as part of a series of articles and interview about ethnic minorities in Lithuania partially financed by Lithuania’s Department of Ethnic Minorities.
“In childhood when we used to visit homes as guests and we didn’t find a piano in a home, that was strange to me, how people could live without a musical instrument. In general at the time the profession of musician was highly esteemed, and musicians were a bit freer than people in other professions. If you’re playing Bach, Mozart and Beethoven all the time, no one can complain about your politics, only about your music.
“From the very first grade I attended the Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis School of Art in Vilnius. It was my parents’ joy I did music, and their encouragement helped me overcome the initial barriers, but later some inertia came up, it came up in the 8th grade which was competitive, and they had to chose who stayed and who would pursue something else. I stayed. There weren’t many people in my class, we graduated, it seems, eleven of us, so the relationship between student and teacher was very familiar and friendly, there was a lot of attention. We studied a somewhat different curriculum than they did at other schools, we studied musical things from the first grade and they kept increasing, and in the 10th grade we completed general education disciplines–chemistry, physics, mathematics–and in the 11th grade we only had social and humanitarian topics left, and music of course.”
Full story in Lithuanian here.
Indian-Lithuanian Friendship Celebrated in Rusnė
An awards ceremony to present the award “For Contributions to Friendship between India and Lithuania” was held in Rusnė, Lithuania, recently. The recipient this year was Vytautas Toleikis who researched and published the story of the friendship between the father of modern India Mohandas Gandhi and Rusnė-resident Litvak Hermann Kallenbach.
Gandhi and Kallenbach’s friendship was commemorated in a sculpture by the late Romas Kvintas which was placed on the bank of the Atmata River in Rusnė in 2015. The Lithuanian embassy to India contributed to erecting the statue.
On July 25 Toleikis was presented a miniature of this statue at the awards ceremony attended by Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, Indian ambassador Tsewang Namgyal, Israeli ambassador Yossi Levy, US ambassador Robert Gilchrist, German ambassador Matthias P. Sonn, Lithuanian ambassador to India Julius Pranevičius, Indian honorary consul Rajinder Chaudhary, Šilutė regional mayor Vytautas Laurinaitis and Rusnė alderwoman Dalia Drobnienė. Chairwoman Kukliansky congratulated Toleikis on winning the award.
Members of Panevėžys Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired Interested in Jewish History
The Panevėžys Jewish Community continues its educational outreach efforts despite difficult times. This time an elderly group from the Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community. They have been following the weekly installments in the newspaper Panevėžio balsas dedicated to Jewish life, and requested a face-to-face meeting to learn firsthand about Jewish history before the Holocaust. In late July Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman spoke to them about the prewar history, but also what happened during the war and after. The guests said they realized the idea of Jews as money-lenders was a stereotype and that many important and famous Jews had lived in Panevėžys. They expressed surprise when they were told about the Joint Distribution Committee. THey also learned of the famous rabbi Josef Kaufman who restored the Ponevezh yeshiva which still operates today in Israel.
The guests asked different questions and heard about Jewish businesspeople, teachers and doctors, including famous Panevėžys doctor Abraham Mer and others. Plans were made for a next meeting, and guests and hosts exchanged gifts. The guests left entries in the guest book.
Condolences
We are saddened to report the death of long-time Community member and member of the minyan Chaim Zagin. He passed away August 3. He was born in 1928. Our deepest condolences to his children and loved ones.
Condolences
Active long-time member of the Community Lev Jagniatinskij passed away August 3. He was born in 1926. Our deepest condolences to his son Aleksandras, his grandchildren and his many friends and family.
Šolom, Akmenė! Project a Big Success
Four-and-a-half-days and the results was, according to the local Akmenė newspaper Vienybė, “a great success.”
Participants and guests from Šiauliai and Vilnius said the same thing about the “Šolom, Akmenė” activities and events last week. There was the same positive reaction towards the Friday evening conference dedicated the remembering the shtetl, lessons on Sabbath traditions with treats and the concert.
There was a creative workshop for youth held before, with visiting and cleaning-up Jewish cemeteries in Vegeriai, Klykoliai, Viekšniai and Tryškiai, in a grand plan to digitize the grave epitaphs there.
Vilna Gaon Statue Vandalized Again
For the second time in two months, the stone statue commemorating the Vilna Gaon located at what is thought to have been his residence in Vilnius was vandalized by application of an unknown liquid.
Police reported they received a report of the newest act of vandalism at 5:20 P.M. local time on Sunday. Vilnius district police department representative Julija Samorokovskaja told Baltic News Service a tourist guide reported an unknown liquid, possibly some acid, had been poured over the monument.
“A report was received that sometime during a two-day time period acid possibly had been poured on the Vilna Gaon statue. A tourist guide made the report,” she said. She also said an criminal investigation had been launched for incitement to hatred, and that the physical damage done would be calculated more accurately later.
WJC Commemorates European Holocaust Remembrance Day
Press Release
July 31, 2020
In Memory of the 500,000 Sinti and Roma Killed in the Holocaust, World Jewish Congress Commemorates European Holocaust Remembrance Day
NEW YORK–The world is remembering the 500,000 Sinti and Roma murdered in Nazi-occupied Europe, in advance of August 2, which marks the tragic anniversary of the liquidation of the Zigeunerlager (“Gypsy camp”) at the former concentration and extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau. On that day in 1944, the last 4,300 Sinti and Roma, despite their fierce resistance, were forced into the gas chambers by the SS, where they were murdered.
The World Jewish Congress (WJC) joins the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, the Association of Roma in Poland, and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in observing European Holocaust Remembrance Day for Sinti and Roma on August 2. A short WJC video further explains the horrific history of the Romani Holocaust.
Concentration Camp Guard Receives Two-Year Suspended Sentence
by Rūta Androšiūnaitė
The court of the city of Hamburg in northern Germany Thursday found a Nazi concentration camp guard guilty of being an accomplice in the mass murder committed during World War II and sentenced him to a two-year suspended sentence.
This could turn out to be one of the last such trials of surviving Nazi concentration camp guards. Bruno Dey, 93, was convicted for being party to the murder of 5,230 people at the Stutthof concentration camp which operated near Gdansk in Poland. He began working at the concentration camp at the age of 17.
Since he was 17 when he began working at Stutthof and the crimes of which he was accused happened when he was 18, Dey was tried in a juvenile court. Prosecutors asked he receive a sentence of 3 years while the defense called for exoneration. “How did you get used to the horror?” chief judge Anne Meier-Goering asked when she announced the court’s verdict. The trial began last October. Because of Dey’s advanced age, proceedings were limited to twice per week lasting not longer than two hours.
Full Lithuanian text here.
Lithuanian Governments Sells Great Synagogue Ruins to Goodwill Foundation
The Lithuanian Government has sold the remains of the Great Synagogue of Vilnius to the Goodwill Foundation which administers compensation from the Lithuanian state for Jewish property seized in the Holocaust.
Lithuanian culture minister Dr. Mindaugas Kvietkauskas reported the remains of the building were sold to the Goodwill Foundation by reducing compensation paid to that organization by 1,244 euros. “These are the ruins, the foundation, uncovered during archaeological digs. The buildings were damaged during World War II and razed during the Soviet era,” Kvietkauskas said. The minister reported the Goodwill Foundation requested the sale indicating the ruins would be used to commemorate the former Great Synagogue, “to fulfill Jewish cultural and religious goals.” In 2017 the ruins were listed on the registry of cultural treasures. Annual archaeological digs at the site have uncovered spectacular and unique finds.
Last spring the Government transferred administration of the site to the Cultural Heritage Protection Department.
Archaeological digs have been taking place regularly at the Great Synagogue complex since 2011, with partial financing from the Goodwill Foundation. In July last year two rooms were discovered containing old books, and exploration of the mikvot or ritual baths continued. There has been discussion on how best to commemorate the site for many years. Vilnius mayor Remigijus Šimašius said the former synagogue complex will be commemorated in 2023 when Vilnius marks its 700th birthday. The brick-and-mortar synagogue was built in the 17th century, replacing an earlier wooden one. It has been said the Great Synagogue of Vilnius was the largest and most decorative synagogue in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Full story in Lithuanian here.