Last Tuesday the Šiauliai Jewish Community held a meeting of members and friends with Rabbi Kalev Krelin to discuss material and spiritual preparations for the upcoming holiday of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year celebration.
Day of Genocide of Lithuanian Jews Marked at Ponar
The Lithuanian Jewish Community, Lithuanian politicians and foreign ambassadors marked the Day of Genocide of Lithuanian Jews September 23 at the Ponar Memorial Complex outside Vilnius.
LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky spoke at the event, saying among other things: “I have several requests by the Lithuanian Jewish Community. First, I want to know the names of the people who were murdered here. And throughout Lithuania as well, where 400, 500, 600 Jews were murdered in every town. Where are their names? … The Lithuanian Jewish Community also wants to know the names of the murderers. Many years ago now we were promised they would be made public, but they remain unknown to us. I am convinced it has to be made very clear who was a murderer and who was a rescuer. So I would like to ask sincerely the lists of those are known now at least be made available to us.”
Also attending and speaking were Lithuanian MP Emanuelis Zingeris, Israeli ambassador Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein with Israeli embassy chargé-d’affaires Erez Golan, German ambassador Cornelius Zimmermann, US ambassador Kara McDonald, speaker of Lithuanian parliament Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, prime minister Ingrida Šimonytė and others. Choral Synagogue cantor Shmuel Yaatom performed kaddish. Vilnius Religious Jewish Community chairman Simas Levinas also participated.
Holocaust Commemoration in Pabradė
A Holocaust commemoration was held September 23 in Pabradė, a town in eastern Lithuania on the border with Belarus. September 23 is Lithuania’s Day of the Genocide of Lithuanian Jews. The event was held under the umbrella of the Memory Road civic initiative in cooperation with the Švenčionys Jewish Community, the Pabradė Municipal Culture Center, the Pabradė aldermanship and 6th, 7th and 8th graders from the Rytas Gymnasium in Pabradė under the tutelage of history teacher Danguolė Grincevičienė.
Participants walked the path along which Jews were marched to their deaths to the mass murder site there. Švenčionys Jewish Community chairman Moshe Shapiro and history teacher Danguolė Grincevičienė spoke to the students about the former Jewish community there.
Remembering the Holocaust in Nemenčinė
A ceremony was held in Nemenčinė (Nementchin, Niemenczyn) just north of Vilnius Friday at the site of the former synagogue to remember the approximately 500 Jews from that once-thriving shtetl murdered in the Holocaust.
Those attending the ceremony included Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, Israeli ambassador Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein, Tammy Nguyen representing the US embassy, Lithuanian MP Rita Tamašunienė and Vilnius regional administration mayor Robertas Duchnevičius, among others. Students from the Sholem Aleichem school in Vilnius staged brief presentations. The participants proceeded on to the mass murder site several kilometers away where Choral Synagogue cantor Shmuel Yaatom prayed for the victims.
Condolences
In deep sadness we report the death of Fania Brantsovskaya on September 22 in Vilnius. She was born in 1922.
Fania was a Jewish partisan who originally served as a courier. Several films have been made about her life. She was one of only a handful of Jewish partisans who remained in Lithuania after the Holocaust. In her later years she continued to speak out publicly and teach younger generations about what happened in Lithuania.
Our deepest condolences to her family and many friends.
Natalja Cheifec Lecture Series Continues
Natalja Cheifec’s #ŠALOM club invites you to a zoom meeting at 5:30 P.M. on September 26 featuring an intriguing account of Jewish life and traditions. Receive zoom credentials by registering and don’t forget to include your questions of interest on the registration form.
Register here: https://forms.gle/BTA6PZpaHLmKfM969
Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club Annual Sporting Spectacular
The Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club is holding its annual sporting spectacular for athletes, family and friends. This year’s program includes a number of branches of sports and new challenges.
The event is free to all who register and to approved contestants. The program includes volleyball, 3-on-3 basketball, soccer, chess, orienteering and a krav maga class with a professional trainer. Snacks and drinks will be served as well.
The celebration begins at 12:00 noon and carries on till 5:00 P.M. on Sunday, September 29.
To register, click here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdlBOoVrQUbr4RtJF2g-dLs93YtS87uBREjgIYnDA6xyMYlyA/viewform.
Evening to Remember Righteous Gentile Ona Šimaitė in Kaunas
The Kaunas Jewish Community invites you to an evening to remember Righteous Gentile Ona Šimaitė at the Vincas Kudirka Public Library, A. Mapu street no.18, Kaunas at 6:00 P.M. on Thursday, September 19.
Author of a biography in Lithuanian and researcher Rimantas Stankevičius will speak at the event hosted by the historian Linas Venclauskas. Rokas Makštutis will provide musical accompaniment.
Day of Genocide of Lithuanian Jews in Panevėžys
You’re invited to attend a commemoration of the Day of Genocide of Lithuanian Jews to be held in in Panevėžys, Lithuania, starting at 1:00 P.M. on Monday, September 23.
Program:
1:00 P.M. Opening ceremony and wreath-laying at “Sad Jewish Mother” statue on Memory Square on Vasario 16-osios street.
1:30 P.M. Trip to mass murder site in Kurganava Forest.
2:00 P.M. Trip to Holocaust memorial site in Žalioji Forest.
3:30 P.M. Screening of Yad Vashem film about the Holocaust at Panevėžys Jewish Community
Please indicate your intention to attend by calling the chairman of the Panevėžys Jewish Community at 8 611 20882 or the administrator at 8 610 17608.
Sydney Jewish Museum Cancels Lithuanian Holocaust Event
The Sydney Jewish Museum in Australia has taken down from their webpage an announcement for an event called “Remembering the Holocaust in Lithuania” without explanation.
The event had been scheduled for 11:00 A.M. on September 29 and was billed to include USHM resident historian and professor emeritus Konrad Kwiet and Lithuanian ambassador to Australia, former ambassador to Israel and South Africa Darius Degutis who was supposed to speak on ongoing efforts to insure the Holocaust be properly remembered and commemorated in Lithuania at the current time.
Sources close to the Museum said ambassador Degutis’s appearance had been cancelled due to the Lithuanian state’s ongoing Holocaust distortion and a recent finding from the Lithuanian Genocide Center exculpating Lithuanian Nazi leader Kazys Škirpa.
Mirages: A New Look at Old Shtetls
The Regional History Museum of the Jonava Culture Center has put on a new exhibit of photographs by Iveta Bajorinaitė called Mirages of the Shtetl accompanied by texts by the late Grigoriy Kanovich showcasing the Lithuanian town and Jewish shtetl then and now. Renowned Litvak writer Kanovich grew up in Jonava.
During the opening ceremony last week, Iveta Bajorinaitė spoke about her quest to locate and photograph locations in the current urban landscape which correspond to with archival photographs.
Šeduva Jewish History Museum aka the Lost Shtetl senior curator Milda Jakulytė-Vasil, Kėdainiai Regional History Museum director Rimantas Žirgulis and Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas continued the opening ceremony with a panel discussion called “How Do We Tell the Story of the Shtetls?” Among the other ideas shared, they agreed the most important answer to that question was taking the initiative and working steadfastly towards that goal. They shared their personal experiences in organizing exhibitions and events and utilizing urban spaces.
The Regional History Museum of the Jonava Culture Center’s project “Stories of the Shtetls” is financed by Lithuania’s Cultural Heritage Department and the Jonava regional administration with the Šeduva Jewish History Museum aka the Lost Shtetl as a partner in the project.
Visitors to Panevėžys Jewish Community
Celesta and Harriet Sollod from San Francisco visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community recently. Their grandfather was Isaac Neviarsky who with his brother was Nathan and sister Yeta left Ponavezh in 1895 and travelled to Baltimore in the United States. Their father was Hirsh Aaron who was deported with other Jews from the Kovna guberniya during the First World War in 1915. He went to Petrograd where a maternal relative of the Semakovich family lived, becoming a renowned medical doctor to the Russian tsar.
Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman received the visitors and spoke to them about the history of the Jews of Panevėžys and the Community’s activities. The two women then went to view Jewish sites in the area including the Jewish cemetery and several Jewish mass murder sites.
Win Two Tickets to Valeria’s Klezmer Chariot
Valeri’a Klezmer Chariot from Sweden is holding their premiere concert in Lithuania in Vilnius. The band’s repertoire runs the gamut of musical genres, blending klezmer with jazz, funk and Balkan rhythms. The band includes Valeria Conte doing lyrics and clarinet, Sara Fridholm on accordion, Stian Grimstadt on tuba and Tomas Norberg on drums.
Lithuanian Jewish Community members have the unique opportunity to win two tickets to the concert by going to https://rb.gy/sxmpm5 and indicating their name and the name of their other preferred concert goer. Winners will be announced Saturday. Other LJC members will receive a discounted ticket price of 15 euros by registering here. Tickets can also be purchased at Bilietai.lt with the first 30 tickets going for 39 euros.
For further information, media contacts and etc. call any of the following numbers:
+370 677 00699, +37064536403, +370 61801331, +370 671 76502.
Time: 7:00 P.M., Sunday, September 15
Place: Third floor, Lithuanian Jewish Community, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius
Twelve Thousand Pivonija Holocaust Victims Remembered
People gathered at noon on the first Sunday in September for the annual commemoration of the approximately 12,000 Jews murdered in the Pivonija Forest outside Ukmergė (Vilkomir) this year as in years past. Ukmergė Jewish Community chairman Artūras Taicas began the ceremony with an address and Kaunas Jewish Community member Iseris Šreibergas said kaddish. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kuklianksy, members and heads of regional LJC affiliates, local politicians, local school children and ambassadors to Lithuania including Israel’s Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein attended the ceremony.
Visitor to Panėvežys
Brendan Cohen from Melbourne, Australia, visited the Panėvežys Jewish Community August 30. He had sent genealogical documents to the Community before his trip. Cohen sought to learn which of his relatives had been murdered in the Holocaust in Panėvežys and surrounding areas. Chairman Gennady Kofman received the guest and shared the results of searches of the Community’s archives.
Two Events Held in Honor of Chaim Frenkel
Last Sunday two events were held in honor of Chaim Frenkel in Šiauliai: a stele marking the first soccer stadium in Šiauliai was unveiled in the central part of the city and the fourth Chaim Frenkel soccer tournament was attended by 10 soccer teams including Šiauliai Makabi. Frenkel helped build the soccer stadium in the period between the two world wars..
Dance Symphony from the Jeursalem of the North
A music and dance play based on Jievaras Jasinskis’s “Symphony from the Jerusalem of the North” is returning to the stage for two performances.
Time: 6:00 P.M., September 19
Place: Alytus Town Theater, Alytus, Lithuania
Time: 6:00 P.M., September 24
Place: Saulė Concert Hall, Šiauliai, Lithuania
Gunman Killed in Munich near Israeli Consulate on Anniversary of Black September Massacre
BERLIN–Police in Munich say they thwarted a potential attack on Jewish targets Thursday after they shot and killed a man who was firing a rifle near the Israeli Consulate and a museum documenting Nazi Germany.
Police have not offered details on the suspect. Some German media outlets reported he was a juvenile from Austria police had previously investigated for alleged ties to Islamic extremism.
Germany’s public broadcaster Deutsche Welle verified the authenticity of cell-phone videos shared online which show a younger male carrying a rifle fitted with a bayonet before and during the shootout.
Efraim Zuroff Leaves Simon Wiesenthal Center
Last Nazi Hunter Efraim Zuroff Resigns from Simon Wiesenthal Center, Vows to Fight Anti-Semitism
by Eyal Green, Jerusalem Post, September 4, 2024
Efraim Zuroff, the last Nazi hunter, steps down after 38 years at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, pledging to continue fighting anti-Semitism.
Unofficially known as the last Nazi hunter, Efraim Zuroff has stepped down as director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel office after 38 years, Zuroff announced September 3.
Efraim Zuroff was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1948 and dedicated his life to identifying and bringing to justice Nazi war criminals who had evaded justice for decades. His interest in Holocaust studies began early, and after earning a degree in history from Yeshiva University, he moved to Israel in 1970 to work at Yad Vashem, Israel’s official Holocaust memorial, the Jerusalem Post reports.
Righteous Gentiles Exhibit Opens in Šiauliai
An exhibit of photos and bios of Lithuania’s Righteous Gentiles opened this week in the courtyard of the Šiauliai District Jewish Community in Šiauliai this week, attended by the Israeli ambassador to Lithuania, local politicians, members of the Jewish community and the general public.