Litvaks – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Remembering Righteous Gentiles in Panevėžys

The Panevėžys Regional History Museum hosted an event to mark Lithuania’s Day of Rescuers of Jews Sunday. Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman, son of Righteous Gentiles Vidmantas Markevičius and museum director Donatas Juzėnas spoke at the event.

The official Lithuanian commemorative day was first marked on March 15 in 2023. March 15 is the date Yad Vashem recognized Lithuanian librarian Ona Šimaitė for her work rescuing Jews from the Holocaust. Vidmantas Markevičius’s family rescued nine Jews in the Kupiškis region.

Viltis school students read the names of Jews rescued and their rescuers in the Panevėžys district.

The event featured a screening of the documentary film “Irena” about the late Irena Veisaitė. Veisaitė as a girl was rescued from the Holocaust by Stefanija Ladigienė.

2026-03-16

Marking Rescuers Day in Šiauliai

Lithuania’s Day of Rescuers of Jews on Sunday was marked by the Šiauliai District Jewish Community and the Lost Shtetl Museum at an event at Righteous Gentiles Square in Šiauliai which then moved on the museum in Šeduva. Community members, members of the Lithuanian parliament and students from the Juventa school remembered the Righteous Gentiles who rescued Jews from the Holocaust. Conservative MPs Ingrida Šimonytė and Paulė Kuzmickienė provided moving speeches and Pinchas Nol spoke about how the Paluckas family rescued him. Nol spoke by video link from Israel. Juventa students provided a live musical performance.

2026-03-162026-03-16

Faina Kukliansky Presents Autobiography at Vilnius Book Fair

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman presented her book about her life and family “Dainos iš mėlynos užrašinės” [Songs from a Blue Notebook] at the Vilnius Book Fair early Friday afternoon and signed copies for readers. She also held a book-signing event there late Saturday evening.

Covering three generations of Litvaks, the recorded memories move from her grandparents who miraculously survived the Holocaust, her parents in the concentration camps to the youngest generation, Faina and her sister Sulamita, the generation of Jews who came out of survivors of the Holocaust.

The book can be ordered via internet here, here and here.

2026-03-092026-03-09

Danutė Selčinskaja Named Person of Tolerance of the Year for 2025

The Sugihara Foundation awarded Holocaust and Righteous Gentile historian Danutė Selčinskaja the Person of Tolerance for the foregoing year 2025 and awarded writer Sergey Kanovich the recipient of the Leonidas Donskis prize in Kaunas Sunday.

2026-03-09

Jews of Palanga: An History in Photographs

The Palanga Jewish Community invites you to visit an exhibit of photographs called “Jews of Palanga: An History in Photographs” at the Palanga Youth and Volunteer Center, Vytauto street no. 110, Palanga, opening March 3 and running till March 31.

With more than 20 authentic period portraits of interbellum Palanga, the exhibit tells the story of the Palanga Jewish community’s daily life, urban spaces and communal and cultural sites integrated in the landscape of the Lithuanian seaside resort town.

The exhibit is a joint project of the Palanga Jewish Community and the Palanga Youth and Volunteer Center. Mindaugas Surblys is the curator.

2026-03-042026-03-04

LJC Statement on Iran

For whole decades Iran has sown death, harbouring and supporting financially terrorist groups, threatening to acquire a nuclear bomb and inciting hate and violence. The brutal massacre on Israeli territory on October 7, 2023, shocked the world, when Hamas terrorists raped and killed women, children, the elderly and others ruthlessly. For the civilized world, this attack planned in Iranian command centers was a blood-curdling reminder of the consequences of unchecked terror and the extremist regime. For Litvaks it was proof the aspiration to exterminate the Jewish people was not just an empty threat.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has persecuted the Iranian people for decades as well, imprisoning, torturing and murdering hundreds of thousands of citizens for seeking freedom, dignity and a life without coercion. This regime poses a threat beyond the Middle East to the entire democratic world. The international community has tried for years to put a halt to their aggression through diplomatic means, agreements and economic sanctions. This has not led to a change in direction by the regime giving up violence, nuclear ambitions and support for terrorism.

When the threat became existential, someone had to act. Today Israel and the United States have stepped up both to protect their own citizens and the whole world. This is not a war against the Persian people or a religion. It is a war against an extremist repressive regime and the violence it continues to practice.

The Lithuanian Jewish Community supports the state of Israel and the United States in their and our fight against terrorism. Our thoughts and prayers are with our brothers and sisters who are risking their lives to secure peace for all of us.

Am Israel chai.

2026-03-03

Faina Kukliansky Bio at Vilnius Book Fair

Publisher Alma Littera will present “Dainos iš mėlynos užrašinės” [Songs from a Blue Notebook] at the Vilnius Book Fair Friday.

The book tells the story of the family of the author, Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky.

Readers say the book reads like a film with one frame following another painting a moving picture of the Jewish spirit: culture, heritage, traditions, holidays, cooking, children’s games and communal life. It’s also about a people who were condemned to death who, despite the great love of their families, carry grief from generation to generation, but also boundless courage, resolution, energy and an unstoppable ability to take joy in those things which make up daily life.

“Sometimes people ask me why I spend so much energy on the status of Jews in the world and history, especially since the majority of my people are gone. My only answer is, to safeguard their memory. We no longer have our parents’ candelabra which held the Sabbath candles in every Jewish home. All we have left is memory and respect,” Faina Kukliansky said.

The public is invited to the presentation with Faina Kukliansky who will sign books from 1:30 to 3:30 P.M. on Friday and from 6:30 to 8:30 P.M. on Saturday in Hall 5 at the Alma Littera Stand at the Litexpo pavilion in Vilnius. The Vilnius Book Fair starts Thursday.

2026-02-262026-02-26

Markas Volynskis Concert

You’re invited to an evening of music by Markas Volynskis and friends. Vocalists Marija Duškina and Rima Šechter, pianist and composer Vitalijus Neugasimovas and Choral Synagogue cantor Shmuel Yaatom will perform in homage to Volyniskis. The concert is being organized by writer and director Žaneta Berlin. Snacks and surprises to be provided. To register call Liza at +370 684 73592.

Time: 5:00 P.M., Sunday, February 22
Place: Vilnius Jewish Community, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius

2026-02-182026-02-18

Visitor from DC Looking for Roots in Panevėžys

Harold Closter who lives in Washington, D.C., and his son Yulik Gurvich visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community looking or information on Closter’s great-grandfather Zvi Hirsh Avraham and Closter’s mother Milke Ginzberg, both of whom lived in Panevėžys before the First World War. The Panevėžys Jewish Community’s archive had matches for both surnames but further information such as street addresses couldn’t be determined, because Kloster didn’t have their dates of birth, marriages or death.

Kloster is a folklorist and historian. He said it was important to him and his son to see where their ancestors lived.

Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman recommended they apply to the Lithuanian State Archive which conserves material documenting Jews living in Lithuania since the 17th century. Kofman and Kloster made plans to stay in contact.

2026-02-10

Sixteenth Liova Taicas Tournament Held in Šiauliai

The 16th Liova Taicas sports tournament was held in Šiauliai Sunday. Participating were four soccer teams, two basketball teams, 5 volleyball, 6 chess and 6 ping-pong teams. Israeli embassy staff formed one of the basketball teams competing. As in earlier iterations of the games, the Ukmergė Jewish Community participated, having become an integral part of the annual tournament.

2026-02-102026-02-10

Background to the Epstein File

by Geoff Vasil

Not all Litvaks belong to the positive side of the ledger. Some start out shady and make good. Some fall into semi-disgrace, such as Boris Johnson. Others calmly observe their fellow Litvaks and rarely make judgments one way or the other.

Jeffrey Epstein claimed Litvak roots saying his grandparents came from Lithuania. That can mean a lot of things, from Russian to Belarussian to Ukrainian to Polish antecedents. The recently released tranche of Epstein files also show he had some connections with the modern Republic of Lithuania. One couple he supported received significant funds from him, and even more in his last will and testament. There is also documentation he recruited girls from Lithuania for his criminal activities.

The problem with the Epstein scandal is that there are so many aspects and players, one can see whatever one wants in the evidence. The human trafficking is just the tip of the iceberg. What lies below that is the real reason for the cover-up.

2026-02-052026-02-06

Vilkomir Chemistry Olympics Awards Renamed after Aaron Klug

The Ukmergė (Vilkomir) regional administration hosted the awards ceremony for winners of the chemistry contest which takes place at local high schools annually. This year the awards ceremony at the Antanas Smetona Gymnasium was renamed the Aaron Klug awards.

Aaron Klug was born in Želva, Lithuania, in 1926. Klug was taken by his parents from Lithuania to South Africa when he was three years old. He entered the University of the Witwatersrand at Johannesburg intending to study medicine, but he was graduated with a science degree. He then began a doctoral program in crystallography at the University of Cape Town but left with a master’s degree upon receiving a fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he completed his doctorate in 1953. He won the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1982 for his investigation of the three-dimensional structure of viruses and other particles which are combinations of nucleic acids and proteins, and for the development of crystallographic electron microscopy.. This year marks 100 since he was born. He died in 2018.

2026-02-042026-02-04

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).

2026-02-022026-02-02

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.

2026-02-02

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.

2026-01-292026-01-29

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.

2026-01-272026-01-27

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/

2026-01-19

Birthday Exhibition by Aleksandra Jacovskytė

Aleksandra Jacovskytė’s exhibit “Theater: Costume Sketches” will open January 20 at the Samuel Bak Museum of the Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum with the artist in attendance. She’ll speak about the sources of her inspiration, theater life, how costumes are created from idea to stage and talk backstage. Aleksandra Jacovskytė is a set designer, graphic artist and photographer.

Time: 6:00 P.M., Tuesday, January 20
Place: Samuel Bak Museum, Naugarduko street no. 10, Vilnius

2026-01-192026-01-22

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.

2026-01-13

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