Holocaust

Palanga Jewish Cemeteries: Inscriptions, Records, Territories

Palanga Jewish Cemeteries: Inscriptions, Records, Territories

Information from Mindaugas Surblys, Palanga Jewish Community

When fire ran rampant in Palanga in 1830, old burial pinkhas were destroyed, dating back to 1487. Beginning in 1831 burial records were kept for the new Jewish cemetery at the edge of town. For a time two Jewish cemeteries operated in tandem in Palanga, the old one since 1487 till 1892, located inside Birutė Park. The new cemetery was instituted near Naglys Hill.

There are ten remaining headstones (matsevot) of different sizes made from granite and cement with inscriptions in Hebrew letters. Three headstones are broken in their upper sections. One is splintered with fragments lying on the ground. Many of the surviving monuments are difficult to read.

Several inscriptions are legible and correspond to the burial records of the Palanga Jewish community. The inscriptions match the information in the pinkhas, for example, “Here lies our dear and honored father who was famous for his charity work and high moral character, Natan Frank, son of Hirsh (Tzvi), deceased on Rosh Hashanah, 1935” (partial translation).

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UN Holocaust Day at the Šiauliai District Jewish Community

UN Holocaust Day at the Šiauliai District Jewish Community

The Šiauliai District Jewish Community marked the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust on January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, with an evening of tea celebrating Vulf Visotiski, a tea expert whose family began dealing in tea in Žagarė back in 1849.

The Šiauliai District Jewish Community invited experts and cultural anthropologists from Žagarė and around Lithuania as well as the general public and served Visotski tea imported from Israel. The fifth generation of the family is still blending tea in Israel now. High school student singers from the area and from Klaipėda provided the highlight of the evening. Speakers also provided historical insights into the Volpert family and the history and current state of Žagarė.

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Palanga Jewish Community Marks UN Holocaust Day

Palanga Jewish Community Marks UN Holocaust Day

Members of the Palanga Jewish Community, representatives of the municipality and local high school students marked the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust Tuesday by visiting a marker commemorating victims at a cemetery there.

“The Holocaust isn’t a past tragedy, it’s a warning of what happens when apathy becomes the norm and hate becomes acceptable. Our duty is not just to remember the victims, but also to protect the truth, which is uncomfortable to some. Remembering isn’t a ceremony, it’s a daily choice,” Palanga Jewish Community chairman Vilius Gutmanas remarked on the occasion.

The seaside resort town has several Holocaust memorial sites with commemorative markers and plaques. The local cemetery has a stele marking where 106 Jews and 5 Lithuanians murdered in 1941 were reburied. Jewish sites including the Great and Lesser Synagogues and a site connected with Dr. Lazar Gutman are also marked now, as are two pre-Holocaust Jewish cemeteries.

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Šiauliai District Jewish Community to Mark UN Holocaust Day

Šiauliai District Jewish Community to Mark UN Holocaust Day

The Šiauliai District Jewish Community invites you to mark International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust together with the community on January 27. At 12 noon there will be a candle-lighting ceremony at the Shavl ghetto gate located at the corner of Ežero and Trakų streets. At 6:00 P.M. the Community will hold an evening to celebrate Vulf Visotski and tea called “Memory, Faith, Hope” at the Community at Višinskio street no. 24 in Šiauliai. Participants are to include the student theater from the Ąžuolynas Gymnasium in Klaipėda, vocalists from the Juventa Pre-gymnasium in Šiauliai District and guests from Pakruojis and Žagarė.

History on Trial: Lithuania’s Unanswered Record

History on Trial: Lithuania’s Unanswered Record

by Grant Gochin, January 5, 2026

History is not preserved by monuments or institutions. It is preserved by accuracy, accountability, and the willingness to confront what is difficult. Nowhere is that obligation more binding than in nations whose soil carries the memory of mass murder. When a state chooses to defend dishonest institutional narratives instead of historical truth, the cost becomes permanent: the leadership that made those choices becomes inseparable from the legacy of distortion.

Lithuania refuses to confront that legacy.

The Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania

The Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania (LGGRTC) is a state institution charged with researching and memorializing the crimes of totalitarian regimes. Over the past decades, its conduct has drawn sustained criticism for minimizing Lithuanian participation in the Holocaust while promoting dishonest national narratives.

International Jewish organizations and independent observers have warned that the Centre’s activities approach Holocaust distortion and contradict established historical scholarship. https://www.timesofisrael.com/lithuanias-genocide-studies-center-accused-of-holocaust-denial/

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A Railroad Town and How Tragedy Was Suppressed: Jewish History Revived in Rūdiškės

A Railroad Town and How Tragedy Was Suppressed: Jewish History Revived in Rūdiškės

Rūdiškės is a small town in the Trakai district which most people pass on the road without a thought about its complicated and painful history. The railroad came through in the 20th century and brought business and a Jewish population, almost completely exterminated in the Holocaust. Now local residents, teachers and descendants of people from the town are trying to revive memories of the past there, through testimonies, initiatives and manual labor.

For people travelling between Vilnius and Alytus, Rūdiškės is mainly just a name on a road sign. It has a railroad stop, a main square. a school and stores. The tranquil façade hides a complex story. Lithuanian language teacher Loreta Masienė says Rūdiškės is different from most towns because it was established around the railroad station.

“This was the first railroad in Lithuania, the St. Petersburg to Warsaw line. Rūdiškės began to grow around the railway and the Geležinė River,” she said.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Condolences

Alė Šimulynienė has died. She was born in 1936. She was a member of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and a client of the Saul Kagan Welfare Center, We extend our deepest condolences on her loss to her surviving family and friends.

Lithuanian Economics Ministry Likes Idea of Holocaust Museum at Shnipishok Cemetery

Lithuanian Economics Ministry Likes Idea of Holocaust Museum at Shnipishok Cemetery

The Lithuanian Ministry of Economics and Innovation has issued a press release on the Baltic News Service webpage expressing approval for the idea of setting up a Holocaust museum at the former Palace of Sports built on top of the Vilna Jewish cemetery by the Soviets in the Shnipishok neighborhood on the northern side of the Neris (viliya( River.. The building has been in serious disrepair for over a decade.

“Taking into account the position held regarding the possibility of adapting the former Palace of Sports, since this site is not suitable for modern and competitive conference tourism… it would be more appropriate to renovate the Palace of Sports and equip it for use as a new memorial and museum,” the Economics and Innovation Ministry posted on the BNS press release webpage.

Vilnius mayor Valdas Benkunskas after meeting with economics minister Edvinas Grikšas last week told BNS the Vilnius municipality and the Economics Ministry have a common position regarding the aging concert and sports complex.

Mayor Benkunskas said: “We perceive in the same way that the Palace of Sports has to be renovated and adapted as a memorial and museum space, and that it wouldn’t be competitive for conference tourism, and would pose a risk to our public image as such.”

The Economics and Innovation Ministry earlier posted the building was not fit to use as a conference venue following a study ordered by the Government.

“According to the current studies, this site could only host some of the requirements as a venue, there would be a lack of parking places, and the costs of reconstruction are difficult to predict,” the Ministry said.

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American Embassy Hosts Presentation of New Community Center

American Embassy Hosts Presentation of New Community Center

Goodwill Foundation co-presidents Rabbi Andrew Baker and Faina Kukliansky presented plans for a new Lithuanian Jewish Community Center at the US embassy in Vilnius last week.

World-renowned Litvak architect Massimiliano Fuksas’s team are drafting plans for the new building to be built at the site of the Great Synagogue complex in Vilnius Old Town.

Baker and Kukliansky provided details at the presentation on a planned YIVO exhibit at the new center telling the history of Litvaks, Litvak life, traditions, the people and their mass murder during the Holocaust.

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LJC on the Bondi Massacre in Australia

LJC on the Bondi Massacre in Australia

The attack perpetrated on Bondi Beach in Australia where the attackers shot Jews gathered to celebrate Hanukkah has caused deep concern and upset to the Lithuanian Jewish Community. The victims included children, rabbis, Holocaust survivors and non-Jews as well.

We extend our sincerest condolences to the Australian Jewish community and call on everyone to realize that this mass murder targeted Jews around the world, not just in Australia. This is an alarm bell warning us no Jewish community is safe anywhere in the world. Our members including women and children are vulnerable to attack at any time.

Large metropolises throughout the world including Berlin, London and New York have responded to attacks on Jews by increasing security. Sadly in recent times amid a rising tide of anti-Semitism in the world and in Lithuania, we daily encounter hostile actions, vandalism and violence. We are citizens of a member-state of the European Union who are being targeted by followers of recognized terrorist organizations.

We call upon our members to remain vigilant, and we call upon the Lithuanian Government and the citizens of Lithuania to take measures to protect Lithuania’s Jewish organizations, including the communities, the kindergarten, the Choral Synagogue and other sites.

Events in Washington, D.C., Berlin and Sydney demonstrate the danger is real and that in order to avoid further tragedy, we must act now. Tomorrow could be too late.

Condolences

Liucija Lavrenova has passed away. She was born in 1937. She was a member of the Kaunas Jewish Community and a client of the Saul Kagan Welfare Center. Our sincere condolences to her daughter, other family members and friends.

Courage and Hope: Remembering the Rescuers

Courage and Hope: Remembering the Rescuers

The Palanga Jewish Community and the Jonas Šliūpas Museum in Palanga are holding an event to remember the courage displayed by the Righteous Gentiles, those who rescued Jews from the Holocaust. MEP professor Liudas Mažylis will share his insights and Palanga Jewish Community chairman Vilius Gutmanas will talk about his family’s experience. The Mažylis family rescued Jews and were recognized posthumously as Righteous Gentiles by Yad Vashem in 2006. The presentation and discussion will be in Lithuanian. The event is free and open to the public.

Time: 5:00 P.M., December 11
Place: Jonas Šliūpas Museum, Vytauto street no. 23A, Palanga

Natalja Cheifec on Shtetl Life

Natalja Cheifec on Shtetl Life

The shtetl was bit just a tiwn, but a self-contained world where Jewish traditions were maintained, students attended the yeshiva, people were married and buried under the precepts of Judaism and almost everyone spoke Yiddish.

To receive zoom credentials, click here.

Time: 6:00 P.M., Tuesday, December 4
Place: internet

News from the Šiauliai District Jewish Community

News from the Šiauliai District Jewish Community

Jewish history is an important part of the identity of Jews from Shavl and Žagarė. Last Sunday members of the Šiauliai District Jewish Community took a tour called “Jewish Houses, Trades and History.” sampled bagels and were treated to a lecture by ethno-musicologist Eirimas Velička about Jewish music.

The Šiauliai District Jewish Community also opened an exhibit Sunday on the kinder aktion in the Shavl ghetto in 1943. The exhibit is on display at the Culture Center in Šiauliai. Community members finished the day attending the play “The Thinking Heart of the Barracks” which recalled the injunction to remember.

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EJC President Says Social Media Radicalizing Youth

EJC President Says Social Media Radicalizing Youth

EJC President warns of dangerous influence of social media in youth radicalization at Paris Mayors’ Summit against Anti-Semitism

Paris, November 20, 2025–European Jewish Congress president Moshe Kantor launched a radical plan aimed at eradicating hate-filled anti-Semitism from social media forums targeting disaffected youth.

Addressing the Paris Mayors Summit against Anti-Semitism Thursday in the French capital, Kantor told the gathering that the new social media environment has become “a breeding ground for anti-Semitism fueled by conspiracy theories about global financial cabals and Jewish elites in control of the media.”

“Hatred has gone viral,” he added.

The event brought together dozens of city leaders from around the world, policy makers and community and civil society representatives, all united in their commitment to confront and prevent anti-Semitism in all its forms.

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Condolences

Roza Bloch has passed away. She was born in 1930 in Kaunas, survived the Kaunas ghetto, the Kaunas concentration camp and the Stutthof concentration camp. Almost her entire family was murdered, excepting her maternal grandparents who also survived the Holocaust. She repatriated from the Soviet Union with her family to Israel in 1973. She was a long-standing member of the Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel and served on its board of directors. We extend our deepest condolences on her loss to her friends and family, members of the Association and to all who knew and loved her.

Continuing Education Students Visit Panevėžys Jewish Community

Continuing Education Students Visit Panevėžys Jewish Community

Continuing education university students visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community on November 9 where they were received by chairman Gennady Kofman. Jifman presented members of the group his book on the Holocaust and two of the visitors spoke about the Holocaust experience of their families. They spoke for an hour and a half.

The Panevėžys Jewish Community and the older students planmed three lecture series starting in December on Krystallnacht, hate and the roots of the Holocaust, and to commemorate victims of the Holocaust together on January 27.

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Memory Written in Stone

Memory Written in Stone

On October 18 Švenčionys Jewish Community chairman Moshe Shapiro, MP Emanuelis Zingeris and a number of local officials and residents as well as educators from Lithuania and abroad attended an event in Pabradė called Memory Written in Stone. The event was held by the Paribio Pažinimo Centras as part of a borader project to memorialize locations where synagogues once stood.

During this event two stone markers were erected at the site of two former synagogues. The Pabradė Fanfare Orchestra provided musical accompaniment.

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Fayerlakh Performs in Simnas

Fayerlakh Performs in Simnas

The Jewish song and dance ensemble Fayerlakh performed Sunday in Simnas as the final act in the celebration of the 120th birthday of the synagogue there and of the former Jewish community in the small town.

Members of the audience had the chance to sample traditional Jewish foods and learn more about the shtetl.

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