The Lithuanian newspaper and internet news site Lietuvos Žinios [Lithuanian News] has covered the exhibition of video art by the Israeli Chen Tamir at the National Art Gallery in Vilnius. They report she spoke about economic liberalization in the 1980s and 90s and about the portrayal of conflict and militarization in Israeli video media.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community is looking to hire an automobile driver. Candidates should hold a B category license, have at least 2 years experience as a chaffeur, have a basic command of English and Russian and have a sense of duty, professionalism and responsibility. Light maintenance will also be required as well as some heavy lifting. Priority given members of organizations under the LJC umbrella. For more information, contact rokas@lzb.lt or call 865209915.
Thirty road signs have gone up in the area around Šeduva, Lithuania with star of David designs to show the way to the different sites which are part of the Lost Shtetl project by the Šeduva Jewish Memorial Foundation, including a renovated Jewish cemetery and monuments at three mass grave sites. This has never been done before in Lithuania.
“We’re glad we were able to set a precedent without any complications at all, so that now people who don’t understand Lithuania will understand how to reach the sites connected with Lithuanian Jewish history by following the signs,” Sergejus Kanovičius, founder of the Šeduva Jewish Memorial Foundation and head of the Lost Shtetl project, said.
Kanovičius said he hopes this simple decision will soon spread throughout Lithuania. At the end of 2018 the foundation plans to open its Lost Shtetl museum next to old Jewish cemetery in Šeduva.
For more information, see www.lostshtetl.com
Full article in Lithuanian here.
by Gintarė Vasiliauskaitė
The Rakija Klezmer Orkestar is a band of five young men playing Gypsy music, music from the Balkans and Litvak klezmer. Klezmer is a genre of secular Jewish music which almost disappeared from Lithuania after World War II. Currently the young men are travelling around Lithuania looking for people who lived through the war who might be able to help in some way resurrect authentic Litvak klezmer. Here is an interview with the accordion player and creative leader of the band, Darius Bagdonavičius. He talks about touring and the difficulties encountered by the group trying to play music on the edge of vanishing, as well as plans for the future.
Full interview in Lithuanian here.
Molėtai regional administration head Stasys Žvinys invited deputy Lithuanian foreign minister Mantvydas Bekešius and Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky to a meeting June 10, during which they discussed protection of Jewish heritage and the renovation and upkeep of the old Jewish cemetery in Molėtai and Holocaust mass graves by the regional administration. They also spoke about the need to present rescuers of Jews, increased public sensitivity to Jewish issues and the organization of a March of Memory scheduled for August 29 in the town.
After the meeting the guests inspected the old Jewish cemetery and mass grave sites in the municipality of Molėtai.
“We are responding to the United Nations resolution calling for protection of the memory of Holocaust victims and it’s very important to us that these locations–the old Jewish cemetery, the mass grave sites–be solemn and be appropriately cared for. We have also contributed and will continue to contribute to holding the March of Memory in August to remember the death march in Molėtai seventy-five years ago, because it is very important to us that it take place smoothly in our city,” regional administrator Žvinys commented after the meeting.
Over the entirety of Lithuania’s 25 years of independence the Lithuanian Jewish Community hasn’t had the opportunity to share our thoughts publicly during the marking of the Day of Mourning and Hope at the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania. Seventy-five years have passed since the beginning of the mass deportations of Lithuanian citizens. For the Jewish people, who suffered prophetic exile from the times of the Assyrians, Babylonians and Romans, the experience of exile could be considered part of our historical identity. Seventy-five years ago about one precent of the Lithuanian Jewish community at that time were deported, and as a percentage represent the largest group to be deported from Lithuania. State repression did not put an end to Jewish identity: Zionist organizations operated underground, there was a Hebrew educational system, and all sorts of measures were employed to enable members of the Jewish community to leave for Palestine.
According to Jewish historiography, during the deportations of June, 1941, alone about 3,000 Jews were deported, including Jewish activists from the left and right side of the political spectrum and owners of large industrial enterprises and factories, with about 7,000 people being deported in total during the first year of Soviet rule. On the eve of the first Soviet occupation the majority of Lithuanian Jews were involved in different cultural, social and political organizations and associations. The tradition of Zionism, however, has always been especially strong in the Lithuanian Jewish community; in Lithuania between the two world wars members of the Jewish conservative cultural orientation were the most active and influential, and spoke out for the creation of an independent Jewish nation-state in Palestine. In this regard the confrontation with the Soviet system was especially vivid.
Solomon Atamuk reports there 16 Jewish daily newspapers, 30 weeklies and 13 non-periodical publications as well as 20 collections of literature being published in Lithuania before World War II. After the June 14, 1940 ultimatum to Lithuania and the consequent occupation the Jewish community soon experienced social and cultural repression. All newspapers, belong both to organizations on the Jewish political left and the right, were shut down. Even the Folksblat newspaper, popular with Communists and issued by the Jewish People’s Party, was closed.
by Violeta Davoliūtė
Seventy-five years after the deportations from Lithuania on June 14, 1941, it’s important to remember they were multiethnic, and that deportees included Lithuanian Jews. Jewish families also appeared on the lists of “socially unreliable elements” and “class enemies” and, with children and infants, were stuffed into the same livestock cars. Most men were immediately separated from their families and sent to camps, while mothers and children were forced to endure a long and torturous journey to Russia’s northern wastes. Many died of hunger and suffering. This chapter in the history of the Jews of Lithuania is still little known by the public today. Yes, there is a study or two, statistics, lists, but, unfortunately, the perception still dominates that Lithuania’s Jews suffered only in the Holocaust, and the myth that all Jews supported the Soviet regime lives on, while society believes the deportations of 1941 are an exclusively ethnically Lithuanian historical experience. If you ask a high school student or even a professional working in higher education to name even one Lithuanian Jew deported by the Soviets, chances are many could not.
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the mass deportations of Lithuanian citizens which began on June 14, 1941. The Russian regime then began by rounding up intellectuals, members of the educated elite, wealthy businessmen and well-to-do farmers, sending them deep into the interior of Russia. In total about 132,000 people were deported, and 28,000 people died in exile.
Jakovas Mendelevskij lived as a child in Ukmergė in an affluent and happy family. He was 9 that early morning of June 14, 1941, when the knock came at the door and the family was ordered to get ready to be deported. Many Jews were deported in Ukmergė that morning. They were taken by truck to Jonava, summarily separated from his father, and he, his mother and brother were loaded onto train cars like livestock and carried off. His father was arrested and tried, and received a sentence of 10 years in one of Stalin’s camps under article 58 of Soviet law. He was taken to a camp in the Krasnoyarsk region.
Fira Bramson-Alpernienė
December 18,1924-June 12, 2016
Estera Bramson-Alpernienė, whom everyone knew as Fira, has died. With her dies a bit of Litvak history. She belonged to a world of 20th century Jewish personalities, looming figures such as that of Shimon Dubnov, Max Weinreich and Tsemakh Shabad. She came from the famous Bramson family whose members have played a key role in Lithuanian Jewish and European Jewish life. The Bramsons were a center of gravity to Jewish intellectuals in Kaunas before the war. Fira was educated at the Sholem Aleichem Gymnasium with Yiddish as the language of instruction. For Fira family and school were holy, although her school life didn’t last long.
In 1941, before she could graduate from high school, the war forced her to bid a hasty farewell to family, to leave her only sister, to flee from the Nazi terror. Fira didn’t come back to Kaunas after the war because there was no one waiting for her there. Her entire family was at the Ninth Fort. She started a new life in Vilnius. In the late 1980s there was a movement in Vilnius to revive the Lithuanian Jewish Community. Fira was among the founders of that movement. Finally she could come back to her Yiddish roots and cultural hearth so important and crucial to her spiritual life. Some of her most important work since that time has been with Jewish books at the former Palace of Books, and with that collection now removed to the Lithuanian National Library. Her pride and joy became these surviving books, along with a small number of books from the private collections and libraries from before the war belonging to survivors of the Holocaust. Fira was one of the first conservators of this heritage and presented the legacy she protected to the Jewish community, but also to the wider audience in Lithuania and the world. She held exhibits and lectures, facilitated cooperation with academics and students and helped make use of this priceless inheritance. She wrote about what she achieved in her work of many years in the book “Prie judaikos lobių” [“Next to the Treasures of Judaica”].
Fira Bramson could be called the white knight of Yiddish culture. This woman, slight of build, fragile, driven and principled, fought for the protection and preservation of cultural treasures. Not only did she fight, she won. Even in difficult circumstances she never relented because she saw her life as a mission to safeguard that Yiddish culture so dear to her parents and ancestors, and to pass on memories of that culture to future generations. When she spoke at conferences and seminars, when she was part of educational programs in Lithuania, Europe and the USA, Fira would first speak not of herself, but about the founders of Yiddish culture. The grief of losing Fira Bramson is somewhat mitigated by the realization she lived a long, interesting and productive life and generously shared with others her love of Jewish culture. She was of keen intellect, a person with a warm heart whom, if you ever met her, you will never be able to forget. Let our vivid memory of her live on.
A wake will be held at the Nutrūkusi Styga funeral home Tuesday from 10:00 A.M. The coffin will be carried out at 3:45 P.M.
Professor François Guesnet, a reader at the Hebrew and Jewish Studies Faculty at University College London currently visiting at the History Faculty of Vilnius University, granted Nijolė Bulotaitė, a writer for VU’s news page, a long interview. Dr. Guesnet is also the secretary of the European Association for Jewish Studies. Excerpts translated from Lithuanian appear below.
What is the most interesting or most inspiring thing to you?
That’s a good question. We were just talking with a doctoral student about how some topics become very boring as the years go by and become stale. Partisan politics, let’s say, isn’t very sexy. Right now I’m most interested in the human body and the history of medicine, because it’s very interesting to explore who people understand themselves and their bodies. I also research the functioning of the Jewish communities in Eastern Europe. I was born in Germany, my mother is German, my father French; I grew up in a very European family and studied the history of Eastern Europe. I know Polish and Russian. Both languages were very important for me and Russian helped especially in researching archival material. I know Hebrew and Yiddish, otherwise it would be impossible to study the history of Eastern European Jews, at least a basic knowledge is required. My dissertation concerns the 19th century when the majority of official documents were in Russian.
Vilnius, June 9, BNS–The Lithuanian Office of Prosecutor General reports they can’t open investigations in line with a request by the Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of the Residents of Lithuania into Holocaust crimes allegedly committed by people named in a list handed over to them because none of the people on the list of 2,039 are still alive, the 15min.lt news site reported.
“The information possessed is insufficient to begin a pre-trial investigation. After becoming acquainted with the list, it is stated that these people are no longer alive, and therefore criminal prosecution is impossible,” Elena Martinonienė, head of the communications department of the Lithuanian Office of Prosecutor General, said.
Dear friends of the Tolerance Center,
As Romania takes over the presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, the Romanian embassy in Vilnius and the Tolerance Center of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum will present the film Gruber’s Journey (Calatoria lui Gruber, Romania, 2008) to the public at a free screening at 6:00 P.M., June 15, 2016, at the Tolerance Center, Naugarduko street no. 10/2, Vilnius.
The film centers around the pogrom in the city of Iasi in Bessarabia (Moldova) from June 27 to 29, 1941. Film in Romanian with Lithuanian and English subtitles.
Invitation here.
photo: scene at the Sarona complex following the shootings there June 8. Judah Ari Gross/Times of Israel
Vilnius, June 9, BNS–Lithuania condemned the attack carried out in Tel Aviv Wednesday and vowed to continue supporting the battle against terrorism. “We express our solidarity with the Government of the state of Israel, and vow to continue supporting all efforts by the international community in the fight against terrorism,” a statement by the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry said. The statement also expressed deep condolences and support for the families of the victims and all the people of Israel.
Wednesday two Palestinians opened fire at a popular Tel Aviv shopping center near Israeli Army headquarters, killing four in the bloodiest such attack in the most recent wave of violence. Another five were injured. Police reported one of the attackers was apprehended and the other was in hospital with gunshot wounds.
Lithuanian Jewish Community youth activities coordinator Pavel Guliakov has provided a report on youth activities for the month of May as most children in Lithuania have finished school and are busy enjoying the first weeks of summer vacation.
The Ilan Club is closing for summer and getting ready for summer camps, but had three activities in May. On the 15th children and parents visited a fire station, got to try out firefighting equipment, learned about how firefighters live and had an informative outing. On May 22 the kids learned about the Israeli military and the life of Israeli soldiers at the Lithuanian Jewish Community. On May 29 the club had an end-of-season closing event called Jewish social networks where counselors presented an interesting activity involving social media and mobile telephones, which most of the children already use regularly and enthusiastically.
You’re invited to attend the opening of the exhibit of works by students in the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s art class with Raimondas Savickas at 6:00 P.M., June 16, 2016, on the third floor of the LJC at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius.
Police on Thursday released the names of the four Israelis murdered in a gruesome terrorist shooting in central Tel Aviv Wednesday night.
The victims were: Ido Ben Ari, 42, from Ramat Gan; Ilana Nave, 39, from Tel Aviv; Michael Fayge, 58, from Ramat Gan; and Mila Mishaev, 32, from Ashkelon.
The coordinated terrorist assault on Tel Aviv’s Sarona Market Wednesday evening was one of the deadliest attacks in the city since Palestinian violence erupted last October.
Klaidas Navickas, a recognized master who works in the medium of cut paper, is holding an exhibit of his works called Jewish Cut-Outs at Gallery A at the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University library, Saulėtekio alley no. 14, Vilnius, running from June 7 to August 26.
The Šnekutis bar popular with tourists and locals alike is hosting a night of African dance music at their Užupis location Saturday evening, June 11. The address is Polocko street no. 7a, Vilnius, and the first selections of recorded music from around Africa are scheduled to go out around 6:00 P.M. Entrance is free to the public. According to a statement by Šnekutis representatives, the evening is intended to celebrate cultural diversity and the music will include Coupé-Decalé, Ethiopian jazz, Afrobeat, Afrofunk and Highlife, among others. The DJs for the AFRICANISM@Šnekutis event are Dovilė Abro from Lithuania and Rees Archibald from Australia.
A delegation from World Jewish Congress Israel visited the Lithuanian Jewish Community. The delegation included WJC Israel chairman Shai Hermesh (former MK), member of the board of directors J. Moshe Leshem, foreign relations council director Dr. Laurence Weinbaum, Knesset Christian Allies Caucus chairman MK Robert Ilatov, MK Yakov Margi, KCAC director Josh Reinstein and WJC Israel director general Sam Grundwerg. WJC Israel visits national capitals annually to meet with members of national parliaments and Christian community leaders to establish contacts and discuss shared problems, set up Israeli support groups and increase understanding of Jewish problems. This sort of support is especially sought by Israel now, when the Jewish state is increasingly facing isolation in the international arena and especially in the EU. Last year delegations visited Russia, Poland, Latvia and Estonia.
On June 1 the delegation visited the Lithuanian Jewish Community, met LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky and were greeted with a musical welcome of Jewish song and dance provided by the Fayerlakh ensemble, which warmed everyone’s hearts and facilitated better communication. Former MK, current vice president of the WJC and leader of WJC Israel Shai Hermesh shared with everyone heartwarming news he received on the trip to Lithuania.
When we talk about the situation regarding the human rights of LGBT people in the country, we often forget that are lives are not exclusively the challenges we face daily. Our lives are also stories which need to be heard.
The national LGBT rights organization LGL invites you to take part in a Baltic Pride 2016 event, scheduled to run from 7:00 P.M. to 9:00 P.M. on June 16 at the Russian Drama Theater in Vilnius. Well known LGBT advocates from around the world and human rights activists will share their personal experiences, stories and encounters in the struggle for LGBT equal rights.
The theatrical Pride Voices event will feature personal stories shared by Johanna Sigurdardottir (former Icelandic PM) and her wife, journalist and playwright Jónína Leósdóttir, as well as Ulrike Lunacek (deputy speaker of the European Parliament) Matthew Shepard’s parents Judy Shepard and Dennis Shepard and Ugandan LGBT activist Dennis Wamala.
