News

AJC CEO David Hariss’s Open Letter to President Trump

Dear President Trump: Aftermath of Charlottesville, Part II

by David Harris, AJC CEO
August 16, 2017

Dear President Trump,

I wrote on Monday morning urging you to reconsider your exceptionally ill-chosen words of Saturday – “on many sides” – following the tragic events in Charlottesville.

Shortly afterward, and I’m sure unrelated to my plea, you did so, or at least seemed to do so. I felt your new take on Charlottesville may have been somewhat devoid of passion and authenticity, but at least it was a start in the right direction, however late it might have been.

But barely 24 hours passed before you stood up again and reverted to your Saturday thinking, leaving Monday’s words in the dust. Indeed, your newest comments have rightly provoked outrage and dismay in wide swaths of the country, including within the Republican Party.

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Chief Rabbi of Catalunya Says after Terrorist Attacks Jewish Community Doomed

Commenting on the deadly terrorist attacks in Barcelona, the chief rabbi of Catalunya said his community is doomed, partially because of radical Islam, and partly due to the lack of will by government institutions to deal with the problem.

Rabbi Meir Bar-Hen has been encouraging his congregation to flee Spain, which he called a “hub of Islamist terror for all of Europe.” He urged Jews to move to Israel because “Europe is lost” to radical Islam.

To Bar-Hen, whose community on Friday resumed activities that it had suspended briefly following the Barcelona attack, “Jews are not here permanently,” he said of the city and region. “I tell my congregants: Don’t think we’re here for good. And I encourage them to buy property in Israel. This place is lost. Don’t repeat the mistake of Algerian Jews, of Venezuelan Jews. Better [get out] early than late.”

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Happy Birthday to Semionas Finkelšteinas

Dear Semionas,

We are so happy to be able to celebrate your birthday together. We wish you the greatest success as head for 28 years now of the Makabi Lithuanian Jewish Athletics Club. After you completed your studies in economics at Vilnius University, you were one of the initiators behind the reconstitution of the Makabi club in Lithuania and have been its president since 1989. And you have been active in the work of the Lithuanian National Olympics Committee. May athletics always remain important in your life. You have won so many laurels in long distance, as a sprinter and a light athlete, and in the summer of 1990 we remember you together with a group of just over a dozen or so Lithuanians who ran around the Baltic Sea! The years together have been happy and meaningful, and with all our heart we wish success and great health will follow you closely forever!

Mazl tov!

Most Famous Litvak Ever?


The Zamenhof monument in Veisiejai, Lithuania, recalls how he began as a doctor.

The Polish Institute in Vilnius with the Lithuanian National UNESCO Commission and the Union of Lithuanian Esperanto Speakers are presenting an exhibition on Ludovik Zamenhof, the inventor of the artificial international language Esperanto and the best-known Litvak in the world. The exhibit is on display at the Lithuanian National UNESCO Commission gallery at Šv. Jono street no. 11 and celebrates the 100th anniversary of Zamenhof’s birth. It details the famous Litvak and his family, his life in Białystok, Poland and the birth and popularity of the Esperanto language. Classic literature translated into Esperanto is also on display. UNESCO declared 2017 the Year of Ludovik Zamenhof. In 2014 Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Treasures listed the Esperanto language on its registry of intangible national treasures.

Born in Białystok, he also lived and worked in Warsaw, Kaunas, Moscow, Vienna and Plotsk, and began his practice as a doctor in Veisiejai, Lithuania, in 1885. In 1886 he was an ophthalmologist in Vienna and Plotsk. In 1879 he wrote a Yiddish grammar published in part in the magazine Lebn un visnshaft (Vilna, 1909) followed in 1887 by his book “Lingvo internacia” under the psuedonym Dr. Esperanto, which became the name of the language he invented. He died in 1917 and is buried in Warsaw.

The exhibit is open to the public without admission charge till September 19.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Famous Producer Making Documentary about Jewish Vilna

kauno.diena.lt

As US archaeologists continue their research in Lithuania in search of traces of Jewish culture and history, a group of Canadian filmmakers have arrived and plan to release a documentary in fall of next year.

An international team of archaeologists led by professor Richard Freund of Hartford have been working at several sites in Lithuania over the last few weeks, including the Kaunas forts, the Great Synagogue site in Vilnius and the Jewish labor camp on Subačiaus street also in Vilnius, where they are looking for malinas, or hiding places. They also studied a Nazi POW camp in Šilutė, Lithuania. For some of the sites they employed non-invasive techniques enabling them to make discoveries without tearing down existing structures. The archaeologists are wrapping up their work in Lithuania this week.

The archaeological and documentary teams traveled together to Vilnius where the Canadian filmmakers concentrated on the HKP labor camp on Subačiaus street in Vilnius. The HKP repaired Germany military automobiles.

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Stephanie Stolin Visits Panevėžys

Stephanie Stolin of Paris visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community August 10 looking for information about her grandfather Leo Berger. He was born in Subačius and studied at the Ponevezh yeshiva, and after reaching adulthood moved to London in 1910, and later to America. Her other relatives remained behind in Subačius. Her grandmother and her children daughter Leya Berger and son Mordechaim were murdered in Subačius in 1941.

Community chairman Gennady Kofman showed the guest old archival photographs and documents in which Stolin discovered the surname of her great-great-grandmother and photographic images of other relatives.

Stephanie Stolin thanked the chairman for his hospitality and aid in her search for traces and roots of her family, and promised to keep in touch with the Community in the future.

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Panevėžys Jewish Community Tours Ventspils, Latvia

Early on the morning of August 5, a group of 36 people went to Ventspils, Latvia. The trip, financed by the Goodwill Foundation, was intended for the Panevėžys Jewish Community and its youth initiative group to meet the small Ventspils Jewish community which had invited them on the day marking the anniversary of the Latvian coastal town’s founding.

The first stop on the trip was actually Joniškis in Lithuania, where members of the community toured two newly restored synagogues there. Before the war Joniškis has a population of about 8,000, of whom more than 4,000 were Jews. Jews constructed the White Choral Synagogue in the town center in 1853 with financing from affluent Jewish industrialists. The Red Synagogue was built next to it later. After World War II the synagogues were used as a gym and for storage. Now they have become some of the town’s major historical monuments and host cultural events, concerts and seminars.

The next stop was Žagarė, Lithuania, where members of the group visited a Holocaust monument.

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Genovaitė Gustaitė Has Died

Following sudden illness noted historian, long-time editor at the Mokslas publishing house and biographer of historical Lithuanian figures Genovaitė Gustaitė passed away on Tuesday, August 15.

Over the last several decades Genovaitė Gustaitė has dedicated her work to the life and deeds of beatified Roman Catholic priest Jurgis Matulaitis-Matulevičius who served as the bishop of Vilnius from late 1918 till his resignation in 1925 and who rescued Jews from the Holocaust.

Genovaitė Gustaitė helped prepare commemorations of Matulaitis and his work at the Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Community held the highest opinion of her work. We are deeply saddened by her passing and extend out condolences to her many friends and family members. She was a sincere and profound person and an outstandingly good and wise woman.

Rest in peace, Genovaitė.

Radio Interview on Palace of Sports Reconstruction Project

On Monday the daily news talk and interview program Sixty Minutes hosted by radio journalist Deividas Jursevičius on Lithuanian Public Radio discussed a letter sent by 12 members of the US House of Representatives to Lithuania president Dalia Grybauskaitė. The following is an unofficial translation of the program.

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US congressmen call for a halt to the project for the reconstruction of the Palace of Sports in Vilnius and not to disturb the graves of the old Jewish Šnipiškės cemetery. Lithuanian leaders are rejecting these complaints. Prime minister advisor Deividas Matulionis said the letter from the congressmen was a surprise to him because there was already agreement with Jewish organizations on the territory of the Šnipiškės cemetery back in 2009.

“We are taking this letter seriously, but I think some sort of misunderstanding has happened. Actually that problem no longer exists. Back in 2010 we, together with the Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe, reached an agreement, the essence of which was that we identified the territory where there is no disagreement that there were Jewish graves, the parking lot was removed and a monument was erected, and it was resolved to plant grass there and that no work can take place there. But around, and the Palace of Sports itself falls into it, is the so-called gray zone, or disputed zone, where we agreed there will be, from beginning to end if such work takes place or if we reconstruct the Palace of Sports, there will be consultation and discussion with the same Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe and the Lithuanian Jewish Community. So we have adhered to that position and will continue to adhere to it. So I’m not sure why this problem has come up now and why it is being treated so emotionally, but really we haven’t done any such thing. We really need to talk with the Jewish Community and with Jewish organizations to make it clearer what we actually want and what the Jewish organizations want, and to find a solution. We made an agreement then we would coordinate with the Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe and we truly haven’t rejected that idea. If it turns out it’s unacceptable and graves are discovered in the Palace of Sports site, then we could say yes, we need to go over everything again and come up with different solutions. We truly want to find a way forward in the spirit of good will, and not at any cost, either, let’s say, if there is a problem we will not ignore that problem. We really will not do anything to violate the essential, fundamental Jewish religious interests and our historical legacy,” advisor to the prime minister Deividas Matulionis said.

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Lithuanian Leaders Dismiss US Congressmen’s Fears about Snipiskes Cemetery

Lithuanian Leaders Dismiss US Congressmen’s Fears about Snipiskes Cemetery

VILNIUS, Aug 14, BNS – Lithuania’s leaders say that Snipiskiu Jewish cemetery would not be affected by the reconstruction of the derelict Sports and Concert Palace in central Vilnius, dismissing the fears voiced by a group of US Congressmen as ungrounded.

The country’s leaders say that the reconstruction project would be further coordinated with the Jewish community of Lithuania and the London-based Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe, which both have given their approval to the reconstruction.

“All Jewish cemeteries should be preserved properly, therefore, the decisions on their preservation are made in cooperation with the Jewish Community of Lithuania and the Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe,” Lithuania’s President Dalia Grybauskaite said in a comment provided to BNS by her press service.

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Conflict in the Lithuanian Jewish Community Spreads to the West


Simonas Gurevičius and his group of proponents accuse Faina Kukliansky and her circle of authoritarianism and the desire to remain in power, and allege they sought to protect themselves from the effect of elections in the largest and most influential Vilnius Jewish Community. Photo: J. Stacevičias and V. Balkūnas

Which ethnic minority communities receive the greatest attention in Lithuanian public life, the upper echelons of power and in the corridors of the special services? The Poles and Russians of course, since they are thought capable of become or of already having become the tools of the Kremlin’s “information war” or “hybrid aggression” against Lithuania.

But our heads of state should look to themselves first, because there is no evidence of greater efforts to make integrate more fully these ethnic minorities into Lithuania society, nor of a more sincere dialogue with them.

Even more rarely does a no less and perhaps more important ethnic minority in terms of Lithuania’s international positions end up as the center of attention: Jews. How is Lithuania attempting to heal the wounds of the Holocaust, how is it coming to terms with this unprecedented crime, carried out by Lithuanian hands as well? What relations will there be with the remains of that once prolific community still alive and living in Lithuania today, and how do the Jews themselves feel here?

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On the Radvilėnai Cemetery in Kaunas

Yesterday was a strange day. As if by prior agreement, Jewish residents of Kaunas and Vilnius called to ask the opinion of the largest Jewish religious community in Lithuania, the Vilnius religious community about “a botanical garden being built” in the Radvilėnai Cemetery in Kaunas.

I was caught by surprise and took a look on the all-powerful facebook. Actually, saplings and flowers are being planted in the cemetery, a sprinkler system has been set up and there is even a garbage dumpster on site.

For Jews cemeteries are a place of extraordinary respect and commemoration. This Jewish ethical position has been followed for centuries. This reminded me of the spiritual Holocaust which came in Soviet times, when Jewish, Christian and Orthodox cemeteries were “beautified” and “put to cultural use” as parks with fountains and benches for relaxing and reading Pravda.

Will Kaunas, which today is known for its innovative solutions and beautiful reconstruction, really let this happen? Will the city famous for its cultural traditions remain apathetic in the face of this malicious vandalism? It’s time to answer that question. Since my opinion was asked, I give it here.

The Kaunas city landscape is not a matter for the Jewish religious communities. We the living say: we are responsible for the memory of our dead and martyred brothers and sisters, for their rest and respect. Even a crooked, toppled, broken matseva (headstone) is extremely dear to us.

If someone is bothered by the view onto “unaesthetic Jewish graves” from the window of their home, let them install frosted windows. Or they should demonstrate civic pride, invite friends, invite the Jewish community, grab some brooms and rakes and clean up the cemetery. The unborn children and grandchildren of the victims of the Ninth Fort and the Lietūkis Garage in Kaunas have no opportunity to tend the graves of their relatives, no way to insure their eternal rest. Only we can do that now. Jews and Lithuanians. Citizens of the Republic of Lithuania.

Shmuel (Simas) Levinas, chairman
Vilnius Jewish Religious Community

Golda Vainberg-Tatz Concert

The accomplished pianist Gold Vainber-Tatz is returning to Vilnius and will perform at 6:00 P.M. on August 10 at the Lithuanian Jewish Community. Her performance is to include works by Bach (Busoni editions), Beethoven, Ravel, Debussy, Chopin and others.

LJC and Israeli Embassy Thank Makabi Athletes

On August 4 the Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Israeli embassy to Lithuania held a special thanksgiving event to thank Makabi athletes who competed so well at the Maccabiah Games in Israel from July 4 to 8. The Lithuanian Jewish delegation won six medals at the so-called Jewish Olympics this summer.

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Maceva Summer Camp to Study Kaunas Jewish Cemetery

This year Maceva has been invited to join the international project Oppression and Opposition: Opportunities of Civic movements in Europe’s Past and Present. Lithuania is one country along with three others–Greece, Italy, Hungry–who are hosting a special kind of summer camp this year. From the 6th to the 20th of August, 25 international volunteers from Germany, Austria, Ukraine and Lithuania and including Maceva representatives will be participating in various activities in Kaunas and Vilnius. The main activities of this summer camp will be complete documentation of the Žaliakalnis Jewish cemetery–who exactly was buried where and when–and the elaboration of all findings.

Maceva’s main partner in the summer camp project is Germany’s Action Reconciliation Service for Peace and this will be the third such summer camp organized by Maceva (www.litvak-cemetery.info) in Lithuania. Results from all four countries participating this year will be presented in Germany this November.

After successful participation last year, students from Vytautas Magnus University will be joining the summer camp again to help preserve the historical cemetery. We have and are receiving significant support from the Kaunas municipality who are paying close attention to the cemetery and doing their best to bring it back to a respectable state.

The Jewish cemetery in the Žaliakalnis district of Kaunas was established in 1861 and closed in 1952. It is listed on the registry of cultural treasures and is protected by the Lithuanian state as a cultural heritage site. Many famous and notable figures are buried there, including politicians, scholars, religious leaders and cultural figures such as the writer Jacques Lipchitz and the vocalist Daniel Dolski. The graves of more historical personalities will likely come to light after successful inventory and documentation this summer.

Besides the work in the cemetery, volunteers will have an opportunity to get to know more about Lithuanian Jewish history and culture. We look forward to meeting people from the Judaica Research Center, the International Center for Litvak Photography and Bella Shirin.

Maceva is an associated member of the Lithuanian Jewish Community.

Advisory Group for Heritage Issues at the Lithuanian Jewish Community

Advisory Group for Heritage Issues at the Lithuanian Jewish Community

In striving to objectively assess the current situation with the Litvak material cultural heritage, wanting to set priorities in heritage protection as it concerns Jewish cultural sites and striving to come up with professional and effective solutions to urgent issues in Lithuanian Jewish heritage, the Lithuanian Jewish Community announces the formation of an international working group of experts at the LJC. The following have consented to be part of the working group:

Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, advisor to the director and senior curator of main exhibits, POLIN Polish Jewish History Museum.

Assumpció Hosta, general secretary The European Association for the Preservation and Promotion of Jewish Culture and Heritage (AEPJ)

Sergey Kanovich, Poet and essayist, founder of NGO “Maceva” and Seduva Jewish Memorial Fund

James E. Young, professor of English, Judaism, Near East studies and professor emeritus, and leading expert on monuments, University of Massachusetts.

Samuel Kassow, doctor of philosophy, head researcher at POLIN Museum specializing in the 19th century and the period between the two world wars, author of Who Will Write Our History?: Emanuel Ringelbaum, the Warsaw Ghetto and the Oyneg Shabes Archive, translated in 14 languages.

Cilly Kugelman, deputy director and program director, Berlin Jewish Museum.

Lyudmila Sholokhova, PhD, director, YIVO archive and library.

Sergey Kravtsov, senior research correspondent, Jewish Art Center, Hebrew University.

Martynas Užpelkis, heritage expert, Lithuanian Jewish Community.

This composition of the working group is not final and more Lithuanian and foreign experts will be invited to join.

International Communications Specialist Appointed Executive Director

At a meeting of the Lithuanian Jewish Community executive board August 3, chairwoman Faina Kukliansky appointed Renaldas Vaisbrodas exectuvie director. The board approved the appointment.

Vaisbrodas, 36, earned a master’s degree in international communications at Vilnius University. He served as foreign policy advisor to Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaitė and was senior secretary for the Liberal Union party. He began his political career as foreign policy advisor to Guy Verhofstadt, chairman of the European Alliance of Liberals and Democrats faction in the European Parliament.

Vaisbrodas comes from a mixed Jewish and Lithuanian background.

World Marks Roma Holocaust Victims Commemoration Day August 2

August 2 is a tragic date in the history of the Roma. Seventy-three years ago as the night of August 2 turned into the morning of August 3 in 1944, all Roma at the so-called Gypsy family camp at Auscwitz-Birkenau were murdered in the gas chambers there, in total about 3,000 men, women and children. The event is remembered as the Black Night of the Gypsies.

There isn’t much information available about the Roma murdered in Lithuania during the Nazi occupation, but historians say Roma were murdered as Jews were based on race. During the Nazi occupation Roma were classified as useless people, isolated from society and then murdered. Many were shot and poisoned in gas chambers. Roma were also sterilized, used as slave labor and used in medical experiments. It has been calculated one out of three Roma were murdered in Lithuania. About one half million Roma were murdered in total during the Holocaust.

Roma Holocaust Day commemoration is the initiative of the Roma National Congress and the World Romani Congress. Besides inviting the public to commemorate the day, they also hold ceremonies at Auschwitz where they invite youth from around Europe to attend. The Roma Holocaust isn’t widely known and the organizations seek to educate the public in this way.

The Roma Social Center in Lithuania commemorates the Black Night in different ways annually, holding live concerts, drawing contests, screenings of films and so on. This year they invited the public to attend an exhibition on Roma traditions at the Old Town Hall in Vilnius.

A wreath-laying ceremony has been conducted at Ponar outside Vilnius since 2009. There is information conserved in the Lithuanian archives showing Roma were murdered there.

#AtmintisAtsakomybeAteitis

Call for Information

The Lithuanian Jewish Community received a letter from Kaunas with a request for information about former Kaunas resident Piotr Šoichet Haimovič (Pyotr Shokhet Haimovich, Chaimowicz or possibly Ben-Haim now). The request came from people now resident in the man’s former apartment.

“We acquired space at Gedimino street no. 48-5 in Kaunas. Until 1989 Piotr Šoichet Haimovič lived in this apartment, according to the former owner, who bought the apartment when Haimovič and his family left to settle in Israel. His profession was doctor and military officer.

“The building and the apartment are heritage sites, meaning the façade and interior details are protected. We are hoping Piotr Šoichet Haimovič or members of his family have photographs of the building or the apartment interior and can tell us more in order to help us recreate the original interior and provide historicity to the building. We want the building to be entered on the list of European cultural heritage treasures, and the stories of all the residents of the building are very important.”

The authors of the letter were Karolis Banys and Petras Gaidamavičius and they can be reached by telephone at +370 640 23 677 and by email at banys.karolis@gmail.com and gaidamavicius.petras@gmail.com

Keen Interest Surrounds Archaeological Work at Kaunas Mass Murder Sites

The archaeological research being conducted by an international team led by Hartford professor Richard Freund in Kaunas is getting wide coverage in the Lithuanian press. The team studying the Holocaust sites at the Fourth, Seventh and Ninth Forts and the Žaliakalnis Jewish cemetery in Kaunas has been visited by US embassy staff and is working closing with different departments in the Kaunas city government and the Kaunas Jewish Community. They plan to announce their finds in fall and to present a comprehensive study to Klaipėda University archaeologist Dr. Gintautas Zabiela, who is accompanying the group and whose certification will be required for the discoveries to be recognized officially in Lithuania. Dr. Zabiela promised to present his report to the Kaunas Jewish Community as well.

Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas showed the team an area in the Žaliakalnis Jewish cemetery where an Israeli archaeologist five years ago determined there was a mass grave. This could be the place where the victims of the Lietūkis garage massacre were buried. Residents in the buildings around the cemetery gave testimony they witnessed trucks arriving with corpses who were buried there in late June of 1941.

Many of the team members have Jewish and Litvak roots. Professor Freund is in communication with Avraham Gol, who has roots in Kaunas. Gol’s father Shloma Gol was one of the eleven prisoners who successfully escaped Ponar by digging an escape tunnel and testified at Nuremberg.

More about Gol’s testimony here.