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Wooden Synagogue in Alanta Renovated
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Lithuanian Jewish Community Statement on Genocide Center’s Newest Report on Kazys Škirpa
Lithuanian Ambassadors Club Sends Holiday Greetings
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 3:38 P.M. on Friday, December 24, and concludes at 5:03 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Holiday Greetings from LJC Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky
I wish you a beautiful and warm holiday season! May it be filled with goodness, peace, warmth and love.
Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community
Christmas Greetings from Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda and Wife Diana
May Hope, Faith and Love always find the way into your home.
A merry Christmas and a happy New Year!
Gitanas Nausėda and wife Diana
Lara Lempertienė Awarded Prize by Lithuanian Foreign Ministry
Jewish scholar and head of the Lithuanian National Library’s Judaica Center Lara Lempertienė, PhD, was awarded the Star of Lithuanian Diplomacy prize Friday, according to a press release from the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry. Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis personally presented her the prize at the ministry in recognition of her work fostering research into Litvak history and cultural heritage, and for her significant contribution to commemorations of the 300th birthday of the Vilna Gaon and 700 years of Litvak history.
“You have made a remarkable contribution in strengthening foreign policy and carrying out our shared mission to spread knowledge of Lithuanian Jewish history and culture,” minister Landsbergis said. The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry has been awarding the Star of Lithuanian Diplomacy since 2010 in recognition of contributions to spreading knowledge of Lithuania internationally and to improving and celebrating international relations.
A Look at the Recent Lithuanian Press on the Holocaust
Geoff Vasil
In December the Lithuanian news outlet 15min.lt treated its readers to the strange spectacle of a Lithuanian defense against American and Allied accusations of the collective guilt of average Germans in the crime of genocide against the Jewish people.
“‘Nonetheless, too many people tried not to see what was happening.’ German president Richard von Weizsäcker said these words on May 8, 1985, at a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the end of World War II.
“…The Belarussian opposition website zerkalo.io tells how Germans suffered de-Nazification and tried to come to terms with the past. ‘This town is guilty!’ Many have heard of the process known as de-Nazification. The Allies who won World War II (USA, Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union) began the process of de-Nazification.”
Greetings from the Swedish Embassy
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 3:34 P.M. on Friday, December 17, and concludes at 4:58 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Kaunas Jewish Community to Hold Concert to Commemorate Rescuers
The Kaunas Jewish Community is planning an evening of classical music dedicated to those who rescued Jews during the Holocaust at 6:00 P.M. on December 27 at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas. Actor and director Aleksandras Rubinovas will speak about the Righteous Gentiles who saved Jews 80 years ago. The event is free to the public but prior registration is required at https://forms.gle/1vzWccjif3yduBFv6
For more information call+370 652 19204 or write ieva0102@yahoo.com
Final Road of Memory Event Held in Telšiai
Lithuania’s International Commission to Assess the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania held their final Road of Memory event in the Lithuanian town of Telšiai on December 9. The Commission held these processions in concert with other organizations at different locations in Lithuania from June till now to mark the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Holocaust. This final procession included local politicians, foreign ambassadors, students from local schools and others. Miša Jakobas performed kaddish, a number of speakers spoke indoors and out, and the musical group Klezmer Klangen Vilne performed.
Gesher Club to Hold Special Sabbath
The Lithuanian Jewish Community’s Gesher Club invites its members and their families to a special Sabbath celebration according to the traditions of modern Judaism at 6:30 P.M. on Friday, December 17 at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius. “Baal tefila” Viljamas Žitkauskas will lead the ceremony to greet the Sabbath with the traditional prayers. A Sabbath dinner will follow. Registration is required by sending an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt or by calling 8 678 1514.
Vilnius Jerusalem of Lithuania Jewish Community Holds Concert with Famous Litvak Violinist Aleksandras Štarkas
Aleksandras Štarkas performed works by Mozart, Beethoven, Paganini, Tartini, Massenet, Saraste and Bloch at the Lithuanian Jewish Community recently. He was accompanied on piano by Aušra Marija Banaitytė.
Štarkas was born in Vilnius. From 1961 to 1972 he attended the M. K. Čiurlionis Art School. In 1977 he was graduated from the Lithuanian State Music Conservatory. For ten years he played in the Lithuanian chamber orchestra conducted by Saulius Sondeckas and played in Lithuanian National Philharmonic orchestras for another three years. In 1987 he moved to Israel and began playing in the Israeli Philharmonic orchestra the same year, where he remained in 2021. Štarkas performs in concerts with different chamber orchestras around the world and has won international renown.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 3:34 P.M. on Friday, December 10, and concludes at 4:57 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Yitzhak Rudashevski’s Birthday is December 10
December 10, 2021, marks 94 years since the birth of Vilnius ghetto diarist and victim Yitzhak Rudashevski.
Plans to Revive Shelved Legislation on Ethnic Minorities
Lithuanian MP Rita Tamašunienė, a representative of the Polish Electoral Action/Union of Christian Families party and the alderwoman of the Lithuanian Regions faction in parliament, Thursday announced plans to reintroduce legislation for a Law on Ethnic Minorities drafted back in 2013. It met with disapproval from the Lithuanian parliament’s Legal Department and Law and Order Committee earlier for possibly violating the Lithuanian constitution.
The legislation attempts to define basic principles for protecting the rights and freedoms of ethnic groups, to regulate protection of ethnic minority education, use of languages and cultural values, and to regulate NGO activities.
The draft law provides: “in administrative territorial units where a given ethnic minority lives closely together, local institutions and organization use the (local) language of that ethnic minority along with the state language.” It also says street signs in such areas may include ones in the local minority language alongside Lithuanian signs.
Will Ukmergė Find the Courage to Decide?
by Zigmas Vitkus
By invitation of the mayor of Ukmergė, a public discussion was held in Ukmergė (Vilkomir) on December 2 concerning the problem of historical commemoration of captain Juozas Krikštaponis, an officer of the Second Lithuanian Auxiliary Police Battalion. Lithuanian History Institute historian Mindaugas Pocius delivered an extremely important report there detailing his comprehensive and repeated research on this man’s activities during World War II and demonstration Krikštaponis as an officer in a unit which served the Nazis from October to December of 1941 had taken part in the mass murder of thousands of Jews and Soviet POWs in Nazi-occupied Byelorussia.
The Ukmergė administration which has long postponed addressing this problem will have to decide soon what to do with the statue located in the town center dedicated to “the commander of the Lithuanian partisan military district Vytis who died in 1945” in battle with NKVD troops, a man who, as the facts show, was also a war criminal.
Full text in Lithuanian here.
Historian Calls for End of Controversy on Lithuanian Nazi Juozas Krikštaponis
A Lithuanian History Institute historian says it’s a mistake to issue awards to commander of the partisan Vytis military district captain Juozas Krikštaponis and to commemorate him in Ukmergė (Vilkomir) and elsewhere.
Mindaugas Pocius who works at the institute’s Twentieth Century History Department said: “There are no doubts among historians regarding Krikštaponis’s participation in the mass murder of Jews and other civilians. We need to put an end [to this controversy].” He was speaking last Thursday at a discussion held by the Ukmergė regional administration, the Lithuanian History Institute and the Ukmergė Jewish Community on the life and person of Juozas Krikštaponis.
The former partisan commander is commemorated and lauded in Ukmergė as a fighter in the post-WWII liberation struggle, but historians say they have determined he was a Holocaust perpetrator. Pocius says bestowing state awards on him was done too hastily and a mistake was made in not doing comprehensive research on Krikštaponis’s biography before commemorating him. A stone monument was erected in his honor and a street named after him in Ukmergė in 1996. In 1997 Dalia Kuodytė, director of the Center for Research of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania, provided him the status of military volunteer. In 2002 president Valdas Adamkus issued a decree promoting Krikštaponis posthumously to the rank of colonel, based on the recommendation of Lithuanian defense minister Linas Linkevičius.
“Of course neither the Defense Ministry nor the President’s Office had complete information. They went by [Genocide] Center’s recommendation, which at that time had not performed research on Krikštaponis’s biography and knew nothing about his activity during the war,” Mindaugas Pocius said.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
Holocaust Quiz for Students in Panevėžys
The Panevėžys Jewish Community held their annual Holocaust quiz for high school students on December 2 this year, the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Holocaust in Lithuania. Four teams of students competed.
Before the quiz the high school students watched a documentary film about the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex where more than 1.5 million people were murdered, more than one million of them Jewish men, women, children and elderly.
Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman said it wasn’t just Jews who suffered from the barbaric actions planned by the Nazis in World War II against humanity. Europeans of other ethnicities also suffered because of their religion, ethnic origin, traditions and disabilities. Nonetheless, six millions Jews were exterminated simply because they were Jews.
Hanukkah in Panevėžys
Members and guests gathered in the courtyard of the Panevėžys Jewish Community to waatch the lighting of the first Hanukkah light. Song and dance began the holiday according to Jewish tradition. Hanukkah is a holiday which symbolizes freedom, light, hope and good wishes for our families and friends.
Two thousand and two hundred years, a miracle occurred when there was only enough oil for one day. The oil lasted for eight days. This was one of the major miracles in those times. Therefore Jews today celebrate the eight days of Hanukkah in their homes, lighting a candle for each day. We read three prayers and light the first Hanukkah light on the first day.
We read out greetings from our friends and colleagues, and Israel’s ambassador to Lithuania Yossi Avni-Levy greeted us on the holiday of Hanukkah, wishing us light and happiness in our hearts, and he sent on Israeli president Isaac Herzog’s video greeting, as well as those from Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky. Young and old were presented small gifts and holiday packages at the holiday table.
The high holiday spirits imparted hope and joy for our future.