Lithuanian Jewish Community

Australian PM Turnbull Gives Warm Welcome to Israeli PM Netanyahu

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Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull appeared inseparable during Netanyahu’s visit. They made several joint appearances, with Turnbull dedicating two full days to his counterpart.. (photo credit:REUTERS)

SYDNEY – Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull used prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to his country this week not only to showcase the extremely close ties between Australia and Israel, but also to salute the contributions of Jews to Australia.

At an extraordinary event at the Moriah College Jewish day school on Thursday morning, Turnbull told the hundreds of high school students jammed into an auditorium that “we could not imagine our modern Australia without the extraordinary contributions of Jewish Australians like yourselves, your parents and your grandparents. And I thank you for that contribution.”

Just minutes earlier, the Australian prime minister urged primary school students, who sat with incredible discipline for an hour on the floor of a gym waiting for Netanyahu and Turnbull to arrive, to be anything they wanted.

“Believe in yourselves, hold to your Jewish ideals,” he said.

Full coverage here.

2017-02-242017-03-01

Lecture by Rabbi Shimshon Daniel Isaacson

Dear friends,

You are welcome to attend a lecture by Rabbi Shimshon Daniel Isaacson

“Study of the Law in the Book ‘Kitzur Shulchan Aruch: The Code of Jewish Law'”

beginning at 6:35 P.M., Thursday, February 23, at the Choral Synagogue, Pylimo street no. 39, Vilnius.

2017-02-23

Lecture “Lithuanian Anti-Semitism, 1939-1940: Causes, Expressions, Trends”

The Sugihara Foundation Diplomats for Life organization invites you to the second lecture in the Northern Casablanca Academy series called “Lithuanian Anti-Semitism, 1939-1940: Causes, Expressions, Trends” to be held at 5:00 P.M., February 22, at the Sugihara House Museum in Kaunas. The lecturer is Dr. Linas Venclauskas.

For more information, see here.

2017-02-222017-02-24

About Jews and a Dream

[Note: The proposal Mr. Ivaškevičius makes in the following opinion piece in no way reflects the position of the Lithuanian Jewish Community. In fact, on several points it contradicts the positions of the LJC stated publicly in the past, namely, regarding the rebuilding of the Great Synagogue in Vilnius. Also, at least three Litvak museums, much like the one he proposes, are currently in the planning stage, two in Vilnius, and one scheduled to open in the shtetl of Šeduva in late 2017 or early 2018. The following translation is presented to our readers merely for the sake of information and the interest of our readers.]

by Marius Ivaškevičius
www.DELFI.lt

Yes, again, about Jews. Although, not really, this is perhaps more about us. About Vilnius, really, of which they were a part, and now we are. And this time not about repentance, guilt or about what we’ve lost, on the contrary, about what we can still get back. I want to propose a plan for how our dead Jews could still serve us.

About Vilnius

I love this city and I always tell my foreign friends it is a hidden pearl. When you need peace, it is peaceful. When you want noise and excitement, it has something to offer. The beauty here is obvious, brick-and-mortar and alive, the old architecture, the beautiful men and women, in a word, something to look at. For a long time my stories hit a polite wall of promises: “yes, of course, we will have to go there someday.” Someday, never. But suddenly it began to work. As if my foreign friends had made an agreement among themselves, they began to flood into Vilnius, asking what they should see first in this city.

So I got the opportunity to look at Vilnius not through the eyes of an insider living here, but through the eyes of someone who had just arrived. And I realized Vilnius doesn’t have anything to offer them. The Old Town, sure, it’s charming. But that charm wears off after a half day. You can spend the evening and night on the weekends in the bars. Then what? Then they want museums, but here these, it turns out, are each more boring than the last. Old armor, weapons and glazed tiles they have already seen, the picture galleries are only of local significance, there are no masterpieces and it takes a real fanatic, a tourist dedicated to art, to “consume” what is on offer.

The only thing which is truly not disappointing is the theater. The theaters of Vilnius are world-class and many drama enthusiasts come just for this, to see Nekrošius, Tuminas and Koršunovas in their hometown. Perhaps sometimes they murmur after the show about a lack of subtitles or translation, but essentially they’re satisfied. The plays fill their evenings, and during the day, seeking new experiences, they visit the Museum of Lithuanian Theater and Cinema, certain that it will be of the same high caliber as our theater which it represents. But they find that same museum boredom instead. A stoppage of time and museum women knitting.

2017-02-222017-03-07

Celebrating February 16 at the Lithuanian Jewish Community with Scouts

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The Lithuanian Scouts, the Polish Lithuanian Scouts Union and the Union of Lithuanian Jewish Students celebrated Lithuania’s pre-World War II independence day, February 16, together at the Lithuanian Jewish Community. Head of the Polish Lithuanian scouting organization and former director of the Pope John Paul II Gymnasium in Vilnius Adam Blaszkewicz, members of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, actors from the Russian Drama Theater and Polish, Lithuanian and Russian scouts spoke about freedom, civic-mindedness and history.

The event was held at the Lithuanian Jewish Community and was live-streamed on facebook.

ORT Sholem Aleichem Gymnasium principal Misha Jakobas also spoke at the event. “I always tell parents, if you want your child to make a career, if you see your future in Lithuania, you must know several important things. First, you must know the national language perfectly. If you go into the office of the director of an important company and start stuttering, if you write a document with mistakes, if you can’t form a complete sentence, then the director has the right to tell you to get out,” Jakobas was quoted by news internet site delfi.lt

2017-02-21

Pope Says Anti-Semitism Opposite of Christian Values

“Unfortunately, anti-Semitism, which I reject in all forms of thinking which are the antithesis of Christian principles, is still very common in our time”, Pope Francis said in a meeting with representatives of the Anti-Defamation League, reports the website regions.ru.

The Pope also cited a document published 50 years ago, Nostra Aetate, which identified approaches to solving the problem of anti-Semitism. It specifically states that the Church “feels obliged to do everything possible to help our Jewish friends to overcome anti-Semitic tendencies.” Head of the Anti-Defamation League Jonathan Greenblatt called meeting fruitful.

The Anti-Defamation League is an American Jewish NGO and is considered one of the leaders in combating anti-Semitism.

Pope Francis also recalled his visit to Auschwitz last year, saying: “There are no adequate words to describe the horror and cruelty of sin that was going on there. I pray the Lord have mercy, and such tragedies are never repeated.”

2017-02-212017-02-22

Lesson by Rebbetzin Esther Isaacson

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Dear women and girls,

You are invited to a lesson by Rebbetzin Esther Isaacson called

The Laws of Washing Hands

at 6:30 P.M. on February 22 on the third floor of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius.

2017-02-212017-02-28

Military History: The Career of a Flight Engineer from Zhitomir from the USSR to Afghanistan, to Independent Lithuania

Gena K

by Nataliya Zverko
ru.DELFI.lt

We met Gennady Kofman at a former girls’ school which now serves as the headquarters of the Panevėžys Jewish Community. Reporters were seated and served tea and cookies in a friendly atmosphere, with only the silent photographs on the walls before us to remind us 95% of the Jews resident in the Lithuanian city were murdered in the Holocaust.

Gennady Kofman, a native of Zhitomir, Ukraine, has been chairman of the Panevėžys Jewish Community since 2001, having returned to the city in 1972 after being graduated from the Kaliningrad Military Aviation School. For a long time he served in the post of software engineer for the Panevėžys military airfield’s radar system, and later flew transport missions in Afghanistan and Armenia. When Lithuania regained independence in 1991, he stayed here, and found himself in a new reality.

Full story in Russian here.

2017-02-21

Serbian President Awards Efraim Zuroff Gold Medal

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Serbia’s president Tomislav Nikolić presented Serbia’s Gold Medal for Merit to Dr. Efraim Zuroff, chief Nazi hunter and director for Eastern European affairs at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, on February 16 as part of celebrations of Sretenje, Serbia’s day of statehood. The award was presented for “exceptional achievements” by Dr. Zuroff and noted his “selfless dedication to defending the truth about the suffering of Jews, and also Serbs, Roma and other nationalities, during World War II.”

Zuroff was the first to be called to receive the award from the president’s hand and was one of only a few foreigners to be honored with the distinction. He is only one of two Israelis ever to have received the medal, along with Serbian-born Israeli justice minister Yosef “Tommy” Lapid. Efraim Zuroff has deep Litvak roots and has worked on Holocaust justice and education in Lithuania for many decades now.

2017-02-212017-03-01

Kaunas Ultranationalist March Ended by… Donald Trump?

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Rethinking hate: Annual Kaunas February 16 ultra-nationalist marchers turn whimsical as organizers look at joining mainstream young conservative movement. Photo by Elijau Kniežauskas, courtesy Kauno Diena.

by Geoff Vasil

The annual march by Lithuanian ultra-nationalists on the pre-WWII Lithuanian independence day, February 16, in Kaunas, Lithuania’s second largest city, saw record low turnout this year, 2017. According to media reports of police estimates, just under 150 people including parents with children came this year.

Organizers sought and received a permit for 500 marchers.

Even before the march took place this year, there were signs of disarray this year. Instead of the usual organizer, the Union of Lithuanian Nationalist Youth, private citizen and somewhat of a dissident member of that organization, Justinas Daunoras, applied for the permit with Tomas Skorupskas as co-organizer. Both were reportedly convicted of public displays of Nazi logos in the past, according to media reports.

“The core of the march remains the same, although the Union of Nationalist Youth no longer exists. Now this is a club of several people. But we wanted to celebrate the holiday and enjoy our hard-won freedom. But we didn’t want the hate which our leaders have propagated in the past,” Tomas Skorupskas told the Kaunas newspaper Kauno Diena.

Justinas Daunoras told the same newspaper he and his fellow marchers wanted to modernize tradition. “In the narrow sense, that we shouldn’t get stuck in old matters, things such as appearance or style, but instead get in step with the times. In the broader sense, in the context of a changing culture and civilization, tradition must make way and accommodate them.” Speaking before the march was held, he told Kauno Diena they expected the usual number of marchers, several hundred, but added that some were staying away because they were displeased by things which took place in earlier years at the march. Daunoras had expected new marchers to replace the ranks of those staying home.

Lithuanian National Radio and Television reported the march briefly last week under the headline “Nationalist Youth March Organizers Borrow Slogan from Donald Trump”:

2017-02-212017-05-24

Condolences

Jelizaveta Kacnelson passed away February 15. She was born August 6, 1934. She was a member of the Vilnius Jewish Community. The entire Lithuanian Jewish Community mourns her passing and sends condolences to her surviving family members.

2017-02-21

Happy 90th Birthday, Feiga Tregerienė!

Kaunas Jewish Community member Feiga Tregerienė celebrated her 90th birthday on February 17 with cards and birthday wishes from friends and family around the world.

We celebrate her milestone birthday and also wish her good health, good emotions and the love and warmth of family and friends.

May she live to 120!

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2017-02-21

Condolences

Our deepest condolences to Bagel Shop employee Valentina Kot-Osipian on the loss of her beloved father.

2017-02-21

Portrayal of Other Ethnicities in Shrovetide Traditions

In the run-up to the Lithuanian holiday of Užgavėnės (Shrovetide), the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum’s Tolerance Center will hold a discussion called Portrayal of Other Ethnicities in Shrovetide Traditions. The traditional holiday features people dressed up as Jews with masks with hooked noses. Speakers are to include Dr. Laima Anglickienė, the head of the cathedral of ethnology and folklore studies at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas; Libertas Klimka, an ethnologist and professor at the Lithuanian Educology University; the writer Dainius Razauskas and representatives from the Lithuanian Human Rights Center and the Equal Opportunities Ombudsman Service.

The discussion is open to the public and is to take place at 4:30 P.M. on February 21. The Tolerance Center is located at Naugarduko street no. 10/2 in Vilnius.

2017-02-212017-02-22

Japanese Violinist Yurina Arai Wins Heifetz Contest

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Yurina Arai has been named the winner of the Fifth Jascha Heifetz International Violin Competition in Vilnius, Lithuania. The 22-year-old Japanese violinist, who triumphed in the final with her performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, receives €10,000 and a number of performance opportunities. The student of Natsumi Tamai at the Tokyo University of the Arts won first prize at the Grumiaux Competition last year. The second prize worth €5,000 went to 17-year-old Dmytro Udovychenko from Ukraine, while third prize worth €2,000 went to 17-year-old R. Fukuda from Japan who won the Junior Division of the Menuhin Competition in 2014. Moscow Conservatory student 24-year-old Stepan Starikov and 17-year-old Japanese violinist Mayu Ozeki were awarded diplomas and €1,000. For the first time this year winners received a small sculpture of Heifetz by Lithuanian sculptor Romualdas Kvintas. The award was established by the Lithuanian Jewish Community. Professor Leonidas Melnikas who presented the prizes said “We want the winners to always remember Heifetz lived in Vilnius.”

Was Hebrew Ever a Dead Language?

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Frequent VYI summer course student Sonya Yampolskaya at her doctoral defense in Russia

Frequent student at the Yiddish summer courses at Vilnius University Sonya Yampolskaya has successfully defended her doctoral dissertation casting serious doubt on the alleged morbidity and revival of the Hebrew language.

If Hebrew were a “dead language” before its revival as the official language of Israel, as is commonly accepted, then why was it being used by Russian Jews who were even opening new Hebrew newspapers right into the 20th century?

The first chapter of Yampolskaya’s dissertation at St. Petersburg State University details both the genesis of the myth of the death of Hebrew and its alleged “resurrection” by Ben-Yehuda, and a discussion of the concepts of “dead” and “alive” as they are used in different scientific paradigms, and especially their usage in linguistics and biology. The first chapter also explores developments within Ashkenazic Hebrew in the 19th and 20th centuries. Chapters Two and Three get down to the nitty-gritty, detailing the process of lexical borrowings into Ashkenazic and what is called the T-V (tu, vous) distinction in linguistics to demonstrate both innovations and the loss of traditional forms in the language in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Yampolskaya says Ashkenazic did undergo a kind of extinction in public use in the Soviet Union ca. 1925-1926, but that its rapid development from the 1850s to the 1920s resulted in publications in Latvia, Lithuania, Bessarabia (Moldova), Poland and the Ukraine besides Russia, whose output of text vastly outweighed Hebrew-language publications from Palestine, the Americas and Western Europe. The way words were borrowed from foreign languages carried over into the method used in modern Israeli Hebrew, Yampolskaya found. The idea Hebrew was a dead language, as might be said of Latin and classical Greek, found proponents in the Yiddish side of the battle between Hebrew and Yiddish for the soul of the Jewish people. Yampolskaya also notes the seemingly Christian symbolism ironically involved in the semi-official myth of Hebrew’s death and resurrection by the State of Israel ca. 1948 following 2,000 years of its alleged morbidity. Besides the use of Ashkenazic Hebrew in “high register” venues such as religious books and its “mid-level” use in the periodical press, Yampolskaya discusses its use as an everyday language among Russia’s Jews.

Yampolskaya’s dissertation at the Oriental Studies department of St. Petersburg State University is the first one in 50 years on Hebrew.

Dissertation in Russian with extensive English translation available here.

Photos and details of the doctoral defense in Russian here.

2017-02-152017-03-22

Agreement with Jurbarkas on Synagogue Square Memorial

On February 9 the Lithuanian Jewish Community signed an agreement with the Jurbarkas regional administration and the New Artists College CAN of Israel on a projected called “Synagogue Square Memorial.” The memorial is dedicated to remembering the Jews of the shtetl (formerly known as Yurburg or Jurburg in Yiddish and Georgenburg in German) and is to be located on Kauno street in Jurbarkas where one of the most beautiful wooden synagogues in Europe once stood. The memorial is being created by Israeli sculptor David Zundelovich, who comes from Lithuania. It is to portray the waves of the Nemunas River and the wooden synagogue and is to be made of gray and black basalt. It is to include the names of Jews who lived in Jurbarkas and the names of people who rescued them during the Holocaust, with inscriptions in English and Hebrew.

Jurbarkas regional administration head Skirmantas Mockevičius said the group is looking for funding for the memorial. “Jews lived in Jurbarkas for a long time and there is no monument, so sign, even though they were the majority of the community,” Mockevičius told BNS. From three to four thousand Jews called Jurbarkas home before the Holocaust. The head of the regional administration said residents weren’t interested in a graveyard memorial and wanted the memorial to appeal to the people, including the youth. Under the plan the memorial is to be built within 8 months from the signing of the agreement. Mockevičius expected it to be in place in Jurbarkas by the fall.

2017-02-142017-02-22

Ongoing Hommage à Heifetz Project Provides Chance to Learn More about Jewish Culture

A meeting called “Vilnius, Litvak Culture in the 19th and 20th Centuries and Jascha Heifetz” was held in Lithuanian at the Lithuanian Jewish Community on February 9, 2017. It was a chance to reflect both on the past, the deep Litvak roots in Lithuania and the greatest violinist of all time, but also on the present Lithuanian Jewish Community. Speakers included Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, deputy chairwoman Maša Grodnikienė, Eugenijus Laurinaitis, Leonidas Melnikas, Larisa Lempert ir Donatas Katkus and Silvija Sondeckienė.

“Jascha Heifetz’s secret of his achievements was not only a unique talent, but practice, practice and more practice. The notes of his violin are not governed by the years and his life and achievements are not those of a typical Vilnius Jew living in the Pale of Settlement of Tsarist Russia. Heifetz achieved greatness and reached the pinnacle of musical achievement in the world for all time, our fellow countryman, our fellow Vilnius resident, Jascha Heifetz,” Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky commented.

Snapshots from event on facebook.

2017-02-142017-02-22

Writer Vanda Juknaitė Receives Tolerance Award

2016-ųjų Tolerancijos žmogumi paskelbta rašytoja V.Juknaitė

Info from kauno.diena.lt

The Lithuanian writer Vanda Juknaitė has been named the Person of Tolerance of the Year in the annual Lithuanian award for spreading tolerance in Lithuanian society.

The board of directors of the Sugihara Foundation had narrowed the field down to three candidates: the writer Marius Ivaškevičius, Vanda Juknaitė and the journalist Domas Burkauskas. Ivaškevičius wrote a moving piece about the Jews of Molėtai and organized a Holocaust commemoration there. Burauskas was nominated for reporting on the plight of refugees.

Juknaitė received the tolerance award for calling for reconciliation between Lithuanians and Jews over the Holocaust.

Juknaitei iteikia prem

2017-02-14

Continuing Education University Students Visit Panevėžys Jewish Community

The History Faculty of TAU (Trečiojo amžiaus universitetas) University in Panevėžys under the direction of Jonas Lazauskas holds lectures, meetings and excursions. One such meeting took place at the Panevėžys Jewish Community with chairman Gennady Kofman.

He gave a lecture providing the history and activity of the Panevėžys Jewish Community. Audience members learned which buildings were Jewish and what happened to those buildings. The audience was visibly moved by the story of the Panevėžys Jewish cemetery destroyed in 1966 and of what happened to the headstones. The audience, made of elderly continuing-education students at the university, still remembered the Jewish shops which lined Freedom Square in the past, and the oldest Jewish cemetery and stone wall next to the theater.

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2017-02-14