Lithuanian Jewish Community

The life of the Abramovičius family in Lithuania: deportation, hardships, and death in confinement abroad

The deportations of Lithuanian residents touched every ethnic group in the country, the Jews included. On 14 June 1941, some 3 thousand Jews were exiled from Lithuania.

In the fall of 1941, a train carrying a cargo of exiles from Lithuania rolled in to the foreign and cold city of Syktyvkar. Ravaged by famine and disease, they had travelled thousands of kilometres in tightly sealed cattle cars. Entire families would die from starvation. Those deported on orders from Joseph Stalin, the ‘Father of Nations’, included the Abramovičius family of Jews from the town of Tauragė (Taurogi shtetl): mother Taube-Leja and her three kids, the oldest son Leibas aged 12, the middle son Abramas, 8, and the youngest Aronas, just five.

2021-06-142021-06-15

Litvak Nobel Prize Winner Bernard Lown Commemorated in Utena

The city of Utena in northeast Lithuania has a new piece of public art, a bronze heart, to recall the birth there of Bernard Lown, Nobel prize winner and famous cardiologist who invented the defibrillator.

The statue comes as part of a project by cultural historian Sandra Dastikienė called “Old Neighbors” intended to bring public attention to the Jewish community’s legacy in the Utena region.

“To heal communication between the Lithuanian and Jewish peoples, we have to start at the grassroots level, from the culture of the small towns or shtetls, where both separate communities lived together in peace for centuries. It was that, namely neighborliness, that I want to emphasize with my project in Utena, Anykščiai, Molėtai and Dusetos,” Dastikienė said.

Lown was born in Utena on June 7, 1921, to a family of Jewish merchants. Fearing growing anti-Semitism and seeking a better life for their children, his parents took the family to the USA in 1935. Bernard Lown studied medicine there and was graduated in 1945. He passed away earlier this year in February at the age of 99.

2021-06-142021-06-16

Speech by President von der Leyen at the American Jewish Committee Virtual Global Forum 2021

June 9, 2021–European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen addressed thousands participating in the 2021 American Jewish Committee (AJC) Virtual Global Forum. She reiterated the Commission’s commitment to fighting antisemitism, fostering Jewish life, Holocaust remembrance and strong EU-Israel partnership.

“After taking office as Commission president in 2019, I stepped up Europe’s fight against anti-Semitism. This is why, later this year, the Commission will adopt its first-ever ‘EU Strategy on Combating Anti-Semitism and Fostering Jewish Life’ … All European students should learn about the Holocaust, no matter their background, family history or country of origin. … We want to foster Jewish life in Europe in all its diversity. We want to make sure that Jews are free to follow their religious and cultural traditions. … The European Commission has significantly increased the budget for preventing and addressing anti-Semitism and fostering Jewish life, and we will also take action if European money is used to call into question Israel’s right to exist.”

Full speech here.

2021-06-11

Condolences

Aleksandr Šmidt died June 11. He was born in 1954. Our deepest condolences to his widow Vanda and brother Jurijus.

2021-06-11

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 9:35 P.M. in Vilnius and the Vilnius district on Friday, June 10, 2021. The Sabbath concludes at 11:27 P.M. on Saturday, June 11, 2021.

2021-06-11

European Commission Calls on Greece, Netherlands, Lithuania to Transpose EU Law Criminalizing Hate Speech, Crimes

June 9, 2021–The Commission decided to send letters of formal notice to Greece, the Netherlands and Lithuania as their national laws do not fully or accurately transpose EU rules on combating racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law (Council Framework Decision 2008/913/JHA). The purpose of this Framework Decision is to ensure that serious manifestations of racism and xenophobia, such as public incitement to violence or hatred, are punishable by effective, proportionate and dissuasive criminal penalties.

Full story here.

2021-06-112021-06-11

Times for Sabbath

This Sabbath on June 4, 2012, begins in Vilnius and Vilnius district with the lighting of the candles at 9:27 P.M. and concludes at 11:13 P.M. on June 5.

2021-06-042021-06-07

Congratulations to Rūta Ribinskaitė on Earning Her Bachelor’s Degree

The Lithuanian Jewish Community congratulates Rūta Ribinskaitė for successfully defending and taking first place among final works for earning a bachelor’s degree at the International Relations and Political Science Institute of Vilnius University. Her work was titled “(Un)Fading Stereotypical Images of Jews: A Qualitative Analysis of the Internet News Site Delfi.lt.”

She told us: “Thank you for the opportunity to connect with the Jewish community, to acquire a lot of information, to gain experience and get to know members of the community, which led to my successful completion of studies.”

Way to go, Rūta.

2021-06-042021-06-14

LJC Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky Part of Žiežmariai Synagogue Supervisory Assessment Commission

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky has participated in the commission for the final supervisory assessment of work done to restore the synagogue in Žiežmariai, Lithuania. Work on the ground floor is now complete.

Work on the building is drawing to an end and the synagogue is set to begin hosting educational, cultural, tourist and other public activities. Following completion, it could become an important community site and tourist attraction.

Currently the synagogue is hosting an exhibit of reproductions of drawings by Dora Pilianskienė. She came from Žiežmariai and as a young Jewish woman left her hometown, but at an advanced age began drawing and painting images she cherished from Žiežmariai. Her relatives have bequeathed her works to the Žiežmariai Culture Center.

2021-06-032021-06-15

Litvak Isaac Herzog Elected President of Israel

Isaac Herzog has been elected Israel’s 11th president, with 87 votes of Knesset’s 120.

The Jewish agency head, former Labor chief and son of 6th president defeated educator Miriam Peretz and said he’ll work to “build bridges” within Israeli society and with Diaspora.

Isaac Herzog, the chairman of the Jewish Agency and former head of the Labor party, was elected Wednesday as Israel’s eleventh president.

Herzog defeated Miriam Peretz, a social activist who overcame the loss of two of her sons in battle to become an Israel Prize-winning educator, with 87 votes, the most a presidential candidate has ever won, to her 26.

In the secret election, in which all 120 MKs were eligible to cast votes, three abstained, three votes were disqualified and one lawmaker, Ra’am chair Mansour Abbas, did not vote.

2021-06-03

Lithuanian Public Radio and Television Interview with Arūnas Bubnys

/Translation from the Lithuanian language/

Fresh at the GRRCL’s helm, Bubnys opens about the connection between the June Uprising and the Holocaust, Noreika’s personality, and historic truth

‘There is no such thing as the absolute historic truth. And I do not believe there can be any on principle,’ said Arūnas Bubnys, the new head of the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania (GRRCL). In his interview with the LRT.lt portal he also spoke about the challenges the Centre had faced, and the plans to boost the GRRCL’s prestige.

Bubnys did not have an easy accession to the post of the GRRCL’s director. After a conflict with the staff that had ran for a few months, Adas Jakubauskas, the Centre’s director for nine months, was fired in early April. The Parliament approved this decision by a majority vote, however Bubnys’s nomination as the new head was immediately met with allegations from the parliamentary opposition.

2021-06-022021-06-02

Breakfast for the Minyan at the Community

Members of the Choral Synagogue minyan were treated to a breakfast made by the Bagel Shop Café at the Lithuanian Jewish Community with LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky in attendance on the first day of calendar summer, June 1.

2021-06-02

US Rep: Quisling Lithuanian PM Brazaitis Wasn’t Exonerated or Rehabilitated

United States representative Brad Sherman (D, Sherman Oaks, California) has asked the Lithuanian ambassador to the United States for clarification regarding claims by the Lithuanian Government the pro-Nazi prime minister in the Lithuanian Provisional Government of 1941 was somehow exonerated by the Congress in the 1970s.

Congressman-Sherman-to-Ambassador-Plepyte-Letter-Response1

Correspondence leading to the latest letter:

2021-06-012021-06-01

Imprisoned Lithuanian Telephone Scammers Target Russian Speakers in Israel

Criminals from Lithuania pretending to be doctors and lawyers cause true scandal in Israel

Criminals from Lithuania continue to put our country’s name on the world map, and this time their targets are Lithuanian citizens living in Israel. Israeli and Lithuanian police have uncovered two international crime groups who have managed to scam a very large number of people. Prosecutors say they’ve made almost a half-million euros, but the criminals themselves say the sum is actually much higher.

… Following a long investigation, it turns out there are two crime groups operating out of the Marijampolė penitentiary tricking foreigners out of their money. Most of the money goes to the ring-leaders with the poor prisoners only getting a small portion of the money which they are allowed to spend at the prison commissary. Prisoners say their main “salary,” however, was drugs.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2021-06-01

Help Mark the 80th Anniversary of the Beginning of the Holocaust in Lithuania This Year

Dear Community members,

This year we’ll mark the 80th anniversary of the onset of the Holocaust in Lithuania. The Lithuanian Jewish Community is creating a digital chronicle to help the broader public understand how Litvaks lived before the Holocaust and what happened to their communities beginning in 1941.

We are asking you to share the stories and photographs of your relatives who lived in the Lithuanian shtetls and died in the mass murders in 1941 or the years following.

Everyone is invited to participate by sending copies of photographs and short texts including biographies and descriptions of murders to info@lzb.lt or zanas@sc.lzb.lt

Please indicate the names of people in photographs, locations and dates if available.

2021-05-312021-05-31

Condolences

With deep sadness we report the death of Olegas Feiginas on May 26. He was born in 1954. Our sincere condolences to his son Aleksas and other family members.

2021-05-26

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday to Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Yossi Avni-Levy. Here are some archive pictures of his first visit to LJC headquarters.

2021-05-25

Condolences

Panevėžys Jewish Community executive board member and doctor Sergejus Amitonas has died following chronic illness. He was born in 1953 and achieved much in the field of medicine. Our deepest condolences to his sons Ruslanas and Georgijus as well as all his relatives and many friends.

2021-05-25

Condolences

Jevgenija Ginzburg passed away May 24. She was born in 1932. We extend our deepest and most sincere condolences to her children who lost both their parents this month.

2021-05-25