Lithuanian Jewish Community

Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community: Ona Šimaitė Commemoration in Akmenė

A day-long commemoration of Righteous Gentile Ona Šimaitė lasting into the evening will be held in Akmenė, Lithuania, July 22. “Šimaitė Invites You to Speak” is a project dedicated to honoring the local Jewish community and Ona Šimaitė and Righteous Gentiles in general. It was initiated by the Marijus and Diana Lopaitis family with the Akmenė regional public library and with support from the Akmenė town community, the Lithuanian Cultural Council, the Jakovas Bunka support fund, the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community and the Akmenė regional administration to be held on the birthday of the town of Akmenė.

Events will take place at the Akmenė Regional History Museum at Kasakausko street no. 17 and the Akmenė House of Culture at Sodo street no. 1 in Akmenė.

Program:

11:00 Conference “Šimaitė Invites You to Speak” (Akmenė Regional History Museum)

part 1: The history and fate of the Akmenė regional Jewish community
part 2: Ona Šimaitė: The Story of a Righteous Gentile
part 3: Official openings of exhibits including of manuscripts by Šimaitė, a photo exhibit called “Kaddish for the Wooden Synagogues of Lithuania” and carvings and the exhibit “The Litvak Literary Legacy” by the Akmenė regional public library.

2019-07-102019-07-11

Anna Halberstadt: There Must Be a Different World in Texts

Photo: Poetess Anna Halberstadt, by Dainius Dirgėla

When I come back here again
This city seems half real, half hallucination

Anna Halberstadt writes in her poem Vilnius Diary. She was born and raised in Vilnius, studied in Moscow and for almost 40 years now has lived in New York City. In 2017 her book Vilnius Diary (Turtle Press, NY 2014) appeared in Lithuanian, translated by Marius Burokas, the winner of the 2019 Marionis prize at the Poezijos pavasaris [Poetry Spring] event, published by the Lithuanian Writers Union. Besides being a poetess, Halberstadt is a psychologist and psychotherapist. Her grandfather on her mother’s side was a doctor–a plastic surgeon and dentist–in Vilnius. Her grandfather on her father’s side was I. Levin who was a judge in Švenčionėliai, Lithuania, before the 1917 Russian Revolution. Halberstadt’s father Simonas Galberštatas taught at the Natural Sciences and Medicine Faculty of Vilnius University. Her great-grandfather’s home built in 1905 still stands on Naugarduko street in Vilnius.

You often mention you had a wonderful literature teacher, Roza Glintershchik. Could you tell us more about her and her group of literati?

Roza came to teach us Russian literature when I was a seventh-grader at the Salomėja Nėris high school in Vilnius. Now I understand she was a young woman, 36, but at the time she seemed very serious to me with her dark suit jackets and white blouses, with glasses adorning her nice face and clever eyes. She immediately raised our level of education. She spoke with us as if we were adults and wouldn’t tolerate any mediocrity.

Full interview in Lithuanian here.

2019-07-10

Germany Extends Holocaust Compensation to Survivor Spouses

New York-based advocacy group successfully lobbies German government to continue payments to 30,000 elderly

BERLIN (AP)–The organization that handles claims on behalf of Jews who suffered under the Nazis said Tuesday that Germany has agreed to extend compensation to their surviving spouses and to increase other payments, taking the total to be paid out in 2020 to around $1 billion.

Until now, pension payments to Holocaust survivors had been stopped upon their death, but the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany said Berlin has now agreed to continue survivor pensions for nine months after a death to the spouse.

The payment is expected to be granted to some 14,000 spouses retroactively and a total of about 30,000 people are expected to qualify, Claims Conference negotiator Greg Schneider said.

Full story here.

2019-07-09

Condolences

With sadness we report the death of long-time Community member Ela Čumanova on July 8. She was born in 1953. Our deepest condolences to her late husband Michailas and her sons Jevgenijus and Aleksandras.

2019-07-08

Locating the Lost Shtetl of Rumšiškės: Targum Shlishi Supports Team from University of Hartford

(Miami, July 7, 2019)—This summer a team from the University of Hartford is working to locate the lost shtetl of Rumšiškės (Rumsheshok) in Lithuania, which is now located under Lake Kaunas. Home to approximately fifty Jewish families who were massacred in 1941, the village was abandoned and the Soviets later created a dam, resulting in the village’s remains now being under water. Filming throughout the process will document the work, which will result in a documentary film, museum exhibitions, and presentations in Lithuania and the U.S. Targum Shlishi’s grant is helping to support the five-person student team, which is led by archaeologist Richard A. Freund, a professor at the University of Hartford who has headed the university’s Vilna Excavation Projects for the past four years.

Project Background and Scope

“This is a unique program for students to work on. The students will document our summer excavations and create a documentary film that will show our underwater search for the lost village of Rumshishok,” Freund explains. “We will be working with high-tech, robotically-operated vehicles and professional divers to find the village and we will work with our ground penetrating radar equipment to identify the location of the mass grave of the Jews of Rumshishok which will ensure that no future development can take place at that site.”

2019-07-082019-07-08

More Events to Mark 75th Anniversary of the Destruction of the Kaunas Ghetto

July 11

6:00 P.M. Screening and discussion of the film Gitel directed by Robert Mullan, 2016, at the Vincas Kudirka Public Library, A. Mapu street no. 18, Kaunas.

7:00 P.M. Thematic tour “Holocaust in Lithuania” at the Ninth Fort Museum, Žemaičių highway no. 73, Kaunas.

8:00 P.M. Screening and discussion of the film “Devil’s Arithmetic” directed by Donna Deitch, 1999, at the Ninth Fort Museum, Žemaičių highway no. 73, Kaunas.

July 12

5:00 P.M. Free guided tour called “Voices of Hope” starting at the Kaunas Municipal Museum, Petrausko street no. 31, Kaunas. Registration required, call (8 37) 731 184 or email mkp.kasa@kaunomuziejus.lt

2019-07-082019-07-11

Grigory Kanovich: I Tried to Create a Written Monument to the Lithuanian Jews

He is the last Lithuanian Jewish author with first-hand experience of the shtetls, the small Jewish towns which vanished from the face of the earth in 1941.

”I have tried to create a written monument to the Lithuanian Jews”, says Grigory Kanovich in an interview with Baltic Worlds.

Kanovich turns 90 this summer. At 85 he stopped writing when he published his last book, Shtetl Love Song. The book Devilspel, from which an extract is published in this issue of Baltic Worlds, was written back in 2002 but not translated into English until now.

Kanovich has lived in Israel since 1993, and his son Sergey has helped in translating our questions into Russian and then translating the answers into English. First his father only answered three of the questions, and he was too tired to continue, but the following day came the rest of the answers.

Full text here.

2019-07-08

Changing the Name of Škirpa Alley: A Hasty Initiative

Note: The author of the following opinion piece identifies as a Jewish woman and is a member of the Šiauliai City Jewish Community, which is not a constituent member of the Lithuanian Jewish Community. Her views are not shared by the Lithuanian Jewish Community in any way and are presented here only in the interest of informing our readers of arguments for commemorating Holocaust perpetrators in Lithuania. Kazys Škirpa, the person in the middle to the left of Adolf Hitler in the photograph above, was a leading proponent of Nazi ideology and worked closely with the German Abwehr, or military intelligence, to ease the invasion of Lithuania by the Wehrmacht during World War II. The Vilnius city council is planning in the next few days to again address the issue of the known Nazi collaborator’s name being honored as a street name in the center of the nation’s capital. A similar move by Vilnius city council members several years ago was shot down before it came to a vote.

Photo: Škirpa celebrating Hitler’s 50th birthday, April 21, 1939. Note Lithuania Lithuania acquiesced to Hitler’s ultimatum and handed the Memel region, aka Klaipėda, back to Germany on March 23, 1939. Škirpa is on the far right in the photograph. Photo from Kazys Škirpa’s own memoirs in the book “Lietuvos nepriklausomybės sutemos (1938-1940)” [“The Twilight of Lithuanian Independence (1938-1940)”], Chicago-Vilnius, 1996.

Changing the Name of Škirpa Alley: A Hasty Initiative

by Kamilė Šeraitė, councilor, Vilnius city council

The Holocaust will remain Lithuania’s tragedy through the centuries, not just for the families touched by tragic fate whose descendants carry in their heart the yellow star of David, not just for the members of the Jewish community who have fought many long years for the memory of each innocent life which perished, but as the tragedy of our people.

2019-07-082019-07-12

LJC Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky Awarded Star of Lithuanian Diplomacy

URM.lt

Lithuanian foreign minister Linas Linkevičius awarded a Foreign Ministry award called the Star of Lithuanian Diplomacy to Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky July 5.

The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry’s highest award was bestowed on chairwoman Kukliansky in recognition of her active involvement in organizing international dialogue and important agreements, cooperation between the LJC and Foreign Ministry, her contribution to making the Goodwill Law a reality and the active involvement of the LJC under her leadership in projects at Lithuanian diplomatic offices.

“I am proud of our friendship and cooperation. This is vital to the interests of our state. Your work goes beyond just leading the Jewish community, and your work for the good of Lithuania is very visible,” Lithuanian foreign minister Linkevičius said.

2019-07-052019-07-10

European Days of Jewish Culture

The European Days of Jewish Culture celebrations are scheduled to kick off September 1 and around that date. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Days. As in previous years, Lithuania is participating, although the theme for this year’s events in Lithuania is yet to be announced. The provisional theme announced by the main organizers is “innovation.”

More information here.

2019-07-042019-07-04

Archaeological Dig Resumes at Great Synagogue Site in Vilnius

The summer archaeological dig at the site of the former Great Synagogue in Vilnius is set to resume this year starting July 1 and running to July 19. The team includes archaeologists from Lithuania, the USA and Israel. The continuing exploration of the site is being supported by the Goodwill Foundation in partnership with the Israeli Antiquities Authority and the Lithuanian Jewish Community.

In 2011 the team discovered the exact boundaries and fragments of the former building. In 2016, 2017 and 2018 they explored the former mikvot, or bathhouses used for ritual purification and located the central bimah of the synagogue.

This year they hope to continue exploring the remains of the building and to locate the aron kodesh, the ark used to house the Torah scroll in synagogues. Within the first three days of digging the team had already uncovered the rear entrance to the main hall of the subterranean synagogue, a set of descending steps located near the mikvot.

2019-07-012019-07-08

Anti-Semite Alley

15 min.lt

by Viktoras Bachmetjevas

The Vilnius city council will finally begin considering renaming Škirpa Alley. For those who might never have heard of Kazys Škirpa, it suffices to day he is best known to Lithuanian history for two things.

Perhaps I should say at the onset that as a resident of Vilnius I don’t want a street in my city named after a person whose anti-Semitism was political and systemic, and who directed an organization which issued calls which, according to historians, were a factor in the summer of 1941 in Lithuanians contributing to the carrying out of criminal orders by the Nazis.

Full text in Lithuanian here.

2019-07-012019-07-01

Events to Mark 75th Anniversary of Destruction of Kaunas Ghetto

Events have begun in Kaunas to mark the 75th anniversary of the liquidation of the ghetto there. On June 15 the Kaunas Drama Theater staged Getas [Ghetto] directed by G. Varnas and on June 29 the Kaunas City Museum invited the public to a free guided tour called Voice of Hope where museum specialist Aušra Strazdaitė-Ziberkienė told of the Jewish musicians who worked at the Kaunas State Drama Theater and the music school, the conservatory and other venues, and their contribution to establishing and enriching Lithuanian music and popularizing Lithuanian composers. She also spoke about the tragic mass murder of the Jews in the Holocaust. The tour was followed by a screening of Seserys [Sisters] by L. Kopač and D. Selčinskaja telling the story of the rescue of Danutė Pomerancaitė, the accomplished violinist.

Those who missed the event can attend repeat performances at 5:00 P.M. on July 12 and 12 noon on July 13. Please register either by calling (8 37) 731 184 or by sending an email to mkp.kasa@kaunomuziejus.lt

More information about the tour is available in Lithuanian here.

2019-07-012019-07-01

Lietūkis Garage Victims Remembered in Kaunas

The anniversary of the Lietūkis Garage massacre was commemorated on June 28, 2019. On June 27, 1941, during the first days of the Nazi invasion, the horrific torture and murder of Jewish men was carried out at the Lietūkis agricultural cooperative’s garage, now Miško street no. 3 in Kaunas.

Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas led the commemoration and recalled the events. Rokas Makštutis on clarinet and vocalist Vitalij Neugasimov performed a musical rendition of the horror which moved many in the audience to tears.

The commemoration was followed by other commemorations at other mass murder sites including the Jewish cemetery in Slobodka, the Seventh Fort and the Jewish cemetery in Žaliakalnis. Kaunas Hassidic Synagogue Religious Community chairman Iser Shreiberg said a prayer in memory of the Holocaust victims.

2019-07-012019-07-05

Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of the Liquidation of the Kaunas Ghetto

The Kaunas Jewish Community, the city of Kaunas and the Lithuanian Jewish Community invite you to attend events to mark the 75th anniversary of the destruction of the Kaunas ghetto.

July 14

12:00 Commemoration at the stone marking the site of the ghetto gate at Kriščiukaičio street no. 12/Linkuvos street no. 2, Kaunas

1:00 Guided tour through Kaunas ghetto territory and unveiling of new commemorative steles (Kaunas ghetto gate to Democracy Square)

5:00 Concert at the Kaunas State Philharmonic with performances by the Kuryat Ono youth orchestra from Israel, the St. Christopher Chamber orchestra and Lithuanian Jewish tenor Rafailas Karpis

All events are free and open to the public. Come join us.

2019-07-01

Righteous Gentile Commemoration Architect: They Were Better People

Bernardinai.lt

by Augminas Petronis and Gediminas Šulcas

“At first it was very frightening to carve another person’s headstone. Yes, I have hands, I have carved this and that, but to carve on someone’s headstone… I sat with the sculptors for a month, and they told me: ‘It will be ten times easier than you imagine.’ But I was getting ready for it as if for a flight into space, and I hung the first commemorative sign for my uncle, just in case I ruined something…” said Tauras Budzys, the Vilnius architect who thought up and implemented a project to hang commemorative symbols on the headstones of rescuers of Jews.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2019-07-01

Lithuania Faces Challenges Celebrating 2020 as Year of Vilna Gaon and Litvak History

Several months of silence have ensued since the publication of a shocking “explanation” with the features of gross Holocaust denial issued by a Lithuanian state institution, the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania, published with no author attributed.

The “explanation” from this Lithuanian national historical research institution claims “the inhabitants of occupied Lithuania did not understand ghettos as part of the Holocaust” in attempting to vindicate Jonas Noreika’s culpability in establishing the Šiauliai (Shavel) ghetto, isolating Jews and seizing their property.

The Lithuanian Jewish Community not only believes these statements violate article 170-2 of the Lithuanian criminal code, but also desensitize the public to the Holocaust, and possibly intentionally and calculatedly encourage conflict in society and belittle and debase the memory of brave Lithuanians who rescued Jews from the Holocaust.

Just after marking the anniversary of the horrific Lietūkiis garage massacre and as we mark the 75th anniversaries of the destruction of the Kaunas and Šiauliai ghettos in coming days, we feel it is important to recall the roots and origins of the Holocaust in Lithuania.

2019-07-012019-08-08

Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of the Liquidation of the Šiauliai Ghetto

The City of Šiauliai and the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community invite you to attend events to mark the 75th anniversary of the liquidation of the Šiauliai ghetto on July 15, 2019.

11:30 Placing of flowers, wreaths and stones at the base of the monument stone marking the gate of the Šiauliai ghetto (on the corner of Trakų and Ežero streets).

12:00 Official ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the liquidation of the Šiauliai ghetto at the Haim Frankel Villa Park.

3:00 Unveiling ceremony of plaque commemorating Right Gentile father Jonas Borevičius, SJ (Vilniaus street no. 245).

4:00 Ceremony to honor the victims at the Kužiai mass murder site at Norutaičiai village, Kužiai aldermanship, Šiauliai region.

5:30 Ceremony to honor ghetto inmates sent to concentration camps at the Radviliškis train station.

Artūras Visockas, mayor, city of Šiauliai
Naum Gleizer, chairman, Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community

2019-06-28

Honorary Member of the Panevėžys Jewish Community

World War II began in 1939. Jews didn’t know this was the onset of hell for the entire world and especially for the Jews themselves. More than 60 million people died, and 6 million of them were Jews. Jews were shot and tortured to death in the concentration camps and ghettos.

Today the world community is grateful to those who saved Jews during the Holocaust.

Teresė Giedrikaitė is a frequent visitor to the Panevėžys Jewish Community. She is the daughter of Emilija and Juozas Giedrikas, who were awarded posthumously the Lithuanian order of the Life-Saver’s Cross. She is an honorable member of the Community. She was invited to attend the unveiling of the new Holocaust memorial in Biržai, Lithuania, but was unable to attend due to poor health. She spoke in an informal setting at the Community, telling the story of her parents who rescued Jews during the war.

She recalled painful memories lodged deep from childhood with tears in her eyes. She was four at the time. Neither time nor Soviet deportation has erased the painful recollections. Her parents hid a Jewish newlywed couple from Kaunas in their home in the small town of Vabalninkas.

2019-06-272019-07-01

Remembering the Victims of the Lietūkis Garage Massacre

The Kaunas Jewish Community invites the public to come and commemorate the victims of the Lietūkis Garage massacre at the monument to them located at Miško street no. 3 in Kaunas at 4:00 P.M. on June 28. Following that ceremony there will be ceremonies held at the Slobodka (Vilijampolė) Jewish cemetery located on Kalnų street in Kaunas, the Seventh Fort in Kaunas and the Žaliakalnis Jewish cemetery on the Radvilėnų highway in Kaunas to honor Holocaust victims.

2019-06-27

Israeli President Isaac Herzog Visits Lithuania

On the War in Israel and the Situation in Lithuania