Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky addressed a commemoration of October 7 victims from the 2023 invasion of Israel by Hamas. The gathering was at the main square in Vilnius surrounding the Arch-Cathedral on October 7, 2026.

Dear friends,

We gather here today not in protest, but as a solemn commemoration to honor those who were tortured and brutally murdered. Who were the people who were killed, and who were the murderers? The murdered were visitors at the Nova Music Festival, peaceful Jews, residents of the kibbutzim, friends and employers of the Palestinian people.

What happened after that? What happened was a huge wave of anti-Semitism swept the entire world. Many Jews and non-Jews suffered; the morale and identity of humanity suffered as well. Why? Perhaps it is impossible to explain hate rationally. Maybe this is could be called the opposite of the Stockholm syndrome. Nonetheless, the hatred against Jews and the anti-Semitism is real.

What should be done about this? First, don’t forget to tell you children. Jews have been denounced for millennia, but have survived. We must stick together and join forces.

I believe it’s important to fight for something, not just against.

There will always appear enemies with whom one wishes to do battle, but it’s much more meaningful to fight for one’s own innate human rights, with which people, including Jews, are born and which not even the state can abolish, but must instead apply laws to protect these rights.

No one has the right to hate us, to murder us or to denigrate us. Our historical homeland Israel was established and will remain. Although anti-Semitism has affected Jewish life in the Diaspora, we will not surrender to it. The people of Israel who are fighting all of our enemies and who die on a daily basis have not died in vain.

We will always remember the victims of October 7 and we will always defend the inalienable rights of Jews.

Am Yisrael chai!

Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community