Lithuanian Jewish Community

Visitors in Švenčionys

Mother and son Eudenta and Samull Virine from Canada visited the Nalšia Museum in Švenčionys on August 21 where Švenčionys Jewish Community chairman Moshe Shapiro gave them a guided tour including viewing implements and artifacts from Jewish homes, the history of the region and a new exhibit on the fate of the Jews of Švenčionys. Eudenta’s mother was born in Švenčionys.

They sought archival information about the families of Leiba and Abraham Alperovitch and Mengel Bushkanietz with the help of historian and museum specialist Nadežda Spiridonovienė. The museum has very little information regarding these surnames but they are recorded as living in Švenčionys in a Russian Empire census conducted before World War I.

The two visitors also viewed the Menorah statue in the town’s central park. They went on to visit a Jewish mass murder site in nearby Švenčionėliai.

2024-09-05

Packed Hall for Concert Commemorating Kaunas Ghetto Liquidation

The Kaunas Philharmonic was packed for a concert last week ending a series of commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the destruction of the Kaunas ghetto. The Kaunas Jewish Community thanked all involved in making the final concert a success including former resident of Kaunas now of Toronto Atis Bankas and the audience.

2024-09-05

Nikki Haley Calls on Kamala to Recognize Hamas as Terrorist Organization

Former governor of South Carolina, US ambassador to the UN and Republican presidential candidate now pledging her support to candidate Donald Trump Nikki Haley posted a tweet on X decrying the current administration’s lack of clarity on Hamas following the recent mass-murder of 6 Israelis and promises by Hamas to murder remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza:

Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American citizen was executed in Gaza. Seven Americans are still being held hostage by the same terrorists who murdered Hersh.

It’s unacceptable. America should demand Hamas and their funders, Iran, release the hostages immediately. Harris and Biden need to acknowledge Hamas is a terrorist organization and treat them like, rather than pressuring Israel.

–Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) September 2, 2024

Vice-president and president of the US Senate Kamala Harris snubbed Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu when he addressed the US Congress assembled earlier this year. She has courted the pro-Hamas protestors at US universities and the large Muslim populations in Minnesota, Michigan and Illinois in order to secure an electoral college victory in November. The Biden-Harris administration has also restricted weapons exports to Israel to pressure Netanyahu into a US-engineered peace plan with Hamas while publicly proclaiming support for Israel’s right to self-defense. The newly-elected Labour Government in the United Kingdom under prime minister Keir Starmer announced this week they were banning weapons sales to Israel as well.

The United States State Department recognized Hamas as a terrorist organization in 1995 under the Bill Clinton administration.

Full story in Russian here.

2024-09-042024-09-04

Criminal Case against Former MP Žemaitaitis Begins

On Tuesday the Vilnius Regional Court began hearing a criminal case against former MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis who is accused of inciting hatred. Prosecutor Justas Laucius speaking on behalf the state prosecution noted that in his facebook posts, the politician spoke disparagingly of people of Jewish origin, accusing them of committing a massacre in the village of Pirčiupiai and the “Holocaust of Lithuanians,” ELTA reports.

Žemaitaitis stated in court he is currently unemployed and registered with the Employment Service. He also said he is currently a candidate for parliamentary elections to be held in the fall.

Prosecutor Laucius read out the indictment, indicating that Žemaitaitis is accused of inciting hatred towards persons of Jewish nationality, mocking persons of Jewish nationality and publicly approving of international crimes, denying them or grossly belittling them.

2024-09-04

Lithuanian President Casts Doubt on EU Proposal to Sanction Israeli Ministers

Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda says he has doubts concerning a proposal by EU foreign minister Josep Borrell to impose sanctions on members of the Israeli government. According to the Lithuanian head of state, EU member states do not have a common approach to the conflict in the Middle East.

“Fanning discord is bad, no matter where it comes from. I have serious doubts about Mr. Borrell’s initiative. It seems to me that he himself does not believe in the success of this initiative,” Nausėda told reporters on Monday.

“The EU is united by different states with different approaches to this conflict,” he stressed.

Last week Borrell proposed the 27 EU member states impose sanctions on Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Courtesy delfi.lt

2024-09-042024-09-04

Bodies of 6 Hostages Murdered by Hamas Found in Rafah

Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Alex Lobanov, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi discovered in Gaza tunnel; families forum urges protests; autopsy finds all 6 had gunshot wounds

The bodies of six hostages abducted alive by Hamas on October 7 were recovered from a tunnel in southern Gaza’s Rafah overnight, shortly after they were murdered by terrorists, the Israel Defense Forces announced Sunday.

The hostages were Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Ori Danino, 25, Alex Lobanov, 32, Carmel Gat, 40, and Almog Sarusi, 27.

2024-09-032024-09-03

News from Šiauliai

Last week the Šiauliai Jewish Community received a guest from Australia. Brendan Conen from Melbourne came searching family roots. Specifically, his grandparents and great-grandparents who were born in Šiauliai, Pašalotas, Pumpenai and Varniai. He was looking for their addresses in order to view their homes. On Sunday he planned to visit the Šiauliai Jewish Community to help in the group-cleanup of the courtyard and garden and to help out in receiving visitors to the Righteous Gentiles exhibit which just opened.

2024-09-02

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 7:57 P.M. on Friday, August 30, and concludes at 9:09 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Monday is also Labor Day, an official US holiday with businesses and government offices closed. Monday is also an official Lithuanian holiday marking the start of the school year.

2024-08-292024-08-30

European Day of Jewish Culture 2024

This year’s topic is family.

The Lithuanian Jewish Community is celebrating the European Day of Jewish Culture this Sunday, September 1, with a full day’s program of events, lessons, workshops, discussions and exhibits. All events are free and open to the public, but registration is required for most of the events below.

Here’s the program:

11:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M. First Hebrew lesson for the whole family with Ruth Reches at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius. Ruth will soon be forming new classes for studying Hebrew. Register here: https://bit.ly/4g5jZbW

2024-08-29

Nazi Propagandist Leni Riefenstahl Had Polish Jews “Removed” from Set in 1939

Film suggests Nazis’ lead propagandist had role in 1939 massacre

Letter in Leni Riefenstahl archive appears to claim her set instructions led to deaths of Polish Jews, says director

A new documentary on the Nazis’ favorite film-maker and lead propagandist Leni Riefenstahl suggests she was a direct witness to murderous crimes of the Third Reich she later claimed to have known nothing about and might even have contributed to one atrocity herself.

The film Riefenstahl which premieres at the Venice film festival at the end of August also claims the propagandist admired the party and its henchmen until her death at 101 in 2003, a sentiment which ran counter to her insistence she was not signed up to the Nazi cause.

Written and directed by Andres Veiel, the documentary is the first to have had full access to Riefenstahl’s estate. It gives fresh details about claims that the film-maker was witness to one of the first massacres of Polish Jews while briefly working as a war reporter.

Riefenstahl followed Adolf Hitler to Poland at the start of the second world war in September of 1939 and saw the atrocity take place in Końskie, a town in south-central Poland.

2024-08-292024-08-30

Jonas Šliūpas Museum in Palanga to Host Street Play and Discussion on Yiddish Humor

The Jonas Šliūpas Museum and the Palanga Jewish Community invites you to a day of Jewish culture this Sunday with circus and drama director, street-theater creator and comedian Adrian Schvarzstein from Argentina and Lithuania’s historical dance expert and choreographer Jūrate Širvytė who will present the street-play Arrived.

Arrived was born in Sri Lanka in 2015 and was first performed in Lithuania in 2017 under the title Malina.

Actor and comedian Schvarzstein will follow the play up with a discussion on Yiddish humor at the Jonas Šliūpas Museum. In between the play and the discussion the Palanga Jewish Community and the Bella Toscana bakery are promising to provide Jewish culinary heritage treats to attendees. All events are free.

Time: 2:00 P.M. to 3:30 P.M., September 1.
Location: The street-play begins at the Ramybė Café at Vytauto street no. 54, followed by Litvak treats in the courtyard of the Jonas Šliūpas Museum at Vytauto street no. 23a and the discussion at that same location in Palanga.

2024-08-29

Righteous Gentiles Exhibit in Šiauliai

The Šiauliai District Jewish Community invites you to an exhibit featuring Righteous Gentiles who rescued Jews from the Holocaust in Lithuania. Called “Righteous Gentiles: Not Afraid to Die, They Became Immortal,” the exhibit opens at 6:00 P.M. on September 3 in the courtyard of the Šiauliai Jewish Community located at Višinskio street no.24 in Šiauliai.

The exhibit will cover the life and times of forty Righteous Gentiles in Lithuania who went against society at the time and risked everything, including the lives of their families, to do the right thing.

On September 9 the exhibit moves indoors at the Šiauliai Jewish Community and will run till September 30, with viewing hours from 9:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. Those wishing to make an appointment or seeking more information may call +370 685 47619.

2024-08-29

Man Arrested over Islamic Attack on French Synagogue

The iinister says officers came under fire during operation; images show suspect wearing Palestinian flag as he set fire to police cars, synagogue doors; 2 associates also detained

LA GRANDE MOTTE, France (AFP)–Police arrested a man suspected of setting fires and causing an explosion at a synagogue in southern France on Saturday in what officials suspect was a terror attack, the country’s interior minister said.

“The suspected perpetrator of the criminal fires at the synagogue has been detained,” interior minister Gerald Darmanin said on X, adding that officers who made the arrest came under fire.

2024-08-29

Chaim Frenkel Soccer Cup Coming

The annual Chaim Frenkel Soccer Cup tournament is coming up at the city stadium in Šiauliai on September 8. As usual the cup is being held by the Šiauliai District Soccer Federation, the Šiauliai city municipality, the Šiauliai Football Academy and the Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club. Stay tuned for more information.

2024-08-27

European Day of Jewish Culture Coming September 1

The European Day of Jewish Culture celebrated on the first Sunday in September falls on September 1 this year. This year’s celebration will feature Yiddish and Hebrew lessons at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius and a walking tour of Jewish Vilna with guide Viljamas Žitkauskas. The students from Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium are planning performances and the Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club is also sponsoring activities.

Jewish song and dance ensemble Fayerlakh will hold a concert and Raimondas Savickas is planning an open-air art workshop. Julija Patashnik will conduct an Israeli dance class, celebrated author and animator Ilja Bereznickas’s books and animated films will be featured and the Bagel Shop Café will provide the culinary education component.

An exhibit by Litvak artist Theo Tobiasse will open at the LJC in Vilnius, cantor Shmuel Yatom will perform a blessing of families and stand-up comedian Žilvinas Kerbelis is to perform. The Cvi Park Israeli street food kiosk space will host a concert including violinist Dalia Dėdinskaitė, Glebas Pyšniakas on cello, tenor Rafailas Karpis, Tadas Motiečius on accordion and others.

Stay tuned for more details and registration information.

2024-08-27

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 8:14 P.M. on Friday, August 23, and concludes at 9:28 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.

2024-08-22

New York Times Reporter Implicated in Hit-List Targeting Australian Jews

Natasha Frost admits she shared private chats from a post-October 7 WhatsApp group with 1 person, and says she didn’t intend what followed; 600 members used the chat to talk about surging anti-Semitism in Australia

The New York Times said Friday it had taken “appropriate action” against its reporter after it came to light Melbourne-based Natasha Fronst had leaked private details from a WhatsApp group in which some 600 Australian Jewish creative workers had sought support amid surging anti-Semitism.

Natasha Frost told the Wall Street Journal she had shared the information with one person outside the group and had not intended for it to be widely disseminated.

Frost, whose New York Times bio page still says she writes for the newspaper’s Europe Morning Briefing newsletter, downloaded some 900 pages of WhatsApp messages from the group earlier this year, according to a WSJ report last week.

2024-08-222024-08-22