anti-Semitism – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Lithuanian Economics Ministry Likes Idea of Holocaust Museum at Shnipishok Cemetery

The Lithuanian Ministry of Economics and Innovation has issued a press release on the Baltic News Service webpage expressing approval for the idea of setting up a Holocaust museum at the former Palace of Sports built on top of the Vilna Jewish cemetery by the Soviets in the Shnipishok neighborhood on the northern side of the Neris (viliya( River.. The building has been in serious disrepair for over a decade.

“Taking into account the position held regarding the possibility of adapting the former Palace of Sports, since this site is not suitable for modern and competitive conference tourism… it would be more appropriate to renovate the Palace of Sports and equip it for use as a new memorial and museum,” the Economics and Innovation Ministry posted on the BNS press release webpage.

Vilnius mayor Valdas Benkunskas after meeting with economics minister Edvinas Grikšas last week told BNS the Vilnius municipality and the Economics Ministry have a common position regarding the aging concert and sports complex.

Mayor Benkunskas said: “We perceive in the same way that the Palace of Sports has to be renovated and adapted as a memorial and museum space, and that it wouldn’t be competitive for conference tourism, and would pose a risk to our public image as such.”

The Economics and Innovation Ministry earlier posted the building was not fit to use as a conference venue following a study ordered by the Government.

“According to the current studies, this site could only host some of the requirements as a venue, there would be a lack of parking places, and the costs of reconstruction are difficult to predict,” the Ministry said.

2025-12-30

LJC on the Bondi Massacre in Australia

The attack perpetrated on Bondi Beach in Australia where the attackers shot Jews gathered to celebrate Hanukkah has caused deep concern and upset to the Lithuanian Jewish Community. The victims included children, rabbis, Holocaust survivors and non-Jews as well.

We extend our sincerest condolences to the Australian Jewish community and call on everyone to realize that this mass murder targeted Jews around the world, not just in Australia. This is an alarm bell warning us no Jewish community is safe anywhere in the world. Our members including women and children are vulnerable to attack at any time.

Large metropolises throughout the world including Berlin, London and New York have responded to attacks on Jews by increasing security. Sadly in recent times amid a rising tide of anti-Semitism in the world and in Lithuania, we daily encounter hostile actions, vandalism and violence. We are citizens of a member-state of the European Union who are being targeted by followers of recognized terrorist organizations.

We call upon our members to remain vigilant, and we call upon the Lithuanian Government and the citizens of Lithuania to take measures to protect Lithuania’s Jewish organizations, including the communities, the kindergarten, the Choral Synagogue and other sites.

Events in Washington, D.C., Berlin and Sydney demonstrate the danger is real and that in order to avoid further tragedy, we must act now. Tomorrow could be too late.

2025-12-172025-12-18

Hanukkah Greetings

Dear friends,

We live in unusual times. We are surriunded by the danger of war. In our historical homeland Israel the war has not ended, people are still fighting and dying. In Ukraine people are suffering because of the actions of the aggressor.

I never thought I would live under conditions of war. I thought this generation, of ou children and grandchildren, would grow up without war. But this is what has happened, without regard to what we wanted.

Despite all these tragic circumstances, the holidays still go on, bringing light, jope and joy. Each day we light a candle to remind ourselves the world is entirely dark. There are also good developments in life, there is hope all the wats will end, we will be safe and our children and grandchildren will be sage, healthy and happy and won’t have to face these dangers in the future.

Hanukkah, the festival of lights, jas been celebrated xince ancient times. Ot gives us hope that in the country where we live anti-Semitism will disappear and demonstrations against Israel will fade away. Instead of crying, we will fight anti-Semitism.

I wish you all the best. Most importantly, I wish you health, happiness, hope and a happy Hanukkah.

Hag urim sameakh,

Faina Kuklianksy, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community

2025-12-15

Hanukkah Massacre at Bondi Beach

Gunmen opened fire on a crowd of around 2,000 Jews gathered at a park next to Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach as the ceremony to light the first Hanukkah candle on a public menorah was about to commence Sunday evening. According to eye-witnesses three gunmen firing rifles aimed into the crowd firing a total of more than 50 rounds, leaving twelve dead at the scene with another 50 wounded later brought to hospital.

Australian Federal Police and the country’s intelligence agency labeled the massacre a terrorist attack within 3 hours of the mass shooting.

Cell phone video shows a passer-by disarming one attacker at the base of a large palm tree lining the parking lot adjacent to the park. Another man pursued the disarmed attacker and threw what looking like a large stone at him. A second attacker on a pedestrian walkway leading from the park to a pub and restaurant section of North Bondi appeared to fire at the two passers-by and in the general direction of the Hanukkah celebration.

AFP told a press conference they had no evidence of a third shooter beyond eye-witness accounts but were looking into a possible third shooter. A car at the scene was found to contain mulptiple home-made explosive devices. Footage from the cell phone and a name released later by police seem to show the attackers were Middle Eastern, perhaps Arab or Lebanese.

Rabbi Eli Schlanger of Sydney was killed at the scene. He leaves hejind five children. One eye-witness said a child was murdered, but New South Wales Police said they had no such information, and that one child wounded in the attack was taken to hospital.

2025-12-142025-12-14

Remigijus Žemaitatis Guilty on Seven Counts of Inciting Ethnic Discord, Holocaust Denial

MP and lear of the Nemuno Aušra party chief in the ruling coalition Remigijus Žemaitatis was found guilty of violating article 170, point 2, of the Lithuanian criminal code against inciting ethnic discord, denying genocide and belittle the Holocaust in seven different charges in a verdict issued Thursday morning by the Vilnius Precinct Court. Opposition party the Conservatives are calling for him impeachment as a memner of parliament. Coalition partners say they’ll await the court’s final verdict. At issue were anti-Semitic posts Žemaitatis made on facebook several years ago.

2025-12-042025-12-05

Eurovision Refuses Boycott of Israel

Members of the European Broadcasting Union responsible for the annual Eurovision Song Contest voted no on a vote which could have led to the exclusion of Israel. Broadcasters from Ireland, Spain, Slovenia and the Netherlands confirmed they will stay away from next year’s televized contest in protest against Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip. Ireland’s RTÉ and Slovenia’s RTV issued similar statements about the ongoing humanitarian crises in Gaza.

2025-12-042025-12-05

Courage and Hope: Remembering the Rescuers

The Palanga Jewish Community and the Jonas Šliūpas Museum in Palanga are holding an event to remember the courage displayed by the Righteous Gentiles, those who rescued Jews from the Holocaust. MEP professor Liudas Mažylis will share his insights and Palanga Jewish Community chairman Vilius Gutmanas will talk about his family’s experience. The Mažylis family rescued Jews and were recognized posthumously as Righteous Gentiles by Yad Vashem in 2006. The presentation and discussion will be in Lithuanian. The event is free and open to the public.

Time: 5:00 P.M., December 11
Place: Jonas Šliūpas Museum, Vytauto street no. 23A, Palanga

2025-12-04

EJC President Says Social Media Radicalizing Youth

EJC President warns of dangerous influence of social media in youth radicalization at Paris Mayors’ Summit against Anti-Semitism

Paris, November 20, 2025–European Jewish Congress president Moshe Kantor launched a radical plan aimed at eradicating hate-filled anti-Semitism from social media forums targeting disaffected youth.

Addressing the Paris Mayors Summit against Anti-Semitism Thursday in the French capital, Kantor told the gathering that the new social media environment has become “a breeding ground for anti-Semitism fueled by conspiracy theories about global financial cabals and Jewish elites in control of the media.”

“Hatred has gone viral,” he added.

The event brought together dozens of city leaders from around the world, policy makers and community and civil society representatives, all united in their commitment to confront and prevent anti-Semitism in all its forms.

2025-11-252025-11-25

Continuing Education Students Visit Panevėžys Jewish Community

Continuing education university students visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community on November 9 where they were received by chairman Gennady Kofman. Jifman presented members of the group his book on the Holocaust and two of the visitors spoke about the Holocaust experience of their families. They spoke for an hour and a half.

The Panevėžys Jewish Community and the older students planmed three lecture series starting in December on Krystallnacht, hate and the roots of the Holocaust, and to commemorate victims of the Holocaust together on January 27.

2025-11-11

WJC Welcomes Pope’s Strong Condemnation of Anti-Semitism

NEW YORK —The World Jewish Congress has welcomed the remarks of Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday unequivocally condemned anti-Semitism during his general audience at the Vatican.

Addressing thousands of faithful the Pope said: “All my predecessors have condemned anti-Semitism with clear words,” adding, “I too confirm that the Church does not tolerate anti-Semitism and fights against it, on the basis of the Gospel itself.”

WJC president Ronald S. Lauder praised the Pope’s message calling it “an extraordinarily positive and deeply meaningful gesture.”

“At a time when Jews are facing the greatest persecution since the Second World War, the Pope’s message carries profound fraternal meaning,” Lauder said. “Gestures like this inspire us to strengthen the bonds between Jews and Catholics, and to work together for a world of greater co-existence among religions, in the pursuit of peace.”

The Pope’s statement comes as the Catholic Church marks the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the landmark declaration of the Second Vatican Council which transformed Jewish-Catholic relations and established a foundation of mutual respect and dialogue.

Full statement here.

2025-11-03

Jäger Report Documentary in Palanga

The Palanga Jewish Community and Lithuania’s Onternational Commission for Assessing the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Ocuppational Regimes will screen a documentary film called “Following the Jäger Repor” at 2:00 P.M. on Tuesday, October 28 at the Kurhaus Theater, Grafų Tiškevičių alley no. 1, Palanga. The documentary will be followed by a discussion with historian Stanislovas Stasiulis. TYhe film was directed by Boris Maftsir, and Rony Katzenelson ftom Israel.

The Jäger Report is a report Wehrmacht officer Karl Jäger made for his superiors in Berlin detailing the number, location and gender of Jewish mass murder victims in the early months of the Holocaust in Lithuania, the fall of 1941 when almost all Lithuanian Jews were murdered by Lithuanians and Germans. In some cases affitional information was provided, e.g., the entry for July 4, 1941, for Kaunas noted the murder of two American citizens.

2025-10-152025-10-18

Condolences

We extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the two people killed and to the four wounded and still in hospital, killed and wounded at the hand of an Islamic terrorist on Yom Kippur. in Manchester, England. Our deepest condolences to the entire congregation and the Manchester Jewish community. May their memory be a blessing.

2025-10-032025-10-03

Litvak Victims of Genocide Remembrance Day at Ponar

Members and staff of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, representatives from the Lithuanian parliament and government and foreign diplomats observed the Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish of Victims of Genocide at Ponar on Thursday, September 25. German Bundeswehr rabbi Elisch Mendel Portnoy joined Choral Synagogue cantor Shmuel Yaatom in saying prayers for the dead.

LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky read the contents of an open letter she co-autyhored with Jewish Lithuanian MP Emanuelis Zingeris addressed to president Gitanas Nausėda cautioning against the latter’s decision to allow a member of an anti-Semitic party to occupy the post of Lithuanian minister of culture.

KJC chairwoman Kukliansky quoted a facebook post she received that day calling for the murder of Jews.

“If we don’t stop it, this will happen. So I ask all of you gathered here not just to honor those who were murdered and lie buried here–we are standing on blood-soaked soil–but also to think about the future of our country, and what we must do to insure this never happens again,” Kukliansky said.

2025-09-29

Protestors Call on President to Reject Anti-Semitic Party Minister

A group of protestors gather at the Office of the President in Vilnius Thursday to protest the formation of a new government with a candidate from the Nemuno Aušra party proposed for minister of culture.

Ignotas Adomavičius has been put forward by Remigijus Žemaitaitis’s Nemuno Aušra party as a new government coalesces following real estate scandal which enveloped Gintautas Paluckas’s ruling coalition earlier this year. Žemaitaitis rose to prominence in early 2023 by making a series of facebook and other posts questioning the Holocaust in Lithuania and criticizing Jews and Israel. Lithuania’s Constitutional Court found his statements were a violation of his oath to uphold the Lithuanian constitution as a member of parliament. The comments have been widely recognized as anti-Semitic.

Adomavičius has been described as a pasta maker, whether that’s a hobby or a profession, and a graduate of an art school in Vilnius. In Lithuanian pasta is called macaroni, a synonym for nonsense He told Lithuanian state radio and television one of his priorities as culture minister will be to rebuild the “Old Synagogue,” presumably meaning the Great Synagogue in Vilnius, whose reconstruction no Jewish or Lithuanian heritage group is seeking currently. There was talk of this in the early 2000s by Lithuanian government officials, but the idea was rejected by the various Lithuanian Jewish communities at the time as a boondoggle without a congregation to serve. Jewish reporter and newspaper editor Milan Cheronskis called the proposal one for a Jewish Disneyland in Vilnius. Lithuanian state radio and television interview in Lithuanian here.

2025-09-252025-09-25

Lithuanian Jewish Community on Candidate Proposed for Culture Minister

The Lithuanian Jewish Community, the umbrella organization for 31 Jewish organizations in Lithuania and abroad, calls upon Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda not to approve Ignotas Adomavičius, the candidate submitted by the anti-Semitic Nemuno Aušra party and its leader, Remigijus Žemaitaitis, whom the Constitutional Court found had violated grossly his oath of office and the constitution of Lithuania.

The Lithuanian Culture Ministry is in charge of maintaining the material cultural heritage, restoration of synagogues, Jewish cultural centers and historical commemoration, and to entrust this ministry to the member of an openly anti-Semitic party would be a desecration and public derision of the memory of the victims of the Holocaust, and an insult to Lithuanian citizens of Jewish descent.

Moreover, this person’s participation in the actions of the next Government would discredit Lithuania in front of our foreign partners, whose support to our country and to us, the citizens of that country, is so vitally important at this complicated time in geopolitics.

We would like to remind the president and the public that organizations such as IHRA, FRA (the EU agency on fundamental rights) and the OSCE have all recognized anti-Semitism as a crime. Lithuania has signed cooperation agreements with these international organizations and is obligated to adhere to these agreements.

Therefore we call upon the president to maintain his oath he took during his inauguration and to defend the interests of all citizens of Lithuania, including Jews, as spelled out in the Lithuanian constitution.

Executive board, Lithuanian Jewish Community

2025-09-252025-09-25

Open Letter to President Nausėda by MP Emanuelis Zingeris, LJC Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky

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.

2025-09-242025-09-25

Goodbye Culture Protest

The following protest is being called by people who describe themselves as the cultural community of Lithuanian for tomorrow, September 25, to protest the minister of culture proposed and delgated by the Nemuno Aušra party. Details and petition link below.

Dear people of culture,

We are protesting. We categorically oppose the Government’s shocking decision to hand the post of minister of culture over to the Nemuno Aušra party.

We believe that:

Culture cannot be used a tool for political deal-making. The Lithuanian Culture Ministry is not a token which can be exchanged for short-term political gain;

Culture is our memory, the foundation of democratic values, society’s guarantor of resilience to propaganda;

To give this ministry over to a political force characterized by populism, anti-Semitic and pro-Russian rhetoric is dangerous, both to the cultural sector and to society as a whole.

We urge:

2025-09-242025-09-24

Lost Shtetl Museum Opens

The Lost Shtetl Museum, after several years of construction and preparation and missed opening dates, finally opened its doors to the public in Šeduva, Kithuania on September 20.

According to visitors and experts, the museum is unlike any other in Lithuania. A large collection of authentic objects tells the story of the Jewish shtetl Šeduva, but also of all shtetls in Lithuania and the region. Some of the texts and exhibits are funny, and portray situations, trials and tribulations from daily life, love letters, immigration plans and excitement for upcoming holidays.

The museums thematic sections and exhibit items are complemented by tactile and olfactory details which might be ignored at first but provide an overall impression, according to one visitor.

2025-09-232025-09-23

UN Accuses Israel of Genocide, Calls for Immediate Intervention by Member-States

Niva Pillay as head of a special panel convened by the United Nations Human Rights Ciuncil, presented the panel’s report Tuesday accusing Israel of genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza and said Israel had met four out of five criteria qualifying the crime of genocide, including, she said, targeting Gazan children for death, and bizarrely Israel’s destruction of frozen embryos.

She accused prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, president Isaac Herzog and former defense minister Yav Galant specifically as having incited genocide through their statements and actions. Pillay went on to say at the press conference that member-states should intervene in the conflict immediately to stop the alleged genocide. She said member-states “don’t need” to wait for a ruling from the UN’s body responsible for trying the crime of genocide, the International Court of Justice.

In 1999 UK prime minister Tony Blaire and US president Bill Clinton used the ‘higher necessity” argument of preventing genocide of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo to invade Serbia and carpet-bomb Belgrade and Novi Sad for around 60 days and nights. The UN treaty for the prevention of genocide and the Nuremberg courts claim prevention of genocide supersedes national boundaries and sovereignty, and demands outside states intervene.

The European Commission responded to Pillay’s call almost in real time, promising to slap sanctions on Israel on Wednesday in contravention to the Israeli-EU trade agreement.

2025-09-162025-09-16

Remembering the Jewish Community in Čekiškė

To mark Lithuania’s Jewish Victims of Genocide Remembrance Day, Audra Girijotė will give a presentation about Dovydas Matishohu Lipmanas at the synagogue in Čekiškė, Lithuania (Tsaykishok in Yiddish). Lipman was perhaps the most famous writer from the small town, and focused on the history of the Jewish community there, in Kaunas, Žemaitija and in Lithuania in general. He also wrote about the Vilna Gaon and was a frequent contributor to Yiddish periodicals. Born in 1888 in the village of Nemakščiai in the Raseiniai district, Lipman lived in and around Čekiškė from 1925 to his murder. He bought and ran a pharmacy there while writing a number of books. He was a qualified pharmacist with a degree from Dorpat (Tartu). He was murdered just outside the village in late July, 1941, by Stanislovas Gudavičius, a commander of local Lithuanian white-armbanders, according to Lithuanian historian Alfredas Rukšėnas.

Audra Girijotė is a writer and journalist who has been researching the life and death of Dovydas Lipmanas over the last several years.

Time: 1:00 P.M., September 23
Place: Čekiškė synagogue, Lašišos street no. 21, Čekiškė, Kaunas district

JewishGen yizkor for Tsaykishok here.

More biographical information in Lithuanian and English here.

2025-09-162025-10-01

« Previous