News – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Panic and Contempt

by Arkadijus Vinokuras

When the heads of state lack any experience managing crises, panic envelops society. When leaders try to compensate for their lack of ability through dictatorial means, they demonstrate contempt for society. It’s pointless to blame Lithuanian health minister Aurelijus Veryga for changing his directives several times daily. He was appointed by those who have no experience themselves, and who are therefore unable to manage the crisis effectively. It seems they don’t really understand human lives are at stake. And freedom.

On panic. Seeking somehow to demonstrate the abilities he doesn’t have, health minister Veryga even donned military costume. He seems to have wandered into the tragicomic league of Don Quixote by attempting to fight the virus this way. Where you’re not sure whether to laugh or cry. If he had served in the military even at the level of lieutenant, he would know how orders are issued by a military commander. They would be based–and this is the crucial matter–on emergency management scenarios drawn up by the military leadership. But from the very first days of the spread of the virus in Lithuania it was completely clear the Lithuanian Peasants/Green Union Government is not following any emergency management plan.

The minister who has turned himself into a laughing stock with his military uniform should at least understand in a general way that an order by a military commander first indicates the prevailing situation in the theater of war. It indicates the time frame. It also enumerates enemy forces and our own forces, e.g., what we have and what we don’t have. Only then comes the definition of missions.

2020-04-03

Israeli Ambassador Levy Calls for Solidarity and Humility

LRT.lt

Who would have thought a few weeks ago we’d wake up one morning and suddenly find ourselves in a Netflix horror film? That our cities would be placed under quarantine and would become completely empty in a single day? That’s we’d all be sitting at home, day after day, from morning to night, not changing out of our pajamas? That we would be banned from visiting our grandmothers? That we would pray through the nights for this nightmare to end?

In the spring of 2020 we suddenly realized we are all the same, Lithuanians and Israelis, Germans and Italians, Chinese, Russians and Arabs. We are all people. We know how to make rockets and smart apps, but we are really such fragile creatures who fear death and hide from a tiny little virus which is going around and could affect us. We are the new dinosaurs whose time has probably come.

We suddenly realized most of our disputes aren’t important, like those of children in the sandbox. Fighting for half a mountain or half a lake. We in Israel were not surprised at all when terror attacks from the Gaza Strip fell dramatically, by 90%! When we see frightened and weeping Iranians on the streets of Tehran, they are in our hearts. We and they are in the same boat, we are all victims of an external attack.

2020-04-03

Genocide Center Wins Case Demanding Retraction of Jonas Noreika Finding

The Lithuanian Telegraphic Agency ELTA reports the Lithuanian Supreme Administrative Court dismissed a suit lodged by US-resident Litvak Grant Gochin against the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania.

ELTA reports said the panel of judges rejected Grant Gochin’s demand the Genocide Center retract an historical finding they issued earlier on the person of Jonas Noerika during a hearing on April 1.

The court’s finding isn’t subject to appeal. The court also obliged Gochin to pay additional court costs to the Genocide Center.

Gochin was appealing a finding issued by the Vilnius District Administrative Court on March 27, 2019, in favor of the Genocide Center.

Full text in Lithuanian here.

2020-04-03

Thank You for Helping LJC Seniors

Lithuanian Jewish Community administrative secretary Liuba Šerienė would like to send a big thank-you to Social Department director Michailas Segalas and staff members Ema Jakobienė, Ninel Skudovičiūtė, Rokas Dobrovolskis and Neringa Stankevičienė and colleagues, and to Michailas Tarasovas, Aušra, Snieguolė, Danutė Lena, Žana and Sonia for their great work helping our Social Department clients and senior citizens. Thank you so very much.

2020-04-03

We Can’t Give Up Hope Now

Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky. Photo: Blanka Weber

by Blanka Weber

The country’s Jewish community is watching the time of pandemic with alarm

Faina Kukliansky is currently managing her life and that of her members from her home office in Vilnius. “This is a time that demands everything from us,” the 65-year-old chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community says.

This is a time when preparations for Passover would be underway normally. The Bagel Shop next to the Community building on Pylimo street is now only open for a few hours and only accepts cards for payment. Cash is forbidden. There are strict rules here, too. Matzo will be distributed to Community members here and should be delivered in the next few days.

2020-04-03

Chief Rabbis Call on Jews to Keep It Together

An open letter

An open letter from the Chief Rabbis of the world

8 Nisan 5780
2 April 2020

This Shabbat–the Shabbat before Pesach–is called Shabbat HaGadol, the Great Shabbat.

It was first celebrated at the birth of the Jewish people, moments before the dawn of our deliverance from Egyptian slavery.

Every Jewish family, alone in their homes in Egypt, sat fervently anticipating the united dream of deliverance and nationhood.

Three thousand, three hundred and thirty-two years later, this Shabbat HaGadol, we too sit, isolated in our own homes, once again united in our fervent prayer for relief from the global pandemic that has shaken our world to its core.

2020-04-032020-04-03

Passover 5780

This year we are recommending you spend Passover at home with family. We have prepared kits with everything needed for the traditional kosher seder which can be ordered by internet. Orders must be received before April 5.

The order form in Russian and Lithuanian is available here:
https://www.torah4lithuania.com/seder-to-go

2020-04-01

Jewish Scouts Invited to Internet Jamboree

The International Forum of Jewish Scouts based on Paris is inviting Jewish scouts around the world to take part in an internet “Jewboree” on April 5 using the ZOOM platform.

2020-04-012020-04-01

EJC Video Conference with Communities around Europe

The Security and Crisis Center of the European Jewish Community and heads of security and representatives of Jewish communities in Ireland, Span, Italy and Belgium held a video conference March 30 on the ZOOM platform* to discuss best practices during the current virus epidemic. Milo Hasbani, president of the Milan Jewish community, reported 8 members had died. Topics included welfare checks on members, delivering Passover foods and maintaining Jewish life via internet under quarantine conditions. Participants also discussed a possible rise in anti-Semitic activities during Passover and during the viral epidemic. EJC representatives called for more such video conferences in the coming weeks.

* Please note the ZOOM platform, created by Chinese national Eric Yuan, is notoriously unsafe, insecure and has even been called malware by responsible observers. The U.S. military recently banned the Chinese-controlled TikTok app among its ranks. For more, see: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/apr/02/zoom-technology-security-coronavirus-video-conferencing

2020-04-012020-04-03

Bob Dylan Breaks Silence with New Song

American Litvak singer, songwriter and performer from Minnesota Bob Dylan, aka Robert Zimmerman, has broken his silence since he received, rejected and then apparently accepted the Nobel prize for literature with a new long-playing song about the conspiracy to assassinate American president John Kennedy. The official version of the song Murder Most Foul posted on youtube under the user Bob Dylan runs for 16 minutes and 56 seconds and contains a stream of American pop cultural references similar to the song American Pie by Don McLean, referencing the three hobos alleged to have been involved in the assassination on Daley Plaza in Dallas on November 22, 1963, JFK’s alleged use of LSD and the idea the counterculture of the 1960s was infiltrated and directed by the intelligence community. Dylan is 78.

2020-03-312020-03-31

Cipla Pharmaceuticals Working on Corona Treatments

Yusuf Hamied, the Litvak founder of India’s generic pharmaceuticals giant Cipla, reports on his company’s efforts to develop drug treatments for the novel Wuhan virus.

2020-03-312020-03-31

Israel Bans Public Assemblies of More Than 2 People, New Restrictions on Labor

Israel will ban meetings of more than 2 people and will place addition restrictions on workplaces. Speaking to the country, the prime minister said security forces will carry out state-of-emergency directives to stop the spread of the corona virus. Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu called on Israelis not to hold family gatherings during the Passover holiday.

The Prime Minister’s Office also reported Monday Netanyahu and his advisors will remain in quarantine after a Government staff member tested positive for the new virus.

2020-03-302020-03-30

Commemorating the Victims of the Children’s Aktion in Kaunas

The Kaunas Jewish Community reports the annual commemoration of the mass murder of the children of the Kaunas ghetto was canceled this year because of the virus epidemic. Usually scheduled during the last days of March, this year we are invited to remember the victims at home, by lighting a candle, writing a name on a stone and reflecting.

The following is a list of some of the children who died in the Kaunas ghetto, drawn up on the 70th anniversary of the Children’s aktion by the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum. The names are presented in modern Lithuanian orthography.

2020-03-302020-04-01

WJC Letter to Member Organizations

To: WJC Affiliated Communities & Organizations
WJC Executive Committee

From: Maram Stern, WJC Executive Vice President

Dear Friends,

In response to the current global COVID-19 coronavirus crisis, WJC President Ronald S. Lauder has published the opinion piece below rejecting any kind of scapegoating and focusing on the need for all people to work together in these troubled times, which I invite you to read:

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/fight-against-coronavirus-together-ronald-lauder

Read article in pdf format.

Stay Safe, Be Well – Zeit Gezund!

Maram

2020-03-30

How to Get Matzo

Dear Community members,

The Lithuanian Jewish Community wants to insure safe methods for acquiring matzo this year and suggests members order by internet for home delivery.

The cost is 6 euros for a one-kilogram box of matzo bread wafers and 4 euros for a 454-gram bag of matzo flour.

Delivery is being set up in Vilnius and orders will be accepted until April 2.

To order you need to have internet banking. Open your banking page and transfer money to the LJC bank account LT097044060000907953 for the number of boxes and bags you want. You must indicate on the money transfer form your name, surname, exact delivery address, a contact telephone number, an e-mail address and exactly which items you want in what amount.

Here’s an example of what to include:
John Smith, Obuolių g. 1-11, Vilnius, 8 123 45678, john@john.com, 3 packages of matzo, two packages of flour

A coordinator will contact you with delivery details for orders made and paid before April 2 and delivery is to take place by April 7. No cash will be accepted upon delivery. The LJC isn’t responsible if supplies run out, quarantine measures become stricter or purchasers fail to provide the information required.

For more information call 8 672 16 982 or write an e-mail to pesach2020@lzb.lt

2020-03-27

No, Mr. Kasčiūnas, Jews Did Not Create the Corona Virus

by Arkadijus Vinokuras

I’m having a dark laugh, Homeland Union/Lithuanian Christian Democrats member of parliament Laurynas Kasčiūnas did not, thank God, accuse Jews for the corona virus. But he did accuse the Lithuanian Jewish Community of financially supporting “that liar” Rūta Vanagaitė’s book “How Did It Happen.”

You might ask what my fake headline has in common with MP Kasčiūnas’s accusation against the LJC. Well both ideas are false and allow for manipulating the truth.

See, the main figure in the book isn’t Rūta Vanagaitė, but Dr. Christoph Dieckmann, one of the best known European historians and an expert on the Holocaust in Lithuania. Or is it this fact which frightens Kasčiūnas? It’s one thing to criticize a “dilettante of history” (as Rūta Vanagaitė’s critics claim) and quite another to criticize a member of the International Commission for Assessing the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, convened and supported by the president of Lithuania.

2020-03-26

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