Leaders of the Lithuanian Jewish Community Emanuelos Zingeris, the only Jewish member of the Lithuanian parliament and signatory to the Act of the Restoration of Lithuanian Independence, and Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky uniting 31 organizations across Lithuania and abroad have addressed an open letter to His Excellency Gitanas Nausėda, president of Lithuania, urging him not to appoint a representative of the anti-Semitic party Nemuno Aušra as minister of culture, citing several reasons outlined in the letter below.
OPEN LETTER
In recent days, following the decision to place the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania under the influence of Mr. Remigijus Žemaitaitis, we have developed profound concerns regarding the preservation of democratic values in the Republic of Lithuania.
In our considered view, Mr. Žemaitaitis incited hatred during the electoral campaign and fomented ethnic discord. The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania has found his actions to be in violation of the constitutional order of the Republic. He therefore obtained parliamentary mandates by means of incitement to hatred.
The legacy of Lithuanian Jewry–mass murder sites, our cemeteries, museum heritage, the organization of commemorations–is being entrusted to a person who would employ it as a cover for his previously pursued anti-Semitic policies. Lithuania must not become the only state in Europe where the memory of the 94% of Lithuanian Jews who perished is subjected to such desecration.
The preservation of Lithuanian Jewish cultural heritage is not solely an internal matter. It is also a part of the Agreement on the Protection and Preservation of Certain Cultural Properties between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Republic of Lithuania (signed in Vilnius on October 15, 2002, and entered into force on August 3, 2006). This agreement stipulates that matters concerning the protection of cultural properties may extend beyond the limits of domestic jurisdiction. Accordingly, the question of who oversees Lithuania’s Jewish cultural heritage is not exclusively a matter of Lithuania’s internal decision-making.
Moreover, a profoundly troubling approach toward Jewish cultural and religious heritage was demonstrated by the reckless resolution adopted in the final days of the government of former prime minister Paluckas concerning the Šnipiškės cemetery. This highly sensitive matter was coordinated neither with the secular nor with the religious Jewish communities of Lithuania. The authorization for a conference center to operate on this site in the future would contravene Jewish religious principles.
We therefore emphasize that the Ministry of Culture must be headed by a person who fully understands this responsibility, who is faithful to democratic values and who does not represent Žemaitaitis. Furthermore, this issue extends beyond the question of the vast cultural heritage of the murdered Jews; it concerns broader principles.
In the past, we signed an official open letter addressed to dictator Putin, rejecting his exploitation of the Holocaust narrative to justify the imperial propaganda aims of an aggressive Russia.
We hold in high regard Your Excellency’s efforts to safeguard Lithuania from the threat of a possible Russian invasion and to assist Ukraine in withstanding this brutal war. We are sincere supporters of these vital endeavors.
Your Excellency, in this perilous period for Lithuania, any evident erosion of internal democracy is intolerable. In our view, such a course of events poses a danger also to vitally important international solidarity.
Fully aware of the severe time constraints you face, but conscious that the formation of the Government depends upon your decision, we respectfully urge that no person representing Mr. Žemaitaitis be appointed minister of culture.
With the highest respect,
Emanuelis Zingeris
signatory of the Act of Restoration of Lithuanian Independence,
member of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania,
chairman of the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania
Faina Kukliansky
chairwoman, Lithuanian Jewish Community, attorney at law
