anti-Semitism – Page 17 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Russia Declares Former Chief Rabbi of Moscow Foreign Agent

Photo: Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt (photo credit: Eli Itkin/CER)

Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt left Russia at the beginning of the Ukraine war and called for Jews to leave Russia.

Former chief rabbi of Moscow Pinchas Goldschmidt is a “foreign agent,” Russia’s Justice Ministry said, according to a report Friday from Interfax.

“Goldschmidt disseminated false information about the decisions made by public authorities of the Russian Federation and their policies,” the report from the official Russian news outlet said, quoting the Justice Ministry. “He opposed the special military operation in the Ukraine.”

2023-07-032023-07-04

Garage Victims Remembered

The annual commemoration of the Jewish victims tortured and murdered at the Lietūkis garage in Kaunas took place last week at the site on Miško street with kaddish performed for the dead as well at the Jewish cemeteries in the Slobodka and Žaliakalnis neighborhoods.

The Lietūkis garage massacre became one of the most notorious episodes in the Holocaust in Lithuania. Jewish men were rounded up at random and brought to the automobile service station were they were attacked with picks, crowbars and shovels, and water houses were stuffed down their throats and turned on till their stomachs burst. Around 68 Jews were killed there after enduring hours of torture.

According to German statistics from 3,500 to 4,000 Jews were murdered in Kaunas between June 24 and June 30, 1941, but the peculiarity of the Lietūkis garage atrocities was that they were committed by local Lithuanians rather than Nazis. German soldiers appeared only as spectators and didn’t intervene. The names of most victims and perpetrators remain unknown. The German Wehrmacht photographer who was there recalled:

2023-07-03

Prosecutor Seeks Expert Opinion on MP’s Anti-Semitic Statements

by Milena Andrukaitytė, BNS, June 28, 2023

Lithuanian prosecutor general Nida Grunskienė says the decision on whether controversial statements by Lithuanian MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis might have sown discord can only be made after receiving conclusions from experts.

“There are two pre-trial investigations launched. They haven’t been combined at this time, tasks have been assigned to experts and in one case expertise has been requested from the Court’s Expertise Center in order to determine if the statements by the member of parliament is incitement to hatred of a certain group of people. Only after receiving the finding, the expertise protocol, can the prosecutor make a decision,” Grunskienė told reporters at the Lithuanian parliament Wednesday.

2023-06-292023-06-29

EJC, Bulgarian Jewish Community Condemn Neo-Nazi Vandalism in Sofia

The European Jewish Congress and the Bulgarian Jewish Community have condemned neo-Nazi vandalism in the center of Sofia after their violent disruption of an LGBT festival.

Supporters of the far-right group Vazrahdane prevented the broadcasting of a film that was part of the program of the LGBT festival Sofia Pride and vandalized shops with swastikas and stars of David.

Chairman of the Shalom organization of Jews in Bulgari Alexander Oscar condemned the far right group and its leaders and called public authorities to take action.

The European Jewish Congress expressed their deep concern over rising nationalism and anti-Semitism in Bulgaria in a post on their website dated June 26.

Full text here and here.

2023-06-282023-06-28

Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel Speaks Out

2023-06-26

ICAN Issues Travel Advisory for Vilnius NATO Summit 2023

Advisory Includes Interactive Maps and Guides to Ensure Culturally Sensitive Visit to Vilnius

June 21, 2023

WASHINGTON, D.C.–The Israeli-American Civic Action Network (ICAN), a leading U.S.-based non-governmental organization, is launching a culturally sensitive website and issuing a travel advisory for attendees of the NATO Summit 2023 in Vilnius, Lithuania. The advisory aims to provide attendees with crucial information about certain sensitive historical sites within the city, fostering an environment of intersectionality and understanding.

“ICAN is committed to promoting understanding and respectful engagement during the NATO Summit,” said Dillon Hosier, ICAN CEO. “Our travel advisory and website resources are designed to help attendees navigate Vilnius in an informed and sensitive manner, acknowledging the internalized oppression that can result from historical distortions.”

The travel advisory identifies several locations in Vilnius associated with Holocaust denial and distortion. These sites, which include monuments and plaques, present a distorted view of historical events, leading to a dangerously corrosive form of cultural appropriation further undermining Lithuania’s already vulnerable Jewish population. ICAN encourages attendees to avoid visiting these locations during their stay in Vilnius to ensure focus remains on the important discussions and collaborations of the NATO Summit.

Full advisory here.

2023-06-22

Silvia Foti and J’Accuse at the Vilnius Jewish Public Library

Silvia Foti was present for a screening of the Holocaust documentary J’accuse at the Vilnius Jewish Public Library Monday. She’s featured in the film along with Litvak Grant Gochin. The film was shown with Lithuanian subtitles. It’s estimated around 20 to 25 people attended, mainly older people.

2023-06-222023-06-22

Against Anti-Semitism in Name Only

by Geoff Vasil

Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda has joined the chorus, the other two heads of state, the prime minister and the speaker of parliament, in declaring Lithuania has zero tolerance for anti-Semitism. At the same time, the state and the nation continue to glorify, lionize and commemorate, often enthusiastically, Lithuanian Nazis who were complicit in Holocaust crimes and responsible for the death of nearly every Lithuanian Jew.

The state-funded Lithuanian Academy of Sciences has removed the Jonas Noreika plaque on its walls “for repairs” even though permission was never granted by any state or municipal body to place the plaque there. Its latest incarnation was the work of enthusiastic Lithuanian neo-Nazis. Streets, schools and squares retain the names of known Holocaust perpetrators with commemorative plaques and statues to them scattered across Lithuania.

At the same time, the ruling coalition, aka the Lithuanian Government, has engaged in rank censorship for two and a half years now, along with a complicit media and law enforcement bodies. This has created a virtual atmosphere of full-fledged fascism and conformity in the country, with straight-up propaganda de rigueur on a range of topics.

2023-06-222023-06-23

Lithuanian Jewish Community Statement on Anti-Semitic Statements by a Member of the Lithuanian Parliament

The Lithuanian Jewish Community is saddened by the recent anti=Semitic statements and posts made by member of the Lithuanian parliament Remigijus Žemaitaitis in some of the media, social networks and even at the Lithuanian parliament itself. It must be said that these sorts of expressions haven’t appeared in Lithuania in a very long time, and that the Jews who live in Lithuania, 80 years after the liquidation of the Vilnius ghetto, had hoped there would be no more such expressions. All the more so as the war continues in Ukraine and people who comprise an ethnic minority can be used by the aggressor as a tool for inciting social conflict and dividing society.

The Lithuanian Jewish Community believes this act by the member of parliament intentionally sows ethnic discord and is a distortion of historical memory as well as a continuation of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” promulgated by the security service of the Russian tsar over a century ago.

We feel ashamed of the county in which we live and which we love and respect. Its citizens cannot elect to parliament a member who can allow himself to descend to making the following statements:

“It seems that besides Putin another group of animals has appeared in the World: ISRAEL. One group razes schools with tanks, the other group uses tractors,” the politician wrote on his facebook page. “After these kinds of incidents, it’s no surprise why these sorts of statement arise: ‘A Jew climbed a ladder and fell down accidentally. Children, take a stick and beat that little Jew to death…'”

2023-06-222023-09-04

EU Bans Freedom of Hate Speech

The European Union is currently in talks with 19 players in the digital world who are expected to adhere to these standards, including facebook and twitter

The European Union (EU) stated that it will impose fines on social networks and websites that fail to remove anti-Semitic and defamatory content from their platforms, according to a new European law on digital services that comes into force on August 25.

The text stipulated greater transparency from companies operating in the EU and obliged them to submit a detailed report on how they are working to neutralize this type of content. The Europeans started discussions with 19 players from the digital world who are expected to adhere to these standards, including facebook and twitter.

2023-06-19

MP Žemaitaitis Steps Up Anti-Semitic Posts

Lithuanian member of parliament Remigijus Žemaitaitis who came under scrutiny several weeks ago for anti-Semitic posts on facebook has stepped up his attacks on Jews during Lithuanian prime minister Ingrida Šimonytė’s working visit to Israel this week, according to Lithuanian media reports.

According to Tele3 news, on Tuesday Žemaitaitis released a new flurry of facebook posts blaming Jews for the Soviet deportation of Lithuanians, claiming Lithuanians experienced a greater genocide than Jews did in the Holocaust and blaming Jews for this alleged genocide. He published a list of alleged Jewish perpetrators of Lithuanian genocide and claimed Soviet Jewish partisans had committed mass murder in Pirčiupiai, a village in southern Lithuania near the town of Varėna. He also referred to Jews as “a subspecies,” presumably of Homo sapiens and presumably meaning subhuman.

Besides misspelling the name of the village, historian Algimantas Kasparavičius told Tele3 news he got the facts wrong: a Nazi SS unit destroyed that village and murdered 119 inhabitants on June 3, 1944, as revenge for several German soldiers murdered by Soviet partisans in the area.

2023-06-162023-06-16

Black Ribbon Day in Lithuania

June 14 is officially the Day of Mourning and Hope in Lithuania but colloquially Black Ribbon Day, marking the beginning of Soviet deportations of Lithuanian citizens in early June, 1941. Jews were hugely overrepresented among the victims of the Soviet deportations to Siberia and Central Asia. Those who survived and managed to return to Lithuania found the entire Jewish community and their families had been slaughtered.

Photo courtesy the Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum.

2023-06-142023-06-14

New Commemorative Plaque Marks Old Synagogue in Panevėžys

Following vandalism in January of 2022 to the commemorative plaque marking a former synagogue in Panevėžys, a new plaque has been placed on the building located at Valančiaus street no. 4.

That certainly wasn’t the only recent act of vandalism against Jewish sites in the area, including at Jewish cemeteries, at Memory Square and the “Sad Jewish Mother” monument to Holocaust victims where vandals poured paint. That’s been cleaned up as well and there are now video cameras monitoring the square.

The stone stele commemorating 100 years of activity by the Joint or Jewish Distribution Committee in Panevėžys and Lithuania was also vandalized.

Over the last decade anti-Semitic vandalism also occurred at the mass murder site in the Žalioji Forest and at the monument in the Kurganava Forest. Around 5500 Jews were murdered at the former and around 8000 Jews at the latter site.

2023-06-14

Silvia Foti to Visit Šiauliai Jewish Community

Silvia Foti is scheduled to visit the Šiauliai Jewish Community on June 22 for a presentation of her book about her grandfather, Holocaust perpetrator Jonas Noreika, followed by an open discussion. Jonas Noreika was appointed head of the Šiauliai district under the Nazis and was responsible for the murder of thousands of Jews from the city and region. The event starts at 6:00 P.M. and is free and open to the public.

2023-06-122023-06-12

LJC Chairwoman Travels to Ukmergė

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky made a trip to the city of Ukmergė, known in Yiddish as Vilkomir, to address several issues there.

Her first order of business was to make contact with Ukmergė Jewish Community chairman Artūras Taicas and the new mayor, Darius Varnas.

“I came with the desire of increasing cooperation. We would like to take part in city holidays and to invite Ukmergė to take part in international projects which our Community is coordinating in Lithuania. This would give the city an opportunity to be more visible in Europe, to present and take pride in its material heritage,” Kukliansky said.

The primary issue for the visit was to encourage local leaders to revisit the issue of public commemoration in the form of a statue of Lithuanian Nazi Juozas Krikštaponis. Kukliansky said she hoped the newly-elected mayor would take a different position on the controversy, but after meeting with Varnas commented the problem had not been solved.

2023-06-092023-06-09

Vilnius Jewish Public Library to Screen J’Accuse

The Vilnius Jewish Public Library is to screen the film J’accuse with Lithuanian subtitles at 5:30 P.M. on June 19. Author Silvia Foti featured in the film is scheduled to attend the screening and discuss the film and the Holocaust in Lithuania with the audience.

More information available here.

2023-06-052023-06-22

Israeli Journos Fail to Fight Latvian, Lithuanian Holocaust Distortion

Photo: Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a news conference with then-Latvian prime minister Maris Kucinskis in 2018. Photo credit: Ints Kalnins/Reuters.

Israel Has Failed to Fight Latvia, Lithuania’s Holocaust Distortion

A number of acclaimed films have shone a spotlight on the Holocaust in the Baltics. But Latvia and Lithuania have responded with Holocaust distortion.

by Efraim Zuroff, Jerusalem Post, May 23, 2023

During the past half year, three new documentary films devoted to the Holocaust in the Baltics, and especially in Lithuania, have been screened in numerous venues all over the world, except in Lithuania and Latvia, which are the subjects of these films.

One, titled When Did the Holocaust Begin, was produced by the BBC and focuses on the use of new forensic archeological technology to discover unknown mass graves of Holocaust victims in western Lithuania, where indeed the systematic mass murder of European Jewry began following the Nazi invasion of Lithuania, on June 22, 1941.

2023-05-23

Forgotten Exodus Tells Stories of Jews Expelled from Poland in 1960s

Records of the Polish Communist government’s post-Holocaust anti-Semitic purges to be preserved via video interviews, written narratives and archival materials

by Michelle Rosenberg, Jewish News

A new initiative dedicated to capturing and disseminating the untold stories of Jews who fled Poland in the late 1960s following a wave of anti-Semitic purges was officially launched today.

The Forgotten Exodus project is committed to gathering testimonies from victims, many of them Holocaust survivors, to document their experiences and ensure their history is not erased.

Its mission is to shed light on the then Polish Communist government’s anti-Semitic campaign in 1968, a significant yet largely unknown chapter in modern European history.

Commemorating the 55th anniversary in 2023, it marks the deeply dark time when up to 20,000 of the remaining post-Shoah Jewish population of around 30,000 were stripped of their citizenship, forced out of their jobs and driven out of Poland.

2023-05-222023-05-22

Lithuanian MP Thrown Out of Party for Anti-Semitic Statements

Lithuanian MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis says his party’s ratings will suffer following the decision to cast him out for making anti-Semitic statements, the Lithuanian news agency ELTA reports.

He belonged to the Freedom and Justice party and was elected to his fourth term in the Lithuanian parliament in 2020.

Žemaitaitis says his removal will harm that party’s popularity and claimed he accounts for around 6% of the support the party enjoys in the Žemaitijan region in city council and mayoral elections.

2023-05-222023-05-22

This Is a NATO Ally?

by Grant Gochin

The civilized world has confirmed that Jonas Noreika was a mass genocidal Holocaust perpetrator. The world’s most authoritative body on the Holocaust, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) issued this statement on 11 April 2019: https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/statements/statement-center-study-genocide-and-resistance-lithuania

Again on 7 July, 2020, IHRA issued this statement about Lithuania’s Holocaust fraud: https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/statements/ihra-statement-rehabilitation

On 27 March, 2019, Lithuania’s own Presidential Commission affirms Noreika’s crimes here: https://www.komisija.lt/en/a-response-to-the-statement-of-the-genocide-and-resistance-research-centre-of-lithuania-of-27-march-2019-on-the-accusations-against-jonas-noreika-general-vetra/

Full text here.

2023-05-192023-05-19