Lithuanian Jewish Community

Death of a Friend

Learning the lesson of respect and Jewish unity from my dear friend Yechezkel Fox, of blessed memory

by Rabbi Yonason Goldson

Half a century ago, kosher matzah was not something the Jews of England took for granted. In fact, every year the London Beis Din took out a full page ad in the London Times warning that Rakusen’s matzah, the most widely distributed in the country, was not kosher for Passover.

Then Leslie Fox bought the company.

With the ink barely dry on the contract, Mr. Fox called up the London Beis Din. “Send over a rabbi,” he said, promising to do whatever was necessary to make his product kosher. The next Passover, the ad appearing in the London Times trumpeted: This year you can eat Rakusen’s matzah!

Yechezkel at author’s wedding.

How many thousands of people ended up eating kosher matzah because of one man? And what kind of son grows up in the house of such a father?

2017-08-302017-09-08

The Price of Disunity

Insights into the destruction of the Second Temple
by Rabbi Yonason Goldson

It was in the year 3826 (66 CE) that the excesses of Roman governance over the Land of Israel finally drove the inhabitants of Jerusalem to the breaking point. On the 17th day of the month of Iyar, the taunts and jeers of Roman soldiers provoked an uprising by the city’s populace more violent than either Jew nor Roman could have imagined. By the end of the day the Jews had retaken control of their capital. The Great Revolt had begun.

The victory in Jerusalem came at a painfully high price. Thousands of Jews across the region were massacred or sold into slavery as citizens in Hellenized cities of Caesaria, Alexandria, and Damascus responded to the Jewish uprising with riots and pogroms. But the official response from Rome was more calculated. To impress upon other nationalities throughout its empire the folly of rebellion, the Roman Senate dispatched a massive army to crush the revolution in Judea.

Faced with the approach of four Roman legions led by Vespasian, one of Rome’s most successful generals, it seems unimaginable that the Jews could have held out any hope of victory. But unlike secular history, the Talmudic record incorporates spiritual, as well as political, cause and effect. Just as the Roman occupation of Israel had been decreed on High in response to the Jews’ spiritual shortcomings, so too did the fate of the Jerusalem ultimately rest in the Jews’ own hands. Spiritually, as well as militarily, it was the Jewish people’s internal divisiveness that left them vulnerable to the power of Rome.

2017-08-302017-09-08

Jewish Solidarity

by Rabbi Berel Wein

One of the hallmarks of the story of the Jewish people over the millennia of our existence has been the fact that Jews, no matter what their political persuasion or level of religious belief and observance, always seem to care for one another. Though there always were divergent interests and different agendas present in the Jewish world, when Jews were in mortal danger the Jewish world somehow rose to attempt to help and defend our brethren who were threatened.

Many times our efforts were too little and too late. That certainly was the case regarding European Jewry during World War II. Till today, there is much controversy and bitterness, academic dispute and political debate regarding what was done and what more could have been done to rescue Jews from the jaws of the Holocaust.

It is a topic that gives us no rest and provides no proper solution. I remember how my own family personally anguished over the destruction of my uncles, aunts and cousins. They always asked themselves if more could have been done to somehow extricate them from Lithuania before 1940.

2017-08-302017-09-08

Happy Birthday to Larisa Vyšniauskienė

Happy birthday to the tireless director of and creative force behind the Fayerlakh Jewish song and dance ensemble, Larisa Vyšniauskienė. The Lithuanian Jewish Community hopes your wonderful smile never leaves you, that you continue to enjoy creative victories and inspiration, and that your life be filled with love and harmony.

Happy birthday, Larisa!

2017-08-302017-08-31

Conference “Jews of Palanga” in Palanga, Lithuania

The Palanga Spa Museum is hosting on September 4 an academic conference called “Jews of Palanga: A Lost Part of the City Community.” The museum is organizing the conference with the Baltic Regional History and Archaeology Institute of Klaipėda University. The event will begin at 10:00 A.M. on Monday, September 4 and the address is Birutės alley no. 34a, Palanga, Lithuania.

Organizers ask those who wish to participate to register by calling 8 4 605 7216.

2017-08-302017-09-04

German President Frank Steinmeier, Wife Elke Buedenbender and LJC Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky Commemorate Holocaust Victims at Ponar

German president Frank Steinmeier and wife Elke Buedendender commemorated Holocaust victims at Ponar in Lithuania August 25 with Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky.

Chairwoman Kukliansky said the Jewish community was grateful to the German president for the honor he paid to Holocaust victims and that Ponar remains a symbol of the Jewry of Lithuania murdered during World War II. She also remarked the Nazi regime was responsible for the Holocaust and not all the German people. She characterized modern Germany’s attitude towards Nazi crimes as exemplary. Germany continues to support financially Holocaust survivors in Europe, providing for their health care and other needs. Lithuanian Jews also receive funding from the German state allocated for Holocaust survivors. These funds are distributed through various organizations.

Kukliansky and the president of Germany also addressed the problem of the second generation, meaning the children of survivors, often of parents who took up arms to fight the Nazis and those who survived due to the goodwill of others, as well as the children of those who survived by being deported and evacuated to the Soviet Union. These children in Lithuania grew up with a real experience of Holocaust trauma, they heard talk at home of the loss of family members and entire families, the loss of homes, the need to hide and flee and the experience of survivors who found it difficult to obtain employment after the war in Soviet Lithuania using a Jewish surname. Many feared anti-Semitic attacks after the war. Relatively recently scholars and specialists have begun looking at the this post-traumatic experience by the second generation who also suffered from the Nazi regime, and who in post-Communist countries often experience hardships and poverty in old age. There are plans to review German criteria for distributing compensation. Currently many funds allocate monies, subsidies and grants. Now there is consideration of taking care of the second generation of survivors as well.

from the German press on August 25 with additional LJC photographs (without watermarks):

German President Frank Walter Steinmeier on Official Visit to Lithuania
EPA photographer FELIPE TRUEBA

German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier, his wife Elke Buedenbender and chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community Faina Kukliansky participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Ponari Holocaust memorial in Vilnius, Lithuania, on August 25, 2017. Steinmeier is on an official four-day tour visiting the Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to strengthen diplomatic relations with Germany. The Baltic region is an important ally in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

2017-08-282017-09-01

South African Jewish Board Appalled by Andile Mngxitama’s Holocaust Tweet

BLF leader Andile Mngxitama
Image: Gallo Images/Beeld/Deaan Vivier

by Jenna Etheridge, News24

Cape Town, August 24–The South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) expressed shock on Thursday at a tweet by Black Land First (BLF aka “Black First Land First”) party leader Andile Mngxitama claiming the legacy of the Holocaust wasn’t all negative.

In an apparent attempt to put himself back in the media spotlight, Mngxitama tweeted around 5:30 A.M.: “For those claiming the legacy of the holocaust is ONLY negative think about the lampshades and Jewish soap.”

The tweet was possibly a reference to Western Cape premier Helen Zille’s controversial tweets earlier in the year when she said the legacy of colonialism was not all negative. Zille apologized for making the comment.

The SAJBD said it was appalled by Mngxitama’s “crassly offensive, demeaning and hurtful” statement.

“With this ugly, jeering remark, Mngxitama has portrayed not just the deliberate murder of Jewish people but even the supposed reduction of their remains to everyday objects as something to be treated as a joke,” SAJBD president Mary Kluk said.

“It is deeply distressing that anyone could so casually and publicly dehumanise an entire people in this way. How much more outrageous it is when emanating from a public figure who heads up a political voice.”

2017-08-282017-08-28

Jewish Hairdresser Fired over Sabbath Spat Wins Legal Case

by Vicky Fragasso-Marquis, Canadian Press

Rule forbidding Richard Zilberg from working on the Sabbath found to violate freedom of conscience and religion

Hired in 2011, hairdresser Richard Zilberg worked six days a week, including Saturday, the busiest day of the week. (The Canadian Press/Graham Hughes)

A Jewish hairdresser in Montreal who was not allowed to work on Saturdays and was eventually fired has won a discrimination case against his former employer.

A Quebec judge has ordered Iris Gressy, who is also Jewish, as well as a numbered company to pay Richard Zilberg a total of $12,500.

He said the decision to forbid Zilberg to work on the Sabbath because he is Jewish violates his right to freedom of conscience and religion.

Zilberg, who is now 54, was hired at the Spa Orazen salon in October 2011 and worked six days a week, including Saturday, the busiest day of the week.

Accused of breaching confidentiality

Court documents state Gressy told Zilberg in July 2012 he would no longer come in on Saturdays, in accordance with her new policy of not allowing her Jewish employees to work that day. She also told him to not tell clients why he was no longer available Saturdays.

Gressy fired Zilberg the following month after she learned he had told a client of the salon that his employer had prohibited him from coming in on Saturdays because of his faith.

2017-08-28

What Europe Can Learn from Israel in War against Vehicle Attacks

by Colonel Richard Kemp and Arsen Ostrovsky

The van terror attack in Barcelona follows a similar wave of car rammings in Nice, London, Paris, Berlin, and Stockholm.

Shortly after the horrific terror attack in Barcelona last week, which claimed the lives of 14 people, Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy said terrorism is Europe’s main problem “right now.”

Similarly, it was not until the London Bridge car ramming in June this year that killed 8 people, that UK prime minister Theresa May said “enough is enough”. But therein lies the problem.

Jihadists have been waging terror in Europe for years now and “enough” was enough after the first attack. But European leaders have largely been in denial, only now beginning to concede there is a problem, and even still, many refusing to identify and confront the radical Islam at the root of this war.

Full text here.

2017-08-282017-08-31

Kaunas Jewish Community Commemorates 76th Anniversary of Mass Murder at Prienai and Surrounding Areas

On August 26 members of the Kaunas Jewish Community attended a commemoration of the mass murder of Jews in Prienai and the surrounding towns of Birštonas, Stakliškės, Jieznas, Balbieriškis and others 76 years ago. Also attending were Prienai regional administration head Egidijus Visockas and Balbieriškis Tolerance Center director Vitas Rymantas Sidaravičius. KJC chairman Gercas Žakas shared his thoughts and thanked those in attendance. KJC member and Kaunas ghetto inmate Fruma Kučinskienė spoke about the love affair between German composter Edwin Geist and Prienai resident pianist Lyda Bagrianskytė, about their friends and about their rescuers, Prienai resident doctor Juozas Brundza and Kaunas resident Františekas (Pranas) Vocelka. Balbieriškis primary school principal Stasys Valančius, teacher Reda Valančienė and their students also attended the event.

After the painful memories members of the KJC had a chance to speak with event organizers in an informal atmosphere. The Kaunas residents also visited Jewish sites in Prienai, although not many survive: the famous Bagrianski mill listed on the Lithuanian registry of cultural treasures, the former synagogue, a Jewish primary school and the ever-more-beautiful Birštonas spa.

2017-08-282017-09-12

Attention Human Rights Activists and Filmmakers

Dear Sir or Madam,

I hope this email finds you well.

I am writing to you to find out whether you / your organization would be interested in participation in our FUTURE DOCS platform for creative encounters of documentary filmmakers and human rights defenders.

FUTURE DOCS intends to bring about new powerful documentaries with potential for tangible social impact.

FUTURE DOCS is based on the idea of a reversed pitching. It means that human rights defenders and activists present selected cases they have been working on to participating filmmakers. Various human rights topics and initiatives, especially those underrepresented on screen, illustrated by powerful human stories behind them, are pitched to creative documentary filmmakers.

2017-08-282017-09-13

Targum Shlishi Encourages and Supports Major book on Rabbi Shagar’s Philosophy

Miami, August 27, 2017—”The integration of heart and mind, soul and intellect, within the context of our tradition has often escaped me…this search led me to the work of Rabbi Shagar, and his work introduced me to a new language for a new generation,” writes Aryeh Rubin, director of Targum Shlishi, in “The Sacred Literature of Rabbi Shagar,” his preface to the volume Rabbi Shagar, Faith Shattered and Restored: Judaism in the Postmodern Age (Maggid Modern Classics Series, 2017). The preface is reproduced in full below.

Targum Shlishi supported the translation into English of this collection of essays. This volume is the first authoritative collection of Rabbi Shagar’s work in English and is considered by the publisher to be a major contribution to contemporary Jewish discourse. A major focus of Rabbi Shagar’s work was his ongoing endeavor to put forth a religious and spiritual response to postmodernism. The publisher is offering Targum Shlishi’s readers a discount on the book, as explained below, in the “Book Discount” section.

Background

Rabbi Shimon Gershon Rosenberg (Shagar) (1949–2007) was one of Israel’s leading thinkers, known for his innovative and creative spiritual approach. A religious Zionist scholar and teacher, he founded and headed Yeshivat Siah-Yitzhak in Efrat, Israel. He grew up in Jerusalem and, until now, his body of work has been known primarily within Israel. In addition to teaching, he authored several books that focused on Talmud, Jewish philosophy, and contemporary religious society in Israel.

The publisher credits Shagar with helping to shape “a generation of Israelis who yearn to encounter the Divine in a world progressively at odds with religious experience, nurturing religious faith within a cultural climate of corrosive skepticism.”

2017-08-282017-08-28

Stories of Vilner Life Accompanied by Music

Arkadijus Gotesmanas, photo from the press release.

Klezmer music festivals are scheduled from August 10 to October 5 in Vilnius, Klaipėda, Kaišiadorys, Joniškis, Merkinė and other Lithuanian towns which will include a nine-concert series called Music for Failed Plays adapted from Abraomas Karpinovičius’s collection of tales The Last Prophet of Vilnius, festival organizers said in a press release.

Avant-garde jazz percussionist and modern music performer Arkadijus Gotesmanas is the force behind the festival. He says he wants to introduce the Lithuanian public to the original writer Abraomas Karpinovičius (1918-2004) who wrote in Yiddish.

His work commemorates the former Jewish life of Vilna, the Jewish drama theater and the Jewish community. Often his characters are odd, for example, Gedalkė Kantorius, who believed melodies could be frozen in a teapot and kept till spring, or the folklorist at the Halle market in Vilnius who collected profanities, or Rokhala who claimed to be a member of the royal court, or the woman who drew banknotes for the future state of Israel outside the Great Synagogue.

2017-08-252017-09-15

Shtetlakh of Lithuania: European Day of Jewish Culture 2017

This year the theme is Lithuanian shtetlakh.

September 3, Lithuanian Jewish Community, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius

Program

9:00 – 12:00 Boker Tov bagel breakfast
location: Bagel Shop Café, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius
Presentation and sampling of authentic Jewish recipes

12:00 – 12:45 Yiddish language lesson with Fania Brancovskaja
location: Heifetz Hall
Mama-loshn

1:00 – 4:00 Ze Taim bagel brunch and presentation of fall menu
location: Bagel Shop Café, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius
Presentation of fall menu

1:00 – 1:45 Hebrew language lesson with Ruth Reches
location: Ilan Hall
Registration here.

2:00 Presentation of European Day of Jewish Culture
location: Heifetz Hall
Welcome speech
Faina Kukliansky and honored guests to speak.

4:00 Challa making lesson with Riva and Amit
location: Bagel Shop Café and White Hall
Registration here.

2:.30 – 4:00 “Shtetlakh of Lithuania” presentation
location: Heifetz Hall
Participants: Vytautas Toleikis, Fania Brancovskaja, Sandra Pertukonytė, Antanas Žilinskis, Rimantas Vanagas, Indrė Anskaitytė, Vita Ličytė and others.

6:00 Rakija Klezmer Orkestar performance
location: Šnipiškės

6:00 Faykerlakh concert Shtetlas
location: Heifetz Hall
Celebrating 45 years of the Jewish song and dance collective

2017-08-252017-09-04

Lithuanian Jews Thank German President for Attention to Holocaust Victims

Vilnius, August 24, BNS–As German president Frank Walter Steinmeier planned Friday to pay respects at a Holocaust commemoration at Ponar, Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said his presence gave rise to emotions of gratitude and joy.

“We are so very thankful for the respect being shown, and Ponar is the symbol of all the murdered Jews of Lithuania,” Kukliansky told BNS.

She also said the Nazi regime was responsible for the Holocaust, but not all Germans.

“The regime turned some people into beasts, and we must hold the rescuers in the highest regard for not surrendering to that… I actually have this ambivalent feeling, I have the urge to apologize to the president because I was raised to think Germans are evil, but neither Germans nor Lithuanians are evil, the regime was evil. We should just thank him and take joy in the fact the president is coming to Ponar to express his respects for the people who were murdered so brutally,” she said.

Kukliansky pointed to modern Germany as an example to follow in the country’s stance towards Nazi crimes.

President Steinmeier on his official visit to Lithuania will also visit German soldiers at the military base in Rukla, Lithuania, on Friday.

2017-08-252017-09-01

Chairs of Lithaunaian, Kaunas Jewish Communities Visit Kaunas Jewish Cemetery

Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, visited the old Jewish cemetery in the Žaliakalnis district of Kaunas August 15 at the invitation of the Kaunas Jewish Community. She and members of the Kaunas Jewish Community, Kaunas-area religious Jewish community and Kaunas Hassidic Synagogue Community and together they studied maps of the cemetery, toured the territory and learned about recent public controversy occasioned by a cemetery neighbor planting decorative trees in the area. Despite the state holiday, Jewish cemetery administrator Edmundas Mikalauskas of municipality’s cemetery supervision enterprise cheerfully agreed to attend the meeting. KJC chairman Gercas Žakas and other participants outlined their positions on the controversy: not only do they approve of the plantings in the area, but enthusiastically welcome and congratulate the person demonstrating this sort of initiative and their beautification of part of the cemetery, in stark contrast to the weedy bushes growing up in other parts of it.

What seemed to cause consternation and surprise wasn’t the landscaping, but the reaction by responsible parties to the artificial scandal generated by one Kaunas figure who always attempts to draw attention to himself through various destructive actions (all the more so since there are plots of land within the cemetery which have caused much more controversy, for example, people living within the cemetery territory for many years who have gardens and even keep animals next to their homes). The KJC chairman mooted the idea of revising the boundaries of the cemetery because the cemetery, which ceased operating in 1952, is constituted of 8 hectares, a large part of which includes empty plots of grass where no burials were ever made. The cemetery, established in 1861, was expanded several times with a view to the future when the Kaunas Jewish community was quite large to meet future demand. Currently there isn’t great demand for grave sites and the cemetery isn’t operational anyway. There is, however, a working Jewish cemetery in Kaunas on H. ir O. Minkovskių street. The LJC chairwoman said she would examine the information received and make a decision soon regarding the planting of decorative trees there.

2017-08-242017-08-31

Exhibit from Vitebsk at Zarasai Regional History Museum

The Zarasai Regional History Museum is holding an exhibit called “Pen and His Students,” partially financed by the Lithuanian Cultural Council. The exhibit is on loan from the Vitebsk Regional History Museum and will run until October 13.

The exhibit features the life and work of Yehuda Pen, who was born and grew up in Zarasai (then known as Novoaleksandrovsk), Lithuania, and his world-famous students. It includes 22 works of art. Local residents and visitors have a wonderful opportunity to view the works of the local artist and his famous pupils, who include Isak Borovsky, Piotr Zankevich, Isak Zeldin, Yelena Kabishsher-Yakerson, Piotr Yavich and Mikhail Kuznetsov.

The exhibit will move on to Vilnius later for an exhibition at the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum.

2017-08-242017-08-31

Concentration Camp Survivor Dita Sperling-Zupavičienė Visits Hometown Kaunas

by Danutė Selčinskaja

We return to Kaunas with Dita Sperling-Zupavičiene, to the same courtyard at Ožeškienės street no. 21 where she lived with her husband Juda Zupavičius before the war, from which she was expelled in the summer of 1941 and imprisoned in the Kaunas ghetto.

The artist Vytenis Jakas has brought the old residents of the courtyard back, Dita and Juda, Dita’s brother Hirsh, their mother and Juda’s comrade Ika Grinberg, the son of the owner of the building.

In the summer of 2014 Dita travelled from Tel Aviv to Lithuania with the hope of commemorating her husband Juda and his fellow members of the Kaunas ghetto resistance during the 70th anniversary of the liquidation of the Kaunas ghetto.

Vytenis Jakas, who lives in the building, unveiled his frescoes of former residents and Kaunas ghetto heroes Juda Zupavičius and Ika Grinberg on September 22, 2014.

In July, 2015, a memorial plaque commemorating Juda–a lieutenant in the Lithuanian military and a chief on the Kaunas ghetto police force–thanks to the efforts of Danutė Rūkienė and other Kaunas municipality staff. Dita Šperlingienė-Zupavičienė), Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, members of the Jewish community and municipal leaders attended the ceremony.

Dita is now 94 but has forgotten nothing and is glad to share her memories with anyone who asks. She said she was very glad to see her old courtyard again. We also saw paintings of the current residents on the wall as well as Jewish scholars. We were very happy to see our faithful old friends there as well, Fruma Kučinskienė and Vytenis Jakas. Thank you!

2017-08-242017-09-08

Kaunas Celebrates Sugihara Week

Sugiharos savaitės renginiai Kaune

You’re invited to attend the events of the first-ever Sugihara Week celebrations in Lithuania from September 2 to 8 in Kaunas.

The week-long celebration commemorates Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara who saved not less than 6,000 Jewish lives in Kaunas together with Dutch consul Jan Zwartendijk.

Japanese ambassador to Lithuania Mr. Toyoei Shigeeda said: “Consul Chiune Sugihara is becoming ever better known in the world and it is pleasing that his great deed is being remembered in ever new ways. It is significant that the Sugihara Week initiative arose in Kaunas, which is the epicenter of the entire Sugihara story.”

Kaunas deputy mayor Simonas Kairys said: “Although Sugihara Week is being held for the first time, it has received major attention in both Lithuania and Japan. It’s incredible what a tie these two distant and different countries share. At the beginning of September many honored guests from Japan will arrive in Kaunas, including representatives of the Japanese Diet, Gifu Prefecture and the Japanese media.”

The deputy mayor invited Kaunas residents and guests to make time in their calendars to attend the wonderful events planned, free and open to the public. The events program includes concerts, symposia, screenings of films, public lectures, exhibits, creative workshops and others in different spaces and venues around Kaunas.

The Sugihara House Museum, housed in the diplomats former diplomatic residence and office, has more information available here.

Sugihara Week also has a facebook page undergoing constant update here.

A listing of events is available in PDF format in Lithuanian here.

Sugihara House may be reached directly by email at sugiharahouse@gmail.com

2017-08-232017-09-12

AJC CEO David Hariss’s Open Letter to President Trump

Dear President Trump: Aftermath of Charlottesville, Part II

by David Harris, AJC CEO
August 16, 2017

Dear President Trump,

I wrote on Monday morning urging you to reconsider your exceptionally ill-chosen words of Saturday – “on many sides” – following the tragic events in Charlottesville.

Shortly afterward, and I’m sure unrelated to my plea, you did so, or at least seemed to do so. I felt your new take on Charlottesville may have been somewhat devoid of passion and authenticity, but at least it was a start in the right direction, however late it might have been.

But barely 24 hours passed before you stood up again and reverted to your Saturday thinking, leaving Monday’s words in the dust. Indeed, your newest comments have rightly provoked outrage and dismay in wide swaths of the country, including within the Republican Party.

2017-08-222017-08-25