Religion

Clarification

To whom it may concern,

In light of Mr. Gary Eisenberg’s recent article about Lithuanian citizenship for Litvaks published in Israel and South Africa, the Lithuanian Jewish Community states for the record:

1. There is no special legislation or program for recruiting Litvaks for Lithuanian citizenship. This is disinformation. The existing legislation on applications for Lithuanian citizenship by prewar citizens of Lithuania and their offspring was only reworded slightly to prevent misinterpretations of the intent of legislators by public servants to the detriment of Jewish applicants and applicants of other ethnicities. As far as we are aware, there is no “Lithuanian Citizenship Programme” for Litvaks in Lithuania or anywhere else, despite what was written in Mr. Eisenberg’s article.

2. The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius with the Vilnius Religious Jewish Community are firm followers of the traditions of the Vilna Gaon and have nothing to do with Chabad Lubavitch or their rabbi. We have a rabbinate of two rabbis who are firmly within the mitnagedic tradition. Mr. Eisenberg’s statements he celebrated Sabbath with Chabad Lubavitch Rabbi Krinsky, followed by the statement he visited the Choral Synagogue, could mislead some readers into thinking the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius is a Chabad Lubavitch center, which it is not.

Sincerely,

Faina Kuklianskay, attorney,
chairwoman,
Lithuanian Jewish Community

New Torah Study Library at Choral Synagogue

We invite all our friends to the inauguration of our new Torah library at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius.

Every synagogue is more than just a house of prayer–it’s also a house of learning. Even more so in Lithuania, where Torah study has always been of the highest priority. Now our synagogue will provide the opportunity to teach Torah in the classic way.

Thanks to the Šeduva Jewish Memorial Fund and their understanding of the importance of this library in Vilnius, the synagogue will now contain a classic Jewish library of more than a hundred books needed by everyone who wants to engage in serious learning.

The Torah (Pentateuch) and the Books of Prophets with all the classical commentaries, Mishnah, Talmud, Rambam, Tur and Shulchan Aruch–if the latter are missing it is impossible to study Torah, to prepare for lessons and to teach those who are resolved to make progress in their knowledge and Torah study.

The Šeduva Jewish Memorial Fund and the Lithuanian Jewish Religious Community invite you to share in our joy and to make a small l’chaim at 7:00 P.M. on August 24 at the Choral Synagogue.

Important Delegation of Rabbis

smaller synagogue group

Rabbi Kalev Krelin reports on an important delegation who visited Lithuania last week.

“I had the honor to host a group of rabbis and philanthropists from the US. At the head of the group were R. Yeruham Olshin, head of biggest yeshivah in the world in Lakewood, New Jersey, and R. Reuven Desler, businessman and philanthropist, grandson of famous Rabbi Eliyahu Desler.

“The group visited the tomb of the Gaon and R. Chaim Ozer in Vilnius, and also the gravestone of Rabbi Boruch Beer Leibovitz at the Užupis cemetery. They visited the grave of Elchonon Spektor in Kaunas, prayed at the 7th Fort on the date when R. Elchonon Wasserman from Baranovichi Yeshiva was killed there, and also visited another cemetery.

“After that the group returned to Vilnius and prayed an evening prayer at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius.

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LJC Statement about the Seventh Fort in Kaunas

Statement by the Lithuanian Jewish Community concerning Cnaan Liphshiz’s article “This Lithuanian Concentration Camp Is Now a Wedding Venue” published at http://www.jta.org/2016/07/24/news-opinion/world/lithuanian-concentration-camp-is-now-a-wedding-venue

The Lithuanian Jewish Community thanks the author of the article and the news agency who have again brought attention to the problematic situation at the Seventh Fort in Kaunas. We also feel it is our duty to explain and add to some of the facts and circumstances brought up in the article.

In June and July of 1941 a concentration camp was set up at the Seventh Fort where up to 5,000 people were murdered, mainly Jews resident in Kaunas. During the Soviet era the fort was used for military purposes and the exact location of the mass grave was unknown and inaccessible to the wider public. In 2009 the Lithuanian State Property Fund, which had ownership of the complex, allowed it to be privatized. The Lithuanian Jewish Community never approved of this decision and numerous times wee expressed our position that this was a huge mistake which couldn’t be allowed to happen at similar sites. In any event, after the fort buildings were privatized, the new owner, Karo paveldo centras [Military Heritage Center], received the right to lease the land around the buildings, which belongs to the state. The mass grave site, whose exact location was not known then, thus fell within territory controlled by a private corporate entity.

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Work Continues to Remove Jewish Headstones from Power Station

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The transformer substation before removal work began. Photo by Lukas Balandis, courtesy 15min.lt

More than a year after a Vilnius resident reported his discovery an electric substation on Olandų street was constructed using Jewish gravestones, and following the announcement this June removal work had begun, the site is now littered with bits of headstones partially surrounded by a simple wire fence and some plastic tape. Most of the fragments are marked with graffiti on at least one surface, and several piles of larger pieces contain partial inscriptions in Hebrew characters, see pictures below.

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Israeli Media Report on Parties at Seventh Fort in Kaunas

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Vilnius, July 25, BNS—Parties held at the Seventh Fort in Kaunas have received attention by the media in Israel following efforts last year to resolve conflicts between the fort’s owners and Jews concerned about the Jewish mass grave discovered there several years ago.

Cultural heritage protection specialists say there haven’t been any complaints recently about unethical activities at the Seventh Fort, and Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said the Israeli press was just bringing up “old stories.”

Discussion of entertainment events at the Seventh Fort came up last year when the Cultural Heritage Department sent the fort’s owners a letter calling upon them not to hold celebrations, games or similar events there.

An article in the Jerusalem Post Monday told the story of the fort’s privatization, the fee charged visitors to the museum territory there and parties held there despite the discovery there in 2011 of a Jewish mass grave.

The article said the Seventh Fort is a popular venue for graduation parties and wedding receptions and the space is available to be used for parties, for cooking on campfires and to host summer camps for children.

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This Lithuanian Concentration Camp is Now a Wedding Venue

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A film crew preparing to record at the former concentration camp known as the Seventh Fort in Kaunas, Lithuania, on July 12, 2016. (JTA/Cnaan Liphshiz)

KAUNAS, Lithuania (JTA) — In this drab city 55 miles west of Vilnius, there are few heritage sites as mysterious and lovely looking as the Seventh Fort.

This 18-acre red-brick bunker complex, which dates to 1882, features massive underground passages that connect its halls and chambers. Above ground, the hilltop fortress is carpeted with lush grass and flowers whose yellow blooms attract bees and songbirds along with families who come here to frolic in the brief Baltic summer.

It’s also a popular venue for graduation parties and wedding receptions, complete with buffets and barbecues, as well as summer camps for children who enjoy the elaborate treasure hunts around the premises.

Most of the visitors are unaware that they are playing, dining and celebrating at a former concentration camp.

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Israeli Antiquities Authority Reports Major Finds in Lithuania

2.Historical with team
Photo: Ezra Wolfinger/NOVA

Historical Discovery in Lithuania: The Escape Tunnel of the “Burning Brigade” in Ponar (Paneriai) Has Been Rediscovered

For the first time since the Holocaust the famous tunnel used by the prisoners of Ponar to escape from the Nazis has been located using new technologies for underground predictive scanning.

In an exciting new discovery using electric resistivity tomography at the Ponar massacre site near Vilnius in Lithuania, the escape tunnel used by the so called “burning brigade” to elude captivity and certain death at the hands of the Nazis has been pinpointed.

Some 100,00 people, of whom 70,000 were Jews originating in Vilna and the surrounding area, were massacred and thrown into pits in the Ponar forest near the Lithuanian capital during World War II. With the retreat of the German forces on the eastern front and the advance of the Red Army, a special unit was formed in 1943 with the task of covering up the tracks of the genocide. In Ponar this task was assigned to a group of 80 prisoners from the Stutthof concentration camp.

At night the prisoners were held in a deep pit, previously used for the execution of Vilna’s Jews, while during the day they worked to open the mass graves, pile up the corpses on logs cut from the forest, cover them with fuel and incinerate them. All the while their legs were shackled and the worked in the full knowledge that on the completion of their horrendous task, they, too, would be murdered by their captors. Some of the workers decided to escape by digging a tunnel from the pit that was their prison. For three months they dug a tunnel some 35 meters in length, using only spoons and their hands. On the night of April 15, 1944, the escape was made. The prisoners cut their leg shackles with a nail file, and 40 of them crawled through the narrow tunnel. Unfortunately they were quickly discovered by the guards and many were shot. Only 15 managed to cut the fence of the camp and escape into the forest. Twelve reached partisan forces and survived the war.

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Ponar Escape Tunnel Found

Mokslininkai Lietuvoje rado tunelį, kuriuo žydai bėgo nuo nacių

An international group of scholars has completed nearly two weeks of archaeological digging at two sites of importance to Lithuanian Jewish history. They looked for a tunnel known from Holocaust testimonies and attempted to confirm information about the Great Synagogue and surrounding buildings in Vilnius. They used new non-invasive techniques: ground-penetrating radar and electrical resistivity tomography. The international group of scholars included scientists from Israel, Canada, the US and Lithuania. Project leader Dr. John Seligman is the head of the archaeological digging department of the Israeli Antiquities Service. US student volunteers helped at the sites. Some were in Eastern Europe and Lithuania for the first time.

Full story in Lithuanian on Vilnius University’s web site.

Simnas Synagogue to Get New Life

Simno sinagogą bus bandoma prikelti naujam gyvenimui

Dzukija logo

The Alytus regional administration will look for ways to use the synagogue located in Simnas for cultural activities. The head of the regional administration discussed the issue with representatives of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, the Ministry of Culture and the Cultural Heritage Department.

The synagogue was built in 1905 to replace the old wooden synagogue at the same site and was reconstructed in the mid-20th century. In 1952 it became a palace of culture, and later a school athletics gymnasium. Currently it belongs to the Alytus regional administration.

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Judah Passow Thanks LJC Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky for Celebration for Return of Torah

Juda Passow dėkoja LŽB ir pirmininkei F.Kukliansky už Toros sugrįžimo šventę

“I just want to thank you once again for making possible such a moving and memorable day with the Lithuanian Jewish community,” Judah Passow said in the note.

“It was an honour and a privilege to be with all of you. I’m especially grateful to you for the time and effort you put into making what began as an idea a year ago into a reality,” he wrote.

Judah Passow’s father, professor David Passow at Philadelphia University, received a Rockefeller Foundation grant to commemorate Jewish life behind the iron curtain in 1960. When he went to Vilnius that same year, local Jewish leaders asked him to take away with him one of two Torah scrolls which were used in the Vilnius ghetto and survived the Holocaust intact, saying they were unsure what the future held for Jews in the Soviet Union. The Passows protected the Torah ever since then, for 56 years, and used it for three bar mitzvahs in the family. When he came to Vilnius last year for a showing of his photography work, Judah Passow met Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky and the idea was fleshed out of returning the scroll to Vilnius. Just last week Passow returned the Torah dating from the time of Vilna Gaon, with a silver decoration his mother Aviva Passow made for the scroll.

Picking Up the Pieces

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by Geoff Vasil

“Don’t get too close!” an attractive and sunburned young Lithuanian warned at the edge of a large pit just behind what was the Great Synagogue of Vilnius. He’s friendly and it quickly becomes clear he’s the lead archaeologist on the dig, but he’s just as quick to point out he’s formally the lead archaeologist, but Dr. Richard Freund of the University of Hartford in Connecticut is the real force behind the whole initiative.

Mantas Daubaras is doing his doctoral thesis at the Lithuanian Institute of History on a Neolithic site far to the west in Lithuania. He has no personal connection to Jewish Vilna and approaches it as he would any site, dispassionately.

“Yesterday we found what we think is the ritual bath,” he explains, pointing to a small hole in the top of what looks like a vaulted brick ceiling. They sent a camera in to take a look and found a large space terminated by rubble and fill. Does it connect to the Great Synagogue? He doesn’t know yet, but it looks as if it extends right up to the line where they think the back wall of the synagogue once stood.

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Celebration to Welcome Torah Scroll at Choral Synagogue

Toros įnešimo šventė Vilniaus choralinėje sinagogoje vyko birželio 27d.

The Lithuanian Jewish Community is tremendously grateful to Judah Passow for his initiative in bringing the 350-year-old Torah scroll back to Vilnius.

Those assembled at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius June 27 waited in anticipation of something extraordinary: for the carrying in of a 350-year-old Torah scroll, from the period when the Vilna Gaon walked among us, a witness to the Vilnius of the 17th century, experiencing all the passages and changes together with the Jews, used for innumerable bar mitzvah ceremonies until it ended up in the Vilnius ghetto during World War II, and miraculously survived the Holocaust.

In 1960 professor Passow of the University of Philadelphia in the United States came to Vilnius after receiving support from the Rockefeller Foundation to commemorate Jewish communal life behind the iron curtain. Jews in Vilnius asked him to take with him one of two Vilnius ghetto Torah scrolls to survive the Holocaust, uncertain about the future of Jewish life in the Soviet Union. That’s how the Torah entered into the Passow family and was used in three bar mitzvahs. The family protected the scroll for 56 years. Last year the professor’s son, London-based photojournalist Judah Passow, came to Vilnius for an exhibition of his photographic works and spoke with LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky. This year he’s come back with the Torah scroll with a silver ornament his mother made.

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Gaon-Era Torah Scroll Returns to Vilnius

350 m. skaičiuojatis toros ritinys grįžta į Vilniaus choralinę sinagogą

Vilnius, June 27, BNS–A 350-year-old Torah scroll used in Jewish religious services in the Vilnius ghetto has returned to Vilnius. British photojournalist Judah Passow decided to turn the scroll over to the Lithuanian Jewish Community for use in the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius.

“What’s important is not the [scroll itself], but that he decided to give the Torah to our synagogue. The Torah belonged to his family, it was safeguarded during the war and the entire time. Boys became men during bar mitzvah in front of this Torah and began to read from this Torah, so it is a great honor for us,” Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky told BNS. According to Jewish religious tradition, Torah scrolls must be written by hand. Kukliansky said this Torah will replace the one currently being used, which is worn out.

Passow, whose roots are in Ukraine and Poland, told how Lithuanian Jewish community representatives gave the scroll to his father, a professor at an American university in Philadelphia, almost six decades ago when he visited Vilnius in 1960.

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Glimpse into Azerbaijan’s Hidden Jewish Village

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by Lee Gancman

KRASNAYA SLOBODA, Azerbaijan –“Not good,” Rabbi Yona Yaakobi says in Hebrew, expressing his distaste while pointing to a grave featuring a statue of a man who died in 1988.

Carved in white marble, the nearly life-size statue of the deceased portrays him staring ahead, cane in hand, flanked by two pots of artificial flowers. Just below, on a black tombstone, is inscribed the man’s name, date of birth and the day he died in Hebrew. But lower it is engraved again much more prominently in Russian.

“All of this is influenced by the Muslims who got it from the Russians,” Yaakobi continues.

Although this particular grave is among the more ostentatious in the three cemeteries of Krasnaya Sloboda, an all-Jewish town in the mountainous north of Azerbaijan, it is surrounded by hundreds of others showing lifelike pictures of the dead in various poses, sometimes bordering on the absurd.

“I knew all of these people personally. I know the story of each one of them,” Yaakobi laments as he strolls past a large tombstone depicting a middle-aged man in a business suit reclining on a throne-like chair. “This guy for instance went fishing one day, and when he cast his line, it ended up hitting some wires, he got electrocuted and died.”

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Let’s Remember Together: Steps for Life in Riga

The Shamir Association and the Riga Ghetto and Latvian Holocaust Museum are holding an event called Steps for Life on Holocaust Memorial Day in Riga. The event starts at 11:00 A.M. on July 3 at the corner of of Lomonosov and Ebreju streets in Riga. Participants will walk through the Riga ghetto area to the Great Choral Synagogue on Gogola Street. Shamir is inviting those able to come participate and remember, together.

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/545798345593250/
facebook.com/samir.latvija
facebook.com/rigaghettomuseum

The Significance of Holocaust Memorial Day in Latvia

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Lithuania: Vilnius Begins Dismantling Building Constructed of Jewish Gravestones

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The destroyed Uzupis Jewish cemetery in Vilnius, showing part of the memorial there

Work has begun to remove part of an electric transformer station in Vilnius which was built during the Soviet era using gravestones from Jewish graves of the once-vast Užupis Jewish cemetery on Olandu street, which was almost totally razed.

The Viilnius city web site, and the Lithuanian Jewish community web site, said Vilnius mayor Remigijus Šimašius personally surveyed work begun this week to dismantle the electric substation on Olandų street and posted a video of him (see below).

Full story here.

Alytus Regional Administration Sells Synagogue on Protected Heritage List as Sports Facility

Kultūros vertybių sąraše esančią sinagogą Alytaus rajono valdžia parduoda kaip sporto salę

The Alytus regional administration in Lithuania might be on the verge of causing an international scandal. The synagogue in Simnas near the city of Alytus, registered as a cultural heritage treasure, is being put on the auction block for sale. The regional administration says the synagogue isn’t of any use even to Jews, while the Cultural Heritage Department is demanding an immediate halt to the planned sale. Regional authorities say they will sell the building anyway.

The Alytus regional administration is offering to sell the unique Jewish synagogue as a sports hall, although the former house of prayer enjoys legal protection. Public servants have even set an opening price for the building, 19,600 euros. The date of the auction has been as June 30, with tours of the property being made available next week.

Full story in Lithuanian here.