Learning – Page 84 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Shavuot Begins May 28

Shavuot is the holiday which celebrates the receiving of the Torah. This marks the day the Jewish people received the Law. It is celebrated on the 6th day of Sivan on the Jewish calendar. This is a state holiday in Israel.

Shavuot means “weeks” in Hebrew. It is the seventh week from the second day of Passover. It marks the day when Moses received the Ten Commandments of G_d on Mount Sinai. They were written on two stone slabs. These are known in Hebrew as “Aseret haDvarim” and in Greek as the Decalogue.

2020-05-282020-06-02

Request to Investigate Video

May 26, 2020

To:

Viktoras Pranckietis, speaker of parliament, pirmininko.sekretoriatas@lrs.lt

Dainis Gaižauskas, chairman, National Security and Defense Committee, Dainius.Gaizauskas@lrs.lt

Request to Investigate Video

For at least several days now there has been a video posted to youtube in which two members vote by raising their hands in the manner done in the Third Reich during a meeting of the Lithuanian parliament’s National Security and Defense Committee. The video is accompanied by an audio track in which a member of parliament seems to warn these two the meeting is being filmed.

The video appears under the title “Naciai LR Seime” [Nazis in the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania] with the note it comes from the May 20, 2020, meeting of this committee.

This video recording has caused great concern in the international arena and raises suspicions anti-Semitic sentiment is growing rapidly in Lithuania. It is becoming dangerous for Jews to live here because these sorts of salutes were used by the Nazis and their collaborators (who were also Nazis) when the Jews were exterminated in Lithuania and Europe.

The Lithuanian Jewish Community requests an inquiry into whether the two MPs did vote with a “sieg heil” salute and whether the other MP really did warn them as heard in the audio, and to report the results of this investigation to the LJC.

Comments under the youtube posting name one of the MPs who apparently gave the Nazi salute as Audrys Šimas, a member of the Peasants and Green Union faction in parliament.

The video seems to show another MP, identified as Arūnas Gumuliauskas, returning the salute. The MP warning the two not to do that because the meeting was being filmed, according to the audio track, was conservative Laurynas Kasčiūnas.

Please check this information and make a determination on the identity of the MPs involved.

Whether the recording is real or fake, it does harm to the reputation of the Lithuanian parliament and moreover the entire country. It has caused concern and anger among Jews in Lithuania and around the world.

We do not find it credible that in Lithuania only Jews have seen this video nor that members of parliament and law enforcement institutions whose job it is to respond have not seen it. We very much hope an investigation is already underway.

The video is posted here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZATZiDvSdI

Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community

2020-05-272020-06-29

Liba Mednik Commemorated in Širvintos, Lithuania

A stele with a bas-relief and inscription was erected at a ceremony in Širvintos, Lithuania, May 19 to commemorate Liba Mednik (Mednikienė), who fought for Lithuanian independence when the first republic was being created in the early 20th century.

Sculptor Romualdas Kvintas designed the memorial to look like a Jewish headstone, a stone slab with inscription, and with a bronze image of the woman attached in bas-relief fashion. The bronze portion of the monument was cast and installed on the stone by the sculptor Mindaugas Šnipas by request of the Vilnius Jerusalem of the North Jewish Community. Kvintas has done a number of large stone sculptures on Jewish themes.

Mednik, who was born in 1875, lived through the entire tragedy of the Jewish people in Lithuania, fighting for Lithuanian independence and the interwar Republic, and being murdered in the Holocaust in Lithuania. According to historian Stanislovas Dačka, she was murdered in the Pivonika forest near Ukmergė (Vilkomir) with about 12,000 other Jews from the area in early autumn of 1941. Širvintos, her hometown, lies about 15 kilometers to the southeast of Ukmergė.

Vilijus Kavalauskas celebrated her in his book “Lietuvos karžygiai: Vyties Kryžiaus kavalieriai,” calling her a unique and strong character. During the Lithuanian conflict with Poland in 1922 and 1923, Liba Mednik collected military intelligence and distributed it to the Lithuanian military and Lithuanian partisans. She sent documents garnered from Polish headquarters and money to the Lithuanian fighters, Kavaliauskas reports.

2020-05-222020-05-28

Lithuanian Web Site: Let’s Learn about Lite, the Great Synagogue and the Vilna Gaon

by Karolina Aleknavičė, 15min.lt

This year, 2020, has been declared the Year of the Vilna Gaon and Lithuanian Jewish History, and it’s a good opportunity to learn about the authentic culture which thrived for whole centuries in our neighborhood.

We spoke with Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum Jewish culture and identity exhibit coordinator Saulė Valiūnaitė, Vilnius University historian Dr. Akvilė Naudžiūnienė and Kėdainiai Multicultural Center director Audronė Pečiulytė about Lite, the Litvaks who lived here, Vilnius as the Jerusalem of the North and the Gaon, Eliyahu, who lived there.

Lithuanian Jewish History an Integral Part of Lithuanian History

Valiūnaitė told 15min.lt Lithuanians’ attitude towards Jewish history has changed over the last 15 years. “It’s inspiring that in Vilnius and other Lithuanian cities there are ever more initiatives appearing, and most importantly, a desire to commemorate the history and heritage of the Jews who lived there. Some do this by setting up commemorative markers, others by organizing events or writing books about the Jewish history of their cities and towns,” she said.

2020-05-21

Beverly Hills Speaks Out Same Day Lithuanian Prosecutor Drops Case

In response to this claim to the Lithuanian Public Prosecutor:

https://ggochin.wordpress.com/2019/12/02/complaint-to-public-prosecutor/

the following denial has been received:

2020-05-20_035122

There is no purpose in seeking truth or Justice inside Lithuania. The State has formed a unified position to protect historical revisionists and to lie about their Holocaust perpetrators. This is consistent with their Courts, Ethics watchdogs, and government departments. They will not allow any review of facts within Lithuania. Further cases inside Lithuania serve only as stepping stones to reach the European Court of Human Rights.

Therefore, truth is only able to come from outside of Lithuania. In that regard, the City of Beverly Hills reviewed the following data:

https://ggochin.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/city-resolution.docx

City-Resolution and unanimously voted for the following resolution:
Item_D-15_Agenda_Report

https://eutoday.net/news/politics/2020/beverley-hills

Full text here.

Note: the district prosecutor’s rejection to initiate a pre-trial investigation linked to above cites Lithuanian court precedent claiming criminal prosecution is not always the best way to stop socially harmful acts. The LJC notes Lithuanian prosecutors have never attempted to apply existing law to domestic promoters of anti-Semitism and Holocaust deniers. For more recent examples of this, see here and here.

2020-05-202020-06-12

Ninth Forth Memorial Sculptor Dies

Photo: LRT

Lithuanian Public Radio and Television and BNS reported Wednesday the sculptor Alfonsas Vincentas Ambraziūnas died on May 7 at the age of 86. He was known mainly for the large Soviet-era memorial statue at the Ninth Fort in Kaunas where Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. Initially the statue was dedicated to all victims of fascism.

Full article in Lithuanian here.

2020-05-20

Beverly Hills City Council Condemns Lithuanian Holocaust Distortion

The City Council of Beverly Hills, California, passed a resolution condemning Lithuania’s official distortion of the history of the Holocaust and World War II Tuesday, calling upon the Government to halt all such efforts and the Lithuanian parliament to refrain from approving a proposed resolution declaring Lithuania and her people “occupied” and therefore innocent of complicity in the Jewish genocide.

The resolution singled out efforts to white-wash “anti-Soviet hero” Jonas Noreika.

It cited the city’s recent adoption of the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism, a 2016 California state bill aimed at fighting the BDS (boycott, divestment, sanction) movement against Israeli policies and the council’s recent honoring of U.S.-resident Litvak Grant Gochin for his efforts to fight Lithuania’s Holocaust distortion. The text of the resolution also says the Lithuanian government uses intimidation tactics against those who speak out against its Holocaust distortions.

2020-05-202020-05-27

Daniel Dolskis: Founder of Lithuanian Stage Music Who Entertained Pre-War Kaunas

by Rasa Murauskaitė, Lithuanian national public radio and television, LRT.lt

Lithuanian Public Radio and Television continues stories in the the Stones of Memory series intended to commemorate Litvaks in Lithuania and around the world. The third story concerns Daniel Dolskis (Danielius Dolskis, Dolski), one of the founders of the Lithuanian estrada popular music tradition.

Although he only lived a few years in Kaunas, Lithuania, during the interwar period, Dolskis quickly became a legend of real Lithuanian estrada musical culture.

“Onytė, come dance with me,” Dolskis used to say when inviting Lithuanian girls to dance.

“The Man Who Entertained Kaunas” wrote one Lithuanian paper of Dolskis in the period between the two world wars. Actually the truth is somewhat different about the crooner born to a family of Vilner Jews by the name of Broides, a name connected with the musical nightlife at Kaunas’s famous interwar restaurants and clubs such as Metropol, Konrad’s Café and others.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2020-05-19

In the Spotlight: William Stern

Mr. William Stern was born in Budapest in 1935; after the Nazi occupation of Hungary in March 1944, he and his family were taken to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. They survived the War and emigrated to New York in 1952 where Mr Stern pursued studies first at Yeshiva University and subsequently at Harvard Law School.

It was during his stint at Harvard Law School that Mr Stern discovered the many risks and temptations which face a student when he leaves his home environment and suddenly becomes enmeshed in a totally new and different culture. He was shocked at seeing some of his friends shed their tradition and previous way of life in just a matter of months. Having married a young lady resident in London, Mr Stern moved to England in 1960. Early in his career, he established in London in 1971 a kosher canteen which welcomed students of Imperial College, located opposite his offices at Albert Court. This canteen has been going strong for the past 45 years and is presently catering to 30-35 Imperial College students every day of the academic year.

When he expanded his business to Lithuania, Mr Stern discovered the presence in Kaunas of approximately 100 Israeli medical students. He felt that during the 6-year period which medical studies require, many of these students might lose not only their Israeli but also their Jewish identity. In 2010, he established the Jewish Club which grew and developed over the years into the Jewish Centre Kaunas. Its aim is to provide the Jewish students in Kaunas a home away from home and prevent the loss of Jewish identity which otherwise might occur.

2020-05-19

Prosecutor Drops Pre-Trial Investigation of Anti-Semitism Yet Again

This time the Vilnius district attorney’s office reported they dropped an investigation into an article containing anti-Semitism and sowing ethnic discord on the internet page of the weekly newspaper Laisvas Laikraštis. The pre-trial investigation was begun at the request of Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky.

“I can’t even count anymore how many times both the Community and I have sent these requests in. Dozens. So far all investigations have been halted because investigators never seem to find any evidence of a crime,” Kukliansky commented.

She said the Community will continue to publicize each and every complaint and each and every rejection, even if the spreaders of hate receive extra publicity for their articles and comments because of it.

2020-05-182020-06-02

Hundredth Anniversary of Jewish Faction in Lithuanian Constituent Parliament

Photo: One of the first sittings of the new Lithuanian parliament took place at the City Theater. In front is the presidium, to the left, sitting, are Naftalis Fridmanas, Petras Radzevičius, Ladas (Vladas) Natkevičius, first deputy speaker Jonas Staugaitis, Sspeaker Aleksandras Stulginskis, second deputy speaker Justinas Staugaitis. Right, seated: Zigmas Starkus. Kaunas, 1920. Courtesy Vytautas the Great Military Museum.

The Jewish Faction in Lithuania’s Constituent Parliament

The first parliament elected after Lithuanian independence in the early 20th century caused a global sensation.

This year comes 100 years after the first universal democratic elections for a Lithuanian parliament. One feature of what Lithuania calls its Constituent Assembly was the Jewish faction of parliamentarians, something almost impossible to imagine today following the extermination of upwards of 95% of all Lithuanian Jews in the Holocaust.

to be continued

2020-05-152020-05-18

On Vytautas Bruveris’s Series of Articles “Lithuania and the Holocaust: Endless Seizures Instead of Healing Wounds”: Comments by Lithuanian Readers Contain Indications of Crime

by professor Dr habil. Pinchos Fridberg

Information

In the first week of way the internet site of the Lietuvos Rytas newspaper featured a series of articles in Lithuanian by Vytautas Bruveris called “Lithuania and the Holocaust: Endless Seizures Instead of Healing Wounds.”

Part One, May 1, 2020: https://www.lrytas.lt/lietuvosdiena/aktualijos/2020/05/01/news/lietuva-ir-holokaustas-vietoj-zaizdu-gydymo-nesibaigiantys-traukuliai-i-dalis–14716722/

Part Two, May 2, 2020: https://www.lrytas.lt/lietuvosdiena/aktualijos/2020/05/02/news/lietuva-ir-holokaustas-vietoj-zaizdu-gydymo-nesibaigiantys-traukuliai-ii-dalis–14716738/

Part Three, May 3, 2020: https://www.lrytas.lt/lietuvosdiena/aktualijos/2020/05/03/news/lietuva-ir-holokaustas-vietoj-zaizdu-gydymo-nesibaigiantys-traukuliai-iii-dalis–14716742/

2020-05-132020-05-22

Lithuanian Jewish Community Statement on May 9 Incident

The Lithuanian Jewish Community has asked the Lithuanian Office of Prosecutor General and the commissar general of the Lithuanian Police Department to investigate a so-called action held by motorcyclists in Vilnius on May 9, 2020, during which Nazi symbols and other attributes were used.

The media report the bikers dressed in Wehrmacht uniforms rode through the Vilnius OId Town playing march music from the Third Reich and rode in circles around the embassy of the Russian Federation on Latvių street.

“As you know, the distribution and demonstration of Nazi and Soviet symbols are banned by law in Lithuania and involve criminal accountability. We would like to emphasize the marches mentioned have painful associations for Jews because it was this sort of music which was played during selections at concentration camps during World War II,” the statement from the LJC reads.

Although the participants in the action did wear Nazi uniforms, it appears the police took no actions and didn’t stop the ride.

The LJC has received a report an LJC member who saw the motorcyclists near the Old Town Hall in Vilnius reported it to a police patrol nearby. The officers gave assurances the bikers would be punished, but Lithuanian Police Department representative Ramūnas Matonis told reporters there were no arrests for sowing ethnic discord anywhere in Lithuania on May 9.

The LJC therefore is now requesting:

1. an internal investigation and determination of the identities of the officers who were on duty in the police patrol at the Old Town Hall and an explanation on why the bikers were not cited.

2. determination of the identities of the people who rode around Vilnius dressed in Nazi uniforms and played Third Reich march music loudly.

3. an explanation on what instructions police street patrol officers receive and whether they are trained to recognize hate crimes and expressions of anti-Semitism.

4. to tell us whether the May 9 incident will be addressed in a future meeting of the special working group formed by the Lithuanian interior minister for fighting hate crimes and hate speech in Lithuania.

Visual material presented by the media shows this public violation was known at the time of its commission (URL: https://www.delfi.lt/news/daily/lithuania/pergales-diena-vilniuje-aplink-rusijos-ambasada-vazinejo-i-nacistines-vokietijos-karius-panasus-motociklininkai.d?id=84241879 )

2020-05-122020-05-15

Watch Litvak Cantor Melavonis in This Video

The Genesis Prize Fund has posted a video clip called Jews in Music to do honor to exceptional achievements by Jews in music. The Fund presents the prize annually and Jews in Music debuted in 2016. The prize ceremony is held in honor of violin virtuoso Yitzhak Perlman. Among the musicians included in the video below are Yosef Melovanis, Leonard Cohen, Carole King, Vladimir Vysotksky, Idan Raichel, Martha Argerich, Paul Simon, Yevgeniy Kissin, Billy Joel, Adam Levine, Drake and many others.

2020-05-11

Resident Ambassadors Mark VE Day at Jewish Cemetery in Vilnius

The Lithuanian Jewish Community and resident foreign ambassadors to Lithuania marked Victory in Europe day with a small, solemn gathering at the Jewish cemetery on Sudervės road in Vilnius on the morning of May 8. German ambassador Matthias Sonn, Israeli ambassador Jossy Avni-Levy and US ambassador Robert Gilchrist gave short addresses stressing the need to remember the past while looking to a better future.

2020-05-112020-05-11

Remembering the Victims of World War II

On the day marking the end of World War II in Europe, Victory Day, May 8, a small group gathered at the Jewish cemetery on Sudervės road in Vilnius to honor the victims of WWII, including Holocaust victims. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky was there with German ambassador Matthias Sonn, U.S. ambassador Robert Gilchrist, Israeli ambassador Yossy Avni-Levy, deputy Lithuanian foreign minister Dalius Čekuolis and Vilnius municipal administration director Povilas Poderskis.

2020-05-082020-05-11

Video Highlights of the Fifth World Holocaust Forum in 2020 in Jerusalem

Dear Presidents,
Dear Friends,

We are very happy and proud to share with you a video featuring highlights of the EJC event last January – The Fifth World Holocaust Forum – initiated by our President Moshe Kantor and hosted by the President of the State of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, at Yad Vashem.

Nearly 50 heads of state and royalty from across the world, as well as the three leaders of the European Union institutions, gathered in Jerusalem to reaffirm their unity against the upsurge of antisemitism globally and to honour the memory of the victims of the Holocaust.

Although it is difficult to encapsulate such a historic event in a few minutes, the video contains the most beautiful images, and the strongest and most touching excerpts of speeches and musical performances.

We hope this film will bring back precious memories of these emotional two days and allow those who could not be with us to grasp the intensity of the commitment expressed by world leaders for such a noble cause.

Stay safe and best regards,
Raya and the EJC Team

Video: https://eurojewcong.org/media/video-gallery/highlights-of-the-fifth-world-holocaust-forum-jerusalem-22-23-january-2020/

2020-05-08

Lithuanian MPs Defend Noreika

The following open letter appeared on the delfi.lt website. It is called “Reacting to Linkevičius’s Reply on Request to Review Positions on Jonas Noreika, aka General Storm.” Linas Linkevičius is the Lithuanian foreign minister. The two authors of the open letter were Audronius Ažubalis and Laurynas Kasčiūnas, members of parliament in the Homeland Union/Conservatives-Lithuanian Christian Democrats faction. Ažubalis was also a foreign minister in a previous government.

§§§

On April 6 we contacted foreign minister Linas Linkevičius and Vilnius mayor Remigijus Šimašius asking them to review their earlier positions regarding Jonas Noreika, aka General Storm, in light of the final and unappealable decision of the Lithuanian Supreme Administrative Court on April 1. We got an answer from the minister, and thank you for following the law, but from the mayor there was the usual silence, but we’ll talk about the lack of political culture [sic] another time…

Replying to the minister by open letter, we want to raise again respect for decisions by the Lithuanian courts and recall a few essential details which have been forgotten in this discussion of history policy.

It seems as if it’s clear to everyone that officials of a state under the rule of law should not ignore court decisions and laws in their activities. Especially not the fact the Lithuanian Supreme Court rehabilitated Jonas Noreika of the full extent of the Soviet accusation, that is, for cooperating with the Germans.

2020-05-082020-05-20

Lithuania and the Holocaust: Endless Seizures Instead of Healing Wounds (Part III)

part three

by Vytautas Bruveris

What are the methods for Lithuania as a country and society to demonstrate by deeds rather than words true solidarity with the country’s Jewish community, almost completely exterminated in the Holocaust, with the victims and with their descendants?

Long-Awaited Victory Celebrated

A third problematic bloc in modern Lithuania’s relationship towards the Holocaust is the definition, including legal, of Soviet crimes and oppression.

Should the mass murders and oppressions the Soviets carried out in Lithuania not just be called but legally recognized as genocide? Should they also be recognized as genocide outside Lithuania in the international arena?

2020-05-082020-05-22

Lithuania and the Holocaust: Endless Seizures Instead of Healing Wounds (Part II)

part two

by Vytautas Bruveris

Why Is There No Basic Number?

So if there’s no national agreement on what should be considered contributing to the Holocaust and what criteria might define this, then does the determination of direct participation in the mass murder of Jews not raise any conceptual misunderstandings?

2020-05-072020-05-20