Lithuanian Jewish Community

Belgium Can’t Deal with Terror Threat, Rabbi Warns

Rabbi Menachem Hadad speaking on Israeli radio said Belgium lacks capacity for fighting terrorism while other Western European states are wrestling with their own growing jihad movements.

The well-known Brussels rabbi said: “The unexpected appearance of terrorists at the airport demonstrates Belgium is unable to deal with terror threats.” He said Belgian government institutions “do not understand security issues.” Rabbi Hadad, the head of the Shomrei Had Orthodox community in Brussels, made a number of observations and criticisms on IDF radio about the current situation and expressed real concern that Belgium lacks the ability to fight terrorism. He said the soldiers sent to guard the synagogue and the city’s Chabad community building following the murder of four Jews at the Jewish Museum in Brussels in 2014 had told him they lacked firearms and ammunition for many months while they supposedly stood guard. “It was just for show. This isn’t realistic,” he said.

Hadad leveled the criticisms after examining reports about the inactivity demonstrated by Belgian government institutions when it comes to security issues. Worse, Belgium earlier received warnings from Turkey about one of the suspected attackers in the March 22 bombings. Belgium’s ministers of the interior and justice attempted to resign Thursday but their request was turned down by the prime minister. There are also a number of odd laws and a constitutional ban on ethnic profiling which exacerbate an already poor situation, he said.

2016-03-29

Businessman with Litvak Roots Has Successful Chain of Restaurants

The first time South African Litvak Robert Brozin came to Lithuania, he was most surprised by the fact it was in color. It sounds funny, one of the creators of the large restaurant chain Nando’s says, but that his first impression of the land of all four of his grandparents because he’d only seen Lithuania in black and white photographs before. When he cam back again for the fifth time in late March, he already had a number of interests going here, both business and representing the Litvak community in South Africa.

“Most Jews in South Africa have roots in Lithuania. There is a total of about 80,000 Jews here and I think about 95 percent have Lithuanian roots. It’s an interesting fact that the Jewish community in South Africa is very tight-knit, and the majority of Jews who have remained living in South Africa marry Jews from the community. My son is also married to a Litvak girl. We still maintain many Litvak traditions in the family and even have dishes from Lithuania…”

Thank You

Thank you to Žana Skudovičienė, Julija Lipšic, Ninelė Skudovičiūtė, Monika Antanaitytė and Olga Masarskaja for the wonderful organization and preparation of the Purim celebration at the Vilnius Choral Synagogue.

S. Levin, chairman
Vilnius Jewish Religious Community

2016-03-29

Lithuanian Jewish Students Union Purim Festival

The Lithuanian Jewish Students Union held a festive Purim celebration Saturday, March 26 in Vilnius.

Purim-goers were asked to dress as their favorite movie star or film character and a contest was held to pick the winning female and male roles. Attendees dressed as the Uma Thurman character from Pulp Fiction, Audrey Hepburn and Superman received prizes donated by Lux Figura.

There was also a quiz involving some brain-teasers, but most of the night was spent in conversation, eating and drinking. Rabbi Samson Isaacson attended the event as well. It was supported by the Embassy of Israel, the Goodwill Fund and the Mirameda medical clinic.

2016-03-29

Lithuanian Conservative/Christian Democratic Party Member on Trial for Anti-Semitic Remarks

The news website sekunde.lt reports Raimundas Pankevičius, leader of the Panevėžys faction of Political Prisoners and Exiles and a member of the Lithuanian Conservatives/Christian Democratic Party, has gone on trial for anti-Semitic remarks made during a meeting of the Panevėžys city council. The right-wing politician is accused of public statements to the effect Jews shot Jews during World War II in Lithuania.

As a member of the city council, Pankevičius is alleged during deliberations on the erection of a monument to commemorate the Joint Distribution Committee’s work there in September of 2014 of having denied Nazi crimes against the Jewish people by saying Lithuanian Holocaust victims killed each other and that the Jewish police in the ghettos in Lithuania sent thousands of their fellow Jews to their deaths in a single day.

That meeting of the city council apparently adopted unanimously a decision to erect a stele to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Joint. Pankevičius, however, also said he didn’t see any evidence of the Joint’s work and suspected elements of fraud in the story. He said Jewish SS shot 5,000 Jews in southwestern Lithuania in one day during World War II.

2016-03-28

Jewish American Brother and Sister Murdered in Brussels Bombings

A brother and sister resident in New York were among those murdered in the bombings at Zaventem Airport in Brussels March 22.

Sascha and Alexander Pinczowski had only just arrived at the airport when two bombs went off at passenger check-in areas near the front entrance Tuesday killing 11 and wounding over a hundred more. The siblings were confirmed as among the dead that Friday.

“We received confirmation this morning from Belgian authorities and the Dutch embassy of the positive identification of the remains of Alexander and Sascha,” James Cain, former U.S. ambassador to Denmark and a spokesman for the family, said in a statement. “We are grateful to have closure on this tragic situation, and are thankful for the loving support, thoughts and prayers from all.”

2016-03-28

Condolences

Aron Kac, member of the LJC Social Center, died March 22. He was born on January 29, 1935. The community mourns his passing and sends their deepest condolences to his family members.

2016-03-25

“Anti-Israel Circus” Announces Boycott of Settlements

UN Council on Human Rights Meeting
Photo: Press office of the UNHRC

March 24, 2016–The UN Human Rights Council has begun compiling a black list of Israeli and international companies operating in the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria.

The Council decision stated that the list would be comprised of firms which maintain business relations with Jewish settlements. It said the list would be updated annually.

This statement by the UN Human Rights Council received an angry reaction in Jerusalem. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the organization had long ago become an anti-Israel circus which constantly attacks the only democracy in the Middle East while ignoring human rights violations in Syria, Iran and North Korea.

2016-03-25

UN Selects Anti-Israel Canadian Law Professor to Report on Palestinian Territories

by Josh Jackman
March 23, 2016

Michael Lynk, who has compared Israeli settlements to “the transfer by the Nazis of German-speaking peoples into newly conquered lands during the Second World War,” will be appointed the United Nations’ special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, the Jewish Chronicle has revealed.

The Canadian, who teaches law at Western University in Ontario, has also said he hopes to “isolate Israel.”

Western University law professor
Michael Lynk. Photo courtesy of
University of Western Ontario.

He will be named tomorrow by UN Human Rights Council president Choi Kyonglim, ahead of the UNHRC Consultative Group’s first choice, Penny Green.

In a letter sent to member states ahead of the announcement, the president stated that he had chosen Mr. Lynk based on his “expertise; experience in the field of the mandate; independence; impartiality; personal integrity; and objectivity.”

2016-03-24

Large Demonstration in Geneva in Support of Israel

March 21, 2016–A demonstration in support of Israel was held in front of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. It was attended by representatives of a Christian lobby in support of Israel, StandWithUs, the World Jewish student organization, the European Jewish student organization, the World Zionist Organization and hundreds of citizens from around the world who support Israel, according cursorinfo.co.il.

Yair Lapid, leader of the party Yesh Atid and the organizer of the demonstration, said the protest was directed against “anti-Israel decisions made by the UN Human Rights Council.” He added that in recent years, the organization has become a “rights for terrorists council.”

The demonstration was timed to coincide with the opening of the current session of the Council with six new anti-Israel resolutions on its agenda. Over the past ten years, the organization has approved at least 60 such resolutions, while the total number of decisions relating to other countries is only 55, protestors said.

2016-03-24

Purim at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius

There was a celebration of the Purim holiday at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius March 24, which was also proclaimed a day of mourning in Lithuania to pay honors to the dead in the bombings in Brussels. Everyone observed a moment of silence for the victims at the synagogue.

Lithuanian Jewish Religious Community chairman Simas Levinas presented holiday greetings to the assembled and spoke about the meaning of Purim: Haman’s attempt to kill all the Jews. “History has seen more than one Haman, who sought to destroy the Jewish people. Stalin, Hitler and now ISIS, but no one has succeeded,” Levinas said.

Rabbi Samson Daniel Isaacson also gave holiday greetings and said Purim is a unique holiday which is about getting drunk, which seems strange, since this is considered a bad thing among Jews. “Only during Purim is it remembered that salvation comes from affliction. After all, getting drunk was suggested so that no one would be able to tell the difference between Haman and Mordecai. And it so happens that way often in life, when you think one thing, but it happens another way. Purim sameach!”

Fayerlakh ensemble musicians Miša Filipov Jablonskis and Leonardas Zinkevič performed a rousing set of Purim songs for young and old.

LJC deputy chairwoman Maša Grodnik said she was glad that things were finally getting back to normal at the synagogue and that the holiday was being celebrated with a rabbi, which for a long time was missing from the community. “Today the tragic events in Brussels remind us that Israel is setting an example for Europe on how to protect society,” Grodnik commented.

Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon recalled how he looked forward to Purim as a child, and that it always began to rain when Purim came around. “Today in Vilnius on Purim the sun was shining, and we are celebrating the liberation of the Jews. The victory of the Jews of Lithuania that they can celebrate in their own synagogue,” the Israeli ambassador remarked.

More snapshots from the event here.

2016-03-24

Psychologist Explains Why Lithuanians Can’t Mourn Holocaust Victims

The Vilnius Jewish Public Library hosted a roundtable discussion called “The Psychological Problem of Integrating the Holocaust into the Collective Memory of the People of Lithuania” March 22.

“In childhood we ran around there, no one said even a single word about synagogues or where they were. They evaporated, and all of a sudden you realize that, as in the world of Harry Potter, something exists in parallel, but you don’t know what it is. It’s as if that world hadn’t existed, and there’s no one you can ask about it,” psychoanalyst Tomas Kajokas said. Dr. Kajokas says people don’t understand Jews are part of our society. The question of identification is extremely important, but, according to classical psychoanalysis, it can only be formed when you have lost and understand what it is you have lost. If you have nothing to lose, then in effect you cannot identify with those who have.

“Currently we are unable to identify with Jews exactly for this reason, that we don’t really comprehend the scale of loss,” Kajokas offered. He said Lithuanians will only be able to deal with the topic of the Holocaust when they are able to accept honestly their Soviet past.

Article in Lithuanian here.

Stay tuned to lzb.lt for fuller coverage of this discussion.

2016-03-24

David Harris on Brussels

March 23, 2016

On Monday evening, March 21, I arrived in Brussels from London where there had been news reports of possible multiple terrorist attacks.

It was quiet in Europe’s capital as we proceeded to our hotel just a stone’s throw from the heart of the European Union’s key institutions. The following day together with my Brussels-based AJC colleagues we were scheduled to meet with three EU commissioners, two of whom deal with terrorism and extremism, as well as Belgium’s interior minister, responsible for internal security and domestic safety.

Those meetings never took place. On Tuesday morning, March 22, I went to the nearby park for some exercise. Just after 8 A.M. it became filled with the sirens of police and other emergency vehicles as well as military trucks all racing in one direction. It was clear this wasn’t a fire or low-level crime. The activity continued, indeed intensified.

2016-03-23

New Issue of Bagel Shop Newsletter

An English translation of the new issue of the Bagel Shop newsletter is now available.

Please click BK_16_1_ENG_A4_screen for a PDF version.

2016-03-23

German Activist Visits Kaunas Jewish Community to Talk about Karl Jäger

A German man named Jürgen Dettling, described on facebook as the initiator of various social projects and public education programs, visited the Kaunas Jewish Community recently. He said he is currently involved in a project concerning Karl Jäger, the author of the infamous Jäger Report and mass murderer of Lithuanian Jews. He took photographs of mass murder sites in Lithuania and spoke with Holocaust survivors. He said he is planning a return trip in April and hopes to interview survivors for a film about the mass murderer. Jäger was commander of the SD Einsatzkommando 3a in Kaunas during World War II, which included command over the Rollkommando Hamann mobile death squad. He was captured after the war and hung himself in jail in 1959.

2016-03-23

Purim in Panevėžys

The Panevėžys Jewish Community kicked off their Purim celebrations in the events hall of the Panevėžys Community Center March 20. Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman greeted a large party of guests from Vilnius, Ukmergė, Šiauliai and Panevežys and read an excerpt from Magilat Ester.

Artūras Taicas, deputy chairman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and chairman of the Ukmergė Jewish Community, greeted guests as well and passed on the good wishes of LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky. Panevėžys city deputy mayor Petras Luomanas and city council member Alfonsas Petrauskas also gave wonderful addresses.

pan6purim

2016-03-23

Kaunas Jewish Community Purim Celebration

The Kaunas Jewish Community sends its Purim greetings to everyone and invites you to attend their combined Purim and Sabbath celebration on Friday, March 25.

2016-03-23

Rabbi Isaacson Speaks at Screening of Film “Kaddish”

The film club of the Lithuanian Jewish Student Union screened the film “Kaddish” on March 10, an event during which the public was able to meet one of Lithuania’s newest rabbis, Rabbi Samson Daniel Isaacson. Before the film started, Rabbi Isaacson gave a short talk welcoming the audience and telling about the film made by a friend of his. Kaddish is the story of Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef Zilber, born in Russia in 1917 (died 2003, a Russian, later Israeli Haredi rabbi and a leader of the Russian baal teshuva movement, author of several books, Russian Israeli religious authority). Zilber studied Judaism privately, at home, because his father Ben-Tzion Haim Zilber (originally Tsiyuni) refused to allow him to attend ant-religious Soviet schools.

At the age of 15 he began to teach Judaism in his hometown of Kazan, although it was illegal under Soviet law to do so. After a life filled with hardship, oppression by the Soviets and incarceration in the gulag, he and his family were finally allowed to leave the USSR for Israel in 1972, where he continued to teach, practice traditions and attract a large group of young people.

Discussion followed the screening of the film as audience members asked the rabbi questions and he responded. The several dozen members of the audience and the rabbi were treated to snacks and tea after the discussion, allowing people to get to know the rabbi better in a somewhat informal setting.

2016-03-23

Bagel Shop Café Purim Holiday Schedule

The kosher Bagel Shop Café of the Lithuanian Jewish Community is in full gear getting ready for the Purim holiday. There are several new pastry items the chefs there have cooked up, including the “red velvet” pastry taking the Jewish culinary internet by storm. Their special hamantashen recipe passed down through the generations uses yeast as well.

Senior chef Riva Portnaja says her family calls hamantashen “omentashen,” and that her mother always put yeast in the dough. According to her, Litvak hamantashen only contain poppy-seed fillings, and the triangular pastry is made so that is almost closed.

2016-03-23

Extra Day Off

LJC staff will get an additional day off on Thursday, March 24 for the Purim holiday. The community building will remain open as usual so if you need to come in to work for organizing events or other matters, you will be able to do so. Staff are also invited to attend the Purim celebration at the synagogue beginning at 6:00 P.M. Thursday.

2016-03-23

Israeli President Isaac Herzog Visits Lithuania

On the War in Israel and the Situation in Lithuania