Vaclovas Petras Baltusevičius, a member of the Kaunas Jewish Community, passed away May 17. He was born June 16, 1940. We express our sincere condolences to his loved ones.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community’s Social Programs Department is continuing the project begun in 2014 in 2017 to provide aid to elderly WWII-era rescuers of Jews from the Holocaust, financed by the Goodwill Foundation.
Seventy-six Righteous Gentiles received personal letters wishing them good health and wellness. Each rescuer will receive up to 326 euros this year.
To members of the Vilnius Jewish Community
Arkadijus Vinokuras,
writer, journalist, actor
http://www.vinokuras.lt/cv/
arkadijus@vinokuras.lt
Hello.
Today I made a deeply-considered important decision not easy for me and my family, to become a candidate for chairman of the Vilnius Jewish Community. The main consideration in my decision was that only one candidate is seeking to assume the posts of chairman of the Vilnius Jewish Community and the Lithuanian Jewish Community pretending to be a democrat. The reality is different: the rules for a democratic election have been violated. In the name of personal and group interests, without regard to any principles of democratic elections, cynically dividing the community. And completely forgetting that the community is not a business enterprise, the chairman/woman is not an average manager, and the post of chairman is not a career step or a source of income. In the political, cultural and social sense, and finally in the sense of seriousness and solidarity, this division does not benefit any member of the Jewish community.
…
Transparency. This is a basic requirement for any candidate. A candidate should not have any problems with law enforcement, the tax inspectorate or the social insurance fund. What the future chairman of the VJC needs least of all is the specter of trials or debts. I myself am a member of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party’s Ethics and Procedures Commission and a member of the Lithuanian Journalists Union. I don’t have such specters. Unfortunately, candidate … Simonas Gurevičius possibly does, which he hasn’t made public. It is a matter of public record the Vakonda Group company has accused him of fraud, taking part in the embezzlement of 77,965.34 euros. This case has reached the Lithuanian Prosecutor’s Office. I would like to immediately stress the principle of the presumption of innocence which says a person is not guilty until proven otherwise. All the same, it would be intelligent and honest for every candidate to take care of similar accusations before announcing, so that there wouldn’t be any suspicions or lingering shadows. Therefore I sincerely hope Simonas Gurevičius does just that as quickly as possible.
…
Full announcement in Lithuanian here.
What was billed as a short meeting for young Jews to meet and discuss matters with Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky last Thursday turned into a heated, high-stakes verbal brawl, lasting well beyond three hours instead of the one scheduled.
The discussion took place at La bohème restaurant right next to Pasaka Theater in Vilnius, which screened free of charge the Litvak film Meetings with Joseph. The theater managers delayed the start because the audience were all holed up in a back room at the restaurant next door, but finally came over and announced the film was starting. Of the fifty or so people present, only three appeared to leave to watch the film.
Tempers flared almost as soon as the chairwoman appeared. Daniel Lufshitz launched into some sort of tirade, fresh from his new-found celebrity as a young and upcoming wise man of Chelm following his youtube posting “Jew Wars” which managed to attack and alienate just about every Jewish institution in Lithuania, without foundation. One suspected it was intended to be comedy when he blurred out the backs of the heads of attendees of Simonas Gurevicius’s out-of-order meeting at the Conti Hotel in Vilnius, but in person there were no laughs to be found. Instead he berated Faina Kukliansky, hurling at best vague accusations of mismanagement, and then claimed to be a member of the Vilnius Jewish Community. Daniel Lufshitz, a native-born Lithuanian Jew who migrated to Israel but came back recently, was the subject of some controversy last year when he was courted to become some sort of Jewish representative for the Vilnius City Council and began making media appearances. Then, the LJC had to issue a public announcement that he was not a member of the Community and did not represent the Community in any way. This time Faina Kukliansky gently contradicted him, reminding him he was a not a member of the Vilnius Jewish Community, at which his pique visibly rose, he claimed he had a paper in writing that he would become a member after elections, that therefore he was a member now and she was a liar.
by LJC staff
Self-proclaimed gatekeeper of all things Litvak, professor without portfolio or classes Dovid Katz has taken exception with a new logo trademarked by the Lithuanian Jewish (Litvak) Community for no other reason than that he detests the Lithuanian state.
Never mind he has subjected himself to a potential damages suit by using the new trademark without permission on his web site, Katz is apparently, in his own mind, in the heat of an election battle for the future chairmanship of the LJC. Except he isn’t a candidate, has no constituency and has consistently sought to sow discord within the Community’s ranks, playing sides against one another. One semi-recent example: his public complaints against Rabbi Borshtein, after whose contract was not renewed, Katz attempted to create an international scandal involving alleged “big money” attempting to usurp Jewish cemeteries in Lithuania for construction projects.
Seeing an opportunity to attack what he believed to be a new weak link, Katz took exception with the new trademark logo conceived by a 100% ethnic Litvak architect and designer. Her crime? She used a symbol of Lithuanian statehood in conjunction with a menorah.
Time: May 21, 2107
Location: Tauras Sports School, Žygio street no. 46, Vilnius
Program
12:00 noon Basketball (3 x 3), free-throw contest
1:00 P.M. Lithuanian Maccabee Games opening ceremony
1:30 P.M. Indoor soccer
3:00 P.M. Volleyball
1:30-4:00 P.M. Ping-pong, chess
4:50 P.M. Ceremony, meal, awards
Responsible parties:
Soccer: Gercas Žakas
Basketball: Gercas Žakas
Volleyball: Gercas Žakas
Ping-pong: Michailas Duškesas
Chess: Daniel Dubrovin
Secretary: Olga Bliumenzon
Participants: Teams from Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Panevėžys, Šiauliai, Ukmergė and other towns. Director of Lithuanian Maccabee Games: Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club president Semionas Finkelšteinas. Lithuanian Maccabee Games senior referee: Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club executive director Michailas Duškesas
Note: the program might change following final applications from all teams
The Lithuanian Jewish Community has announced a candidate search for the best person to fill the post of director of the planned private Jewish kindergarten Shalom. Requirements include perfect fluency in Lithuanian and specific levels of proficiency in English, Russian and Hebrew.
Full details in Lithuanian here.
The Gesher and Kaveret Clubs of the Lithuanian Jewish Community are to screen a Russian-language version of the film the Zookeeper’s Wife (2017) at 7:00 P.M., May 22, 2017, on the third floor at LJC headquarters located at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius. The American film is about the rescue of Jews from the Holocaust by the Warsaw Zoo zookeeper and his wife. For more information, call Žana Skudovičienė at 370 678 81514.
We kindly invite Jewish young people and the general public to a screening of a documentary film by Elžbieta Josadė called Dialogue with Joseph on at 7:00 P.M. on May 18 at the Pasaka Theater (Šv. Ignoto street no. 4/3, Vilnius). After the film you may meet and discuss with film director Elžbieta Josadė and editor Rareş lenasoaie. Entrance is free to the public.
In an interview with Lietuvos žinios partially republished by the Baltic News Service on May 17, Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Amir Maimon said unity is important for any community, as the Lithuanian Jewish Community prepares to elect a new chairman or chairwoman.
He noted the Lithuanian Jewish Community is small, and hoped disagreements among members could be solved so that larger issues could be tackled.
Vilnius Jewish Community executive board member Simonas Gurevičius circulated a petition two weeks ago for the ordering of elections for the chairmanship of the national community. The petition calls for an earlier regime for elections. The text claims changes to the regulations reduced the influence of the non-Vilnius regional communities. Gurevičius has offered himself as a candidate for the post at elections in May. Current chairwoman Faina Kukliansky hasn’t announced her candidacy.
In the interview ambassador Maimon also said Lithuania and Israel could do better in cooperating to protect Jewish heritage.
Lietuvos žinios
For centuries the Jewish community was an inseparable part of Lithuania, but this isn’t completely understood now. The legacy of the once-thriving Jewish communities is not receiving the attention it’s due. Lietuvos žinios spoke with Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon about whether Lithuania is a friendly country for Jews, how our mutual understanding is evolving and what still needs to be done to improve relations.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky received the following thank-you note from the granddaughter of a Lithuanian woman who rescued Jews from the Holocaust.
Hello,
My grandmother Stasė Minelgienė (a recognized Righteous Gentile) asked me to thank you for the card [debit card] which she received as a gift. She also asked me to wish you a nice day, good health and the highest success.
Respectfully,
Her granddaughter,
N. Žvirblytė
Come meet the Sabbath with the LJC’s Gesher Club.
Time: 7:30 P.M., Friday, May 19, 2017
Location: d’Eco Bar and Restaurant, Dominikonų street no. 15, Vilnius
Cost: 10 euros
Please call Žana Skudovičienė at 370 678 81514 to reserve a seat.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community congratulates Ilja Lempertas on his 60th birthday and hopes he never stops sharing his youthful energy with all around him. Birthdays creep up on us even when we don’t expect them, so let’s celebrate them and the onset of a beautiful spring. Happy birthday, Ilja!
Mazl tov!
The Destinies program of evening cultural events celebrated the birthday of Lithuanian musician and composer Dr. Leonidas Melnikas last Thursday, May 11.
The evening began at the Jascha Heifetz hall at LJC headquarters in Vilnius with the airs of a tango, an overflow crowd and the birthday boy smiling on stage. Leonidas Melnikas is a piano player, organ player, musicologist, a tenured doctor, the head of his cathedral at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater, chairman of the academy’s senate and professor. He’s also a member of the board of directors of the Lithuanian Jewish Community. He turned 60 Thursday.
The birthday celebration was part of the Destinies program of evening cultural events initiated and organized by LJC deputy chairwoman Maša Grodnikienė, who used the occasion to honor the memory of Melnikas’s father Isaiah Melnik, who would have turned 110 that same day. He was a well-known pharmacist at the Vilnius Central Pharmacy (on what is now Gedimino prospect) and at the Žvėrynas Pharmacy in Vilnius, where he made his own preparations in his time. He survived both Stutthof and Dachau. He was beloved by all and was a calm and warm person who enjoyed attending all sorts of concerts. His son Leonidas’s musical career began when his mother took him to the Ąžuoliukas school. His first teacher was the famous pianist Nadežda Duksdulskaitė. “My entire childhood was illuminated by my parents, the very best, the very wisest people, and family remains extremely important to me,” Melnikas said of himself before embarking on a performance of tango melodies with violinist Boris Traub, cellist Valentinas Kaplūnas and accordion player Gennady Savkov.
The Judaica Studies Center of the Lithuanian National Martynas Mažvydas Library was officially established May 3, 2017, but will only open to the public May 22 and May 23 with several events and exhibitions.
The Center’s main function is to further research on the Jewish documentary heritage, carrying out educational and informational projects and publicizing the results. The Center is an open enterprise and aimed at educational cooperation. According to its mission statement, the Center actively publicizes information about the Jewish textual heritage at its events, in the national and international media and on the internet, and also conserves collections of modern Judaica publications.
Program:
May 22
1:00 P.M. Opening ceremony (foyer, fifth floor)
2:00 P.M. Launch of exhibit People and Books of the Strashun Library (exhibit hall, third floor)
May 23
1:00 P.M. Samuel Kassow (USA) lecture Uniqueness of Jewish Vilna (conference hall, fifth floor)
2:30 P.M. Presentation The Vilnius YIVO Project (conference hall, fifth floor)
Full announcement in Lithuanian at the Lithuanian National Martynas Mažvydas Library web page here.
Vida Pulkauninkienė, coordinator of the Tolerance Education Center at the Dukstyna Primary School in Ukmergė (Vilkomir), and a group of students from the Center visited the Sugihara House museum in Kaunas May 15. They viewed the memorial exhibit there, a chronicle of events in Kaunas from 1939 to 1940, a virtual exhibit of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara’s deeds in Lithuania and an audio-visual exhibition about the daily life of Jewish refugees in Lithuania. They also learned about how Jews saved themselves, travelling to Kobe, Japan, on the visas Sugihara issued, then on to the USA, New Zealand and other countries.
Museum director Simonas Dovidavičius led the tour.
The group also visited the site of the former Slobodka ghetto in Kaunas, guided by Daiva Žemaitienė, also a Tolerance Education Center coordinator.
The Ukmergė Jewish Community set up the field trip as part of a continuing education project with financial aid from the Goodwill Foundation.
Following renovation, the wooden synagogue in Pakruojis, Lithuania, is to open its doors to the public Friday. The synagogue is to house the Pakruojis Regional Juozas Paukštelis Library. The women’s gallery and a permanent exhibition will remind visitors of Jewish life and history in the region. The Pakruojis synagogue was built in 1801 and is believed to be the oldest surviving wooden synagogue in Lithuania. It was renovated and painted in 1885.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
LitvakSIG delegation visit Tolerance Center, Vilna Gaon Museum, Carol Hoffman third from left
The Litvak genealogical web site LitvakSIG‘s board of directors have recently been travelling around Lithuania as part of their important work. The board currently includes nine members: Amy Wachs, Barry Halpern, Carol Hoffman, Dorothy Leivers, Garri Regev, Jill Anderson, Phil Shapiro, Ralph Salinger and Russ Maurer. Six of the nine board members visited Lithuania this past week to meet with archivists and members of the Vilnius and regional Jewish communities. We managed to interview Carol Hoffman at the Bagel Shop Café in Vilnius last Sunday.
§§§
Tell us something about yourself.
My names is Carol Hoffman. I was born and raised in the United States. My father was born here in Lithuania in 1892 in Kapčiamiestis, in Yiddish it’s Kopcheve. My mother was born in the United States but her mother was born in Kapčiamiestis, in Kopcheve, in about 1858. So my entire family from my mother’s side and from my father’s side are Litvaks.
So, my entire family are Litvaks, they’re from the same place, from the same shtetl, and I was raised with a strong sense of being my brother’s keeper. I came to Israel in 1972 with three young children and a husband and we settled in the northern part of Israel. I worked as a librarian and a teacher of computer science in the university for many, many years, and I retired seven years ago when began working full-time as a volunteer for LitvakSIG. This is my seventh or eighth or ninth trip to Lithuania, I’m not sure. My first trip was in 2000. I had never been here. I met Regina Kopelevich on the border and we went to … Kopcheve and then to Vilnius. So I feel the strong sense of roots.
Leo Strauss (1899–1973) was a [Jewish] German and American political philosopher and political philosophy historian. He was born in Germany and served as a translator for the German army during World War I. In 1932 he moved to Paris and in 1934 to Great Britain where he worked at Cambridge. From 1937 to his death he lived and worked in the USA, teaching political science and philosophy at New York City, Chicago and Annapolis.
He developed the idea of what was called natural right, claiming human rights and freedoms are inherent and independent of citizenship and other external factors. …
[Strauss’s Natural Right and History] is being published for the first time in Lithuania…
Full story in Lithuanian here.
