Lithuanian Jewish Community

Lithuanian Prime Minister Thanks Fayerlakh Ensemble

To the Vilnius Cultural Center Jewish song and dance ensemble

Fayerlakh

Dear guardians of ethnic tradition,

There is no doubt the identity of a people resides in the depths of their folklore where a unique world of music beckons to us and symbolic meanings cavort. For many a year now the Fayerlakh ensemble in their concerts have brought lovers of folklore together and have popularized Yiddish culture wonderfully.

Inventive musicians, great singers and expressive dancers have come together nicely under the Fayerlakh flag. And so your concerts are dominated by a sense of beauty and cohesion. Your playful appearances are eagerly awaited by many admirers around the world.

You are probably the only ensemble in Europe who so creatively, cleverly and tightly present your own musical sources and roots.

I sincerely congratulate the entire Fayerlakh collective on the beautiful 45th anniversary of your establishment.

Let your music ring out widely across the nations for many centuries. Celebrate and preserve your foundational values. I wish you great success, creative talent and many happy meetings with the real lovers of folklore on all continents.

Algirdas Butkevičius
March 22, 2016
Vilnius

2016-03-29

A Letter of Thanks to the Fayerlakh Ensemble from the Lithuanian Jewish Community

Celebrating their 45th anniversary, the Jewish song and dance ensemble Fayerlakh provided a real celebration for the people of Vilnius with their performance, and a packed hall of spectators applauded, swayed to the beat and tapped their feet because the musicians enchanted them and warmed everyone’s hearts. The Lithuanian Jewish Community is grateful to and proud of the Vilnius Cultural Center Jewish song and dance ensemble Fayarlakh, whose name is Yiddish for “little flames.”

Let the creative fire of this ensemble led by Larisa Vyšniauskienė continue to burn, reminding everyone of the rich culture of the Litvaks. It is extremely important to our community that the ensemble with Yiddish songs and dances which over many years has achieved a highly professional level has preserved our dear Jewish cultural legacy. Thank you, our thanks to the ensemble and their director, to the wonderful performers, for the program The Shtetl Once Upon a Time, which is now being offered to audiences in Lithuania and abroad. The program is about the small town, or shtetl in Yiddish, where until the Holocaust Jewish people and people of other ethnicities lived together in harmony. The mood of the concert is one of happy songs, dances, music which gives rise to good emotions, nostalgic and exciting, in everyone’s hearts. We appreciate that the ensemble celebrates the Yiddish language and that Jewish works in this language are performed in concert. It fills us with gladness to see all the ensemble’s groups, from children to senior citizens, on stage. Our sincerest gratitude to all of you.

Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community

2016-03-29

Purim at the Gesher Club

The Gesher Club of the Lithuanian Jewish Community celebrated Purim March 25 at the Natali Restaurant in Vilnius. Since carnival costumes are a usual part of Purim, all participants were required to come in costume or at least partially dressed in costumes. LJC program coordinator Žana Skudovičienė took care of those who for one or another reason were unable or did not have time to get ready for the holiday. She let them chose a mask or costume accessory provided by Fayerlakh ensemble director Larisa Vyšniauskienė for the occasion.

2016-03-29

Kaunas Jewish Community Marks 72nd Anniversary of Children’s Aktion

On March 25, 2016, members of the Kaunas Jewish Community marked the 72nd anniversary of the Children’s Aktion (mass murder operation) in the Kaunas ghetto. The operation to kill all the children living in the ghetto and the elderly unfit for use as labor resulted in the murder of about 1,700 people. Children under 12 were torn from their mothers’ arms, thrown in trucks and driven away to be murdered. Other parents came back from forced labor to find their children missing. Tobijas Jafetas has spoken about his own rescue many times before, and this year was joined by Kaunas ghetto inmate Juozas Vocelka.

2016-03-29

Old Prescriptions from the Interwar Period Recall the Kukliansky Pharmacy in Veisiejai

Danutė Selčinskaja, director of the Rescuers and Commemoration Department of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum, has sent us an image of a new item worthy of display at a museum: prescriptions from the Kukliansky Pharmacy which operated in the period between the wars. This pharmacy, the only one in Veisiejai, Lithuania, operated right up until the Holocaust. The pharmacists managed to escape and were rescued by people from Sventijanskas. At the present time there is a Veisiejai Regional History Museum operating in Veisiejai. Museum director Regina Kaveckienė scanned two new items, prescriptions, which were brought to the museum by a relative of an elderly female pharmacist from the town who is no longer alive.

Danutė Selčinskaja sent the regional history museum the Vilna Gaon museum’s mobile exhibit “The Rescued Child Tells the Story…” which she created. This includes a film about the rescue of the Kukliansky family. The regional history museum shows the film to students every year. A young woman from the Kapčiamiestis School Museum who lives with her parents in Sventijanskas said everyone there had already seen the film, which is being passed around as a DVD from person to person, and it has caused a great deal of excitement there. The people understand what happened and recognize the people and places portrayed in the film.

2016-03-29

When Will Our Mayors Take Down Monuments to Holocaust Perpetrators?

Marius Lukošiūnas

More than 25 years ago I spoke on C-SPAN about the pogrom the Soviet troops had prepared after the 1991 putsch before quitting the Lithuanian Television and Radio building.

Live, I explained to Americans our path to independence and showed images and montages of our ravaged television studios. Studio guests and callers were angered by this pogrom.

Just as the show was ending, an elderly woman called and asked why the Lithuanian government was rehabilitating Holocaust perpetrators. I replied I believed that was a mistake which would be corrected. I assured her they would receive neither forgiveness nor honor in independent Lithuania.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2016-03-29

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

Israeli President Isaac Herzog Visits Lithuania

On the War in Israel and the Situation in Lithuania