Wooden Synagogue in Alanta Renovated
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LJC, International Comminission and Olga Lengyel Institute Holding Holocaust Seminars for Teachers
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LJC Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky Speaks at Commemoration of Grosse
Aktion in Kaunas
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Šiauliai Opens Righteous Gentile Square at the Intersection of Vilniaus and Ežero Streets at Former Ghetto Gates
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"Symphony from Jerusalem of the North” Mark Day of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide in Presidential Courtyard
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The renovated synagogue in Žiežmariai will become a new cultural center. The first synagogue in appeared sometime between 1690 and 1696. In the 19th century there three synagogues. Not surprising, since the majority of the population were Jewish. This synagogue which has survived and has now been renovated stands in the southern part of town between Vilniaus and Žalgirio streets, with the Strėva river flowing from southeastward from there.
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The Lithuanian Post Office has issued a stamp commemorating 300 years since the birth of the Vilna Gaon
The Lithuanian Post Office has issued a stamp commemorating 300 years since the birth of the Vilna Gaon
with a face value of 0.81 euros, enough to mail letters abroad.
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Lithuania Marks 300th Anniversary of Birth of Vilna Gaon, 2020 Named Year of the Gaon and Litvak History.
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Most important events at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in 2018
Most important events at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in 2018
Revival of Jewish Scouting in Lithuania: The first new Litvak scouting camping trip with children from Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Panevėžys and Molėtai took place August 24 to 26.
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Jewish newspapers and advertisements from Vilnius in the period between the two world wars. Jews and other minorities were given equal rights in the reconstituted Lithuanian state. Yiddish thrived with many newspapers and books published in the language.
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Vilnius City Council Seeks Public Comment on Street Named after Holocaust Perp

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Vilnius City Council member Mark Adam Harold is part of a municipal event at the Vilnius Old Town Hall for Tuesday, November 29, 2016, to seek public comment on a proposal to rename the street named after Lithuanian Holocaust collaborator and chief of the Lithuanian Activist Front based in Berlin in 1941, Kazys Škirpa.

Harold’s facebook page contains the instructions: “If you would like the opportunity to speak during the public forum at Rotušė, Didzioji g. 31, on November 29th at 18:00, please tick this box. The first twenty applicants will be given one minute each from the podium.”

A separate post by a South African Litvak living in the United States contains more detail:

“220,000 Lithuanian Jews were murdered at the instigation of Škirpa and his cronies. The country of Lithuania is littered with honors for Škirpa, and for other murderers of Jews. Multi-year efforts to have a main Street in Lithuania’s capital city of Vilnius, currently named named to honor the Škirpa, is now culminating in public hearings by the Vilnius City Council.

“The Vilnius City Council was unable to decide for themselves if honoring Jew murderers is appropriate.

“Here is a link to a comment form where you can provide your opinion to the Vilnius City Council. It is in English, you just need to answer and hit submit. Please try to be somewhat respectful:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSddIXIxTDEj5He6Qjh4pv_KjB1X1KlNlmOww9S76IF3Nr7fbA/viewform?c=0&w=1
“

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The event is advertised as a discussion with Vytautas Landsbergis, Sergey Kanovich, Darius Udrys, Lithuanian historians and others. Public comment will be sought afterwards. Conspicuously absent from the speakers’ roster: any representative of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, the International Commission on Assessing the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania or even Vilnius mayor Remgijus Šimašius, who hasn’t kept his earlier commitments in writing to name a site in Vilnius by October 20 for erecting a statue to commemorate the heroes of World War II in Lithuania, those who rescued Jews. The Lithuanian Jewish Community is to issue a statement to be read out loud at the event.

The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites members of the public and representatives of interested institutions to submit their comments per the form linked above and to attend the event.

More event information here.

priemimas-pas-hitleri-1939-0421-k100Škirpa with Hitler celebrating the latter’s 50th birthday

April 21, 1939

Fires Extinguished in Haifa, Still Burning Elsewhere

Firefighters have extinguished fires in Israel’s third-largest city Haifa which forced tens of thousands of residents to flee their homes. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld reported there were another 14 small wildfires still burning in locations around the country Friday. He said residents of a settlement in a forest near Jerusalem had been evacuated overnight. Five people have been arrested in connection with the fires. They began three days ago at the Neve Shalom community near Jerusalem. Dry winds spread the fire at locations around the outskirts of Jerusalem. The northern limits of the city of Zikhron Ya’akov also saw flames. No victims have been reported there but at least 100 homes have been damaged. National leaders have raised the possibility the fires were started intentionally and constitute acts of terrorism.

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Lithuanian Youth Days Patroness St. Edith Stein: Witness to God in World Where He Is Not

LJD globėja Šv. Edita Štein: Dievo liudininkė pasaulyje, kuriame Jo nėra

The patroness of the Lithuanian Youth Days taking place next year on June 23 to 25 will be St. Edith Stein. Who was she? What can we learn from her?

On October 11, 1988, Pope John Paul II canonized her. Edith was born October 12, 1891, in Breslau (now Wrocław), the eleventh child (seventh of surviving children) born to the affluent Jewish family of Zygird and Augusta. Jews celebrated Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, that day. Many say this foreshadowed the rest of her life. When she was 2 her father passed away. Her mother was forced to take over the family business and take care of her many children herself. Augusta was very religious, a hard worker and strong-willed, and Edith followed her example her entire life. Truth be told, her mother wasn’t able to impart faith to her children; when Edith was fourteen she stopped believing.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Condolences

We extend our sincere condolences to the deputy head of mission of the Israeli embassy to Lithuania, Efrat Hochstetler, and her family on the loss of her beloved father.

An Unusual Story of Jewish Rescue

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The Vilnius-based publishing house Kitos Knygos has published in Lithuanian a book by Yochanan Fein called Berniukas su smuiku [Boy with a Violin].

Yochanan Fein: Boy with a Violin

History, memoirs; 2017; ISBN 978-609-427-253-0 (printed edition), ISBN 978-609-427-296-7 (e-book); 304 pages; hardcover

translated by Ina Preiskel (Finkelšteinaitė) and Arvydas Sabonis, edited by Asta Bučienė

In the distant Kaunas neighborhood of Panemunė on the high banks of the Nemunas there once there stood a large wooden house with a stairwell inside. It was built by Lithuanian military volunteer and Šančiai railroad carpenter Jonas Paulavičius, who was called behind his back “father of the Jews” during World War II, having rescued 16 people from the clutches of death. He and his wife Antanina were recognized as Righteous Gentiles because of their heroic acts.

Among the fortunate was 14-year-old Yochanan Fein, who knew how to play violin, hiding in a pit dug in the garden together with a Russian POW and an Orthodox Jew. In his dotage he wrote a book of memoirs called “Boy with Violin” in which he explained the tragic stories of the lives of those rescued and presented an authentic painting of wartime and post-war Kaunas in many colorful details. The book was first published in Amsterdam in 2006 and two years later in Tel Aviv.

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The Residents of Darbėniai Who Saved Their Doctor Jochveda

After the army of Nazi Germany invaded Soviet-occupied Lithuania on June 22, 1941, they soon began to carry out macabre repression turning into genocide against Jewish Lithuanian citizens.

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J. Marijampolskaitė (right) with her friends from
Darbėniai and children in Palanga, ca. 1935

Although a small portion of local residents became staunch Nazi supporters and contributed to the repressions, the majority felt sorry for their Jewish neighbors and tried to help them. Even now old-time Darbėniai residents remember the almost legendary story of the ultimately tragic rescue of the doctor of Darbėniai, Jochvedas Marijampolskaitė, discovered by this author [Romualdas Beniušis] as he browsed through the case of the deportation to Siberia of Būtingė village residents Katerina and Benediktas Bagdanavičius.

Jochveda Marijampolskaitė was born to a Jewish family in Vilkaviškis on April 23, 1898. It wasn’t possible to learn more about her family and childhood. The Lithuanian Central State Archive conserves documents concerning Jochveda Marijampolskaitė’s studies from the Medicine Faculty of the Lithuanian University, which they have shared with US-resident professor of history E. Goldstein, revealing some new information about her life. This includes a certificate showing she was graduated with a silver medal from the Tambov Women’s Gymnasium in 1917. It appears she was evacuated to Russia during World War I together with the students and staff of the Marijampolė [Staropol] Girls’ Pre-Gymnasium who moved to Trakai in February of 1915 when the Germans occupied Marijampolė, and then as the front drew near withdrew eastward to the town of Tambov in western Russia. She soon matriculated at one of the oldest schools of medicine in the Russian Empire, the medical faculty of Kharkov University, established in 1804. Female Jews were allowed to study medicine in Russia beginning in the late 19th century and many girls dreamed of pursuing this prestigious career with a steady salary and insuring social status. Students from Lithuania had studied at Kharkov University for a long time, and a Lithuanian Students Association was established there in 1894.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Dubi Club Announcement

Dear parents and Dubi Club members,

Club activities won’t be held on November 27, 2016. The next activities will be on December 4, 2016.

We remind you Dubi Club is for 4-6-year-olds.

Club activities usually take place every Sunday from 11:00 A.M. to 2:30 P.M.

For more information, please contact Dubi Club coordinator Margarita Koževatova by telephone: +370 618 00577

Attend Unveiling of Plaque Commemorating 1927 Lithuanian Table Tennis Champions in Kaunas

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Photo of 1927 Lithuanian table tennis champions. Sitting: O.Gurvičaitė, champion in women’s group. Standing from right: I. Šimensas (first place), I. Keperis (second place), B. Podzelneris (director of the table tennis section of Makabi), I. Godas (third place), Ch. Šimensas (fifth place).

A plaque will be unveiled at 2:00 P.M. on Tuesday, November 29, on the western façade of the A. Martinaitis Art School in Kaunas located at Šv. Gertrūdos street no. 33 with the inscription:

“In this building on March 12 and 13, 1927, the first LITHUANIAN TABLE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP took place, organized by the Makabi athletics club.”

Makabi Athletics Club
Lithuanian Table Tennis Association
Kaunas Jewish Community

Children’s Chess Tournament

The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Rositsan Elite Chess and Checkers Club invite you to a children’s chess tournament at 11:00 A.M. on November 26, 2016.

The tournament is dedicated to the memory of former world champion Michailis Talis.

The tournament will take place at the Lithuanian Jewish Community, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius.

Tournament director: Ričardas Fichmanas

For further information and to register, please contact:

info@metbor.lt
+3706 5543556

Professor Sofya Gulyak Discovers Documents about Her Family in Lithuanian Central Archive

Professor Sofya Gulyak of London visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community during her trip to Lithuania to find out more about her family’s roots. Many Jews from around the world are currently looking for their roots in the Lithuanian archives. The documents they are finding reveal interesting family histories.

Sofya learned from the Central Archive her ancestors lived in Panevėžys. She received copies of the passports of her great-grandfather Meier Gelvan, great-grandmother Keila Ringaitė-Gelvan and grandmother Rocha Gelvan from the archives in 2013.

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Litvak Bob Dylan Hedges on Nobel Again

In a seeming about-face, US folk musician Bob Dylan, born Robert Zimmerman to a Litvak mother in Duluth, Minnesota, has now announced he will not attend a ceremony to confer the Nobel prize for literature to him scheduled for December 10 in Stockholm, Sweden.

Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported he had contacted the Nobel committee to say he wasn’t coming.

Initially the committee had been unable to contact him, and dedicated fans had hoped he would decline the prize as inappropriate and an attempt by the increasingly irrelevant Nobel prize group to remain relevant following earlier follies, including awarding US president-elect Barak Obama the peace prize for no reason. Nobel committee members attacked Dylan as rude and even arrogant for not answering their telephone calls.

Now it appears Dylan will accept the prize, just not in person.

The Guardian quoted the late Leonard Cohen, a fellow North-American-born Litvak, who advised Dylan the prize was superfluous: “…Before he died, Dylan’s songwriting peer and friend Leonard Cohen said that no prizes were necessary to recognize the indelible mark records like Highway 61 Revisited had made on popular music. ‘To me,’ he said, ‘[the Nobel] is like pinning a medal on Mount Everest for being the highest mountain.'”

Full story here.

Leonard Cohen, Litvak, Dead at 82

Canadians, Israelis and fans around the world continue to mourn the loss of one of the world’s great songwriters and singers, novelist and poet Leonard Cohen, born in Montreal in 1934 to Litvak mother Masha Klonitsky, daughter of Talmudic writer Rabbi Solomon Klonitsky-Kline, and father Nathan Cohen, whose father came from Lithuania.

Cohen passed away at his home in Los Angeles on the night of November 7, 2016. He was buried in the family plot before his death was announced publicly.

Cohen’s fourteenth and final album, You Want It Darker, was released just two weeks before his death, on October 21, 2016.

The Lithuanian Jewish Community extends our deepest condolences to his family during this time of grief.

Ban on New Places of Worship Upheld in Montreal

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photo: Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish population feels targeted by bylaw, considering court challenge

A bylaw prohibiting new places of worship on one of Outremont’s main streets has been upheld.

Residents voted Sunday in a referendum whether to overturn the ban on Bernard Avenue, a tree-lined strip dotted with restaurants, cafés and residential buildings.

A total of 1,561 residents voted in favor of upholding the controversial bylaw, while 1,202 voted against it.

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International Tolerance Day in Panevėžys

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In 1996 the General Assembly of the United Nations passed resolution 51/95 inviting member-states to observe November 16 as the International Day for Tolerance. The day has been observed in Lithuania for over a decade now. Each year’s commemoration has featured a different symbol. This year it was a bird. More than 700 cultural and educational institutions marked the day. Tolerance birds decorated schools, kindergartens, private educational agencies and daycare centers.

The Šviesa special education center organized Tolerance Day events for November 14 through 16 in Panevėžys, in which the Panevėžys Jewish Community participated. Also participating were representatives from the Panevėžys primary school for the deaf and hearing-disabled and students and teachers from other primary and secondary schools. Sign-language interpreters conveyed speech to deaf members of the audience.

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Charity Christmas Fair

Kalėdų labdaros mugė

The International Women’s Association of Vilnius invited guests to a prayer brunch at the embassy of the United Kingdom Thursday. Here for the fourteenth time an international charity Christmas fair was presented. This year the charity fair’s organizing committee is led by a member of the International Women’s Association of Vilnius, wife of the British consul Ethel Cushing. She said preparations for the fair are a long process demanding a lot of energy and time which takes almost an entire year.

This year the Bagel Shop was invited to participate.

An International Food Fair will also cause a stir at the Old Town Square in Vilnius December 3 with booths representing Turkey, the Czech Republic, India, Ireland, Japan, Israel, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and the International Women’s Association of Vilnius.

Full story in Lithuanian here.
More information in English here.

Vilnius: In Search of the Jerusalem of Lithuania

The Lithuanian Jewish Community this week hosted the launch of the second corrected and expanded edition of Irina Guzenberg and Genrikh Agranovsky’s book in Russian about Jewish Vilna.

The new edition has been reorganized with a new structure and better indices of names and sites.

Author Irina Guzenberg has done exhaustive research to provide authentic street names from the period and the book is graced with attractive period photographs. Much of the history is unknown to modern residents of the Lithuanian capital, which was not very Lithuanian before the 1950s. Before the war one heard Yiddish, Polish and Russian spoken on the street.

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World Union of Jewish Students Nominates LJC Student Union for Awards

The World Union of Jewish Students has nominated the Lithuanian Union of Jewish Students of the Lithuanian Jewish Community for awards in two categories.

Lithuanian Union of Jewish Students director Amit Belaitė is up for one of the awards, and says her friends and colleagues in the Union need to learn more about Jewish life and Jewish traditions. She said Jewish students in Lithuania have been cut off from many Jewish things, including how to celebrate Sabbath, largely because Jewishness was forced into hiding in Lithuania after the Holocaust. She added there is a revival underway in Lithuania, including of Jewish holidays our great-grandparents celebrated, and said now there is a great deal of communication with Litvaks of the same age as Union members living around the world who have not lost their traditions.

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Israel Names First Ambassador to Turkey after 2010

BNS

Israel Tuesday named an ambassador to Turkey for the first time since the two countries agreed to a normalization of relations in June following a downturn in 2010 when Israeli forces stormed a ship of peaceful activists attempting to reach the Gaza Strip.

A government committee officially selected ambassador Eitan Naeh, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon reported.

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