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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Shabbat Project Poised to Break New Records in 1000 Cities

The international Shabbat Project involves more than a million Jews in 84 countries

Tel Aviv is epicenter of global Shabbat initiative in Israel.

shabbat-project
Shabbat Project participants baking challah together in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The number of cities expected to join in this week’s annual global Shabbat is approaching 1,000, and organizers expect it to surpass that number.

This is the third year of the Shabbat Project since it launched in 2014, and the number of participants has grown exponentially from year to year, with an estimated one million having taken part last year in 919 cities and 84 countries across the globe.

This year, 57 new cities have committed to take part, from Lodz in Poland, to Hoorn in the Netherlands, Alphaville in Brazil and Hollywood, USA.

The tag line of this year’s Shabbat Project is “Shabbat can do that.”

“In 2014 and again in 2015, through the transformative power of Shabbat, we’ve seen individuals and communities accomplish great things; things that before were not thought possible,” explains the brains behind the initiative, South Africa’s Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein. “We’ve seen walls torn down, families rejuvenated, deep feelings awakened, deep friendships formed. This is what Shabbat can do,” he adds.

Full story here.

Three Braids, Three Challas, Three Generations

fa-chala-project

The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites you to participate in the international Shabbos project!

We’re inviting all Community members to come bake challa and celebrate the Sabbath together on November 10 in Vilnius!

Jewish communities around the world will be baking traditional challa bread on November 10. This fun project has been going on for three years and includes Jewish communities in 65 countries. This is the first time the Lithuanian Jewish Community is participating. We’re inviting all regional communities, families, mothers and daughters to gather together and bake challa together in their own communities. Grandmothers, mothers, granddaughters, we’re hoping you will all come knead challa together at one table!

Registration is required because space is limited. goo.gl/fEmzp4

Program:

6:00 P.M. We activate the yeast and knead the dough

6:30 P.M. The story of the Sabbath

7:00 P.M. We braid the challa

7:30 P.M. We bake the challa

More information available here.

Jewish Headstones Removed from Vilnius Hospital Steps


photos: Saulius Žiūra

Information from the Vilnius municipality

Fewer and fewer examples of the barbarousness of the Soviet government remain in Vilnius. Locations where fragments of Jewish headstones are found are being put in order. Recently one such site was found in Antakalnis, where pieces of Jewish grave monuments were discovered in the stairs to the main entrance of the Vilnius Clinical Hospital. This week the Jewish headstones used as steps are being removed and taken to a location dedicated to honoring them, the old Jewish cemetery on Olandų street.

ismontuoja

Full story in Lithuanian here.

A Mehaye Winter Camp 2016!

Dear parents, please register now for your children to attend the annual A Mehaye winter camp, organized every winter by the Lithuanian Jewish Community with the financial support of the Joint Distribution Committee. Children and youngsters aged 7 to 17 are invited to come, have fun, make new friends, see old ones and learn while they’re at it! The camp is scheduled for December 24 to 30.

To register, or for more information, please contact:

soniakaplan@mail.ru
telephone +37067257540

Talking about the Holocaust

by Jūratė Juškaitė
manoteises.lt

The figure of the Jew remained even after the Holocaust in Lithuania, at Užgavėnės [Shrovetide carnival figure] and in libels concerning the blood of Christian children and matzo bread. These sorts of stories not only remind us how much daily anti-Semitism exists and is even enjoyed among us, but also forces us to think about an uncomfortable matter: who are these people whom we cannot forget, and where are they?

One of them is Amit Belaitė, the director of the Union of Lithuanian Jewish Students. It seems if not for the Holocaust our conversation might have been very simple, without long pauses and deep feelings of guilt. But after decades of silence, questions such as what happened to ‘your’ people, how did they survive, how did the Holocaust inform your experience, seem to erupt from within like a torrent.

Full interview in Lithuanian here.

Romantic Fantasies Concert

German-Israeli pianist Dina Yoffe and German-Israeli violinist Michael Vaiman will perform a concert called Romantic Fantasies at 7:00 P.M., November 8, at the Vaidila Theater, Jakšto street no. 9, Vilnius. The concert will include works by Brahms, Liszt, Ravel and others.

Condolences

The Lithuanian Jewish Community extend our deepest condolences to Rachilė Kostanian in this hour of shared grief as we mourn the loss of her beloved husband, Henrik Kostanian.

Lithuanian Radio and Television Continues Shtetl Series with Trip to Šeduva

LRT

lrtradijas

Following the 9:00 A.M. news Tuesday, November 8, Lithuanian National Radio and Television continued their series about Lithuanian shtetls with a trip to Šeduva, which had a thriving and colorful multicultural, multi-linguistic life before the Holocaust, which wiped the town clean of its Jews and left very few material monuments to their former existence there.

How should we commemorate the Jews of Šeduva today? What were their lives like? How did they contribute to the foundation of an independent Lithuanian state? Vita Ličytė attempts to answer these and other questions in the fourth episode in the on-going series.

Klaidas Navickas Paper Cutout Exhibition

Klaido Navicko karpinių paroda

An event to open an exhibition of Klaidas Navickas’s paper cutout works will be held at the LJC on the third floor at 6:00 P.M. on November 17.

Klaidas Navickas was born in Raseiniai, Lithuania, on November 30, 1962. He currently lives in Grigiškės and is an attorney and public servant. He began cutting paper into art in 1988. He has been a member of the Union of Lithuanian Folk Artists since 1991. In 2005 he was recognized as a working artist and in 2009 as a master of traditional arts and crafts. He has held personal exhibits of his paper cutouts at Expo 2005 in Japan; Linz, Austria; Expo 2010 in China; Gdansk and Warsaw; Philadelphia; Mogilev Podolsky, Ukraine; Moscow and St. Petersburg and Minsk. He has done over ten exhibitions of his work in Lithuania. A permanent exhibit has been on display in his workshop in Vilnius since 2003. He has published two catalogs of his cutouts.

karp-300x296

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New Holocaust Memorial at Seventh Fort in Kaunas

Kaune atidengtas ženklas Holokausto aukoms

Kauno.diena.lt

A new Holocaust memorial was unveiled a the Seventh Fort in Kaunas. About 3,000 people were murdered at the Seventh Fort in July, 1941. Human remains were discovered at the largely abandoned site several years ago. The remains were turned over to the Kaunas municipality but have now been reburied at the mass grave site.

The Star of David stone monument appears to be springing up from the earth. It was made by Alfonsas Vaura. The sculpture is accompanied by three lights which come on at night. The project was financed by the Kaunas municipality.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Long Awaited Changes Come to Sugihara House

Sugihara House

Long-awaited renovation work has finally begun at the museum set up at the house and office of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara in Kaunas, Lithuania. So far renovation is going on inside the house. The façade also requires repair, but there are reports there are problems in financing all the repairs needed at this point in time.

The second floor of Sugihara House is currently being refurbished and all exhibits have been placed on the ground floor temporarily. The ground floor houses the diplomat’s office. When the second floor is finished, there will be more exhibit space drawing even more visitors from Japan, Lithuania and around the world fascinated by this man who rescued so many Jews from the Holocaust.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Beata Nicholson and Rafailas Karpis Talk about Jewish Lithuania

B. Nicholson ir R. Karpis atskleis, kokia yra žydiškoji Lietuva

“Empty, boarded up, gone, pulled up the roots,” these are the words opera soloist Rafailas Karpis used to describe extant Jewish synagogues in Lithuania following a trip he made through northern Lithuania with Beata Nicholson, a noted Lithuanian journalist and television personality who produces a cooking show called “Keliauk ir ragauk. Lietuva” [Travel and Taste: Lithuania]. Karpis said the wooden synagogues of Lithuania used as store houses or sports gyms during the Soviet era are still being used as such in many locations. But not at the synagogue complex in Joniškis, rebuilt at the initiative of the local communities, where Beata and Rafailas will spend most of their time during the upcoming episode.

Full article in Lithuanian here.

Charges of Inciting Hatred on Facebook to Go to Trial

The accusation the Klaipėda resident known only by the initials V. L. engaged in incitement to hatred based on ethnicity, sexual preference, group affiliation and personal convictions or beliefs on his facebook page will be the subject of a trial. The Klaipėda District Prosecutor’s Office has completed an investigation into the local man’s alleged posting of a translation from a Russian text intended to promote Jewish stereotypes and has passed the case on to the court. He allegedly posted two comments to his own post in which he insulted Jews, homosexuals and Lithuanian politicians.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Alytus Synagogue under Renovation

Tvarkoma XIX a. siekianti Alytaus sinagoga

Currently the roof and internal support skeleton of the synagogue located at Kauno street no. 9 in Alytus are being repaired. When repairs are complete a lightning rod is to be installed as well.

“We’re so glad to have the opportunity to renovate this brick-and-mortar synagogue still standing from the end of the 19th century, testifying to the high cultural and economic achievement of the Alytus community. Let’s not forget the synagogue after it was rebuilt in the early 20th century following a fire became one of the dominant features on the Alytus skyline. Its rich interior decoration also survives, including authentic multicolor decorations in the main prayer hall. The most important task now is to stabilize the building, to fix up the roof which had holes. After emergency repairs are made, water will no longer erode the bricks and mortar and the synagogue will be safe, and later more work will be done,” Cultural Heritage Department director Diana Varnaitė said.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Forty Holocaust Perps to Be Named

info from BNS

Birutė Burauskaitė, director of the controversial state-sponsored Center for the Study of the Resistance and Genocide of Residents of Lithuania, says the names of about 40 Holocaust perpetrators will be released in a book to appear at the end of this year.

She said Arkadijus Vinokuras collected all the material for the book, including testimonies from relatives of Holocaust perps, and that she would write a review of it together with the Center’s Research Department director Arūnas Bubnys and several other of what she called the Center’s experts.

The book will only include people convicted in or determined by a court to have participated in the Holocaust and the names will be provided in a special list of surnames at the end of the book, she said. This is of the more than 2,000 names the Center was asked to release last year.

Happy 70th!

Happy birthday, Davidas Kocas!

Happy 70th birthday to Davidas Kocas! On November 6 he’ll turn 70.

Davidas is an important part of the team and as a member of the executive board of the Vilnius Religious Community he monitors Jewish cemeteries and organizes clean-up activities. A hearty HAPPY BIRTHDAY from the entire Lithuanian Jewish Community!

We wish you great health and that everything you undertake would be successful! That the people you love would be happy! That your home would always be open to friends! That you would never lack strength! That you will always be happy in all things!

Mazl tov!

Book about Kupiškis Jewish Community

Author Aušra Jonušytė with Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon. Photo: Rasa Pakalkienė (LŽ)

Most of the Jewish communities in Lithuanian towns and villages were annihilated during World War II. The town of Kupiškis was no different. People of this ethnicity were murdered, but not removed from memory. This is demonstrated in the book “Kupiškio žydų bendruomenė. Praeities ir dabarties sąsajos” [The Kupiškis Jewish Community: Connections between Past and Present] presented at the Vilnius Jewish Public Library. The event by the Vilnius Jewish Public Library and the Kupiškis Ethnographic Museum launched the book by Aušra Jonušytė. She told the audience she considered with how to combine regional history work and student-teacher activities, and how to present the material in a way appropriate for children when she compiled the book.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Global Momentum Builds for Holocaust Restitution

The World Jewish Restitution Organization sent the following letter addressed to Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky:

Dear Faina,

We are writing to update you on two very positive news developments in our efforts to build global support for Holocaust restitution.

European Parliament

For the first time in history, the president of the European Parliament declared strong support for Holocaust restitution and related issues affecting survivors, following WJRO efforts in the European Union.

President Martin Schulz in a letter to the chair of the European Alliance for Holocaust Survivors (EAHS) fully endorsed the return of property and possessions unjustly taken from Jewish communities and victims during the Holocaust.

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It’s His Secret

yona
by Yona Bartal

Shimon Peres insisted everyone hold a dialogue with tomorrow, to stare at the future in its eyes. he spoke of values, of morals. now, we must continue in his vision.

Today, a whole month after his passing, I look back on twenty-one years of non-stop round-the-clock work in Israel and the world in which I followed him, attempting to achieve his big steps and dive into his global ideas. I try to take my sack of immense personal feelings, tie them up with a big bow and for a minute to place them on a shelf. I sit myself in front of a historical mirror and try an explain to myself the phenomenon named Shimon Peres – from an up-close and intense acquaintance. I look at the huge pile of condolence letters from across the globe, I still feel the warm embrace of Clinton, Obama, president of France, French philosopher Bernard Henry Levi, the young Trudeau from Canada and numerous other leaders that came, stood silently and wept on Peres’s passing with us.

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Great Aktion Remembered in Kaunas

The 75th anniversary of the Great Aktion, the day on which almost 10,000 Jews were murdered at the Ninth Fort, was marked in Kaunas on October 30.

In 1941 more than 9,200 Jews in the Kaunas ghetto were murdered at the Ninth Fort, including 4,273 children.

The remembrance ceremony was held at the field at the Ninth Fort where the mass murder was perpetrated.

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