Wooden Synagogue in Alanta Renovated
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LJC, International Comminission and Olga Lengyel Institute Holding Holocaust Seminars for Teachers
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LJC Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky Speaks at Commemoration of Grosse
Aktion in Kaunas
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Šiauliai Opens Righteous Gentile Square at the Intersection of Vilniaus and Ežero Streets at Former Ghetto Gates
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"Symphony from Jerusalem of the North” Mark Day of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide in Presidential Courtyard
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The renovated synagogue in Žiežmariai will become a new cultural center. The first synagogue in appeared sometime between 1690 and 1696. In the 19th century there three synagogues. Not surprising, since the majority of the population were Jewish. This synagogue which has survived and has now been renovated stands in the southern part of town between Vilniaus and Žalgirio streets, with the Strėva river flowing from southeastward from there.
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The Lithuanian Post Office has issued a stamp commemorating 300 years since the birth of the Vilna Gaon
The Lithuanian Post Office has issued a stamp commemorating 300 years since the birth of the Vilna Gaon
with a face value of 0.81 euros, enough to mail letters abroad.
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Lithuania Marks 300th Anniversary of Birth of Vilna Gaon, 2020 Named Year of the Gaon and Litvak History.
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Most important events at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in 2018
Most important events at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in 2018
Revival of Jewish Scouting in Lithuania: The first new Litvak scouting camping trip with children from Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Panevėžys and Molėtai took place August 24 to 26.
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Jewish newspapers and advertisements from Vilnius in the period between the two world wars. Jews and other minorities were given equal rights in the reconstituted Lithuanian state. Yiddish thrived with many newspapers and books published in the language.
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Lithuanian Government Publishes 2016 Funding to Religious Communities

BNS reports the Lithuanian Government is planning to allocate 697,000 euros this year to traditional Lithuanian religious communities for refurbishing houses of prayer and other needs. The lion’s share–626,500 euros–will go to the Lithuanian Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church, according to the Government’s draft plan.

The Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church of Lithuania is to get 36,100 euros, the supreme council of the Old Believers of Lithuania will come away with 8,300 euros, the Lithuanian Lutherans take 7,800 euros, and the Synod of the Lithuania Evangelical Reform Church will take 4,700 euros.

The Muftiate of the Lithuanian Islamic Sunnis is to receive 3,600 euros, the Basilian Monastery of St. Yosaphat take 3,000 euros, the Lithuanian Karaïte Religious Community also gets 3,000 while the Lithuanian Jewish Community is to get 2,000 euros, the Eastern Old Believers Church and the Vilnius Old Believers Religious Community will come away with 800 euros, the Kaunas Jewish Community is to get 600 euros and the Panevėžys Jewish Community gets the same amount as the Chabad Lubavitch Hassidic group in Vilnius, 300 euros each, according to BNS. Last year the Lithuanian Government allocated 637,164 euros to traditional religious communities.

Fayerlakh Concert

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The Jewish song and dance Ensemble celebrate their 45th anniversary with a concert at the Russian Drama Theater in Vilnius. The concert is scheduled for 6:00 P.M. on March 22. Tickets cost 12 euros for the general public, 9 euros for Community members and 2 euros for students and senior citizens. To purchase tickets, see here.

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Shtetl at Kaziukas Fair

Shtetl at Kaziukas Fair

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>>Photo album

The Jewish shtetl section of the annual Kaziukas Fair in Vilnius came to life at 4:00 P.M. last Friday when the Jewish ensemble Fayerlakh performed on the adjacent stage. Jewish music including those sung in the pre-WWII Lithuanian Republic rang out from the Old Town Hall and enveloped fair-goers. On-lookers swayed to the beat as Fayerlakh performed wedding melodies and love songs. As the afternoon turned into Sabbath evening, there was a prayer and those assembled had the chance to hear it, observe Sabbath rituals and listen to the music.

A line of people wanting to get a taste of a Jewish bagel formed at the Bagel Shop Café booth and more than a thousand bagels were sold on Friday afternoon alone. Some scenes from the shtetl exhibit are provided below and at the facebook link provided above.

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Lithuania Pledges Support to Japan’s Bid to Include Sugihara Documents on UN Register

VILNIUS, March 4, BNS–Lithuania will support a Japanese application to include the documents issued by its vice-consul Chiune Sugihara in Kaunas in the UNESCO Memory of the World Program.

“Lithuania supports the initiative. Sugihara’s heroic deed must be remembered, immortalized and promoted as triumph of humanity even in the face of deadly threat. I am glad our nations share values,” Lithuanian parliamentary speaker Loreta Grauziniene said after meeting with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo.

During World War II Japanese vice-consul Sugihara issued Japanese visas to Jewish nationals fleeing Nazi oppression, saving many lives.

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Traditional St. Casimir’s Fair Kicks Off in Vilnius

VILNIUS, March 4, BNS–The traditional St. Casimir’s Fair is starting in Vilnius on Friday, for the 1st time including a Jewish Township.

During the fair on March 4-6, the township will be based in the Town Hall Square, featuring traditional Jewish crafts, Jewish literature and Jewish food.

The township will include about a dozen of craft tents and marketplaces with Jewish souvenirs, a bookstore, a fabric shop, a laundry and a gramophone shop.

About 500 guests from 16 foreign countries are expected at the St. Casimir’s Fair this year.

St. Casimir’s Fair evolved from the Casimir’s processions that date back from 1604.

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Fayerlakh Concert and Bagel Shop at the Kaziukas Fair in Vilnius

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The opening of Vilnius’s annual street fair will feature a concert by the Jewish song and dance ensemble Fayerlakh, at 5:00 P.M. at the Vilnius Old Town Hall square. The group is promising a whole range of music and performances, including a traditional Sabbath prayer and song.

Don’t forget, the Bagel Shop Café will also be at the fair on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. LJC staff, members and volunteers are all invited to come and help sell Jewish bagels during the fair. It should be a lot of fun and this year the annual street fair will include a Jewish shtetl section.

Makabi Club Book Launch

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A large group turned out for the launch of the new book “Lietuvos sporto klubas ‘Makabi’ 1916-2016” [The Lithuanian Athletics Club Makabi, 1916-2016] at the Lithuanian Jewish Community on the last day of February, 2016. The appearance of the book is a milestone not just for the Lithuanian Jewish Community, but for Lithuanian sport as a whole, because Makabi is the oldest athletics club in Lithuania. The book tells the story of the origins of Makabi a century ago, activities in the first Lithuanian Republic, how the club was reconstituted after Lithuanian independence from the Soviet Union and its activities since then over the last 25 years. It includes information on Makabi’s participation at European and World Maccabiah Games and other sporting events, and showcases athletes. The book is richly illustrated with photographs depicting the history of Makabi.

This year is the 100th anniversary of the club, which began in German-occupied Vilnius. On October 23, 1916, the Makabi Jewish Sports and Gymnastics Association was established in the ancient Lithuanian capital. Kaunas Makabi was established in 1919. The entire Maccabee athletics movement took place as part of the early spread of Zionism.

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Taglit 2016

If you’re between 18 and 26 and always wanted to visit the Promised Land, the Taglit Program offers a wonderful opportunity to make this dream come true. For more information, contact Pavel Guliakov, telephone 8 685 42463, email p.guliakov@gmail.com

Rabbi Heschel’s “Sabbath” Issued in Lithuanian by Catholic Publisher

A new Lithuanian edition of “Sabbath” by Abraham Heschel (1951), translated by Asta Leskauskaitė and published by Katalikų pasaulio leidiniai [Catholic World Publications] was launched at the Vilnius Book Fair last week.

Rabbi Heschel became a rabbi at age 16 and was graduated from the Vilna Mathematics and Natural Science Gymnasium in Vilnius before going on to study under some of the greatest Jewish teachers in Germany. He was arrested by the Gestapo and deported to Poland in October of 1938. He fled to Britain weeks before the Nazi invasion of Poland, and then went on to the United States in early 1940, where he became one of the most important and respected Jewish thinkers of the mid-20th century. His first book, apparently, “Der Shem Hamefoyrosh: Mentsch,” was written when he was a member of the Jung-Vilne group of writers in Vilnius, a book of poems in Yiddish published in Warsaw in 1933. Heschel’s poems attracted attention, including a letter of praise Chaim Nachman Bialik sent to the author from Israel.

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Prosecutor General Responds to Lithuanian Jewish Community Call to Release the List of Suspected Holocaust Perps

March 2, 2016 No. 37

Office of Prosecutor General
of the Republic of Lithuania

February 29, 2016 No. 17.2.-2521
re: February 11, 2016, No. 179

To: Faina Kukliansky, attorney, chairwoman,
Lithuanian Jewish Community

Re: possible actions in connection with a list compiled by the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of the Residents of Lithuania of people suspected of committing or otherwise abetting the murder of people of Jewish ethnicity during World War II

Directed by the leadership of the Office of Prosecutor General, the Criminal Prosecution Department has examined your letter of February 11, 2016, to the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Lithuania and the director general of the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of the Residents of Lithuania (henceforth CSGRRL) containing proposals by the Lithuanian Jewish Community on possible actions in connection with the list of people alleged to have committed or otherwise abetted the genocide of people of Jewish ethnicity during World War II compiled by the CSGRRL, and having considered these suggestions, we affirm that the Prosecutor General’s Office, operating within its area of competence and under the criminal code of the Republic of Lithuania, and under the law of the Republic of Lithuania of May 2, 1990, on the restoration of rights of people repressed for opposing the occupational regimes, after receiving from the CSGRRL a detailed list based on complete archival data of people alleged to have taken part in the genocide of the Jewish people, will assess all information received. After assessing it and only if there is a legal foundation for beginning a pretrial investigation of one of the aforementioned people on the list for the aforementioned criminal actions, for which there is no statute of limitations for criminal prosecution, the prosecutor will undertake the appropriate decisions for proceeding with the case.

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Farewell Herr Schwarz (Schnee von gestern, 2013)

You’re kindly invited to the preview of the documentary “Farewell Herr Schwarz” (2013, Germany / Israel) and the meeting with the director Yael Reuveny. The event is to be held at the Tolerance Center of the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum (Naugarduko street 10/2) at 4.00 P.M. on March 10, 2016.

The documentary is in several langaugues with English and Lithuanian subtitles. The discussion with the director is to take place in English. 

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Help Wanted at the Kaziukas Shtetl!

The Bagel Shop Café will participate at the annual Kaziukas Fair this year on all three days–Friday, Saturday and Sunday–at the Old Town Hall Square in Vilnius. All LJC staff, members and volunteers are invited to take part at the fair and help sell bagels. It should be a lot of fun, and don’t forget: there’s a Jewish shtetl at Kaziukas this year!

Please contact Indrė: irutkauskaite@gmail.com

BDS: The Movement That Keeps Getting It Wrong

From Europe Israel Public Affairs

BDS: The Movement That Keeps Getting It Wrong

We are all familiar with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, whose campaign was started on July 9, 2005, when 171 Palestinian non- governmental organizations in support of the Palestinian cause called for boycott, divestment and international sanctions against Israel.

The campaign spread like a wildfire, mainly amongst left-leaning groups worldwide, and pro-Palestinian student groups on campus. In the few short years they have existed, they have successfully managed to make it into the political lexicon, and are a persistent headache to the state of Israel and its supporters.

But how effective is this movement, and are they doing the Palestinian people on whose behalf they profess to act any favors? There’s no doubt they have a successful media department, but what about their tactics? Do they tangibly achieve their aims? As a pro-Israel advocacy group, we thought it might be useful to share with you some recent news about BDS, that you, as a friend of ours and of Israel’s, might be interested in. Think of this update as your Nurofen to the BDS headache.

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Meeting the New Rabbis

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A meeting of the newly appointed rabbis Kalev Krelin and Shimshon Daniel Izakson (Isaacson) was held at the Lithuanian Jewish Community February 29. Participants included representatives of foreign embassies in Vilnius, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry, Parliament, the Catholic Church, the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture and the regional Jewish communities in Lithuania. Also attending was Vilnius auxiliary bishop Arūnas Poniškaitis.

Shmuel Levin, director of the Lithuanian Jewish Religious Community, spoke at the meeting and said: “The physical genocide by the Nazis and the spiritual genocide by the Soviet regime destroyed the Jewish communities in Europe and especially in Lithuania. Today Judaism is an exotic religion, not just for the other religions, but for us ourselves. We hope Rabbi Izakson and Rabbi Krelin will be successful in reviving and preserving the Litvak tradition, Jewish spiritual life.”

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky welcomed the new rabbis to the community and wished them every success in their work.

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International Studies Days

The exhibition International Studies Days will be held from 10:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. on March 3 in the conference center at the Radisson Blu Hotel located at Konstitucijos prospect no. 20 in Vilnius. This will be the first time the cultural center of the embassy of Israel participates. Anna Keinan, first secretary of the Israeli embassy in Vilnius, and Ray Keinan, director of the Israeli cultural center, will greet participants.

The exhibition will also be held on March 5 in Riga, Latvia, and on March 6 in Tallinn, Estonia.

For more information contact lietuva@balticcouncil.org or see www.balticcouncil.org

Lithuanian Jewish Community Requests Finding on Holocaust Crimes of Molėtai Priest

The Lithuanian Jewish Community
Pylimo street No. 4, Vilnius

February 29, 2016
No. 190

To: the honorable Birutė Burauskaitė
Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of the Residents of Lithuania

the honorable Evaldas Pašilis
Office of the Prosecutor General of Lithuania

the honorable Stasys Žvinys
Molėtai regional administration

Re: Assessment of the Actions of Father Jonas Žvinys and Bronius Žvinys

The Lithuanian Jewish Community, possessing information about the direct and personal participation of Bronius Žvinys in the murder of Jews during World War II and his brother Father Jonas Žvinys’s collaboration in the murder of Jews, requests:

I. the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of the Residents of Lithuania (hereafter Center)

1. to perform a study, or if this has been done already, to perform a new study of the aforementioned people for their possible involvement in the stated criminal activity, and to make public, i.e., to acquaint the public with, the conclusion of this study and the material used in this study.

2. If the Center determines the information held about the criminal acts committed by the aforementioned people is true, to recommend to the Molėtai regional administration and/or other regional and municipal administrations to take no actions to commemorate Bronius Žvinys and/or Jonas Žvinys, i.e., not rename streets after them and not to make other commemorative markers intended to honor these people.

II. The Office of the Prosecutor General of Lithuania

1. In light of the conclusion and material from the Center regarding the aforementioned people, to investigate whether the Supreme Court of Lithuania legally and correctly rehabilitated Father Jonas Žvinys.

Sincerely,

Faina Kukliansky, attorney at law, chairwoman
Lithuania Jewish Community

Jerusalem Post on Plans to Rename Street in Molėtai after Alleged Holocaust Perp

In an article dated February 28, the Jerusalem Post reported on plans to rename a street in Molėtai, Lithuania after a man suspected of complicity in the mass murder of 1,200 Jews from the town during the Holocaust.

The man in question is the late priest Jonas Žvinys, long dead but honored with a state medal by Lithuanian president Valdas Adamkus in 1999.

The Jerusalem Post article quotes Lithuanian author and activist Rūta Vanagaitė complaining no one is will to take responsibility in investigating the supposed hero’s past. Vanagaite also said that after searching through KGB archives she discovered the priest in fact had set up the unit responsible for the mass murder operation in Molėtai, and that one of the unit’s commanders was his brother who later confessed to his role in the massacre.

Dr. Efraim Zuroff, Holocaust researcher, author and director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told the Jerusalem Post the Žvinys case reflects a “much wider problem.”

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Five Incredible Jewish Stories behind This Year’s Oscars

It’s the biggest night of the year in Hollywood, so it’s not surprising that Jews are typically well-represented among the annual list of Oscar nominations. This year, in the absence of a major Jewish-themed film, the Jewishness of this year’s Oscars is of a quieter kind.

As it happens, several Oscar-nominated films have unusually triumphant, behind-the-scenes Jewish stories worth celebrating. Below, we give you five of the best “secret” Jewish stories behind the 88th Academy Awards.

Full story here.

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Roseanne Barr to Attend Anti-BDS Conference in Israel

American Jewish comedian Roseanne Barr will participate in a March 28 conference in Jerusalem about fighting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS, movement. Barr was invited to the conference, which is sponsored by Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, because of her involvement with the pro-Israel group Stand With Us, according to Ynet.

“I am proud to stand with Israel during the week of Purim,” Barr said Thursday, according to Ynet. “This is the holiday where Esther mobilized the Jewish community, and because of her strong and unifying stance, she succeeded in overturning the brutal decree to destroy us.”

Barr, who starred in the long-running sitcom “Roseanne,” will tour the country for two weeks prior to the conference and will be accompanied by her mother. The comedian, who frequently posts on Twitter, is an outspoken critic of the pro-Palestinian left and BDS. She has even called Jews who support BDS “anti-Semites” and recently retweeted a post from JTA’s partner website Jewniverse noting that the Bataclan, the Paris nightclub where at least 130 people were killed in a recent attack, was named for a 19th-century Jewish operetta.

Others expected at the conference include Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, several government ministers and Knesset members and Sodastream CEO Daniel Birnbaum.

Full story here.

Užupis Jewish Cemetery to Be Declared National Protected Site

Užupio kapinės

February 26, BNS–An old Jewish cemetery in Vilnius is being put forward to become a state-protected cultural heritage site. Cultural Heritage Department director Diana Varnaitė initiated the process.

“There are surviving headstones there and there should be a certain amount of state protection. The cemetery is already on the registry, it is already a cultural heritage treasure. The registry is so construed that significance determines whether the state or a local government is the party to make a decision and declare sites protected,” Cultural Heritage Department deputy director Algimantas Degutis told BNS. He said state-protected cultural treasures have stricter protection, financing and maintenance requirements.

The move to change the status of the Užupis Jewish cemetery is unconnected with plans by the adjacent funeral home to build a crematorium, Degutis said. The Vilnius municipality is against the crematorium plan.

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