History of the Jews in Lithuania – Page 9 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Righteous Gentile Day in Švenčionys Region

The Rytas Gymnasium in Pabradė together with the Pabradė City Culture Center and the Pabradė Art School held a commemoration of Lithuania’s Righteous Gentile Day on March 14. Švenčionys Jewish Community chairman Moshe Shapiro, Švenčionys Region administrative council member Bronislovas Vilimas, Pabradė alderwoman Ana Zingerienė and 7th and 8th grade students participated. History teacher Danguolė Grincevičienė organized the event and provided the main feature about Righteous Gentiles and those who rescued Jews in the Švenčionys district. Local music teachers and students provided musical accompaniment, and art teacher Žana Semaško and her students presented an exhibit they made about the Holocaust and rescuers.

Students from a regional history club read out the names of Righteous Gentiles and of those whom they rescued, followed by more music by local students and the Pabradė Culture Center orchestra. Chairman Shapiro and Rytas Gymnasium principal Laima Markauskienė thanked everyone for organizing and attending the event.

2025-03-24

Happy Birthday to Moshe Shapiro

Dear Moshe,

We wish you a very happy 75th.

Your dedication and many years of work conserving and celebrating the culture and history of the Švenčionys Jewish Community is a priceless contribution to our shared heritage, and your work bringing people together and spreading mutual understanding inspires us to take on new challenges.

We wish you good health, endless energy and everyday joy. May respect, human warmth and beautiful life moments always follow you.

Mazl tov. Bis 120!

Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community

2025-03-202025-03-20

Kaunas Jewish Community Marks Righteous Gentile Day

Conservative member of parliament Paulė Kuzmickienė initiated legislation back in 2022 to make Righteous Gentile Day an official Lithuanian holiday. This year the Kaunas Jewish Community marked Righteous Gentile Day for the third time with a group of Community members, interested citizens and Kaunas tourist guide Mariya Onishchimk.

It’s sad to report that our Righteous Gentiles, those brave and courageous souls who rescued Litvaks from the Holocaust, Lithuania’s true heroes, remain largely unsung and are barely commemorated in Kaunas, and remain largely unknown throughout the country.

Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas commented: “There have been and are, of course, many initiatives, many things done, many researchers studying this topic, but then there is truly so much more to be done. This is our duty, not just to pay honor and respect to the rescuers of Jews, but also for the mission which can be performed though knowledge of them and their activities, even those actions which the rescuers themselves don’t consider heroic, though conserving and forming humanitarian, altruistic values, teaching empathy and reconciliation.”

2025-03-19

Righteous Gentile Day in Šiauliai

Students, teachers, descendants of Righteous Gentiles, MP Paulė Kuzmickienė, architect Tauras Budzys and members of the Šiauliai District Jewish Community gathered Sunday to mark RIghteous Gentile Day at Righteous Gentile Square in Šiauliai. The commemoration continued at the Šiauliai District Jewish Community with music by violinist Dalia Dėdinskaitė and Glebas Pyšniakas playing cello. Tauras Budzys created a special marker for the graves of Righteous Gentiles and affixed the symbol to the headstone of Righteous Gentiles Eleonora and Antanas Margaitis.

2025-03-19

Panevėžys Commemorates Righteous Gentile Day

The Panevėžys Regional History Museum hosted an event to mark Righteous Gentile Day last week.

The Lithuanian parliament declared the day back in 2023 to coincide with Yad Vashem’s award of the title of Righteous Gentile to Ona Šimaitė back on March 15, 1966. She was the first Lithuanian given the distinction for her rescue of and aid to Vilnius ghetto inmates.

The commemoration in Panevėžys included speakers and a screening of the documentary film “Ponivez, Lithuania, 1932” about the Jewish community in Panevėžys or Ponevezh before the Holocaust.

Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman spoke at the event and delivered a message from Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky who was unable to attend in person.

2025-03-182025-03-18

Natalja Cheifec Lecture on Vilna Gaon

Natalja Cheifec’s continuing internet lecture and discussion club will address Thursday at 5:30 P.M. the topic of the Vilna Gaon. Who was he, where did he live, what were his teachings and why does he remain a central figure today?

To receive zoom credentials, click here.

2025-03-18

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.

2025-03-17

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.

2025-03-122025-03-19

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

2025-03-12

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!

2025-03-102025-03-10

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

2025-03-10

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.

2025-03-05

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.

2025-03-04

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

2025-03-04

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

2025-02-262025-02-26

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.

2025-02-24

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.

2025-02-172025-02-17

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!

2025-02-17

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.

2025-02-13