Litvaks

Efraim Zuroff Leaves Simon Wiesenthal Center

Efraim Zuroff Leaves Simon Wiesenthal Center

Last Nazi Hunter Efraim Zuroff Resigns from Simon Wiesenthal Center, Vows to Fight Anti-Semitism

by Eyal Green, Jerusalem Post, September 4, 2024

Efraim Zuroff, the last Nazi hunter, steps down after 38 years at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, pledging to continue fighting anti-Semitism.

Unofficially known as the last Nazi hunter, Efraim Zuroff has stepped down as director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel office after 38 years, Zuroff announced September 3.

Efraim Zuroff was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1948 and dedicated his life to identifying and bringing to justice Nazi war criminals who had evaded justice for decades. His interest in Holocaust studies began early, and after earning a degree in history from Yeshiva University, he moved to Israel in 1970 to work at Yad Vashem, Israel’s official Holocaust memorial, the Jerusalem Post reports.

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Righteous Gentiles Exhibit Opens in Šiauliai

Righteous Gentiles Exhibit Opens in Šiauliai

An exhibit of photos and bios of Lithuania’s Righteous Gentiles opened this week in the courtyard of the Šiauliai District Jewish Community in Šiauliai this week, attended by the Israeli ambassador to Lithuania, local politicians, members of the Jewish community and the general public.

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Visitors in Švenčionys

Visitors in Švenčionys

Mother and son Eudenta and Samull Virine from Canada visited the Nalšia Museum in Švenčionys on August 21 where Švenčionys Jewish Community chairman Moshe Shapiro gave them a guided tour including viewing implements and artifacts from Jewish homes, the history of the region and a new exhibit on the fate of the Jews of Švenčionys. Eudenta’s mother was born in Švenčionys.

They sought archival information about the families of Leiba and Abraham Alperovitch and Mengel Bushkanietz with the help of historian and museum specialist Nadežda Spiridonovienė. The museum has very little information regarding these surnames but they are recorded as living in Švenčionys in a Russian Empire census conducted before World War I.

The two visitors also viewed the Menorah statue in the town’s central park. They went on to visit a Jewish mass murder site in nearby Švenčionėliai.

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News from Šiauliai

News from Šiauliai

Last week the Šiauliai Jewish Community received a guest from Australia. Brendan Conen from Melbourne came searching family roots. Specifically, his grandparents and great-grandparents who were born in Šiauliai, Pašalotas, Pumpenai and Varniai. He was looking for their addresses in order to view their homes. On Sunday he planned to visit the Šiauliai Jewish Community to help in the group-cleanup of the courtyard and garden and to help out in receiving visitors to the Righteous Gentiles exhibit which just opened.

European Day of Jewish Culture 2024

European Day of Jewish Culture 2024

This year’s topic is family.

The Lithuanian Jewish Community is celebrating the European Day of Jewish Culture this Sunday, September 1, with a full day’s program of events, lessons, workshops, discussions and exhibits. All events are free and open to the public, but registration is required for most of the events below.

Here’s the program:

11:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M. First Hebrew lesson for the whole family with Ruth Reches at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius. Ruth will soon be forming new classes for studying Hebrew. Register here: https://bit.ly/4g5jZbW

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Righteous Gentiles Exhibit in Šiauliai

Righteous Gentiles Exhibit in Šiauliai

The Šiauliai District Jewish Community invites you to an exhibit featuring Righteous Gentiles who rescued Jews from the Holocaust in Lithuania. Called “Righteous Gentiles: Not Afraid to Die, They Became Immortal,” the exhibit opens at 6:00 P.M. on September 3 in the courtyard of the Šiauliai Jewish Community located at Višinskio street no.24 in Šiauliai.

The exhibit will cover the life and times of forty Righteous Gentiles in Lithuania who went against society at the time and risked everything, including the lives of their families, to do the right thing.

On September 9 the exhibit moves indoors at the Šiauliai Jewish Community and will run till September 30, with viewing hours from 9:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. Those wishing to make an appointment or seeking more information may call +370 685 47619.

European Day of Jewish Culture Coming September 1

European Day of Jewish Culture Coming September 1

The European Day of Jewish Culture celebrated on the first Sunday in September falls on September 1 this year. This year’s celebration will feature Yiddish and Hebrew lessons at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius and a walking tour of Jewish Vilna with guide Viljamas Žitkauskas. The students from Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium are planning performances and the Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club is also sponsoring activities.

Jewish song and dance ensemble Fayerlakh will hold a concert and Raimondas Savickas is planning an open-air art workshop. Julija Patashnik will conduct an Israeli dance class, celebrated author and animator Ilja Bereznickas’s books and animated films will be featured and the Bagel Shop Café will provide the culinary education component.

An exhibit by Litvak artist Theo Tobiasse will open at the LJC in Vilnius, cantor Shmuel Yatom will perform a blessing of families and stand-up comedian Žilvinas Kerbelis is to perform. The Cvi Park Israeli street food kiosk space will host a concert including violinist Dalia Dėdinskaitė, Glebas Pyšniakas on cello, tenor Rafailas Karpis, Tadas Motiečius on accordion and others.

Stay tuned for more details and registration information.

German Court Upholds Conviction of 99-Year-Old Nazi Concentration Camp Secretary

German Court Upholds Conviction of 99-Year-Old Nazi Concentration Camp Secretary

BERLIN–Germany’s highest court has upheld the guilty verdict of a 99-year-old woman convicted as an accessory to mass murder at a Nazi concentration camp.

German Jewish leaders applauded the decision announced Tuesday by the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe.

“It is not about putting her behind bars for the rest of her life,” said Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. “It is about a perpetrator having to answer for her actions and acknowledge what happened and what she was involved in.”

Irmgard Furchner was secretary to Paul-Werner Hoppe, the SS commander of the Nazi German concentration camp Stutthof outside Danzig, now Gdansk in Poland. She was convicted in 2022 as accessory to more than 10,000 murders which were committed there during her employment from June 1, 1943, to April 1, 1945. She was also convicted of attempted murder in five cases. Dozens of survivors testified at the trial.

The judges agreed that Furchner through her work knowingly supported the murder of 10,505 prisoners by gassing, by terrible living conditions in the camp, by transfer to the Auschwitz death camp and by forced death marches at the end of the war.

Full article here.

Geršonas Taicas: Researching My Family’s Genealogy Grew into a Passionate Hobby

Geršonas Taicas: Researching My Family’s Genealogy Grew into a Passionate Hobby

interviewed by Katrina Zeiter

On the topic of Litvak history and personalities, one of the Community’s most active members, Geršonas Taicas, always provides interesting facts and facts unknown even to seasoned researchers. Celebrating his 75th birthday this year, his greatest passion is genealogy. Like a fish in its natural element, he dives into the archives, discovering incredible connections which force us to consider history from another perspective, and also helping Litvak descendants scattered around the world find their family roots. A Litvak himself, he can speak for hours on the notable chef and cooking author Fania Lewando, the crooner Daniel Dolskis and former British prime minister Boris Johnson, but in this interview we spoke about the genealogist’s own story which serves as a mirror of a period in Lithuanian Jewish life which fewer and fewer now remember.

What are your first childhood memories?

I was born in Ukmergė [Vilkomir] in 1949 to a family who had been incarcerated as “enemies of the people” at a gulag in Krasnoyarsk in Siberia. My father Alter was an accountant and my mother Masha was a teacher.

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Arie Ben-Ari Grodzensky Visits Panevėžys Jewish Community

Arie Ben-Ari Grodzensky Visits Panevėžys Jewish Community

Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel chairman Arie Ben-Ari Grodzensky visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community last week where he learned about Community activities, met members and viewed archival documents. He noted progress in conserving and commemorating the Litvak heritage in Panevėžys.

Grodzensky was born and raised in Lithuania and also serves on the executive boards of the Goodwill Foundation and the Lithuanian Jewish Community.

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Visitors to Panevėžys

Visitors to Panevėžys

A delegation of directors and students from the Leikund Yeshiva in New York City visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community recently. Most of them were members of the Frank family as well. They were interested in Litvak history and visited some of the mass murder sites. Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman told them about the history of the Jews of Panevėžys and about the Panevėžys Jewish Community’s activities. After visiting the Panevėžys Jewish Community the group went on to tour Jewish sites in Panevėžys including the Jewish cemetery, different locations in the city and Holocaust mass murder sites in the area.

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Commemoration of Sania Kerbelis

Commemoration of Sania Kerbelis

Members and friends of the Šiauliai Jewish Community gathered at the Community building Monday to commemorate the late Sania Kerbelis who served as chairman for many years.

Special guest Rabbi Kalev Krelin provided a simple and enlightened exegesis of Torah as the basis for his eulogy of Sania and reminded those assembled that the best commemoration and compensation of loss is prayer and good works.

Community member Ričardas Pikelis recited his poem in memory of Kerbelis.

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A Tribute to Žilvinas Beliauskas

A Tribute to Žilvinas Beliauskas

by Rabbi Moshe Martin Levin

Žilvinas Beliauskas WAS ALWAYS:

Tall and handsome;
Brilliant and articulate;
Talking in long sentences without taking a breath;
He always listened with both ears.

Always was an encyclopedia of so many subjects.

A true patriot who knew the shortcomings as well as the achievements of his homeland.

A husband in love with his wife Ieva.

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Israeli President Planning to Visit Lithuania in Fall

Israeli President Planning to Visit Lithuania in Fall

According to diplomatic sources the Israeli leader’s visit to the three Baltic states had been planned for June.

“The dates of the visit have been adjusted due to the busy agenda of the Baltic leaders and the Israeli president,” press secretary for the president of Lithuania Ridas Jasulionis told BNS.

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky told BNS that she had canceled a trip several weeks ago after learning of the visit planned by the president of Israel. She added Herzog had planned to visit the Lost Shtetl Museum under construction in Šeduva, Lithuania. Herzog is the descendant of Litvaks with roots in Šeduva.

Sports Encyclopaedia Presented in Šiauliai

Sports Encyclopaedia Presented in Šiauliai

The summer Olympic Games opened in Paris Friday, and the Šiauliai Photography Museum hosted a presentation of an illustrated sports encyclopaedia called “Sportas Šiauliuose ir Lietuvoje (iki XX a. vidurio)” [Sport in Šiauliai and Lithuania (until the mid-20th century)] last Wednesday.

Author Jonas Nekrašius told the large audience the story of the birth of the genesis of the publication and thanked the collectors, museum specialists and other people who helped make the launch a success, giving copies of his book to them.

There was keen interest in the section of the book the on the history of the Šiauliai section of the Makabi Lithuanian Jewish sports and gymnastics society which operated between 1921 and 1940. The late chairman of the Šiauliai District Jewish Community Sania Kerbelis contributed heavily to that chapter of the book.

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Commemoration of 80th Anniversary of Liquidation of Shavl Ghetto

Commemoration of 80th Anniversary of Liquidation of Shavl Ghetto

On July 15 people gathered in Šiauliai to remember the liquidation of the ghetto there on July 15, 1944, when the surviving approximately 3,000 Jews imprisoned there were sent to Dachau and Stutthof for extermination.

Faina Kukliansky’s mother was imprisoned in the ghetto. She recalled: “I am here not just as the chairwoman of the the Lithuanian Jewish Community. I am the daughter of a female prisoner of the ghetto. My grandmother miraculously was able to save two of her daughters, but not the third one. I was named after her, Feigele, little bird.”

She said we were in the debt of the ghetto prisoners and the Jews who died for their concord and unity, and so their sacrifice will not have been in vain.

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Condolences

We report with deep sadness the death of Sania Kerbelis on July 11. He was born in 1963. His death followed his struggle with a chronic illness. Sania Kerbelis was the chairman of the Šiauliai District Jewish Community and the Šiauliai Jewish Religious Community. Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky and the entire Lithuanian Jewish Community extend our deepest condolences to his sons Doyvdas and Simonas and his many friends and family members. Baruch Dayan ha’Emet.

Events in Kaunas Considered by Researchers: “Think about History, Understand Memory”

Events in Kaunas Considered by Researchers: “Think about History, Understand Memory”

by Jurgita Šakienė, kauno.diena.lt

An international academic conference to mark the 80th anniversary of the liquidation of the Kaunas ghetto has begun at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas. Called “Think about History, Understand Memory,” the conference includes researchers from Lithuania and abroad who will present Jewish life before and during the Holocaust through the lens of history, politics, social sciences, the theater and the arts.

“This anniversary is a powerful reminder of our collective responsibility to understand memory and to insure the lessons of the past inform our present and future,” Israel’s ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein said during her speech opening the conference. Also giving welcome speeches were US ambassador Kara McDonald and Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas.

Germany’s ambassador Cornelius Zimmerman in his speech said, among other things, “It’s difficult to understand how these unspeakably brutal things could have happened. But they happened. I feel sadness, remorse and shame. It’s crucial to remember everything in order to prevent this from happening again.”

Full story in Lithuanian here.

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Marking the 80th Anniversary of the Liquidation of Shavl Ghetto

Marking the 80th Anniversary of the Liquidation of Shavl Ghetto

July 15 is the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the liquidation of the Šiauliai ghetto in 1944 when the surviving 3,000 Jews were transported to Dachau and Stutthof concentration camps, condemned to die there instead. The Lithuanian Jewish Community and both Šiauliai Jewish Communities invite the public to remember and pay honor to the victims of the Šiauliai ghetto, the men, women, children and elderly who were murdered this July 15.

Program

11:30 A.M. Gathering at Šiauliai ghetto gate monument at the intersection of Trakų and Ežero streets to remember the victims;

12:00 noon procession to Chaim Frenkl villa at Vilnaius street no. 74 with stopover on Righteous Gentiles Square;

12:30 P.M. Commemoration of victims at Frenkl villa.

Transportation: there will be minibus to carry passengers to the event leaving from the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius at 8:15 A.M. on July 15. Passengers must register before the event (see below).

Registration: Those wishing to attend are asked to please register before 4:00 P.M. on July 12 by calling Liuba Šerienė at (+370) 5 261 3003 or by sending an email to office@lzb.lt.

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