History of the Jews in Lithuania – Page 139 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Post-War Vilnius: Legless Beggars, Bread Lines and Accusations of Murdering Christ

Mažoji leidykla publishing house, 2016

I am a post-war child. I was born in Vilnius October 8, 1946. I remember my life from about the age of four. Lithuanians, Jews (including Jews from the ghetto), Poles and Russians, we lived in an old building at the intersection of K. Giedrio and J. Garelio streets (now Šv. Ignoto and Dominikonų streets). Above us there lived Mr. Valteris, a former translator for the Gestapo. No one spoke to him about that, but everyone knew he had collaborated with the Germans.

For those living behind the iron curtain, for BBC radio listeners, Sam Yossman, who did the popular program Babushkin Sunduk (Grandmother’s Chest) and Perekati Pole (Tumbleweed), was better known by the pseudonym Sam Jones. Born and raised in Soviet Lithuania, Yossman decided after many years to record his memories in the book “Šaltojo karo samdinys” (Cold War Hired Hand).

Stories about Rabbis: Exhibit of Pastel Work

The Jewish Culture and Information Center’s Shofar Gallery (Mėsinių street no. 3, Vilnius) presented an exhibit of pastel works by Kęstutis Milkevičius called “Stories about Rabbis” March 17.

pAroda-rabinai

The collection on exhibit was formed at the initiative of the leader of the Kaunas Jewish religious community, Maushe Bairak. Artist Raimundas Majauskas commented on Milkevičius’s artworks:

“The old portraits of wise Jewish rabbis are suffused with time and come down to us from a modified Rembrandtesque chromatic environment. The artist is a master of line and composition. The individualized, artistically realistic works betraying a deep aesthetic foundation are part of the cultural and communal life of Kaunas and Lithuania.”

Litvak cultural heritage scholar Asia Gutermanaitė opened the exhibit. The opening including stories and interesting tales about rabbis. The exhibit will run until April 12.

2016-03-18

Goodwill Fund Granted Greater Freedom to Spend

March 17, BNS–The Lithuanian parliament Thursday adopted fast-track amendments to allow the Goodwill Fund administering compensation for Jewish religious community property to allocate funds more freely. The vote was 81 MPs for, 1 against and 5 abstentions. Under the new amendment, the Goodwill Fund will be allowed to cover its administrative costs using monies from the state. It suggests fixing administration costs so they never exceed 10 percent of the annual amount of compensation paid out by the treasury according to the annual state budget.

Last year the fund spent 125,942 euros on expenses, but the Office of State Comptroller warned the law didn’t allow the fund to use state allocation for administrative costs. The amendments also allow the fund to invest monies paid into the fund but not used. Such a move would require careful consideration of investment security, liquidity, annual profits and other factors.

2016-03-17

Kaunas Jewish Community Honors Most Active Members

Continuing a long-standing tradition, the Kaunas Jewish Community invited its most active members to a party to thank them. Participants in various clubs, students of Yiddish, people seeking a deeper knowledge of Jewish history and traditions and volunteers in different campaigns, events and cultural activities gathered for a dinner, live music and lively conversation. Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas thanked everyone and said since Jews are known as the People of the Book, he was passing out books as well, about Jewish history and other Jewish topics.

2016-03-17

Old Jewish Cemetery in Klaipėda Added to Registry of Cultural Treasures

The old Jewish cemetery in on Sinagogų street in Klaipėda has been given legal protection, the Culture Heritage Department under the Ministry of Culture reports.

Although there used to be several dozen cemeteries in Klaipėda, only a few survive. “The only Jewish cemetery in the city is the one from the early 19th to mid-20th century period. It used to be bigger than what has survived and listed on the registry of cultural treasures. It’s now about 13,000 square meters. But what has survived obviously enriches the history of the city of Klaipėda and is an important part of the city,” Audronė Puzonienienė, director of the Klaipėda office of the Cultural Heritage Department, said.

Puzonienienė cited Jonas Tatoris’s book “Senoji Klaipėda. Urbanistinė raida ir architektūra iki 1939 m.” [“Old Klaipėda. Urban Development and Architecture till 1939”] as the richest source of information about the old Jewish cemetery in the Lithuanian port town formerly known as Memel. The author of that book says there were 22 cemeteries in Memel/Klaipėda in the period from the 16th century to the early 20th century. At the beginning of the 19th century a ravelin—part of the earthen fortification for the defense of the port city— was allocated for the Jewish cemetery. The Jewish cemetery first appears on the city map in 1840, as a still rather small area surrounded by hedgerows. It was enlarged in the early 20th century. “The layout of the Jewish cemetery was different from the Lutheran cemetery: it didn’t have a central square and intersecting paths, and the territory was divided up into rectangular blocks,” Tatoris says.

2016-03-17

Rina Zak: “Markas Petuchauskas: Theater in the Shadow of Death”

Publisher, translator and editor Rina Zak [Zhak, Žak, Рина Жак], one of the iconic figures in Russian-speaking Israel, is also well known outside of the biggest linguistic community in the country. Rina also engages in educational activities, in the everyday activities of the Geographical Society of Israel and in the periodical press, writing in Isrageo magazine, as well as on facebook, where she posts little-known passages from Jewish and Israeli history. Rina Zak was born in Kaunas and was graduated from the Journalism Faculty of Vilnius University.

We are pleased to offer for your consideration a passage by Rina Zak:

Markas Petuchauskas: Theater in the Shadow of Death

In 2015 he published a book of memoirs of his time as a young prisoner of the Vilnius ghetto called “Price of Concord.”

Strange as it might seem to some, the ghetto was a venue for musical performances and festivals, literary competitions and art exhibitions. There clinics and hospitals, schools and kindergartens, a youth club and a café. There were plans for a museum, a publishing operation… but these ideas were not destined to happen. The Vilnius ghetto lasted only two years, and its population of about 40 thousand people was almost completely exterminated.

2016-03-09

Come Join the March 11 Holiday Procession

Lithuania is celebrating 26 years of the restoration of independence this year. We’re inviting members and friends of the Lithuanian Jewish Community to assemble at Independence Square in front of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library at 11:45 A.M. on March 11 to watch the ceremonial raising of the flags of the three Baltic states and to join the holiday procession from there to Cathedral Square. Together, let’s create a tolerant Lithuania free from stereotypes and hate!

2016-03-09

Makabi Club Book Launch

Makabi knyga

A large group turned out for the launch of the new book “Lietuvos sporto klubas ‘Makabi’ 1916-2016” [The Lithuanian Athletics Club Makabi, 1916-2016] at the Lithuanian Jewish Community on the last day of February, 2016. The appearance of the book is a milestone not just for the Lithuanian Jewish Community, but for Lithuanian sport as a whole, because Makabi is the oldest athletics club in Lithuania. The book tells the story of the origins of Makabi a century ago, activities in the first Lithuanian Republic, how the club was reconstituted after Lithuanian independence from the Soviet Union and its activities since then over the last 25 years. It includes information on Makabi’s participation at European and World Maccabiah Games and other sporting events, and showcases athletes. The book is richly illustrated with photographs depicting the history of Makabi.

This year is the 100th anniversary of the club, which began in German-occupied Vilnius. On October 23, 1916, the Makabi Jewish Sports and Gymnastics Association was established in the ancient Lithuanian capital. Kaunas Makabi was established in 1919. The entire Maccabee athletics movement took place as part of the early spread of Zionism.

2016-03-03

Meeting the New Rabbis

A meeting of the newly appointed rabbis Kalev Krelin and Shimshon Daniel Izakson (Isaacson) was held at the Lithuanian Jewish Community February 29. Participants included representatives of foreign embassies in Vilnius, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry, Parliament, the Catholic Church, the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture and the regional Jewish communities in Lithuania. Also attending was Vilnius auxiliary bishop Arūnas Poniškaitis.

Shmuel Levin, director of the Lithuanian Jewish Religious Community, spoke at the meeting and said: “The physical genocide by the Nazis and the spiritual genocide by the Soviet regime destroyed the Jewish communities in Europe and especially in Lithuania. Today Judaism is an exotic religion, not just for the other religions, but for us ourselves. We hope Rabbi Izakson and Rabbi Krelin will be successful in reviving and preserving the Litvak tradition, Jewish spiritual life.”

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky welcomed the new rabbis to the community and wished them every success in their work.

2016-03-012017-01-18

Užupis Jewish Cemetery to Be Declared National Protected Site

February 26, BNS–An old Jewish cemetery in Vilnius is being put forward to become a state-protected cultural heritage site. Cultural Heritage Department director Diana Varnaitė initiated the process.

“There are surviving headstones there and there should be a certain amount of state protection. The cemetery is already on the registry, it is already a cultural heritage treasure. The registry is so construed that significance determines whether the state or a local government is the party to make a decision and declare sites protected,” Cultural Heritage Department deputy director Algimantas Degutis told BNS. He said state-protected cultural treasures have stricter protection, financing and maintenance requirements.

The move to change the status of the Užupis Jewish cemetery is unconnected with plans by the adjacent funeral home to build a crematorium, Degutis said. The Vilnius municipality is against the crematorium plan.

2016-02-29

Documentary Film about Osip Mandelshtam

The Vilnius Jewish Public Library is to host the premiere of a film about the life of the poet Osip Mandelshtam called Sokhani Moyu Rech Navsegda [Save My Speech Forever]. The film was completed in 2015 by director Roman Liberov of Moscow. Its running time is 84 minutes. It is in Russian but the premiere will make Lithuanian subtitles available. This year is the 125th anniversary of the birth famous poet and essayist who worked in the Russian language but who is often described as a Polish Jew. In fact his father, grandfather and great-grandfather allegedly all hailed from Žagarė, Lithuania. Director Liberov is to attend the premiere to be held at the Vilnius Jewish Public Library located at Gedimino prospect no. 24 in Vilnius at 5:30 P.M. on Monday, February 29.

2016-02-26

On Jewish Motifs, Historical Facts and Lithuanian Identity in Kristina Sabaliauskaitė’s Work

The 24th meeting in the Destinies series of seminars and lectures took place at the Lithuanian Jewish Community on February 17, called “Jewish Motifs in the Works of Writer and Art Historian Dr. Kristina Sabaliauskaitė. Teacher and essayist Vytautas Toleikis moderated the meeting and LJC deputy chairwoman Maša Grodnikienė, the organizer, served as MC and introduced Sabaliauskaitė in person to the audience, noting she was very popular outside of Lithuania as well in Poland and Latvia.

Moderator Toleikis addressed the full hall saying “Kristina has returned Lithuania’s historical memory. She brought back 200 years of history which, due to [historian] Šapoka’s paradigm were lost to Lithuanian consciousness. ‘Silva Rerum’ [‘Forest of Things’ trilogy by Kristina Sabaliauskaitė, 2008, 2011 and 2014] is for us an unexpected historical good fortune, as if the nation had won the lottery. We are lucky Kristina has brought back centuries of history. The author’s memory is not selective, she writes about everything in the past, about Poles and Jews as if they were her own people. This is the attitude of a 21st-century person, it could not be otherwise.”

The conversation during the Destinies meeting revolved around Jewish characters and how the figure of the Jew came to be included in Kristina Sabaliauskaitė’s works in a way very different from the more common portrayal found in Lithuanian literature. Sabaliauskaitė chose the elite person of the doctor Aaron Gordon.

2016-02-23

How Jews Were Exterminated in Molėtai: Locked in the Synagogue, Held without Food or Water

Excerpts from the book “Molėtai 625 – žmonės, istorija, gamta: [Molėtai 625: People, History, Nature] by Vaidotas Žukas

According to the Lithuanian census of 1923, Molėtai had a population of 1,772, of whom 1,343 were Jews.

Even after Jewish autonomy was abolished in 1926, a very functional Jewish education system remained in place. The Lithuanian state had an interest in having Jews learn Lithuanian as well as Yiddish and Hebrew in order distance them from the influence of the Russian and German languages. The founding of the Lithuanian state allowed Jewish associations and welfare organizations to flourish.

There was a section of the Union of Jewish Soldiers in Molėtai as well where Jewish soldiers who fought for the reestablishment of Lithuanian independence operated. The union supported Jewish interests and was engaged in spreading Lithuanian patriotism among Jews. Also operating in Molėtai were the Palestine Foundation Fund [Keren ha’Yesod] and a local department of the Jewish National Fund [Keren Kayemet LeYisrael]. When the USSR occupied Lithuania in 1940, most Jewish associations, unions and organizations were shut down.

2016-02-21

Vilnius Mayor Calls Crematorium in Jewish Cemetery Inappropriate

Vilnius, February 20, BNS–A plot of land next to the old Jewish cemetery on Olandų street is inappropriate for a crematorium and Vilnius residents will be asked their opinion on the need and location for such an operation, Vilnius mayor Remigijus Šimašius said.

“It has to be acknowledged that this is the territory of a Jewish cemetery and it’s obvious that in Vilnius, where 40,000 Jews lived before World War II, because of the association, a crematorium in the Jewish cemetery is simply inappropriate. For that reason alone there should be no crematorium at that location,” the mayor told BNS. He confirmed the council would be presented with the decision not to approve a crematorium on Olandų street in the Lithuanian capital. The mayor also said results of a poll of public opinion on the issue of the need for and location of a crematorium in Vilnius would be presented soon. “I think there is a need among some residents of Vilnius. We ordered a poll of residents of Vilnius to identify what sort of locations are most likely, where residents would like to see a crematorium,” mayor Šimašius said. He said a final decision would be made following the public opinion poll on “where to encourage investments” in the city.

2016-02-21

Delegation from Argentine Rabbinate Visits Panevėžys Jewish Community

Rabbi Shmuel Arieh Levin from Argentina visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community on February 15. He arrived with eight members of his religious community. The purpose of the visit was for the delegation to observe with their own eyes the state of the Jewish community in Panevėžys, to learn more about their history, to learn about the world-renowned yeshiva and to find out more about the founder of the Ponevezh yeshiva, Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, the Ponovezher Rov and chief rabbi and former member of the Lithuanian parliament who founded in 1919 the yeshiva where 500 students from Europe studied. Rabbi Kahaneman and his eldest son, who had diplomatic status, left for America in 1940, and during World War II moved the Ponevezh yeshiva to, or reëstablished it in Bene Berak (Bnei Brak, with a sister institution in Ashdod), Israel. Rabbi Levin was graduated from the Ponevezh yeshiva in Israel and personally knew Rabbi Kahaneman and his son Elias Kahaneman. Today the world-famous yeshiva where more than 1,000 students study is led by his grandson, Rabbi Eliezer Kahaneman (Cohenman).

2016-02-18

Lithuanian Jews, Fostering Lithuanian Independence since 1918. An excerpt from Vilius Kavaliauskas’s book

Election poster. Vote for List Number 13–the Jewish List.

A translated excerpt from Vilius Kavaliauskas’s book “Pažadėtoji žemė – Lietuva,” or “Lithuania, the Promised Land”:

After independence was reestablished and the Lithuanian state was established on democratic principles on February 16, 1918, one of the most important events in Lithuanian Jewish history was the Jewish Affairs Institute established by the independent state in 1919, which in essence performed the functions of a government ministry. Dr. Maksas Soloveičikas became minister without portfolio.

From 1918 to 1926 Lithuania’s Jewish population successfully involved themselves in the country’s governance structures and actively ran for posts in elections to municipal bodies and the parliament of the Republic of Lithuania. There were a number of Jewish members of the ministerial cabinet of the Lithuanian government as well: minister without portfolio for Jewish affairs [sic] Jokūbas Vygodskis, Maksas Soloveičikas, Bernardas Fridmanas (from Panevėžys, judge at the Panevėžys District Court in 1925) and Simonas Rozenbaumas.

Doctor of philosophy Maksas Soloveičikas (1883-1957) was exceptional for his erudition and education. He studied in Petropol [Petrograd, Leningrad, Saint Petersburg. etc.], Germany and Switzerland. He was an active member of the Zionist movement and a Jewish press correspondent. He spoke Russian with his fellow ministers. In 1921 he was elected to the World Zionist executive committee in London.

The cabinet of ministers tolerated the Jewish community’s aspiration to turn the ministry into a political institution while the Vilnius question remained unsolved. When the Christian democrats came to power in 1924, the accreditation for the ministry was withdrawn and the ministry ceased to exist.

2016-02-15

Opening of Exhibit “YIVO in Vilnius: The Legend Begins”

You are invited to the opening of the exhibit “YIVO in Vilnius: The Legend Begins” at the Lithuanian National Museum at Arsenalo street no. 1 in Vilnius at 4:00 P.M., February 18. Exhibit curators: Dr. Lara Lempertienė and Dr. Giedrė Jankevičiūtė.

The exhibit was created to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the creation of YIVO in Vilnius. It includes previously unseen material from Lithuanian state collections on the history and work of YIVO. It demonstrates how YIVO’s work gave stimulus to the intellectual life of the Jews of Vilnius and the wider Central and Eastern European arena. It also presents the city and urban community as a source of inspiration and as the historical and cultural hearth and sustenance for the institute’s work. The exhibit was first shown at the Galicia Jewish museum in Cracow from September 30 to November 8, 2015. The exhibit to open in Vilnius contains additional material.

2016-02-11

A Story of the Holocaust and the AIDS Epidemic: The Romance of an Indian Muslim Freedom Fighter and a Lithuanian Jewish Woman

by Kenneth X. Robbins and John Mcleod

In 1992 the editor of the Times of India telephoned one of Mumbai’s most prominent businessmen, Dr. Yusuf K. Hamied. The editor asked Hamied “as a Muslim leader” his opinion on the communal riots then taking place in the city. Hamied replied: “Why aren’t you asking me as an Indian Jew? Because my name is Hamied? My mother was Jewish!” His maternal grandparents perished in the Holocaust.

2016-01-29

Lithuanian Jewish Heritage Becoming Ever More Topical

A new cultural heritage site has been added to the Lithuanian registry of cultural treasures: the Simnas brick synagogue at Laisvės street no. 4 in Simnas, in the Alytus region. The synagogue’s outer form has survived almost intact to the present day. “Jewish cultural heritage has become ever more topical recently. Municipalities and regional administrations are striving to make surviving Jewish cultural heritage in their jurisdictions known, its value is being understood, and it is being made public and resurrected to live again. The number of positive examples keeps growing. Frequently more remote small towns are known in the world only because of the surviving Jewish cultural heritage and thus draw tourists,” Diana Varnaitė, director of the Cultural Heritage Department under the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture, said.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2016-01-28

Panevėžys Jewish Community Marks International Holocaust Day

The Jewish community, students and general public gathered on a rainy and overcast January 26 in Panevėžys at the Sad Jewish Mother statue to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman spoke first, saying a lack of concern is the worst crime in the world and is responsible for innocent people dying. The genocide of the Jews of Lithuania is a global tragedy, as is the genocide of the Jews of Europe, which must never happen again, he said.

2016-01-28