Grateful

Lithuanian President Awards 46 Rescuers

VILNIUS, September 26, BNS – Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė on Monday signed a decree to award Life Saving Crosses to 46 people who rescued Jews from the Holocaust during World War II.

Most of them were honored posthumously.

The president honors Jewish rescuers every year on the occasion of the National Memorial Day for the Genocide of Lithuanian Jews, which is marked on September 23 to commemorate the liquidation of the Vilnius ghetto on that day in 1943.

The Nazis assisted by Lithuanian collaborators murdered more than 90 percent of the Lithuanian pre-war Jewish population of around 208,000 during World War II.

Around 3,500 Jews currently reside in Lithuania.

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Israeli President Sends Condolences over Death of Leonidas Donskis

VILNIUS, September 26, BNS – Israeli president Reuven Rivlin has expressed his condolences to Jolanta Donskienė, the wife of Lithuania’s late philosopher Leonidas Donskis.

“We grieve together with you and all people of Lithuania as the world has lost a remarkable man, a prominent philosopher, a devoted defender of human rights and civil liberties, a true humanitarian and an outstanding political figure, a great person, who always opposed violence in all its forms,” the president said in his letter to Donskienė, a copy of which was shared by the Israeli embassy with BNS.

Rivlin said that as a deputy chairman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, Donskis “greatly contributed to preserving the country’s Jewish culture and heritage and promoted the highest human values of tolerance, love and respect toward every individual”.

“Professor Donskis was a great friend of Israel, who has never hesitated to stand together with our country. He will always remain in hour hearts,” he said.

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Vilnius Mayors Change, But None Can Find Suitable Place for Monument to Rescuers

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photo courtesy BNS

An interview by Nemira Pumprickaitė on the Lithuanian state television program Savaitė, www.LRT.lt

The Day of the Genocide of the Jews of Lithuania is marked on September 23. For long years there was silence on the topic of the Holocaust in Lithuania, and when [former late] Lithuanian president Algirdas Brazauskas apologized to the Jewish people, there was hardly unanimous support. Now even Germans are saying Lithuania is the first country in Eastern Europe to openly raise the question of its own citizens’ complicity. About a month ago the respected Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published a feature on Lithuania’s efforts to address the history of the Holocaust. Lithuanians didn’t earn condemnation alone during the Holocaust; there were those who risked their lives of those of the families to save Jews. The appellation Righteous Gentile has been awarded to 889 Lithuanian citizens. Experts say proportionally, according to population size, Lithuania has the most rescuers among the countries of Eastern and Central Europe. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky on the Lithuanian state television program Savaitė…

Full interview in Lithuanian here.

Lithuanian Parliaments Hosts Conference “They Rescued Jews, They Rescued Lithuania’s Honor”

Seime organizuota konferencija „Gelbėję Lietuvos žydus, gelbėję Lietuvos garbę“

Vilnius, September 25, BNS– The Lithuanian Seimas Sunday hosted a conference to mark the Jewish Genocide Memorial Day.

The conference called “They Rescued Jews, They Rescued Lithuania’s Honor” was organized by the Lithuanian Jewish Community, the parliament’s press service said.

Those taking part in the conference included Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, Andrew Baker, director of International Jewish Affairs for the American Jewish Committee, and Howard Solomon, chargé d’affaires ad interim at the US embassy in Vilnius.

The program includes presentations by historian Alvydas Nikzentaitis on the life of Jews in Lithuania, Joachim Tauber of the University of Hamburg on “Hitler, Stalin and Anti-Semitism in Lithuania in 1939-1940” and historian Algimantas Kasparavicius on “Lithuanian Political Illusions, the ‘Policy’ of the Provisional Government of Lithuania and the Beginning of the Holocaust in Lithuania.”

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Kaunas Jewish Community Visit Balbieriškis and Prienai

Kauno žydų bendruomenė lankėsi Balbieriškyje bei Prienuose.

The Kaunas Jewish Community visited Balbieriškis and Prienai, Lithuania at the invitation of Balbieriškis Tolerance Center director Rymantas Sidaravičius on the European Day of Jewish Culture, September 4. The delegation toured a Balbieriškis Tolerance Center exhibit on the history of the Jews of the town and reflecting the center’s current relationships and friendships with Jews from around the world. They also toured the town, where Jewish homes and buildings from before the war still stand, and honored the memory of the dead with a prayer at the old Jewish cemetery in Balbieriškis.

Representatives then went to Prienai and honored Holocaust victims there. In Prienai they attended a museum event dedicated to the European Day of Jewish Culture. The museum event included a stirring presentation of the history of the Jews of Prienai, funny stories from Jewish life from before the war, significant achievements, good relations between Jews and other town residents and the Holocaust. The event included passages in Hebrew and Yiddish. The hosts made the delegation feel right at home at every stop on their visit, as if they were visiting old friends.

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Happy 75th!

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The Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes member Dr. Eva Ščupak a happy 75th birthday! Eva is a neuropathologist who has devoted so much of her time to doing volunteer work at the Community. We wish you great health and long and peaceful life! Joy and success to you, your children and your grandchildren! Mazl tov! May you live to 120!

Thank You Card for Ema Jakobienė

A thank you card to Ema Jakobienė for her contributions as one of the directors of the LJC project to support Lithuania’s aging Righteous Gentiles.

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Dear Ema,

We thank you very much for your wonderful project, for your concern and your love of your fellow human beings.

Thanks to you, we received a [debit] card–this is a great gift and support to our family.

Thank you!

So please keep going, keep working and touch those people who are already slipping from our fingers…

May God grant you health, strength of soul and smiling eyes…

In gratitude,

Antanas Poniškaitis
Staselė Poniškaitienė
September, 2016

Thank You

Speaking on behalf of the Committee of Jews from Zarasai Living in Israel, Grisha Deitz deeply thanks Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky for her concern and help in organizing a commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the destruction of the Jewish community of Zarasai, Lithuania, and for the presence of the rabbi at the ceremony in Krakynė Forest, where 8,000 Jews from the Zarasai region were murdered in 1941.

Book about Ona Šimaitė, Righteous Gentile

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Epistolofilija by Julija Šukys. Biography of Ona Šimaitė. Translated from English by Marius Burokas. Lietuvos rašytojų sąjungos leidykla, Vilnius 2016. 256 pages

From 1941 to 1944 she visited the Jewish ghetto and work camps of German-occupied Vilnius and brought food, clothes medicine, money and forged papers to the people imprisoned there. She saved those who had lost hope, listening to their fears and replying to their letters, often the last letters ever written by these people. It is unknown how many lives she saved. It would have seemed strange to the librarian to count, and by intentionally forgetting the names and addresses of those she helped, she protected both herself and them. Instead of hard statistics, we have the personal stories, anecdotes and recollections of those who survived.

Full story in Lithuanian here

Lithuanian and Japanese Cities Join in Commemorating Righteous Gentile

Pasaulio tautų teisuolio atminimas sujungė Japonijos ir Lietuvos miestus ir žmones

Events to commemorate Chiune Sugihara, Japanese WWII-era consul in Kaunas and a Lithuanian festival were held in Sugihara’s hometown of Yaotsu, Japan, from July 31 to August 7.

Sugihara rescued thousands of Lithuanian Jews from the Holocaust and has been recognized as a Righteous Gentile and awarded the status of Righteous among the Nations by the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial authority in Israel.

The week of commemorations was opened by the signing of a memorandum of cooperation by Yaotsu mayor Masanori Kaneko and Kaunas municipality representative Inga Pukelytė.

Acting Lithuanian ambassador to Japan Violeta Gaižauskaitė noted the events came on the 25th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic ties between Japan and Lithuania and characterized ties between the people of Japan and Lithuania as sincere, and relations btween the two nations friendly. She also said both countries were dedicated to preserving the memory of the noble Japanese diplomat for future generations.

Happy 80th!

Liusia Sperling

On August 3, 2016, Liusia Šperling, the volunteer Community doctor of many years, turns 80!

For 15 years Dr. Šperling has volunteered in the Community’s Social Center.

We all wish her and her family perfect health!

President Signs Citizenship Amendment for Litvaks into Law

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Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaitė signed into law amendments to the country’s citizenship law on June 6, 2016. The parliament adopted the amendment to impose stricter language to insure Litvaks and others are able to obtain Lithuanian citizenship without greater bureaucratic obstacles. A copy of the act of law is provided below in Lithuanian.

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Judah Passow Thanks LJC Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky for Celebration for Return of Torah

Juda Passow dėkoja LŽB ir pirmininkei F.Kukliansky už Toros sugrįžimo šventę

“I just want to thank you once again for making possible such a moving and memorable day with the Lithuanian Jewish community,” Judah Passow said in the note.

“It was an honour and a privilege to be with all of you. I’m especially grateful to you for the time and effort you put into making what began as an idea a year ago into a reality,” he wrote.

Judah Passow’s father, professor David Passow at Philadelphia University, received a Rockefeller Foundation grant to commemorate Jewish life behind the iron curtain in 1960. When he went to Vilnius that same year, local Jewish leaders asked him to take away with him one of two Torah scrolls which were used in the Vilnius ghetto and survived the Holocaust intact, saying they were unsure what the future held for Jews in the Soviet Union. The Passows protected the Torah ever since then, for 56 years, and used it for three bar mitzvahs in the family. When he came to Vilnius last year for a showing of his photography work, Judah Passow met Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky and the idea was fleshed out of returning the scroll to Vilnius. Just last week Passow returned the Torah dating from the time of Vilna Gaon, with a silver decoration his mother Aviva Passow made for the scroll.

Celebration to Welcome Torah Scroll at Choral Synagogue

Toros įnešimo šventė Vilniaus choralinėje sinagogoje vyko birželio 27d.

The Lithuanian Jewish Community is tremendously grateful to Judah Passow for his initiative in bringing the 350-year-old Torah scroll back to Vilnius.

Those assembled at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius June 27 waited in anticipation of something extraordinary: for the carrying in of a 350-year-old Torah scroll, from the period when the Vilna Gaon walked among us, a witness to the Vilnius of the 17th century, experiencing all the passages and changes together with the Jews, used for innumerable bar mitzvah ceremonies until it ended up in the Vilnius ghetto during World War II, and miraculously survived the Holocaust.

In 1960 professor Passow of the University of Philadelphia in the United States came to Vilnius after receiving support from the Rockefeller Foundation to commemorate Jewish communal life behind the iron curtain. Jews in Vilnius asked him to take with him one of two Vilnius ghetto Torah scrolls to survive the Holocaust, uncertain about the future of Jewish life in the Soviet Union. That’s how the Torah entered into the Passow family and was used in three bar mitzvahs. The family protected the scroll for 56 years. Last year the professor’s son, London-based photojournalist Judah Passow, came to Vilnius for an exhibition of his photographic works and spoke with LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky. This year he’s come back with the Torah scroll with a silver ornament his mother made.

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Thank You

The Kaunas and Šiauliai Jewish Communities thank Goodwill Foundation chairs Faina Kukliansky and Rabbi Andrew Baker as well as Vytautas Višinskis and Indrė Rutkauskaitė for their wonderfully organized and productive meeting of the Goodwill Foundation,

350-Year-Old Torah Scroll Returns to Vilnius

350 m. skaičiuojatis toros ritinys grįžta į Vilniaus choralinę sinagogą

The Vilnius Jewish Religious Community cordially invites you to celebrate this extraordinary event, the return of the Torah scroll, at the Vilnius Choral Synagogue.

This 350-year-old Torah scroll, which survived the destruction of the Vilnius ghetto during World War II and was taken out of the country to protect it, is finally coming home.

The ceremony of bringing in the Torah is to take place at 1:00 P.M. on Monday, June 27, at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius.

The Vilnius Jewish Community is tremendously grateful to Judah Passow for his initiative in returning the Torah scroll. The family of London-based photojournalist Judah Passow safeguarded the Torah scroll for 56 years after it left Vilnius. The ceremony will feature a short presentation of the history of the Torah and what this most important book means.

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Ten Years of Cooperation

It’s been 10 years now since the Panevėžys Jewish Community and the Rožynas Pre-Gymnasium first began carrying out joint projects to encourage tolerance, education and friendship between the peoples who call Panevėžys home. This time the project was about Holocaust commemoration in the Panevėžys region. It’s called “A Bridge between Past and Present.” The project is financed by the Goodwill Fund. Around 200 students from the upper classes participated and learned about the history of the Holocaust. The Panevėžys Jewish Community shared information with Rožynas Pre-Gymnasium pupils and administrators, history teacher Genutė Žilytė and pre-gymnasium principal Aida Adiklienė and provided the information the Panevėžys Jewish Community possesses about the Holocaust in the city and region of Panevėžys.

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Commemorating Sister Marija Rusteikaitė in Panevėžys

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A project to commemorate sister Marija Rusteikaitė was discussed with mother superior and general director Jūratė Marcinkevičiūtė and sister S. Klara–Hana Bivil of the God’s Love Monastery at the Panevėžys Jewish Community. The project to commemorate Rusteikaitė in Panevėžys and to teach city residents about her remarkable story in the rescue of 15 Jewish children during the Holocaust was prepared by the Panevėžys Jewish Community and presented to the city’s Architecture and Urban Planning Department.

The goal of the project is to commemorate Righteous Gentile Marija Rusteikaitė (1892-1949), the founder of the God’s Love congregation, by naming a new street after her and posting a memorial sign at the start of the street briefly describing her noble deeds.

Marija Rusteikaitė was an intellectual person, a social activist, a medic, a teacher and a nun who was very important to the city and area of Panevėžys. She grew up in the family of estate owners Stanislovas and Jadvyga, a family of nine children, four sons and five daughters. Marija was the third child. Her mother Jadvyga was dedicated to charity work, her children and homemaking. Both parents were extremely loving towards their children and guided their education, belief in God and moral development. The people of Vaiguva who knew her say her charisma was something akin to that of Mother Teresa in Calcutta. She spent her nights sitting up with sick patients, quietly praying.

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