Libė Pesė Lempert, born May 23, 1930, passed away April 16. Our deepest condolences to son Ilya Lempert, daughter-in-law Lara Lempert and all the grandchildren.
The heritage issues advisory group of the Lithuanian Jewish Community has learned of plans for renovating the Užupis Jewish cemetery tendered by the Vilnius municipality and a composition called Arch made of desecrated headstone fragments used as stairs during the Soviet era.
The international creative team behind the Arch are architect Viktorija Sideraitė Alon, creator/designer Albinas Šimanauskas and Israeli architect consultant Anna Perelmuter. The composition uses a symbol created by the Litvak American painter Samuel Bak.
The heritage issues advisory group of the Lithuanian Jewish Community helps solve outstanding Lithuanian Jewish heritage issues professionally and effectively. The group includes Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, POLIN Polish Jewish museum advisor to the director and senior curator of exhibits; Assumpció Hosta, general secretary of the AEPJ; writer Sergejus Kanovičius, founder of Maceva and the Šeduva Jewish Memorial Fund; professor James E. Young of University of Massachusetts, Near Eastern Studies, English, Judaism; Samuel Kassow, doctor of philosophy, POLIN senior researcher specializing in 19th century history and the history between the world wars; Lyudmila Sholokhova, PhD, YIVO director of archives and library; and Sergey Kravtsov, senior researcher, Jewish Art Center, Hebrew University.
Experts unanimously supported the artists’ idea for commemorating the Jewish cemetery and offered a number of useful suggestions and observations which will be taken into consideration.
This week members of the advisory group plan to discuss the project proposals with the mayor and city administration specialists.
Later the project ideas and visualizations will be presented to the public.
by AJC CEO David Harris
Israel celebrates its 70th anniversary this month. Let me put my cards on the table — I’m not dispassionate when it comes to Israel.
For centuries, Jews around the world prayed for a return to Zion. We are the lucky ones who have seen those prayers answered.
The establishment of the state in 1948; the fulfillment of its envisioned role as home and haven for Jews from anywhere and everywhere; its wholehearted embrace of democracy and the rule of law; and its impressive scientific, cultural, and economic achievements are extraordinary accomplishments.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community will celebrate Israel’s 70th birthday with a concert on Israeli Independence Day, Iyar 5, which is April 19 this year. The day marks Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948, 70 years ago.
You are invited to a performance by the students from the Saulėtekis school in Vilnius at the Lithuanian Jewish Community.
The birthday bash will be held on the third floor of the LJC at Pylimo street no. 4 at 2:00 P.M. on Thursday, April 19. Admission is free.
The third Vilnius international children’s and youth chess tournament Baltic Way, organized and attended by Gary Kasparov, chess world champion from 1985 to 1993, was held at the Radisson Blu Hotel Lietuva in Vilnius on April 13. Children up to ten years of age competed. Parents weren’t allowed in the conference hall as the competition was held. FIDE master Boris Rositsan turned out to greet Gary Kasparov and the players. His student 9-year-old Augustinas Bazilius played in the tournament.
Sonia Klein, now 92, survived Auschwitz and Majdanek concentration camps. “We are not here forever,” she said of the dwindling number of fellow survivors. Photo: Debbie Egan-Chin/NY Daily News via Getty Images file
A fifth of millennials aren’t sure they’ve ever heard of the Holocaust.
In 1945, Sonia Klein walked out of Auschwitz. Every day of the 73 years since she has been haunted by the memory of what happened there, and the fate of the millions who never made it out of the Nazi death camps.
But Klein wonders, once she and the few survivors still alive are gone, who will be left to remember?
“We are not here forever,” said Klein, now 92. “Most of us are up in years, and if we’re not going to tell what happened, who will?”
Klein’s worries are borne out by a comprehensive study of Holocaust awareness released Thursday, Holocaust Remembrance Day, which suggests that Americans are doing just the opposite.
Full story here.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community began marking Yom haShoa with a screening of the documentary film “My Vilnius” about centuries-old Jewish Vilna life snuffed out in the Holocaust.
Directors Saulius Beržinis and Vytautas Gradeckas and photographer Rimantas Dichavičius attended the screening on April 10. The soundtrack featured works by composer Anatolijus Šenderovas. At the same event an exhibit of works by graphic designer Ovidijus Talijūnas was also launched. Called “Manologas,” each picture features a letter of the Yiddish alphabet and an interpretation of the letter’s meaning.
The images of a lost world on screen with all the people, buildings, cemeteries and synagogues reminded the audience Vilnius was the Jerusalem of Lithuania before the Holocaust, sometimes called the spiritual center of Jewry. With that in mind, we listened intently on the eve of Holocaust Day, Yom haShoa, to photographer Rimantas Dichavičius who managed to capture something of what left after the Holocaust in Vilnius, namely, the Jewish cemetery on Olandų street destroyed in 1965.
Headstones were used as construction material and over the decades the approximately 10-hectare territory was overgrown with bushes and trees. The territory is currently being put in order and should feature a monument soon.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community offered children on school vacation the chance to attend a Passover camp. For three days boys and girls participated in events, under the supervision of camp counselors and teachers, including chemistry experiments, making Jewish souvenirs, dance classes, learning “Lego engineering” and a tour of Jewish sites in Vilnius.
Television personality Karina German and Nikita Jusupovas participated at the closing ceremony April 5.
Some of the thoughts among parents, children and camp counselors:
Viljamas: “It’s very good the community holds these kinds of camps during vacation. My children–I have two–enthusiastically participate in these programs. It’s important children get more information about their culture and traditions. I myself grew up in the community, and I think we see a continuity of events and activities, when children attend Jewish community camps. It’s very important for us to preserve our traditions and culture. I am a professional guide. My mission is to teach my children about history, heritage the culture of Lithuanian Jews. Today I told my children the story of ORT and we walked around Jewish Vilnius. The children liked it. I’m hoping they’ll want to learn more about the history of our city in the future as well.”
Holocaust Day or Yom haShoa was marked at the Lithuanian Jewish Community Thursday with the sound of a siren blaring and standing in silence in memory the victims.
LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky recalled the family members she lost to the Holocaust buried in Kaktiškės, Lithuania. She lit a candle and recited their names. Survivors Mina Frishman, Shapsai Kholem and Fania Brancovskaja also lit candles, as did Ruta Kaplinsky, the daughter of Shmuel Kaplinski who guided a group escaping the Vilnius ghetto through the sewer.
Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Amir Maimon lit a candle in honor of those who heroically opposed the Holocaust, those who rescued Jewish children and the brave fighters and partisans. The ambassador spoke of the Warsaw Uprising; Israeli president Reuven Rivlin was in Warsaw today to mark the 75th anniversary of the uprising.
About 240,000 Jews lived in Lithuania before the Holocaust. Almost every town and village had a Jewish community. There are about 250 Jewish mass murder and mass grave sites known in Lithuania.
Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania
Honored chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community Faina Kukliansky,
I sincerely greet you personally and the Lithuanian Jewish Community on the occasion of the holiday of Passover.
The recollection of the remarkable pages of Jewish history allow us to take joy in the achievements which have been achieved over its long journey.
The liberation from the yoke of slavery in Egypt occupies a special place.
The holiday of Passover allows us to understand the value of the price of freedom and that the unity of the nation, of the community, is an essential precondition for not losing that freedom.
I greet the members of the Lithuanian Jewish Community a great holiday, in the spirit of joint effort and forgiveness towards one another.
With great honor and good wishes,
[signed]
Gediminas Kirkilas, chairman of the European Affairs Committee, deputy speaker of parliament
The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites you to come mark with us Holocaust Day (Yom haShoa) at 12 noon tomorrow, April 12, 2018. Our address is Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius.
As part of commemorating Holocaust Day, the Tolerance Center of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum invites the public to attend a screening of a documentary film about Irena Sendlerowa, a Righteous Gentile. The Polish Institute in Vilnius and the embassy of the Republic of Poland are helping organize the event to be held at 5:30 P.M. Wednesday, April 11, at the Tolerance Center, Naugarduko street no. 10/2, Vilnius. The film is in Polish with Lithuanian subtitles.
You’re invited to a screening of the first part, “People and Stones,” of the documentary film “Meyn Vilne” at 6:00 P.M. on Tuesday, April 10, at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius.
Armed with a festive mood members of the Kaunas Jewish Community met for one of the happiest times of the year to commemorate the liberation of the Jewish people from the Land of Egypt and to celebrate the coming of spring during Passover. There was a musical program and a quiz to test knowledge of holiday traditions. The winners–Filomena Jančiuvienė, Raja Verblinskienė and Robertas Baltusevičius–received health-care products as prizes. It was endlessly good to see how warmly members got along and how much fun we all had together, without regard to age.
Beloved and much-missed Fayerlakh musicians Michailas and Leonardas helped put the icing on the cake and seemed willing to play till dawn.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community Social Programs Department and the Goodwill Foundation financed the event.
Lithuanian ambassador to Israel Edminas Bagdonas. Photo: Reuters/Scanpix nuotrauka
© 2018 Lietuvos žinios
“We usually decide not to react to these sorts of things. There’s no reason to keep telling the same people–[Efraim] Zuroff and [Dovid] Katz–the same thing over and over again. We don’t have the desire to do so, neither do we have the time, and there’s no rationality at play. But this time we will respond,” Lithuanian ambassador to Israel Edminas Bagdonas told Lietuvos žinios
When the Lithuanian parliament began considering banning the sale of goods which distort or belittle Lithuanian history or threaten Lithuanian statehood, there was a reaction in other countries. The Israeli press carried articles that this was allegedly aimed at books such as Rūta Vanagaitė’s “Mūsiškiai” about the Holocaust in Lithuania. This isn’t the first case in recent times where the shadow of anti-Semitism has been cast on Lithuania and Lithuanians. There was a report in March Lithuanians are the least favorable towards Jews in Eastern Europe. An American newspaper ran an article on March 30 accusing Lithuania of trying to hide the Holocaust.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community will host a chess tournament dedicated to the memory of Benjamin Blumenfeld at 5:00 P.M. this Sunday, April 8. For more information write info@metfor.lt or call 8 655 43 556.
Sara Ginaitė-Rubinson died April 2. She was born March 17, 1924. She joined the underground resistance in the Kaunas ghetto, fought as a Jewish partisan, married a fellow partisan and was a professor of political science at Vilnius University after the war. She moved to Canada with her two daughters in 1983 following the death of her husband. She was the author of numerous books and was an outspoken proponent of Holocaust education in Lithuania. Her book “Resistance and Survival: The Jewish Community in Kaunas, 1941–1944” was published in Canada and won the Canadian Jewish Book Award for Holocaust History in 2008. She wrote several books about the Holocaust and lost Lithuanian Jewish communities in Lithuanian, including “Žydų tautos tragedijos Lietuvoje pradžia” [The Beginning of the Tragedy of the Jewish People in Lithuania].
The Lithuanian Jewish Community sends its deepest condolences to Sara’s entire family in Canada and her many friends in Lithuania. Her deep commitment to the memory of those murdered lives on.
Vilnius, April 2, BNS–Leaders from the Lithuanian municipality of Kalvarija have decided not to break off an agreement on the utilization of the synagogue complex there as they had planned and are considering how to continue with renovation, following a meeting with the Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Lithuanian Cultural Heritage Department.
Financing pathways using EU structural funds were presented to municipal leaders at the meeting with discussion of financing from the Cultural Heritage Department as well.
Under the project drafted by the LJC several years ago, the total cost of work to fix the synagogue complex came to just under 2 million euros, but no funding was found.
The municipality and the LJC signed a use agreement in 2014, under which the municipality pledged to protect and utilize appropriately the buildings until financing was found to begin restoration to adapt the complex for public cultural, educational and academic use, for tourism and other uses.
“We really don’t have this kind of money, this is a small municipality and we can’t save up such sums or spend that much on synagogues,” Kalvarija mayor Vincas Plikaitis told BNS.
The Lithuanian Government has sent proposed amendments on the consumer-protection law to parliament for consideration which would ban sales of goods which “distort the historical facts of Lithuania or belittle Lithuania’s history, independence, territorial integrity and constitutional order.”
Proponents of the amendments say they’re needed to stop sales of toys which allegedly commemorate the incorporation of the Crimean Peninsula into the Russian Federation. Lithuanian legal, trade and consumer experts say the amendments aren’t specific and that anything which is sold is a “good,” meaning the law could be used to censor books.
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky has made the following statement regarding the matter:
“These kinds of amendments without precise explanation raise well-founded concerns and recall the dark times of government censorship. History and the writing of annual chronicles are two different things. Historical memory, especially concerning our country’s greatest historical tragedy, the Holocaust, is still in its beginning stages and probably won’t ever be final. These sorts of foolish, misguided attempts by the Government to protect consumer rights have given rise to anger, with foundation, in the international Jewish community. In Europe, where anti-Semitism is on the rise, and especially in Central and Eastern Europe, where laws are being passed on the ‘appropriate’ interpretation of history, Lithuania must remain open and democratic. Freedom of speech and human rights must be insured in our country just as actively as the calls to fight for the protection of consumer rights through these amendments.”
At 6:00 P.M. on Wednesday, April 4, a free concert will be held at the Lithuanian Jewish Community. Tenor Juris Jope from Latvia, pianist Irena Friedland from Israel, soprano Austėja Lukaitė from Lithuania and pianist Gražina Zalatorienė from Lithuania will perform works by Čiurlonis, Rakhmaninov and others. Admission is free. For more information call 8 655 25898 or 8 5 261 3171 or see www.lrmf.lt
