The Roma Social Center invites you join them in marking the Day of Genocide of Lithuanian Roma, August 2.
The commemoration starts at 12 noon at the Ponar Memorial Complex outside Vilnius. On August 3 at 6:00 P.M. the one-man digital play “Samudaripen, I Am King” starring Marius Jampolskis will be performed at the Museum of Modern Art in central Vilnius, located at Pylimo street no. 17.
Roma Social Center facebook announcement here.
We are sad to report the death of our volunteer, medical doctor and otorhinolaryngologist (head and neck medicine) Valentina Barsukaitė on July 13. She was born in 1938. We extend our deepest condolences to her daughter, Veronika, and her many friends and colleagues.
Grant Gochin
In a study by the UN titled ”History under Attack,” António Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, stated: “Understanding the history of the Holocaust is crucial to safeguarding our future. This is particularly crucial as we see some seeking to rewrite history or to whitewash and rehabilitate those who committed crimes against humanity. If we fail to identify and confront the lies and inhumanity that fueled past atrocities, we are ill-prepared to prevent them in the future.” This article borrows heavily from this UN study.
UN Findings
The UN finds that Holocaust distortion is just as pernicious as Holocaust denial. Holocaust distortion depends upon and spreads antisemitism. It threatens the ability to remember and learn from the past by misrepresenting the historical record. It is an attack on truth and knowledge. It feeds on and spreads antisemitic tropes and prejudices, and threatens our understanding of one of the most tragic and violent histories–the genocide of six million Jews.
Jewish headstones used to construct stairs up Vilnius’s Tauras Hill (Góra Bouffałowa aka Tauro kalnas) during the Soviet era began to be removed Monday, the Vilnius city municipality reported.
Illegible headstones will be taken to the old Jewish cemetery in the Šnipiškės neighborhood next to the Palace of Sports for alleged safe-keeping, according to Vilnius city officials. Those with legible inscriptions will be brought to the old Jewish cemetery on Olandų street for research. According to the city, the removal of the headstones was coordinated with representatives of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and Lithuania’s Cultural Heritage Department.
Photograph by Saulius Žiūra.
Full text in Lithuanian here.
The #ŽydiškiPašnekesiai discussion club invites the public to attend a panel discussion called “Judaism and Christianity: Attitudes towards Morality” at the Bagel Shop Café at 5:00 P.M. on Thursday, July 14. Arkadijus Vinokuras will moderate the discussion which will address Christian and Jewish positions on abortion and Lithuanian views of Russia’s war in the Ukraine. The discussion will take place in Lithuanian.
Michail Rositsan passed away July 11, 2022. He was born in Belarus in 1955 with roots in Lithuania. He completed a law degree in Lithuania, founded a business and often travelled across the Atlantic. He founded a factory producing mannequins which were exported to dozens of countries and his business card contained an address in Vilnius and in Toronto. In 2014 he served as Israel’s honorary consul in Lithuania. Together with his brother Boris he founded the Rositsan and Maccabi Elite Checkers and Chess Club in Vilnius. His brother served as president of the club and passed away in 2021. Our deepest condolences to his family and friends.
MadeinVilnius.lt
Lithuanian culture minister Simonas Kairys has added the mausoleum containing the remains of the Vilna Gaon at the Sudervės road cemetery in Vilnius to the list of cultural heritage sites. protected by the state.
In his order he wrote the mausoleum is important in terms of public dignity and should be protected because of its architectural, historical and commemorative significance.
The site and surrounding territory now has a protection status intended to maintain authenticity.
The rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman, known as the Vilna Gaon, lived in the 18th century and is considered one of the most remarkable commentators on the Talmud.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
MadeinVilnius.lt
The city of Vilnius wants to reconstruct historical Žydų or Jewish street and decorate the territory of the former Great Synagogue with architectural accents recalling the 16th century. The Vilnius municipality and the Vilniaus Planas group of architects back in May presented the public proposed projects for the restoration of Žydų street and the Shulhoyf. The Vilnius city municipality approved a project this week.
The contours of historical Jewish street were established more precisely according to the location of fragments of street paving boards discovered. The current street trajectory has changed from the historical one and the proposal is to return it to its original course through the deconstruction and removal of existing street and sidewalk pavement. The paving stones on Stiklių street, which becomes Žydų street, would continue on into Žydų street, according to the current plan.
The Yiddish poetess Judith Tsik, also known as Yehudis and Yudis and the pen-name Judika, was born July 7, 1898, in Gargždai, Lithuania.
Encyclopaedia Judaica:
YUDIKA
YUDIKA (Yudis (Judith ) Tsik; 1898–1988), poetess. She was born in Gorzhd (Gargždai), Lithuania. Poverty forced her family to send Tsik to live with an aunt in Eastern Prussia, then annexed to Germany.
One weekend last June members of the Kaunas Jewish Community made a tour of Western Lithuania. Our guides included Monika from Švėkšna, Živilė from Šilutė, Raimondas from Preila and Rasa from Klaipėda, all of whom taught us about this wonderful region surrounded by water. They explained the rich and painful history of the land.
by Emma Myers
Netflix has come under fire for using the sites of past atrocities as locations or inspiration for its nostalgic hit show Stranger Things, including a plan to let fans book a themed cell in a former Holocaust prison on AirBnB.
Two of the locations in its fourth season–the final episodes of which were released last week–have dark roots in the real world.
Russian prison scenes were filmed in a former Lithuanian prison used by Nazis during the Holocaust while the show’s fictitious mental hospital was inspired by an infamous U.S. asylum with a similar name.
Mental health and Jewish advocates have criticized the streaming giant for what they see as exploitation of a brutal history. Both locations are also now tourist attractions.
The Sabbath begins at 9:36 P.M. on Friday, July 8, and concludes at 11:19 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
The web-based Vilnius city guide 1323.lt (1323 is the nominal year of the founding of Vilnius) has reviewed the Cvi in the Park Israeli street food kiosk organized this year and last in the park across the street from the Lithuanian Jewish Community headquarters in Vilnius.
Their review is titled “In Petras Cvirka’s Place, Falafel,” a reference to the name of the park still used by almost all Vilnius residents despite the municipality’s decision a few months back to remove its trademark statue to Soviet-era Lithuanian poet Petras Cvirka.
“For the second season now the Cvi Parkas Jewish street food kiosk had been luring passers-by to have a snack (and not only that). It debuted last year when the statue to Petras Cvirka, which caused so much discussion, still stood by.
Photo: Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky and son Rafaelis attended the reception. Photo by J. Stasevičius courtesy Lithuanian State Radio and Television.
The Lithuanian president invited special guests to attend a reception at the presidential palace compound Wednesday to mark Coronation of Mindaugas Day, the day chosen by historians and others to celebrate the coronation Lithuania’s first and only king, Mindaugas, in A.D. 1253 with a crown sent by Pope Innocent IV.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
Story of King Mindaugas in brief here.
A building built between the two world wars on Vytautas prospect in Kaunas is now undergoing renovation. The architect was Karolis Reisneris, the same architect who designed the Church of the Assumption in Kaunas. Advertisements to purchase apartments have caused controversy because of the phrase “Lietūkis: A Building with History,” recalling the Lietūkis garage massacre in Kaunas in late June of 1941.
Artist Paulina Eglė Pukytė spotted the advertisement on facebook and was surprised by it.
“If the ad campaign is mentioning history, then how can it ignore completely some of the blackest pages of 20th century history connected with the word Lietūkis? The advertisement suggests ‘touching history.’ How should we touch it, and which history?” she said to 15min.lt.
Between the two world wars the compound word “Lietūkis,” made up of Lietuva or Lithuania, shortened to Liet-, followed by ūkis, meaning economy, farm or household, was the name adopted by the Union of Lithuanian Agricultural Cooperatives, which operated in Kaunas from 1923 to 1940. Their headquarters were located at no. 43 on Vytautas prospect. The daylight pogrom and mass murder of Jews was perpetrated at the garage, actually an automobile service and repair station, located on Miško street in Kaunas and still known as the Lietūkis garage, despite abolition of the Lietūkis organization, the Union of Lithuanian Agricultural Cooperatives, prior to that.
The Cvi in the Park Israeli street food kiosk is hosting free tango dancing lessons open to everyone at the park across the street from the Lithuanian Jewish Community at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius at 7:00 P.M. on July 5. The vocalist Eudardo will perform tango music from Latin America and the Argentine.
Program:
7:00 P.M. – 7:45 P.M. Public tango lesson
8:00 P.M. First portion of concert (Argentine and Latin American tango music)
8:30 P.M. Milonga (tango dances)
9:00 P.M. Second portion of concert
10:00 P.M. Finale.
by Karolis Vyšniauskas, photographs by Ieva Lygnugarytė, sound engineer Adomas Zubė
Samuel Bak is a miraculous survivor of Vilnius Ghetto. Now 88 at his studio in Massachusetts, the prolific painter recalls lost Jewish life in Vilnius for a NARA podcast.
For many decades Samuel Bak didn’t want to come back to Vilnius. It is the city where his father, grandparents and even his best friend, a child at the time, were killed.
But eventually through an initiative by local Lithuanians he returned to the place which formed his childhood memories. Now Vilnius hosts the Samuel Bak Museum, to which the painter has donated more than 50 of his works.
Full text and audio file of interview here.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Union of Former Ghetto and Concentration Camp Prisoners wish Mina Frišman a very happy birthday. Our heartfelt wishes for her endless health and many happy days ahead with her children and grandchildren.
The Sabbath begins at 9:40 P.M. on Friday, July 1, and concludes at 11:30 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
The Makabi Lithuanian athletics club is training intensively for taking part in the 21st World Maccabiah Games to take place between July 12 and July 26 in Israel. This will be the ninth World Maccabiah Games where the Lithuanian Makabi delegation will compete under the tutelage of president Semionas Finkelšteinas.
The delegation includes 23 people of whom 17 are athletes, 2 trainers (chess and swimming) and 4 coaches. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky is planning to attend the opening ceremony with the Lithuanian Makabi team. The entire team is expecting to make a good showing and to make new contacts and friends as well as learning about the country and culture in the host country, Israel.
Photos: The European Maccabi Games held in Dusseldorf from September 2 to 5, 2021, where all six Lithuanian Makabi competitors won medals.
