Lithuania Marks 300th Anniversary of Birth of Vilna Gaon, 2020 Named
Year of the Gaon and Litvak History.
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Hitler Supporter Comes Out at the National Security and Defense Committee of Lithuanian Parliament
Chag Shavuot Sameach from the ECJC Board and Team
Choral Synagogue Reopens
The Choral Synagogue in Vilnius reopened for morning prayers on Monday, May 25, following the quarantine. Special measures in place include mandatory wearing of face masks and gloves, taking the temperature of those attending and disinfectant for hands.
The faithful had to rediscover their seats, now marked, at a safe 2 meters distance from one another.
Agreement was reached with the congregation on how to behave during Torah reading. We agreed to abbreviate the number of prayers temporarily, they will now take place during the day during Torah readings on Monday, Thursday and Saturday. This will be changed according to traditional holidays.
Currently there are 30 safe places for men and 14 for women in the gallery.
A closed bar mitzvah ceremony has taken place now.
Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky and rebbetzin Dina Krinsky and their sons have been working around the clock so normal Jewish life can resume following the quarantine.
Any questions regarding synagogue activities may be directed to the telephone number 8 650 18270 from 11:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. on Mondays and Thursdays.
Simas Levinas, chairman
Vilnius Jewish Religious Community
Happy Birthday to Viktoras Reizinas
The Lithuanian Jewish Community greets Viktoras Reizinas on his 80th birthday. Happy birthday, Viktoras. We wish you the best of health, much happiness, warmth and love.
Mazl tov. Bis 120!
Happy Birthday to Fania Brancovskaja and Daughter Vita
May 22 is the birthday of Fania Brancovskaja and her daughter Vita. We heartily wish you both a very happy birthday. Warm wishes from the entire Community. Stay healthy, energetic and happy!
Mazl tov! Bis 120!
Yerushalayim shel Zahav
If you start to stand up when you hear the song Yerushalayim shel Zahav, or Jerusalem of Gold, to pay your respect to the Israeli national anthem, don’t feel silly. The song was actually in the running for a while. Naomi Shemer’s song released just before the Six Day War became the most popular Hebrew-language song in the world and got serious airplay on American radio.
Happy Jerusalem Day.
Condolences
With deep sadness we report Puna Dvorskis passed away May 22. He was born in 1940. Our deepest condolences to his children on the death of their beloved father.
Liba Mednik Commemorated in Širvintos, Lithuania
A stele with a bas-relief and inscription was erected at a ceremony in Širvintos, Lithuania, May 19 to commemorate Liba Mednik (Mednikienė), who fought for Lithuanian independence when the first republic was being created in the early 20th century.
Sculptor Romualdas Kvintas designed the memorial to look like a Jewish headstone, a stone slab with inscription, and with a bronze image of the woman attached in bas-relief fashion. The bronze portion of the monument was cast and installed on the stone by the sculptor Mindaugas Šnipas by request of the Vilnius Jerusalem of the North Jewish Community. Kvintas has done a number of large stone sculptures on Jewish themes.
Mednik, who was born in 1875, lived through the entire tragedy of the Jewish people in Lithuania, fighting for Lithuanian independence and the interwar Republic, and being murdered in the Holocaust in Lithuania. According to historian Stanislovas Dačka, she was murdered in the Pivonika forest near Ukmergė (Vilkomir) with about 12,000 other Jews from the area in early autumn of 1941. Širvintos, her hometown, lies about 15 kilometers to the southeast of Ukmergė.
Vilijus Kavalauskas celebrated her in his book “Lietuvos karžygiai: Vyties Kryžiaus kavalieriai,” calling her a unique and strong character. During the Lithuanian conflict with Poland in 1922 and 1923, Liba Mednik collected military intelligence and distributed it to the Lithuanian military and Lithuanian partisans. She sent documents garnered from Polish headquarters and money to the Lithuanian fighters, Kavaliauskas reports.
Jerusalem Day
The 28th day of the month of Iyar, May 22 this year, is commemorated as the day the state of Israel took the eastern section of the holy city in the Six Day War in 1967. Initially proclaimed an international city by the United Nations, Jerusalem was partitioned between Israeli and Jordanian forces following the Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab wars from 1947 to 1949. Israel occupied the entire city in the Six Day War, despite having proclaimed its capital at Jerusalem earlier and setting up government buildings in West Jerusalem.
Because of the original plan by the United Nations for the city sacred to three religions to be administered as an international, shared city, for decades countries around the world have refused to recognize it as the capital of Israel, maintaining diplomatic representations in Tel Aviv instead. The United Nations plan of 1947 called for a corpus separatum along the lines of the Papal States/Vatican City inside Rome, or the former “free cities” before World War II such as Danzig and Trieste. The city’s status is a bone of contention in hopes for peace between Israelis and Palestinians; Palestinians claim the city as their capital.
Happy Birthday to Abramas Saksonovas
Abramas Saksonovas, a survivor of the Holocaust, is celebrating his 90th birthday. The Lithuanian Jewish Community would like to add our greetings to those of everyone else celebrating Abramas’s important milestone.
Dear Abramas, we wish you great health, much happiness and a happy and fun birthday! Mazl tov! Bis 120!
Lithuanian Web Site: Let’s Learn about Lite, the Great Synagogue and the Vilna Gaon
by Karolina Aleknavičė, 15min.lt
This year, 2020, has been declared the Year of the Vilna Gaon and Lithuanian Jewish History, and it’s a good opportunity to learn about the authentic culture which thrived for whole centuries in our neighborhood.
We spoke with Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum Jewish culture and identity exhibit coordinator Saulė Valiūnaitė, Vilnius University historian Dr. Akvilė Naudžiūnienė and Kėdainiai Multicultural Center director Audronė Pečiulytė about Lite, the Litvaks who lived here, Vilnius as the Jerusalem of the North and the Gaon, Eliyahu, who lived there.
Lithuanian Jewish History an Integral Part of Lithuanian History
Valiūnaitė told 15min.lt Lithuanians’ attitude towards Jewish history has changed over the last 15 years. “It’s inspiring that in Vilnius and other Lithuanian cities there are ever more initiatives appearing, and most importantly, a desire to commemorate the history and heritage of the Jews who lived there. Some do this by setting up commemorative markers, others by organizing events or writing books about the Jewish history of their cities and towns,” she said.
Ninth Forth Memorial Sculptor Dies
Photo: LRT
Lithuanian Public Radio and Television and BNS reported Wednesday the sculptor Alfonsas Vincentas Ambraziūnas died on May 7 at the age of 86. He was known mainly for the large Soviet-era memorial statue at the Ninth Fort in Kaunas where Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. Initially the statue was dedicated to all victims of fascism.
Full article in Lithuanian here.
ICAN Applauds City of Beverly Hills for Passage of Resolution Condemning Lithuanian Holocaust Distortion
The Israeli-American Civic Action Network (ICAN) applauds the City of Beverly Hills tonight following the passage of a resolution condemning the Lithuanian government for actively promoting Holocaust distortion.
“There is a disturbing trend of government-backed Holocaust distortion sweeping across eastern Europe,” said Vered Elkouby Nisim, ICAN CA chairwoman. “Today, Lithuania is leading a dark and cynical campaign of Holocaust distortion and we thank the City of Beverly Hills for having the courage to stand up and speak out against this insidious form of state-sponsored antisemitism.”
Earlier this year, Lithuania drafted legislation that would have made it illegal to accuse the country of complicity in Nazi crimes, this followed the passage of similar laws by Poland, and Ukraine. At a time of rising global antisemitism, ICAN believes that laws designed to mask the true history of the Holocaust is especially dangerous and is working with leaders in the United States to oppose such laws using the strongest possible means.
Full article here.
Daniel Dolskis: Founder of Lithuanian Stage Music Who Entertained Pre-War Kaunas
by Rasa Murauskaitė, Lithuanian national public radio and television, LRT.lt
Lithuanian Public Radio and Television continues stories in the the Stones of Memory series intended to commemorate Litvaks in Lithuania and around the world. The third story concerns Daniel Dolskis (Danielius Dolskis, Dolski), one of the founders of the Lithuanian estrada popular music tradition.
Although he only lived a few years in Kaunas, Lithuania, during the interwar period, Dolskis quickly became a legend of real Lithuanian estrada musical culture.
“Onytė, come dance with me,” Dolskis used to say when inviting Lithuanian girls to dance.
“The Man Who Entertained Kaunas” wrote one Lithuanian paper of Dolskis in the period between the two world wars. Actually the truth is somewhat different about the crooner born to a family of Vilner Jews by the name of Broides, a name connected with the musical nightlife at Kaunas’s famous interwar restaurants and clubs such as Metropol, Konrad’s Café and others.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
In the Spotlight: William Stern
Mr. William Stern was born in Budapest in 1935; after the Nazi occupation of Hungary in March 1944, he and his family were taken to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. They survived the War and emigrated to New York in 1952 where Mr Stern pursued studies first at Yeshiva University and subsequently at Harvard Law School.
It was during his stint at Harvard Law School that Mr Stern discovered the many risks and temptations which face a student when he leaves his home environment and suddenly becomes enmeshed in a totally new and different culture. He was shocked at seeing some of his friends shed their tradition and previous way of life in just a matter of months. Having married a young lady resident in London, Mr Stern moved to England in 1960. Early in his career, he established in London in 1971 a kosher canteen which welcomed students of Imperial College, located opposite his offices at Albert Court. This canteen has been going strong for the past 45 years and is presently catering to 30-35 Imperial College students every day of the academic year.
When he expanded his business to Lithuania, Mr Stern discovered the presence in Kaunas of approximately 100 Israeli medical students. He felt that during the 6-year period which medical studies require, many of these students might lose not only their Israeli but also their Jewish identity. In 2010, he established the Jewish Club which grew and developed over the years into the Jewish Centre Kaunas. Its aim is to provide the Jewish students in Kaunas a home away from home and prevent the loss of Jewish identity which otherwise might occur.