History of the Jews in Lithuania

Righteous Gentiles Day at the Choral Synagogue

Righteous Gentiles Day at the Choral Synagogue

Last week Lithuania marked the third annual commemoration of Righteous Gentiles Day and the Lithuanian Jewish Community remembered their courage, risking their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust, at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius.

Sulamita Fromanaitė-Lev, rescued by nuns, shared her family story. Descendants of Righteous Gentiles Kazys and Sofija Binkis, Iga Mautėnienė and Romualdas Juknelevičius, talked about their family. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky spoke about the rescue of her family and Evangelical Lutheran reverend Mindaugas Sabutis and father Aligrdas Toliatas also addressed the commemoration.

Violinist Simas Tankevičius and bayan accordion player Yevgeni Musiyets provided music at the event. Students from Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium read excerpts from Yitzhak Mer’s Holocaust memoirs. Thank you to Sholem students Dina Perelman iand Markas Šulmanas, and to Sholem graduate Jokūbas Davidavičius who was master of ceremonies.

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Two Klezmer Bands on World Theater Day

Two Klezmer Bands on World Theater Day

To celebrate World Theater Day on March 27, the Russian Drama Theater in Vilnius, now rechristened Old Drama Theater, will host two klezmer bands. Called “Klezmer on Pogulanka” (the older name of Basanavičiaus street in Vilnius where the theater is located), the Franco-Lithuanian ensemble Rakija Klezmer Orkestar“ and the Yiddish Atmospheric Touch trio from France will perform classics and improv. Stay tuned for more information.

March 11 Greetings

March 11 Greetings

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky extends here greetings on the occasion of March 11:

Dear reader,

Thirty-five. That’s how old our restored independent country is today where we enjoy the freedom to live, speak and discuss. That many years we have been able to take pride in our ethnicity and identity openly, to share our culture, knowledge and individuality. This is the greatest gift which we hold so dear and appreciate so much.

Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community

Happy March 11

Happy March 11

On this day in 1990 the Lithuanian parliament voted to restore Lithuanian independence 50 years after the interwar republic was incorporated into the Soviet Union. To those brave deputies who signed the restoration of statehood legislation, including Emanuelis Zingeris, we say thank you, and to the people and peoples of Lithuania, we say congratulations to you, and to ourselves. Mazl tov. Bis 1,200!

Righteous Gentiles Day in Vilnius

Righteous Gentiles Day in Vilnius

This year will be the third Lithuania has officially remembered her Righteous Gentiles who rescued Jews from the Holocaust. It is another opportunity to remember the bravery and shining example set by those who risked their lives to help their fellow man.

“Time is pitiless. Every year more rescuers and more survivors pass away, but the memory of their experience will never fade,” Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said. She added that her family was also saved by Righteous Gentiles.

Time: 12:00 noon, Thursday, March 13
Place: Choral Synagogue, Vilnius

Knesset Members Visit Sholem

Knesset Members Visit Sholem

Members of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, visited the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium in Vilnius Monday.

Accompanied by Israel’s ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein, MKs Simon Davidson, Yevgeny Sova, Ariel Kallner, Issak Shimon Wasserlauf and Dor Kaidar toured Vilnius’s Jewish school and met and spoke with students, teachers and staff.

Members of the delegation were encouraged the Vilnius municipality finances the Jewish school and said that wasn’t the case in other countries they visited. The ORT Global Education Network and Israel’s Education Ministry also support the school.

One student asked the MKs if they had been to Lithuania before and was surprised to learn one had been born here. Another had Lithuanian roots.

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Condolences

Dita Sperling has passed away at the age of 102. She was born in Kaunas in 1922. She survived the Kaunas ghetto and Stutthof and went on to be a prolific writer and Holocaust educator. Our deepest condolences to her surviving family and friends around the world.

Šiauliai Remembers Righteous Gentiles

Šiauliai Remembers Righteous Gentiles

The Šiauliai District Jewish Community invites you to an event to mark Lithuania’s Righteous Gentiles Remembrance Day called “Witnesses to the Miracles of Life” on March 16.

Program:

1:00 P.M. Commemoration ceremony at Righteous Gentiles Square including words and wreath-laying with MP Paulė Kuzmickienė and the architect Tauras Budzys who began marking the graves of Righteous Gentiles in Lithuania with a special symbol back in 2018;

2:00 P.M. Exhibit of Righteous Gentiles called “Unafraid to Die, They Became Immortal” at the Šiauliai District Jewish Community, Višinskio street no. 24, and a musical performance by Dalia Dėdinskaitė on violin and Gleb Pyšniak on cello.

Time: 1:00 P.M., Sunday, March 16
Place: Righteous Gentiles Square and Šiauliai District Jewish Community, Šiauliai

Samuel Bak Presents Catalog

Samuel Bak Presents Catalog

Samuel Bak himself and a panel of experts will launch a Bak catalog in Lithuanian on the first day of the Vilnius Book Fair. The catalog of his artwork is called “Gydantys simboliai.”

Joining via video link from the USA, Litvak painter from Vilnius Samuel Bak will speak with Bak Museum senior curator Ieva Šadzevičienė, illustrator Jokūbas Jacovskis and others with synchronous translations in Lithuanian and English.

Time: 2:00 P.M., February 27
Place: conference hall 5.5, Litexpo building, Laisvės prospect no. 5, Vilnius

Criminal, Trash and Enemy of the State

Criminal, Trash and Enemy of the State

by Grant Gochin

All I sought was information about the murder of my Lithuanian family during the Holocaust. This was my entanglement with the government of Lithuania.

Most barbarians shout about their hideous torture and murder of innocents as a matter of pride. Palestinian terrorists murder Jews and boast about it. They have parades with slain bodies. They hand out candy, and dance with joy, thinking they have done something wonderful. They haven’t.

During the Holocaust, Lithuanians murdered Jews with an even greater level of ferocity and depravity than Hamas currently displays. Their conduct was reprehensible and not even close to human. The Lithuanian slaughter was almost complete. They murdered 96.4% of all Jews they could reach. The current dream of Gaza is the replication of the Lithuanian Holocaust.

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Week-Long International Jascha Heifetz Competition for Violinists Opens in Vilnius

Week-Long International Jascha Heifetz Competition for Violinists Opens in Vilnius

The International Jascha Heifetz Competition for Violinists held once every four years opened its 7th week-long contest at the Old Town Hall in Vilnius, the traditional location, last Friday.

More than 50 younger leading violinists from around the world are competing for combined prizes worth €30,000.Presented by the Center for International Cultural Projects, the competition runs from February 14 to 22 this year. According to the contest’s webpage, no more than 18 musicians will enter the second round, and a maximum of six competitors will qualify for the final. The first and second rounds will take place at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater.

Participants in the final round will perform with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra and its chief conductor Modestas Pitrėnas at the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society. Chaired by violinist Gidon Kremer, the competition will offer a prize fund of €30,000, alongside other awards, according to the webpage. The first place winner takes €12,000, second €8,000 and third-place winner €5,000. Second-round finalists will perform at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater this week.

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Happy February 16

Happy February 16

In the name of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, chairwoman Faina Kukliansky sends greetings to everyone on the Day of the Restoration of Lithuanian Statehood. May unity and respect become our guideposts. Happy February 16!

Children of the Holocaust Project Takes Flight in Palanga

Children of the Holocaust Project Takes Flight in Palanga

A project to study the history of pre-Holocaust Lithuanian Jewish and Roma urban and rural communities has begun in Palanga. The aim is to recreate city, town, village and community history to understand how the former way of life connects with the present and future. Called “Children of the Holocaust: Illuminating the Shadows of Lithuanian History,” the Palanga Jewish Community said in a press release public understanding of the Holocaust is changing, with the history of the Jews now being told by creating a personal connection with the past.

This Lithuanian Jewish Community for implementation between 2024 and 2026 is supported by the EVZ Fund in Germany. The Palanga Jewish Community, the Jonas Šliūpas Museum in Palanga, the Old Gymnasium in Palanga, the Palanga Youth and Volunteer Center, the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium in Vilnius and the Roma Community Day Center are all partners in the project.

The goal is to encourage specific, novel, lively retellings of history to engage young people from Vilnius and Palanga. The focus is on children who were victims of the Holocaust from the Litvak and Roma ethnic communities and their experience, stories and recollections among survivors.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Liova Taicas Memorial Tournament Marks 15th Year

Liova Taicas Memorial Tournament Marks 15th Year

The Šiauliai District Jewish Community held the 15th iteration of the sporting tournament to commemorate Liova Taicas (1952-2009) on February 9. The annual event began back in 2010.

The commemorative games not only honor Taicas’s memory and bring teams together from Jewish communities throughout Lithuania, but have also come to promote healthy living and an active lifestyle.

The Ukmergė Jewish Community sent athletes this year for the ping-pong competition and they made an excellent showing with Feliksas Lermanas taking first place and Lina Kuzmienė a respectable third. The Šiauliai district firefighters team of Jonas Poškus, Karolis Laukutis, Andrius Orlovas and Ugnius Tarasevičius won in basketball. Josifas Buršteinas took first place in the chess competition. Teams from Kaunas and Vilnius played in various sports and French soldiers from the NATO forces patrolling Lithuanian airspace took part in the basketball competition.

National Library Celebrates 100 Years of YIVO

National Library Celebrates 100 Years of YIVO

The Martynas Mažvydas Lithuanian National Library conserves a YIVO document collection of very significant volume and content. The YIVO was established exactly a century ago in Vilnius in 1925. It is the only Vilnius Jewish institution which did not stop operating during the Holocaust and which continues to operate today. After World War II YIVO made its main headquarters at its branch in New York City. This branch took over the institute’s functions as a center for the preservation of Jewish heritage and research.

Many traces of the institute’s work survived in Vilnius: fragments of its documentation, correspondence, library collection and archives, scattered among several commemorative institutions. The National Library is conducting a study of the institute’s archives which is revealing YIVO’s origins in Vilnius and its especially fruitful period of activity in Vilnius before WWII.

The 100-year anniversary of the founding of the YIVO was noted back in 2023 in a resolution by the Lithuanian parliament as being of special significance to world culture and the National Library. Lithuanian National Library director Aušrinė Žilinskienė spoke about this at the Lithuanian embassy in Washington, D.C., on December 9, 2024. That event to mark the anniversary was organized with YIVO headquarters in New York.

The National Library is holding an event in cooperation with a large number of Lithuanian and foreign partners with a spectacular program, including the publication of books on the history of the YIVO, an international academic forum and an exhibit of textual heritage.

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Israeli Speaker to Address LJC Sunday

Israeli Speaker to Address LJC Sunday

Litvak Raffael Hletzer will speak at the Lithuanian Jewish Community Sunday. He was born in Lithuania but left for Israel with his family at a young age. He is currently the executive director of the renowned Kehilor Netaim Jewish educational program. His presentation will be about his roots in Lithuania, the upcoming holiday Tu b’Shvat and connections with the past and present. The event is free but registration is required by sending an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt.

Time: 1:00 P.M., Sunday, February 9
Place: Room 306, Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius

Remembering Sutzkever

Remembering Sutzkever

Ambassadors from Germany, the USA and Israel and the Lithuanian Jewish Community marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day by attending a play about the life of Abraham Sutzkever at the Vilnius Puppet Theater, a venue which was the Vilnius ghetto theater during the Holocaust.

Abraham Sutzkever was a Yiddish poet before, during and after the Holocaust and was imprisoned in the Vilnius ghetto. He joined the underground and fought as a Jewish partisan against the German and Lithuanian Nazis. In February of 1946 he was called up as a witness at the Nuremberg trials, testifying against Franz Murer, the murderer of his mother and newborn son.

The play, “Witness,” was written by Sutzkever’s granddaughter Hadas Kalderon. Israeli actor and stand-up comic Michael Hanegbi performed the role of Sutzkever.

Lithuanian foreign minister Kęstutis Budrys introduced the play. After the play Kalderon and Hanegbi shared reminiscences of Sutzkever and their thoughts and feelings about the play itself.

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Panevėžys Marks Auschwitz Anniversary: No Statute of Limitations on Holocaust, nor Memory

Panevėžys Marks Auschwitz Anniversary: No Statute of Limitations on Holocaust, nor Memory

The Panevėžys Jewish Community marked the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on January 27, the date UNESCO proclaimed the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust back in 2005, with ceremonies and educational outreach.

Students from local schools attended a quiz on the Holocaust at the Panevėžys Jewish Community. Community members and chairman Gennady Kofman also met with reporter Jogintė Četkauskienė to talk about Jewish life in the city and country during WWII.

“Today it is our duty to do all we can to ensure this tragedy never happens again. That means encouraging tolerance, there is enough air for everyone on our beautiful planet. It also means courageously fighting against anti-Semitism, which is the most urgent problem in the world today,” Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman told the reporter.

He also touched upon statements made by Lithuanian MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis during the interview.

“This politician’s apathy towards the tragedy of the Jewish people and his anti-tolerance are incomprehensible. How is it possible not to think about normal, friendly relations between the different ethnic communities in Lithuania?” Kofman asked the reporter.

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Šiauliai District Jewish Community Marks International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust

Šiauliai District Jewish Community Marks International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust

The Šiauliai District Jewish Community marked the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust proclaimed by UNESCO in 2005 Monday with members and friends attending the remembrance ceremony.

Actors Juozas Bindokas and Monika Šaltytė read translations of texts and poems by Abraham Sutzkever accompanied by Motiejus Dudnikas on accordeon. The composition was called “Prayer Just to Myself” detailing Sutzkever’s life before the Holocaust, being imprisoned in the Vilnius ghetto, liberation and the testimony he gave against Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials.

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Condolences

Sara Radžiūnienė died January 27. She was born in 1928 and was the oldest member of the Švenčionys Jewish Community. Švenčionys Jewish Community chairman Moshe Shapiro and the entire Lithuanian Jewish Community extend our deepest condolences to Edvardas, Vladimiras and Silvija.