On August 2 a Lithuanian Foreign Ministry delegation led by foreign minister Linas Linkevičius and which included Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky watched a Lithuanian-Israeli basketball game in Tel Aviv. After the game Kukliansky met an old acquaintance, Israeli defense minister Avigdor Lieberman, and they discussed current events in the Lithuanian Jewish Community and security issues at the Community.

If you look very carefully at a penny, you’ll notice something you’ve probably never seen before: initials pressed into the dark underline of Lincoln’s bicep. Those initials stand for Victor David Brenner—the Jewish-American engraver, medalist, and designer of the Lincoln cent.

Brenner, born in Lithuania in 1871 and immigrated to the US in 1890, quickly became one of the country’s premier medalists. So premier, in fact, that a Lincoln design Brenner had made—Lincoln was a hero of his—attracted the attention of President Theodore Roosevelt, who commissioned him to produce the design to commemorate Lincoln’s 100th birthday in 1909. Before 1909, no American coin ever held the likeness of a real person—only allegorical figures like Liberty—so the inclusion of bona fide human being was fairly radical.

Since its first pressing, Brenner’s cent has been the longest running design in Mint history. Though there was a snafu: about halfway through its first year, people complained that Brenner’s initials were too large. Even the New York Times carped, saying why not throw Brenner’s address and even a picture onto the penny, too?

Ten years later, an updated penny minimized VDB, and stuck it just below Lincoln’s shoulder, where it remains, mostly hidden, today.

Full story here.

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by Ramūnas Gerbutavičius, Lietuvos rytas

“Vilnius is the city of my youth and I have put down roots in the city. Your mother is the first person in your life, and your hometown is your first love, happy or tragic,” Anna Halberstadt said.

The 68-year-old woman was born in Vilnius, educated in Moscow and lives in New York. She wrote poems as a child but never showed them to anyone. She works as a therapist, helping immigrants adapt to American culture. Poetry returned to her thoughts after many years, following the unexpected death of a friend. In 2014 her first book of poems, Vilnius Diary, was published, and was translated into Lithuanian this year.

“Meeting Russian literature teacher Rosa Glintershick at the Salomėja Nėris Gymnasium [in Vilnius] really affected my literary life. When I was 14 I began attending her Russian literature group.”

Full story in Lithuanian here.

In 1897 a 16-year-old Jewish orphan from Lithuania named Lena Himmelstein arrived in New York City and found work in a sweatshop for $1 a week. After her first husband David Bryant died at a young age, Lena supported herself and her son by making and selling tea gowns. When she applied to open a bank account, someone misspelled her name as “Lane.” The clothing line Lane Bryant was born.

In 1907 a customer asked Lena to design her something to wear during pregnancy, unheard of at a time when pregnant women were usually secluded until after birth. With some elastic and an accordion pleated skirt, Lena invented maternity wear. Her dresses were a hit, though she often had to be inventive about advertising, since American society still couldn’t accept the shape of a pregnant woman.

Soon she branched out into creating fashions for plus-sized women as well. She met an eager audience. Together with her second husband and business partner Albert Malsin, Lane Bryant broke new ground by selling stylish, ready-to-wear clothing in larger sizes while offering employee benefits such as insurance plans and pensions.

Respecting all body types and the needs of employees, not a bad legacy for a poor orphan from Lithuania.

Full story here.

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