News

Home Movies from Before the Flood

Home Movies from Before the Flood

On Wednesday Kaunas Holocaust survivor Dita Zupavičienė-Šperlingienė spoke at the Vilnius Jewish Public Library and presented a home movie.

The silent film was a series of street scenes from Vilnius, Riga and Lvov before the war. Zupavičienė-Šperlingienė explained how her uncle Hanon, a medical student in Paris, used to come visit the family. In bed for over a week with scarlet fever, the young Dita was overjoyed when her physician uncle told the family she could get up and do things around the house without making it worse. Dita said she jumped out of bed at the first opportunity and from that time on Hanon became her favorite uncle.

Hanon was an amateur filmmaker and used an 8 mm camera on some of his travels. As the Nazis drew closer to Paris, he grabbed a bicycle and rode south, to Vichy France. Zupavičienė-Šperlingienė said he soon discovered life was dangerous for a Jew there, as well. After the Holocaust Hanon continued to live in Paris. Dita made it to Israel where it turned out she was, for whatever reason, one of the few Jews able to teach the German language. In the early 1970s she had the opportunity to improve her German teaching skills in West Germany, and visited Hanon in Paris during that trip. That’s when he mentioned he still had some of the footage he had taken before the Holocaust.

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Reception for New Israeli Ambassador

Reception for New Israeli Ambassador

The Lithuanian Jewish Community held a reception for Israel’s new ambassador to Lithuania Yossi Avni Levy and her team last week. Chairmen of the regional Lithuanian Jewish communities attended the event. LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky welcomed the new ambassador’s arrival and introduced him to members of the Community at the event.

Levy is an Israeli writer and diplomat. He has held various posts at Israeli embassies in Bonn, Berlin, Belgrade and Warsaw. His literary work has received the prize of the Israeli prime minister’s office.

Born in 1962, Levy’s mother has roots in Iran and his father in Afghanistan. He was graduated with honors by Hebrew University in Jerusalem in history of the Middle East and Arabic in 1983.

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Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club Fun Run 2019

Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club Fun Run 2019

The Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club will hold a fun run starting from Vingis Park in Vilnius at 11:00 A.M., September 8, 2019. Runners who are members of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and friends of the Community are invited to compete. Runners may chose to run 1.5 or 3 kilometers. The 1.5=kilometer run starts at 11:30 and the 3-k at 12:15 P.M. The fee is 3 euros for students and retirees, 5 euros for everyone else. Payment may be made prior to SEB Bank or in cash at the starting line. Bank code: LT69 7040 0600 0090 8716. Registration by internet is open to midnight, September 5, here:

https://dbsportas.lt/lt/varz/2019148

Registered runners will receive a unique number to wear.

Artiom Perepelica is the coordinator and can be reached by telephone at+370 60 448 036 or by sending an emila to artiom.perp@gmail.com

New Leonard Cohen Statue in Vilnius

New Leonard Cohen Statue in Vilnius

A bronze statue was unveiled Saturday evening to the late Litvak Canadian singer Leonard Cohen to a small audience in the courtyard of a restaurant in the Vilnius Old Town. Vilnius mayor Remigijus Šimašius and wife Agnė Matulaitė attended the closed-door ceremony and the mayor promised to find a more public, permanent location for the statue in the near future. The sculpture is the work of the late sculptor Romualdas Kvintas, who has done a number of works on Jewish and Litvak themes. According to Agnė Matulaitė, it is the first statue commemorating Leonard Cohen in the world.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Condolences

Boris Volkov passed away August 29. He was born in 1935. Our condolences to his family and loved ones.

Focus on Cuisine and History at European Day of Jewish Culture Events

Focus on Cuisine and History at European Day of Jewish Culture Events

VILNIUS, September 1, BNS–Events were held to celebrate European Day of Jewish Culture in Vilnius on the first Sunday in September. Tours of the Lithuanian capital, lectures and authentic Jewish cuisine were offered to the public.

The events program included Jewish music in the Vilnius Old Town–the old Jewish Quarter–and restaurants offering authentic Jewish foods.

“Jewish cuisine is an inalienable part of Jewish culture, Jewish tradition and Jewish heritage. Jewish cuisine is a prerequisite part of any Jewish holiday,” Lithuanian Jewish Community projects director Dovilė Rūkaitė told BNS.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Libel

Libel

Attorney Faina Kukliansky representing unnamed members of the Lithuanian Jewish Community has submitted a complaint to the office of prosecutor regarding false information about representatives of the Jewish community made publicly.

From the material collected so far it appears the person who has spread the mendacious information knew it was false, and has no evidence or falsified evidence regarding the people and their parents who were libeled. The prosecutor has launched a criminal case, i.e., a pre-trial investigation, regarding this person. Article 154, section 2 of the Lithuanian criminal code says this crime incurs either a fine, limitations on personal freedom or jail for up to one year.

Libel and slander mean the spreading of false information about another person which could have a harmful or insulting effect upon the other person, or which might do damage to his reputation.

The second part of this article of law provides prison time for committing slander and committing libel through the media or press, a serious and grave crime.

The LJC informs the public that in every case of slander or libel against a member of the Community or his or her family member or members, the LJC will contact law-enforcement for criminal prosecution.

LJC Celebrates 20th European Day of Jewish Culture in Vilnius Old Town

LJC Celebrates 20th European Day of Jewish Culture in Vilnius Old Town

The Lithuanian Jewish Community celebrated the 20th European Day of Jewish Culture in the traditional Jewish Quarter of Vilnius September 1 with song, dance and food. The weather was beautiful. Restaurants in the Vilnius Old Town feature Jewish foods with traditional breakfast served at the Bagel Shop Café, restaurants and cafés on Žydų and Stiklių streets and other locations. DJs RafRaf, Akvilina and Marius Šmitas provided dance music with a 10-hour musical program at the Amadeus Bar.

LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky greeted celebrants and Vidmantas Bezaras, director of the Cultural Heritage Deparment, and Vida Montvydaitė, director of the Department of Ethnic Minorities, also spoke, noting there is no town or village in Lithuania without some sign of a Jewish presence. Vida Montvydaitė said this isn’t just Jewish heritage, it’s Lithuania’s legacy, and protecting it is becoming ever more important.

The writer Kristina Sabaliauskaitė spoke about her childhood memories of the Jews who still lived in central Vilnius then and with whom she made lasting friendships. She says interpersonal relationships are still one of the most important things in life to her.

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Holocaust Survivor Dita Zupavičienė-Šperlingienė to Speak at Vilnius Jewish Public Library

Holocaust Survivor Dita Zupavičienė-Šperlingienė to Speak at Vilnius Jewish Public Library

The Vilnius, Jerusalem of Lithuania Jewish Community invites the public to attend a meeting with Dita Zupavičienė-Šperlingienė, a living legend, a survivor of the Kaunas ghetto, the Stutthof concentration camp and other concentration camps and of the final death march. The meeting will include a presentation of unique footage from Kaunas in 1929, filmed by Dita’s uncle Honon who came for a short visit before going on to Riga and Lvov, which also feature in the film. Members of Dita’s family look at us through time and Dita will tell their stories and how the film itself made it through the war and came to her.

The meeting will take place at 6:00 P.M. on September 4 at the Vilnius Jewish Public Library.

Sergejus Kanovičius: Revolutionary Pessimist, Writer, Successful but Still Looking for His Calling

Sergejus Kanovičius: Revolutionary Pessimist, Writer, Successful but Still Looking for His Calling

by Evaldas Labanauskas 15min.lt

When you put “Sergejus Kanovičius” into a search engine, it comes back with “poet, essayist, translation…” There are also references to Grigoriy Kanovich, who recently celebrated his 90th birthday. The latter is a Writer with a capital W, and Sergejus also talks about his Father (also capitalized).

When I read one of your father’s works, “Žydų parkas” [Jewish Park], I got the impression that it was a monument to Litvak culture and civilization, spanning 700 years but now dead. What is the current situation of Litvaks in Lithuania? Do you think this culture/civilization is being reborn?

There are people who express the opinion there are certain parallels between the project which I lead and my father’s work. If one is a material monument to the culture of the Jews of Lithuania, then my father’s work is a literary monument to an extinct ethnos. I think the Jewish community in Lithuania is experiencing a period of transformation. The word “reborn” might be more appropriate if we were talking about what happened 30 years ago, when there were 20,000 Jews in Lithuania, but today there are barely 3,000 Jews in Lithuania. Any sort of activity is encouraging, but claiming there is some kind of very bright future–I, as a revolutionary pessimist, would refrain from that sort of evaluation. Honestly, I am very glad about what is happening, and as much as I’m able I contribute to the activities of the Jewish community, but… while there is a lot of action, there is the question: is there a future?

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Famous Parents Accompany Children to Sholem Aleichem New School Year Ceremony

Famous Parents Accompany Children to Sholem Aleichem New School Year Ceremony

DELFI.lt

Today producer Rolandas Skaisgirys and wife Vaida accompanied their son Atas to school, where Atas is beginning first grade this year at the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium in Vilnius.

Performer Saulius Prūsaitis and his wife, designer Agnė Kuzmickaitė, brought their daughter Leonarda to the same school. The young pupil posed for photographs with her parents.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community Tours Jewish Sites in Akmenė Region

Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community Tours Jewish Sites in Akmenė Region

Members of the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community spent the day of August 20 touring the Akmenė visiting sites with once populous Jewish communities. The tour began in Šiauliai and continued on in Papilė, where wood carver, traveller, naturalist and geographer Steponas Adomavičius met the group and gave them a guided tour of Jewish residences from before the Holocaust. Members visited the old Jewish cemetery in Papilė, a cemetery which features a commemorative stone and which Adomavičius himself maintains without remuneration. He cuts the grass and hedges and plants small trees. A grateful Jewish man living in America installed a bench bearing Steponas Adomavičius’s name in the cemetery in order to thank him.

The group was unable to reach the Jewish mass murder site in the woods of the Papilė aldermanship because there was no path through the forest at all. Adomavičius spoke about new projects he’s doing in connection with preserving the memory of the Jewish people.

From Papilė the group went on towards Akmenė, where the teacher Rita Ringienė met them and imparted much important information. Some Jewish structures survive in Akmenė. The teacher and pupils from her higher classes have done a study called “Inscriptions on Headstones in the Akmenė Jewish Cemetery and Their Translation to Lithuanian.” The group visited the old Jewish cemetery in Akmenė.

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Sabbath in the Jewish Quarter September 1

Sabbath in the Jewish Quarter September 1

The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites you to come celebrate the 20th annual European Day of Jewish Culture, “Sabbath in the Jewish Quarter,” in the Vilnius Old Town on September 1.

World-renowned writer Chaim Grade called the Vilnius Old Town the Jewish Quarter ca. 1930, and wrote: “Long Fridays of Summer. The housewives go to the bakery to shop for Saturday: they buy dry bagels, dark cookies and pastries with poppy seeds, small little cakes with powdered sugar…” (from his Der shtumer minyen, or Silent Minyan).

On Sunday, September 1, restaurants and cafés located in the Vilnius Jewish Quarter will present a menu of Jewish dishes, Jewish music will play and there will be lectures and tours. LJC chairman Faina Kukliansky will open ceremonies with a welcome speech at 12 noon. Saulius Pilinkus will MC and new Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Yossi Avni Levy, Lithuanian Cultural Heritage Department head Vidmantas Bezaras and Lithuanian Ethnic Minorities Department director Vida Montvydaitė will also welcome participants.

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Lithuanian Prosecutor Issues Finding on Noreika Take-Down, Tricolor Alley

Lithuanian Prosecutor Issues Finding on Noreika Take-Down, Tricolor Alley

A letter from the prosecutor of the Defense of the Public Interest Section of the Vilnius district Prosecutor Office has been posted on the webpage of the Lithuanian Prosecutor’s Office regarding complaints over the take-down of a plaque commemorating Jonas Noreika and the renaming of a street honoring Kazys Škirpa in Vilnius. Both men were complicit in Holocaust crimes during World War II.

Investigation Performed for the Defense of the Public Interest on the Removal of the Commemorative Plaque and the Renaming of the Alley in Vilnius

August 28, 2019

After considering statements by members of parliament Audronis Ažubalis and Laurynas Kasčiūnas, the Union of Volunteer Founders of the Lithuanian Military, the Lithuanian Defense of Human Rights Association and other parties on the possibly illegitimate removal of the plaque commemorating Jonas Noreika/General Storm from the outer wall of the Vrublevskiai Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and the renaming of K. Škirpa Alley, the Vilnius district Prosecutor’s Office adopted a decision to decline to apply measures for the defense of the public interest. In adopting this decision, the Prosecutor’s Office looked at information from the Vilnius municipality, the Lithuanian Cultural Heritage Department, the Lithuanian Government representative for the Vilnius and Alytus districts and other information pertinent to the investigation. This decision only presents a legal and not an historical assessment.

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Condolences

Gileras Babickis passed away August 19. He was born in 1934. Our deepest condolences to his friends and relatives.

Concert at the Kaunas State Philharmonic

A concert will be held at the Kaunas State Philharmonic at 7:00 P.M. on September 5 to celebrate the 125th birthday of doctor and rescuer of Jews Ona Jablonskytė-Landsbergienė.

Performers include Keiko Borjeson doing lyrics and playing piano, Arvydas Joffe on percussion, Tomas Botyrius on sax and Mykolas Bazaras on bass.

The concert is free and open to the public.

The Walls Remember, the People Tell

The Walls Remember, the People Tell

As part of the 20th annual European Day of Jewish Culture, the Lithuanian Jewish Community invites the public to visit the former Jewish Quarter of Vilnius. Recently several frescoes appeared on the walls there. The creators will lead a tour and talk about their surprising project The Walls Remember on September 1. Project author Lina Šlipavičiutė-Černiauskienė describes it this way:

“Vilnius had one of the largest and most active Jewish communities in our region. The horrors of World War II almost completely destroyed this community and this is without doubt one of the most painful losses for Lithuania and especially Vilnius. We don’t have the right to forget these people, and we do not forget them.

“But we forget too much the time when the people of Vilnius were simply happy. These bright memories should be visible: how these people worked, grew up, created families and grew old… How they shaped their lives in Vilnius whose streets we walk today, the same town we the current inhabitants of Vilnius love.

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