Religion – Page 90 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Most Brutal Lithuanian Holocaust Mass Murder Operation Remembered

To never forget, to always remember and to seek to make sure it never happens again–these are our duties. We often repeat these words in commemoration Holocaust victims. We repeated them again in the afternoon on Friday, March 24, in Kaunas when we remembered the victims of the most horrific mass murder operation in the Kauinas ghetto, the Children’s Aktion.

Horrific also because, as Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Amir Maimon said at the commemoration, it is incomprehensible how a human being can turn into a murderer of innocent children, of babies who don’t even understand what is going on in the world around them. Horrific and painful because it impossible to imagine what the parents felt when they returned home to the ghetto after forced labor and found their only joy, their children, were missing. Administrative director of the Kaunas municipality Nijolė Putrienė cried speaking about the unrealized dreams of the murdered children, about the murder of their futures and about Lithuanian citizens who could have made a difference. Survivor of the Children’s Operation Ela Glinskienė spoke of her memories. Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas led the event and long-time Kaunas Jewish Community friend, the daughter of a rescuer of Jews, actress Kristina Kazakevičiūtė and flautist Artūras Makštutis provided music and poetry.

2017-04-10

Kosher Kitchens Goes In at Choral Synagogue

Vilniaus Sinagogoje įrengta košerinė virtuvė

The Vilnius Jewish Community is happy to announce a new kosher kitchen was set up at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius. The minimal but tasteful kitchen interior fits in with the existing space, uses the same combination of colors, has wooden components and didn’t disturb the existing wooden floor. The renovation was designed by Viktorija Sideraitė who is a contractor to the company Real Taste under the direction of Saulius Blaževičius.

The kitchen space at the synagogue has been awaiting renovation for a very long time. Here’s a “before” picture:

Pictures of the new kosher kitchen space can be seen here.

2017-04-10

Vilnius Synagogue Map Launched

“When we speak of Jewish cultural heritage, we don’t mean a foreign people who lived apart from everything and one day decided to move. We’re talking about what was in Lithuania, about the Lithuanian nation’s heritage, not just of the Jews,” Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Amir Maimon said Friday at the launch of map of the synagogues of Vilnius held at the ambassadorial residence. One of the goals of the map project was to show just how interconnected Jewish and Lithuanian history is.

Of 135 Synagogues, Only One Remains

The map contains a total of 135 sites of synagogues which operated before the Holocaust. Most of the synagogues were located in the Vilnius Old Town, around the Jewish area of the city centering on the Great Synagogue and spreading along Vokiečių, Gaono and Stiklių streets. There were more than 30 synagogues located in that compact area, but none of them remain. The synagogues were razed and other buildings built in their place, or the sites were used as public spaces.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2017-04-102017-04-14

Vilna Gaon Museum on New Jewish Museum Proposal

The Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum has issued a statement via press release about a recent proposal by Lithuanian officials to set up a Holocaust-free new Jewish museum in the Palace of Sports or next to it on land which contains the centuries-old historic Jewish graveyard of Vilnius.

Let’s Create a Strategic Strategy for Jewish Heritage, Not Disneyland

The Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum was disappointed by information appearing in the press last week about plans by government institutions to establish another Jewish museum in the Lithuanian capital instead of assuring support for existing projects.

The Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum, whose sections are housed in authentic buildings closely connected with the Jewish history of Vilnius, has recently been undergoing an intense and productive period. We host international events at the highest level, for example, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance conference held on March 22 and 23, and the number of visitors is constantly growing. New permanent exhibitions are being created for installation in our historic buildings, including the opening this fall of a new Samuel Bak Museum, showcasing the Litvak painter’s life and works, and in the near future we also intend to open the Museum of Lithuanian Jewish Culture, aka the Litvak Center and a dedicated Lithuanian Holocaust and Vilnius ghetto memorial museum, which has attracted the attention of international museum organizations including ICOM.

The latter museum is to be housed in the historical building on Žemaitijos street (former Strashun street) which was listed as a cultural treasure last month. This is the building which housed the Mefitsei Haskalah library before World War II and the Vilnius ghetto library during the war. which organized cultural events inside the ghetto and served as a secret meeting place for members of the ghetto resistance organization. In 1945 Holocaust survivors established the short-lived Jewish Museum in the building, quickly shut down by the Soviet government. The Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum intends to reutilize the building for Holocaust education. After the museum has these additional sections, a unique route will be created for the visitor to explore Jewish Vilna.

2017-04-072017-04-27

Come Observe Passover at the Choral Synagogue

Dear Community members,

We invite you to come to a kosher Passover Seder at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius at 9:00 P.M. on April 10.

The cost is 7 euros.

Please pick up an invitation at the synagogue on workdays from 9 A.M. to 1:00 P.M.

For those who wish to pray, please come to the evening prayer on April 10 which will begin at 8:00 P.M.

2017-04-072017-04-19

Family Seder

Bring your whole family to the Lithuanian Jewish Community Passover Seder starting at 5:00 P.M. on April 15 at the Radisson Blue Hotel Lietuva, Konstitucijos street no. 20, Vilnius. Tickets are 12 euros. For more information and to buy tickets from April 4 to April 12, contact Žana Skudovičienė at telephone 867881514 or Julija Lipšic at 865952604.

2017-04-072017-04-19

Nietzsche and Pesach: How the Exodus Ruined Everything

by Andrés Spokoiny

Frederick Nietzsche believed that the Egyptians were blond.

My apologies; I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start from the beginning:

Despite what people sometimes claim, Frederick Nietzsche wasn’t an anti-Semite. To the contrary, he was strongly against the anti-Semitism that raged in Germany in his lifetime. He even said in his private correspondence that anti-Semites, his racist sister included, “should be shot”. (And you thought your family had issues…)

Yet, Nietzsche had a problem with Pesach. A big problem.

For the bespectacled professor, Jews, with their “revolt of the slaves”, had “subverted the natural order” and instituted a “morality of slaves” that is opposed to the “morality of the masters”, the latter being the natural and desired state of the world. That ushered in the “collective degeneration of man” that Nietzsche saw in his own time. The French Revolution, the American Revolution, and democracy as a whole were for Nietzsche direct results of the revolution of morality that the Jewish slaves started.

Full piece here.

2017-04-052017-04-21

Vilnius Mayor, Lithuanian PM Decree: And There Shall Be Built a Jewish History Museum Next to the Palace of Sports

Vilnius, March 30, BNS–Lithuanian prime minister Saulius Skvernelis said there are deliberations on changing the project for the reconstruction of the Palace of Sports to include a equip a building to host a Jewish history museum and for conferences. There was consideration on holding concerts and other cultural events in the project initiated by the former Government.

Vilnius mayor Remigijus Šimašius proposed setting up a Litvak History Museum next to the Palace of Sports which the Government is planning to renovate. “I think the Government has done the right thing in halting the untransparent bid begun earlier. But there should be a conference center there without any doubt. We just discussed that it would be more sensible if next to the conference center or partially integrated with the conference center there were a museum of Litvak history. It is probably this could be accomplished wonderfully and would become an attraction. We agreed to develop the idea further. I’m glad my opinion and the prime minister’s coincide on this,” the mayor of Vilnius told BNS after meeting with Lithuanian prime minister Saulius Skvernelis Thursday.

“It should be able to be used for conferences. Now there is a concept, a conference and concert hall, so it should be conferences and a museum,” the prime minister told reporters at parliament.

2017-04-052017-04-27

Rabbi Shimshon Isaacson Teaches about Passover

You are warmly invited to attend Rabbi Shimson Isaacson’s lesson

Everything You Need to Know about Passover

at 7:30 P.M. on March 30 at the Choral Synagogue at Pylimo street no. 39 in Vilnius.

2017-03-302017-04-04

Equality and Diversity Prizes Awarded to Leonidas Donskis, Baltic Pride Organizers, Crisis Center Director

Vilnius, March 30, BNS–The fourth National Equality and Diversity Awards recognized the contributions of Lithuanian philosopher Leonidas Donskis who died last year.

The gender equality award was presented to Vilnius Crisis Center director Nijolė Dirsienė for her many years of caring for women suffering domestic violence and active work over 20 years in preventing violence. In the break-through category the Baltic Pride gay march organizers got the award, according to event spokespeople.

The ceremony held at the Royal Palace in Vilnius Wednesday handed out ten awards for achievements and initiatives over the last year.

The award for dialogue between peoples went to Vilnius Ukrainian Association chairwoman Natalija Šertvytienė for active work in expanding ethnic dialogue in Lithuania, preserving the Ukrainian ethnic identity and aid in integrating Ukraine in Europe.

2017-03-302017-04-07

Lithuania’s Shoah Whitewash Project

Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Jerusalem has said the Lithuanian authorities were “very culpable.”

A derelict shul in Vilnius (Getty Images)

Lithuanian parliamentary ombudsman Augustinas Normantas has refused to open an investigation into a complaint that his country’s Genocide and Resistance Center presents a revisionist version of wartime history.

Instead, the ombudsman said that the center itself must address the issue first, and “if its answer is disputed, then in a court of law.”

The complainant, Grant Gochin, has challenged the Genocide Center’s description of Lithuania’s wartime treatment of its Jews, calling it “a distortion of history and an insult to the Jewish citizens of Lithuania.”

2017-03-302017-05-19

Lesson by Rebbetzin Esther Isaacson on Blessing Food in Judaism

Rebbetzin Esther Isaacson invites you to a lesson in Russian on the blessing of food. Come, listen and let’s find out the answers together. The lesson will be held at 6:30 on Wednesday, March 29 in auditorium no. 306 on the third floor of the Lithuanian Jewish Community located at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius.

2017-03-282017-04-07

German Historian Raises Painful Question of Lithuanian Collaboration

Effective cooperation between Germans and Lithuanians became a fatal trap for Lithuanian Jews. It was patriots–ethnic nationalists–who murdered the Jews in Lithuania, hoping to form a strong nation-state without Jews, Russians and Poles.

So German historian Christoph Dieckmann said in an exclusive interview with Delfi.lt. Dieckmann, who works at the Fritz Bauer Institute in Frankfurt, is the author of the two-volume Deutsche Besatzungspolitik in Litauen 1941-44 published in 2011. As a member of the Lithuanian International Commission to Assess the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes, Dieckmann raises a painful moral question: why didn’t the Lithuanian people, seeing and hearing the Jews being murdered around them, protest? He believes it’s largely due to the position of the Church, which he believes was only concerned with what to do with the property of Jewish converts to Catholicism.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2017-03-272017-03-28

Panevėžys Jewish Community Passover Celebrations

The Panevėžys Jewish Community greet you on the upcoming holiday of Passover and invite you to a series of events for the holiday:

April 6 Concert “From a Forgotten Book” at the Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė Panevėžys Regional Public Library, Respublikos street no. 14 at 5:00 P.M.

April 10 First Passover Seder at the Rojaus paukštė café, Respublikos street no. 4A at 6:30 P.M.

April 11 Second Passover Seder at the Panevėžys Jewish Community, Ramygalos street no. 18 at 2:00 P.M.

April 14 Third Passover Seder and Sabbath at the Panevėžys Jewish Community, Ramygalos street no. 18 at 2:00 P.M.

2017-03-272017-03-28

Israeli Exchange Students Feel at Home in Kaunas, Lithuania

For a decade now there has been a club for Israeli young people studying in Kaunas. The club meets at what is called the Kaunas Jewish Center in the center of town. Currently about 130 students from the Lithuanian Health Sciences University attend regularly and all Jewish students in Lithuania are welcome.

The center features a synagogue, the student club and a kosher food restaurant for students, and hosts events and holiday celebrations. A mikvah for married women is to be set up before Shavuot this year. Rabbi Moshe Sheynfeld and his right-hand man Aleks Minin run the center. Minin helps with the daily tasks and making new ideas real. The founder, financial supporter and tutelary spirit of the center is William Shtern, who says he’s happy the students have found a small piece of Israel in Kaunas, their second home, where they can further their own identities, but he says he is even more glad they are meeting one another, becoming friends and even starting families.

The Kaunas Jewish Community has been working with Shtern and his center for several years now and acts as partner in certain center projects, and people from the center attend Kaunas Jewish Community events. Every Friday people from the center donate fresh challa bread for the Kaunas Jewish Community’s Sabbath dinner.

You can find out more about the Kaunas Jewish Center here.

2017-03-272017-03-28

Strange Protest at Auschwitz in the Nude

Friday 14 men and women slaughtered a lamb and disrobed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland, according to the museum there. The group, ranging in age from approximately 20 to 27 and whose identities, citizenship and motivations haven’t been determined, chained themselves to the front gate with the infamous inscription Arbeit Macht Frei, or Works Sets You Free, according to the report. Local media reported the group filmed their actions from a drone. The police reported all participants were detained.

Story in Lithuanian here.

2017-03-272017-04-07

Klaipėda Jewish Community Celebrates Purim with Concert in Yiddish

The Klaipėda Jewish Community held a concert March 22 by the Klezmasters led by Lev Sandiuk and vocalist Alina Ivakh with solo performances by Mikhail Blinkov on clarinet and Aleksei Rozov on violin. The group performed songs in Yiddish as well as Hebrew, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Russian, Belarusian and even Azeri. The concert was held as a sort of joint celebration of Purim, the happiest of Jewish holidays, and the International Day of Happiness. The Purim holiday was presented to the multicultural audience. The concert went late into the night and Klaipėda municipal officials and members of the various ethnic communities in Klaipėda thanked the organizers for the good time had by all.

For more, see here.

2017-03-242017-03-27

New LJC Project to Make Recommendations on Anti-Semitism at EU Level

Remembrance. Responsibility. The Future. These are the sequential steps leading to real changes in society. The future of democracy and tolerance depends on memory and responsibility assumed, allowing for moving forward. A step towards the future–after surveying, judging and adopting expertise from the best initiatives aimed at fighting discrimination–this is the goal of this new start-up project.

The new project is called Development and Publication of Recommendations for Actions to Fight Anti-Semitism and Romophobia in Lithuania.

The project is supported by the Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft foundation or EVZ in Germany. This foundation supports systematic and long-term studies of discrimination against and marginalization of Jews and Roma in Europe.

The Lithuanian Jewish Community has brought together a group of leading experts from among Lithuanian human rights organizations, community activists, academics and specialists from abroad. This group is undertaking to come up with effective and valuable recommendations on actions for fighting anti-Semitism and Romophobia in Lithuania.

2017-03-232017-04-27

LJC Gešer and Kaveret Clubs Celebrate Purim

The Gešer and Kaveret Clubs of the Lithuanian Jewish Community held a joint Purim carnival/party last Friday. Since the party fell on the Sabbath, they kicked off the celebration with a Sabbath prayer by a young couple in the Kaveret Club.

The event was hosted by LJC program coordinator Žana Skudovičienė and Michailas Frišmanas. The theme was “hipsterism” from the 60s, 70s and 80s and participants were instructed to come dressed as hipsters from that era. There were skits performed on the story and traditions of Purim.

There was also a surprise in store for everyone: famous American cellist, composer and vocalist Ian Maksin showed up and performed. He said he was enthralled by the warm atmosphere and hospitality at the Lithuanian Jewish Community celebration.

2017-03-222017-03-27