Litvaks – Page 6 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Israeli Ambassador’s Speech at Ponar

Israeli ambassador to Lithuania was among the speakers September 21 at the annual commemoration of Holocaust victims at Ponar outside Vilnius. The annual commemoration marks Lithuania’s Day of Remembrance of Jewish Victims of Genocide and officially falls on the nominal date of the liquidation of the Vilnius ghetto, September 23, although the actual liquidation lasted several weeks.

She said:

Ladies and gentlemen, Madam Speaker, Madam PM, the Chairman of Yad Vashem, honorable Ministers, Members of Parliament, esteemed leaders of the Jewish community, dear Holocaust Survivors and families.

Today, we gather here in Ponar, the last stop of tens of thousands of men, women, and children, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liquidation of the Vilnius Ghetto. We come together to remember the tragic events of the past and honor the enduring spirit of survival and resilience.

2023-09-292023-09-29

Presentation of Book about Lives of Jewish Rescuers at Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community

The Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community located at Višinskio street no. 24 in Šiauliai will host a public presentation of the short book “Gyvenimo istorijos. Žydų gelbėtojai” [Life Stories: Jewish Rescuers] as the final events in the Laptai Gallery’s project “Cultural Sketches of Litvaks” at 6:00 P.M. on Tuesday, October 3.

This is the third short book in the “Gyvenimo istorijos” series and focuses on testimonies from eye-witnesses and relatives about the Righteous Gentiles who rescued Jews from the Holocaust in the Šiauliai region.

The presentation will include the reading of passages by Šiauliai State Drama Theater actress Jūratė Budriūnaitė, recollections by living witnesses and their relatives and musical accompaniment performed by Arijus Ivaškevičius. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call (8) (41) 200-642 (which is equivalent to +370 41 200 642 on mobile phones).

2023-09-292023-09-29

United States Funding for Žiežmariai Wooden Synagogue

Photo: Synagogue in Žiežmariai, by Andrejus Tomenko.

An international agreement is already bearing fruit: the United States Commission for the Preservation of American Heritage Abroad has collected $10,000, the first tranche to be used for restoration of the second floor, the women’s gallery, of the wooden synagogue in Žiežmariai, Lithuania.

Several months ago Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky and United States Commission for the Preservation of American Heritage Abroad director Star Jones signed an agreement to join forces for the restoration of the second storey of the unique wooden synagogue in rural Lithuania. The Commission pledged to find financing for that project and the LJC pledged to insure its smooth implementation.

The synagogue was built in the 19th century but burned down in 1920 and was rebuilt. For the thousand or so Jews of the small town before the Holocaust, the synagogue served as both a house of prayer and school, and the central community meeting place.

2023-09-28

Yad Vashem Director Addresses Lithuanian Parliament

Yad Vashem director Dani Dayan addressed a special sitting of the Lithuanian parliament convoked to mark the 80th anniversary of the destruction of the Vilnius ghetto. He called on Lithuania to stop heroizing murderers of Jews and to commemorate better the tragedy of the Holocaust.

“Hundreds of thousands of Lithuanian Jews were murdered in this country by the Germans and by their Lithuanian collaborators. And to a significant extent by the local population, characteristically distinct to Lithuania,” he told 112 MPs gathered for the special sitting.

“(A)n anti-Semite, especially a murderer of Jews, cannot be considered otherwise a good person. … For sure he cannot be considered a hero. In addition to refraining from attributing public honor to such butchers, Lithuania must consistently acknowledge that many of the Lithuanian Jews massacred in the Holocaust, died at the hands of their Lithuanian co-nationals, and that Lithuanians also took part in the extermination of Jews in neighboring countries. The zero-tolerance policy must apply also towards glorification of war criminals associated with the massacre of Jews. Such names as Noreika, Škirpa, Krikštaponis do not add to the honor of your nation, nor to its adherence to international norms of appropriate national remembrance,” he continued.

2023-09-282023-09-28

MAD Magazine and the Holocaust

by Grant Gochin

MAD Magazine was a staple of American satire for generations. It was a formative architect of American humor, spawning an untold number of artists, journalists, creators, humorists, movies, and television shows. I ascribe my own particular sense of humor to having been fascinated by MAD Magazine in my youth.

Al Jaffee was best known as the American political cartoonist who contributed to MAD Magazine from the 1950s until 2020. From 1927 to 1933 he lived in provincial Lithuania, in his parents’ native town of Zarasai.

Al Jaffe and MAD Magazine personify the Jews of Zarasai. Zarasai is today a tiny, irrelevant village, in remote Eastern Europe. From Zarasai, was formed the American sense of humor.

So, what happened to Jaffe’s Jewish community from Zarasai, Lithuania?

2023-09-28

Panevėžys Remembers Jewish Victims of Genocide

“The majority of ghetto residents were murdered,” Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman began the ceremony to mark the national Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide and the 80th anniversary of the liquidation of the Vilnius ghetto.

Participants gathered at the “Sad Jewish Mother” monument marking an entrance to the Panevėžys ghetto now located at the edge of newly-renamed Memory Square where they lit candles and placed wreaths and stones. Speakers included Kofman, Panevėžys deputy mayor Loreta Masiliūnienė, Panevėžys regional administration mayor Antanas Pocius and local high school students.

Following this event participants travelled to mass murder sites in the Kurganava and Žalioji forests where candles were lit and wreaths of flowers and stones were placed on mass grave monuments.

2023-09-27

Lithuanian Parliament Adopts Resolution on Commemorating Jewish Partisans, Rescuers

At a special sitting of the Lithuanian parliament to mark the 80th anniversary of the liquidation of the Vilnius ghetto, MPs adopted a non-binding resolution calling on the president to present military ranks to Jewish partisans from the FPO armed underground in the Vilnius ghetto posthumously, to form a special commission for refurbishing the Ponar Memorial Complex outside Vilnius and to consider names of Jewish partisans and rescuers of Jews when naming streets, squares and other public locations. They also called on regional and municipal administrations to maintain Holocaust mass murder sites. It calls for better road signs to Holocaust sites and for a search for Jewish and Judaica items seized during the Holocaust throughout Lithuania, to be given over to the Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum. The parliament called on Germany and Russia to return Jewish money, property and cultural items. The resolution was presented by Conservative Party MP Emanuelis Zingeris and other members of the Conservative faction and was approved by 111 of the 112 MPs present.

The official English translation follows.

2023-09-272023-09-28

Memory Road in Pabradė

Švenčionys Jewish Community chairman Moishe Shapiro, the Pabradė municipal Culture Center, the Pabradė aldermanship as well as local history teachers Danguolė Grincevičienė and Regina Mateikienė and their students held a “Memory Road” event September 21 in the run-up to September 23, Lithuania’s Day of Remembrance for Jewish Victims of Genocide. They walked the same path taken by those sentenced to death during the Holocaust to the mass murder site near Pabradė (Podbrodz).

Chairman Shapiro spoke about the former Jewish community there and the mass murder. Ždanas Matiušonok performed a work called Memory. Participants placed small stones on the mass grave in memory of the victims.

2023-09-26

We Must Stop Commemorating Those Who Spread Hate and Death for Jews

At a special meeting of the Lithuanian parliament held today to mark the 80th anniversary of the liquidation of the Vilnius ghetto, Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky called for remembering the contributions Jews made to the birth and development of the Lithuanian state before the Holocaust.

“It seems to me the memory of the history of Lithuanian Jews and the Vilnius ghetto has been reduced to official events, excursions and interactive tours for foreigners,” she noted.

Kukliansky said this wasn’t the first time she was forced to remind politicians and the Lithuanian public that plans for the Ponar Memorial Complex and other projects haven’t been completed.

“Every year I speak from this podium, saying there is no monument to rescuers of Jews. … If this is impossible to do for so many decades, let’s at least stop commemorating those who sowed death and hatred of the Jewish people,” Kukliansky told the Lithuanian parliament, foreign ambassadors and other guests.

2023-09-222023-10-25

President Nausėda Unveils Plaque Commemorating Librarian, Bibliographer Antanas Ulpis at YIVO

Photo: YIVO executive board chairwoman Ruth Levine, Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda with wife Diana Nausėdienė and YIVO executive director Jonathan Brent, photograph by Robertas Dačkus

September 19, 2023

As part of his working visit to New York Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda attended the unveiling of a memorial plaque to the Lithuanian librarian and bibliographer Antanas Ulpis at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

Gitanas Nausėda said it is important to preserve the memory of the deeds of Lithuanian librarian, bibliographer and director of the Vilnius Book Chamber Antanas Ulpis and the Paper Brigade because thanks to them thousands of Jewish books and documents were safeguarded during the Nazi and Soviet occupations.

During the Nazi occupation around 20 Jews from the Vilnius Ghetto, the so-called Paper Brigade, hid Jewish books, Torahs and other documents, risking their lives. Later Antanas Ulpis, director of the Book Chamber, saved these unique documents and texts from destruction by the Soviets by hiding them in nooks and crannies at St. George’s Church in Vilnius.

“This is not only an important part of the history of Lithuanian Jews which has been preserved, but also an example of humanism, when evil is countered with good and darkness with light,” the Lithuanian president said.

2023-09-212023-09-21

Schedule of Commemorative Events for the 80th Anniversary of the Anti-Nazi Resistance and Liquidation of the Vilnius Ghetto

European Days of Jewish Culture

Time: Starts at 10:00 A.M. on September 3, 2023
Location: Lithuanian Jewish Community, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius; Choral Synagogue, Pylimo street no. 39, Cvi Park (Petras Cvirka Square across the street from the Lithuanian Jewish Community).

Exhibit “Ghetto Children Tell Their Story to Contemporary Children”
Time: September 4 to September 30, 2023
Location: Adomas Mickevičius Public Library, Trakų street no. 10, Vilnius.

Special Concert to Remember Victims of the Holocaust
Lithuanian prime minister Ingrida Šimonytė, patroness
Time: September 6, 2023
Location: Lėlė Theater, Arklių street no. 5, Vilnius.
by invitation only

2023-09-212023-11-14

Eightieth Anniversary of Liquidation and Uprising of Vilnius Ghetto: Commemoration of Holocaust Victims at Ponar

Commemoration of Holocaust Victims at Ponar Memorial Complex on September 21

Program:

2:40 P.M. March of the Living procession from Ponar railroad tracks to Ponar Memorial Complex, duration about 20 minutes;

3:00 P.M. Ceremony to commemorate Holocaust victims at the main memorial in the Ponar Memorial Complex.

If you’d like transportation, the LJC will provide a bus leaving at 2:00 P.M. sharp from the Neringa Hotel located at Gedimino prospect no. 23 in Vilnius. Those who wish to ride the bus must register by calling Liuba at+370 685 06900 or by sending an email to office@lzb.lt with your full name. Those who haven’t registered won’t be boarded and the bus won’t wait for latecomers.

#VilniusGhetto80

2023-09-202023-09-21

Eightieth Anniversary of the Liquidation of and Uprising in the Vilnius Ghetto: Student Play Remembers Ghetto Teachers, Students and Children

This play by students from the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium in Vilnius is based on passages from the diaries of Yitzhak Rudashevski, Masha Rolnik and Hermann Kruk with Vilnius ghetto songs performed by Rafailas Karpis and Darius Mažintas. Sholem Aleichem students will tell the stories of children from the Vilnius ghetto.

Location: Konstantinas Sirvydas Square in Vilnius, next to the French embassy
Time: 8:00 P.M., September 20.

#VilniusGhetto80

2023-09-202023-09-20

Panevėžys Jewish Community Celebrates New Year

Rosh Hashana is one of the most important Jewish holidays. The new year 5784 has begun. A small picnic took place in the courtyard of the Panevėžys Jewish Community on September 17 with apples and honey and challa bread, and warm wishes were expressed for Jews around the world.

This year for the first time this century Lithuanian Jewish scouts from Vilnius visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community. They were returning from the Žalioji Forest where they had camped for two days with scouts from Panevėžys. The Panevėžys Jewish Community treated them to a tour of the town including stories about the Jews of Panevėžys and the Holocaust.

After a brief rest at the Community, the scouts joined Community members for a holiday meal including the traditional dishes which according to custom should be sampled in greeting the Jewish New Year.

2023-09-202023-09-20

Eightieth Anniversary of Liquidation and Uprising of the Vilnius Ghetto: Conference at Parliament “Communism and Anti-Semitism”

The Lithuanian parliament will host an international conference called “Communism and Anti-Semitism” beginning at 10:00 A.M. on November 28. The organizers of the conference include the Lithuanian Jewish Community, YIVO, the POLIN institute and the Goodwill Foundation. It will be broadcasted on the parliament’s website www.lrs.lt and via the parliament’s youtube channel. Stay tuned for more details.

#VilniusGhetto80

2023-09-20

Eightieth Anniversary of Liquidation and Uprising of the Vilnius Ghetto: Short Underground Films

Filmmaker Justinas Lingys’s two shorts “Vilniaus geto gyvybės arterija” [Life Artery of the Vilnius Ghetto] and “Holokausto aukoms atminti” [To Remember the Victims of the Holocaust] will be screened at the Adomas Mickevičius Public Library at Trakų street no. 10 in Vilnius at 5:30 P.M. on September 28.

The celebrated Lithuanian filmmaker takes two approaches regarding the Vilnius ghetto: the actual Holocaust, and the underground city connected by a system of tunnels where life was carried on unseen by the Nazis and Lithuanian collaborators, where people taught children, through which food supplies were smuggled into the ghetto and through which information and news about the war travelled. Jews were also rescued through the tunnels, and when the Vilnius ghetto was liquidated a small number escaped through the tunnels.

#VilniusGhetto80

2023-09-202023-09-20

Eightieth Anniversary of Liquidation and Uprising of the Vilnius Ghetto: Play “Ghetto”

The National Drama Theater in Kaunas presents the play “Getas” [Ghetto] written by Joshua Sobol and directed by Gintaras Varnas at 4:00 P.M. on September 24 and 6:00 P.M. on November 14. The theater is located at Laisvės alley no. 71 in Kaunas.

The play centers around Vilnius ghetto inmates who waged a spiritual and cultural war for survival under genocidal conditions, founding the Vilnius ghetto theater in the face of almost certain death.

#VilniusGhetto80

2023-09-202023-09-20

Eightieth Anniversary of the Liquidation of and Uprising in the Vilnius Ghetto: Film Clips about Ponar and Litvaks

The Tolerance Center of the Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum will host a viewing of scenes about the Ponar mass murder site outside Vilnius from the 9.5-hour-long documentary film Shoah (1985, France) and short film clips from YIVO and the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D. C., touching on Jewish life in Lithuania before the Holocaust. A panel discussion will follow.

The event begins at 6:00 P.M. on September 22 at the Tolerance Center located at Naugarduko street no. 10 in Vilnius.

#VilniusGhetto80

2023-09-20

Eightieth Anniversary of Liquidation and Uprising of Vilnius Ghetto: Ceremony and Art Installation at Ninth Fort

The Ninth Fort Museum in Kaunas will host a ceremony to honor the victims of the Holocaust murdered there, followed by the unveiling of a commemorative art installation at the museum created by Christian Boltansky and called ANIMITAS accompanied by a dance performance by Erika Vizbaraitė. Those attending will also be invited to view the museum’s malina exhibit. The events begin at 1:00 P.M. on September 22 at the Ninth Fort Museum at Žemaičių highway no. 73 in Kaunas.

#VilniusGhetto80

2023-09-202023-09-20

Lithuanian Parliament Empanels Commission of Inquiry for Impeaching Allegedly Anti-Semitic MP

Lithuania’s channel 3 evening news reported Tuesday the Lithuanian parliament has approved forming a commission to investigate allegedly anti-Semitic statements made by Lithuanian MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis on facebook for his possible removal as a member of parliament. According to the evening news program, all opposition parties have refused to take part in the MP’s possible impeachment and are saying this is a move by the ruling Conservative Party to remove an MP who is part of their opposition in parliament.

Žemaitaitis, according to channel 3, says his statements weren’t anti-Semitic and targeted specific public figures rather than the Jewish people as a whole.

His same facebook posts displayed a rabid sort of Russophobia which the ruling coalition of Lithuanian Conservatives and Liberals haven’t criticized, although Lithuania’s criminal code also expressly forbids sowing hatred against Russians. The Lithuanian constitution provides for legal immunity to members of parliament, namely regarding freedom of speech. MPs cannot be convicted of a crime by prosecutors unless the majority of the parliament votes to remove legal immunity for a specific MP, including prosaic crimes such as driving while drunk.

2023-09-19