The Rositsan and Maccabi Elite Chess and Checkers Club and the Lithuanian Jewish Community held a chess tournament at the Community March 24 under the direction of FIDE master Boris Rositsan.
Hebrew Students Celebrate Purim with Teacher Ruth Reches
Students at Ruth Reches’s Hebrew classes at the Lithuanian Jewish Community celebrated Purim the way it should be celebrated, with masks and treats.
Chiune Sugihara Remembered at Sholem Aleichem Gymnasium
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky and Japanese ambassador to Lithuania Shiro Yamasaki attended the unveiling of a plaque to honor Jewish rescuer Chiune Sugihara at the Sholem Aleichem Gymnasium in Vilnius. The Jewish school in Vilnius has maintained a sister-school relationship for several years with the Japanese school Sugihara attended. Visiting teachers from the Japanese school were presented a small gift by the LJC, copies of the recently-published Rudashevski ghetto diary in Lithuanian and Yiddish.
New Mobile Museum Exhibit Features Lithuania’s Righteous Gentiles
A new mobile exhibit from the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum has begun its rounds with an opening in Kaunas on March 5. “When You Save a Life, You Save a World” debuted at Vytautas Magnus University to a large audience, including Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas and members of the Community, relatives of rescuers and those rescued, city residents and guests from other locations.
Vytautas Magnus professor Juozas Augutis gave a word of welcome and said he was proud of the exhibit opening and the light shed by the Righteous Gentiles. He said the children lost to the Holocaust were a great loss to everyone: “Kaunas’s pain is the pain of all of Lithuania.”
Dr. Kamilė Rupeikaitė–then deputy director of the museum but last week becoming its new director, replacing longtime director Markas Zingeris–emphasized the museum’s long-term commitment to and work on researching the stories of rescuers of Jews. Danutė Selčinskaja, the curator of the exhibit and of the accompanying catalog and the director of the museum’s department for commemorating rescuers of Jews, presented the overall concept of the exhibition with an emphasis on stories from Kaunas. Fruma Vitkinaitė-Kučinskienė, a Holocaust survivor rescued by gentiles, said the Righteous Gentiles were the gift of fate to whom she is still grateful, and she said she was so happy today to be able to talk to members of the families who rescued her. “I think there are many who will agree that those days when Jewish children were rescued were the most beautiful days in the Lithuania of that time,” Juozas Vocelka said. He is the son of Righteous Gentile Pranas Vocelka who dedicated his life to saving Jews.
Markas Petuchauskas’s Price of Concord at Leipzig Book Fair
Markas Petuchauskas’s book Price of Concord has been translated to German and will be presented at the Leipzig Book Fair taking place from March 21 to 24. The Leipzig Book Fair is the second largest book fair in Germany after the Frankfurt Book Fair.
The new translation has been published by the LIT Verlag publishing operation in Berlin. The translation was financed by the Lithuanian Culture Institute. The German version of the book, Der Preis der Eintracht, is to be presented at 1:00 P.M. on March 23 during the OstSüdOst forum at booth E501 in Hall 4 with translator Markus Roduner, author Markas Petuchauskas and moderator Joachim Tauber. The book presentation is scheduled to run until 1:30 P.M. Another presentation will take place at 6:00 P.M. the same day with the same participants at the Jewish Culture Center at Ariowitsch-Haus located at Hinrichsenstraße no. 14, Leipzig. The main LIT Verlag booth is booth G208 in Hall 3 at the book fair.
Lego Engineering at Ilan Club
All young inventors are invited to a special program of Lego engineering at the Ilan Club in the Lithuanian Jewish Community. We will make insect robots out of legos and race them. The activity will take place at 1:30 P.M. on March 24 in the Ilan Club on the second floor of the LJC at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius. Registration is required. To register and learn more, send an email to sofja@lzb.lt or call 8 672 57540.
Regulations for the Makabi Swimming Championship
Competition Goals and Tasks
To popularize the sport of swimming among members of the Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club. To select the best swimmers for competition at the international Maccabiah Games.
Time and Location
The competitions will be held from 11:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. on March 31, 2019, at the multifunctional sporting and entertainment complex Girstutis, at Kovo 11-osios street no. 26, Kaunas. Competitors are to arrive by 10:30 A.M.
Participants
Swimmers of all ages may participate who after making application will be divided into age groups.
The cost to participate is 3 euros for those born after 2000 and 5 euros for those born in and before 1999.
Applications can be e-mailed to makabilita.duskes@gmail.com providing the age of the applicant, an e-mail address and a mobile telephone number before 12 midnight on March 27, 2019.
The coordinator in Vilnius is Artiom Perepleica at artiom.perp@gmail.com
Competition Program and Prizes
25-meter free style
50-meter breast stroke
All participants will receive souvenir medals.
Prize-winners in their age groups will receive special prizes.
M. Duškesas, executive director
Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club
Holocaust Distortion
by Efraim Zuroff
The situation regarding Holocaust commemoration and education in Lithuania is likewise extremely problematic.
It was only slightly more than a year ago that Holocaust distortion, which has been going on undisturbed for the past almost 30 years, and is currently rampant throughout post-Communist Eastern Europe, suddenly became an issue in Israel. The reason was the uproar over the by now infamous Polish Holocaust bill, which made use of the term “Polish death camps” or the attribution of any Holocaust crimes to the Polish state, a criminal offense punishable by two years in prison. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded that “Israel would not tolerate Holocaust distortion,” the first public denunciation by an Israeli leader of the systematic efforts being made for decades by many of the new democracies of Eastern Europe to whitewash the crimes of their nationals during the Shoah.
Limmud 2019 in Druskininkai
The Limmud tradition is about Jewishness and identity. Once per year the LJC organizes the traditional Limmud conference so members can come together, celebrate Sabbath together, take in many interesting lectures. Limmud comes from the Hebrew word “to learn.”
LJC programs director Žana Skudovičienė, veteran Limmud organizer, says this tradition demands a lot of work, energy and ingenuity.
This year our Lithuanian Limmud was held at the Europe Royal Hotel in the southern Lithuanian spa town Druskininkai with heavy attendance by LJC members and guests and young families with toddlers. Skudovičienė said some of the parents had themselves attended Limmud as children decades ago.
This year’s Limmud seemed more intimate than in former years, according to attendees, with Jews gathering from all over Lithuania, less formal speeches and more music, dance and fun–with a real spirit of yidishkayt.
List of Speakers and Performers for Limmud 2019
Speakers and performers to include:
Ilya Kalmanovskiy, journalist, teacher, educational program enthusiast and moderator (Moscow)
Boruch Gorin, journalist, writer, editor of Lekhaim magazine (Moscow)
Juriy Tabak, religious studies expert, translator, author (Moscow)
Aleksandr Dukhovny, senior rabbi of progressive Jewish congregations (Kiev)
Sasha Galitsky, artist, author (Israel)
Regina Pats, cinema expert, to speak on new program of Israeli films (Tallinn)
Dr. Lara Lempertienė, scholar, director of Lithuanian National Library’s Judaica Studies Center
Monument to Icchokas Meras Unveiled in Kelmė
A statue was unveiled to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the death of Icchokas Meras. The ceremony and monument were the work of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, the Lithuanian Jerusalem Vilnius Jewish Community, the Jakovas Bunka support fund and the Kelmė regional administration. It took place on March 13 at Icchokas Meras Square in Kelmė. Students and teachers from the neighboring Jonas Graičiūnas Gymnasium, Kelmė municipal representatives, fans of Meras’s work and visitors from Vilnius, Kaunas, Šiauliai and Panevėžys and members of those Jewish communities attended.
Feliks Dektor arrived from Israel for the ceremony. He translated to Russian Meras’s novels “Ant ko laikosi pasaulis” and “Lygiosios trunka akimirką” as well as a collection of short stories called “Geltonas lopas,” some of the first literary works about the Holocaust to be published in the Soviet Union.
MP Emanuelis ZIngeris was unable to attend but sent a message which was read out loud:
“Icchokas Meras his entire life spoke for the silenced ghettos of Kelmė, Vilnius, Kaunas and Šiauliai. In his work he didn’t stand for the isolation of the ghetto, rather he scaled to the heights and plumbed the extraordinary depths of humanity. In Soviet times everyone looked forward to the appearance of his novels and stories in the magazines Pergalė and Nemunas. This was a protest hurled against the Soviet reality. Because Icchokas Meras was and remained a Lithuanian writer who modernized the language of Lithuanian prose and invented new ways to express himself.
Lithuanian President Visits YIVO
Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaitė visited YIVO in New York City March 13.
The YIVO institute was founded in Vilnius in 1925, collecting a large library of books and documents, Yiddish literature and material on Jews in Central and Eastern Europe. It moved to New York in 1939 when founder Max Weinreich was caught in Denmark as Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1 of that year. The New York branch became the headquarters as the Nazis looted YIVO archives in Vilnius.
YIVO director Jonathan Brent met the Lithuanian leader and spoke to her about the Strashun collection and important documents YIVO conserves.
The Lithuanian president said she was impressed by the collections demonstrating the priceless Litvak heritage and also by the courage and nobility of the people–Lithuanians and Jews–who saved the important documents.
Full press release in Lithuanian here.
Work Continues on the Žemaičių Naumiestis Synagogue
Work to restore the synagogue in Žemaičių Naumiestis, Lithuania, began in 2018 and on March 6, 2019, the work to date was surveyed.
The Šilutė regional administration allocated almost 100,000 euros for the renovation work.
Photos from before work began
The town had a large Jewish population before the Holocaust who built this brick synagogue in 1816. In the Soviet era the synagogue was used as a Palace of Culture.
American Zionist Movement Biennial Assembly Held in New York
The American Zionist Movement held their once-every-two-years assembly in New York on March 10 and 11, 2019. This assembly’s theme was Unity and Community: Bringing Together the Many Voices of Zionism.”
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky was invited to speak about the Zionist movement in Lithuania.
LJC chairwoman Kukliansky with AZM executive director Herbert Block
Celebrating Lithuanian Freedom
On March 11, 1990, many Lithuanian Jews became witnesses to an important and unforgettable event when the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic almost unanimously (of 130 delegates 6 abstained, none voted against) the act for the restoration of Lithuanian independence. The Republic of Lithuania submerged by foreign powers in 1940 had resurfaced. This allowed for the restoration and work of the Lithuanian Jewish Community as well. Happy Independence Day!
Arkadijus Vinokuras: Why Is Genocide Center Defending a Lie?
by Arkadijus Vinokuras
At 10:00 A.M. on Tuesday, March 5, at Žygimantų street no. 2 in Vilnius, the Vilnius District Administrative Court undertook a special case. Lithuanian citizen Grant Gochin petitioned the Vilnius District Administrative Court to render a decision on whether the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania is, in the plaintiff’s words, “blindly defending Jonas Noreika who has the blood of his fellow Lithuanian citizens, Jews, on his hands.”
The Genocide Center stands accused of lying, falsifications and down-playing obvious facts in its refusal to review newly-discovered documents showing Noreika participated in crimes of genocide against Lithuanian citizens.
How does Genocide Center director Teresė Birutė Burauskaitė respond to these accusations made againt her institution? On November 16, 2015, she posted a statement on the Genocide Center’s facebook page: “Neighbors from the East are organizing the desecration of Lithuania’s patriots. They are being aided not just by certain Jews, but a sufficiently large number of Lithuanians as well; their surnames are signed under requests to revoke medals and take down plaques and are the by-lines in libelous articles in the press… Some of them do this intentionally, others out of foolishness…”
Borisas Traubas, Rūta Mikelaitytė-Kašubienė, Boris Livschitz to Perform in France
Violinist Borisas Traubas, pianist Rūta Mikelaitytė-Kašubienė and violinist Boris Livschitz are to perform at the Carpentras synagogue, built in 1367 and located in Carpentras in southeastern France, at 5:00 P.M. on March 10. Tickets cost 15 euros and reservations can be made by telephone by calling +33 4 90 63 39 97
Leaders, Ambassador Send Condolences on Death of Tobijas Jafetas
lzinios.lt, BNS
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky told BNS Tobijas Jafetas was “a highly respected, active and refined person of the community” who had met her father when World War II began. “As I recall his father had a business in England and came to Kaunas just before the war started. It so happened that Jafetas and my father were at a [children’s summer] camp in Palanga when the war broke out. Neither was able to flee and they were taken to an orphanage in Kaunas,” Kukliansky said.
Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Amir Maimon expressed condolences over Jafetas’s loss on facebook.
Jafetas and his mother were imprisoned in the Slobodka ghetto in Kaunas in World War II. He told the story of how he escaped the ghetto in 1944 after hiding in an attic. The Katinskai family in Vilnius rescued him.
LJC chairwoman Kukliansky said Jafetas spoke German and English and maintained close contacts with survivors of ghettos in Europe.
Monument to Icchokas Meras to be Unveiled in Kelmė
A monument to Litvak writer Icchokas Meras (October 8, 1934 – March 13, 2014) is to be unveiled on the fifth anniversary of his death on Icchokas Meras Square in his hometown of Kelmė, Lithuania, at 1:00 P.M. on March 13, 2019. Meras, a Holocaust survivor, wrote in Lithuanian and won numerous awards in Israel and Lithuania. His work has been translated into over 25 languages including Yiddish and Hebrew. He moved to Israel in 1972 and passed away in Tel Aviv in 2014 at the age of 79.
The monument is the fruit of cooperation between the Lithuanian Jewish Community, the Jakovas Bunka welfare and support fund, the Lithuanian Jerusalem Vilnius Jewish Community and the Kelmė regional administration.
Those wishing to attend are invited to send notice of their intention to renginiai@lzb.lt because the LJC plans to provide free transportation to and from the event if there is sufficient interest. Please send an email by March 11 or call 8 673 77257 for more information.
Limmud 2019 March 15-17 in Druskininkai, Lithuania
The educational and entertaining conference on Judaism Limmud 2019 will be held in Druskininkai, Lithuania, from March 15 to 17. The program includes the weekend in the scenic Lithuanian spa town, activities, valuable lectures, seminars on academic excellence, screenings of films, excursions, a special Sabbath and much more.
The three-day conference will be held at the Europa Royale hotel at Vilniaus alley no. 7 in Druskininkai.
For more information, call +370 67881514 or send an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt
Registration is now closed.
Speakers to include: