photo: mass murder of Jews in Šiauliai in 1941
by Liepa Želnienė
It will perhaps never be known exactly how many Jews were murdered in Lithuania in the 1940s, or how many Lithuanians collaborated in perpetrating the Holocaust. Historians say we must first define whom we will include: those who pulled the trigger, those who stood guard at the mass murder sites, prepared the killing pits, or those who forced Jews into the ghettos, or those who stole Jewish property?
Full story in Lithuanian here.
by Mindaugas Jackevičius, www.DELFI.lt
Avoiding the subject of the Holocaust and research in this field, Lithuania is in danger of becoming a nation of Jew-killers in the eyes of the world. Statements like that were aired at a conference held at the Lithuanian parliament Monday, where participants reiterated we still don’t know the true number of Jews murdered, or of the people who rescued Jews in Lithuania. MP Arvydas Anušauskas said at the conference people tend be very conservative in talking about the number of Lithuanian Holocaust perpetrators. He said it was difficult to calculate who took part in mass murder operations, for example, some people’s names are duplicated because they participated at different locations. There was also discussion of who should be included as perpetrators: should they only include people who fired weapons, or also those who transported the victims to the mass murder sites or otherwise aided the process.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
Where: NGA Auditorium, Konstitucijos prospect no. 22, Vilnius
When: 6:00 P.M., Tuesday, June 7, 2016
On June 7-8 National Gallery of Arts presents the program of contemporary Isreali video art ‘The Floodgates Within: Video Art from Israel’ curated by Chen Tamir, curator at the Center for Contemporary Art in Tel Aviv. Chen Tamir will present two evenings of video from Israel. Designed to complement one another, these two events will situate Israeli contemporary art within historic, social, and political contexts, and offer a wide overview of experimental video-based art from this unique country.
VILNIUS, June 6, BNS–Not only those who pulled the trigger should be considered perpetrators of the Jewish genocide in Lithuania–they should include the individuals who transported Jews and guarded the sites of massacres, a local historian says.
Alfredas Ruksenas, a specialist of the Genocide and Resistance Research Center of Lithuania, said that the number of genocide perpetrators could be calculated very roughly.
“Shooters of Jews should include all participants of the operations, even if they did not pull the trigger but facilitated the operations,” Ruksenas said at a discussion at the parliament on Monday.
In his words, the battalions that were conducting the genocide are known, however, establishing a specific person or contribution is a difficult task.
The Vilnius Art School for Children and Youth, the first independent private art educational institution in Lithuania, was created by Jūratė Stauskaitė in 1991.
Over its 25 years of history, the school has turned become a versatile and innovative artistic education resource where everyone gets a chance to express their individuality through freedom of expression and creativity, which are important in all professions.
Since 1991 several thousand pupils have attended and completed school programs. School staff have published various teaching aids and textbooks for other schools. The school has taken part in numerous artistic educational initiatives and charity events held by the Vilnius municipality and state authorities, and remains true to its main objective: to raise creative members of society.
by Daniel Lutrin
It was gratifying to see a recent article regarding the plight that Jews of Lithuanian origin (Litvaks) are facing when applying to have their Lithuanian citizenship restored. The article, however, does not hone in on the critical matter at hand, namely the extent to which Lithuanian bureaucrats have gone to deny Jews of their ancestral right to citizenship.
In the background, a meticulous selection process has been underway which is nothing more than a modern manifestation of the same anti-Semitism which saw 95 per cent of Litvaks murdered in the Holocaust (the highest in all of Europe).
Denying Litvaks citizenship has been made easy in Lithuania by declaring, based on nebulous case law, that those Lithuanians who left the country during its years of independence (approximately 1919 to 1940) were not persecuted and are therefore not eligible for dual citizenship.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the elite chess and checkers club Rositsan and Maccabi invite you to a chess tournament at the Lithuanian Jewish Community at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius at 11:00 A.M. on Sunday, June 19.
The event is dedicated to the memory of interwar Lithuania’s third president and Righteous Gentile Kazys Grinius.
Tournament director: FIDE master Boris Rositsan
For more information and to register, contact: info@metbor.lt, telephone +3706 5543556
The Povilas Matulionis Pre-Gymnasium and the Kupiškis Ethnographic Museum held a conference at the school May 30 called “The Kupiškis Jewish Community: Connections between Past and Present.” Participants included Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman, Lithuanian MPs Aleksandras Zeltinis, who spoke first, and Sergejus Jovaiša, Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Amir Maimon, Kupiškis regional administration head Dainius Bardauskas, regional administration assistant director Aurimas Martinka, Kupiškis culture, education and sports department director Violeta Aleknienė and Povilas Matulionis Pre-Gymnasium principal Rimvydas Latvys.
MP Zeltinis said the former synagogue, now the Kupiškis public library, would be restored at his initiative. Ambassador Maimon delivered the first paper and called current relations Israel and Lithuania wonderful and warm. Historian Arūnas Bubnys gave a presentation on the mass murder of the Jews of Kupiškis during the Holocaust. Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman spoke about the Holocaust and righteous gentiles who rescued Jews.
A large group of students and teachers from Jerusalem visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community May 26. Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman told the guests about the community’s activities in the Lithuanian city, including social welfare programs, and educational programs conducted with local schools. He also told them about the history of the city and of the Jews there. The guests appeared keenly interested and wanted to know what Jews there thought about Israel. A nun from the sisters of the Love of God was also at the meeting and showed guests pictures of Righteous Gentiles students had made at Marija Rusteikaitė Gymnasium.
Marija Kuprove-Berg will perform at the Tolerance Center, Naugarduko street no. 10/2, at 6:00 P.M. on Thursday, June 2, 2016. Violinist Vytautas Mikeliūnas will also perform. A lecture will be held in English as well. The event is being held by the Lithuanian Literature and Folklore Institute and the Tolerance Center of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum. Entrance is free to the public.
Dr. Marija Kuprove-Berg’s repertoire includes songs in all the minority languages of Lithuania, including Yiddish, Ashkenazic Hebrew, Romany, Tartar and others, and embraces Karaïte musical traditions as well.
by Sergejus Kanovičius
First, the Litvaks died. Almost all of them.
Then began the first division of property stolen from them (with the “honorable” role played by general Vėtra in this).
After World War II, the Soviets legalized this theft, and no one was supposed to mention it, or even hint of it.
After March 11, 1990, that theft was legalized once again, by limiting dual citizenship and introducing into law the statement that “rights to surviving real estate are restored only to citizens of the Republic of Lithuania.” When I made an application for restoration of citizenship, I was told in a friendly way to include in the application the demeaning statement: “I don’t have any inherited property in the Republic of Lithuania.” And how could I inherit those pits on the margins of forests and villages? How could I inherit those two hundred graves where parents and grandparents lie buried? I don’t have any “property” except for this. Although others might. The fathers of independence have done everything to “protect” us from the completely legitimate property claims of Lithuanian Jews and Vilnius Poles–such an innocent desire that this time everything really would belong exclusively to, sorry, our people.
Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Amir Maimon delivered a birthday greeting to Holocaust survivor, Vilnius ghetto prisoner and Jewish partisan Fania Brancovskaja at a small ceremony Friday, May 23, calling her an enduring miracle of hope and passion for everyone. He said her life was spoken of proudly and she serves as an inspiration and reminder to the younger generation.
Victor David Brenner was born Viktoras Baranauskas April 12, 1871 in Šiauliai, Lithuania. His father was a jeweler and stamp maker. As an adolescent he helped his father complete easy orders. With his father’s help he set up an engraving shop in Šiauliai in 1887 and began to work on his own. In 1889 Victor and his parents moved to Kaunas where he achieved renown as a talented master engraver. He emigrated to the United States in 1890 and lived in New York. He took night classes at the Cooper Union college and worked at a New York metal ornament and medallion workshop.
Eight years later Brenner was in Paris, studying with the great French medalist, Oscar Roty at the Académie Julian. There he exhibited his work and obtained awards at the Paris Exposition of 1900. He returned to the United States, and from that time on his career prospered. He appeared to be on his way to the fulfillment of the splendid predictions made for his future by Rodin.
Not just family and military service, but also cooking and olive oil–these values have clearly insinuated themselves in the life of Israeli ambassador to Lithuania, Amir Maimon, 57. Despite the hectic daily schedule of colonel Maimon, who began his diplomatic service in Lithuania about one year ago, he still finds time for his favorite pastime, cooking. The Lifestyle section of the newspaper Lietuvos rytas reports ambassador Maimon’s family lives in Israel, but isn’t complaining about a lack of food. Instead, he spends his free time cooking all sorts of dishes.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
Photo: by K. Čachovskis, courtesy Delfi.lt
Lithuanian Jews have contributed to the creation and success of the Lithuanian state from its very foundation.
This is an indisputable fact. As we sometimes like to say with pride (without thinking too much about what responsibilities history places upon us), the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was for its time a conspicuously liberal state which sheltered and safeguarded many tribal and ethnic groups as its own citizens.
One doesn’t have to look far back in the past to find the contribution made by Lithuanian Jews. Called upon and supported by their community leaders to do so, young Litvaks stood shoulder to shoulder with our grandfathers and great-grandfathers in the battle for Lithuanian independence from 1918 to 1920. As Donatas Januta reminds us in the Lithuanian-American newspaper Draugas, the volunteer battalion established and provisioned by Jews was one of the first armed units of the Lithuanian military. Many of its members were decorated for their bravery and sacrifice with medals, including the Order of the Cross of Vytis.
Lithuania’s Jews didn’t just support Lithuanian independence and consolidation through financing, weapons and their lives, they also supported it politically. Simanas Rozenbaumas, a Jew, successfully represented Lithuania in the Paris peace conference at Versailles and in negotiations with the Soviet Union, and Jews took part in the first Constituent Parliament as well. Jews also strongly supported the return of the Vilnius territory to Lithuania.
Sad news has reached the Panevėžys Jewish Community and the public that famous former Panevėžys doctor Mira Rozova has died in Israel after suffering from chronic illness. For half her life she was the senior doctor at the Panevėžys Infectious Hospital. In 1954 she was graduated from the Krasnodar Institute of Medicine. She performed a three-year residence in Kaliningrad and then moved to Panevėžys in 1957. She worked as a therapist at what was the Republic Hospital and Clinic. The infectious disease division was small at that time. The decision was made to open a separate infectious disease hospital and young and energetic Rozova was appointed the director of the new hospital. The Infectious Disease Hospital was established in the Panevėžys Jewish Hospital on Ramygalos street, which needed repair following the war. The hospital operated for 20 years in the unrenovated premises.
Work to commemorate and clean up Jewish cemeteries and memorial sites in Kaunas continues, performed by the Kaunas municipal administration and city departments. The work was initiated by the Kaunas Jewish Community and Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon and their initiatives have the support of Kaunas mayor Visvaldas Matijošaitis and other ranking city officials.
The photographs below show new information boards and signs at the old Jewish cemeteries in Slobodka (Vilijampolė) and Žaliakalnis neighborhoods and at the operating Jewish cemetery on H ir O Minkovskių street. The gate to the Slobodka cemetery is now being kept locked and automobile traffic prohibited. The territory of the Seventh Fort memorial was cleaned up and there are preparations underway to cut trees blocking the view of the site from the other side of Sukilėlių street. The mass murder grave site at the Seventh Fort should be cleaned up this year with a monument to mark the tragic location.
Every Friday evening about 30 members of the Kaunas Jewish Community gather to welcome in the Sabbath. They light candles, pray, provide commentary on a select passage of Torah, chat, eat together, remember those they have lost and offer congratulations on those personal milestones which come up. Often guests attend, whether they be Jewish students, teachers or tourists, who want to usher in the Sabbath with others, with the Jewish community. Often they are members of other ethnic groups who are interested in Jewish culture, traditions and history. Most recently two female students from Georgia and Serbia who are preparing a project about Jews in Lithuania at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas attended. As a rule the Kaunas Jewish Community offers its hospitality to those who show up. Almost always it turns out they aren’t strangers at all, only friends we haven’t met yet.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community’s heritage protection expert Martynas Užpelkis travelled to attend a ceremony in Žiežmariai, Lithuania to mark the beginning of work to renovate the unique wooden synagogue there, one of only a handful of wooden synagogues still standing in Lithuania. He took some snapshots which you can find below.
In related news, the board of supervisors of the Kaišiadorys regional administration, where Žiežmariai is located, approved the region’s membership in what is known as the Association of the Itinerary of Jewish Cultural Heritage, a new tourism network which includes the Kėdainiai, Ukmergė and Joniškis regional administrations now.
On July 30, 2015, the Kaišiadorys regional administration agreed to a 99-year lease agreement for the synagogue, the property of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, to be used by the regional administration without fee. In August an agreement was concluded between the LJC and regional administration on the uses to which the former synagogue could be put and for its restoration. Currently work has begun on the roof and façade and archaeological work is on-going. The regional administration has allocated 24,840 euros for restoration work. Further financing is being sought and the regional administration believes membership in the Association of the Itinerary of Jewish Cultural Heritage could open doors for new partners in Belarus and Poland under the Interreg program.
The agenda item for commemorating the work of the American Jewish welfare organization the Joint Distribution Committee in the Lithuanian city of Panevėžys came up at city council in August, 2014. The main point was to celebrate 100 years of activities by the Joint in Lithuania and to commemorate the organization in Panevėžys. The proposal made at council was to set up a stele to honor the organization at what was formerly Joint Street, now Zikaro street, in the Lithuanian city.
During consideration one council member, Raimondas Pankevičius, opposed the project. Pankevičius went beyond slandering the activities of the Jewish welfare organization and presented a false history of the Holocaust in Lithuania to his fellow council members.
Over 90% of all Jews living in Lithuania were murdered during the Nazi occupation. Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman went to Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky over the matter of these anti-Semitic statements, who in turn sent a complaint to the Office of Prosecutor General of Lithuania regarding the councilor’s words. Prosecutors began an investigation and laid charges against Pankevičius. At the first court hearing in March, Pankevičius said he had misspoken, and instead of saying “Jewish SS,” meant to say “Jewish police.”