Lithuanian Jewish Community

Sara Lapickaja Has Died

Netekome Saros Lapickajos

Following prolonged illness Sara Lapickaja, 79, died in Ashdod, Israel, on October 11, 2016. An active former member of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, she was also a Yiddish language and literature expert and a held a doctorate in philology. The Lithuanian Jewish Community express our deepest condolences to her surviving family and relatives.

Sara Lapickaja was born in Kaunas on June 14, 1938. She and her 10-year-old brother managed to escape the Holocaust and flee to Russia without their parents, where they were sheltered at an orphanage in the Kirov oblast. Lapickaja was in the first class of the Vilnius Jewish School in 1945, but the school was shut down within several years and she transferred to a Russian school, then graduated from the Vilnius Music School where she received a degree in choir conduction. She taught high school in Vilnius and Kaunas until 1988 while devoting much of her energy to the Jewish community, setting up an amateur volunteer choir which she conducted and helping establish the Jewish kindergarten in Vilnius, among other things.

In 1988 with help from the Lithuanian Jewish community she travelled to Israel on a Soviet passport to study at Bar-Ilon University. In Israel she devoted herself to Yiddish language and literature and earned a master’s degree, then furthered her education in St. Petersburg, Russia, where she successfully defended her doctoral thesis, “Ber Gelpern: Editorial and Educational Work” in 1997. She taught Yiddish language and literature in Israel for many years at Bar-Ilon and other institutes of higher learning.

She had a deep and significant relationship with Vilnius’s famous writer Abraham Karpinovich who wrote in Yiddish. They often attended conferences together, including in Vilnius. Karpinovich devoted much of his creative fervor to Jewish life in interwar Vilnius and after his death in 2004 the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum set up a special room in his name containing much of his archives and other items.

Everyone who knew Sara loved her and we will remember her goodness, sincere and open nature and her goal of being useful to her people.

Let her rest in peace in the Land of Israel.

2016-10-132016-10-20

Panevėžys Jewish Community Visits Auschwitz, Birkenau

Panevėžio miesto žydų bendruomenė lankosi Aušvico ir Birkenau koncentracijos stovykloje

There were many events to commemorate the Holocaust in September at the Panevėžys Jewish Community. In August members of the Panevėžys Community took part in ceremonies marking the anniversary of the destruction of the Jewish communities of Biržai, Kupiškis and Rokiškis.

The series of commemorations of victims ended on September 30 with a trip to Poland where Panevėžys Jewish Community members visited the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps.

During the trip Panevėžys Jewish Community members heard many tragic stories about the events of the World War II era. The tours of the death camps Auschwitz and Birkenau deeply affected children and parents. Over 1.5 million Jews, Russians, Roma and people of other ethnicities were murdered there. The Nazis murdered prisoners in the gas chambers and burnt the bodies of their innocent victims in the furnace.

2016-10-102016-10-27

Condolences

Lev Služman, Kaunas Jewish Community and Social Program Department member, left this world on October 9. He was born October 1, 1928.

Our deepest condolences to his friends, family and loved ones.

2016-10-102016-10-27

Condolences

Vilnius Jewish Community and Social Program Department member Chaim Mauša Kaplan passed away on October 8, 2016. He was born September 17, 1923. Our deepest condolences to his relatives and loved ones.

2016-10-102016-10-27

The Nazi Hunter: Holocaust Collaborators Can No Longer Be Excused

warsawghetto061016
German soldiers search the belongings of Jews rounded up in the Warsaw ghetto after the uprising in 1943. This year Europe remembers the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the Holocaust (Getty)

By Efraim Zuroff @EZuroff
Thursday, October 6, 2016

Dr Efraim Zuroff is one of the world’s foremost Nazi hunters, as well as a renowned Holocaust historian.

Here, in his first article for talkRADIO, he talks about the widespread refusal to admit the Nazis didn’t act alone

This summer and autumn, we mark the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the systematic murder of European Jewry by the Nazis and their local collaborators in the areas which were then part of the Soviet Union.

The murders were carried out individually by shooting, and the names of places like Ponar, Fort IX, Rumbula, and Babi Yar became bywords for Holocaust atrocities.

Although the historical record of these crimes is crystal clear, and the identity of the perpetrators well-known, the new democracies of Eastern Europe are having great difficulties in admitting that it was not only Germans and Austrians who carried out these atrocities, but that their nationals also played an important role in implementing the Final Solution.

2016-10-10

Rabbi in Ukraine Assaulted

On October 7 the National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry’s representative in Kiev Ilya Bezrychko reported a Chabad rabbi in the western Ukrainian city of Zhitomir had been beaten severely. No motive for the attack is known.

Rabbi Mendel Deitsch, an emissary in France and Israel, was assaulted at the city’s central train station early Friday morning, October 7. Media reported that the rabbi remained in hospital after undergoing surgery.

NCSEJ pledged to monitor the situation and issue updates about any new developments in connection with the attack.

ncsej.org

2016-10-102016-10-20

Returned from Israel to Live in Lithuania

Iš Izraelio sugrįžo gyventi į Lietuvą

“So you’re a Jew-girl? Oh my, how fine!” Bella Shirin gets this reaction from a Lithuanian woman as they chat while waiting at the doctor’s. Born and raised in Kaunas, she went to Israel with her parents during the Soviet era, and two months ago she returned to live in Lithuania.

True Litvak Family

Bella isn’t upset by the stranger’s words. “All of us Jews are fine,” she replies to the surprised Lithuanian woman. “Lithuania and Israel are for me like two children of the same mother. I love both equally. Our families have been in Lithuania from the time of Gediminas. We are true Litvaks,” Bella exclaims with evident pride.

The energetic and svelte 70-year-old greets us in one of the old apartment houses on E. Ožeškienės street. Bella rents a room here. Her courtyard is well known; it’s the site of the “Courtyard Gallery,” with the walls of the surrounding buildings painted with portraits of the Jews who lived here until the Holocaust. “I wouldn’t like my picture taken in front of them. One should know history, recall the past, but look to the future. We need to talk more about bright examples, about living together peacefully,” she explains.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2016-10-082016-10-25

Vytautas Magnus University Students Join City’s Effort to Revive Old Jewish Cemetery in Žaliakalnis Section of Kaunas

In the last several days work was completed in a month-long project to photographically document almost 6,000 headstones. “We are grateful to the Vytautas Magnus University community for this good-will contribution to restoring historical heritage in Kaunas. Eight students responded to our call and truly performed a great and significant deed. Each headstone was photographed from several angles so now we have several thousand photographs total. They will be included in a common data base which will serve in continuation of the project to restore the old Jewish cemetery. Additionally, a web page is being set up right now especially for this project where all the students’ work will be on display as well,: Kaunas city council member and project initiator professor Jonas Audėjaitis said.

The decision to inventory and identify the graves at the old Jewish cemetery in the Žaliakalnis neighborhood of Kaunas was made last fall. To do so comprehensively according to methods required, efforts to renovate the graveyard were undertaken first. The municipal enterprise Kapinių priežiūra [Cemetery Maintenance] removed brush and unwanted bushes, cut the grass, fixed up the fence and did other work urgently needing to be done, and the enterprise plans to continue fixing up the cemetery. Now video surveillance cameras have been placed around the perimeter of the location.

At the end of July there was a volunteer clean-up campaign. In order to revive the abandoned space and commemorate it, Kaunas city leaders and several dozen volunteers cleaned headstones and counted more than 5,800 graves. The decision was made not to move monuments knocked over by vandals at the present time.

2016-10-072016-10-25

Lithuanian Prime Minister Sends Birthday Greetings to Markas Petuchauskas

Premjeras sveikina Marką Petuchauską jubiliejaus proga

Lithuanian prime minister Algirdas Butkevičius has sent birthday greetings to art history and theater scholar Markas Petuchauskas on the occasion of his 85th birthday.

“You are an important creator of the cultural history of Lithuania and have dedicated many years of your life to the study of art and art history, and especially the development of our theater. Led by mature wisdom and relying upon your wide erudition, you have revealed to us the unique nature of works by famous artists and have painted detailed and colorful pictures of celebrated personalities. You have always been a person of wide horizons and constructive dialogue, and therefore have contributed much to the understanding and to the good cooperation between the Jewish and Lithuanian peoples.

“I sincerely thank you for your great contribution to the spiritual fortification of our state and enrichment of cultural life,” the Lithuanian prime minister said in his birthday greeting.

2016-10-072016-10-25

Book about Lithuanian Public Figure Irena Veisaitė Launched in Paris

Paryžiuje pristatyta knyga apie Lietuvos visuomenės veikėją I. Veisaitę

The Lithuanian embassy in Paris hosted the launch of Yves Plasseraud’s new biography in English, “Irena Veisaitė: Tolerance and Involvement,” October 3. Lithuanian ambassador to France Dalius Čekuolis spoke and said he was happy to have the opportunity to present a French author’s book in English about a noble Lithuanian person who has inspired and set an example of tolerance, and who is an active champion of European values.

The presentation was followed by a discussion with the author, academic and attorney Yves Plasseraud, and the guest of the evening, Irena Veisaitė herself, professor of literature, drama critic and human rights activist. The discussion was moderated by professor Šarūnas Liekis, dean of the Political Science and Diplomacy Faculty at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas. Veisaitė’s daughter Alina also attended with her son and friends.

Veisaitė, born in Kaunas in 1928, is a well-known public figure in Lithuania, a celebrated scholar of the theater, a professor of literature, one of the founders of the Lithuanian Open Society Fund and a member of the Lithuanian national UNESCO commission from 1999 to 2007. She is a member of numerous international and national NGOs and has received many awards and distinctions in Lithuania and other countries. Veisaitė has consistently emphasized the need for dialogue and tolerance even in the most difficult situations life has to offer in all her work.

2016-10-072016-10-20

Rules for the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community’s Taharat ha’Kodesh aka Choral Synagogue

Adopted by a meeting of the executive board of the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community on September 22, 2016, act no. 06

Introduction

The rules have been put in place in light of ever-more-frequent attacks against Jews in Europe and the growing danger posed by terrorism around the world. These rules must be followed strictly and are aimed at insuring the physical safety and spiritual dignity of those who pray at the Taharat ha’Kodesh aka Choral Synagogue.

The mitnagedim Taharat ha’Kodesh synagogue, built in 1903 and belonging to the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community, is the only synagogue in Vilnius which has survived the Holocaust and the Soviet occupation.

Every Jew has the right to visit and pray at the Taharat ha’Kodesh synagogue on the condition she or he follow the rules provided below.

Rules of Behavior at the Taharat ha’Kodesh Synagogue

1. The synagogue is public place of worship where the proper human respect for the site and the congregation is shown.

2. All synagogue activities, prayer and services are based on mitnagedic traditions.

3. Public order must be maintained during all prayer services and afterwards in the synagogue. Public order means the general rules of public behavior operating in society based on principles of morality and mutual respect.

4. Adherence to these rules insures the normal course of life in society, tolerant communication, civilized manners of resolution of conflicts arising between people and abstinence from aggression in pursuing individual interests. The following are banned in the synagogue: rude or belligerent behavior, issuing threats, demonstrating disrespect to those around you or the location itself through mockery or acts of vandalism, disturbing the public order and peace, use of profanity or lewd behavior, disrupting services, making noise or otherwise disturbing prayer.

5. Prayer services are performed exclusively in one of the halls, rooms and spaces of the synagogue.

6. A person who wants to make a public address at the synagogue must receive permission to do so from the rabbi working at the synagogue.

7. Personal arguments as well as arguments over the performance of prayers and other religious rites are banned in the synagogue. Suggestions on the performance of prayers and other religious rites may be discussed with the rabbi only when prayer and other religious rites are not happening. These rules also apply to the Kiddush and lecture room.

8. The opening and closing times of the synagogue are set by the executive board of the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community and are publicly announced. Security and technical personnel are hired and their working hours are set based on these times. In special circumstances they may be subject to the discretion of the chairman of the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community.

9. The person reading the Torah, leading the prayer service, is designated and hired by the chairman of the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community with the approval of the executive board of the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community. All people in the synagogue during that time must adhere to this established order.

10. People visiting the synagogue must be dressed appropriately. For men, that means wearing a yarmulke (kippah), a hat or a scarf to cover their head. Mobile or cell telephones are prohibited during prayer.

11. People armed with firearms or other weapons, or items which could be used as weapons, are not allowed to enter the synagogue (except for security guards). Also, intoxicated people or people arousing suspicion are not allowed to enter. It is also forbidden to bring in bags containing food products and larger packages (backpacks, purses, suitcases, luggage or other packages). These must be left with the person on duty at the entrance.

12. Without permission from the chairman of the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community, it is forbidden to hold meetings, protests and rendezvous in the synagogue, or to set out a table with food, or to engage in commercial activity.

13. Members of the congregation and visitors to the synagogue are required to obey the directions of the chairman, elder and security personnel operating in the name of the executive board of the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community.

14. People who violate these rules are asked to leave the synagogue and might be barred from entry in the future. Violation of public order and other actions prohibited by the laws of the Republic of Lithuania could also incur legal accountability.

15. The keys to the synagogue and entry to all communication are protected and managed by the chairman of the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community.

16. All people inside the synagogue must obey the orders of security personnel. The security guard is equivalent to the person in charge of performing the functions of public administration.

Shmuel Levin, chairman
Vilnius Jewish Religious Community

2016-10-07

Greater Security Measures in Vilnius Following Terrorist Attack at Moscow Synagogue

maskvos-sinagoga

The Lithuanian Jewish Community is alarmed by the armed terrorist attack at a synagogue in Moscow on October 1 and in order to insure greater security has announced a set of rules for the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius, in light of ever-more-frequent attacks against Jews in Europe and the increasing danger posed by terrorism around the world. These rules must be followed strictly and are aimed at insuring the physical safety and spiritual dignity of those praying at the Taharat ha’Kodesh (aka Choral) Synagogue in Vilnius. The rules may be found here: http://www.lzb.lt/en/2016/10/07/rules-for-the-vilnius-jewish-religious-communitys-taharat-hakodesh-aka-choral-synagogue/

On October 1 a synagogue in Moscow was attacked. A security guard was wounded during the attack. There are reports the attacker might have been suffering mental illness. He has been arrested. Armed with a gun, the attacker stormed the synagogue with a canister of flammable liquid as well and threatened to burn down the Jewish house of prayer. He shot the security guard in the head and chest after he tried to refuse the attacker entry.

maskvos-sinagoge

The attacker has been arrested but the police are not reporting any motive for the attack or further details, except that he has been identified as Ivan Lebedev, aged 40, and has been hospitalized for mental illness in the past. About 150 people were gathered at the synagogue for Sabbath services. The attacker reportedly demanded to meet with Moscow’s Chief Rabbi Pinkhas Goldschmidt.

Anti-Semitic attacks of this nature have been rare in Russia and are more often committed in Western European countries with large Jewish communities such as Great Britain and France.

2016-10-072016-10-25

Happy 85th Birthday to Markas Petuchauskas

The Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes professor habil. Markas Petuchauskas a happy 85th birthday! The doctor of art history has written many books on theater and drama over many years.

We wish him continuing health, continuing creativity and hope for another of his wonderful books. Let’s all wish him inspiration, success and love.

Today Markas Petuchauskas is the only person who can speak with real authority about the Vilnius ghetto theater which operated in 1942 and 1943. He was a ghetto prisoner and miraculously survived, as did his mother, after being rescued by good people. For many years he has sought to renew the interrupted dialogue between Lithuanians and Jews, which, he says, is best understood through art.

Happy Birthday! Mazl tov! May you live to 120!

2016-10-062016-10-25

Holocaust Commemoration in Švenčionys

Spalio 2 d. Švenčionyse vyko renginiai, skirti atminti 75 m. sukakčiai nuo Holokausto pradžios

The tradition of gathering and remembering the Jewish victims of the mass murder in Švenčionys on the first Sunday in October has been followed for many years. Jews from around the world and local residents gather to mark the tragic occasion and bow before the mass grave. Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Amir Maimon was there this year on October 2, as were Švenčionys regional administrator Rimantas Klipčius, Ethnic Minorities Department to the Lithuanian Government senior specialist Aušra Šokaitienė, Vilnius Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium principal Miša Jakobas, Švenčionys regional administration commissioners, members of the Jewish community and students.

Wreaths were laid and candles lit at the Menorah monument to the victims of the Švenčionys ghetto at 11:00 A.M. in the Švenčionys city park. The victims were then remembered at the military base where they were massacred in the village of Platumai in the Švenčionėliai aldermanship.

2016-10-062016-10-25

The Holocaust Wound That Never Heals in the History of the World

by Algis Jakštas, Švenčionių kraštas

We will probably never find an answer to why expressions of mass genocide [sic] keep repeating in human history, why people are murdered for their ethnicity, race and religion. A few years ago as I watched the film Salt of the Earth (2014) about the photographer Sebastião Salgado who has spent many years photographing genocide committed around the world at the end of the 20th and in the early 21st century, I recalled the Holocaust carried out by fascists against the Jewish people as well. I have spoken many times with Moise Preis who lives in Švenčionys and who passed through all the brutality of the ghettos and concentration camps and through a miracle survived. Sometimes as I listened to his stories I found it hard to even imagine how a person could bear such atrocities and survive, and preserve his humanity.

2016-10-062016-10-24

Aerial Daredevil Senior Rescued Jews in Youth

Sparnuotas senjoras, jaunystėje gelbėjęs žydų gyvybes

Vladas Drupas, a Kaunas resident who saved ten lives during the Holocaust, doesn’t consider himself a hero at all. It was like pulling teeth to get him to remember the events of 1943 and 1944 in Šiauliai and the surrounding area where a battle took place in secret from the Germans for the survival of individual Jews and their families.

Rescuer and Pilot

This year as the 75th anniversary of the Holocaust in Lithuania was marked there were many events, monuments were unveiled, mass murder sites were marked, rescued Jews and their rescuers were interviewed and 50 people were honored at the President’s Office (most of them posthumously). There are lists in the archive of the Department of the Righteous at the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum of hundreds of well-known teachers, doctors, attorneys, writers, musicians, professors, servants, priests, monks, farmers and people from other professions. These include Šiauliai gymnasium student Vladas Drupas who rescued ten Jews from destruction.

This 94-year-old Kaunas resident even now is surprising for his courage. As Lithuania’s oldest aerobatic pilot, several weeks ago he spent a half hour at the Pociūnai airport diving in the sky with his one-seat airplaine.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2016-10-062016-10-24

LJC Camp Counselor Seminar in Dubingiai

The recreation and conference center ORO Dubingiai hosted a seminar of LJC camp counselors in September. The seminar was intended to raise the qualifications of counselors and better coordinate the Ilan, Knafaim and Regional Clubs. Attendants were the team of counselors and experienced coordinators who shared their knowledge with the young group directors.

The counselors were able to demonstrate their leadership characteristics and other talents and abilities, revealing themselves as good people capable of working in a team. They demonstrated that teamwork playing group games and preparing a program for period until the next season, the winter children’s camps. The coordinators were able to come up with interesting programs for children and adolescents to make this season a memorable one and attract more participants next year.

2016-10-052016-10-20

Sign the Book of Condolences for Shimon Peres at the Israeli Embassy in Vilnius

Those wishing to express their condolences on the passing of Shimon Peres are invited to visit the Israeli embassy in Vilnius, located at Konstitucijos prospect No. 7, from 10 A.M. to 12 noon and from 2:00 P.M. to 4:00 P.M. to sign a book of condolences.

Download [45.43 KB]

2016-10-052016-10-06

Happy Birthdays for October!

Nuoširdūs sveikinimai su gimtadieniu! Geros sveikatos linkime!
Happy birthday and mazl tov to all members born in October!

Vilnius Jewish Community and Social Programs Department members:

Larisa Magid (October 1)
Jevgenija Pesina (October 1)
Aleksandr Levin (October 4)
Jacob Pilansky (October 5)
Markas Petuchauskas (October 6)

2016-10-052016-10-20

Kaunas Jewish Community Celebrates Rosh Hashana

Kauno žydų bendruomenė švenčia Roš ha Šana

A large contingent of Kaunas Jewish Community members came out to ring out the old and usher in the new year, 5777, wishing one another harmony, health, positive changes and good ideas. The evening of celebration was unusually warm, cozy and family-like. The Levita group of young musicians from France contributed with some great music performed extraordinarily well. The vocalist Vita Levina is the daughter of long-time Kaunas Jewish Community member Leonidas Levinas and began her musical career in Kaunas.

2016-10-042016-10-20