We are pleased to share some snapshots from the dance class held on the last Sabbath of summer at the Cvirka Park space next to our Israeli street food kiosk. Julia Patašnik led the dance group. Also, we have snapshots from the gefilte fish workshop and the opening of seniors’ club Abi Men Zit Zich’s 25th season.
To mark the Day of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide proclaimed by the Lithuanian parliament in 1994, different groups converged on the Ponar Memorial Complex on September 23, 2022. One group held a different commemoration in the Vilnius ghetto territory, Vilnius Old Town, and arrived by train. Other groups came by bus and private automobile. Near the railroad tracks in Ponar where Holocaust victims were unloaded and sent to the killing pits, March of the Living participants, the Lithuanian Jewish Community, the International Commission for Assessing the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania, Lithuanian politicians, foreign diplomats and members of the public assembled and walked the same route to the Ponar Memorial Complex where short speeches were delivered in front of the central monument there.
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said: “We lived in peace, we couldn’t have imagined at all there would be war and in such a manner. Confidence in life, confidence in the future can be broken. And the young people need to hear about this. Because the young people are also responsible for our future, not just because we want to teach them to be good citizens.”
The Sabbath begins at 6:57 P.M. on Friday, September 23, and concludes at 8:06 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community extends our deepest condolences to Violeta Gaižauskaitė and Monika Antanaitytė on the loss of their son and brother.
The late monarch used her royal powers for justice against strong opposition by making it possible to prosecute war criminals who escaped to the UK
This past week’s media was dominated by the passing of Queen Elizabeth II at age 96 after reigning over the United Kingdom for seventy years. This was true in Great Britain of course, and throughout the British Commonwealth (which still includes more than a dozen countries), but it was also true all over the world, and even in Israel. The Jewish community in Britain also participated, and Chief Rabbi Mirvis not only very warmly eulogized the Queen, he even composed a lovely prayer “On The Passing Of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth,” in which he noted her “generosity of spirit…dignity, wisdom” and described her as “a most gracious monarch, who occupied a throne of distinction and honour.”
Very interesting that the one positive characteristic in the prayer that was mentioned twice was justice. In Rabbi Mirvis’ words, Queen Elizabeth “signified order and justice,” and was “a steadfast guardian of liberty, a symbol of unity and a champion of justice in all the lands of her dominion.”
In fact I can personally attest to the Queen’s devotion to justice in relation to the Wiesenthal Center’s efforts to convince the British government to prosecute Nazi criminals who had found a haven in Great Britain after World War II, an aspect of her reign that was completely overlooked in all the obituaries, eulogies and commentaries.
Full article here.
An occasional series of interviews with notable veterans or more recent olim who have chosen to make their homes in Jerusalem.
by David Olivestone
Dr. Efraim Zuroff is director of the Israel office and chief Nazi hunter of the Simon Wiesenthal Center which is based in Los Angeles. He has dedicated his life to tracking down and bringing Nazi war criminals and their collaborators to trial. The author of four books translated into 15 languages he is an imposing, warm and vibrant man with an extraordinary memory for names, numbers, dates, facts, places and, of course, history.
Surely no one grows up thinking “I’m going to be a Nazi hunter”. What else might have you become?
I was always tall, so as a kid my fantasy was to be the first Orthodox Jewish professional basketball player. I was on the teams both in high school and in college, but I wasn’t anywhere near good enough, nor could I have remained frum if I had tried to follow my dream. But basketball is still a passion of mine, and I’m a fan and go to Hapoel Yerushalayim games.
What’s your family background?
The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community invite you to come celebrate Rosh Hashanah at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius at 6:00 P.M. on September 25. All in attendance will receive our calendar for the new year, 5783.
The Vilnius Jewish Religious Community invites you to a commemoration of the Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius from 10:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M. September 23. The commemoration will include a reading of the names of victims. Those attending will light candles in memory of those murdered.
As summer came to a close, members of the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community travelled to Joniškis to see the synagogues there on August 22. Joniškis features two brick-and-mortar synagogues in its town center, built in the 19th century, the White and Red Synagogues. The White Synagogue was used in winter and the Red in summer. The restored synagogues have become a cultural attraction and a symbol of the city.
The interior of the Red Synagogue was recreated and restored with ceiling decorations, painted walls and the aron kodesh where the Torah scrolls were kept. Currently the synagogue houses an exhibit called “The History and Culture of the Jews of the Joniškis Region” which teaches the history of the Joniškis Jewish community before the Holocaust. The White Synagogue is hosting an exhibit using modern museum techniques to show the development of the town of Joniškis and important moments in its history.
After visiting the synagogues, members of the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community also visited Stonys’s dairy farm where they learned how cheese is made, how different cheeses are produced at the local farm and sampled the farm’s products.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites you to attend a ceremony commemorating victims of the Holocaust on September 23, the Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide at the Ponar Memorial Complex outside Vilnius. The ceremony starts at 1:30 P.M. Friday with pre-event assembly about 10 to 15 minutes earlier near the railroad tracks and in the parking lot outside the memorial complex to form a marching column. Those requiring transportation will need to wait for a special bus at 12:15 P.M. outside the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius, but all bus passengers must register by sending an email to office@Izb.lt or by telephoning +37068506900. The bus will return to Vilnius around 3:00 P.M.
by Olga Ugriumova, Lithuanian Radio and Television Russian service
Vilnius publishing house Hubris has published a Lithuanian translation of British writer and early proponent of Zionism Israel Cohen’s book “Vilna.” The author was born in London to a family of Jewish immigrants from Poland. He worked as a correspondent for the Times and the Manchester Guardian in Berlin, and also collaborated with Manchester Evening Chronicle and Jewish World, among many other publications. The book “Vilna” was first published in 1943 by the Jewish Publication Society of America as part of their Jewish Community Series showcasing Jewish communities in various countries for English speakers.
Full article in Russian here.
Publisher’s page here.
The Sabbath begins at 7:15 P.M. on Friday, September 16, and concludes at 8:25 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Culture enthusiasts are invited to the first Litvak Cultural Forum on September 29 and 30 at the Great Hall at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas. The “Office of Memory” event within the Kaunas Capital of European Culture 2022 program includes a diverse events program at locations around the city.
Academics, historians, museum and education specialists, people from the world of art and members of different communities–the forum will bring them all together. Many of the visitors will be travelling to the land of their parents, grandparents and ancestors for the first time in their lives to attend the forum asking the vital question of what it means to be a Litvak. The forum’s other axis addresses culture and art as the key to history and commemoration as a path to a better future fostering openness and dialogue.
Office of Memory curator Daiva Price says the forum summarizes efforts and projects under the Kaunas 2022 program which have been going on since 2017.
Deputy Lithuanian minister for education, science and sports Linas Obcaraskas received athletes from the Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club and presented his congratulations on their recent wins at the 21st Maccabiah Games held this last July in Israel, which hosted more than 10,000 Jewish athletes from over 60 countries. This was Lithuanian Makabi’s ninth year at the games. They won 13 medals this time around.
The Table of Truth chess tournament will be held at 11:00 A.M. on September 25 at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius.
Singer, even now, is one of the most popular sewing machines in Lithuania. The company name is synonymous with the device, in the same way Americans refer to photocopies as Xeroxes, and Brits call their vacuum cleaners Hoover. What do those silent Singers in Lithuanian homes really mean?
Singer Sewing Machines became wildly popular in the Russian Empire after a factory was established in Russia in 1905. By 1914 the factory had produced around 600,000 sewing machines sold throughout Europe. It isn’t known how many were sold in Lithuania. The product remained popular in the period between the two world wars. There was a Singer office at the intersection of Adomo Mickevičiaus and Kristijono Donelaičio streets in Kaunas which sold sewing machines throughout Lithuania. Most Lithuanians have probably seen a Singer at their grandmother’s home, either pedal- or hand-powered. It’s difficult to say how a sewing machine came into any household, even though the sewing machines have serial numbers according to which the date of manufacture can be determined. Unfortunately we cannot determine the original owners from these numbers.
Photo: Arūnas Bubnys, director Lithuania’s Orwellian-named Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania, speaks at a right-wing rally on June 23, 2020, against a backdrop of Lithuanian Nazis Jonas Noreika and Kazys Škirpa. Photo courtesy Dovid Katz.
by Alan Zeitlin
In one scene from the powerful and horrific documentary Baltic Truth, Riga ghetto survivor Marger Vesterman plays the piano to the tune of a song created in the ghetto. He then recalls what the words were: “If you survive, no one has to remind you that you have responsibilities.”
The chilling documentary reminds us that it was not only Nazis who massacred Jews. In this case, Latvians and Lithuanians were all too eager to quench their thirst for Jewish blood, even if it meant shooting neighbors with whom they’d previously celebrated birthdays.
The searing documentary is narrated and hosted by Israeli singer Dudu Fisher. Fisher explains that his mother Miriam was born in Riga in 1932, and that if much of his family hadn’t moved to Mandatory Palestine, he would have been “among the millions of unborn Jewish children.”
Every summer members of the Kaunas Jewish Community travel together or separately and enjoy the warm weather and activities, but also visit many of the Holocaust memorials in Kaunas and throughout Lithuania. In August this kind of memorial pilgrimage took us to Prienai, Petrašiūnai and the Fourth Fort, and in early September to Ukmergė and Zapyškis where the “Symphony from the Jerusalem of the North” was performed in memory of the murdered residents of the shtetl and surrounding locations.
We find it keenly important that non-Jews and representatives from local municipal bodies are also involved in organizing these commemorations, and not just members of the Kaunas Jewish Community. They perceive the Holocaust as a shared tragedy, of all citizens, cities, towns and villages. Snapshots below.