Lithuanian Jewish Community

Oldest Jewish Community in South Africa Looks Back over 175 Years

The oldest Jewish congregation in South Africa, Cape Town’s Gardens Shul, celebrated its 175th anniversary recently. The community was established in 1841. The initial service was held in the house of Benjamin Norden and under the leadership of Joel Rabbinowitz the first synagogue in South Africa, the Gardens Shul, was erected in 1862. Philip Krawitz, a recipient of the prestigious Yakir award from Keren Hayesod-United Israel Appeal in Jerusalem and called “the unofficial mayor of the Jewish community in Cape Town,” in other words, the Cape Town Jewish Community chairman, spoke at the birthday celebrations.

Address by Philip Krawitz
Gardens Synagogue 175th Anniversary Celebration
March 31, 2016

The Role of Jewish Business in South Africa: “A Light unto Nations”

Cast your mind back a few years… You leave your Sea Point Apartment designed by Dennis Fabian and built by the Berman Brothers. You hop into your Toyota bought from the Sanks. You pop into Pick ‘n Pay (founded by Raymond Ackerman) for some groceries. You’re off to Artscape to watch a matinee starring Aviva Pelham in La Traviata. Thereafter you’re off to the Spur (don’t tell the Rabbi!) created by Allen Ambor. (By the way, they now serve kosher burgers.) Tomorrow you’ll visit the V&A where you’ll find an outfit for your granddaughter from Jonni Katz’s Earthchild. Perhaps you’ll even get a chance to get a new down jacket from Cape Union Mart, sneakers from Barry Selby’s “The Athletes Foot” or a suit from Arie Fabian’s Fabiani. And if you’re feeling peckish, you grab a cappuccino from Ian Halfon’s Balducci. Charge it all to Kantor & Koseff’s Investec Card. Fortunately your Liberty Life Pension cheque (thanks to Donny Gordon) will more than cover your expenses. Indeed you could be forgiven for believing that the whole world is Jewish!

2016-04-212017-03-07

Lithuanian Palestinian Activist Gabrielė Tervidytė Arrested in Israel

Tervidytė third from right.

Lithuanian activist Gabrielė Tervidytė has been arrested in the Israeli capital Tel Aviv. 15min.lt published her “Diary from the West Bank” about life in the Palestinian territories and her work with children living in refugee camps. The Lithuanian woman was charged with endangering Israel’s national security and is to be deported.

The arrest was made Wednesday at Ben-Gurion International Airport.

The Lithuanian woman had travelled to Israel to stay with friends living there and was detained during a routine check by officials. After questioning she was deemed to pose a threat to the national security of the state of Israel.

“Nobody has made those charges more specific. As I understand it, this is the concept of vigilance, which is applied to everyone in similar circumstances,” Tervidytė’s mother Gabrielė said Thursday.

2016-04-21

Litvak Won’t Give Grandchildren Pancake Recipe

As kosher cafés open around Vilnius and it’s possible to eat kosher food and bagels, Lithuanians are rediscovering Jewish culture with an emphasis on cuisine. That pleases the chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, attorney Faina Kukliansky, 61.

Jewish cuisine has always been popular in Lithuania. And it’s no wonder, since many Jews have lived in our country from ancient times, the Lifestyle Section of the Lietuvos rytas newspaper writes.

Some dishes which everyone thinks are traditional Lithuania are actually borrowings from Jews.

One such is potato pancakes, called latkes in Jewish cuisine. Kugel is also of Jewish origin.

Many are shocked to discover that even zeppelins, of which we are so proud, are also somewhat connected with Jews. They travelled to our country about 100 to 150 years ago from northern Germany together with Jews.

Read the entire article in Lithuanian here.
img class=”alignnone wp-image-9629″ src=”http://www.lzb.lt/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/lr.png” alt=”lr” width=”83″ height=”26″ />

2016-04-21

Lithuanian Request to Germany: Return or Help Us Find Property Nazis Stole from Jews

Almost 75 years have passed since Hitler began Operation Barbarossa. These were long and exhausting years for Lithuania and the world. But now, when the consciousness of the peoples has cleared, there are ever greater efforts to repair the losses and persecutions experienced under the Nazis.

…Emanuelis Zingeris says he’s resolved to achieve the discovery and return of Jewish property looted by the Nazis to heirs and communities. The politician says he has already grabbed the end of the thread which should lead to a location for discovering that property.

2016-04-21

American Virtuosi Concert in Vilnius

Don’t miss your chance to experience the American Virtuosi and Jerusalem of Lithuania performing live at the Vilnius Choral Synagogue Thursday, April 21 at 5:00 P.M.! The address is Pylimo street no. 39 and the concert is free and open to the public.

Some photos of their visit at the Lithuanian Jewish Community are available here.

2016-04-21

Bridges Connecting People

Lithuanian newspaper Kauno diena reports that Wednesday a photo exhibition illustrating Pope Francis’s visit to Israel opened at the Old Town Hall in Kaunas. The exhibit has travelled around Lithuania for a year now and attracts keen interest, although Pope Francis’s visit to Israel was 2 years ago now, the newspaper reports.

“The exhibit talks about building bridges, which is what the Pope calls joining together people of separate religions and separate cultures. The Pope invites us to build these bridges, to meet one another, to talk, to get to know each other. That which connects leads to that which is good,” the newspaper quoted Kaunas archbishop Lionginas Virbalas.

The word “pontiff” comes from the Latin pontifex, “builder of bridges,” and was used to designate the high priest, pontifex maximus, in pagan Rome. Pope Benedict XVI introduced it as his twitter handle, @Pontifex, which remains the papal twitter address following his retirement.

For the full story about the exhibition in Kaunas in Lithuanian, see here.

2016-04-21

Kaunas Jewish Community Members Getting Ready for Passover

More photos here.

2016-04-19

Traces of the Jews of Alsėdžiai

Rūta Jurkaitienė, senior librarian, Alsėdžiai Town Library, Plungė region, 2016

Let’s get to know Alsėdžiai, one of the oldest towns in Lithuania with a deep historical legacy

PDF in Lithuanian:

Traces of the Jews of Alsėdžiai

2016-04-19

Presentation of “Zakhor! Imaginations of the Former Jewish Vilne in Modern Lithuanian Art” Catalog

A ceremony to mark the launch of the catalog of the mobile exhibit “Zakhor! Imaginations of the Former Jewish Vilne in Modern Lithuanian Art” was held at the Lithuanian Jewish Community was held last Thursday. Snapshots from the event are available here.

2016-04-19

Katerina and Benediktas Bagdanavičius: Last Hope of the Jews of Darbėnai

Bagdonavciai
by Romualdas Beniušis

I recently discovered the case-file of the deportation of the Bagdanavičius family in the archives. It is a unique document from the Soviet period testifying to the will and sacrifice of the family during the Nazi occupation of 1941 to 1944 in rescuing completely innocent people of the small town of Darbėnai from genocide, and to the bitter lot of the deportees later.

Who were they, Katerina and Benediktas Bagdanavičius, the quiet heroes of the village of Būtingė who without regard to danger to them and their family reached out a helping hand to people condemned to death simply for having been born Jews?

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2016-04-19

Pope Visit to Israel Photo Exhibit Goes to Kaunas

An exhibition of photographs documenting Pope Francis’s visit to Israel in 2014 will be placed on display for public viewing in Kaunas at the Old Town Hall there on Wednesday, April 20. The exhibit contains 20 photographs illustrating Pope Francis’s visit and meetings in Israel. An opening ceremony for the exhibit is planned for 4:00 P.M. on April 20 to be attended by Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas, Israel’s ambassador to Lithuania Amir Maimon, Kaunas archbishop Lionginas Virbalas and Kaunas mayor Visvaldas Matijošaitis.

Francis’s visit in 2014 came 50 years after Pope Paul VI’s historic visit.

The mobile exhibit was the result of an initiative by the Israeli embassy in Lithuania and has been show around the country in large and small towns. The Kaunas showing is scheduled to end in mid-May.

2016-04-19

Kaunas Jewish Community Celebrates 125th Anniversary of Birth of Daniel Dolski

The Kaunas Jewish Community is celebrating the 125th anniversary of the birth of Daniel Dolski in Vilnius. Dolski was a pioneer of the Lithuanian stage. Highly educated and extremely charming, he debuted on the Russian stage, moved to Western Europe after the October Revolution and settled in Kaunas in late 1929, becoming a pioneer on the popular Lithuanian musical stage. He was one of the first to perform popular songs in the Lithuanian language, having learned it over the course of a half year upon his return.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2016-04-19

Israeli Ambassador Hails Lithuanian Makabi and Maccabiah Games Medal Winners

Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Amir Maimon and the Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club held a reception April 14 to celebrate victories by Lithuanian Makabi athletes at the World Maccabiah Games held in Israel and the European Maccabi Games.

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky attended along with Lithuanian Olympic Committee leaders and Sholem Aleichem Gymnasium principal Miša Jakobas, members of the board of the Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club, 25 Maccabiah medal winners, reporters and others.

The Israeli ambassador greeted the assembly and a film was shown about the first Maccabiada in Israel in 1932 and the last European Maccabi Games in 2015.

Chairwoman Kukliansky in her speech noted the major role the Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club has played in Lithuanian Jewish life and the contributions made by long-time Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club president Semionas Finkelšteinas.

2016-04-19

Condolences

The Lithuanian Jewish Community notes with deepest sadness the death of Judelis Ronderis, an active member of the Kaunas Jewish Community, a World War II veteran, an enthusiastic supporter of Jewish culture and the man who began the search for Lithuanian citizens who rescued Jews from the Holocaust, who concerned himself with their welfare and with their commemoration. Our deepest condolences to his daughter Lėja, his family, his grandchildren, his long-time caregiver Stefanija Ancevičienė and to the many who knew and loved him.

2016-04-18

Litvaks Didn’t Suffer Enough to Deserve Lithuanian Citizenship?

by Grant Gochin

Lithuanian officials state that Jews were not oppressed in Lithuania:

In an astonishing display regarding the ignorance of rampant anti-Semitism in inter-war Lithuania, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius stated that there was “no violence, repressions or anything like that at the time”, against Jews in Lithuania during the period 1918 – 1939. Based on this assumption, Lithuania intends to deny citizenship applications for descendants of Lithuanian Jews. The belief that Jews did not suffer enough, in Interwar Lithuania, to warrant citizenship is simply preposterous.

http://www.baltictimes.com/litvaks_continually_rejected_restoration_of_lithuanian_citizenship/

At the beginning of the 20th Century, Jews represented about 14% of Lithuania’s population. In May 1915, the Czarist regime deported and exiled approximately 100,000 Lithuanian Jews to the Russian interior. After the war ended, Lithuanian Jews, who had lived in Lithuania for centuries and often constituted half of the population of many towns, were promised that the new independent Lithuanian state would be tolerant to minorities. Jews provided considerable political support for Lithuania in international forums and enlisted into the Lithuanian army to defend their country’s independence. A great many war medals were awarded to these soldiers for their extraordinary bravery and many lost their lives fighting for Lithuanian independence. In return for their contributions, the government granted full autonomy to the Jewish community and created a Cabinet-level Ministry for Jewish Affairs. Unfortunately, these promises were not kept; in 1923 funding for this Ministry was withdrawn, and in 1924 the Ministry was abolished. Sadly, the Ministry had served little purpose, because in 1923 the Lithuanian Government reportedly rounded up and expelled Jews whom they considered to be “alien”.

2016-04-18

US Report Faults Lithuania for Treatment of Children, Discrimination of Minorities

VILNIUS, April 16, BNS–Lithuania has so far been finding it difficult to ensure children’s rights and fight discrimination of minorities, the United States Department of State said in an annual report on the global human rights situation.

“The most serious human rights problems related to aspects of the justice system, children’s welfare, and intolerance toward minorities,” reads the document published earlier this week.

According to the report, conditions were substandard in a number of prison and detention facilities, and lengthy pretrial detention continued to be a problem.

“Children experienced abuse, both in families and in institutions, where they continued to be placed despite risks to their health and increased exposure to delinquency, trafficking, and prostitution,” the US Department of State said.

Intolerance was manifested in the form of xenophobia, anti-Semitism, prejudice against ethnic minorities and against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons (LGBTI), said the document.

According to the report, Roma in particular experienced poor living conditions often in areas of high crime, and faced social exclusion and discrimination.

2016-04-18

Lesson about Passover with Rabbi Samson Isaacson

The Student Union of the LJC invites you to attend a lecture by Rabbi Samson Isaacson about Passover this Sunday at 4:45 P.M. at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius.

We will conduct our own kind of exodus from a room decorated with Egyptian motids immediately following (ExitRoom.lt).

A good time is guaranteed.

Registration required. Send your full name to LUJSINFO@gmail.com

or see:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1065169300210620/

The Student Union is also holding a “youth seder” at 8:45 P.M. on April 23 at the kosher Rishon restaurant. Entrance is 5 euros.

Event program:

Havdalah ceremony with Rabbi Samson Isaacson;
delicious dinner with the tradition four cups of wine;
hunt for/theft of the afikoman;
reading of the haggadah and much more!

Space is limited so please register by April 20.

http://apklausa.lt/f/pesach-sederis-xkebhyc/answers/new.fullpage

For more information contact:
lujsinfo@gmail.com
869227326

2016-04-16

ISIS Destroy Ancient Gate to Biblical City of Nineveh

The Gate of God, also known as the Mashqi Gate, was one of a number of grand gates which guarded the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh. Referenced in the Bible (Genesis 10:10, 2 Kings 19:36, Isaiah 37:37-38, Nahum, Zephaniah 2:13-15, Book of Jonah, as well as in the Christian Book of Tobit and the Gospels of Matthew and Luke in the New Testament), the settlement of the site which eventually became Nineveh dates back to about 6000 BC and in the 6th century BC it was the largest city in the world. Nineveh was central to the first book of the prophets, namely, Jonah, who was sent by God to make the Ninevites repent. The Book of Jonah describes the city as an “exceedingly great city of three days journey in breadth” whose population at that time was “more than 120,000.” On July 24, 2014, ISIS destroyed the tomb of Jonah in Ninveeh as part of a campaign to destroy idolatry, although Jonah has an entire chapter named after him in the Koran.

A source at the British Institute for the Study of Iraq confirmed the gate had been attacked.

The Antiquities Department in Baghdad didn’t deny the attack had happened, according to a source who also said there were unconfirmed reports the group was dismantling part of the walls of Nineveh to sell the stone blocks to antiquities collectors. There were also unconfirmed reports the Gate of God was being dismantled for sale rather than being completely destroyed.

2016-04-15

Undisputed Islands in the Stream

Europe Israel Public Affairs reports on Egypt’s decision to cede two islands in the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia. Since Saudi Arabia doesn’t recognize Israel, Israel was earlier considering how to respond to the move in light of the peace treaty with Egypt which bans blocking the Red Sea to Israeli shipping:

“Islands in the stream, that is what we are, no one in between, how can we be wrong? Sail away with me, to another world. And we rely on each other, ah ha…”

We can’t imagine any of our readers ever thought they would see a Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers lyric in a pro-Israel advocacy group newsletter, but stranger things have happened.

And this week, something related to islands and relying on each other took place amongst the most unlikely triumvirate of powers in the Middle-East: Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel.

Israel gave its blessing on Tuesday to Egypt’s return of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, and defense minister Moshe Yaalon said that Riyadh had undertaken to respect relevant positions in the Israeli-Egyptian peace deal.

The islands of Tiran and Sanafir, located at the southern entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba, will be formally demarcated as lying in Saudi waters under a treaty announced Saturday by Cairo, which has had de facto control over them since 1950.

In 1967 Egypt blocked the Strait of Tiran, a move that prompted Israel to launch a Middle East war. In its 1979 peace deal with Israel, Egypt pledged promised to respect freedom of shipping in Aqaba and Eilat, a commitment Saudi Arabia says it will uphold when it takes over the islands.

Eilat is Israel’s only port in the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea, while Aqaba is Jordan’s sole outlet there.

Let’s be clear. This seemingly innocuous agreement is actually a gigantic leap forward in diplomatic relations between actors whose mutual enmity towards each other is well known and well documented. It’s a sign of a thawing of relationships and an acceptance that jaw jaw is in fact much more preferable. Also, it is a clear signal that Egypt and the Saudi Kingdom are happy to work with Israel in a strategic alliance against Iran. And that readers is something worth singing about.

For more, see:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/israel-signals-no-opposition-egypts-return-islands-saudi-102847812.html
http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/199748/egypt-gifts-saudi-arabia-two-strategic-islands-in-the-red-sea-informs-israel
http://eipa.eu.com/publicaffairs/

2016-04-15

Kaunas Jewish Community Working with City Maintenance Department

Gercas Žakas, chairman of the Kaunas Jewish Community and deputy chairman of the Lithuanian Jewish Religious Community, has met with the directors of the Cemetery Maintenance agency of the Kaunas municipality and the heads of the city’s maintenance department, during which they discussed Jewish cemeteries in Kaunas and maintenance and burial issues. The Jewish cemetery on H. ir O. Minkovskių street is at capacity and they confirmed the location for a new cemetery site. Žakas said he was satisfied by the productive meeting and was glad there had been such timely solutions to Jewish heritage and Jewish cemetery issues recently.

2016-04-15

Israeli President Isaac Herzog Visits Lithuania

On the War in Israel and the Situation in Lithuania