Lithuanian Jewish Community

Condolences

The Lithuanian Jewish Community extends our deepest condolences to the friends and family of noted writer and producer Felix Dektor who passed away at the age of 89 in Jerusalem. He was born December 21, 1930, in Minsk to a family of Litvaks. He lived there until being evacuated to the Ukraine and then Siberia during the Holocaust.

Graduated from the History and Philology Faculty of Vilnius University in 1955, Dektor continued studies at the Gorky Institute of Literature in Moscow including in Lev Ozerov’s literary translation seminar. Dektor translated a number of Lithuanian writers into Russian, including books by Justinas Marcinkevičius, Juozas Požėra, Alfonsas Bieliauskis and Mykolas Sluckis. His best-known translations were perhaps the novels of Icchokas Meras on Jewish death and valor during the Holocaust (Ничья длится мгновенье (Вечный шах) and На чём держится мир).

Dektor was removed from the Writers’ Union of the Soviet Union in 1975 in response to his publication and distribution of the Jewish cultural and educational magazine Tarbut.

2020-04-172020-04-17

UK’s Stand-In PM Lost His Great-Grandparents in Holocaust, Studied in West Bank

Foreign secretary Dominic Raab has criticized Israel’s “disproportionate use of force” but defended Gaza blockade; distant family said to have come to pre-state Israel

With British prime minister Boris Johnson currently recovering after a three-day stint in intensive care with COVID-19, the United Kingdom, for the moment at least, has a stand-in leader of half-Jewish origin.

Dominic Raab, 46, is the son of a Czech Jewish refugee who came to England on the Kindertransport in 1938 as a six-year-old and a mother who raised him in the Church of England.

The foreign secretary has in the past brought up the subject of his Jewish origins on several occasions including in a May, 2019, article in the Daily Mail in which he shared photos of his father Peter.

Full article here.

2020-04-17

Jewish Holiday of Freedom Celebrated without Foods Recalling Slavery

Judita Gliauberzonaitė, 42, chairwoman of the Vilnius Lithuanian Jerusalem Jewish community, recalls how her grandmother Cilė Žiburkienė every spring before Passover would cleanse the entire house so that, God forbid, not even a grain of flour would remain, which would mean leavened bread remained in the house, a sign recalling the enslavement of the Jews in the land of Egypt.

Jews around the world who count their history in millennia begin celebrating their Passover holiday on the 15th day in the month of Nisan (March or April), lasting for seven days in Israel and eight elsewhere in the world. Secular Jews who keep to tradition usually celebrate the first and last days of Passover, gathering as families for dinner.

Judita Gliauberzonaitė says more religious Jews attend synagogue every day of Passover.

Passover often coincides with Catholic Easter. This year it began on April 8 and continues till April 15.

2020-04-162020-04-16

Defiant Zionist Spirit of the Bergen-Belsen DP Camp

by Menachem Z. Rosensaft, associate executive vice-president and general counsel, World Jewish Congress

When the remnant of European Jewry emerged from the death camps, forests and hiding places throughout Europe in the winter and spring of 1945, they looked for their families and, overwhelmingly, discovered that their fathers and mothers, their husbands, wives and children, their brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins had all been murdered by the Germans and their accomplices. Yet they did not give in to despair.

On the contrary, in Displaced People camps throughout Germany, Austria and Italy, the Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, who could easily have given up on humankind, dramatically returned to life–spiritually, physically, culturally, and socially. Instead of allowing themselves to remain the prisoners of a horrific past, they looked toward the future, married, started new families, and proved, if only to themselves, that they had not only remained alive but that they had, in fact, prevailed. I am one of more than 2,000 children who were born in Bergen-Belsen, the largest of the DP camps, between 1945 and 1950.

Simultaneously, the survivors’ affirmation of their Jewish national identity took the form of a political and spiritually redemptive Zionism. The creation of a Jewish state in what was then called Palestine was far more than a practical goal. It was the one ideal that had not been destroyed, and that allowed them to retain the hope that an affirmative future, beyond gas chambers, mass-graves and ashes, was still possible for them.

Full article here.

2020-04-152020-04-23

WJC Yom HaShoah Commemorative Ceremony April 20

Dear Friends,

This year Yom HaShoah will be very different.

For the first time ever there will be no commemorative ceremonies bringing people together physically in solemn reflection held around the world.

Whilst we are of course all preoccupied with the effect that the COVID-19 corona virus pandemic is having on our lives, we still feel that it is important to mark this day and pay our respects to the victims of the Holocaust.

2020-04-15

Kissinger Says Virus Part of New World Order

In an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, former US presidential advisor Henry Kissinger says the virus epidemic will lead to a new world order.

“The surreal atmosphere of the Covid-19 pandemic calls to mind how I felt as a young man in the 84th Infantry Division during the Battle of the Bulge. Now, as in late 1944, there is a sense of inchoate danger, aimed not at any particular person, but striking randomly and with devastation. But there is an important difference between that faraway time and ours. American endurance then was fortified by an ultimate national purpose. Now, in a divided country, efficient and farsighted government is necessary to overcome obstacles unprecedented in magnitude and global scope.”

Full editorial behind pay-wall here.

2020-04-142020-04-14

Katharina von Schnurbein Sends Passover Greetings

Dear friends,

On behalf of the European Commission, we wish you all a happy Passover.

The message of hope going out from it could not be more relevant in these challenging times and are inspiration to us all.

Please find below a video message by Katharina von Schnurbein, European Commission Coordinator on combating anti-Semitism and fostering Jewish life.

Chag Pesah sameah!

Office of the EC Coordinator on combating anti-Semitism and fostering Jewish life
European Commission
Directorate-General for Justice

2020-04-10

We Did It, We Got Matzo to Our Seniors

Two weeks ago the Community accepted the challenge to distribute and home-deliver more matzo to more than 900 seniors living in Vilnius. Today we can truly say, mission accomplished.

It would have been mission impossible without the help of our volunteers who heeded the Community’s call for help. We had from 3 to 4 teams of Community staff and volunteers on the street daily.

The distribution of matzo took place so very smoothly because we were able to harness so many who offered to help.

A mitzvah should be done quietly and without fanfare, but the Community has a right to know who its heroes are.

2020-04-102020-04-24

Menachem Rosensaft Sends Passover Greetings

Dear Friends,

I want to wish all of you and yours a peaceful and health-filled Pesach. May we all succeed in adapting to the pandemic crisis sufficiently to have meaningful Seders, in many (most) cases connecting remotely to family members who should have been sitting with us.

In advance of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, I also want to share with you a video that the World Jewish Congress produced, in cooperation with the World Federation of Bergen-Belsen Associations, (WFBBA) about the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, the Belsen Displaced Persons camp, and the more than 2,000 children born in the DP camp’s Glyn Hughes Hospital:
https://youtu.be/Jv9M0yvi_J0

I hope that the example of the survivors’ resilience, determination and optimism as they emerged from the horrors of the Holocaust will inspire us at this difficult and anxious time. Please feel free to share the video widely.

I am also pleased to share with you a second video, also produced by the WJC together with the WFBBA, based on the beautiful photography of Debbie Morag featuring daughters of Auschwitz survivors:
https://youtu.be/b_PrrHLp8U4

Again, I wish you and yours a peaceful, health-filled Pesach.

With all warm regards,

Menachem

§§§

Menachem Z. Rosensaft (born 1948 in Bergen-Belsen, Germany) an attorney in New York and the Founding Chairman of the International Network of Children of Jewish Survivors, is a leader of the Second Generation movement of children of survivors,[1] and has been described on the front page of the New York Times as one of the most prominent of the survivors’ sons and daughters.

2020-04-10

LJC Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky and Lithuanian Jewish Religious Community Chairman Simas Levinas Send Passover Greetings to Community

Dear Community members,

So Passover, the holiday eagerly awaited by Jews around the world, has come.

The seder night is so important to Jews, when we eat matzo, meditate and remember G_d’s revelation during the flight from Egypt. We do this year after year. This is what our fathers and forefathers have done, and we do it, and we teach it to our children.

This year the seder won’t be so large, not all family members are able to come to the table, not here in the Diaspora and not in our historical homeland Eretz Israel.

This has happened to Jews many times before–slavery, the Inquisition, wars and other misfortunes have separated families so many times before, leaving some of us alone, turning some of us into outsiders. This year we celebrate Passover during a time which is difficult not just for Jews.

Nonetheless, let’s try. Let’s remember and tell in our thoughts the story of the exodus from Egypt. Let’s pose the questions to ourselves and find the correct answers. Let’s remember at least a few of the 248 mitzvot, let’s believe in miracles if only briefly, and in the arrival of the Messiah.

Let’s believe, let’s dream, let’s think and let’s thank the Most High that we are alive and spring has come, and let’s give thanks for every day lived and believe in the future.

Next year will be better. We just have to believe it.

A happy holiday to all, be free and be happy.

2020-04-102020-04-23

Panevėžys Jewish Community Sends Passover Greetings

Despite the complicated time in the world, the dates assigned by the Torah to the holidays don’t change and they are part of the history and story of the Jewish people. Passover is one of the main Jewish holy days. Over the days of Passover Jews remember their historic liberation from slavery.

During these difficult days I wish you patience, the love of those around you and endurance. Maintain hygienic requirements and adhere to the safety measures as we fight the corona virus.

Gennady Kofman, chairman
Panevėžys Jewish Community

2020-04-072020-04-07

Condolences

We sadly report the death of Pranas Algirdas Dargys on April 4, 2020. He was born in 1933. We send our deepest condolences to his beloved wife.

2020-04-07

Lithuanian News Outlet on Boris Johnson’s Litvak Roots

Photo: AFP/Scanpix

Boris Johnson’s family ties with Lithuania
the Lithuania Tribune, DELFI
July 25, 2016

Britain’s new foreign secretary Boris Johnson has ancestral ties with Lithuania. The controversial politician’s great grandfather was a Litvak born in Žemaičių Kalvarija, the famous American palaeographer Elias Avery Lowe (Loew).

Elias was born in Žemaičių Kalvarija in Lithuania in 1879. His family migrated from the Russian Empire to New York when he was 12.

Elias studied at Cornell University, became a US citizen in 1900. In 1902 he went to study in Germany, where in 1908 he defended his doctoral thesis written under the guidance of famous palaeographer Ludwig Traube.

2020-04-06

Panic and Contempt

by Arkadijus Vinokuras

When the heads of state lack any experience managing crises, panic envelops society. When leaders try to compensate for their lack of ability through dictatorial means, they demonstrate contempt for society. It’s pointless to blame Lithuanian health minister Aurelijus Veryga for changing his directives several times daily. He was appointed by those who have no experience themselves, and who are therefore unable to manage the crisis effectively. It seems they don’t really understand human lives are at stake. And freedom.

On panic. Seeking somehow to demonstrate the abilities he doesn’t have, health minister Veryga even donned military costume. He seems to have wandered into the tragicomic league of Don Quixote by attempting to fight the virus this way. Where you’re not sure whether to laugh or cry. If he had served in the military even at the level of lieutenant, he would know how orders are issued by a military commander. They would be based–and this is the crucial matter–on emergency management scenarios drawn up by the military leadership. But from the very first days of the spread of the virus in Lithuania it was completely clear the Lithuanian Peasants/Green Union Government is not following any emergency management plan.

The minister who has turned himself into a laughing stock with his military uniform should at least understand in a general way that an order by a military commander first indicates the prevailing situation in the theater of war. It indicates the time frame. It also enumerates enemy forces and our own forces, e.g., what we have and what we don’t have. Only then comes the definition of missions.

2020-04-032020-05-12

Israeli Ambassador Levy Calls for Solidarity and Humility

LRT.lt

Who would have thought a few weeks ago we’d wake up one morning and suddenly find ourselves in a Netflix horror film? That our cities would be placed under quarantine and would become completely empty in a single day? That’s we’d all be sitting at home, day after day, from morning to night, not changing out of our pajamas? That we would be banned from visiting our grandmothers? That we would pray through the nights for this nightmare to end?

In the spring of 2020 we suddenly realized we are all the same, Lithuanians and Israelis, Germans and Italians, Chinese, Russians and Arabs. We are all people. We know how to make rockets and smart apps, but we are really such fragile creatures who fear death and hide from a tiny little virus which is going around and could affect us. We are the new dinosaurs whose time has probably come.

We suddenly realized most of our disputes aren’t important, like those of children in the sandbox. Fighting for half a mountain or half a lake. We in Israel were not surprised at all when terror attacks from the Gaza Strip fell dramatically, by 90%! When we see frightened and weeping Iranians on the streets of Tehran, they are in our hearts. We and they are in the same boat, we are all victims of an external attack.

2020-04-03

Genocide Center Wins Case Demanding Retraction of Jonas Noreika Finding

The Lithuanian Telegraphic Agency ELTA reports the Lithuanian Supreme Administrative Court dismissed a suit lodged by US-resident Litvak Grant Gochin against the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania.

ELTA reports said the panel of judges rejected Grant Gochin’s demand the Genocide Center retract an historical finding they issued earlier on the person of Jonas Noerika during a hearing on April 1.

The court’s finding isn’t subject to appeal. The court also obliged Gochin to pay additional court costs to the Genocide Center.

Gochin was appealing a finding issued by the Vilnius District Administrative Court on March 27, 2019, in favor of the Genocide Center.

Full text in Lithuanian here.

2020-04-03

Thank You for Helping LJC Seniors

Lithuanian Jewish Community administrative secretary Liuba Šerienė would like to send a big thank-you to Social Department director Michailas Segalas and staff members Ema Jakobienė, Ninel Skudovičiūtė, Rokas Dobrovolskis and Neringa Stankevičienė and colleagues, and to Michailas Tarasovas, Aušra, Snieguolė, Danutė Lena, Žana and Sonia for their great work helping our Social Department clients and senior citizens. Thank you so very much.

2020-04-032020-04-20

We Can’t Give Up Hope Now

Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky. Photo: Blanka Weber

by Blanka Weber

The country’s Jewish community is watching the time of pandemic with alarm

Faina Kukliansky is currently managing her life and that of her members from her home office in Vilnius. “This is a time that demands everything from us,” the 65-year-old chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community says.

This is a time when preparations for Passover would be underway normally. The Bagel Shop next to the Community building on Pylimo street is now only open for a few hours and only accepts cards for payment. Cash is forbidden. There are strict rules here, too. Matzo will be distributed to Community members here and should be delivered in the next few days.

2020-04-032020-04-23

Chief Rabbis Call on Jews to Keep It Together

An open letter

An open letter from the Chief Rabbis of the world

8 Nisan 5780
2 April 2020

This Shabbat–the Shabbat before Pesach–is called Shabbat HaGadol, the Great Shabbat.

It was first celebrated at the birth of the Jewish people, moments before the dawn of our deliverance from Egyptian slavery.

Every Jewish family, alone in their homes in Egypt, sat fervently anticipating the united dream of deliverance and nationhood.

Three thousand, three hundred and thirty-two years later, this Shabbat HaGadol, we too sit, isolated in our own homes, once again united in our fervent prayer for relief from the global pandemic that has shaken our world to its core.

2020-04-032020-04-03

Israeli President Isaac Herzog Visits Lithuania

On the War in Israel and the Situation in Lithuania