History of the Jews in Lithuania

Panevėžys Jewish Community Youth Meet

Susibūrė Panevėžio m. žydų bendruomenės jaunimas

Children of members of the Panevėžys Jewish Community and their parents gathered July 12 to consider the formation of a Panevėžys Jewish Community youth organization. They discussed how to stimulate organizational, cultural and athletic activities among youth. The goal of the meeting was to encourage more Community youth to learn Jewish traditions. The Community building includes a room with religious regalia, literature, albums, magazines and multimedia equipment for screening films and holding lectures. The proposal was made to use the room for youth activities, specifically for personal study of Judaism.

The meeting made plans to travel to Ventspils in Latvia on August 5 and 6 and learn about the former Jewish community there. The trip would include an excursion into Joniškis, Lithuania, to view the newly restored Red and White Synagogues there. The trip to Ventspils is to include meetings with the surviving Jewish community there and the conclusion of a cooperation agreement between the two communities. The trip is supported by the Goodwill Foundation and members of the Panevėžys Jewish Community. Members are invited to participate.

Israeli Choirs Big Hit

Izraelio chorų koncertas

The concert by choirs from Israel in Vilnius July 24 was a great hit. The Vilnius Old Town Hall was full to overflowing for the concert mainly in Hebrew but with some Yiddish and even a Yemeni song.

The Israeli embassy to Lithuania sponsored the free public event and ambassador Amir Maimon reminded the audience the Old Town Hall stood right next to the big and small Vilnius ghettos where almost all prisoners were murdered during the Holocaust.

Litvaks Abroad Using Opportunity to Restore Lithuanian Citizenship

Užsienyje gyvenantys litvakai aktyviai naudojasi galimybe atkurti pilietybę

Vilnius, July 20, BNS–Jews with Lithuanian origins are actively making use of the opportunity to restore Lithuanian citizenship following amendments which came into effect in July last year making the process easier, officials reported Thursday.

The Lithuanian Migration Department announced 1,131 people restored Lithuanian citizenship in the first half of this year. In the second half of last year the number was 912.

Director Evelina Gudzinskaitė said the majority were Litvaks.

“After the law on citizenship was changed last year, the numbers are really growing. Litvaks from Israel and the Republic of South Africa are the majority, and people who left for the United States are also making active use of the opportunity,” Gudzinskaitė told BNS.

In the first half of last year Lithuanian citizenship was restored to 481 people. In July of 2016 amendments came into effect allowing people who left the country in the interwar period and their descendants to receive Lithuanian citizenship.

The law was changed after Migration Department officials and courts began refusing to restore citizenship to certain Litvaks who failed to provide proof they were persecuted in independent Lithuania between the two world wars. Lithuanian officials calculate there are about 200,000 Jews living in Israel with Lithuanian roots, and more than 70,000 Jews with Litvak roots in South Africa.

People and Books of the Strashun Library Exhibit to Close July 28

Paroda „Strašuno bibliotekos žmonės ir knygos“ veiks iki liepos 28

For those who haven’t seen the exhibition at the Lithuanian National Martynas Mažvydas Library, People and Books of the Strashun Library will close July 28. Judaica Center director Dr. Lara Lempertienė is planning to lead a tour July 28 for those interesting in learning why the Strashun Library looms so large on the Litvak cultural horizon, to be followed by a discussion. She is inviting interested parties to gather in the exhibition hall on the third floor at the library at 3:00 P.M., July 28.

Sergejus Kanovičius: Let’s Put Our Whole Heart in It, There Won’t Be a Second Chance

by Donatas Puslys
bernardinai.lt

A unique project should open its doors in 2019: the Lost Shtetl Šeduva Litvak history, culture and commemoration museum. We spoke with the project director and founder of the Šeduva Jewish Memorial Fund Sergejus Kanovičius about his work, commemorating the memory of Litvaks and the challenges he faces.

Let’s begin our conversation with the context surrounding the entire Šeduva project. How are doing here in Lithuania in integrating Lithuanian Jewish history into the general historical narrative? Is it an integral part of the story now, or still just an interesting footnote adding color to the main story?

It’s hard to assess this because you can never have all the information. You can only try to take it all in. What’s important is that all of these kinds of projects, including Šeduva, serve a very noble goal, to preserve or create cultural treasures. I think all the efforts connect up and achieve their goal sooner or later, each project is doing something worthwhile, contributing to educating the public. It might be somewhat boring to keep repeating it, but I will say it again, that everything will change, and I believe it will change for the better, when the educational system gets serious about these matters and the content of textbooks will be much different so that the story of the Jews–of Vilnius, Šeduva, Jonava and Lithuania–doesn’t begin and end in the Holocaust mass graves. There is a normal cycle to life. A person’s life begins with being born, and the history of the Jews of Lithuania begins here with the movement and settlement of people. The history of this settlement is extremely varied and rich and needs to be told. I think this is a question of educational reform.

Full interview in Lithuanian here.

Netanyahu Warns EU Will Shrivel and Die from Immigration from Middle East and Africa

Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu attending a closed-door meeting of the leaders of the Visegrad group was overheard by Israeli reporters telling the leaders the European Union would “shrivel and die” unless it changes its open-door immigration policies allowing in a flood of refugees from North Africa and the Middle East, and again called upon the EU to change its policies towards the state of Israel which he described as a European Western country.

“I think Europe has to decide if it wants to live and thrive or if it wants to shrivel and disappear,” he said. “I am not very politically correct. I know that’s a shock to some of you. It’s a joke. But the truth is the truth – both about Europe’s security and Europe’s economic future. Both of these concerns mandate a different policy toward Israel,” Netanyahu reportedly said in front of a microphone accidentally left on.

“The European Union is the only association of countries in the world that conditions the relations with Israel, which produces technology in every area, on political conditions. The only ones! Nobody does it,” Netanyahu said before the feed was cut by embarrassed hosts in Budapest.

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Happy Birthday to Gennady Kofman

Dear Gennady,

The Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes you a happy 65th birthday!

A person is only happy when he does his daily work well and solves problems to achieve the goals he sets for himself. In your case, Gennady, those goals involve the lives, needs and joys of the Panevėžys Jewish Community. May every day bring you joy and meaning in your work on behalf of the Community, researching Jewish history and caring for your family.

Our respect and good wishes to the chairman of the Panevėžys Jewish Community. May you remain always in good health. Mazl tov!

Vilnius Jewish Religious Community Chairman Visits Great Synagogue Archaeological Site

Vilnius Jewish Religious Community chairman Shmuel (Simas) Levinas visited the site of the Great Synagogue July 18 where an international team of archaeologists are now working for their second summer. Dr. Jon Seligman acquainted the chairman with current work, including the discovery of two well-preserved ritual baths with original tiles and a well-developed water system. The pieces discovered are washed by volunteers and excavated earth is sent through sieves to find smaller items. Some of the volunteers, mainly from the USA and Israel, and Dr. Seligman have Litvak roots.

On July 19 Dr. Seligman and fellow archaeological dig director professor Freund visited the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius and had a chance to see for themselves the revival of Jewish religious life taking place there.

The visitors saw the synagogue’s Torah scrolls and were especially interested in the scroll donated by Judah Passow which originates in the time of the Vilna Gaon. They were impressed by a matzo-making machine contrived after World War II at the synagogue and were most interested in fragments of the former Great Synagogue preserved at the Choral Synagogue, including plaques with prayers. The two visitors donated Vladimir Levin’s book History of the Synagogues of Vilnius to the library at the Choral Synagogue.

NOVA Documentary Holocaust Escape Tunnel Screened at Vilna Gaon Museum

The Tolerance Center of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum screened the NOVA documentary about Jewish Vilna which aired earlier in the spring on the PBS network in the United States on July 18. The event space was filled with audience members and staff had to find additional chairs for the large crowd. Many sat in the upstairs balcony overlooking the space. Also in attendance were current and former staff from the Vilna Gaon museum and MP Emanuelis Zingeris. The audience was mainly interested members of the Lithuanian public including a large number of young Lithuanians.

Speaking before the film, museum director Markas Zingeris praised the documentary about archaeological digs at the site of the former Great Synagogue in Vilnius and at the Holocaust mass murder site Ponar just outside the Lithuanian capital.

Deputy chief of mission at the United States embassy to Lithuania Howard Solomon also called the film important and reiterated long-standing US support for the Lithuanian Jewish community.

Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Amir Maimon noted Israelis remember the heroes as well as the victims during Holocaust commemorations, and said his personal hero was Fania Brancovskaja, the FPO partisan present in the audience. He also expressed the hope the documentary would be shown throughout Lithuania.

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Jews of Vilkomir on Lietuvos Rytas TV

The Lietuvos Rytas television program Travel with a Reporter features Ukmergė (Vilkomir) Jewish Community chairman Artūras Taicas and discusses the former Jewish community in the Lithuanian town.

Watch the program in Lithuanian here.

Lithuanian Makabi Mini-Soccer Team Ties with Mexico July 16

In the battle for fifth place, the Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club mini-soccer team won against Mexico in penalty kicks July 16, repeating their achievement back in 1989. Falling behind 1:4, the boys rallied and Mexico was tied with Lithuania 6:6. Markas Plineris made the winning goal in penalty kicks.

Educational Plein Air Outdoor Painting Workshop, July 31-August 4

Dear Community member,

If you have a yearning to paint, like art, enjoy nature and good company, you won’t want to miss this year’s educational plein air outdoor painting workshop, our third in as many years.

The plein air painting workshop will last 5 days and 4 nights at an inspiring rural location under the direction of the famous painters Raimondas Savickas from Lithuania and Alexander Ganelin and Anna Khodorkovski, both from Israel.

The workshop will be held at the Įlanka farm on Bebrusas Lake in the Molėtai region where participants will spend four nights. Three meals per day will be provided (with vegetarian options). Daily work includes practical activities and one-on-one consultation with teachers, painting and other media, and an education/free-time program including a ride on the Švyturys recreational ferry across the lake, a sauna, cultural events and a Sabbath ceremony.

The cost for Community members is 150 euros. Please register by noon, July 18, because space is limited.

After sending the sum by bank transfer please send a copy of the payment form to zanas@sc.lzb.l

For more information and registration, contact:
Žana Skudovičienė by email at zanas@sc.lzb.lt or by telephone at + 370 67881514.

Details for payment:

to: Lietuvos žydų (litvakų) bendruomenė [Lithuanian Jewish Community]
company code 190722117
tax code: LT100010504214
bank account number: LT09 7044 0600 0090 7953
bank: AB SEB bankas

Please indicate the payment is for “Edukacinis pleneras 2017” [Educational Plein Air 2017] (and indicate the name of the person for whom payment is made).

The Educational Plein Air Outdoor Painting Worskhop 2017 is made possible by the Lithuanian Jewish Community, the Goodwill Foundation and the Joint Distribution Committee

Archaeologists Return to Digs at Shulhoyf, Ponar

from Jewish Heritage Europe

The second season of archaeological excavations is under way at the site of the destroyed Great Synagogue in Vilnius and the surrounding Shulhoyf complex of Jewish buildings. A team of Israeli, Lithuanian and American volunteers began work on July 10 and will continue until July 21.

The objective is to continue last year’s work  researching the water system of the complex developed in the 18th century and two mikvaot, ritual baths. Plans are to open “an area … probably near the entrance staircase descending into the synagogue and around the area of the bimah.”

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Screening of NOVA Documentary about Ponar

Dear all,

The Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum and the embassy of the United States of America in Vilnius kindly invite you to a screening of the documentary film “Holocaust Escape Tunnel” at the museum’s Tolerance Center (Naugarduko St. 10/2, Vilnius) on Tuesday, July 18, at 5:30 P.M. The screening will be followed by a discussion with the archaeologists featured in the film.

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On Issues Surrounding the Protection and Conservation of Anti-Semites


by Sergejus Kanovičius

bernardinai.lt
July 29, 2016

Recently members of the City of Vilnius’s Commission of Names, Monuments and Memorial Plaques (hereinafter the City Commission) visited these issues.

Members of the Commission apparently didn’t feel a lack of expertise in the matters at hand and didn’t seek the advice of the Lithuanian Language Commission on how to write Washington Square (there is no W in Lithuanian, but in any case it wasn’t Wrocław), didn’t ask for public input on Ukraine Square and felt confident enough to deliberate on issues related to commemorating Jonas Basanavičius.

But one question was the subject of much–how to say it precisely–profound avoidance of responsibility and competence. This was the issue connected with Vilnius City Council member Mark Harold’s statement in which he argued for renaming Kazys Škirpa Alley the Alley of the Righteous Gentiles. What did the Commission do? The Commission said they didn’t know what to do. They asked for help from another institution which, also not knowing what to do, issued historical reports on Škirpa full of evasions (he didn’t take part in mass murder because the Germans wouldn’t allow him to travel, he didn’t murder anyone personally, he was just the head of the anti-Semitic LAF and called for getting rid of the Jews in this manner: “Having examined the anti-Semitic statements encountered in texts prepared by the Berlin LAF organization, it can be stated its members proposed solving ‘the Jewish problem’ not through genocide, but by means of driving them out of Lithuania.” This is a quote [translated] from Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Lithuanian Residents director T. B. Burauskaitė’s history report sent to the head of the municipal administration of Kaunas).

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An Ugly Monument and the Ugly Truth


by Geoff Vasil

I entered Kaišiadorys in a pounding rain to see the Soviet monument the local residents want removed.

Visibility was perhaps 10 feet as I passed what seemed to be farmsteads and fields. Up ahead the road bisected a rather beautiful little lake. A weird light enveloped the scene, black clouds on one side and open blue sky on the other, with cattails, a bright green made neon against dark gray.

The monument appeared there on the other side of the lake right by the road, looking for all the world like a broken-down chimney of an abandoned factory, but surrounded by a natural idyll the summer squall was unable to diminish.

The monument itself has no inscription. It might have, once upon a time, but there was no evidence even of a stolen metal plaque, no holes for bolts, no tell-tale metal stains dripping down from an empty space anywhere on its face. The only thing close to an inscription was some faded graffiti, some message left in blue spray-paint but now illegible.

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Majority of Residents of Kaišiadorys Want Monument Removed

by Daiva Baronienė
daivabaro@lzinios.lt
www.lzinios.lt

A survey of people living in Kaišiadorys, Lithuania, or hailing from there found the majority don’t want an obelisk commemorating Nazi victims, a Soviet relic. Photo: www.kaisiarodys.lt

A public opinion survey in Kaišiadorys determined the majority of residents and people from the town who are currently abroad or living abroad no longer want the obelisk to victims of the Nazis to stand at the entrance to the town.

Kaišiadorys regional administration head Vytenis Tomkus’s wish to greet the 100th anniversary of Lithuanian independence next year after having removed from the region sites and constructions which don’t correspond to the ideological values of today is gaining momentum. A poll of residents over the period of one month asking whether they need to monument to victims of the Nazis to remain standing in Kaišiadorys or not found that the majority of informants in the rather active survey are convinced the town does not need this sort of monument.

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Lithuanian Makabi Take Silver, Bronze at Maccabiah Games


Table tennis team-play competition medal winners Neta Alon and Vanesa Ražanskytė.

 


Markas Sames took silver in one-on-one youth badminton competitions.

 


Danielius Tarachovskism won a bronze medal in mixed doubles youth badminton.

 


Photographer Dovydas Fligelis captured a moment from a mini-soccer match between Lithuania and the USA (3:1).