Wooden Synagogue in Alanta Renovated
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LJC, International Comminission and Olga Lengyel Institute Holding Holocaust Seminars for Teachers
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LJC Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky Speaks at Commemoration of Grosse
Aktion in Kaunas
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Šiauliai Opens Righteous Gentile Square at the Intersection of Vilniaus and Ežero Streets at Former Ghetto Gates
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"Symphony from Jerusalem of the North” Mark Day of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide in Presidential Courtyard
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The renovated synagogue in Žiežmariai will become a new cultural center. The first synagogue in appeared sometime between 1690 and 1696. In the 19th century there three synagogues. Not surprising, since the majority of the population were Jewish. This synagogue which has survived and has now been renovated stands in the southern part of town between Vilniaus and Žalgirio streets, with the Strėva river flowing from southeastward from there.
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The Lithuanian Post Office has issued a stamp commemorating 300 years since the birth of the Vilna Gaon
The Lithuanian Post Office has issued a stamp commemorating 300 years since the birth of the Vilna Gaon
with a face value of 0.81 euros, enough to mail letters abroad.
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Lithuania Marks 300th Anniversary of Birth of Vilna Gaon, 2020 Named Year of the Gaon and Litvak History.
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Most important events at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in 2018
Most important events at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in 2018
Revival of Jewish Scouting in Lithuania: The first new Litvak scouting camping trip with children from Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Panevėžys and Molėtai took place August 24 to 26.
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Jewish newspapers and advertisements from Vilnius in the period between the two world wars. Jews and other minorities were given equal rights in the reconstituted Lithuanian state. Yiddish thrived with many newspapers and books published in the language.
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Lithuanian Nazi Leader Re-Appears as Street Name

Lithuanian Nazi Leader Re-Appears as Street Name

On Wednesday [June 23, 2021] the old name of Tricolor Alley–Škirpa Alley–was pasted over the street sign there.

A video recording made around noon Wednesday appears to show a man creasing the wrinkles out of a sticker and then seems to give a thumbs-up to friends standing below him.

This has happened before and the city of Vilnius has removed the sticker. They say they will again.

“We’ll do as we’ve done the previous times, we’ll take it off,” advisor to the mayor of Vilnius Karolis Vaitkevičius told 15min.lt. In early January of last year the same thing happened and the municipality said then they had written two complaints to the prosecutor’s office.

The street sign hangs from a corner of the Museum of Applied Art at the intersection of Tricolor Alley and Arsenalo street in central Vilnius. The city of Vilnius resolved to change the name from the controversial [Lithuanian Nazi leader] Kazys Škirpa to Tricolor Alley in late July, 2019, citing Škirpa’s “anti-Semitic statements” as the reason behind the move.

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Holocaust Anniversary Commemoration in Gargždai

Holocaust Anniversary Commemoration in Gargždai

The first procession in this year’s series of “Path of Memory” commemorations to mark the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Holocaust was held in Gargždai, Lithuania, on June 23. The Lithuanian prime minister, Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman and the chairmen of the Klaipėda and Palanga Jewish Communities attended and spoke at the event.

“We lost many of our fellow Jewish citizens during the Holocaust and we can only imagine what Lithuania’s academic, cultural and economic life might have been if not for the Holocaust,” Lithuanian prime minister Ingrida Šimonytė told reporters the day before the event.

The commemoration took the form of a march from the site of a former synagogue to the Jewish mass murder site where a ceremony was held and speakers spoke. Some attendees carried stones with the names of murdered Jews on them, in keeping with the Jewish tradition of placing stones at a grave.

Here are some photos from the first “Path of Memory 1941-2021” commemoration held in Gargždai.

Photographs by Laima Penek, the Chancellery of the Government of Lithuania and others.

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They Can’t Come Back…

They Can’t Come Back…

We all need to remember all of our innocent people who were murdered and will never return.

The Panevėžys Jewish Community has asked the Panevėžys regional administration to renew inscriptions on monuments and memorial plaques commemorating Jewish victims murdered in World War II. The inscription on the Ghetto Gates monument has already been renewed.

The Panevėžys Jewish Community is carrying out a project called “Let’s Maintain the Mass Murder Sites” to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Holocaust in Lithuania. We plan to visit all the mass murder sites in the Panevėžys district.

Through our work and contribution not only do we seek to remember the tragedy which began 80 years ago, but also to set an example for regional administration employees charged with maintaining Jewish mass murder sites and Jewish cemeteries under Lithuanian law. The area around the Kurganava mass murder site has been put in order this year, but saplings still need to be cut and the fence repaired.

The Panevėžys Jewish Community is grateful to our volunteers and staff, including Albertas and Virginija Savinčiai, Jurijus Grafmanas, Timūras Jerovickis, Borisas Marijampolskis, Ona Juospaitienė and others, for taking part in this project.

We are planning repair and upkeep next month as well, with Panevėžys Jewish Community members travelling to Žalioji forest, Ramygala, Raguva and other mass murder sites.

An Assessment of the Holocaust and Our Moral State: A Virtual Discussion

An Assessment of the Holocaust and Our Moral State: A Virtual Discussion

One of the most painful periods in Lithuania’s history began 80 years ago in the summer of 1941, the beginning of the Holocaust in this country. We lost hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens constituting a significant portion of the population of Lithuania’s cities and towns. The Lithuanian Jewish Community is holding a virtual discussion in Lithuanian on June 28 to mark this painful anniversary.

Participants:

• LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, attorney;
• Arūnas Bubnys, director of Lithuania’s Genocide Center;
• Saulius Sužiedėlis, professor emeritus, Millersville University;
• Justinas Žilinskas, writer, publicist and professor of the European Union Law Institute at Mykolas Romeris University;
• Vytautas Bruveris, writer and analyst, Lietuvos rytas newspaper;
• Paulius Gritėnas, philosopher, observer and member of the executive board of the Human Rights Monitoring Institute;
• Donatas Puslys, director of the media and democracy program, Vilnius Policy Analysis Institute.

Writer and director of the Šeduva Jewish Memorial Foundation Sergejus Kanovičius will moderate.

The discussion is scheduled for 7:00 P.M. on Monday, June 28. You can watch it live on the LJC facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/777981389558688/

Condolences

Vladimir Iskovič passed away June 22. He was born in 1950. Our deepest condolences to his children and relatives.

Lietūkis Garage Commemoration

Lietūkis Garage Commemoration

Around 50 Jewish men were tortured and murdered at the Lietūkis autoservice lot in Kaunas on June 27, 1941. Randomly grabbed off the streets, they were beaten with crowbars and water hoses were used to burst their stomachs. The victims included day workers, students, merchants, a musician, former director of the Industry and Trade Department of the Lithuanian Finance Ministry Jurgis Štromas and others. Many of the victims and perpetrators remain nameless to this day.

We will commemorate the victims of the Lietūkis Garage massacre and the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Holocaust in Lithuania at 5:00 P.M. on June 28, 2021, at the monument to the victims located at Miško street no. 3 in Kaunas.

At 6:30 P.M. the same day we will unveil a new sign in remembrance of the victims at the Žaliakalnis Jewish cemetery, where it is believed they were buried.

The Kaunas Jewish Community and the city of Kaunas invite you to join us in remembering the innocent Jewish citizens of Lithuania who were murdered.

We would be grateful if you could announce your intention to attend by sending an email to ieva0102@yahoo.com

Gercas Žakas, chairman
Kaunas Jewish Community

Choral Synagogue Prayer Service for Holocaust Victims

Choral Synagogue Prayer Service for Holocaust Victims

June 22, 1941, was the date the Nazis invaded Lithuania, Belarus and neighboring countries and the Holocaust began. Today the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius will hold a prayer service to remember the beginning of the Holocaust in Lithuania. Unlike in the West, Jewish victims in the East were mainly executed near their homes. Over just a few months in the summer and fall of 1941 the vast majority of the once-populous Jewish community of Lithuania were exterminated.

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Commemorations of the 80th Anniversary of the Holocaust around Lithuania

Commemorations of the 80th Anniversary of the Holocaust around Lithuania

Palanga

The Lithuanian Jewish Community, the Palanga municipality and the Klaipėda and Palanga Jewish Communities commemorated the beginning of the Holocaust in Lithuania with a ceremony at the stone commemorating victims in the Palanga Botanical Garden on June 22.

Gargždai

A procession called “Path of Memory 1941-2021” to mark the 80th anniversary of the onset of the Holocaust in Lithuania is to be held starting at noon on June 23. Participants are invited to assemble at the former synagogue located at Kvietinių street no. 3, next to the Minija movie theater, whence the procession will move to the Jewish mass murder site on Klaipėdos street next to the bus station, culminating in a commemorative ceremony there.

Condolences

Dveira Gražinskaja passed away on June 21. She was born in 1933. She was a member of the Union of Ghetto and Concentration Camp Prisoners. Our deepest condolences to her daughter Galina and her friends and relatives.

Commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the Holocaust in Panevėžys

Commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the Holocaust in Panevėžys

The Holocaust began in Panevėžys and Lithuania on June 22, 1941. We must not forget how Litvaks lived before the tragedy and how their history ended in 1941.

There are still eye-witnesses to the mass murder of the Jews who lived in the Panevėžys district before World War II. The first mass shootings began in July in the Panevėžys district when ghettos were set up in every town and city, in Panevėžys, Biržai, Kupiškis, Pasvalys, Rokiškis and elsewhere.

The Panevėžys Jewish Community and the scouts of Panevėžys have undertaken a project conceived by Michailas Adomas and Elena Adelina to maintain the mass murder sites in the district.

This time the clean-up began June 9 in the Kurganova Forest in the Panevėžys region. Volunteers including Panevėžys scouts and the chairman of the Panevėžys Jewish Community participated. The scouts learned about the Holocaust in Panevėžys, the Panevėžys district and Lithuania.

In total around 200,000 Jews were murdered in Lithuania with about 13,500 Jews murdered almost immediately in the Panevėžys region.

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Condolences

Chanė Varkulevičienė passed away June 18. She was born in 1934. Our deepest condolences to her son Rimantas.

Premiere of Film about Aleksandras Štromas

Premiere of Film about Aleksandras Štromas

The Vilnius Jewish Public Library will premiere a film about Aleksandras Štromas called Laisvės Horizontai at 5:30 P.M. on Monday, June 21. The filmmakers Ona Bivenienė, Ilja Bereznickas and Saulius Sondeckis will be present. Seating is limited and prior registration is required. Send an email to info@vilnius-jewish-public-library.com or call (8-5) 219 77 48 before 5:00 P.M. to register. The library is located at Gedinimo prospect no. 24 in Vilnius, through the alley to the parking lot and find the first door on the right.

Valentinas Brandišauskas: Confiscation and Destruction of Jewish Property in Lithuania

Valentinas Brandišauskas: Confiscation and Destruction of Jewish Property in Lithuania

This article will first attempt to discuss what attitude towards Jewish property was held by the officials of the two main Lithuanian government institutions–the Lithuanian Provisional Government and the Vilnius City and District Citizens Committee–which existed in the first months of the German-Soviet war and by Catholic Church representatives. Second, using the example of one district, we will examine the fate of Jewish property in the Lithuanian countryside. Whether or not this model can be applied to other Lithuanian regions will be shown by further research.

Full article in Lithuanian here.

See also here.

Faina Kukliansky: Eight Decades Seeking for the Truth

Faina Kukliansky: Eight Decades Seeking for the Truth

On June 15 the Lithuanian parliament adopted a resolution entitled “On Commemorating the 80th Anniversary of Great Losses and Resistance to the Occupations by Totalitarian Regimes” which says that “after Nazi Germany occupied Lithuania, the Nazis began to carry out the genocide of the Jews of Lithuania, opening the way for mass murders and violence, leading to the loss of the larger part of the Jewish Community.”

Full editorial in Lithuanian here.