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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Fania Brantskovskaya on Film

Fania Brantskovskaya on Film

In 2014 a group of German filmmakers travelled to Lithuania to document the amazing life story of our resident Jewish partisan soldier and long-standing member of the Community who recently celebrated a milestone birthday. The film was released in 2015 and is available on DVD and may be booked by cinemas anywhere in the world (see contact information at the bottom of this post). Here are the liner notes from the DVD released in 2015:

Fania Yocheles-Barntsovskaya was about to begin her studies when on June 22, 1941, the Germans invaded her hometown of Vilnius, known at that time as the Jerusalem of the North.

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Aleksandras Ganelinas Exhibit Opens

Aleksandras Ganelinas Exhibit Opens

An exhibition of paintings and sketches by Aleksandras Ganelinas opened at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius as part of the Fifth World Litvak Congress. Ganelinas was graduated from the Moscow Art School, then from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. He started an art gallery in Jaffa called Mannsohn House Gallery. He has participated in a number of group exhibitions in Israel, Lithuania, Poland, India, Great Britain, America, Russia, Germany and elsewhere. His works are held by private collections and museums around the world.

He says he fell in love with Lithuania as a student when he was exposed to works by M. K. Čiurlionis and ever since has been an active participant in different plein air workshops, symposia and exhibits held in Lithuania.

The exhibit is on the third floor of the Lithuanian Jewish Community at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius.

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Condolences

Our deepest condolences to Tatjana and Viktoras Peleckis on the death of their beloved daughter Jelena.

Condolences

Raja Lifšic, a member of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and a social department client, has passed away. She was born in 1948. Our deepest condolences to her husband Jakov, daughter Liza and sons Markas and Semionas.

Lithuanian Jews Still Avoiding Country’s Holocaust Distortion

Lithuanian Jews Still Avoiding Country’s Holocaust Distortion

by Efraim Zuroff, Times of Israel
photo: Grant Gochin and Silvia Foti, June, 2020.

What a shame that those who work to bring Lithuania’s large-scale participation in Holocaust crimes to light cannot be honored by the Jewish community there

This week the Lithuanian Jewish community is hosting the “Fifth World Litvak Congress” in Vilnius (Vilna) from Sunday, May 22 until Thursday, May 26. In theory, the event is open to any Jew of Lithuanian origin and anyone who has a meaningful connection to the history, politics or culture of Lithuanian Jewry.

The program features an opening event in the Lithuanian Seimas (Parliament), cultural events, as well as visits to Kaunas (Kovno), Panevezys (Ponevitch), Seduva (my grandmother’s birthplace), and other sites of Jewish interest. The congress will also be addressed by Lithuanian politicians, such as Seimas Speaker Viktorija Čmilyté-Nielsen, the patron of the congress, foreign experts on combatting anti-Semitism, such as European Commissioner Katharina Von Schnurbein and former Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, as well as scholars who are experts on aspects of Lithuanian Jewish history, such as American Professor David Fishman and Israeli Dr. Ben-Tsiyon Klibansky.

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What Is a Litvak?

What Is a Litvak?

by Birutė Vyšniauskaitė, lrytas.lt

Jews in Lithuania: a still undiscovered or an already-lost shared history? Human rights, modern anti-Semitism. Recording Lithuanian Jewish culture for posterity. These and many other topics touching on Lithuanian Jewish culture, the Holocaust and culture were discussed the current Fifth World Litvak Congress.

The Congress was supposed to have been held two years ago on the 300th anniversary of the birth of Eliyahu ben Solomon Zalman, the Vilna Gaon, the renowned rabbi, kabbalist and student of the Torah and Talmud. …

[I asked] Faina Kukliansky, the chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community who was born and grew up in Lithuania, what it means to be a Litvak.

“My dad used to say his grandchildren were born in Lithuania and therefore bore the seal of quality, and were fit for export,” Kukliansky joked.

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Lithuanian Jewish Community Opens Saul Kagan Welfare Center

Lithuanian Jewish Community Opens Saul Kagan Welfare Center

The Lithuanian Jewish Community has just opened the long-awaited Saul Kagan Welfare Center, paying tribute to the long-serving director of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany by renaming the Community’s social care and welfare center after him. Staff and clients attended the ceremony where LJC executive director Michail Segal and the Center’s first director Simas Levinas spoke. LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky unveiled the new plaque commemorating Saul Kagan. Arie Buchesiter from the Claims Conference, Saul Kagan’s daughter Julia Kagan-Baumann and Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Yossef Avni-Levy also attended the event. The Fayerlakh group performed a concert at the event.

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Fifth World Litvak Congress Begins at Lithuanian Parliament

Fifth World Litvak Congress Begins at Lithuanian Parliament

15min.lt, BNS

The Fifth World Litvak Congress kicked off at the Lithuanian parliament Monday.

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said this congress sends the message that Jewishness isn’t just a thing of the past in Lithuania.

“Today we invite you to an open discussion on the future of Litvak culture and the importance of passing this culture on to our children and grandchildren,” she said. “I am certain the Lithuanian state has an interest in making all Litvaks from around the world feel at home in their native land.”

Parliamentary speaker Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen used the opportunity to talk about the Ukraine.

Besides the academic conference Monday, an exhibit called “Almanach of Litvak Culture in the 21st Century” was also opened. Topics at the conference included fighting anti-Semitism, Litvak history and education, among others.

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Wanderings of Moses: An Exhibit of Works by Daumantas Lovas Todesas

Wanderings of Moses: An Exhibit of Works by Daumantas Lovas Todesas

An exhibit of works by Daumantas Lovas Todesas called “The Wanderings of Moses” opened at the Žiežmariai synagogue located at Vilniaus street no. 6 in Žiežmariai on May 23. The exhibit will run till June 9. Visitors can visit from 10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. on weekdays, or arrange a different time for touring the exhibit and synagogue by calling +370 682 19944. This exhibit was jointly organized by the Vilnius Jerusalem of Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Žiežmariai Cultural Center.

Israeli Street Food and Cultural Oasis Returns to Vilnius

Israeli Street Food and Cultural Oasis Returns to Vilnius

“Cvi in the Park” is once again welcoming the citizens of Vilnius and city’s guests! The project was set up during the corona virus pandemic in order to continue the operation of the famous Bagel Shop Café under strict government-imposed restrictions. This is how the new open-air café “Cvi in the Park” was born, which is now reopening for the summer season.

The word “cvi” or “tzvi” itself means “doe” in Hebrew and given the divisive history of the square and the surrounding atmosphere of the park, it was decided to accommodate this “doe” in Cvirka Square, for the sake of dialogue and tolerance. We hope that this revived summer tradition will give a fresh face to this old square in front of the Lithuanian Jewish Community. We are ready to be a reliable partner to the Vilnius city municipality in the creation and development of a distinctive, sustainable identity for Cvirka Square.

At “Cvi in the Park” we offer healthy Israeli street food such as falafels, hummus, pita, etc., together with fresh vegetables grown locally and a unique blend of Middle Eastern spices and chickpeas. The menu is vegan-friendly and all organic ingredients are carefully selected based on seasonality. We hope our visitors will also enjoy the new and unique flavors of plant-based food. We are very happy to be cooperating with the craft beer experts Genys Brewing and true wine lovers New Skanu.

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Happy Birthday to Fania Brantsovskaya

Happy Birthday to Fania Brantsovskaya

We wish a very happy milestone birthday next week to Vilnius ghetto survivor and Jewish partisan Fania Brantsovskaya.

You were about to begin university when the Germans invaded on June 22, 1941. When they ordered your family into the Vilnius ghetto, you crossed the street, Pylimo, to the Jewish Hospital section of the ghetto between Pylimo and Ligoninės streets. You joined the FPO, carried out sabotage missions against the Lithuanian Nazis, fought in the forests and marched into Vilnius with the Red Army when the Soviets liberated the Lithuanian capital. Although the fascists murdered your entire family, you stayed in the country and continued fight for a better future. After your husband passed away, you devoted yourself to telling the truth to the younger generations about the Holocaust and how Jews didn’t go like lambs to the slaughter, but fought tooth and nail, and prevailed against their oppressors.

We salute your bravery, your decision to fight and the life you devoted to telling the truth and serving humanity in your native land.

Mazl tov. Bis 120!

May 19 Is Lag ba’Omer

May 19 Is Lag ba’Omer

Lag ba’Omer is a minor Jewish holiday celebrated with bonfires and an occasion for weddings and cutting children’s hair. It happens approximately one month after Passover, and the name means the 33rd day of the of the Omer count, on the 18th day of the Jewish month of Iyar, which is about the midpoint in time between Passover and Shavuot.

Lag ba’Omer, according to tradition, was the day on which the plague that killed 24,000 of Rabbi Akiva’s disciples stopped (Yebamoth, 62:72). For this reason it is customary to cease mourning customs of the Omer period, which include prohibition of marriages, cutting hair, and public expressions of joy such as singing and dancing. Some traditions hold that the period of mourning ends at Lag ba’Omer and others end it three days before the holiday of Shavuot.

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Saul Kagan: Litvak, Conscience of the Claims Conference and Warrior on the Invisible Front

Saul Kagan: Litvak, Conscience of the Claims Conference and Warrior on the Invisible Front

Saul Kagan, who fled Lithuania, spent decades leading the Jewish welfare organization which was primarily responsible for restitution worth more than $70 billion to Holocaust survivors and their descendants.

Saul Kagan came the to the USA in 1940 after losing his mother and brother to the barbarity of the Nazis. In 1951 he became the director of World Jewish Congress responsible for material claims by Jews against Germany. B’nai B’rith and other Jewish organizations brought an unprecedented claim, demanding reparations from “the heirs of the state of the Third Reich,” meaning West Germany, for the Nazi genocide against the Jews of Europe.

Kagan’s agreements signed over the following fifty years demanded the governments of West Germany and Austria and a falange of fascist corporations compensate people who survived the Holocaust for the houses, homes, buildings, furniture, art and other property seized from them during the Nazi era. They also demanded the payment of pensions, stipends and aid to the elderly they otherwise would have had if they hadn’t been persecuted instead, as well as compensation for hundreds of thousands of Nazi prisoners, Jews and non-Jews, used as slave labor by Germany’s industrial giants, corporations such as IG Farben and Krupp.

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Plaque Commemorating Dr. Isaac Levitan to Be Unveiled in Kaunas May 19

Plaque Commemorating Dr. Isaac Levitan to Be Unveiled in Kaunas May 19

The Kaunas Jewish Community invites you to the unveiling of a plaque commemorating Dr. Isaac Levitan, the “angel in a white lab coat,” at 3:00 P.M. on May 19 at the doctor’s former address, Miško street no. 27 in Kaunas.

This is where Levitan set up his first private clinic in 1926. It quickly became known as Dr. Levitan’s Women’s Clinic. Amazingly, the building has stood unchanged since that time. It now houses the Christian Healing House which has delivered a large number of babies over several generations in Kaunas.

The doctor’s family didn’t fare as well during World War II. His son (also a doctor and gynecologist) and daughter-in-law were murdered in the Kaunas ghetto. Levitan, Sr., and his wife were deported by the Soviets twice. He died in exile in Krasnoyarsk oblast in 1956. His grandson Uri after many journeys finally ended up in Israel, thanks to fearless people.

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The Lithuanian Jewish Community Invites You to the 5th World Litvak Congress

The Lithuanian Jewish Community Invites You to the 5th World Litvak Congress

The Fifth World Litvak Congress will be held on May 23-26, organized by the Lithuanian Jewish Community. We invite you to join the events and enjoy Litvak culture, heritage, history and music. Share the news with your relatives, friends and colleagues.

Pre-registration is required by filling out the following form:

https://forms.gle/VJa9nMHaHjH4t5Lf6

The program may be found here:

BUKLETAS_EN_1 (1)

>>PROGRAM in Lithuanian