Learning – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Lithuanian Constitutional Court Recognizes Anti-Semitic Statements Violate the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania

April 26, 2024

PRESS RELEASE

Statement from the Lithuanian Jewish Community:

Lithuanian Constitutional Court Recognizes Anti-Semitic Statements Violate the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania

The Constitutional Court of Lithuania has ruled that the continuous anti-Semitic statements made by one politician attacking Israel and Lithuanian Jews are a breach of his parliamentary oath and a gross violation of the Lithuanian constitution.

In its decision on April 25 the Constitutional Court acknowledged that through statements posted on his social media platforms, which included derogatory, dignity-diminishing, and mocking descriptions of Jews, inciting intolerance, and belittling the tragedy of the Holocaust, MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis systematically and deliberately demonstrated hatred based on ethnic origin.

Following the decision chairman of the Constitutional Court Gintaras Goda emphasized to gathered journalists that while the constitution provides the right of a person to hold beliefs and express them freely, it prohibits demeaning the dignity of others, violating their rights and demonstrating disrespect or hatred.

This ruling of the Constitutional Court does not by itself trigger any legal accountability (including criminal) for these actions by MP Žemaitaitis. Based on the finding, however, the Lithuanian Parliament may form an impeachment commission which would present its findings, after which members of parliament could vote in a secret ballot whether to revoke Žemaitaitis’s status as an MP.

2024-04-262024-04-26

Not Every War Crime Genocide

by Efraim Zuroff

In recent years, we often encounter various attempts by people adversely affected by historical tragedies, or intent on campaigning for ostensibly “humanitarian” causes, to claim that their issue is equivalent to the Holocaust, or is in fact a case of genocide.

Whether it is those like PETA, who are campaigning for animal rights, who invoke Treblinka, one of the worst Nazi death camps, to pursue their goals, or those campaigning against abortions, who compare the plight of the aborted unborn children to that of the victims of the Shoa.

The same is true regarding the use of the term genocide, which in recent years has been applied in cases which do not fulfill the criteria of the original definition of that crime. What has happened in the past few decades, is that accusations of genocide have emerged as a political tool to be used against enemies to attain geographic and/or financial gains by claiming lost territory and/or reparations for damages incurred.

2024-04-252024-04-25

Mimouna End-of-Passover Celebration

The Lithuanian Jewish Community and Bnei Maskilim invite you to come and usher out Passover week together with a Mimouna celebration, led by Rabbi Nathan Alfred. Besides leading the ceremonies, Rabbi Alfred will also deliver a lecture on Jewish love in English.

The cost is 10 euros per person, children ten and under are free. For more information and to register, send an email to viljamas@lzb.lt or call (+370) 672 50699.

Time: 7:00 P.M., Tuesday, April 30.
Place: Nykštukas Restaurant, Verkių street no. 27, Vilnius

2024-04-25

Commemoration of Herman Perelstein in Kaunas

A plaque commemorating Herman Perelstein was unveiled in Kaunas Wednesday. He was the celebrated founder of the Ąžuoliukas boys’ choir and would’ve celebrated his 100th birthday last year. Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas, the makers of the plaque and a representative from the city of Kaunas spoke at the unveiling ceremony.

2024-04-252024-04-25

Columbia U Locks Jewish Professor Out

Outspoken Jewish professor barred from Columbia campus while administration turns blind eye to even bigger tent city springing up

New York, New York–A Columbia University professor who has been a vocal critic of the administration’s response to the ongoing anti-Israel student protests was barred from campus Monday after he tried to lead a pro-Jewish rally at the Ivy League college.

Israel-born Shai Davidai, an assistant professor at Columbia Business School and an outspoken supporter of the Jewish state, was told that his ID had been “deactivated,” even as a massive new tent city sprang up on the Morningside Heights campus with some 200 protesters–all of whom would have had to use their Columbia IDs to get in.

Davidai said he was locked out because he asked university staff at a meeting whether Hamas was a terrorist group or not. After deactivating his entrance card, security offered to escort the Jewish man to Columbia’s mathematics department, claiming they couldn’t insure his safety anywhere else on campus.

Story and pictures here.

2024-04-242024-04-24

Passover Greetings from Australian Opposition Leader

Leader of the Liberal Party Peter Dutton sends Passover greetings to the Jewish community:

On behalf of the Coalition, my warmest wishes to Australia’s resilient Jewish community as you celebrate Passover.

A festival that acknowledges the importance of faith, fortitude and freedom, Passover is of profound significance for Jewish people around the world.

This year, the events of October 7–and the unprecedented level of anti-Semitism that has ensued–have cast a shadow over Passover celebrations.

The world must never forget what happened last year on that day of depravity. The monsters of Hamas acted with glee as they tormented their victims. They brutally murdered 1,200 people in what was the greatest loss of Jewish life on a single day since the Holocaust. And they vowed to repeat their savagery many times over until Israel is annihilated.

2024-04-242024-04-24

Passover Greetings from Faina Kukliansky

Dear reader,

Passover is one of the most important and most beautiful weeks on the Jewish calendar when we celebrate liberation from slavery and our becoming a free and proud people.

Every year we sit at the Passover table, eat the traditional foods, drink sweet wine, take joy in life and read the Haggadah and passages from the Song of Songs. The main thing is being together with family and that no one, whether rich or poor, be left unfed, if there is a way to invite him to our table. This is how it always has been, year after year and century after century.

Over the eight days of the holiday, we symbolically refrain from eating leavened food and we take joy in our freedom and in our historical homeland, Israel, which no one will ever be able to take away from us, not with rockets nor with drones.

We wish everyone freedom and dignity just as we wish these for the Jewish state, and we pray for the hostages still held in captivity.

Hag sameakh. Am Yisrael khai!

2024-04-232024-04-23

Plaque Commemorating Herman Perelstein to Be Unveiled in Kaunas

The Kaunas Jewish Community invites you to a ceremony to unveil a plaque commemorating Herman Perelstein this Wednesday.

Last year we celebrated the 100th birthday of the amazingly talented teacher and professor Herman Perelstein. His Ąžuoliukas boys and young men’s choir became and is a Lithuanian cultural phenomenon.

The plaque commemorating this Lithuanian musical legend was made by Gediminas Pašvenskas and will be located on the building where Perelstein lived, which now houses the Museum of the Amsterdam School, at Vytauto prospect no. 58 in Kaunas. The unveiling ceremony will include a performance by the Varpelis boys’ choir. Everyone is welcome.

Time: 12:00 noon, Wednesday, April 24
Place: Vytauto prospect no. 58, Kaunas

2024-04-22

Condolences

We are sad to report the untimely death of Gediminas Kirkilas. Born in 1952, he was a politician, a social democrat, served as prime minister and was a true friend of the Lithuanian Jewish Community. At the heart of the government and in opposition he was instrumental in Lithuania’s efforts to address the enduring injustice of the Holocaust and in compensation payments for lost, destroyed and nationalized Jewish communal and religious property. Our deepest condolences to his many friends and family members.

2024-04-222024-04-22

Fourth Nechama Lifshitz Song Contest

The fourth Nechama Lifshitz Song Contest is to be held from October 27 to 30 in Vilnius with vocalists between the ages of 10 and 35 competing. As in past contests, there will be two categories for competition: classical music for singers aged 10 to 20 and popular music for ages 10 to 35.

Applications may be made till July 1. For more information and to register, see here: https://www.competition.lt/registracija/

2024-04-152024-04-15

Evening Dedicated to the Legendary Fania Lewando

Fania Lewando was a legend of interwar Vilnius, an exceptional personality, an innovator, an excellent cook and an entrepreneur, inspiring thousands of fans even after her death.. An event organized by the Polish Institute and the Lithuanian Jewish Community and held last week was dedicated to her.

A detailed account based on years of research by Magdalena Maślak, a cultural historian and the curator of the Pauline Museum of Jewish History in Poland, painted a vivid portrait of the unusually strong personality of Fania Lewando, and Alessia di Donato, a chef from Rome, an expert in Ashkenazi and Sephardic cuisine, prepared risotto with white wine according to one of Lewando’s recipes and revealed all the intricacies of her vegetarian cuisine.

“I am often asked why I became interested in Fania Lewando’s recipes. In fact, I admire not only her dishes, but also her personality. She was an extraordinary woman, brave, active, full of ideas ahead of her time,” says the Italian, who has been living and working in Poland for ten years.

2024-04-15

Culinary Evening

You’re invited to attend an evening of discussion, demonstration and sampling of the recipes of interwar vegetarian restaurant owner and cook Fania Lewando. Lewando operated a restaurant in Vilnius with a cult following in the period between the two world wars. Artists and the city elite frequented her establishment. Chef Alessia di Donato originally from Rome will provide samples of dishes made according to the recipes Lewando left us in her cook book. Cultural anthropologist Magdalena Maślak from Poland will also tell stories about Lewando.

Registration is required by sending an email to info@lzb.lt. Everyone is invited to attend.

Time: 5:00 P.M., Thursday, April 11
Place: Bagel Shop Café, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius

2024-04-112024-04-15

Makabi Shooting Comp

The Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club will hold a pistol shooting competition at the GSKA shooting range in Vilnius this Sunday.

Each competitor gets fifteen rounds with the first five shots as trial shots. The shooter’s score will consist of two scores: trial shots and those which are supposed to count. Although there isn’t any strict allotment of time for each participant, in order to use our time at the shooting range wisely we’ll ask each shooter to spend not more than 3 and a half minutes on the trial shoots and 10 minutes on official shots.

Registration is required by April 12 by sending an email to info.maccabilt@gmail.com. The cost per participant is 23 euros, of which the participant pays 11 euros with Makabi subsidizing the remaining 12 euros.

Time: 10:00 A.M. to 1:30 P.M., Sunday, April 14
Place: GSKA shooting range, Mindaugo street no. 43, Vilnius. Entrance from Punsko street.

2024-04-10

Lithuanian Makabi Rep at Future Leaders Conference

Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club member Alanas Rynkevičius participated at the Future Leaders forum in Paris from March 28 to 31, a gathering of youth leaders from the various Maccabi organizations throughout Europe.

The forum addressed the topic of anti-Semitism. Other topics, strategies and projects were discussed including the upcoming European Maccabi youth games in London.

2024-04-10

Women’s Club to Meet Friday

Women are invited to the Women’s Club meeting this Friday where we’ll prepare for Passover which is coming soon. We’ll talk about traditions from over the millennia and from more recent times and we’ll learn how to make Litvak matzo kneydlakh and a huge matzo cake.

Time: 6:30 P.M., Friday, April 12
Place: Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius

Registration required. Send an email to zanas@lzb.lt or call (+370) 678 81514.

We hope to see you there.

2024-04-092024-04-09

International Romani Day

March 8 is International Romani Day. According to wikipedia:

“The International Romani Day (April 8) is a day to celebrate Romani culture and raise awareness of the issues facing Romani people. The day was officially declared in 1990 in Serock, Poland, the site of the fourth World Romani Congress of the International Romani Union (IRU), in honour of the first major international meeting of Romani representatives, 7–12 April 1971 in Chelsfield near London.”

It is believed the Romani arrived from Poland in the Lithuanian Grand Duchy, including present-day Belarus, in the late 15th or early 16th century. They are officially recognized as one of Lithuania’s historical ethnic minorities. They were also targeted for extermination as an undesirable ethnic group by the Nazis.

2024-04-08

Raimondas Savickas Retrospective

The Savickas Picture Gallery at J. Tumo-Vaižganto street no. 5 in Vilnius will host an exhibit of Savickas’s works and will present a catalog of works called “Raimondas Savickas: A Metaphysical Interpretation of Reality” at 6:00 P.M. this Friday, April 5. This is a great opportunity to hear the artist speak and what other professionals and friends of the artist think about his work.

2024-04-03

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