Lithuanian Jewish Community

Story of the Rescue of Sisters Khaya and Estera from Darbėnai

The Chaim family from Darbėniai. Front row from left: Khaya, Yehoshua, Tsipora and Estera, back: Rokha and Reuben. 1932, from the Chaim family archive.

Another example of heroism and sacrifice by the people of Žemaitija. The December 21, 1965, issue of the Vakarinės naujienos newspaper published in Vilnius and the June 4, 1966, issue of the newspaper Mūsų žodis published in the Skuodas region of Lithuania carried a story which had been long forgotten, the heroes of the story having passed on, and their resistance activities during the brutal time of the Nazi occupation still hasn’t been fully appreciated.

The Chaim family who lived before the war at Palangos street no. 15 in Darbėnai, Lithuania, were much like the other families around them, dreaming of a better life for their children and a bright future for Lithuania.

2020-05-252020-05-29

Happy Birthday to Viktoras Reizinas

The Lithuanian Jewish Community greets Viktoras Reizinas on his 80th birthday. Happy birthday, Viktoras. We wish you the best of health, much happiness, warmth and love.

Mazl tov. Bis 120!

2020-05-22

Happy Birthday to Fania Brancovskaja and Daughter Vita

May 22 is the birthday of Fania Brancovskaja and her daughter Vita. We heartily wish you both a very happy birthday. Warm wishes from the entire Community. Stay healthy, energetic and happy!

Mazl tov! Bis 120!

2020-05-222020-05-25

Yerushalayim shel Zahav

If you start to stand up when you hear the song Yerushalayim shel Zahav, or Jerusalem of Gold, to pay your respect to the Israeli national anthem, don’t feel silly. The song was actually in the running for a while. Naomi Shemer’s song released just before the Six Day War became the most popular Hebrew-language song in the world and got serious airplay on American radio.

Happy Jerusalem Day.

2020-05-222020-05-22

Condolences

With deep sadness we report Puna Dvorskis passed away May 22. He was born in 1940. Our deepest condolences to his children on the death of their beloved father.

2020-05-22

Liba Mednik Commemorated in Širvintos, Lithuania

A stele with a bas-relief and inscription was erected at a ceremony in Širvintos, Lithuania, May 19 to commemorate Liba Mednik (Mednikienė), who fought for Lithuanian independence when the first republic was being created in the early 20th century.

Sculptor Romualdas Kvintas designed the memorial to look like a Jewish headstone, a stone slab with inscription, and with a bronze image of the woman attached in bas-relief fashion. The bronze portion of the monument was cast and installed on the stone by the sculptor Mindaugas Šnipas by request of the Vilnius Jerusalem of the North Jewish Community. Kvintas has done a number of large stone sculptures on Jewish themes.

Mednik, who was born in 1875, lived through the entire tragedy of the Jewish people in Lithuania, fighting for Lithuanian independence and the interwar Republic, and being murdered in the Holocaust in Lithuania. According to historian Stanislovas Dačka, she was murdered in the Pivonika forest near Ukmergė (Vilkomir) with about 12,000 other Jews from the area in early autumn of 1941. Širvintos, her hometown, lies about 15 kilometers to the southeast of Ukmergė.

Vilijus Kavalauskas celebrated her in his book “Lietuvos karžygiai: Vyties Kryžiaus kavalieriai,” calling her a unique and strong character. During the Lithuanian conflict with Poland in 1922 and 1923, Liba Mednik collected military intelligence and distributed it to the Lithuanian military and Lithuanian partisans. She sent documents garnered from Polish headquarters and money to the Lithuanian fighters, Kavaliauskas reports.

2020-05-222020-05-28

Jerusalem Day

The 28th day of the month of Iyar, May 22 this year, is commemorated as the day the state of Israel took the eastern section of the holy city in the Six Day War in 1967. Initially proclaimed an international city by the United Nations, Jerusalem was partitioned between Israeli and Jordanian forces following the Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab wars from 1947 to 1949. Israel occupied the entire city in the Six Day War, despite having proclaimed its capital at Jerusalem earlier and setting up government buildings in West Jerusalem.

Because of the original plan by the United Nations for the city sacred to three religions to be administered as an international, shared city, for decades countries around the world have refused to recognize it as the capital of Israel, maintaining diplomatic representations in Tel Aviv instead. The United Nations plan of 1947 called for a corpus separatum along the lines of the Papal States/Vatican City inside Rome, or the former “free cities” before World War II such as Danzig and Trieste. The city’s status is a bone of contention in hopes for peace between Israelis and Palestinians; Palestinians claim the city as their capital.

2020-05-222020-05-22

Happy Birthday to Abramas Saksonovas

Abramas Saksonovas, a survivor of the Holocaust, is celebrating his 90th birthday. The Lithuanian Jewish Community would like to add our greetings to those of everyone else celebrating Abramas’s important milestone.

Dear Abramas, we wish you great health, much happiness and a happy and fun birthday! Mazl tov! Bis 120!

2020-05-22

Lithuanian Web Site: Let’s Learn about Lite, the Great Synagogue and the Vilna Gaon

by Karolina Aleknavičė, 15min.lt

This year, 2020, has been declared the Year of the Vilna Gaon and Lithuanian Jewish History, and it’s a good opportunity to learn about the authentic culture which thrived for whole centuries in our neighborhood.

We spoke with Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum Jewish culture and identity exhibit coordinator Saulė Valiūnaitė, Vilnius University historian Dr. Akvilė Naudžiūnienė and Kėdainiai Multicultural Center director Audronė Pečiulytė about Lite, the Litvaks who lived here, Vilnius as the Jerusalem of the North and the Gaon, Eliyahu, who lived there.

Lithuanian Jewish History an Integral Part of Lithuanian History

Valiūnaitė told 15min.lt Lithuanians’ attitude towards Jewish history has changed over the last 15 years. “It’s inspiring that in Vilnius and other Lithuanian cities there are ever more initiatives appearing, and most importantly, a desire to commemorate the history and heritage of the Jews who lived there. Some do this by setting up commemorative markers, others by organizing events or writing books about the Jewish history of their cities and towns,” she said.

2020-05-21

Beverly Hills Speaks Out Same Day Lithuanian Prosecutor Drops Case

In response to this claim to the Lithuanian Public Prosecutor:

https://ggochin.wordpress.com/2019/12/02/complaint-to-public-prosecutor/

the following denial has been received:

2020-05-20_035122

There is no purpose in seeking truth or Justice inside Lithuania. The State has formed a unified position to protect historical revisionists and to lie about their Holocaust perpetrators. This is consistent with their Courts, Ethics watchdogs, and government departments. They will not allow any review of facts within Lithuania. Further cases inside Lithuania serve only as stepping stones to reach the European Court of Human Rights.

Therefore, truth is only able to come from outside of Lithuania. In that regard, the City of Beverly Hills reviewed the following data:

https://ggochin.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/city-resolution.docx

City-Resolution and unanimously voted for the following resolution:
Item_D-15_Agenda_Report

https://eutoday.net/news/politics/2020/beverley-hills

Full text here.

Note: the district prosecutor’s rejection to initiate a pre-trial investigation linked to above cites Lithuanian court precedent claiming criminal prosecution is not always the best way to stop socially harmful acts. The LJC notes Lithuanian prosecutors have never attempted to apply existing law to domestic promoters of anti-Semitism and Holocaust deniers. For more recent examples of this, see here and here.

2020-05-202020-06-12

Ninth Forth Memorial Sculptor Dies

Photo: LRT

Lithuanian Public Radio and Television and BNS reported Wednesday the sculptor Alfonsas Vincentas Ambraziūnas died on May 7 at the age of 86. He was known mainly for the large Soviet-era memorial statue at the Ninth Fort in Kaunas where Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. Initially the statue was dedicated to all victims of fascism.

Full article in Lithuanian here.

2020-05-20

ICAN Applauds City of Beverly Hills for Passage of Resolution Condemning Lithuanian Holocaust Distortion

The Israeli-American Civic Action Network (ICAN) applauds the City of Beverly Hills tonight following the passage of a resolution condemning the Lithuanian government for actively promoting Holocaust distortion.

“There is a disturbing trend of government-backed Holocaust distortion sweeping across eastern Europe,” said Vered Elkouby Nisim, ICAN CA chairwoman. “Today, Lithuania is leading a dark and cynical campaign of Holocaust distortion and we thank the City of Beverly Hills for having the courage to stand up and speak out against this insidious form of state-sponsored antisemitism.”

Earlier this year, Lithuania drafted legislation that would have made it illegal to accuse the country of complicity in Nazi crimes, this followed the passage of similar laws by Poland, and Ukraine. At a time of rising global antisemitism, ICAN believes that laws designed to mask the true history of the Holocaust is especially dangerous and is working with leaders in the United States to oppose such laws using the strongest possible means.

Full article here.

2020-05-202020-05-28

Beverly Hills City Council Condemns Lithuanian Holocaust Distortion

The City Council of Beverly Hills, California, passed a resolution condemning Lithuania’s official distortion of the history of the Holocaust and World War II Tuesday, calling upon the Government to halt all such efforts and the Lithuanian parliament to refrain from approving a proposed resolution declaring Lithuania and her people “occupied” and therefore innocent of complicity in the Jewish genocide.

The resolution singled out efforts to white-wash “anti-Soviet hero” Jonas Noreika.

It cited the city’s recent adoption of the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism, a 2016 California state bill aimed at fighting the BDS (boycott, divestment, sanction) movement against Israeli policies and the council’s recent honoring of U.S.-resident Litvak Grant Gochin for his efforts to fight Lithuania’s Holocaust distortion. The text of the resolution also says the Lithuanian government uses intimidation tactics against those who speak out against its Holocaust distortions.

2020-05-202020-05-27

Daniel Dolskis: Founder of Lithuanian Stage Music Who Entertained Pre-War Kaunas

by Rasa Murauskaitė, Lithuanian national public radio and television, LRT.lt

Lithuanian Public Radio and Television continues stories in the the Stones of Memory series intended to commemorate Litvaks in Lithuania and around the world. The third story concerns Daniel Dolskis (Danielius Dolskis, Dolski), one of the founders of the Lithuanian estrada popular music tradition.

Although he only lived a few years in Kaunas, Lithuania, during the interwar period, Dolskis quickly became a legend of real Lithuanian estrada musical culture.

“Onytė, come dance with me,” Dolskis used to say when inviting Lithuanian girls to dance.

“The Man Who Entertained Kaunas” wrote one Lithuanian paper of Dolskis in the period between the two world wars. Actually the truth is somewhat different about the crooner born to a family of Vilner Jews by the name of Broides, a name connected with the musical nightlife at Kaunas’s famous interwar restaurants and clubs such as Metropol, Konrad’s Café and others.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2020-05-19

In the Spotlight: William Stern

Mr. William Stern was born in Budapest in 1935; after the Nazi occupation of Hungary in March 1944, he and his family were taken to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. They survived the War and emigrated to New York in 1952 where Mr Stern pursued studies first at Yeshiva University and subsequently at Harvard Law School.

It was during his stint at Harvard Law School that Mr Stern discovered the many risks and temptations which face a student when he leaves his home environment and suddenly becomes enmeshed in a totally new and different culture. He was shocked at seeing some of his friends shed their tradition and previous way of life in just a matter of months. Having married a young lady resident in London, Mr Stern moved to England in 1960. Early in his career, he established in London in 1971 a kosher canteen which welcomed students of Imperial College, located opposite his offices at Albert Court. This canteen has been going strong for the past 45 years and is presently catering to 30-35 Imperial College students every day of the academic year.

When he expanded his business to Lithuania, Mr Stern discovered the presence in Kaunas of approximately 100 Israeli medical students. He felt that during the 6-year period which medical studies require, many of these students might lose not only their Israeli but also their Jewish identity. In 2010, he established the Jewish Club which grew and developed over the years into the Jewish Centre Kaunas. Its aim is to provide the Jewish students in Kaunas a home away from home and prevent the loss of Jewish identity which otherwise might occur.

2020-05-19

Prosecutor Drops Pre-Trial Investigation of Anti-Semitism Yet Again

This time the Vilnius district attorney’s office reported they dropped an investigation into an article containing anti-Semitism and sowing ethnic discord on the internet page of the weekly newspaper Laisvas Laikraštis. The pre-trial investigation was begun at the request of Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky.

“I can’t even count anymore how many times both the Community and I have sent these requests in. Dozens. So far all investigations have been halted because investigators never seem to find any evidence of a crime,” Kukliansky commented.

She said the Community will continue to publicize each and every complaint and each and every rejection, even if the spreaders of hate receive extra publicity for their articles and comments because of it.

2020-05-182020-06-02

WJC President Publishes Op-Ed Piece in Saudi Arabia’s Arab News

Dear Friends,

I wanted to share with you that today WJC president Ronald S. Lauder published a front-page opinion article in the largest English-language daily newspaper in Saudi Arabia. The piece in the Arab News praises recent advancements in Muslim-Jewish relations across the Middle East.

This is the first time that a media outlet in Saudi Arabia has published an opinion article by a Jewish leader, showing an increased willingness in the Arab world to foster ties and enhance dialogue with the Jewish people.

In the commentary “A Quiet Revolution is Changing the Middle East” published during the Muslim holy celebration of Ramadan, president Lauder praises the Saudi monarchy for encouraging Jews and Muslims to get to know one another, and expresses his hope that peace in the Middle East is within reach in the region plagued by decades of violence and unrest.

Read “A Quiet Revolution Is Changing the Middle East” here.

Stay safe,

Maram Stern

2020-05-18

Hundredth Anniversary of Jewish Faction in Lithuanian Constituent Parliament

Photo: One of the first sittings of the new Lithuanian parliament took place at the City Theater. In front is the presidium, to the left, sitting, are Naftalis Fridmanas, Petras Radzevičius, Ladas (Vladas) Natkevičius, first deputy speaker Jonas Staugaitis, Sspeaker Aleksandras Stulginskis, second deputy speaker Justinas Staugaitis. Right, seated: Zigmas Starkus. Kaunas, 1920. Courtesy Vytautas the Great Military Museum.

The Jewish Faction in Lithuania’s Constituent Parliament

The first parliament elected after Lithuanian independence in the early 20th century caused a global sensation.

This year comes 100 years after the first universal democratic elections for a Lithuanian parliament. One feature of what Lithuania calls its Constituent Assembly was the Jewish faction of parliamentarians, something almost impossible to imagine today following the extermination of upwards of 95% of all Lithuanian Jews in the Holocaust.

to be continued

2020-05-152020-05-18

NCSEJ Webinar with Lithuanian, Latvian Jewish Community Leaders May 14

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Please join us for a webinar Thursday, May 14, 2020, at 11:00 A.M. ET with Dmitry Krupnikov, deputy chairman of the Latvian Council of Jewish Communities and Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community

They will discuss the impact of the corona virus on the Jewish communities in Latvia and Lithuania and other issues affecting the Baltic region.

About the Speakers:

Dmitry Krupnikov is deputy chairman of the Latvian Council of Jewish Communities and Chairman of the Latvian Jewish Community Restitution Fund (LEKOREF), which was set up by the Council after restitution to the Community by Latvia of five religious and communal properties in 2016. All restituted properties were transferred to LEKOREF, which is now in charge of maintaining and managing the properties.

Faina Kukliansky is chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community. She has also served as chairwoman of the Vilnius Jewish Community. In May, 2017 she was re-elected chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community. She is the co-chair of the Foundation for the Disposal of Good Will Compensation for the Immovable Property of Jewish Religious Communities (Goodwill Foundation).

Note: ZOOM has numerous significant security flaws. Use it at your own risk.

2020-05-14

Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community: Life under Quarantine

It’s no secret the quarantine has altered the rhythms and habits of our lives. It had been customary in the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community to celebrate all sorts of holidays and birthdays and to attend different events, educational activities and tours we organized, and simply to gather and talk at the Community building… Today that building stands quiet and empty…

Jews around the world were celebrating Passover when the quarantine began here in Lithuania. The Jews of Šiauliai were not able as we were in past years to come together and celebrate happily to the sound of Jewish melodies this beautiful spring holiday. This year each of celebrated separately at home. The Lithuanian Jewish Community provided home deliveries of matzo to all the regional Communities, so as the quarantine got under way the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community had to insure every member had the requisite matzo for the Passover seder table. Every member of the Community did receive safe delivery of boxes of matzo before the holiday began.

Despite disruption to the rhythm and conventions of daily life, we continue to provide crucial care to our seniors who were victims of the Nazis. Home-care workers continue to visit them and help them with their daily needs, insuring the safety of our elderly during these days so difficult for all of us.

2020-05-132020-05-13

Israeli President Isaac Herzog Visits Lithuania

On the War in Israel and the Situation in Lithuania