Lithuanian Jewish Community

German Historian Raises Painful Question of Lithuanian Collaboration

Effective cooperation between Germans and Lithuanians became a fatal trap for Lithuanian Jews. It was patriots–ethnic nationalists–who murdered the Jews in Lithuania, hoping to form a strong nation-state without Jews, Russians and Poles.

So German historian Christoph Dieckmann said in an exclusive interview with Delfi.lt. Dieckmann, who works at the Fritz Bauer Institute in Frankfurt, is the author of the two-volume Deutsche Besatzungspolitik in Litauen 1941-44 published in 2011. As a member of the Lithuanian International Commission to Assess the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes, Dieckmann raises a painful moral question: why didn’t the Lithuanian people, seeing and hearing the Jews being murdered around them, protest? He believes it’s largely due to the position of the Church, which he believes was only concerned with what to do with the property of Jewish converts to Catholicism.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2017-03-272017-03-28

Panevėžys Jewish Community Passover Celebrations

The Panevėžys Jewish Community greet you on the upcoming holiday of Passover and invite you to a series of events for the holiday:

April 6 Concert “From a Forgotten Book” at the Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė Panevėžys Regional Public Library, Respublikos street no. 14 at 5:00 P.M.

April 10 First Passover Seder at the Rojaus paukštė café, Respublikos street no. 4A at 6:30 P.M.

April 11 Second Passover Seder at the Panevėžys Jewish Community, Ramygalos street no. 18 at 2:00 P.M.

April 14 Third Passover Seder and Sabbath at the Panevėžys Jewish Community, Ramygalos street no. 18 at 2:00 P.M.

2017-03-272017-03-28

Israeli Exchange Students Feel at Home in Kaunas, Lithuania

For a decade now there has been a club for Israeli young people studying in Kaunas. The club meets at what is called the Kaunas Jewish Center in the center of town. Currently about 130 students from the Lithuanian Health Sciences University attend regularly and all Jewish students in Lithuania are welcome.

The center features a synagogue, the student club and a kosher food restaurant for students, and hosts events and holiday celebrations. A mikvah for married women is to be set up before Shavuot this year. Rabbi Moshe Sheynfeld and his right-hand man Aleks Minin run the center. Minin helps with the daily tasks and making new ideas real. The founder, financial supporter and tutelary spirit of the center is William Shtern, who says he’s happy the students have found a small piece of Israel in Kaunas, their second home, where they can further their own identities, but he says he is even more glad they are meeting one another, becoming friends and even starting families.

The Kaunas Jewish Community has been working with Shtern and his center for several years now and acts as partner in certain center projects, and people from the center attend Kaunas Jewish Community events. Every Friday people from the center donate fresh challa bread for the Kaunas Jewish Community’s Sabbath dinner.

You can find out more about the Kaunas Jewish Center here.

2017-03-272017-03-28

Ponar a Precisely Built Efficient Murder Factory

Three years ago archaeological digs began and are on-going at the Ponar Memorial Complex, and in 2015 two more killing pits were discovered, previously unknown, and a more-accurate perimeter of the mass murder site was determined. Saulius Sarcevičius, director of the Urban Research Department at the Lithuanian History Institute, says these discoveries are not only new, they’re unique. “Ponar, established as a so-called base, was not just any mass murder site, but was a precisely planned–down to the finest details–and built and continuously improved murder factory. The incomprehensible action of this mechanism has literally gone to ground and the traces discovered in the reconstruction relief map makes us living witnesses to these crimes which the Nazis tried so hard to hide,” the Lithuanian History Institute historian told the audience at the first International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance conference held in Vilnius.

The Lithuanian Special Unit, or Ypatingasis būrys, subordinate to the Nazi security service, murdered around 100,000 residents of Vilnius and Eastern Lithuania based on racial considerations from 1941 to 1944, most of them Jews. The Ponar site on the edge of Vilnius is the largest Holocaust mass murder site in Lithuania and is well known internationally.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2017-03-272017-03-28

Strange Protest at Auschwitz in the Nude

Friday 14 men and women slaughtered a lamb and disrobed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland, according to the museum there. The group, ranging in age from approximately 20 to 27 and whose identities, citizenship and motivations haven’t been determined, chained themselves to the front gate with the infamous inscription Arbeit Macht Frei, or Works Sets You Free, according to the report. Local media reported the group filmed their actions from a drone. The police reported all participants were detained.

Story in Lithuanian here.

2017-03-272017-04-07

Condolences

Abram Miller, a member of the Vilnius Jewish Community, passed away March 17, 2017. He was born June 9, 1934. The Community sends our heartfelt condolences to the loved ones of the departed for their loss.

2017-03-27

Vilnius Jewish Community Elections for 2017

The Lithuanian Jewish Community’s webpage is providing information about election procedures for the Vilnius Jewish Community and there will be a method for commenting implemented for upcoming elections.

Vilnius Jewish Community Elections for 2017

Dates for Sittings of the Vilnius Jewish Community Board of Directors and Vilnius Jewish Community Conference

Section 7, point 7.1.1 of the regulations of the Vilnius Jewish Community provides a conference of the Vilnius Jewish Community must be convoked and organized by the Vilnius Jewish Community once annually and not more than 4 months after the end of the fiscal year and following independent audit. The Vilnius Jewish Community is planning to hold a meeting of the Vilnius Jewish Community board of directors in April, 2017, at which an annual activities and financial report of the Vilnius Jewish Community and the results of an independent financial audit will be presented, and a decision adopted on the convocation and agenda of a Vilnius Jewish Community conference. Section 7, point 7.1.2 of the regulations of the Vilnius Jewish Community provides announcement of the convening of a conference of the Vilnius Jewish Community must be made publicly in the Lithuanian newspaper Lietuvos rytas at least 30 calendar days in advance of the conference. The announcement must include the date, location and agenda. Based on this point the Vilnius Jewish Community is planning to hold a conference in May or June of 2017.

Voting at the Vilnius Jewish Community Conference

Section 7, point 7.2.12 of the regulations of the Vilnius Jewish Community says each member of the Vilnius Jewish Community has a single vote. The number of members participating at the Vilnius Jewish Community conference is determined from registration pages where Vilnius Jewish Community members attending the conference have registered. A quorum is established by consent of the Vilnius Jewish Community and based on common sense. Once a quorum has been established, it is considered to be in effect throughout the Vilnius Jewish Community conference. Note that based on section 7, point 7.2.13 of the regulations of the Vilnius Jewish Community if there is no quorum determined for the Vilnius Jewish Community conference, a repeat conference must be called after 5 days but before 15 days have elapsed which has the right to make decisions on the agenda of the previous failed conference without regard to the number of Vilnius Jewish Community members participating. Member are to be informed of the repeat Vilnius Jewish Community conference in the same way as the first Vilnius Jewish Community conference was called. Therefore the Vilnius Jewish Community calls upon all Vilnius Jewish Community members to be active, to follow informational announcements and to participate at the Vilnius Jewish Community conference, so that a second conference wouldn’t be necessary.

Section 7, point 7.2.14 of the regulations of the Vilnius Jewish Community prescribes decisions are adopted by a simple majority of votes, i.e., a decision is made if more participating Vilnius Jewish Community members vote “for” than the number voting “against” (abstentions aren’t counted and those voting to abstain are not considered participants in the poll). Note that the chairman of the Vilnius Jewish Community is elected if more than half of the members participating at the Vilnius Jewish Community conference vote for him (section 9, point 9.2.2 of the regulations of the Vilnius Jewish Community). If no candidate receives more than half of the votes, another poll is held. In the second poll the two candidates with the largest number of votes compete. The candidate in the second poll with the largest number of votes is considered elected (section 9, point 9.2.3 of the regulations of the Vilnius Jewish Community).

Under section 7, point 7.2.15 of the regulations of the Vilnius Jewish Community, decisions at the Vilnius Jewish Community are adopted through a public vote. Secret balloting may be held if more than half of the Vilnius Jewish Community members participating demand it.

Section 7, point 7.2.5 of the regulations of the Vilnius Jewish Community provides that a Vilnius Jewish Community member (real person) who is unable to participate at the Vilnius Jewish Community conference may authorize another member to cast a vote in his place on all items on the agenda of the Vilnius Jewish Community conference. Such authorization must indicate clearly how the proxy is to vote on each item on the agenda. Under the laws of the Republic of Lithuania, these powers granted by a real person to represent another in relation with corporate entities must be confirmed by notary public.

Current Term of Office of Chairman of the Vilnius Jewish Community

Faina Kukliansky was elected chairwoman of the Vilnius Jewish Community April 3, 2013. Based on the regulations of the Vilnius Jewish Community, the chairman of the Vilnius Jewish Community is elected once every four years. That means the current term of Faina Kukliansky ends on April 3, 2017, but the person in the post of chairman/chairwoman of the Vilnius Jewish Community will remain in that post until a new person is elected if she is re-elected, in this case at the Vilnius Jewish Community conference in 2017, under the procedures set forth in the regulations of the Vilnius Jewish Community.

Additional Information

The Vilnius Jewish Community calls upon its members to take part actively in the election for the post of chairman/chairwoman of the Vilnius Jewish Community and recommends members become acquainted with the regulations and articles of incorporation and the membership roster of the Vilnius Jewish Community which may be inspected on work days at the office of Monika Antanaitytė (room 201, second floor, Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius). Membership rolls will not be made available to the general public via internet. If you aren’t sure whether you are a member, find out by contacing Monika Antanaitytė, info@lzb.lt, telephone +370 672 40942.

Note as well that all Vilnius Jewish Community members planning to attend the Vilnius Jewish Community conference must have paid their membership dues for the period before the conference.

Under section 5, point 5.3 of the regulations of the Vilnius Jewish Community, the Vilnius Jewish Community board of directors may suspend a member’s activities on the Vilnius Jewish Community board of directors and/or in the Vilnius Jewish Community if that member has systematically (more than three times) failed to pay membership dues.

2017-03-242017-04-27

Klaipėda Jewish Community Celebrates Purim with Concert in Yiddish

The Klaipėda Jewish Community held a concert March 22 by the Klezmasters led by Lev Sandiuk and vocalist Alina Ivakh with solo performances by Mikhail Blinkov on clarinet and Aleksei Rozov on violin. The group performed songs in Yiddish as well as Hebrew, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Russian, Belarusian and even Azeri. The concert was held as a sort of joint celebration of Purim, the happiest of Jewish holidays, and the International Day of Happiness. The Purim holiday was presented to the multicultural audience. The concert went late into the night and Klaipėda municipal officials and members of the various ethnic communities in Klaipėda thanked the organizers for the good time had by all.

For more, see here.

2017-03-242017-03-27

New LJC Project to Make Recommendations on Anti-Semitism at EU Level

Remembrance. Responsibility. The Future. These are the sequential steps leading to real changes in society. The future of democracy and tolerance depends on memory and responsibility assumed, allowing for moving forward. A step towards the future–after surveying, judging and adopting expertise from the best initiatives aimed at fighting discrimination–this is the goal of this new start-up project.

The new project is called Development and Publication of Recommendations for Actions to Fight Anti-Semitism and Romophobia in Lithuania.

The project is supported by the Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft foundation or EVZ in Germany. This foundation supports systematic and long-term studies of discrimination against and marginalization of Jews and Roma in Europe.

The Lithuanian Jewish Community has brought together a group of leading experts from among Lithuanian human rights organizations, community activists, academics and specialists from abroad. This group is undertaking to come up with effective and valuable recommendations on actions for fighting anti-Semitism and Romophobia in Lithuania.

2017-03-232017-04-27

EJC Condemns London Terror Attack

Concern that radical extremists still have the ability and motivation to murder in Europe

Wednesday, March 22, 2017–EJC strongly condemns the terror attack which resulted in three
people dead and more than a dozen injured outside the Houses of Parliament in London today.

“We strongly condemn this cowardly and barbaric terror attack.” president of the EJC, Dr. Moshe Kantor, said. “This strike, at the heart of democracy, on the anniversary of the Brussels attacks which claimed the lives of 32 people, once again demonstrates that radical extremists continue to have the ability and motivation to commit mass murder in Europe.”

On this date last year, three coordinated suicide bombings occurred in Belgium: two at Brussels Airport and one at Maelbeek metro station in central Brussels.

“This murderous ideology targets all Europeans and all of Europe must stand together to fight this scourge,” Dr. Kantor continued. “We need greater intelligence-sharing among European law enforcement and intelligence agencies and stronger laws to act against those in Europe, and across the world, who provide the means, motivation and ideology to enable these attacks.

“The European Jewish Congress and the Jewish communities of Europe extend our deepest condolences to the British Government and people and pray for the welfare of those injured. We call for a robust and collective response which clearly identifies the culprits and the ideology which underpins these acts.”

The European Jewish Congress is the representative organization of European Jewry.

2017-03-232017-03-27

LJC Gešer and Kaveret Clubs Celebrate Purim

The Gešer and Kaveret Clubs of the Lithuanian Jewish Community held a joint Purim carnival/party last Friday. Since the party fell on the Sabbath, they kicked off the celebration with a Sabbath prayer by a young couple in the Kaveret Club.

The event was hosted by LJC program coordinator Žana Skudovičienė and Michailas Frišmanas. The theme was “hipsterism” from the 60s, 70s and 80s and participants were instructed to come dressed as hipsters from that era. There were skits performed on the story and traditions of Purim.

There was also a surprise in store for everyone: famous American cellist, composer and vocalist Ian Maksin showed up and performed. He said he was enthralled by the warm atmosphere and hospitality at the Lithuanian Jewish Community celebration.

2017-03-222017-03-27

Yiddish Language and Literature Summer Program 2017

JULY 17 – AUGUST 11, 2017

Offering four levels of intensive language instruction:

YIDDISH I: for beginners

YIDDISH II: intermediate

YIDDISH III: higher intermediate

YIDDISH IV: advanced

APPLY NOW

About The Program

2017-03-222017-03-27

Former Vilnius Ghetto Library Receives Protected Status

Vilnius, March 22, BNS–The building of a former Jewish library in Vilnius has been entered on the registry of cultural treasures and there are plans to house a Vilnius ghetto museum there.

The Cultural Heritage Department announced the building with a commemorative plaque at Žemaitijos street no. 4 is being provided legal protection for its valuable archaeological, architectural and historical characteristics. The first council for assessing real estate cultural heritage at the department made the decision.

Cultural Heritage Department director Diana Varnaitė the surviving building which was part of the Vilnius ghetto and where the Mefitsei Haskalah library operated and later the Vilnius ghetto library is not currently being used and belongs to the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum.

“At [the museum’s] initiative there are plants to set up a museum commemorating the Holocaust in Lithuania and the Vilnius ghetto which will exhibit the vast Jewish cultural heritage and the history of the Holocaust in Lithuania. The names of Holocaust victims are read out there annually to mark the day of Jewish genocide,” director Diana Varnaitė said.

Žemaitijos 4 250px-Vilna1

2017-03-222017-03-27

Insults to Jews under the Sponsorship of Ramūnas Karbauskis

Lzinios.lt

The newspaper Ūkininko patarėjas [Farmer’s Helper], 30% of whose stock is owned by Union of Peasants and Greens [ruling] party leader Ramūnas Karbauskis, is printing articles raising doubt and uncertainty concerning the conferring of a state award to former ghetto inmate and Soviet partisan Fania Brancovskaja, articles which are insulting to the Lithuanian Jewish community. Historian and MP Arvydas Anušauskas says he thinks these sorts of publications bring to mind Nazi propaganda and contribute to the sowing of ethnic discord.

“The Lithuanian Jewish Community strives to base its words on facts, documents checked a hundred times before making a statement. These sort of accusations and this kind of rhetoric being published by Ūkininko patarėjas is, in my understanding, at the very least unethical,” Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky told [the newspaper] Lietuvos žinios.

She was talking about publications in Ūkininko patarėjas which raise doubts concerning the actions during World War II of Fania Brancovskaja. Brancovskaja was conferred the Order of the Cross of the Knight “For Merit to Lithuania” on February 16 this year. Some publications have claimed Brancovskaja, who fled the Vilnius ghetto and joined the Soviet partisans, is complicit in the mass murder of residents of the village of Kaniūkai [Lithuania] carried out in January of 1944, although research by experts from the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania found she had not taken part in that operation.

Going on Speculation

The March 14 issue of Ūkininko patarėjas contained an article stating: “On February 21 Ūkininko patarėjas was the first media organ in Lithuania to report to the public the President’s Office on the occasion of February 16 [Lithuanian Independence Day], by awarding the ‘knightess’s’ cross to a Soviet agent of diversion, to member of the Jewish gang which exterminated the village of Kaniūkai in Eastern Lithuania Fania Brancovskaja, in truth awarded and rehabilitated all the perpetrators of the genocide of the Lithuanian nation.”

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2017-03-222017-03-27

Department of Ethnic Minorities Presents Virtual Tour of Heritage Sites

The Department of Ethnic Minorities under the Government of the Republic of Lithuania invited those interested in cultural heritage to the launch of their multimedia DVD March 16. The DVD presents moveable and non-moveable heritage objects and sites of ethnic minorities living in Lithuania. The disc contains panoramic photographs of Lithuanian ethnic minority heritage sites by photographer Kostas Šukevičius. This section of the disc includes heritage associated with the Polish and Jewish communities in Lithuania.

Speakers and participants at the event included Cultural Heritage Department director Diana Varnaitė, senior archivist of Lithuania Ramojus Kraujelis, acting director of the State Tourism Department Indrė Trakimaitė-Šeškuvienė, journalist and author Aurelija Arlauskienė who has written a number of books about Lithuanian cultural sites including about the Paulava Republic, and Lithuanian Jewish Community heritage specialist Martynas Užpelkis. Donatas Puslys, editor-in-chief of the website bernardinai.lt, was moderator.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2017-03-222017-03-27

Holocaust Researchers Meeting in Vilnius

Vilniuje susitinka Holokausto tyrėjai

Vilnius, March 22, BNS–The two-day conference “The Beginning of Mass Murder: Identification and Remembrance of Mass Murder Sites from Summer and Fall of 1941” began at the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum in Vilnius Wednesday. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky was a speaker.

IHRA3

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance with 31 member-states and a number of historians, educators, museum specialists and other Holocaust researchers from around the world organized the conference. Lithuania acceded to IHRA membership in 2003 but this is the first time an international IHRA conference has been held in Vilnius, a museum representative said.

The two-day conference is being hosted by the Tolerance Center of the museum and is dedicated to identifying, marking and commemorating mass murder sites in the Baltic states, Romania, Ukraine and Belarus.

2017-03-222017-03-27

Purim at the Ukmergė Jewish Community

Purimas Ukmergės žydų bendruomenėje

The Ukmergė Jewish Community celebrated Purim together in high spirits on March 19.

UkmPur 3

2017-03-212017-03-22

Matzo Brei with Spinach

The Bagel Shop Café has started selling matzo and matzo flour, so we’d like to present some traditional Jewish dishes made from these items.

Matzo brei also known as matzo metugenet is a simple Ashkenazi dish whose name refers to matzo being fried. The dish is often made for breakfast during Passover.

You will need:

2 cups boiling water
5 eggs
6 matzo bread wafers

2017-03-212017-03-22

Dramatic Outcome in Lithuanian Chess League

The third round of the Lithuanian Chess League was held in Vilnius over the weekend during which two tournaments were played and the strongest Lithuanian clubs emerged.

After two rounds (five parties) it seemed there would be no surprises this time. The MRU team dominated the championship winning all five matches for 10 points. Gigant Chess of Panevėžys was a close second with 8 points while Makabi and Margiris from Kaunas (a Lithuanian Chess League champion many times over) each lagged behind by a point at 7. In the sixth round MRU lost 1.5:3.5 to Makabi and Gigant Chess and Margiris each gained a point (2.5:2.5).

Before that fateful round MRU was still out in front with 10 points, but Makabi and Gigant Chess were already hard on their heels, both teams holding 9 points. In the last round the chess players weren’t entirely focused on their own games and kept track of the competition as the situation dramatically changed and made mental calculations about the points needed to end with a higher standing.

2017-03-212017-03-22