History of the Jews in Lithuania

Kaunas Ultranationalist March Ended by… Donald Trump?

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Rethinking hate: Annual Kaunas February 16 ultra-nationalist marchers turn whimsical as organizers look at joining mainstream young conservative movement. Photo by Elijau Kniežauskas, courtesy Kauno Diena.

by Geoff Vasil

The annual march by Lithuanian ultra-nationalists on the pre-WWII Lithuanian independence day, February 16, in Kaunas, Lithuania’s second largest city, saw record low turnout this year, 2017. According to media reports of police estimates, just under 150 people including parents with children came this year.

Organizers sought and received a permit for 500 marchers.

Even before the march took place this year, there were signs of disarray this year. Instead of the usual organizer, the Union of Lithuanian Nationalist Youth, private citizen and somewhat of a dissident member of that organization, Justinas Daunoras, applied for the permit with Tomas Skorupskas as co-organizer. Both were reportedly convicted of public displays of Nazi logos in the past, according to media reports.

“The core of the march remains the same, although the Union of Nationalist Youth no longer exists. Now this is a club of several people. But we wanted to celebrate the holiday and enjoy our hard-won freedom. But we didn’t want the hate which our leaders have propagated in the past,” Tomas Skorupskas told the Kaunas newspaper Kauno Diena.

Justinas Daunoras told the same newspaper he and his fellow marchers wanted to modernize tradition. “In the narrow sense, that we shouldn’t get stuck in old matters, things such as appearance or style, but instead get in step with the times. In the broader sense, in the context of a changing culture and civilization, tradition must make way and accommodate them.” Speaking before the march was held, he told Kauno Diena they expected the usual number of marchers, several hundred, but added that some were staying away because they were displeased by things which took place in earlier years at the march. Daunoras had expected new marchers to replace the ranks of those staying home.

Lithuanian National Radio and Television reported the march briefly last week under the headline “Nationalist Youth March Organizers Borrow Slogan from Donald Trump”:

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Portrayal of Other Ethnicities in Shrovetide Traditions

In the run-up to the Lithuanian holiday of Užgavėnės (Shrovetide), the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum’s Tolerance Center will hold a discussion called Portrayal of Other Ethnicities in Shrovetide Traditions. The traditional holiday features people dressed up as Jews with masks with hooked noses. Speakers are to include Dr. Laima Anglickienė, the head of the cathedral of ethnology and folklore studies at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas; Libertas Klimka, an ethnologist and professor at the Lithuanian Educology University; the writer Dainius Razauskas and representatives from the Lithuanian Human Rights Center and the Equal Opportunities Ombudsman Service.

The discussion is open to the public and is to take place at 4:30 P.M. on February 21. The Tolerance Center is located at Naugarduko street no. 10/2 in Vilnius.

Japanese Violinist Yurina Arai Wins Heifetz Contest

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Yurina Arai has been named the winner of the Fifth Jascha Heifetz International Violin Competition in Vilnius, Lithuania. The 22-year-old Japanese violinist, who triumphed in the final with her performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, receives €10,000 and a number of performance opportunities. The student of Natsumi Tamai at the Tokyo University of the Arts won first prize at the Grumiaux Competition last year. The second prize worth €5,000 went to 17-year-old Dmytro Udovychenko from Ukraine, while third prize worth €2,000 went to 17-year-old R. Fukuda from Japan who won the Junior Division of the Menuhin Competition in 2014. Moscow Conservatory student 24-year-old Stepan Starikov and 17-year-old Japanese violinist Mayu Ozeki were awarded diplomas and €1,000. For the first time this year winners received a small sculpture of Heifetz by Lithuanian sculptor Romualdas Kvintas. The award was established by the Lithuanian Jewish Community. Professor Leonidas Melnikas who presented the prizes said “We want the winners to always remember Heifetz lived in Vilnius.”

More in Lithuanian here.

Was Hebrew Ever a Dead Language?

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Frequent VYI summer course student Sonya Yampolskaya at her doctoral defense in Russia

Frequent student at the Yiddish summer courses at Vilnius University Sonya Yampolskaya has successfully defended her doctoral dissertation casting serious doubt on the alleged morbidity and revival of the Hebrew language.

If Hebrew were a “dead language” before its revival as the official language of Israel, as is commonly accepted, then why was it being used by Russian Jews who were even opening new Hebrew newspapers right into the 20th century?

The first chapter of Yampolskaya’s dissertation at St. Petersburg State University details both the genesis of the myth of the death of Hebrew and its alleged “resurrection” by Ben-Yehuda, and a discussion of the concepts of “dead” and “alive” as they are used in different scientific paradigms, and especially their usage in linguistics and biology. The first chapter also explores developments within Ashkenazic Hebrew in the 19th and 20th centuries. Chapters Two and Three get down to the nitty-gritty, detailing the process of lexical borrowings into Ashkenazic and what is called the T-V (tu, vous) distinction in linguistics to demonstrate both innovations and the loss of traditional forms in the language in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Yampolskaya says Ashkenazic did undergo a kind of extinction in public use in the Soviet Union ca. 1925-1926, but that its rapid development from the 1850s to the 1920s resulted in publications in Latvia, Lithuania, Bessarabia (Moldova), Poland and the Ukraine besides Russia, whose output of text vastly outweighed Hebrew-language publications from Palestine, the Americas and Western Europe. The way words were borrowed from foreign languages carried over into the method used in modern Israeli Hebrew, Yampolskaya found. The idea Hebrew was a dead language, as might be said of Latin and classical Greek, found proponents in the Yiddish side of the battle between Hebrew and Yiddish for the soul of the Jewish people. Yampolskaya also notes the seemingly Christian symbolism ironically involved in the semi-official myth of Hebrew’s death and resurrection by the State of Israel ca. 1948 following 2,000 years of its alleged morbidity. Besides the use of Ashkenazic Hebrew in “high register” venues such as religious books and its “mid-level” use in the periodical press, Yampolskaya discusses its use as an everyday language among Russia’s Jews.

Yampolskaya’s dissertation at the Oriental Studies department of St. Petersburg State University is the first one in 50 years on Hebrew.

Dissertation in Russian with extensive English translation available here.

Photos and details of the doctoral defense in Russian here.

Agreement with Jurbarkas on Synagogue Square Memorial

On February 9 the Lithuanian Jewish Community signed an agreement with the Jurbarkas regional administration and the New Artists College CAN of Israel on a projected called “Synagogue Square Memorial.” The memorial is dedicated to remembering the Jews of the shtetl (formerly known as Yurburg or Jurburg in Yiddish and Georgenburg in German) and is to be located on Kauno street in Jurbarkas where one of the most beautiful wooden synagogues in Europe once stood. The memorial is being created by Israeli sculptor David Zundelovich, who comes from Lithuania. It is to portray the waves of the Nemunas River and the wooden synagogue and is to be made of gray and black basalt. It is to include the names of Jews who lived in Jurbarkas and the names of people who rescued them during the Holocaust, with inscriptions in English and Hebrew.

Jurbarkas regional administration head Skirmantas Mockevičius said the group is looking for funding for the memorial. “Jews lived in Jurbarkas for a long time and there is no monument, so sign, even though they were the majority of the community,” Mockevičius told BNS. From three to four thousand Jews called Jurbarkas home before the Holocaust. The head of the regional administration said residents weren’t interested in a graveyard memorial and wanted the memorial to appeal to the people, including the youth. Under the plan the memorial is to be built within 8 months from the signing of the agreement. Mockevičius expected it to be in place in Jurbarkas by the fall.

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Ongoing Hommage à Heifetz Project Provides Chance to Learn More about Jewish Culture

A meeting called “Vilnius, Litvak Culture in the 19th and 20th Centuries and Jascha Heifetz” was held in Lithuanian at the Lithuanian Jewish Community on February 9, 2017. It was a chance to reflect both on the past, the deep Litvak roots in Lithuania and the greatest violinist of all time, but also on the present Lithuanian Jewish Community. Speakers included Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, deputy chairwoman Maša Grodnikienė, Eugenijus Laurinaitis, Leonidas Melnikas, Larisa Lempert ir Donatas Katkus and Silvija Sondeckienė.

“Jascha Heifetz’s secret of his achievements was not only a unique talent, but practice, practice and more practice. The notes of his violin are not governed by the years and his life and achievements are not those of a typical Vilnius Jew living in the Pale of Settlement of Tsarist Russia. Heifetz achieved greatness and reached the pinnacle of musical achievement in the world for all time, our fellow countryman, our fellow Vilnius resident, Jascha Heifetz,” Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky commented.

Snapshots from event on facebook.

Continuing Education University Students Visit Panevėžys Jewish Community

The History Faculty of TAU (Trečiojo amžiaus universitetas) University in Panevėžys under the direction of Jonas Lazauskas holds lectures, meetings and excursions. One such meeting took place at the Panevėžys Jewish Community with chairman Gennady Kofman.

He gave a lecture providing the history and activity of the Panevėžys Jewish Community. Audience members learned which buildings were Jewish and what happened to those buildings. The audience was visibly moved by the story of the Panevėžys Jewish cemetery destroyed in 1966 and of what happened to the headstones. The audience, made of elderly continuing-education students at the university, still remembered the Jewish shops which lined Freedom Square in the past, and the oldest Jewish cemetery and stone wall next to the theater.

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A Tale of Two Synagogues in Vilnius: Both Survived the Meat Grinder of History

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… If you call the Choral Synagogue the fortunate daughter, then another surviving synagogue near the bus station and train station could be called the poor stepdaughter in terms of appearance and visitors. The building located at Gelių street no. 6 only bears slight resemblance to a house of prayer. Restoration of the abandoned building began recently, in 2015.

Using several sources of financing, this synagogue has been slowly getting back on its feet over the last two years to become what it once was, a house of prayer. It’s said that it was the first stop for Jews arriving in Vilnius by train from all points in Lithuania. That’s hardly surprising, since the synagogue is right next to the railroad tracks!

This synagogue was in a state of imminent collapse until 2014 and its rebirth began with a “STOP” ribbon put up around it, followed by work to strengthen the roof. Over the three years since repairs began, great progress has been made. But it probably won’t be completed in 2017, it will take years longer.

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Meeting at the Kaunas Young Tourists Center

The Kaunas Young Tourists Center hosted the meeting “Don’t Forget” on the afternoon of February 9. Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas and Feiga Koganskienė took part in the meeting where young regional historians, tourism critics, tourists and older sea scout members and leaders listened to the story of the Kaunas ghetto. The Kaunas Jewish Community and the sea scouts have a history of association ever since the sea scouts took the initiative and began attending Community events.

This event was organized by Tolerance Education Program coordinator Dailna Galskienė and extracurricular history group leader Martyna Vitkauskaitė Valantikonienė.

Launch of Irena Veisaitė Biography in Kaunas

The President Valdas Adamkus Library/Museum and the publishing house Aukso žuvys launched historian Aurimas Švedas’s biography “Irena Veisaitė. Gyvenimas turėtų būti skaidrus” in Kaunas February 9. The author and the subject of his book attended. The discussion was moderated by professor Egidijus Aleksandravičius. A large number of readers including members of the Kaunas Jewish Community turned out for the meeting with one of the more remarkable modern Lithuanian cultural figures, professor Irena Veisaitė. Among the many subjects she addressed was her native city of Kaunas, which she said was “under her skin.”

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Holocaust Survivor Rūta Glikman Says Other Children Only Knew She Didn’t Have Parents

Holokaustą išgyvenusi R. Glikman: vaikai žinojo tik tiek, kad aš neturiu tėvų

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Rūta Glikman who was smuggled out of the Kaunas ghetto as a child is celebrating her birthday. If not for her rescuers, Righteous Gentiles Jadvyga and Alfonsas Babarskis, the woman would have been murdered during the Holocaust, as was her entire family. Having survived the horrors of the war and Soviet oppression, Glikman resolved to honor both her families. It was due to her efforts that the Babarskis family was recognized by Yad Vashem in Israel. Now, she says, the time has come to commemorate her real parents as well. If all goes as planned, this summer their names will be inscribed on brass “memory stone” plates.

Glikman’s grandfather Chaim and father Leiba Basai had a business which was in operation in Kaunas since the end of the 19th century. They were in the fur, hat and fedora trade and exported goods to Latvia, Germany, France, England and other countries in Europe. Basai was a respected man in Kaunas. It was noted in numerous loan documents these businessmen were honest and ethical partners.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Jewish Brothers of Lithuanian Soccer

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After a match between Kaunas LFLS and Kaunas Makabi in 1926

The Jewish community influenced the development of the sport of soccer in interwar Lithuania. In 1916 the Jews of Vilna followed in the footsteps of their fellow Jews in Warsaw and founded the Jewish athletics and sports club Makabi. Vilna Makabi not only propagated gymnastic and other fields of athletics, but also soccer. The interwar provisional capital of Lithuania, Kaunas, was mad about soccer then and became the center of sporting activity. The Lithuanian Athletics Union was founded there in 1919, and a year later was replaced by the Lithuanian Physical Fitness Sports Union (the Lithuanian acronym is LFLS). The Jewish Makabi Union soon followed and was established in Kaunas.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Concert in Memory of Saulius Sondeckis at Royal Castle in Vilnius

by Monika Petrulienė, Lithuanian National Radio and Television TV News Service

A concert to honor the memory of the late professor and conductor Saulius Sondecikis called “Called to Music” was held at the Royal Castle in Vilnius. Stars and young talents from around the world came to pay their respects to the man with whom they had worked and performed.

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Conductor and teacher Saulius Sondeckis

On February 7 some of the performers included violinist Zakhar Bron, trumpeter Sergei Nakariakov, pianists Maria Meyerovich and Julia Zilberquit and the maestro’s son, Paulius Sondeckis.

Solo violinist and violin teacher Zakhar Bron recalled: “We weren’t closely acquainted when he gave the good word for me and helped me very much. Later I encountered this man more often and then I realized what a deep and gigantic figure he really was. Lithuania has become a country dear to me because of Saulius Sondeckis.”

Violinist Boris Traub said: “It so happened that I completed music school with him, and the conservatory, and I worked with him. I was associated with him from 1957 until last year, quite a long gig. There aren’t many families of this kind who work so long.”

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State-of-the-Art Jewish Museum Planned in Šeduva

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Preliminary design concept for the Lost Shtetl Museum

Plans have been announced for a state-of-the-art Jewish museum scheduled to open in 2019 as part of the Lost Shtetl memorial complex in Šeduva, Lithuania.

The museum complex is to be designed by the Finnish company Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects who also designed the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. POLIN won the 2016 European Museum of the Year Award. They are towork together with local partner Studia2A established in 1994 and headed by Vilnius Art Academy dean of architecture Jonas Audejaitis.

The museum is to be located next to the sprawling Šeduva Jewish cemetery, completely restored and opened in 2015 as part of the memorial complex. The complex includes memorials at three sites of Holocaust mass murders and mass grave sites and a symbolic sculpture in the middle of the town. A study of the Jews of Šeduva was conducted as part of the project and is to result in a documentary film called Petrified Time by film director Saulius Beržinis.

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Memorial statue in Šeduva. Photo © Ruth Ellen Gruber

Sergey Kanovich, founder of the Šeduva Jewish Memorial Fund, said the Lost Shtetl Museum will employ advanced technologies to teach visitors the history and culture of Šeduva and similar Litvak shtetls. It is expected to serve as an educational and cultural center.

“Visiting the Lost Shtetl will be a history lesson which will allow national and international visitors to learn about the lost Litvak shtetl history and culture,” he said.

“Lifestyle, customs, religion, social, professional, and family life of Šeduva Jews will serve a center point of the Museum exhibition,” he said. Visitors to museum will learn “the tragedy of Šeduva Jewish history which in the early days of World War II ended in three pits near the shtetl.”

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Generations and Destinies

An exhibition of painting called Generations and Destinies opens at the Tolerance Center of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum at 5:30 P.M. on February 13, 2017. The exhibit will run until May 21.

The exhibit is dedicated to the 100th birthday of Algirdas Savickis (1917-1943) and includes works by several generations of artists, including interwar Lithuanian diplomat and writer Jurgis Savickis, his sons Algirdas and Augustinas, his grandson Raimondas Savickas and his great-granddaughter Ramunė Savikaitė-Meškėlienė.

The opening is free to the public and the Tolerance Center is located at Naugarduko street no. 10/2 in Vilnius.

Happy Birthday to Aleksandras Rutenbergas

Sveikiname Aleksandrą Rutenbergą su jubiliejumi!

The Lithuanian Jewish Community sends heart-felt birthday greetings to its loyal member Aleksandras Rutenbergas on the occasion of his 70th birthday, wishing him much energy and excellent health!

Aleksandras is an interesting and highly-educated person, a great economist who contributed to the restructuring of the Lithuanian economy in the early period of independence. For 10 years now he has served as the director of the Jewish Cultural Support Center Foundation. The foundation, which restored and refurbished what is now the Tolerance Center of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum, is supported by Austria. Aleksandras comes from a well-known Litvak family and his parents survived the Holocaust in the ghettos and concentration camps. He is deeply engaged with Jewish heritage and is an active member of the executive board of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, and participates in the activities of the Makabi athletics club.

Aleksandras, we wish you a continued interesting life and that you would achieve all that your heart desires!

Happy birthday!

About Sheryl Sandberg’s Parents, the Sandberg Family

A few days ago we learned the great-grandmother of the world-famous woman Sheryl Sandberg lived in Vilnius. After looking into Sheryl’s family history, it turned out her parents were active participants in the battle for the right of Jews to emigrate from the Soviet Union.

Sheryl Sandberg was born in Washington, D. C., in 1969 and was the eldest of three children. Her parents were English teacher Adele Einhorn and famous ophthalmologist Joel Sandberg. In 1970 there were active in fighting for the right of Soviet Jews to emigrate to Israel. In 1975 the married couple were arrested in Kishniev, the capital of Soviet Moldova where they had to come to meet with those who wanted to leave the Soviet Union, and both were expelled from the country.

Not many people remember the anti-Zionist booklets the Soviet Union published in the millions of copies, condemning “foreign emissaries” sent by the West into the USSR, who actually sought to make contact with Jews in their struggle for their human rights, to provide moral support and aid to them. The Israeli press has written of Joel Sandberg who helped Soviet Jews from 1970 to 1980. The well-known ophthalmologist Joel Sandberg of Miami is one of a number of activists in the American Jewish community who fought the battle for the right of Soviet Jews to emigrate.

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An attempt to protest by a group of 16 refuseniks (otkazniki) in Leningrad by hijacking a plane in 1970 was a major event at the time. The ringleaders were sentenced to death, but following protests from the international community, the Soviets reduced it to long terms of imprisonment. This encouraged American Jews to support more strongly Jews living in the Soviet Union. In an interview Joel Sandberg, recalling those times, said the main goal of the Americans was to help those protesting against the emigration ban and those wishing to exit the USSR. Out of the thousands refuseniks in Kiev in 1979, only 70 people were granted exit visas a year later, while requests by 3,000 more were rejected.

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Lithuanian Women’s Magazine Features Amit Belaitė on Cover

16486907_10154232463426867_5335691874283383955_oA popular magazine for young Lithuanian women has featured Amit Belaitė, the head of the Lithuanian Union of Jewish Students, on its February cover, with a long interview with her and a series of fashion photographs inside.

“Cover girl: Amita honors her people’s past with deeds,” the cover proclaims.

The feature on page 10 is called “Living History”:

“The Jewish girl Amita Belaitė (24) is completing her studies this year at Vilnius University. During her university career this active defender of human rights was able to establish the Lithuanian Union of Jewish Students, to become the vice president and a member of the executive board of the European Union of Jewish Students, to start a Jewish history project called Mayses fun der Lites/Stories from Lithuania, to become a Living Library volunteer and for all of those activities to receive a tolerance award. Amita, who selected social health studies as her major, said her professional career over those years would have been much more difficult if not for her love of her cherished boyfriend, the economist Rokas Grajauskas (31).”

More information in Lithuanian here.

Lithuanian State Auditors Find Compensation for Jewish Property Used Appropriately

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Vilnius, February 9, BNS–The Lithuanian State Auditor has no complaints on the use of compensation for Jewish religious communal property this year, although they found irregularities last year.

The State Auditor’s Office reported finding no violations in the 2016 audit of the use of such funds.

The year prior to that auditors said the foundation dispensing the funds had used some monies from the state allocated under the Lithuanian law on goodwill compensation for pre-Holocaust Jewish real estate had been used in the 2012-2015 period for matters not defined in the law, namely, to pay for administrative expnses of the disbursing foundation. In 2016 the Lithuanian parliament amended the law to allow for the Goodwill Foundation to pay its own administrative costs.

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