History of the Jews in Lithuania – Page 75 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Exhibit on Slobodka

The Kaunas Regional State Archive invited the public to come celebrate International Archives Day on June 11, although technically June 9 is the date set as an annual day by the International Council of Archives.

On June 11 the regional state archive showed an exhibit called “The History of the Suburbs of Kaunas: Vilijampolë from Manor Estate to City.” Vilijampolë is the Lithuanian name of the former Jewish neighborhood of Slobodka which became the Kaunas ghetto during the Holocaust.

Archive director Gintaras Druèkus welcomed visitors and said the exhibit was the first in a new series of exhibits featuring the suburbs and neighborhoods of Kaunas. He began a discussion of Slobodka with Kaunas Regional State Archive senior specialist and exhibit curator Nijolë Ambraškienë, department director Vitalija Girèytë, Kaunas Regional Public Library local history expert Dr. Mindaugas Balkus, social activist Dr. Raimundas Kaminskas, Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas, Jewish representative Michailas Duškesas and others, who informed the audience of different aspects of the history of the suburb.

2019-06-172019-06-20

Holocaust Memorial Unveiled in Biržai

A new Holocaust memorial was unveiled in the Biržai region on June 16. The 30-meter-long monument commemorates 522 known victims. About 2,400 people, 900 of them children, were shot in the Pakamponys (aka Astravas) forest in 1941, but not all names are known. Jews were an integral part of the culture and history of the northern Lithuanian town of Biržai.

Trees were planted along Žemaitės street to honor those who risked their lives to save Jews, the Biržai Jewish Culture and History Association reported.

A procession walked the same route Jews were forced to march to their deaths in 1941, from the site of the ghetto on Žemaitės street to the mass murder site in Pakamponys forest, where the new monument was revealed. This is only the sixth site in Lithuania where Holocaust victims are commemorated with inscriptions of names.

Joseph Rabie from France designed the monument. His great-grandparents came from Biržai and some of his relatives were murdered at Pakamponys. Abel and Glenda Levitt from Israel initiated the commemoration project. Philanthropist Ben Rabinowitz from Cape Town who also has roots in Biržai was a strong contributor to the project.

2019-06-172019-06-20

Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis Congratulates Writer Grigory Kanovich

Ministro Pirmininko sveikinimas Grigorijui Kanoviciui_EN

2019-06-142019-06-14

First Modern Litvak Scouting Summer Camp Starts July 28

Registration is underway for the first modern Litvak scouting summer camp called “History Continues”

When? July 28-August 2
Where? Kernavė forest (coordinates 54.857231, 24.868243)
Who? renginiai@lzb.lt, telephone 867216114

Lithuanian Jewish scouts will have their own sub-camp at the summer camp of the Kernavė group of Lithuanian scouts.

Cost:

First stage of registration (by July 7):

2019-06-142019-07-10

Lithuania Marks Day of Mourning and Hope June 14

Mass deportations to Stalin’s camps began on this day in 1941.

About 17,500 people were deported from Lithuania between June 14 and 18, 1941, (the fates of 16,246 have been determined so far), a number derived from the 4,663 arrested and 12, 832 people officially deported. The deportations were a huge loss and tragedy for Lithuania. Not all those deported were ethnic Lithuanians: about 3,000 Jews, according to various sources, were also deported and about 375 Jews died at the camps and in exile.

Jews deported to Siberia resisted the brutality and terror of the oppressive Soviet organs with a deep spirituality and faith. In 1941 about 1.3 percent of the total Lithuanian Jewish population were deported, and as a percentage constitute the largest group by ethnicity deported from Lithuania.

Santariškės Children’s Hospital doctor Rozalija Černakova tells the story of what happened to her grandfather and family. Her grandparents were deported with their families. Rozalija’s parents were still children when they were deported: her mother 11 and her mother’s brother 8. They were sent to the Altai region. That’s where Rozalija was born.

2019-06-142019-06-26

Lithuanian Supreme Court to Hear Noreika Appeal

Grant Gochin, an LA-resident Litvak as well as a Lithuanian citizen and a member of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, has reported the Lithuanian Supreme Court will hear his appeal of a lower court’s dismissal of his case against the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania regarding the latter’s finding WWII-era Lithuanian captain Jonas Noreika was not culpable in Holocaust crimes. As reported earlier, Gochin has been waging a battle for several years now to have the finding reversed and a commemorative plaque to Noreika removed from its location in central Vilnius. Following the earlier court’s finding Gochin didn’t have “standing,” the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania issued a non-attributed document which the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) said fell within its definition of anti-Semitism.

IHRA response here.

Gochin’s appeal here.

2019-06-132019-06-13

Commemorative Plaque to Mark Site of Former YIVO HQ in Vilnius

The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry and the Lithuanian Jewish Community invite the public to attend an unveiling ceremony of a plaque to commemorate the site of the former headquarters of YIVO in Vilnius at 3:00 P.M. on June 20 at the building now located at Vivulskio street no. 18 in Vilnius. YIVO, the most significant center for the study of Jewish culture, history and languages in Eastern Europe, was located near this site from 1925 to 1941. Its founder moved its activities to New York which became world headquarters following the German invasion in 1941.

Participants at the ceremony are to include YIVO director Jonathan Brent and YIVO board of directors deputy chairwoman Irene Pletka.

2019-06-132019-06-20

Vilna Gaon Texts Placed on Lithuanian Memory of the World Registry

Lithuania’s Memory of the World registry now contains the manuscripts of the Vilna Gaon and a manuscript fragment by Simonas Daukantas, the Lithuanian National Martynas Mažvydas Library reported.

The 18th century manuscripts of Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, the Vilna Gaon, are a collection of works published in different cities and countries of Europe between 1799 and 1940. They include several very rare publications and almost all of them exist as a single copy in Lithuania.

The library said the Vilna Gaon never published any of his texts, but his teaching was scrupulously written down and compiled by his students, sons and sons-in-law and were edited and published after his death.

2019-06-132019-06-19

Sabbath with Designer Agnė Kuzmickatė

For a number of years now the Lithuanian Jewish Community has been inviting artists and special guests to celebrate Sabbath with the community. Last Friday LJC executive director Renaldas Vaisbrodas presented Lithuanian designer Agnė Kuzmickatė to members. She holds a doctorate and is sometimes called butterfly queen because of her use of her butterflies in her designs.

Renaldas led the discussion and tendered questions to the famous young designer, starting with questions about her family. Her father is the philosopher Bronislovas Kuzmickas, PhD, who was a founding member of Sąjūdis, the Lithuanian independence movement, who went on to become a member of parliament, a signatory to the Lithuanian declaration of the restoration of independence and served as deputy to parliamentary speaker Vytautas Landsbergis.

Agnė Kuzmickatė’s grandmother Gita Jekentienė was at a children’s summer camp in Palanga, Lithuania, when World War II arrived. She and some of the other children were evacuated to safer locations in the Soviet Union. When she spoke of her family, Agnė Kuzmickatė repeatedly returned to her grandmother Gita’s experience and said she only know understood how her grandmother’s environment shaped her. She said she and her grandmother often spoke about Jewish identity, about the Yiddish language and the tragic loss of family, all of whom, except for her grandmother’s brother, were murdered at the Ninth Fort in Kaunas. Returning to Lithuania after the war, her grandmother experienced all sorts of bullying and name-calling because she was Jewish. Agnė Kuzmickatė said she had never experienced this and everyone at school respected her because of her father’s activities on behalf of independent Lithuania.

2019-06-112019-06-17

New London Synagogue Celebrates Grigory Kanovich’s 80th Birthday

2019-06-102019-06-13

New Litvak History Exhibit in Cape Town

URM.lt

The Lithuanian Embassy to South Africa presented a mobile exhibit at the South African Jewish Museum in Cape Town June 6 called “One Century Out of Seven. Lithuania, Lite, Lita.” The installation informs viewers of different aspects of Jewish history in Lithuania from the time of the Grand Duchy to the present. The exhibit travelled to South Africa’s second-largest city from the Holocaust and Genocide Center in Johannesburg.

Lithuanian ambassador Sigutė Jakštonytė welcomed the large audience including members of the Cape Town Jewish community and members of the parliament of the Republic of South Africa. She told them the Lithuanian parliament had named 2020 the Year of the Vilna Gaon and Litvak History in appreciation of the Litvak contribution to the Lithuanian state and to preserve the memory of Holocaust victims. The ambassador also thanked the museum in Cape Town for four years of close cooperation.

The exhibit at the South African Jewish Museum in Cape Town runs till the end of June.

2019-06-072019-06-11

Unusual Holocaust Memorial to Be Unveiled in Biržai

DELFI.lt

An event to commemorate the Jews of Biržai and Holocaust victims is to be held on Sunday, June 16, including honoring rescuers of Jews, a memorial procession and the unveiling of a 30-meter-long Holocaust memorial.

The Biržai Jewish Cultural and History Association, the Biržai regional administration and the Sėla Museum in Biržai are organizing the event. Partners include the Israeli embassy to Lithuania, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry and the secretariat of the International Commission to Assess the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania.

2019-06-07

Conference to Mark the 130th Birthday of Anna Akhmatova at the LJC

Osip Mandelshtam and Anna Akhmatova

The Lithuanian Jewish Community held a conference on Jewish influences in the life and work of Russian poetess Anna Akhmatova on June 5. The conference was initiated by poetess Elena Suodienė, a doctor of the liberal arts and recipient of the Golden Quill award from the European Academy of Art and Literature.

Dr. Suodienė presented at the conference her new and newly-published poem in Russian about Akhmatova. She wrote a special article exclusively for www.lzb.lt about the Akhmatova the great poetess and the extraordinary person.

2019-06-062019-06-07

Jewish Influences in the Life of Russian Poetess Anna Akhmatova

The Lithuanian Jewish Community will host an event dedicated to celebrating the 130th birthday of the Russian poetess Anna Akhmatova and discussing Jewish influences in her life. The event will take place at the LJC beginning at 1:00 P.M. on June 5. At least five speakers will present various topics. A screening of a film about Isaiah Berlin will punctuate the program of speakers, with a discussion with the audience following the last speaker. The event is expected to be held mainly in Russian.

2019-06-042019-06-07

Jewish Community Remembered in Kalvarija

In the period between the two world wars, the Jewish population was the majority population in Kalvarija, Lithuania. The architecture of the old town, a unique synagogue complex (with a winter and summer synagogue and the Talmud school) and the only surviving Jew, Moishe Segalis–all of this stands as a testimony to that time. For four Saturdays in a row now, as spring blossoms forth, there have been readings from Icchokas Meras’s novel “Lygiosios trunka akimirką” held near the synagogues in Kalvarija and in their courtyards. Lithuanian Jewish Community executive director Renaldas Vaisbrodas attended the final reading on May 24.

Students and soloists from the Sonantem choir in Kalvarija read from the work about the life of the Vilnius ghetto and about life which can be decided by the movement of a single piece on the game board.

A youth initiative invited the local community to an informal meeting with the relatives of those who once lived in Kalvarija, with our ancestors and neighbors.

2019-06-032019-06-06

Vilnius: Jerusalem of the North, Jerusalem of Lithuania

15min.lt

A New, Free Tourist Route: Why Vilnius Was Called the Jerusalem of the North

With those who fled coming back and traditional Jewish holidays again becoming part of city life, Jewish culture is experiencing a renaissance in Vilnius. Now there will be another opportunity to discover why Vilnius was called the Jerusalem of the North. A free new tourist route called “Discover Jewish Heritage in Vilnius” will help tell the stories of the Jews who lived and worked in Vilnius, according to a press release from the Vilnius municipal tourism and business growth agency Go Vilnius, which has compiled this guidebook as a way to learn about the world-famous Litvaks whose humble origins were in Vilnius, to discover what traces of them remain and to learn about the history of the Jewish community of Vilnius, including the best of times and the most tragic of times.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2019-05-24

Small but Significant Features of Jewish History in Vilnius

bernardinai.lt

Before World War II a large Jewish community lived in Vilnius whose cultural, religious and social traces are only recalled today in statues and commemorative plaques. It’s a rare resident of the city who knows why Vilnius was called the Jerusalem of Lithuania, who knows what an active community life bustled on the narrow streets of the Old Town and how the tragic events of World War II changed forever the face of the Lithuanian capital.

For many years Vilnius was a Jewish spiritual and academic center. Besides some faded inscriptions in Hebrew characters on buildings which were part of the Vilnius ghetto, there are more surviving traces of the history of this people. Before World War II Jews accounted for more than a third of all city residents.

Today we invite you to discover with us some small details of this history, small but important to our city.

Full text in Lithuanian here.

2019-05-242019-05-31

Victory Day Celebration Snapshots from Kaunas

The Kaunas Jewish Community enthusiastically celebrated Victory Day marking the victory against Nazi Germany, continuing a long-time tradition. This year no World War II veterans attended, but their widows and children, who heard their stories firsthand of the battles and horrors, did.

Many of those attending were personally freed by the Allies and their victory marked the end of their inhumane suffering and degradation. For them, this day is both one to commemorate the dead, but also an opportunity to celebrate life and its joys. Vocalist Aleksandras Rave performed his own songs and Michail Javič on saxophone enlivened the ceremony which was funded by the Goodwill Foundation.

2019-05-242019-05-29

Happy 65th Wedding Anniversary to Nelli and Ilja Goldbergai

Dear Nelli and Ilja Goldbergai,

The Lithuanian Jewish Community congratulates you on this wonderful and special occasion, your 65th wedding anniversary. You started a wonderful strong family and set an example for everyone. We wish you health, happiness and tranquility. May the love of family lend you happiness and strength.

Nelli and Ilja were married May 26, 1954. Their son Jevgenijus was born in Vilnius. Now they have three grandchildren. Nelli worked at the Sparta factory, first as a seamstress, then after completing courses at a light industry technical college she became an engineer there. She likes to sew. Ilja worked as senior mechanic at the Vilnius tobacco factory, later becoming the director there, following which he became senior engineer and a milk processing facility. He likes to fix things, wood-carving, chess and crossword puzzles. The aging couple now find it difficult to get outside and walk around, and spend most of their time in their apartment in Vilnius.

Mazl tov!

2019-05-232019-05-23

Markas Petuchauskas on the Presentation of His Book in Germany

I’d like to expand on the information about the book presentations in Germany by talking about the topics which were discussed at the Leipzig International Book Fair and the presentation held at the Lithuanian embassy where, besides Grigorij H. von Leitis, Lithuanian honorary consul professor Wolfgang von Stetten and Michael Lahr, the executive director of the Lahr von Leitis Academy and Archive, also took part.

I talked about the presentations of the Vilnius ghetto theater which have lodged themselves so colorfully in my memory, about the people who started that theater, the remarkable artists of the Jerusalem of Lithuania. Their figures loom large among the ranks of the great Litvaks of the world: Chaim Soutine, Jacques Lipchitz, Neemija Arbit Blatas, Ben Shahn, Emmanuel Levinas, Jascha Heifetz, Romain Gary and others.

Much space in the book is devoted to the branch of the Petuchovski (Petuchowski, Petuchauskai) family who in the second half of the 19th century moved to Germany and attained world-renown as active rabbis and philosophers of the Litvak persuasion.

The first of those to speak about the Vilnius ghetto theater, I demonstrated how that cramped stage was able to contain a vast cultural continent, a unique theater now widely recognized as such. Thanks to the theater, the ghetto became a symbol of spiritual resistance to the Nazis. The ideas of patience, tolerance and unity came to the fore in the spiritual resistance of the Vilnius ghetto. These ideas called out with the entire experience of the European Holocaust, urging unity against Naziism, giving form to the goal of nations recognizing the principles of Western democracy to come and join together.

Markas Petuchauskas
Author of Der Preis der Eintracht [German translation of The Price of Concord]
May 21, 2019

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