This last week the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s Social Services Department asked our readers and Community members to help a family who needed a computer and a television set. Almost as soon as the post went up in Lithuanian, calls and emails began to come flooding in from people wanting to help. Within one day a flat-screen television had been donated by a staff member at the LJC, and now a Community member who wishes to remain anonymous has donated a 200-euro gift certificate for the family to acquire a computer, which the children need for school.
It seems the French social welfare system has no equal. We visited one of the oldest Jewish social support organizations, the OSE (Œuvre de Secours aux Enfants), whose origins extend back to St. Petersburg, Russia in 1912, when the Interior Ministry of the Russian Empire granted permission for the establishment of the OZE (Obshchestvo Zdravookhraneniya Evreev), the Jewish health-protection association. Russia was enveloped in heavy anti-Semitism at the time and pogroms were frequent. The granting of permission for the organization coincided in time with the beginning of the movement for Jewish cultural autonomy. The main goal of OZE was to establish a modern social welfare and health-care system for Jews for whom medical care was inaccessible in the Russian Empire. The organization established a branch in France in 1933.
During the Nazi occupation Jewish children were ruthlessly murdered. Various ways to save them were found, either sending them out of the country, or hiding them. One of the more active players in rescuing Jewish children was the Œuvre de Secours aux Enfants organization, or OSE, who saved hundreds of children.
One family with children who are clients of the LJC Social Department need your help.
Recently the family lost their computer and television. Thanks to members who have already responded, the family now has a television, but the children still need a computer for school and are unable to afford one.
If you can help or know someone who can, please contact the LJC Social Programs Department Family Program coordinator by telephone at 865213146 or by email at rasheles@sc.lzb.lt
The Lithuanian Jewish Community has lost an outstanding member and long-time friend. Boris Olšanickij was born September 16, 1937 and passed away July 16, 2017. He in earlier times was the director of the LJC’s Social Center. He passed way before we could thank him for all his service on his 80th birthday, just two months away.
Our deepest condolences to his family, loved ones, former colleagues and friends.
Staff from the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s Social Programs Department are currently visiting the Warsaw Jewish Community whose webpage is jewish.org.pl
The main community building is located in the center of the Polish capital with a Scandinavian-model kindergarten, a senior citizens day center and a kosher cafeteria adjacent to it.
Currently ten employees are building their skills set in Germany, France and Poland under the Erasmus + program in order to expand the social services network for the elderly and improve quality of services provided to clients.
Welcome to the Lithuanian Jewish Community, welcome to Vilnius.
You will soon experience it for yourself. This isn’t a promotional film, it’s the reality, slightly beautified. Beautified, because you won’t see all the hard work that goes on every day and the people who do it.
I thank them. We work, we make mistakes, we fall down and we get back up and work harder. But we’re here. There are not so many of us, of course, and we are all different, and sometimes we argue, sometimes we embrace, but we are all here together and we are beautiful, able, talented, loving and dedicated. We’re the Lithuanian Jewish Community, the family of Lithuanian Jews, a part of our country. We have been here for six centuries now. We have experienced the greatest afflictions and disasters but we never gave up and we have remained.
We have to pass something on to our children and grandchildren. I personally want to pass on to them our Jewish identity, my story and deeds and those of my ancestors. I am trying to do this together with the community because I know that I alone will not succeed. I believe it is better to act and to make mistakes than to do nothing.
I wish everyone the greatest success. Let’s take pride in our Lithuanian Jewish Community.
Sincerely yours,
Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community
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The activities of the Lithuanian Jewish Community are broad-ranging and interesting, and the makers of the following film decided to include footage from just four days in the life of the LJC. To show more would require a series of films.
One of the most important goals of the Community is listening to and taking care of our members, children, adolescents and senior citizens. Care and aid from the Community’s Social Programs Department is allocated to Holocaust survivors, the ill, disabled and socially marginalized.
An important benchmark in our work recently was the restoration and protection of our country’s wooden synagogues, unique in Europe. The opening ceremony for the restored and reconsecrated synagogue in Pakrojis, Lithuania, is included in the film. Work was conducted with the Lithuanian Cultural Heritage Department under the Ministry of Culture and with local municipal and regional administrations.
If the film were continued, we would have included more young people, students, the young Jewish parents clubs, of course our regional Jewish communities and lots of fun moments from the different events and holidays put on by the Lithuanian Jewish Community.
Faina Kukliansky was elected to a second term as chairwoman at Lithuanian Jewish Community elections held last Sunday. Monika Antanaitytė, Chief of Staff at the LJC, said the chairwoman won with a majority of votes, explaining all votes were cast for her with three abstentions. No votes were cast for Simonas Gurevičius, Antanaitytė told Lithuanian media.
The Abi Men Zet Zich Club and the Social Program Department invite their clients to come celebrate Shavuot at 2:00 P.M., May 30, at the Lithuanian Jewish Community.
Rabbi Samson Izakson, cantpr Shmuel Yaatom and Markas Volynskis will be there. Traditional Shavuot foods will be served. For more information contact Žana Skudovičienė at +3706 78 81514.
Vilnius, May 28, BNS–Faina Kukliansky was re-elected for a second term at Lithuanian Jewish Community elections Sunday. Competitor Simonas Gurevičius called the poll illegitimate and said he would take the matter to court.
Monika Antanaitytė, the director of the LJC secretariat, told BNS “Faina Kukliansky won with a majority of votes. Electors either voted for Kukliansky, or abstained. No votes were cast in favor of Gurevičius.” She said she was unable to provide the exact breakdown of votes at the current time.
Simonas Gurevičius told BNS the Vilnius Jewish Community would bring a case to court over decisions by the election conference to create artificial barriers to Jews who wanted to observe the election, and what he alleged were irregularities in the election violating the regulations of the Lithuanian Jewish Community.
Faina Kukliansky Says Election of Simonas Gurevičius as Vilnius Jewish Community Chairman Invalid
Is this an insurgency against the current leadership of the community, or also against dialogue with the Lithuanian state? This question needs to be asked because of the growing conflict among Lithuanian Jews.
Lithuanian Jewish Community (LJC) and Vilnius Jewish Community (VJC) chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said she still hasn’t decided whether to offer hew candidacy for a second four-year term. But long-time former Simonas Gurevičius, who left the community earlier, is already attacking the current leader on all fronts.
Incidentally, one of Gurevičius’s main supporters is US Jewish activist Dovid Katz, who constantly accuses the Lithuanian state of anti-Semitic policies.
Yesterday, on May 24, 2017, in an uprising against Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, the 15 men of the executive board conducted, according to the current chairwoman, illegitimate elections, thus dividing the community.
I, Arkadijus Vinokuras, a legitimate candidate, refused to take part in these elections for three reasons, which can be summed up in the cynical words of newly elected [sic] Vilnius Jewish Community chairman Simonas Gurevičius: “The unity of the community is important. But unity was never a synonym for idiocy. The community is united in pursuing its goals, in improving conditions, in mutual aid, in growth, in perfection, in other positive matters. Not in silence over dishonesty and apathy.” Did you get it? The unity of the community is considered a synonym for stupidity. Apparently striving for the unity of the community (but not confusing this in any way with a uniform opinion) is also idiotic. That the new “chairman” considers members of the VJC idiots and fools, and that the defense of morality has become a farce, was shown by him immediately during the election, when I withdrew from the elections and that very same minute a new candidacy was raised “in the name of democratic elections.”
Why I Refused to Participate
First. Because of the moral dilemma. There are 2,200 members in the Vilnius Jewish Community. These elections for the post of VJC chairman were attended exclusively by Gurevičius’s supporters, just 260 people. I, on the other hand, want to be a candidate for all members, regardless of whether they are proponents or opponents. That’s the correct and fair way. Thus my legitimate hopes and expectations as a legitimate candidate were not satisfied.
Second. Only Gurevičius’s supporters participated in these “elections.” He was elected by 246 people. I cannot countenance these elections turned farcical with no chance for an independent candidate.
Third. These elections didn’t contain even a trace of democracy. First of all, the conflict which arose between the executive board and the chairwoman was born in immorality. Whether there were good grounds for it or not, I won’t get into, I won’t go into the legal arguments. But it’s not just the legal aspect that matters in this small community, it’s the aspect of fairness and justice. So the chairwoman was accused of usurping power and manipulating the regulations of the VJC. All the problems of the VJC were placed at the feet of the chairwoman.
Flawed Regulations
But–at least the question arises in my mind–where were these members of the executive board of the VJC, these allegedly intelligent 15 men, these last four years? Why didn’t they over the course of those years do anything to change these flawed rules and regulations which allowed for manipulations using these regulations as seen fit and as desired by the chair and the executive board? Why did these 15 men, who placed the blame for the conflict on one woman, begin this conflict which has led directly to the schism in the community?
The Social Programs Department of the Lithuanian Jewish Community has learned members of the Vilnius Jewish Community have been getting telephone calls with requests for information about the assistance and/or compensation they are receiving and asking for personal information. If this happened to you, you WERE NOT called by the Social Programs Department which is not conducting any such surveys.
Please be careful and critical, telephone scammers are very good at what they do. Do not divulge any information to people you don’t know over the telephone or by email. These criminals specialize in gaining the confidence of their victims in order to steal their money. If you received a suspicious telephone call, please report it to the Social Programs Department immediately:
Members of the Panevėžys Jewish Community turned out May 17 to meet Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky. She provided a brief synopsis of LJC activities and answered questions. Afterwards there was discussion of social welfare issues and an exchange of opinions about current events and trends within the LJC.
“Thank you, Faina, for your assessment of the Panevėžys Jewish Community, for sharing your insights and for answering questions of concern to us. We are not just the Panevėžys Jewish Community, but also part of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, so these sorts of meetings are important to us and pleasant,” Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman said.
Vaclovas Petras Baltusevičius, a member of the Kaunas Jewish Community, passed away May 17. He was born June 16, 1940. We express our sincere condolences to his loved ones.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community’s Social Programs Department is continuing the project begun in 2014 in 2017 to provide aid to elderly WWII-era rescuers of Jews from the Holocaust, financed by the Goodwill Foundation.
Seventy-six Righteous Gentiles received personal letters wishing them good health and wellness. Each rescuer will receive up to 326 euros this year.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community has announced a candidate search for the best person to fill the post of director of the planned private Jewish kindergarten Shalom. Requirements include perfect fluency in Lithuanian and specific levels of proficiency in English, Russian and Hebrew.
The Gesher and Kaveret Clubs of the Lithuanian Jewish Community are to screen a Russian-language version of the film the Zookeeper’s Wife (2017) at 7:00 P.M., May 22, 2017, on the third floor at LJC headquarters located at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius. The American film is about the rescue of Jews from the Holocaust by the Warsaw Zoo zookeeper and his wife. For more information, call Žana Skudovičienė at 370 678 81514.
LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky received the following thank-you note from the granddaughter of a Lithuanian woman who rescued Jews from the Holocaust.
Hello,
My grandmother Stasė Minelgienė (a recognized Righteous Gentile) asked me to thank you for the card [debit card] which she received as a gift. She also asked me to wish you a nice day, good health and the highest success.
Before his death, long-time client of the LJC Social Programs Department Avishalom Moishe Fishman left a last will and testament donating his savings to the Lithuanian Jewish Community who had cared for him in his latter years.
To honor Moishe Fishman’s wishes, LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky proposed using the funds for the needs of the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius.
In furthering Jewish traditions of charity, it was decided with Vilnius Jewish Religious Community chairman Simas Levinas to use the funds received to set up a free-breakfast program in the cafeteria on the second floor of the Choral Synagogue, Pylimo street no. 39, Vilnius.
Moishe lived alone and was a client of the Social Programs Department for about 18 years.
The Community and its members, and especially members of the seniors club, became his second home and family.
Let’s remember together this enlightened man beloved and honored by all who knew him.
For the first time a plaque will be placed on the wall of the synagogue to thank and remember a local philanthropist, rather than a donor from abroad.
Everyone knew him as Misha, so this has been dubbed “Misha’s Breakfast Project.” It will begin Monday, May 15. The breakfast program will take place at the synagogue from 9:00 to 10:00 A.M., Monday to Friday.
