Learning

Panevėžys Jewish Community Tours Ventspils, Latvia

Early on the morning of August 5, a group of 36 people went to Ventspils, Latvia. The trip, financed by the Goodwill Foundation, was intended for the Panevėžys Jewish Community and its youth initiative group to meet the small Ventspils Jewish community which had invited them on the day marking the anniversary of the Latvian coastal town’s founding.

The first stop on the trip was actually Joniškis in Lithuania, where members of the community toured two newly restored synagogues there. Before the war Joniškis has a population of about 8,000, of whom more than 4,000 were Jews. Jews constructed the White Choral Synagogue in the town center in 1853 with financing from affluent Jewish industrialists. The Red Synagogue was built next to it later. After World War II the synagogues were used as a gym and for storage. Now they have become some of the town’s major historical monuments and host cultural events, concerts and seminars.

The next stop was Žagarė, Lithuania, where members of the group visited a Holocaust monument.

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Genovaitė Gustaitė Has Died

Following sudden illness noted historian, long-time editor at the Mokslas publishing house and biographer of historical Lithuanian figures Genovaitė Gustaitė passed away on Tuesday, August 15.

Over the last several decades Genovaitė Gustaitė has dedicated her work to the life and deeds of beatified Roman Catholic priest Jurgis Matulaitis-Matulevičius who served as the bishop of Vilnius from late 1918 till his resignation in 1925 and who rescued Jews from the Holocaust.

Genovaitė Gustaitė helped prepare commemorations of Matulaitis and his work at the Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Community held the highest opinion of her work. We are deeply saddened by her passing and extend out condolences to her many friends and family members. She was a sincere and profound person and an outstandingly good and wise woman.

Rest in peace, Genovaitė.

Radio Interview on Palace of Sports Reconstruction Project

On Monday the daily news talk and interview program Sixty Minutes hosted by radio journalist Deividas Jursevičius on Lithuanian Public Radio discussed a letter sent by 12 members of the US House of Representatives to Lithuania president Dalia Grybauskaitė. The following is an unofficial translation of the program.

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US congressmen call for a halt to the project for the reconstruction of the Palace of Sports in Vilnius and not to disturb the graves of the old Jewish Šnipiškės cemetery. Lithuanian leaders are rejecting these complaints. Prime minister advisor Deividas Matulionis said the letter from the congressmen was a surprise to him because there was already agreement with Jewish organizations on the territory of the Šnipiškės cemetery back in 2009.

“We are taking this letter seriously, but I think some sort of misunderstanding has happened. Actually that problem no longer exists. Back in 2010 we, together with the Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe, reached an agreement, the essence of which was that we identified the territory where there is no disagreement that there were Jewish graves, the parking lot was removed and a monument was erected, and it was resolved to plant grass there and that no work can take place there. But around, and the Palace of Sports itself falls into it, is the so-called gray zone, or disputed zone, where we agreed there will be, from beginning to end if such work takes place or if we reconstruct the Palace of Sports, there will be consultation and discussion with the same Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe and the Lithuanian Jewish Community. So we have adhered to that position and will continue to adhere to it. So I’m not sure why this problem has come up now and why it is being treated so emotionally, but really we haven’t done any such thing. We really need to talk with the Jewish Community and with Jewish organizations to make it clearer what we actually want and what the Jewish organizations want, and to find a solution. We made an agreement then we would coordinate with the Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe and we truly haven’t rejected that idea. If it turns out it’s unacceptable and graves are discovered in the Palace of Sports site, then we could say yes, we need to go over everything again and come up with different solutions. We truly want to find a way forward in the spirit of good will, and not at any cost, either, let’s say, if there is a problem we will not ignore that problem. We really will not do anything to violate the essential, fundamental Jewish religious interests and our historical legacy,” advisor to the prime minister Deividas Matulionis said.

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On the Radvilėnai Cemetery in Kaunas

Yesterday was a strange day. As if by prior agreement, Jewish residents of Kaunas and Vilnius called to ask the opinion of the largest Jewish religious community in Lithuania, the Vilnius religious community about “a botanical garden being built” in the Radvilėnai Cemetery in Kaunas.

I was caught by surprise and took a look on the all-powerful facebook. Actually, saplings and flowers are being planted in the cemetery, a sprinkler system has been set up and there is even a garbage dumpster on site.

For Jews cemeteries are a place of extraordinary respect and commemoration. This Jewish ethical position has been followed for centuries. This reminded me of the spiritual Holocaust which came in Soviet times, when Jewish, Christian and Orthodox cemeteries were “beautified” and “put to cultural use” as parks with fountains and benches for relaxing and reading Pravda.

Will Kaunas, which today is known for its innovative solutions and beautiful reconstruction, really let this happen? Will the city famous for its cultural traditions remain apathetic in the face of this malicious vandalism? It’s time to answer that question. Since my opinion was asked, I give it here.

The Kaunas city landscape is not a matter for the Jewish religious communities. We the living say: we are responsible for the memory of our dead and martyred brothers and sisters, for their rest and respect. Even a crooked, toppled, broken matseva (headstone) is extremely dear to us.

If someone is bothered by the view onto “unaesthetic Jewish graves” from the window of their home, let them install frosted windows. Or they should demonstrate civic pride, invite friends, invite the Jewish community, grab some brooms and rakes and clean up the cemetery. The unborn children and grandchildren of the victims of the Ninth Fort and the Lietūkis Garage in Kaunas have no opportunity to tend the graves of their relatives, no way to insure their eternal rest. Only we can do that now. Jews and Lithuanians. Citizens of the Republic of Lithuania.

Shmuel (Simas) Levinas, chairman
Vilnius Jewish Religious Community

Golda Vainberg-Tatz Concert

The accomplished pianist Gold Vainber-Tatz is returning to Vilnius and will perform at 6:00 P.M. on August 10 at the Lithuanian Jewish Community. Her performance is to include works by Bach (Busoni editions), Beethoven, Ravel, Debussy, Chopin and others.

LJC and Israeli Embassy Thank Makabi Athletes

On August 4 the Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Israeli embassy to Lithuania held a special thanksgiving event to thank Makabi athletes who competed so well at the Maccabiah Games in Israel from July 4 to 8. The Lithuanian Jewish delegation won six medals at the so-called Jewish Olympics this summer.

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Maceva Summer Camp to Study Kaunas Jewish Cemetery

This year Maceva has been invited to join the international project Oppression and Opposition: Opportunities of Civic movements in Europe’s Past and Present. Lithuania is one country along with three others–Greece, Italy, Hungry–who are hosting a special kind of summer camp this year. From the 6th to the 20th of August, 25 international volunteers from Germany, Austria, Ukraine and Lithuania and including Maceva representatives will be participating in various activities in Kaunas and Vilnius. The main activities of this summer camp will be complete documentation of the Žaliakalnis Jewish cemetery–who exactly was buried where and when–and the elaboration of all findings.

Maceva’s main partner in the summer camp project is Germany’s Action Reconciliation Service for Peace and this will be the third such summer camp organized by Maceva (www.litvak-cemetery.info) in Lithuania. Results from all four countries participating this year will be presented in Germany this November.

After successful participation last year, students from Vytautas Magnus University will be joining the summer camp again to help preserve the historical cemetery. We have and are receiving significant support from the Kaunas municipality who are paying close attention to the cemetery and doing their best to bring it back to a respectable state.

The Jewish cemetery in the Žaliakalnis district of Kaunas was established in 1861 and closed in 1952. It is listed on the registry of cultural treasures and is protected by the Lithuanian state as a cultural heritage site. Many famous and notable figures are buried there, including politicians, scholars, religious leaders and cultural figures such as the writer Jacques Lipchitz and the vocalist Daniel Dolski. The graves of more historical personalities will likely come to light after successful inventory and documentation this summer.

Besides the work in the cemetery, volunteers will have an opportunity to get to know more about Lithuanian Jewish history and culture. We look forward to meeting people from the Judaica Research Center, the International Center for Litvak Photography and Bella Shirin.

Maceva is an associated member of the Lithuanian Jewish Community.

International Communications Specialist Appointed Executive Director

At a meeting of the Lithuanian Jewish Community executive board August 3, chairwoman Faina Kukliansky appointed Renaldas Vaisbrodas exectuvie director. The board approved the appointment.

Vaisbrodas, 36, earned a master’s degree in international communications at Vilnius University. He served as foreign policy advisor to Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaitė and was senior secretary for the Liberal Union party. He began his political career as foreign policy advisor to Guy Verhofstadt, chairman of the European Alliance of Liberals and Democrats faction in the European Parliament.

Vaisbrodas comes from a mixed Jewish and Lithuanian background.

World Marks Roma Holocaust Victims Commemoration Day August 2

August 2 is a tragic date in the history of the Roma. Seventy-three years ago as the night of August 2 turned into the morning of August 3 in 1944, all Roma at the so-called Gypsy family camp at Auscwitz-Birkenau were murdered in the gas chambers there, in total about 3,000 men, women and children. The event is remembered as the Black Night of the Gypsies.

There isn’t much information available about the Roma murdered in Lithuania during the Nazi occupation, but historians say Roma were murdered as Jews were based on race. During the Nazi occupation Roma were classified as useless people, isolated from society and then murdered. Many were shot and poisoned in gas chambers. Roma were also sterilized, used as slave labor and used in medical experiments. It has been calculated one out of three Roma were murdered in Lithuania. About one half million Roma were murdered in total during the Holocaust.

Roma Holocaust Day commemoration is the initiative of the Roma National Congress and the World Romani Congress. Besides inviting the public to commemorate the day, they also hold ceremonies at Auschwitz where they invite youth from around Europe to attend. The Roma Holocaust isn’t widely known and the organizations seek to educate the public in this way.

The Roma Social Center in Lithuania commemorates the Black Night in different ways annually, holding live concerts, drawing contests, screenings of films and so on. This year they invited the public to attend an exhibition on Roma traditions at the Old Town Hall in Vilnius.

A wreath-laying ceremony has been conducted at Ponar outside Vilnius since 2009. There is information conserved in the Lithuanian archives showing Roma were murdered there.

#AtmintisAtsakomybeAteitis

Call for Information

The Lithuanian Jewish Community received a letter from Kaunas with a request for information about former Kaunas resident Piotr Šoichet Haimovič (Pyotr Shokhet Haimovich, Chaimowicz or possibly Ben-Haim now). The request came from people now resident in the man’s former apartment.

“We acquired space at Gedimino street no. 48-5 in Kaunas. Until 1989 Piotr Šoichet Haimovič lived in this apartment, according to the former owner, who bought the apartment when Haimovič and his family left to settle in Israel. His profession was doctor and military officer.

“The building and the apartment are heritage sites, meaning the façade and interior details are protected. We are hoping Piotr Šoichet Haimovič or members of his family have photographs of the building or the apartment interior and can tell us more in order to help us recreate the original interior and provide historicity to the building. We want the building to be entered on the list of European cultural heritage treasures, and the stories of all the residents of the building are very important.”

The authors of the letter were Karolis Banys and Petras Gaidamavičius and they can be reached by telephone at +370 640 23 677 and by email at banys.karolis@gmail.com and gaidamavicius.petras@gmail.com

Keen Interest Surrounds Archaeological Work at Kaunas Mass Murder Sites

The archaeological research being conducted by an international team led by Hartford professor Richard Freund in Kaunas is getting wide coverage in the Lithuanian press. The team studying the Holocaust sites at the Fourth, Seventh and Ninth Forts and the Žaliakalnis Jewish cemetery in Kaunas has been visited by US embassy staff and is working closing with different departments in the Kaunas city government and the Kaunas Jewish Community. They plan to announce their finds in fall and to present a comprehensive study to Klaipėda University archaeologist Dr. Gintautas Zabiela, who is accompanying the group and whose certification will be required for the discoveries to be recognized officially in Lithuania. Dr. Zabiela promised to present his report to the Kaunas Jewish Community as well.

Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas showed the team an area in the Žaliakalnis Jewish cemetery where an Israeli archaeologist five years ago determined there was a mass grave. This could be the place where the victims of the Lietūkis garage massacre were buried. Residents in the buildings around the cemetery gave testimony they witnessed trucks arriving with corpses who were buried there in late June of 1941.

Many of the team members have Jewish and Litvak roots. Professor Freund is in communication with Avraham Gol, who has roots in Kaunas. Gol’s father Shloma Gol was one of the eleven prisoners who successfully escaped Ponar by digging an escape tunnel and testified at Nuremberg.

More about Gol’s testimony here.

International Roma Holocaust Day Marked in Lithuania

Paminėta Tarptautinė romų Holokausto aukų atminimo diena

Solemn ceremonies marked International Roma Holocaust Day commemorations August 2 in Ponar and at the Old Town Hall in Vilnius. A wreath-laying ceremony was conducted for the victims at the Ponar mass murder site and a new exhibition called Traditions, Customs and History of the Romani of Poland opened at the Old Town Hall.

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Image of Roma and Jews: Brighter or Darker?

Romų ir žydų paveikslas: šviesiau ar tamsiau?
by Ieva Elenbergienė

Few Lithuanian people personally know real Jews or Roma, so their image is painted for us by the most accessible sources of information. This is an interview with Monika Frėjute-Rakauskiene who has researched how ethnic communities are portrayed in the Lithuanian media and on the internet. The interview is about the power of the media to paint their subject in a brighter or darker light.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

The 9th of Av: National Day of Mourning for the Jewish People

The ninth day of the month of Av (August 1 this year) is the saddest holiday of the Jewish year, marking the destruction of the First and Second Temples. No one eats or drinks on this day, nor do they wear leather shoes. The fast begins on the evening of the 8th of Av just before sunset and ends with the appearance of the first star on the evening of the 9th. The 9th of Av is also the one day during the year on which a Jew is not only not obliged to study Torah, but is forbidden from doing so (learning being considered a source of joy).

New Jacques Lipchitz Museum to Open in Druskininkai


photo by Romas Sadauskas-Kvietkevičius, courtesy DELFI

Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum museum specialist Aušra Rožankevičiūtė speaking Tuesday at the exhibition by SPA Vilnius in Druskininkai, Lithuania, called “From Druskininkai to Jerusalem: Moments in the Life and Work of Jacques Lipchitz” announced a new Lipchitz memorial museum could open in the Lithuanian spa town within two years.

Rožankevičiūtė, who hopes to exhibit Lipchitz’s work in Druskininkai, noted the Vilna Gaon Museum had managed to accomplish an ambitious plan last year on the 125th anniversary of Lipchitz’s birth to bring his work to Vilnius.

“Of course the works worth millions can’t be brought to Lipchitz’s hometown Druskininkai because there is no where to show them. Our goal now is to, within two years, although the legal issues involved are moving ahead slowly, open a Jacques Lipchitz memorial museum on Šv. Jokūbo street in Druskininkai,” she said.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

American Team Examining Mass Murder Sites in Kaunas

A group of researchers led by Hartford professor Richard Freund are scanning the ground in Kaunas to determine the exact extent of Jewish mass murder sites recorded in testimonies and historical accounts. They are checking the ground around the Fourth, Seventh and Ninth Forts in Kaunas and the Jewish grave site on the Radvilėnai highway. Freund’s team includes specialists from a number of fields.

Litvaks in Love

Professor David Roskies delivered an interesting lecture to a medium-sized audience at the new Judaica Center at the Lithuanian National Library Thursday evening.

“Using the tools of a cultural historian, drawing upon my Litvak identity and turning feminism into a source of knowledge, I think I have successfully cracked the DNA of Jewish collective memory. I know what it is, and I know how it works. Jewish collective memory is organized around saints, sanctuaries and sacred times. In this way, each generation of Jews shape a model life, the model community and the model time. You don’t have to be a Litvak to unlock the DNA of Jewish collective memory, but it certainly helps, because Lite [Lithuania] is where this triple axis, this three-pronged model, emerged in bold relief. The model was so stable that it remained in place even when the world began to change. In Lite things really began to change with the rise of religious revival movement called Hassidism at the end of the 18th century. So long as the hassidim were limited to Podolia and Volhynia which, after all, are located south of the gefilte fish line, and where people spoke a different Yiddish, there wasn’t much to worry about. So there was talk about a new cultural hero named Yisroel Ba’al Shem-Tov, better known as Besht. He was a faith healer, a tzadik or saintly person, a righteous person, who engaged in all manner of non-Litvak behavior. He was an effective preacher and teacher, but he came into conflict with renowned Torah scholars, who were the elite of traditional society. Worse yet, he popularized the study of Kabbalah–Jewish mysticism–, he claimed to have paid periodic visits to Heaven and he encouraged mystical prayer performed with bizarre and ecstatic song and dance at all hours. Then, before you knew it, hassidic prayer houses were beginning to appear in Lite, too. The time had come for the rabbinic establishment to take action,” Rosskies said in a lecture which ranged seamlessly from the drier facts of cultural history to his own personal experiences and thoughts, employing moving Yiddish lullabies to make certain points.

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Darius Udrys Uncovered How Unprepared We Are to Discuss Morality without Outrage


Darius Udrys. Photo by Kiril Čachovskij, DELFI, © 2017

by Andrei Khrapavitski

I have written a short facebook comment in Lithuanian regarding the latest meltdown within the local liberal circles, but this story is worth expanding on. The gist of the matter is that Remigijus Šimašius, the liberal mayor of Vilnius, fired Darius Udrys, the head of Go Vilnius development agency and my former colleague at the European Humanities University.

A formal reason for dismissal was lack of results, but this reason looks very improbable, given the short time both Darius and the agency had worked and could achieve those results. A more probable one is the scandal Darius provoked after posting a facebook comment in which he asked whether it was moral for forest brothers (Lithuanian partisans who waged guerrilla war against Soviet rule during the Soviet occupation during and after World War II) to kill organizers of kolkhozes, collective farms put in place by the Soviets on the occupied lands.

Darius raised a lot of eyebrows by simply asking on what moral grounds it was OK to kill the civilians who were organizing those kolkhozes. A group of conservatives immediately demanded his dismissal and put a lot of pressure on the mayor of the Lithuanian capital to do so. It seems quite likely that the liberal mayor gave in to the demands of the conservative members within the coalition and let Darius go. Apparently you can be fired in 21st-century Lithuania for asking a question about the morality of killing. The liberal mayor found neither the courage to stand for freedom of speech nor to acknowledge the real reason for the dismissal. As mentioned above, Remigijus tried to spin it by claiming that Darius lost his job for not demonstrating results.

Full text in English available here.

Litvaks in Love, a Lecture by David Roskies

David Roskies, professor of Hebrew University and the New York Jewish Theological Seminary, will deliver a lecture called Litvaks in Love at the Judaica Center of the Lithuanian National Martynas Mažvydas Library in Vilnius at 4:00 P.M. on July 27.

For more information, visit the Judaica Center’s webpage here.