Learning, History, Culture – Page 3 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Litvak Scouts Celebrate Important Date

Last Saturday Litvak scouts took part in an event hosted by the scouts of Panevėžys to celebrate the 167th birthday of Robert Baden-Powell, the father of the scouting movement.

Along with delicious birthday cupcakes, a fun-filled program and the friendly atmosphere of fellow scouts, brother and sister Anastasija and Dovydas also took the pledge. These earnest young scouts now wear the yellow neckerchief of that age-group of scouts. A big hip-hip-hooray! to our newest scouts.

A big thank-you to the organizers and scout leaders and to the Lithuanian Jewish Community for providing transportation and other services.

2024-03-04

Remembering the 80th Anniversary of the Children’s Aktion in the Kaunas Ghetto

On March 27 and 28, 1844, more than 1,700 children and elderly were rounded up in the Kaunas ghetto and murdered. The Kaunas Jewish Community invites you to mark the anniversary of one of the greatest Holocaust atrocities in Lithuania.

Time: 4:00 P.M., March 27, 2024
Place: Kaunas ghetto gate, Linkuvos street no. 2, Kaunas

The commemoration ceremony will be followed by a concert at 5:30 P.M. at Vytautas Magnus University, Gimnazijos street no. 7, Kaunas.

Please indicate your intention to attend by sending an e-mail to ieva0102@yahoo.com by March 22.

2024-03-04

Bomb Discovered at School, Removed

According to BNS, an explosive was discovered next to the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium in Vilnius Thursday afternoon. Bomb experts removed it and took it to a quarry for demolition, BNS quoted Vilnius District Police as saying. Police said the bomb was taken to the quarry about 4:35 P.M. Police wouldn’t tell BNS what kind of bomb it was, but students at the school reported it was unexploded ordnance from World War II. Police said a 20- to 25-centimeter shell or artillery piece was uncovered during construction work on the future kindergarten adjacent to the main school building and within the territory of the school. Police said they received the initial report at about 1:49 P.M. Thursday. The report led to alerts issued to police, medical services, Aras special police forces and military demolition experts. The school was temporarily evacuated and regular operation resumed Friday.

Story here.

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Sabbath with Guitar Music

Last Friday the Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Bnei Maskilim held a Sabbath celebration with prayer, food, guitar music and an evening of friendship and fun. This is at least a once-monthly event at the Community now. You’re invited to join next time. For more information about the next gathering, stay tuned, or send an email to viljamas@lzb.lt or call (+370) 672 50699.

2024-02-29

Anti-Jew Hit List in Australia Bears Fruit: Man Kidnapped, Tortured

Photo: Australian pro-Hamas activist Laura Allam, from X/Twitter

Following the circulation of a hit-list of around 600 Jews targeted for attacks by pro-Hamas activists in Australia, Victoria State Police are only now disclosing to the public a kidnapping, assault and robbery of a man committed on February 16. The man works for a Jewish employer and was ripped from the driver’s seat of his car, placed in another vehicle, assaulted, robbed and discarded. One of the several perpetrators was known to police and had been reported for making death threats against a female Jewish journalist and television presenter.

Prominent Pro-Hamas Activist Arrested on Kidnapping and Torture Charges

Algemeiner, February 29, 2024

Melbourne–Australian police on Monday announced the arrest of a prominent pro-Hamas advocate accused of orchestrating the kidnapping and torture of a man whose perceived offense was to work for a Jewish employer.

Melbourne resident Laura Allam was charged with kidnapping, armed robbery, illegal detention, assault and battery against the 31-year-old man, who has not been named by authorities. Working with an accomplice who has also been arrested and charged with kidnapping, false imprisonment, armed robbery, threats to kill, intention to cause injury, recklessly causing injury, unlawful assault and assault with weapon, the 28-year-old Allam is understood to have targeted the man solely because his employer is Jewish.

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Stahlhammer Klezmer Trio Woos Kaunas

The Stahlhammer Klezmer Classic Trio enchanted an audience in Kaunas Thursday at Vytautas Magnus University. The trio from Sweden provided food for thought, smiles and maybe even catharsis to some in the audience, according to reports from Kaunas.

The Kaunas Jewish Community sponsored the concert and dedicated it to the late Litvak bard, thinker and novelist Grigoriy Kanovitch, who would’ve celebrated his 95th birthday this year.

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Stahlhammer Klezmer Trio Performs Concert at LJC

As announced earlier, the Stahlhammer Klezmer Classic Trio performed live last week for an audience at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius. The trio smoothly combined classical, klezmer and tango music in their program. Thank you to the Swedish ambassador to Lithuania Lars Wahlund and everyone who attended for making this concert a success.

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Holocaust Education Workshop for Teachers Held in Kaunas

Lithuania’s International Commission for Assessing the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania and the Centropa organization based in Austria held three days of workshops for teachers to teach the Holocaust in Kaunas from February 19 to 21. Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein and Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas contributed to the teachers’ workshop.

Wittenberg Silverstein spoke about her grandparents and their experience of the Holocaust. She showed the teachers copies of her grandparents’ testimony for Yad Vashem detailing the murder of family members.

Gercas Žakas spoke to them about his father’s Holocaust story in the Šiauliai ghetto and at the Stutthof concentration camp. He recalled his father completely avoided talking about it later, but in old age and infirmity he revealed his memories of the murder of almost the entire family.

2024-02-26

Paideia Accepting Applications

The Paideia Institute for Jewish studies in Stockholm is accepting applications now for international students interested in their Jewish studies program focusing on Scripture for 2024-2025, starting next September and continuing on until May of 2025. Minimum requirements include a bachelor’s degree and proficiency in English.

Application can be made here: https://shorturl.at/qCE02

For more information, send an e-mail to recruitment@paideia-eu.org.

Applications must be received by April 14, 2024.

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Ambassadors Ask Lithuanian PM for Police Response to Growing Anti-Semitism

The ambassadors of Germany, the United States and Israel have sent a letter to the Lithuanian prime minister pointing out the alarming growth of anti-Semitic attacks in Lithuania over recent weeks and calling for an increased police presence at Jewish community buildings, schools and synagogues.

American ambassador Kara McDonald, Israeli ambassador Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein and German ambassador Cornelius Zimmerman addressed their plea to Lithuanian prime minister Ingrida Šimonytė, invoking shared values of tolerance and inclusion and the rejection of anti-Semitism and citing recent stone-throwing incidents at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius and the Šiauliai Jewish Community in Šiauliai, Nazi symbols graffitied on a former synagogue in Daugai, Lithuania, and on a bridge in Vilnius and the overturning of a monument to the victims of the Druskininkai ghetto in Druskininkai, Lithuania, as examples of the rising number of incidents.

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Efraim Zuroff Interview: It Always Starts with the Jews but Never Ends with the Jews

The Visegrad24 news website has been reporting on the conflict with Gaza live from Israel. In a recent interview they spoke with Efraim Zuroff, the director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, about the Holocaust, justice for the victims, justice for the victims of the Hamas massacre on October 7, Israeli security failures and the problem of Islamists migrating to Western Europe and North America and open borders in general.

“It always starts with the Jews, but never ends with the Jews. Hitler wanted to launch a war to destroy the Jews and 50 million people were murdered, and not all of them Jews, far from it. This is what people have to understand: the Jews are like the canaries in the coal mine. They’re the first victims. And if they go after us, be sure that they’ll go after the Christians in Europe and everywhere else because their dream is to take over the world. That’s the problem,” Zuroff said during the interview.

2024-02-22

Israeli Ambassador Congratulates LJC Chairwoman on Award

Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein sent a letter congratulating Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky on receipt of the Order of Merit medal presented to her by the Lithuanian president on February 16 in Vilnius.

A copy of the letter can be found below.

2024-02-21

Happy Birthday to Artūras Taicas

The Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes Ukmergė Jewish Community chairman Artūras Taicas a very happy birthday. We are grateful to you for your tireless energy safeguarding and protecting the memory of those who cannot protect themselves from vandals. We all wish you success, happiness, real people and sincere smiles. Mazl tov. Bis 120!

2024-02-21

Congratulations to Daumantas Todesas

The Lithuanian Jewish Community congratulates Daumantas Levas Todesas, chairman of the Council of Ethnic Communities, for recognition of his efforts in preserving the Litvak heritage in Lithuania, in representing the interests of the ethnic minority communities in Lithuania and in his public activities promoting the integration of minorities into Lithuanian society, as demonstrated by Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda’s presentation to him of the Lithuanian medal the Order of Merit, the Knight’s Cross, on February 16 at the presidential palace in Vilnius.

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Hungary Sides with Israel, Blocks EU Ceasefire Demand, Rejects Genocide Charge

Hungary again has bucked the diktat emanating from Brussels, this time vetoing an EU demand Israel implement a ceasefire in Gaza.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Hungary blocked the passage of two such demands from the EU.

Hungary Blocks Two EU Statements against Israel’s War in Gaza

The Post learned that foreign minister Israel Katz, who was at the Munich Security Conference, had personally called his Hungarian counterpart Péter Szijjártó and asked that he help Israel.

Hungary has twice blocked a European Union consensus statement against the IDF’s pending military operation against Hamas in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, a consensus that called for an “immediate humanitarian pause” to the war, leading to a permanent ceasefire, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

“Hungary stood alone in the EU,” senior diplomatic sources said.

2024-02-21

Vocalist Rafailas Karpis Receives Award

Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda presented tenor Rafailas Karpis the Lithuanian medal the Order of Merit for his furtherance of musical culture and Jewish music in Lithuania on February 16. Mazl tov!

2024-02-20

Israel Rejects Palestinian Statehood

Rebuffing Biden, cabinet rejects unilateral Palestinian state as “reward for terrorism”

Approved even by centrist ministers, the statement rejects “international diktats” pushing two states; minister Sa’ar compares reported US-Arab proposal to appeasement of Nazis in 1938

Israel’s cabinet Sunday unanimously approved a declaration rejecting “international diktats” seeking to push Palestinian statehood in the wake of reports the US and several Arab partners were preparing a detailed plan for a comprehensive peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians which was to include a “firm timeline” for a Palestinian state.

“Israel utterly rejects international diktats regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians,” the cabinet decision read. “A settlement, if it is to be reached, will come about solely through direct negotiations between the parties, without preconditions.

“Israel will continue to oppose unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state,” the motion added. “Such recognition in the wake of the October 7th massacre would be a massive and unprecedented reward to terrorism and would foil any future peace settlement.”

Full story here.

2024-02-19

Abstract Expressionist Shows Work at LJC

Abstract expressionist painter Simonas Gelminauskis opened an exhibition of his work at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius last Thursday called “From Paris with Love.”

The 18 works on display are the fruit of a decade of creativity following his 22-year break from painting.

“The fall I spent in my studio in the Marais Jewish neighborhood in Paris in the global center of residences of art helped me recover after my father’s death and helped me think about impermanence. So this exhibition is dedicated to love. To the love of life,” the artist said at the opening ceremony for the exhibit. He didn’t chose the venue lightly, either: his current studio is located at the site of the former Great Synagogue on Jewish Street in Vilnius, from which he says he draws artistic inspiration, as he did in the Marais in Paris.

The exhibit will remain on display a the LJC for several months.

2024-02-19