A Kabbalat Shabat ceremony will be held to usher in the Sabbath under the tenets of progressive Judaism at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius at 6:00 P.M. on January 28, followed by a glass of wine and challa bread. To register, write Viljamas at viljamas@lzb.lt or call 8 672 50699.
Dear Friends,
We would like to remind you about EJC’s online International Holocaust Remembrance Day commemoration, which will be held tomorrow at 4PM CET.
The event will be available live on EJC website <http://www.eurojewcong.org>, as well as on YouTube <https://www.youtube.com/user/eurojewcong> and Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/Eurojewcong/>.
No registration is required. The event will appear live on all the above-mentioned channels shortly before the scheduled time.
Thank you in advance.
Kind regards,
Raya and the EJC team
January 27 is International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, recalling the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust. The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites Lithuania’s educational and scientific community to join us in the campaign #WeRemember/#MesPrisimename and to remember the victims, eye-witnesses and heroes of the Holocaust who lived in the cities and towns of Lithuania.
We invite you to engage actively in International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust and to spread the news about the importance of this day among the various educational communities and institutions of general, higher and professional learning. Assign the activities of this day to teaching young people about the memory of Holocaust victims and organize encounters with the older members of the Jewish communities who remember and won’t let these horrific periods of history slip into oblivion. We invite you to pay special attention to remembering those who rescued Jews. Their courage set an example of humanity for future generations.
You can find educational materials, testimonies and stories told by survivors and other useful information which will help present the story of the Holocaust in an interactive and understandable way to young people on the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s webpages lzb.lt, lzb.lt/en and lzb.lt/ru, and at our virtual initiative @AtmintiesKalendorius on our facebook page.
You can also take part in the campaign by visiting the mass murder sites in your local area and by taking photos there and posting them to your social media with the hashtags #WeRemember and/or #MesPrisimename. Take a photo of yourself holding a piece of paper or a sign with the inscription #WeRemember and/or #MesPrisimename. Also, on the eve of the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, join the global campaign by adding a #WeRemember frame to your social media profile. Frames can be found at #WeRemember and/or #MesPrisimename.
#WeRemember #MesPrisimename #Neveragain #NiekadaDaugiau #HolocaustMemorialDay
Thank you,
Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community
The International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust is on January 27. It commemorates the date the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was liberated and the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust in Europe. In Lithuanian entire Jewish communities in cities and towns were exterminated.
The Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community invites residents to come to monument marking the site of the Šiauliai ghetto at the corner of Vytauto and Žalgirio streets at 12 noon on January 27 to light candles and remember the victims of the Holocaust.
At 12:30 we’ll move to the Square of Righteous Gentiles to honor the heroes of the Lithuanian nation who rescued their Jewish fellow citizens during World War II. At 1:00 P.M. we will light candles at the site of the former second ghetto at the corner of Trakų and Ežero streets.
Lithuania’s Odilė publishing house has translated and printed a Lithuanian translation of Yiddish writer Moshe Kulbak’s book Mesiekh ben Efrayim under the title Mesijas, Efraimo sūnus. The description by internet vendor knygynas.biz says:
Classic of Lithuanian and world Jewish literature Moishe Kulbak (1896-1937) is known to Lithuanian readers as the author of the wonderful poem Vilne. Finally for the first his prose has appeared in Lithuanian, the novel Messiah ben Efraim. This is one of the most famous and most original of Kulbak’s Yiddish works. It was written in Berlin in 1922 and is suffused with magical realism, something which hadn’t been seen before. The author’s vital and innovative imagination connects surrealistic and expressionistic images here with the oral tradition and strong mystical spirit of Lithuanian Jews. This ensemble recalls the impressive paintings of Marc Chagall.
The novel Messiah ben Efraim is based on a Jewish legend which comes from the Talmud that there are always 36 hidden just men living in the world without whose unseen actions the world would pass away [lamed-vavnik tzadikim or lamed-vavniki]. Kulbak creates a story about these holy people living in historical Lithuanian [Grand Duchy] lands–in Belarus and Žemaitija. Elderly miller Benya, Simkha the rabbi who ran away from his community, the philosopher-bum Gimpel, Christian sauna operator Kiril–these souls trapped in the world seeking the light, guided a strange unease embark on a journey without any explicable destination. During this fantastic trip filled with humor and mystical experiences the cause of this unease driving on the travellers gradually comes into focus: it’s the impending advent of the Messiah to the land of Lithuania.
LRT.lt, August 30, 2021
Jurgis Matulevičius film debut “Izaokas” has been playing for three weeks now at Lithuanian movie theaters and has received much praise from average moviegoers and film-industry colleagues as well, according to a press release by the makers of the film.
“Although the category of art film is not my favorite, the film Izaokas is in my opinion the best work in this category over the last 30 years of Lithuanian cinema. Bearing in mind that this is the first full-length feature by the director, he should be given another medal as well for talent,” film director Emilis Vėlyvis said.
Full article in Lithuanian here.
The film tells the story of an LAF volunteer who murders a Jew named Izaokas, or Isaac, during the Lietūkis garage massacre in Kaunas in 1941 and who is haunted by the memory for years. The IMDB entry for the film says:
Sylvie Simmons’s biography of Litvak musician Leonard Cohen “I’m Your Man” has been translated and published by Lithuanian publisher Kitos Knygos under the title “Tavo žmogus.”
The publisher’s website says:
Author and performer Leonard Cohen, who came from a family of Litvak religious authorities, holds a special place on the world’s musical stage. This book tells emotionally and with great insight the story of the person who created such unforgettable songs as “I’m Your Man,” “Hallelujah” and “Dance Me to the End of Time” along with so many other ballads which stick in one’s head. Chronicler of the world of music Sylvie Simmons examines Cohen’s remarkable life and tries to get to the bottom of the secret of his genius. This portrait of a musical icon will inspire readers of Frida Kahlo’s biography and Patti Smith’s memoirs.
Some excerpts from the book:
But Cohen had one advantage of which most of them were simply jealous: status. The family to which Leonard was born was remarkable and special, one of the most famous Jewish families in Montreal. Leonard’s forefathers in Canada built synagogues and established newspapers. They formed a whole series of Jewish welfare societies and associations. Leonard’s great-grandfather Lazarus Cohen was the first member of the family to arrive in Canada. In Lithuania, which in the 1840s when Lazarus was born was part of Russia, he taught at the Vilkaviškis yeshiva, known as the most severe and disciplined religious seminary in the country. At the age of 20 he left his wife with their baby and sought success elsewhere. After living in Scotland for a while, he sailed to Canada and settled in the small town of Maberly, Ontario, where he started out at a lumber warehouse and eventually founded the coal vending company L. Cohen and sons. His son was named Lyon, the father of Nathan. Lazarus invited his son and his wife to join him after two years. After some time the family moved to Montreal where Lazarus became the foreman at a bronze foundry and began a successful bulldozer business.
There were few Jews in Canada when Lazarus Cohen arrived in 1860. There were fewer than 500 Jews living in Montreal in the mid-19th century. By the mid-1880s when Lazarus became the elder of the Shaar haShomayim synagogue there were 5,000. …
Besides constructing synagogues, Lazarus also established and led many organizations to help new Jewish settlers and future immigrants, and also as the authorized agent of the Montreal Jewish Colonization Society he travelled to Palestine. … Lazarus’s youngest brother Tzvi Hirsch Cohen who also soon arrived in Canada later became the chief rabbi of Montreal.
When Lyon Cohen took over as elder from his father at the Shaar haShomayim synagogue in 1914, most of the Jews of Montreal belonged to the synagogue, now numbering about 40.000.
…
[Leonard Cohen’s mother] Masha always sang at home, more often in Russian and Yiddish than English, happy popular songs learned in childhood. Responding in good contralto to an imaginary violin, Masha went from joy to mourning and then back again. Leonard characterized his mother as Chekhovian. “She laughed and cried very deeply,” Leonard said, “one feeling quickly replacing another.” Masha Cohen was not a nostalgic woman and told little of the lost world left behind, although she did preserve her past in songs.
Masha’s father, the rabbi Solomon Klonitzki-Kline, was a famous religious sage. He headed a Talmudic studies school in Kaunas just barely 80 kilometers away from the place Lazarus was born. He also wrote, and two of his books–a dictionary of Hebrew homonyms and an encyclopedia of Talmud interpretation–earned him the title of Sar haDikdook (grand duke of grammarians). Life in Lithuania became intolerable due to the persecution of Jews, so he moved to the USA where one of his daughters already lived, married to an American. Masha left for Canada and became a nurse. When Masha’s work permit expired her father asked his American son-in-law for help, who directed him to Lyon Cohen’s refugees committee. The rabbi formed a friendship with Lyon, and Masha met Nathan as well, and got married.
In his childhood Cohen heard more about rather than saw much of his grandfather Kline because the rabbi lived almost the entire time in the USA. Masha used to tell Leonard how people would travel hundreds of miles to hear his grandfather. She said his grandfather was also famous as an equestrian, which especially thrilled Leonard.
More information in Lithuanian available here.
Deutsche Welle
Ambassadors of Israel and Germany say denying the Holocaust threatens peaceful coexistence worldwide. Their appeal comes 80 years after the Wannsee Conference where Nazis discussed the extermination of Europe’s Jews.
The UN General Assembly on Thursday adopted a resolution proposed by Israeli and German ambassadors rejecting and condemning any denial of the Holocaust.
The 193-member assembly agreed on the proposal without a vote with only Iran distancing itself from the text. The assembly also urged social media companies to “take active measures” to fight anti-Semitism online.
“The General Assembly is sending a strong and unambiguous message against the denial or the distortion of these historical facts,” German UN ambassador Antje Leendertse said. “Ignoring historical facts increases the risk that they will be repeated.”
Full story here.
As expected, the Israeli Government approved an increase to the budget of the Yad Vahsem Holocaust Commemoration and Research Institute on Sunday, January 23, increasing the institution’s budget by 29 million shekels for 2022 to combat anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. It was reported earlier the budget increase was needed because of flagging donations.
The Šeduva Jewish Memorial Fund and the Aušra Museum in Šiauliai are pleased to invite the public the first-ever exhibition in Lithuania of works by famous Litvak designer and sculptor Michael Brenner. Brenner almost never exhibited his works during his lifetime and rarely invited anyone into his studios.
The exhibit called “Michael Brenner: Free Fall” will open at the Chaim Frenkel villa located at Vilniaus street no. 74 in Šiauliai at 5:30 P.M. on January 22. For more information, click on the links below.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community is pleased to announce the opening of an exhibit of paintings by Sergei Liser called “Surviving Vessels.” The opening will be held at 3:00 P.M. on January 30 at the Bagel Shop Café at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius. The exhibit will run till February 28.
On January 27 International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust will be marked around the world, recalling the death of six million Jews in the Holocaust.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites you to participate in the event and to remember the victims, eye-witnesses and rescuers who lived in Lithuania’s towns and cities.
Remembrance of the suffering Holocaust victims experienced compels us to accept shared responsibility to prevent crimes against humanity. We invite you to get involved by visiting the mass murder and mass grave sites where you live, or by sharing the hashtag #WeRemember or #MesPrisimename on your social media accounts.
The Sabbath begins at 4:15 P.M. on Friday, January 21, and concludes at 5:37 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
by Michael Medved
Israel’s contemporary critics angrily insist that the special relationship between America and the Jewish state stems solely from the outsize electoral and economic clout of American Jews. But those who argue that this undue influence has always shaped our policies in the Middle East ignore the fact that the commitment to a rebuilt Jerusalem and a reborn Israel began at a time when the Republic’s Jewish community played an insignificant role in national life, with a minimal population amounting to far less than 1 percent of the federal total. In fact, the idea that the United States ought to link its fate to a Jewish state officially originated in 1844 with the very first diplomat America ever dispatched to Jerusalem, more than a century before Israel’s Declaration of Independence. His name was Warder Cresson, and he led an extraordinary and singular American life.
Cresson’s own Huguenot forebears first came to the New World from Holland in 1657, settling in Delaware and New York. After some adventures in the West Indies, his grandfather Solomon found his way to Philadelphia, where he became an ardent member of the Society of Friends and part of the new city’s Quaker establishment. As successful artisans and entrepreneurs, the Cressons owned prime real estate on Chestnut Street in the center of town as well as valuable agricultural properties in the surrounding countryside.
Born in 1798, Cresson began working the family farms in nearby Darby and Chester counties at age 17, impressing relatives and neighbors with his business and leadership abilities. Married at 23 to another devout Quaker, he proceeded to raise six children of his own and to follow the clan’s pattern of judicious investment and accumulation of wealth.
Full story here.
Jonas Noreika: Savior or slayer of Jews?
by Silvia Foti
My maternal grandfather was declared a Rescuer of the Jews by the Lithuanian Genocide Resistance and Research Centre. This division is funded by the Lithuanian government, dedicated to establishing and enforcing the legal and official historical narrative of the nation.
The context of the pronouncement was the impending launch of my memoir The Nazi’s Granddaughter: How I Discovered My Grandfather Was a War Criminal. Reluctantly, I had come to the horrific conclusion that my grandfather, Jonas Noreika, was involved in the murder of 8,000 – 15,000 Jews in Lithuania. The book launch in March 2021 coincided with multiple lawsuits against the government of Lithuania, accusing them of Holocaust fraud; these were filed by Grant Gochin, the descendant of some of my grandfather’s victims.
Father Borevičius
A single testimony, given by the Lithuanian priest, Father Jonas Borevičius, was the well from which this decree about my grandfather was drawn. His deposition was given 40 years after the Holocaust in a court in Chicago.
The surviving material culture of the former Kupiškis Jewish community, namely a mill which changed communal life once upon a time, is being restored in the small town in northeast Lithuania. For more, see here.
On January 20, 1942, details about the extermination of Europe’s Jews were discussed. Even 80 years later, the minutes of the Wannsee Conference send chills down the spine.
In March of 1947 as officials from the German Foreign Ministry tried to justify their actions at the Nuremberg Trials, Robert Kempner made a coincidental discovery. Amid the masses of documents left behind by the Nazis, a cover page piqued the curiosity of the assistant US chief counsel. A stamp in red ink is clearly legible on the page: “Secret Reich Matter.”
Under the nondescript title “Minutes of Meeting,” 15 pages serve as evidence of the systematic execution of European Jews. It is a record of the Wannsee Conference, which took place on January 20, 1942. It is the 16th set of minutes–the only one remaining of a set of 30.
At noon on that day, 15 men who had accepted an invitation from Reinhard Heydrich, head of the dreaded Reich Main Security Office, arrived to a lavish villa in the posh Berlin suburb of Wannsee. The temperature outside was -12 degrees Celsius (10 F), and the frigidness behind what was discussed within the walls of that villa still sends chills down one’s spine today.
Full story here.
A report on the Lithuanian news site 15min.lt says Silvia Foti will speak at the Vilnius Book Fair to be held from February 24 to 27 this year. Foti will launch the Lithuanian translation of her book about her grandfather, Lithuanian Nazi war criminal Jonas Noreika.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
The Martynas Mažvydas National Library and its Judaica Center will open an exhibit of photographs, present a book about and hold a discussion on Lithuanian Jews who came back to Lithuania from concentration camps on at 6:00 P.M. January 26. The event will be hosted by director of the Judaica Center Lara Lempertienė and the discussion panel will include several Lithuanian historians and academicians. The discussion will be held in Lithuanian.
“The main target of my searches was people’s faces,” Kęstutis Grigaliūnas, author of the book “Lietuvos žydai, grįžę iš nacių konclagerių” [Lithuanian Jews Who Returned from Nazi Concentration Camps] which will be presented, said in a press release on the library’s facebook page.
The library said the event is closed to people without proof of vaccination and that all faces must be covered by “at least an FFP2-level respirator,” except for people who are unable to cover their faces with such masks due to medical conditions, who must wear plexiglass face shields instead. The library also said attendees must use hand disinfectant and maintain physical distance at the event, and that registration is required.
