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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Happy Birthday to Fania Brancovskaja

Happy Birthday to Fania Brancovskaja

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky visited Jewish partisan Fania Brancovskaja at home to personally give the Community’s greetings on two special occasions: Fania’s birthday on May 22 and Victory Day, marking the end of the Holocaust in Europe. Fania Brancovskaja was a Jewish partisan who fought the Nazis in Lithuania. Since the end of the Holocaust Fania has devoted her life to keeping the memory of the victims alive and teaching the new generations about what happened. Mazl tov. Bis 120!

Lithuanian MP Thrown Out of Party for Anti-Semitic Statements

Lithuanian MP Thrown Out of Party for Anti-Semitic Statements

Photo: Remigijus Žemaitaitis, © 2023 ELTA/Andrius Ufartas

Lithuanian MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis says his party’s ratings will suffer following the decision to cast him out for making anti-Semitic statements, the Lithuanian news agency ELTA reports.

He belonged to the Freedom and Justice party and was elected to his fourth term in the Lithuanian parliament in 2020.

Žemaitaitis says his removal will harm that party’s popularity and claimed he accounts for around 6% of the support the party enjoys in the Žemaitijan region in city council and mayoral elections.

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This Is a NATO Ally?

This Is a NATO Ally?

by Grant Gochin

The civilized world has confirmed that Jonas Noreika was a mass genocidal Holocaust perpetrator. The world’s most authoritative body on the Holocaust, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) issued this statement on 11 April 2019: https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/statements/statement-center-study-genocide-and-resistance-lithuania

Again on 7 July, 2020, IHRA issued this statement about Lithuania’s Holocaust fraud: https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/statements/ihra-statement-rehabilitation

On 27 March, 2019, Lithuania’s own Presidential Commission affirms Noreika’s crimes here: https://www.komisija.lt/en/a-response-to-the-statement-of-the-genocide-and-resistance-research-centre-of-lithuania-of-27-march-2019-on-the-accusations-against-jonas-noreika-general-vetra/

Full text here.

Oldest Tanakh Sold at Sotheby’s for $38.1 Million

Oldest Tanakh Sold at Sotheby’s for $38.1 Million

The New York Times reports the oldest-known surviving Tanakh sold for $38.1 million at the Sotheby’s auction house in New York City on May 17. The Sassoon Codex as it is known is nearly complete and contains the 24 books of the Jewish Tanakh (the Torah, Prophets and Writings) including the first ten chapters of Genesis. Experts have dated it to the late 9th or early 10th century.

Full story here.

Exhibit of Shtetl Artworks by Simon Karczmar

Exhibit of Shtetl Artworks by Simon Karczmar

The AP Gallery in Vilnius’s Užupis neighborhood is holding an exhibit of drawings and paintings by Simon Karczmar featuring shtetlakh. He was born in Warsaw in 1903, left France for Israel in 1962 and died in 1982. His grandfather with whom he spent his vacations as a youngster lived in the shtetl Divenishok near Vilnius/Wilno.

AP Gallery is located at Užupio street no. 4 in Vilnius. The exhibition called Luminous Shtetls opens at 6:00 P.M. on May 31. No information was provided on when the exhibit ends.

Ilan Club for Children Aged 7-12

Ilan Club for Children Aged 7-12

They’re not yet adolescents, but already have a firm opinion on almost everything, are constantly coming up with new and unusual words and get excited about things we don’t always understand. More than mobile phones and as much as the oxygen they breathe, they need to spend time with people their own age. Ilan Club is intended for children aged 7 to 12, and meets every Sunday at noon at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius. For more information, contact LJC programs director Žana Skudovičienė by e-mail at zanas@sc.lzb.lt.

Dubi Club for Children Aged 4-6

Dubi Club for Children Aged 4-6

Members of the Dubi Club engage in fun activities every Sunday. Last time they learned to make desserts. They did a great job and their parents were happy to try the treats and watch their young ones learn practical life skills. Dubi Club is for children aged 4 to 6 and meets at noon every Sunday at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius. For more information, contact LJC programs director Žana Skudovičienė by e-mail at zanas@sc.lzb.lt.

Condolences

Long-time Community member Izrailis Šifrinas passed away May 18. He was born in 1938. Our deepest condolences to his widow, children and many friends.

LJC Chairwoman Greets Veterans

LJC Chairwoman Greets Veterans

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman made home visits to greet WWII veterans on the occasion of Victory Day this year. Usually the LJC holds an event on May 8 and/or May 9, VE Day and Victory Day, respectively, at the LJC in Vilnius under the aegis of the Seniors Club, but our aging soldiers are finding it more and more difficult to make that trip, so chairwoman Kukliansky went to them instead. She visited 99-year-old Community member Eliziejus Rimanas and Aleksandras Asovskis who will celebrate his 102nd birthday in the next few days.

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Seniors Club Meets

Seniors Club Meets

Last week the Seniors Club of the Lithuanian Jewish Community celebrated several holidays at once, including Lag b’Omer, the Bar Kokhba uprising against the Romans and Victory Day marking the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of the Holocaust.

Seniors shared a meal and lit the traditional six candles in remembrance of those who have perished. LJC Social Commission doctor Ela Gurina spoke about her family’s experience in the Holocaust.

LJC programs director Žana Skudovičienė said one of the main goals of the meeting was just to bring old friends back together, contemporaries who might otherwise remain isolated.

Fayerlakh Celebrates Israel’s 75th

Fayerlakh Celebrates Israel’s 75th

The Fayerlakh Jewish song and dance ensemble gave a special presentation dedicated to celebrating Israel’s 75th birthday called Promised Land. Friends from the Israeli embassy were there and took some nice photographs of the event.

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Condolences

Musia Gleizer passed away May 15. She was born in 1938 and was a long-time member of the Šiauliai Jewish Community. Our deep condolences to her children Natalja and Edikas, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and many other friends and family members.

Pages from Music History: Anna Varshavski

Pages from Music History: Anna Varshavski

Sarah Matz took the married name Anna Varshavski aka Anna Lvovna Warsaw. She was a singer and a philanthropist. She was born in Vilnius in December of 1896 when it was part of the Russian Empire. Her parents Jehuda and Fradel Matz owned a Jewish publishing house. She began studies at the Berlin Conservatory in 1920. In 1928 she set up an amateur choir in Kaunas which grew in reputation and size and eventually included around 50 members, coming to be known as the Jewel of Joel Engel Choir. They performed throughout Lithuania and on state radio. The choir disbanded in 1936. Varshavski also contributed to setting up the New Jewish Theater in Vilnius. She and her family were put in the Kaunas ghetto in 1941, and she was murdered at the Klooga concentration camp in Estonia in 1944.

http://yiddishmusic.jewniverse.info/varshavskianna/index.html

Tsum Hemerl (Avrom Reisen – Avraham Moshe Bernstein) Anna Varshavski & “Engel-Chor” Columbia DMX 301 (WJLX 8)
Jewish Scouts Attend Vilnius Regional Jamboree

Jewish Scouts Attend Vilnius Regional Jamboree

Jewish scouts under scout leader Adomas Kofmanas joined more than 500 scouts from throughout the Vilnius region for a two-day jamboree over the weekend on the shore of Laumenas Lake. They learned rhetoric in debates and tried out different arts, crafts and skills including making jewelry, leatherwork and painting in acrylic. The paintings were mainly of the cat which has become the symbol of Vilnius’s Užupis neighborhood and were hung up in a sort of ad hoc art gallery/alley in the forest. They played capture the flag and sang around the campfire in the evening. The ever-growing number of Jewish scouts celebrated the Sabbath with prayer. Adomas Kofmanas’s group meets regularly at 3:00 P.M. on Sundays and young people who might be interested are encouraged to attend. For more information, write an email to skautai@lzb.lt.

What Do You Know about Litvak Writers?

What Do You Know about Litvak Writers?

Arakdijus Vinokuras’s monthly quiz asks that question at the next quiz scheduled for 2:00 P.M. on Sunday, May 21 at the Bagel Shop Café in Vilnius. This quiz will be dedicated to the three Litvak writers Icchokas Meras and the recently deceased Grigoriy Kanovitch and Markas Zingeris, may they rest in peace. It will be streamed on facebook as well.

Makabi Table Tennis Team Takes 2nd Place in Lithuanian Competition

Makabi Table Tennis Team Takes 2nd Place in Lithuanian Competition

The Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club’s women’s table tennis team took second place in Lithuanian play-offs held last weekend in VIlnius, meaning they’re now in the upper league in Lithuania and will play next year against the top dozen teams. Neta Alon made a strong showing and won 3:0 against the favorite. Makabi team players won against the teams from Šiauliai and Utena and only lost to Jonava.

This is the first time Makabi ping-pong players have risen to the upper leagues in Lithuania.

Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium students Uosis Račinskas and Jokūbas Kačerginskis won in team-play championship in the under-12 category. They began playing two years ago under the tutelage of Neta Alon, and are now training under Khen Alon. In singles-play Uosis Račinskas placed 5th in Lithuania and Jokūbas Kačerginskis 6th.

Vilnius Square to be Renamed in Honor of Israel

Vilnius Square to be Renamed in Honor of Israel

The Vilnius city municipality intends to rename a square in a southern Vilnius neighborhood Israel. The decision was made by the city’s commission for historical memory but awaits approval by the city council. A member of that commission told Baltic News Service negotiations had taken place over an extended period with the Israeli embassy to Lithuania and that the city had sought a suitable location, resulting in a decision made on the site for honoring the state of Israel. In the end the council decided on a location on Algirdo street, a central location in Vilnius due to the 24-hour supermarket located there.

Lithuania’s Self-Generated Problem

Lithuania’s Self-Generated Problem

Photo: Poster honoring Kazys Skirpa. Translation: “A Nation which respects itself should know its heroes: Diplomat Colonel Kazys Skirpa First volunteer who raised the flag of Lithuania on Gediminas Tower on January 1, 1919, the head of the Lithuanian Activist Front, organizer of the June 1941 uprising. The Nation knows its heroes!”

Hate against minorities is supposedly illegal in Lithuania. Lithuanian MP Žemaitaitis spewed obscene tropes against Jews which did not make sense in the 1200s, nor in 1941, and not now, either. In subsequent posts, Žemaitaitis called for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Lithuania.

The Austrian, German, American and Israeli ambassadors issued statements condemning Žemaitaitis, as did the prime minister of Lithuania. The Lithuanian Jewish Community has requested Žemaitaitis be referred to the public prosecutor for hate crimes charges.

Superficially, the case is straightforward. The crimes are obvious, the law is clear, there is no question of his guilt. Hate is simply hate. But, the Government of Lithuania has a problem.

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Arkadijus Vinokuras Responds to Anti-Semitic Statements by MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis

Arkadijus Vinokuras Responds to Anti-Semitic Statements by MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis

Writer, reporter and public figure Arkadijus Vinokuras has responded to anti-Semitic statements made by Lithuanian MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis on the Lithuanian state television program Dienos tema [Topic of the Day]:

“How should a democratic state respond to these kinds of statements by a member of parliament? We heard condemnation from the heads of state and from some of the intelligentsia. Should we not respond at all?” Mindaugas Jackevičius asked Arkadijus Vinokuras.

“We have to respond,” Vinokuras replied, “because this isn’t incitement to hatred against one people, but against all peoples. I also believe that interpolation [impeachment hearings] must be brought against Mr. Remigijus Žemaitaitis who, for reasons I don’t know, doesn’t understand what he has done,” Vinokuras said.

Full interview in Lithuanian available here.