Around 70 children attended the Hanukkah celebration the Lithuanian Jewish Community held at the Future Live hall in Vilnius. The candles were lit and songs were performed in Hebrew and Yiddish. Children spun the dreidl and took part in quizzes and competitions. Traditional doughnuts were eaten and Hanukkah gelt was passed out. Children also received dreidls to take home.
Appellate Court Finds Lithuanian Jewish Community Leadership Elected Legitimately
Press Release
December 11, 2018
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky was elected in May of 2017 legally, in keeping with all the requirements of law, the Vilnius Regional Court confirmed, annulling an earlier finding by the Vilnius District Court and rejecting a claim by the Vilnius Jewish Community against the legality of the decisions made by the LJC conference.
“The principle of the rule of law triumphed in the case of the legitimacy of the LJC elections. The work of the Lithuanian Jewish Community should be directed towards the continuity of community traditions and the needs of members, to solving the most urgent problems and celebrating Jewish life in Vilnius and throughout Lithuania. We should all focus on that which is truly important rather than on destructive activities. Now, after this exhausting legal argument has ended, it is time for the community to come together and continue our work together. Jews must be united, we must take care of one another and those around us, and work needs to replace disputes,” LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said.
According to most members of the LJC association, responsibility for sowing discord among people, for the wasted time and resources and for dividing the community falls upon Vilnius Jewish Community chairman Simonas Gurevičius, who sought that all the most important issues concerning the activities of the LJC would only be approved by votes from the Vilnius Jewish Community. The legitimacy of his own election as head of the VJC is the subject of a separate court case. Now that the courts have rejected the unfounded claims, the entire community will have to work for some time to rebuild what has been destroyed, to overcome the discord and slander which has been created.
The dispute between the Jewish organizations arose over a difference of opinion regarding representation at the annual conference, which is also the venue for elections and where the most important decisions in the Community are voted upon. The Lithuanian law on associations stipulates that each member of an association, without regard to the number of its members, has one vote at a general meeting (conference) of members, thus insuring the equal rights and equal decision-making power of all members of the association.
Earlier, the regulations of the LJC said regional Jewish communities have a number of votes proportionate to their membership. The LJC board, seeing this difference between the law and organizational regulations, voted in April of 2017 to insure the legitimacy and transparency of the upcoming reporting/elections conference by delegating one vote to each representative representing each associate member of the LJC.
The Vilnius Regional Court upheld the soundness of this decision earlier in mid-2018 in another case. The court found that LJC regulations which exclusively favored one member of the LJC–the Vilnius Jewish Community–null and void.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community has adhered to the Lithuanian law on associations last year and this year in Community conferences which adopted the most important decisions on the organization’s work, including the election of the leadership and financial and activities reporting.
For more information, contact:
The Lithuanian Jewish Community, email: info@lzb.lt , telephone +370 5 2613 003, +370 672 40942 (Monika Antanaitytė)
International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists Mark 70th Anniversary of Genocide Convention
Rafael Lemkin, the Jewish lawyer who at the end of World War II coined the term “genocide” and brought it to global awareness, understood that atrocities are all the more grievous when based upon race, ethnicity, religion or national origin. The systematic extermination of Jews in the Holocaust was the predominant event that led Lemkin to this understanding, but he was also motivated by other atrocities he had witnessed during his lifetime.
The world commemorates this week the 70th anniversary of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It was designed to set in stone the well-known proclamation “never again”. The Genocide Convention was passed by the UN on December 9, 1948 and has been ratified to date by approximately 150 states. The Genocide Convention classifies genocide as an international crime and provides that all member states must prevent and punish genocide, its incitement, and any attempt to commit genocide. Israel ratified the treaty in 1950 and enacted the Crime of Genocide (Prevention and Punishment) Law that provides Israel with universal jurisdiction over this crime. Genocide is customarily referred to as “the crime of crimes” because it seeks to wipe out an entire group of people based upon nationality, ethnicity, race or religion. All states are called upon to prevent and punish the perpetrators.
Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community Celebrates 30th Anniversary
The Polifonija music auditorium hosted a concert December 3 held to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the restoration of the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community.
Most of our current members responded 30 years ago to an invitation published in the newspaper Šiaulių naujienos to attend a meeting of the Sąjūdis initiative group [Lithuanian independence movement] at the Planning Institute. About 100 Jewish residents of Šiauliai attended and the Šiauliai Jewish community was reconstituted, including the Jews of the region and formally called the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community, the successor organization to the formerly large Šiauliai City Jewish Community which ceased functioning in 1941.
Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community chairman Naumas Gleizeris began the evening by welcoming and greeting the audience on Hanukkah and the 30th birthday of the organization. He thanked all guests for spending the evening with Community members.
Linas Adomaitis: Kaunas is Full of Culture, Full of Intelligence
Virginija Vitkienė next to Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas
Culture is a wide open door. It is a journey to one’s self. It is also a person’s relationship with another person. This week the team of “Kaunas, Cultural Capital of Europe 2022” invited residents of the city and region of Kaunas, friends and partners to get to know the city better during an open-door day. “This is not the first but the fourth year of the team. For two years we prepared, and for the other two we acted,” Kaunas 2022 director Virginija Vitkienė said. Several weeks ago Kaunas residents visited Brussels where they met with representatives of the European Commission supervising and assessing the activities of the European cultural capitals. Vitkienė said this was the first check-up on their activities and there will be three in total in the run-up to 2022.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
New Book about Jewish Street in Vilnius
A new book about Jewish Street in Vilnius by Aelita Ambrulevičiūtė, Gintė Konstantinavičiūtė and Giedrė Polkaitė-Petkevičienė was launched at the Paviljonas Book Weekend in Vilnius. “Prabilę namai. Žydų gatvės kasdienybė XIX-XX a. (iki 1940 m.)” [with the English subtitle/translation “Houses That Talk: Everyday Life in Žydų Street in the 19th-20th Century (up to 1940)” provided below the Lithuanian title on the cover] was published by the Aukso žuvys publishing house and comprises a kind of guide to the street, detailing the Great Synagogue, the Strashun Library, the house of the Vilna Gaon and the market and restaurants which operated there.
Lithuanian historian Aureljus Gieda presented the book and said it contains 166 illustrations of life in 14 buildings, 5 of which survive. He said the book has an index of names and extensive footnotes.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
Vilnius Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium Provides Best Education and Healthy Atmosphere
excerpted from an article by Modesta Gaučaitė, LRT.lt
As a teachers’ strike expands across Lithuania with the recent removal of the minister of education, grabbing the headlines, the magazine Reitingai [Ratings] has published their ratings of Lithuanian schools and universities. The gymnasia were categorized according to which subject they specialized in and in which subjects their students did best. The magazine also rated schools for what they called greatest added value and grouped cities and towns according to student achievement.
The authors explained “added value” was being assessed for the first time, meaning that not only does a given school demonstrate high academic achievement, but also is able to provide for its students a good atmosphere, good interpersonal relations and the feeling of success in studies to the individual student.
“As the study shows, there are only 21 such schools out of 1,200. The majority of the schools in the country are able either to achieve good academic results or provide an exceptionally good atmosphere while the students’ achievements are tragic. Only these gymnasia were able to combine both things:
“1. The Vilnius Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium;
“2. The Gabija Gymnasium in Vilnius;
“3. … [for a total of eight schools listed]”
The Lithuanian Jewish Community is so proud of the Sholem Aleichem Gymnasium! We know the tremendous achievements there are due to the diligent and sensitive leadership of Miša Jakobas and all the teachers who are so devoted and loving to the students. Great work!
Full text in Lithuanian available here.
Evening of Poetry and Painting
The Raimondas Savickas Picture Gallery invites you to an evening of poetry and painting at the gallery, located at Basanavičiaus street no. 11 in Vilnius, at 6:00 P.M. on Friday, December 7. Rūta Eidukaitytė will sing and play guitar as well.
First Meeting of Parenting Skills Program at LJC Social Programs Department
We are happy to announce that on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah the first meeting of parents took place in the Parenting Skills Program being conducted by the Social Programs Department of the Lithuanian Jewish Community under the program to support Jewish families. Many of the parents of teenagers following the meeting expressed relief that there is advice available for solving their problems in child-rearing.
The group for practicing parenting skills is based on the ideas of the authors of individual psychology. The founder of individual psychology was Alfred Adler (1870-1937). Parents in the LJC program meet and work in a group, share their experience, check that against theoretical advice for raising children and look for common answers to their problems.
Due to the large interest expressed by parents in the program, next year the LJC Social Programs Department is planning to offer a parenting skills program for parents raising children of different ages.
Happy Hanukkah from the Social Programs Department!
Looking Back at 30 Years of Hanukkah Celebrations
Maša Grodnikienė recalled for us the first Hanukkah celebration by the constituent Lithuanian Jewish Community back in 1988.
Lithuanian Jews who survived World War II celebrated Hanukkah quietly at home. In 1987 the Lithuanian Jewish Cultural Association formed and Emanuelis Zingeris became chairman.
On December 4, 1988, Lithuanian Jews came together and collected funds for a shared Hanukkah celebration. This was a memorable holiday in Vilnius, a big event with a beautiful group of people at the Dainava restaurant. Yiddish was spoken and sung. The cultural events group of the Lithuanian Jewish Cultural Association drafted the program and organized the event. The Fayerlakh Jewish ensemble with directors Griša Kravecas and Ana Kravec performed, as did the ethnographic ensemble conducted by Amos Traub and the Kaunas Jewish stage ensemble. Chaimas Gurvičius directed the concert. About 370 people attended. Chairman of the board of the Lithuanian Cultural Fund Česlovas Kudaba greeted the audience, and deputy chairman Tarvydas also took part. This was a grand Hanukkah evening celebration with a concert and speeches.
Remember what that time was like in Lithuania–the independence movement Sąjūdis had formed and Lithuanian Jews from different cities and towns came together and were part of Sąjūdis. Everyone was exhilarated, excited, happy that finally with the national rebirth of Lithuania the Jews of Lithuania could celebrate together that great holiday of the triumph of the spirit, Hanukkah. The majority sought to attend, there weren’t enough places and it was impossible to get in. At that time there were 17,000 Jews living in Lithuania.
Commemorating the Death of Danielius Dolskis (1891-1931)
The Kaunas Jewish Community will commemorate the anniversary of the death of Danielis Dolskis with a prayer at the Žaliakalnis Jewish cemetery in Kaunas at 5:00 P.M. on December 3, 2018. We invite those who so desire to join in and honor the memory of the founder of popular Lithuanian stage music.
Eleventh Makabi Badminton Grand Prix
The eleventh Makabi Grand Prix badminton championship was held at the Delfi Sport Center in Vilnius November 25 with competitors from 12 badminton clubs in Vilnius, Kaunas, Panevėžys and Prienai for a total of 75 participants.
The athletes competed adult and youth categories. Adults had five subcategories: men’s and women’s singles, doubles and mixed doubles, while the young people competed in four: boys’ and girls’ singles and doubles.
Vitalija Movšovič, from the Lithuanian youth team and the Makabi team, made the best showing, becoming champion in adult women’s singles, and taking second place in women’s doubles. She and her father Igor Movšovič took third place in mixed doubles.
All participants received diplomas, there were three categories of medals and absolute winners in their category received trophies.
Makabi Shooting Competition Dedicated to Lithuanian Volunteer Soldier Volf Kagan
The target-shooting competition the Makabi athletics club held in Vilnius this week was dedicated to Lithuanian volunteer soldier and two-time recipient of the Order of the Cross of Vytis Volf Kagan.
Men, women, young people and old hands turned out for the Makabi competition at the GSKA firing range in Vilnius November 25. The assignment was a difficult one: each competitor got 15 pistol shots (five practice shots and ten which counted) to hit a paper target 20 meters away. Shooters from Šiauliai, Trakai and Šalčininkai competed for the first time. Several married couples and father-and-son teams made it a family affair.
The Fish family dominated in three categories. The brothers Fish, Adomas and Nojus, took first and second place in the youth competition with 50 and 43 points, respectively. Nikolas Vasjanovas took third. In the women’s group their mother Kristina scored highest at 81 points, overtaking Valentina Finkelšteinienė at 78 and Greta Sinkevičiūtė with 57 points. The best marksmen in the men’s group was Julius Janavičius (97 points) followed by Julijus Fišas aka Fish (94 points) with Daniel Lupšic in third place with 92 points. In the veterans’ group Julijus Fišas remained undefeated with 94, Arkadijus Goldinas took second with 92 points and Ivanas Miškinis followed closely with 91 points.
Opening of Exhibit “Mission: Lithuanian Citizens. Siberia”
The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites you to come to a meeting/lecture/discussion/exhibit opening at 6:00 P.M. on December 4. The LJC is located at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius. The “Mission: Lithuanian Citizens. Siberia” event is dedicated to discussing the deportations from Lithuania in June of 1941. The official telling of the story of the deportations often seems to exclude the multi-ethnic nature of the deportees and their diversity of views and beliefs. They were only united in the fact the occupational regime which swept into power didn’t approve of them.
Dr. Violeta Davoliūtė will give a presentation based on her research. LJC board member Daumantas Todesas, Vilnius Jewish Public Library director Žilvinas Beliauskas and Lithuanian Department of Ethnic Minorities director Dr. Vida Montvydaitė will also speak on the topic of the event.
An exhibit of photographs will officially open at the same time.
Latkes: Traditional Hanukkah Food
Latkes are potato pancakes which Jews consider a national dish, as do Lithuanians, Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Germans, Czechs and the Swiss. The first mention of the potato dish seems to come from 1830 and seems to have been German cuisine. although the word itself comes into Yiddish probably from Russian. Whatever the case, Jews made latkes global and it is a required part of the Hanukkah table now.
Some sources say latkes were originally made of buckwheat. Others put their origins in Italy where pancakes were served with ricotta cheese. Rabbi Kalonymus ben Kalonymus (1286-1328) seems to be the first person to associate pancakes with Hanukkah, in a poem about the holiday.
When Spain expelled the Jews of Sicily in 1492, they took their ricotta cheese pancakes with them and introduced them to the Jews in the northern Italian lands. These pancakes reportedly were called cassola in Rome.
Conference “Remarkable Women of the Panevėžys Region”
Acting Panevėžys mayor Petras Luomanas welcomed speakers and audience to the conference, saying: “It is very significant that we are now for the second time holding a conference in which we remember the remarkable women of our region whose contributions to culture, education, health-care, industry and other areas of endeavor in Panevėžys and throughout Lithuania have been gigantic.” Library director Loreta Breskienė spoke her library’s activities and “Lithuania’s Greats,” an exhibit of hand-sewn flags there. The author of the exhibit is Sofija Kanaverskytė, an artist and former resident of Panevėžys who did scenography at the J. Miltinis Drama Theater there.
The main topic of Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman’s presentation was historical information about the activities of notable Jewish women of Panevėžys till 1940. He said many of the Jewish women are little-known, including sculptress Marija Dilon, the businesswomen Ana Kisina and Lėja Chazanienė, social activist and doctor Ana Merienė, Panevėžys Jewish Hospital doctors Mirijam Todesaitė-Blatienė and Zinaida Kukliansky and the dentists Vera Dembienė, Golda Izraelienė, Liuba Gurevičienė and Chasjė Feigelienė. Much more widely known was the Jewish women’s Esperanto organization in the city of Panevėžys, whose members included Ana Grinberg, daughter of Rabbi Abraham Grinberg.
Kofman said the topic of notable Jewish women has been neglected in Panevėžys as it has throughout Lithuania. Many write about men and their contributions, while women remain on the margins. He said this conference was a very good idea and should serve to foster a more tolerant attitude towards life and history.
Conference participants included deputy director of the Panevėžys city administration for educational affairs Sandra Jakštienė, Panevėžys Regional History Museum director Arūnas Astramskis, principals and teachers of the gymnasia in Panevėžys and other professionals working in education in the city. Nine presentations were given, including by Panevėžys College library director Vilija Raubienė, Panevėžys District G. Petkevičaitė-Bitė Public Library librarian Albina Saladūnaitė, regional history expert from Šiauliai Irena Dambrauskaitė-Rudzinskienė, director of the Kalba Knyga Kūryba Communications Center Lionė Lapinskienė, museum specialist Donatas Juzėnas, Paįstrys resident and local history expert Stasė Mikeliūnienė and puppeteer Antanas Markuckis.
A Shadow over Europe: CNN Poll Reveals Depth of Anti-Semitism in Europe
European Jewish Congress
Dear Presidents,
Dear Friends,
We would like to draw your attention on the findings of the CNN Poll on Antisemitism in Europe.
Please find below some of the most appalling results:
–According to the poll, more than a quarter of Europeans surveyed believe Jews have too much influence in business and finance. Nearly one in four said Jews have too much influence in conflict and wars across the world.
–One in five said they have too much influence in the media and the same number believe they have too much influence in politics.
–A third of Europeans polled said they knew just a little or nothing at all about the Holocaust.
Irene Pletka Donates Million Dollars for YIVO Bund Collection Digitization
YIVO in New York has had a separate collection for the Jewish Bund since 1992. Recently they announced a project to digitize that collection to make it accessible to scholars and the public around the world. Vice-chairwoman of the YIVO board Irene Pletka initiated the project and announced she is donating one million dollars to the effort.
More than 150 people came to the YIVO gallery in New York to honor Pletka for her exemplary donation, inspirational generosity and extraordinary sense of duty in preserving Jewish history and culture. After the Bund project receives donations totaling from 2.5 to 3 million dollars the first phase of digitization will begin.
The Bund Jewish political party began in Vilnius in 1897 with a socialist democrat platform and pledge to fight pogroms. YIVO describes the part as a Jewish political party adhering to a social democrat ideology in the context of Jewish culture and seeking Jewish political autonomy. Political science professor Jack Jacobs at Cambridge University in New York says the Bund was the first Jewish political party in Eastern Europe. Bund ideology was aimed at the Jewish working class.
Nun Who Helped Abba Kovner Dies at 110
Sister Cecylia Maria Roszak passed away at a convent in Cracow on November 16 at the age of 110, the archdiocese of Cracow reported. She was probably the oldest Catholic nun in the world at the time of her death. She was also a Righteous Gentile who harbored Jews in Nazi-occupied Vilnius, including writer and partisan leader Abba Kovner.
Maria Roszak was born March 25, 1908, in Kiełczewo and joined the Dominican order at the Gródek monastery (named after an old fortification and now neighborhood, adjacent to the Church of Our Lady of the Snows) in Cracow at the age of 21. In 1938 she and several fellow nuns were sent to Vilnius, then Wilno under Polish control, or more precisely to Naujoji Vilna outside the city, where the order had a wooden house and chapel on five hectares of land and intended to set up a monastery under Anna Borkowska, aka Mother Bertranda. World War II cut short these plans.
Vilnius came under Soviet occupation and then Nazi occupation. During the Nazi occupation Roszak and fellow nuns under Mother Bertranda hid 17 members of the Jewish resistance at their convent, including future ghetto underground leader, partisan and writer Abba Kovner.
Kaunas Jewish Community Meets Students
Kaunas as the cultural capital of Europe for 2022 is preparing an educational program for high school students aged 15 to 18 called “The Challenge of Kaunas.”
The Bureau of Memory program is striving to interest high school students in the multi-ethnic and multicultural history of Kaunas. The students have an assignment: to draft a project for the younger and older generation, including KJC senior citizens, to work together. The students are being encouraged to learn about the city’s history from living eye-witnesses and to come up with proposals for what they themselves have to offer the elder generation; what manner of cooperation might work is left up to them.
The students had the opportunity at the meeting at the KJC to communicate directly with members of the Community and to learn about their biographies. The young participants reported that they were very interested and moved by the warmth of Community members.
The KJC said this meeting was the start of a new and beautiful friendship.