News

Rabbi Ben Tzion Zilber Visits Latvia and Lithuania

Rugpjūčio 15-16 Latvijoje ir Lietuvoje lankėsi rabinas Bentsiyonas Zilberis

Rabbi Ben Tzion Zilber, son of legendary Rabbi Yitzchok Zilber, visited Latvia and Lithuania August 15 and 16.

Rabbi Kalev Krelin of the Vilnius Jewish Community escorted Rabbi Zilber to locations where the latter’s ancestors lived. His father Rabbi Yitzchok Zilber belonged to a long line of scholars and suffered under Stalin, both at labor camps and under the atheist policies of the Soviet Union. Despite extremely difficult circumstances, Rabbi Yitzchok Zilber not only managed to hold steadfastly to his faith in the Creator and to keep His laws, but also to deepen his Torah study and teach others. After making aliyah to Israel Rabbi Yitzchok Zilber had hundreds of followers in whom he inspired faith in the Creator and adherence to the Torah.

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Commemoration in Dusetos of 75th Anniversary of Krakynė Massacre

August 26, 2016, marks the 75th anniversary of the massacre which was perpetrated in the Krakynė Forest (Degučiai alermanship, Zarasai region) when 2,569 Jews from Zarasai region and surrounding areas were murdered.

The unveiling of a commemorative monument will take place where the Dusetos Synagogue once stood on Independence Square in Dusetos, Zarasai district, at 2:00 P.M. We will commemorate the Dusetos Jews who were murdered between 1941 and 1944, visit the mass murder site in Krakynė Forest and distribute a publication called “Desetų žydai” (Jews of Dusetos).

Zarasai regional administration
Dusetos aldermanship
A joint project by the Dusetos aldermanship and parish community

Keeping the Faith in Vilnius

VilnaFaina
photo © Delfi/K. Cachovskis

Ellen Cassedy, author of We Are Here: Memories of the Lithuanian Holocaust (ellencassedy.com), has written about the Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Bagel Shop initiative.

Amit Belaite adores the long ode to the city of Vilna that was penned by writer and poet Moyshe Kulbak 90 years ago. Lines from the poem about Vilna’s stones and streets were running through her head on a warm summer afternoon as she led a walking tour through the narrow, winding streets of the city now known as Vilnius, the capital of the small Baltic nation of Lithuania.

Belaite, 23, heads the Lithuanian Union of Jewish Students. When she posted the announcement for the group’s tour of Jewish Vilnius, she expected a couple of dozen people to be interested. To her amazement, 400 signed up, many of them non-Jews.

“People know the city is rich in Jewish history,” she said. “They feel a big need to learn about it.”

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Anniversary of Intellectuals Aktion, Mass Murder of Jews of Petrašiūnai

The Kaunas Jewish Community will mark the 75th anniversary of the murder of the Jews of Petrašiūnai and the Intellectuals Aktion on August 26, 2016. The ceremony will begin at 3:30 P.M. at the stele in memory of the Jews of Petrašiūnai. Then we will move to the Fourth Fort in Kaunas where the Intellectuals Aktion, the first mass murder of Jews imprisoned in the Kaunas ghetto, was perpetrated.

Happy 70th!

Sveikiname mūsų bendruomenės narę Michlią Lorman su 70-uoju jubiliejumi!

We sincerely congratulate long-standing and very active Vilnius Jewish Community member Michlia Lorman on her 70th birthday.

We wish you eternal beauty and happiness, health and continued energy! And may all your birthday wishes come true.

Mazl tov!

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Chess Tournament Dedicated to Memory of Kaunas Chess Club Director Abraomas Šulmanas

Kviečiam į šachmatų turnyrą, skirtą, Kauno šachmatų klubo direktoriaus Abraomo Šulmano atminimui

The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Rositsan and Maccabi Elite Chess and Checkers Club invite you to a chess tournament dedicated to the memory of Kaunas Chess Club director Abraomas Šulmanas at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius at 11:00 A.M. on August 21.

Tournament director Boris Rositsan, FIDE master

For further information and to register, contact:
info@metbor.lt
tel.: +3706 5543556

Condolences

Vladimir Kavleiskij, a member of the Vilnius Jewish Community and the Social Club, passed away August 12. He was born July 19, 1946. We extend our deepest condolences to his family members for their loss.

En Plein Air Outdoor Painting Workshop at Įlanka Farm in Šaukšteliškiai Village

Plenerassu R.Savick2

Another outdoor painting workshop, or “plein air,” took place from August 8 to 14 at the Įlanka farmstead in Šaukšteliškiai village in the Molėtai region of Lithuania, organized by the Lithuanian Jewish Community. Participants stayed in and painted a scenic natural location where the surrounding lake, skies and fresh air inspired creativity. The program included ceramics as well as painting and featured professional teachers and lecturers and a significant recreational component. Participants included two recognized Lithuanian folk artists.

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Lithuanian and Japanese Cities Join in Commemorating Righteous Gentile

Pasaulio tautų teisuolio atminimas sujungė Japonijos ir Lietuvos miestus ir žmones

Events to commemorate Chiune Sugihara, Japanese WWII-era consul in Kaunas and a Lithuanian festival were held in Sugihara’s hometown of Yaotsu, Japan, from July 31 to August 7.

Sugihara rescued thousands of Lithuanian Jews from the Holocaust and has been recognized as a Righteous Gentile and awarded the status of Righteous among the Nations by the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial authority in Israel.

The week of commemorations was opened by the signing of a memorandum of cooperation by Yaotsu mayor Masanori Kaneko and Kaunas municipality representative Inga Pukelytė.

Acting Lithuanian ambassador to Japan Violeta Gaižauskaitė noted the events came on the 25th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic ties between Japan and Lithuania and characterized ties between the people of Japan and Lithuania as sincere, and relations btween the two nations friendly. She also said both countries were dedicated to preserving the memory of the noble Japanese diplomat for future generations.

Nazi Victim Enzys Jagomastas to Be Commemorated

Pagerbs nacistinio rėžimo auką E. Jagomastą

Jagomastas was an activist for the rights of the Lithuanian minority in East Prussia and a publisher. He and his wife, two sons and daughter were shot at Ponar outside Vilnius in August of 1941. On the 75th anniversary of his death the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania is calling on the public to remember him and the murder of his family. An event is scheduled for 12 noon on August 23 at the marked grave of Jagomastas in Ponar.

More information in Lithuanian here.

Vladimir Lazerson: Army Medic, Peace Psychologist

Vladimiras Lazersonas: karo medikas ir taikos psichologas
Valdimir and Regina Lazerson

by Jūratė Vaižgauskaitė
manoteises.lt

“We used to drink tea using the ‘look’ method: a lump of sugar was tied to a string and we’d look at it while we sipped tea. The tea wasn’t any sweeter for that, but we all had a good time,” Vladimir Lazerson’s daughter Tamara wrote in her memoirs. Lazerson was a professor and early practitioner of clinical psychology. They drank that imagined sweet tea in the Kaunas ghetto where they were imprisoned in June of 1941.

First professor Lazerson was thrown out of university. Then his house was taken away, his books burned and he was sent to Dachau. There he died. He had dozens of articles published and was the founder in Lithuania of several branches of psychology, and practiced clinical psychology as a military medic.

Army Medic, Peace Psychologist

Born in Moscow, Lazerson began his scholastic career at German and Swiss universities. He defended a dissertation thesis in psychology in 1911 and then went on to study medicine in Germany and Russia. His path to Lithuania was a winding one. Working as a military medic and associate professor in Kiev, he left when pogroms began and chose newly independent Lithuania as a destination.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Condolences

Nina Kačerginskaja, a member of the Social Club and of the Klaipėda Jewish Community, passed away August 11. She was born on November 20, 1925.

Our deepest condolences to her friends and family.

Commemoration of the Holocaust in Šeduva, Lithuania

UPDATE: Event organizers are providing transport from Vilnius and several free seats are left! Please register for a place before August 23 by sending an email to info@lostshtetl.com

You are invited to an event to commemorate the Šeduva Jewish community murdered in the Holocaust. The event is on on August 30 and will be a kaddish at the 3 mass murder sites and the old Šeduva Jewish cemetery.

Commemorative program

9:00–9:30 Kaddish at the Jewish mass murder site in Pakuteniai forest
https://goo.gl/maps/tdN5Y3mrWJw

9:45–10:15 Kaddish at Liaudiškiai Jewish mass murder site I
https://goo.gl/maps/fhjnq5ubSfk

10:30–11:00 Kaddish at Liaudiškiai Jewish mass murder site II
https://goo.gl/maps/mYLnGLUmVuK2

11:15–11:45 Kaddish at the Šeduva Jewish cemetery
https://goo.gl/maps/ZuHGdK9EHvF2

12:00–12:30 Coffee break at the Šeduva Culture and Crafts Center

12:45-1:30 Mass at the Holy Apparition of the Cross Church in Šeduva

1:30–2:15 Yiddish song concert by Rafailas Karpis and Darius Mažintas at the church in Šeduva

Download PDF format event program

More here.

Lithuanian Debut at the Olympics: The Isaac Anolik Story

by D. Baranauskaitė
manoteises.lt

“All riders have reached the finish line and the injured have been brought by automobile, but we haven’t seen Mr. Anolik and he isn’t found among the injured. Everyone has left. The stadium is empty, but he’s still not here. Asked by telephone, all the checkpoints reported they didn’t know and that there was not a single cyclist left on the route. He only came back at 11 at night, cold and hungry.”

This is how the newspaper Sportas reported the debut of the Lithuanian state at the Olympic Games in 1924. The subject of the report, Isaac Anolik, was a Lithuanian athlete of Jewish origins and the country’s cycling champion many times over. His accomplishments didn’t matter during the Holocaust. The leading Lithuanian cyclist was shot at the Ninth Fort.

isakas-anolikas-395x480

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Tel Aviv Art Exhibit My Selife and I

Tel Avivo Šiuolaikinio meno muziejus -interaktyvi paroda „Asmenukė ir aš“

15min.lt

The Tel Aviv Museum of Art is inviting visitors to a provocative interactive exhibit called My Selfie and I. Visitors can photograph themselves as much as they like with special equipment and their images are immediately projected on a large screen. Initially it appeared as if the museum were trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator among visitors, but actually the exhibit subtly reveals the absurdity of the selfie phenomenon.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Plaque to Honor Union of Jewish Soldiers in Kaunas

Kaune atsiras atminimo lenta, skirta Žydų karių sąjungai

Work has begun to produce a memorial plaque to commemorate the pre-WWII Union of Jewish Soldiers Who Fought for Lithuanian Independence. The project was initiated by the Kaunas Jewish Community with support from Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, LJC cultural heritage expert Martynas Užpelkis and sculptor Gediminas Pašvenskas, who designed the plaque. The plaque is to be placed on the building formerly housing the Union at A. Mapu street no. 10 in Lithuania’s interwar capital.

Established in 1933, the Union of Jewish Soldiers Who Fought for Lithuanian Independence was originally based in Joniškis and moved to Kaunas in 1934. Besides fostering patriotism and loyalty to the state, the union also encouraged cultural cooperation between Lithuanians and Jews and operated throughout the country, with about 3,000 members in total. Twenty Jewish soldiers were decorated with the Order of the Cross of Vytis for bravery in battle and other orders and decorations were also bestowed on the veterans of the early Lithuanian struggle for independence following World War I. The union participated with its regalia at official events and ceremonies and publicly displayed their devotion and loyalty to Lithuania.