The Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes Malka Levin a happy 90th birthday and continuing strength.
Though the wheel of life keeps turning and turning,
The heart remains as it was,
Generous and endlessly good.
May the warmth of your children warm you.
Mazel tov!
Everyone in the community knows the birthday girl’s son, Simas Levinas, the head of the LJC’s Social Center, the Religious Community and the Goodwill Fund. Simas tells us about his mother on the occasion of her 90th birthday.
Using our experience of dealing with the BDS movement on the streets of Brighton, UKLFI has been arranging and co-ordinating advice and assistance in support of Kedem, a small shop in Manchester which sells Israeli products in these troubled times.
A police-mandated section 14 order banning protests last week was only a temporary fix for a much more serious problem.
As the Jewish Chronicle reports today, the Kedem store has been the scene of daily protests by sometimes hundreds of anti-Israel campaigners, who block the entrance, harass shop staff and shoppers, and make it extremely difficult for the store to conduct its business. These protesters, encouraged and emboldened by the BDS movement’s victories over Ahava and Sodastream, have taken this kind of campaigning to a new level and are showing a degree of aggression and viciousness not previously encountered.
Israel has warned European leaders that if they fail to protect Jews living in their countries Israel will, the Tazpit News Agency reported.
By: Aryeh Savir
The Danish, Swedish and Dutch ambassadors to Israel, as well as officials from the embassies of Britain, Belgium, Italy, Hungary, Austria and Germany, took part in an urgent meeting with the Knesset Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee on the situation of Jewish communities in Europe.
MK Yisrael Hasson of Kadima, a former deputy director of the Shin Bet internal security service, told the ambassadors: “NATO bombed 5,000 civilians in Kosovo, just because it was insulted, and 27,000 Iraqi civilians were bombed during the U.S. invasion because they posed a danger to the U.S. There is not a country in the world that can talk to us about morality.”
Hasson told the foreign envoys that “if the European countries fail to protect the Jews within their territory, the State of Israel will. Jewish blood is not cheap blood.”
He further warned that “if you do not stand by our side, the day when Islamic terror will reach your homes, your beds and your kindergartens will come soon.”
MK to European envoys: ”Day when Islamic terror will reach your homes is near”
Publicized: July 28, 2014
The Danish, Swedish and Dutch ambassadors to Israel, as well as officials from the embassies of Britain, Belgium, Italy, Hungary, Austria and Germany took part on Monday in an urgent meeting of the Knesset Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee on the situation of Jewish communities in Europe.
MK Israel Hasson (Kadima), a former deputy director of the Shin Bet internal security service, told the ambassadors: ”NATO bombed 5,000 civilians in Kosovo just because it was insulted; 27,000 Iraqi civilians were bombed during the American invasion because they posed a danger to the US; there is not a country in the world that can talk to us about morality.”
MK Hasson told the foreign envoys that ”if the European countries fail to protect the Jews within their territory, the State of Israel will. Jewish blood is not cheap blood.”
We are all aware of the wilful blindness of Western media when reporting on Hamas in Gaza. Though it’s no excuse, what may not be so clear is that many of the journalists are also terrified of telling the truth.
Every few years, Israel is seemingly overcome with an insatiable lust for blood that can apparently only be satisfied with otherwise inexplicable attacks on Gaza — or so innocent consumers of Western media are likely led to conclude from the coverage of the conflict.
With depressing regularity, each military confrontation between Israel and Hamas triggers the same old, tired cycle of misinformation among much of the international media. Instead of providing much-needed context, Israel’s defensive war against Islamist terrorists hiding among their own civilians is turned into a simplistic morality play where, like in a sports match, the side with the higher score, i.e. casualty figures, wins.
No decent human being could not feel compassion and sorrow over the scores of dead Palestinian civilians. But the almost pornographic close-ups of injured and killed Palestinians without explaining the central role Hamas plays in their deaths and injuries do more to confuse then enlighten the public.
In many ways, CCTV coverage of the conflict without the networks’ editorial picture selection and emotional but information-lacking voice-overs would probably do a better job at informing the public.
Yes, we would still see the destruction caused by Israeli shelling but the CCTV cameras would also catch Hamas terrorists firing from civilian areas, show how the IDF is dropping leaflets warning civilians ahead of bombings and broadcast how civilians are used as human shields — all important elements of this war usually missing from the coverage.
Dear Friends,
Today is a day of crisis for Israel and the Jewish people.
As President of the World Jewish Congress, I urge you, and the members of your communities, to please join me in prayers for Second Lt. Goldin (Hadar ben Chedva Leah) of Kfar Saba, who was apparently kidnapped today by Hamas after the start of a humanitarian cease-fire.
The apparent kidnapping is an outrageous violation of the cease-fire and is drawing strong condemnation from the Obama Administration and other governments worldwide. As the White House has said, this act is barbaric, and the international community must exert its influence on Hamas to return the soldier immediately.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement: “The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms today’s attack, which led to the killing of two Israeli soldiers and the apparent abduction of another. It was an outrageous violation of the cease-fire negotiated over the past several days, and of the assurances given to the United States and the United Nations. Hamas, which has security control over the Gaza Strip, must immediately and unconditionally release the missing Israeli soldier, and I call on those with influence over Hamas to reinforce this message.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed in a statement that “Hamas and the other terrorist organizations in Gaza would bear the consequences of their acts.”
At this crucial time, I send out this Call to Action asking that you mobilize and activate political and diplomatic channels in your respective countries and urge your governments and international institutions to help bring about the immediate release of Second Lt. Hadar Goldin.
Please spread this message to your friends, neighbors, and the community at large. Shabbat Shalom.
Sincerely,
Ronald S. Lauder
President
World Jewish Congress
ANTWERP, Belgium – A Belgian physician who refused to treat a Jewish woman with a fractured rib suggested she visit Gaza to get rid of the pain.
The physician made the remark on Wednesday while manning a medical hotline in Flanders, Belgium’s Flemish region, whose capital, Antwerp, has a sizeable Orthodox Jewish population, the local Jewish monthly Joods Actueelreported Thursday.
The International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists will hold its 15th Congress on November 19-22, 2014 in Eilat themed: “International Human Rights and Israel – Politicization or a Complex Reality?”
President’s Message:
For several days now I have been wanted to share with you what we are experiencing in Israel . No doubt you are aware of the facts through extensive media coverage. However, I would like to shed light on several issues of importance.
Israelis find it very difficult to witness the large number of civilian Palestinian casualties including children and the massive destruction. Our wish is to see a successful Gaza, flourishing and healthy without arms and the objective of destroying us. Based on our intelligence, which was supported by what we discovered, we had no choice but to enter the fray including “boots on the ground” in order to destroy the terror tunnels. Hamas prisoners under questioning revealed their “Rosh Ha Shana Attack” by which hundreds of Hamas militants would attack the nearby kibbutzim where families would be gathered for the holiday via some 45 tunnels. They would have been able to exit the tunnels and commit mass murder of the Israelis before we would know what was happening.
PART TWO
by Dovid Katz
To read Part One, click here.
IT HAS BECOME WIDELY UNDERSTOOD that the unique lessons of the Holocaust, including recognition of the potential morphing of racial hate into a program of genocide, are of major educational importance for inoculating future generations against its happening to anyone else, anywhere else. Reflecting on the Holocaust as a major chapter of barbarism in European history also gives us a needed pause to help assure the retention of essential ethics and standards of humanity in our pursuit of scientific and social progress.
Picture: Aleksandras Bosas, fifth from left, holding a sign saying “Juozas Krištaponis is the Shame of Ukmergė.” Photo: Gediminas Nemunaitis / ukzinios.lt.
O B I T U A R Y
Aleksandras Bosas, a respected Lithuanian poet, died unexpectedly on July 24, 2014. The widerDefending History community extends deepest condolences to the family and friends of our suddenly departed colleague, who is survived by his wife, Natalija, three sons and a daughter.
We have lost a courageously active literary voice against fascism and against the contemporary attempts at high levels to glorify fascism via posthumous honors for collaborators and local perpetrators of the Lithuanian Holocaust.
At the beginning of 2014 his book of poems dedicated to commemorating the Holocaust in Lithuania appeared. It is called Iš ten sugrįžtantiems (“For Those Who Returned from There”).
He last read his poetry publicly ten days before his death, on July 14. It is symbolically fitting for Bosas’s stature that the reading was held at a protest calling for the removal of a statue glorifying Holocaust perpetrator J. Krištaponis from a square in Ukmergė (Vilkomir).
VILNIUS: A schoolteacher here is now spearheading a movement to immortalise the friendship between Mahatma Gandhi and Jewish architect Hermann Kallenbach in stone.
Vytautas Toleikis who teaches ethics has now joined hands with eminent Lithuanian sculptor Romas Kvintas to make a life size bronze statue of the two historic figures in Rusne where Kallenbach was born.
Vytautas was mesmerized by Gandhi’s philosophy after watching a film on him. It was during this that he stumbled upon Kallenbach. A student of Jewish history, Vytautas went around researching Kallenbach’s past and found that he was born in Lithuania – a country that was greatly inspired by Gandhi’s doctrine of non-violence during their own struggle against Russian invasion and occupation.
Vytautas then decided to make this historical friendship between the two historical characters public through a statue.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community and many Lithuanians who heard the call came to the Community on Wednesday, July 23, 2014, to support Israeli soldiers who are defending their country from rocket attacks by Hamas aimed at cities throughout Israel. Community members responded to the call not to remain indifferent at this time when great difficulties are facing their fellow Jews in Israel, who have been forced to live in fear and terror in their own country, while the international community lacks the needed resolve and unity to take action to support Israel, a thriving economic powerhouse and the only democracy in the Middle East.
Community members in attendance spanned the generations and entire families showed up with children and grandparents. Žana Skudovičienė, whose son in Israel was called up for military duty this week, addressed the assembled. She said her son was not yet in the Gaza Strip but is being trained for active military duty.
A video was screened during the meeting of images from the funerals of soldiers who died in Gaza, filled with farewells for fallen fellow soldiers.
Like peoples in simplest caves from the beginning and high-technological cities and nations today, Gaza constructs underground infrastructure to evade undercover all-INT full-spectrum attack exhibited in the first pristine safely-bunkered military industrial media photo.
Press release
23 July 2014
As time draws nearer for the ambitious festival “Tel-Aviv beach in Riga – music, dance, fashion, sports, tourism, business, culinary arts” that will be held in Riga, Ķīpsala beach near the Vanšu bridge, from Friday 1 August to Sunday 3 August, the festival program is announced (see below). The activities included in the festival programme at Ķīpsala beach are free.
The programme is subject to possible additions, adjustments and changes until the beginning of the festival. Follow the latest news and most recent information at the festival’s official web site www.telaviv2014riga.lv, as well as – www.facebook.com/Telaviv.Riga.
We invite everyone to get to know, explore and enjoy the diverse cultural programme of Israel, many world-class music bands and DJ performances, dances till dawn, fashion shows, special culinary programmes and tastings, as well as children and sports programmes, dance master classes, business and tourism programmes, exhibitions, lectures, seminars, presentations, etc. There will also be an opportunity to participate in competitions, lotteries and many other family-friendly activities. Tel Aviv is a non-stop city.
Each day of the festival and its programme is dedicated to a specific theme.
1 August, Friday – tourism and business day;
2 August, Saturday – fashion and culinary art day;
3 August, Sunday – family and sports day.
On Friday and Saturday from 18:00 till midnight, there will be a performance by such popular groups and performers from Israel as the world’s beloved folk band “The Shuk” whose repertoire includes not only ethnic and folk, but also modern, soul and jazz music / the musician, experimenter and famous video artist Kutiman with the band / musician and traveller Tal Kravitz who plays a variety of folk and modern musical instruments / progressive metal band “Orphaned Land”/ a trance-dance group “Tribal Dance”,as well as Latvian musicians – percussionist Nils Īle together with African percussionists / “Youth Carnival” band and others. Night dance music programme with DJ Sapiens and DJ Mango from Israel and DJ Monsta and other DJs from Latvia.
“Tel Aviv beach” festival is a part of a broad cultural programme in Riga – the European Capital of Culture 2014. The project is implemented by the Embassy of Israel to Latvia and Lithuania, as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism of Israel, Tel Aviv City Council and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, Riga City Council, Riga Tourism Development Bureau “Live Riga”, and Riga 2014 Foundation. The event is produced by the cultural society “Make Art” in collaboration with “Herman Braun Foundation”, “Ramtai riti”, “Randala”.
The festival is sponsored by: Alfa Property Group, Rietumu Bank Charity Fund, Belam-Rīga, Mītavas alus, airBaltic, Lattelecom, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Dzintars, Rejwan Travel service, Teva Pharmaceuticals, IDW Esperanza resort, METROCLUB Tours & Vacations, RD Electronics, Latvian Traders Association, ORT, Zilā lagūna, Café “Pludmale”, SANO, TechHub Riga, Novatours and others. Information support: EuroAwk, MarketMedia, TVNET, Rīga Radio, ZL.lv, TV24, The Baltic Times, Radisson Blu.
The program partners: Art Academy of Latvia and Kristīne Rudzinska, Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art and Ira Popova, Biruta Magele International School of Stylists, Paul Mitchell cosmetics, public charity organization “Dr.Klauns”, charitable organization “Dream Doctors”, Children’s Clinical University Hospital, “K.Suns” cinema gallery,3 chef restaurant “Tam labam būs augt”, “Alberts”hotel, Riga Sports Veterans Club, “Vides deja”, “I-Dejas māja”, international festival of positive music “Labadaba” and “NabaKlab”, “Maagal” dance band, “Eilat” dance band, Jewish Agency “Sohnut”, Council of the Jewish Communities of Latvia, S. Dubnov Riga Jewish Secondary School, Baltic International Academy, “Turība” University, Tech Hub Riga, RiGame, Rejwan Travel Service, METROCLUB Tours & Vacations.
Additional information:
Embassy of Israel to Latvia and Lithuania
Tel.: +371 67635509, e-mail: press@riga.mfa.gov.il
Reinis Druvietis
Cultural society “Make Art”, producer, communication and publicity
Tel.: +371 29293938, e-mail: art@makeart.lv
Jews of Lithuania do not feel discriminated and therefore will make no complaints to the visiting US Special Envoy of the Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, Ira Forman, says Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman of the Jewish Community of Lithuania.
Several journalists from around the world reported seeing rockets fired from civilian areas in Gaza in recent days, and received threatening tweets in return accusing them of “informing” the IDF.
On Wednesday, Peter Stefanovic of Australia’s Channel Nine News tweeted: “Hamas rockets just launched over our hotel from a site about two hundred metres away. So a missile launch site is basically next door.”
An account called @ThisIsGaza said this was Stefanovic’s fourth time “passing and fabricating information to Israel… from GAZA” and threatened to sue him.
A new jihadi media outlet called Al-Fawaris released a video calling on Gazans to endure the military operation, saying that victory looms and that Muslims all over the world support them.
According to a report published on Monday by the MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute) Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor, the video also features jihadi cleric Abu hareth Al-Maqdisi threatening Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, saying his demise is coming soon.
by Geoff Vasil
First let me tell about the story, because it is positive, and there isn’t enough of that to go around in the larger story of Lithuanian responses and non-responses to the Holocaust.
The webpage of Vakarų Ekspresas, or Evening Express, has a story entitled “Caring for Jewish Graves, Healing the Wounds of Nations,” which is on-line here in Lithuanian at www.ve.lt
“This week over 30 volunteers from an organization of Jewish-Christian cooperation (Christlich-Jüdische Zusammenarbeit ) of the Lippische Landeskirche church in Germany have been traipsing through the Jewish cemetery of Darbėnai, cutting back bushes growing along the fence and polishing grave monuments. ‘It falls to our generation to correct the mistakes of our forefathers and to teach young people tolerance, so that expressions of extreme nationalism disappear from Europe,’ the head of the organization, Miroslav Danys, said.”
