Lithuanian Jewish Community

Finally Telling It Like It Is

by Geoff Vasil

Rūta Vanagaitė presented her new book, Mūsiškiai [Our Own People], about Lithuanian Nazi collaborators, Holocaust complicity, Jewish victims and contemporary attempts to wriggle out of it to a packed room mainly filled with Lithuanian reporters Wednesday morning.

Rūta Vanagaitė (courtesy National Geographic Channel)

The venue was extremely strange: a small cafe called Submarine. Vanagaitė chose the location as the site where the murderous Ypatingasis būrys unit [Special Unit, often called simply Ypatingasis or Ypatingas in Holocaust literature in English] had their headquarters during the Holocaust. Vanagaitė said she would lead the audience up to the second floor after the book presentation to the main offices where Ypatingasis once planned the mass murder of the Jews of the region.

2016-01-26

Estera Klabinaitė Grobman, 95, Survivor of the Kaunas Ghetto and Stutthof Concetration Camp, Remembers Everything

photo by Milda Rūkaitė

Estera Klabinaitė Grobman was born in November of 1920 in Kaunas to a well-to-do Jewish family who lived in their own home on Vaisių street. She had two brothers and there were three generations living under one roof: grandparents, parents and children. Her grandfather often said he was the Golden Miller because he had light hair and owned a mill. The place where the mill stood was called Klabiniai, so the family’s name was Klabinas. Estera says it was close to Širvintos, Lithuania. She calls herself a Kaunas native and her mother and father owned a small bakery in Kaunas. Fresh-baked bread was delivered by horse each morning in covered containers. They baked delicious bread and the business thrived. They delivered to several shops in the city. Estera remembers her grandmother, the daughter of a rabbi who wrote very neatly. She can’t forget that she was never able to equal her grandmother. According to family tradition her father should have been a rabbi as well and he studied for the rabbinate, but as a child he used to secretly read secular books, and he read much, educating himself. Estera inherited her love of books from her father and to the present reads in four languages: Yiddish, Lithuanian, Russian and German. She is interested in everything.

2016-01-262018-04-26

Europe Israel Public Affairs News

EIPA Update

John Kerry smoothed over last year’s diplomatic tensions between Israel and the US over the Iran deal this week by saying of prime minister Netanyahu: “I think he recognized that the fight’s over and we can move on.” His words on CNN were clear evidence that while the US and Israel might have disagreements from time to time, the hatchet can, must and always will be buried for the good of the relationship as a whole.

2016-01-25

Zionist Federation of Great Britain Staging Lobby Day for Israel on February 24th, 2016

Join hundreds of people from across the country who will be attending the ZF and Christian Friends of Israel Annual Lobby Day for Israel 2016. Held on February 24th, the Lobby Day gives Israel advocates the opportunity to meet with their MP and share their support for the Jewish state. During this time of heightened violence, it’s more important than ever to let our elected representatives know they have constituents who support Israel.

For further information, please see:
https://madmimi.com/p/08d037

2016-01-24

International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Choral Synagogue

We invite you to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day at 3:00 P.M. on January 27 at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius at Pylimo street no. 39.

There will be readings of the names of Holocaust victims, brief testimonies of survivors and a prayer for the dead.

January 27 was the date in 1945 when Auschwitz was liberated. On November 1, 2005, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution making January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The resolution condemned Holocaust denial and discrimination and violence based on religion and ethnicity.

2016-01-24

Oldest Man in the World Likely 112-Year-Old Holocaust Survivor

Yisrael Kristal, photo courtesy of family

The old phrase “may you live to 120” is becoming a real possibility for more and more people around the world, and one man, a Holocaust survivor, seems to be having the last laugh.

The Jerusalem Post reported last week the Gerontology Research Group reached out to a grandson of Yisrael Kristal this week following the death of Yasutaro Koide in Japan, who was also 112. According to the organization, Kristal is now the oldest living man on record, although this still has to be validated by his documentation.

He has in his possession his marriage certificate from the 1920s but it is unclear as yet if this will suffice to formally register him as the oldest man in the world.

Kristal was born in 1903 in the town of Zarnov in the Lodz province of what is now Poland to a religious family. His father was a Torah scholar and Kristal himself went to heder, or religious primary school until the age of 11.

Full story here.

2016-01-24

Hundredth Anniversary of Birth of Vladas Varčikas, Rescuer of Jews, Teacher, Violinist

The Kaunas Jewish Community and the Sugihara Foundation “Visas for Life” invited friends who knew Vladas Varčikas and all who wanted to pay their respects to this gigantic figure, a rescuer of Jews, humanitarian, teacher and violinist, to celebrate hsi 100th birthday with a concert in the Grand Hall at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas. The hall was filled to capacity and overflowing despite the frozen weather.

Kaunas Jewish Community member Stasys Makštutis began to tell the story of Varčikas and the story was continued by his grandmother, Elena Andriuškevičienė, who was rescued from the Kaunas ghetto by Varčikas and survived to later become his colleague. Varčikas’s students, students of his students and their children performed music and shared their memories of the man. Actress Kristina Kazakevičiūtė, whose daughter was a student of Varčikas, read out director Kama Ginkas’s recollections of Varčikas, the man who saved him. She also read passages from Reinhard Kaiser’s book about Edwin Geist, whose compositions were rescued for posterity by Varčikas.

2016-01-22

A Special Experience on Gastronomical Tour: Sabbath Dinner in Israel

Sometimes it happens that you fall in love with a country at first sight. You want to go there every year, to discover new places and experiences and new tastes there. That’s what happened to the wife of Lithuanian ambassador to Israel Darius Degutis, the passionate cook Nida Degutienė. After her return from a recent culinary tour of her favorite country, Nida said this kind of tourism provides visitors with the opportunity of entering local homes, experiencing daily life firsthand, sitting down at the same table with hosts and listening to their stories.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2016-01-22

Condolences

With sadness we report the death of Lithuanian Jewish Community member Faina Duškina (July 28,1946–January 18, 2016) on January 18.

The LJC express our deepest regrets to her daughters for the loss of their mother.

2016-01-20

EU Foreign Ministers Agree on Statement on the Israeli-Palestinian Problem

Foreign ministers from the EU states Monday agreed on a statement on the derailed Middle East peace process and Jewish settlements in the occupied territories. Disagreements over the text were hammered out with some member-states calling the original statement too critical of Israel. “We unanimously adopted [the statement], that’s a good and common basis for our shared position and our engagement in the region,” EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini commented after the meeting in Brussels. The Palestinian and Israeli authorities both expressed reserved satisfaction with this diplomatic development by the EU. The text adopted expresses the EU’s deep concern over continuing violence and calls upon both parties in the conflict to take responsibility for their actions. The document expresses the EU’s confidence violence can be avoided through renewed dialogue.

2016-01-20

Explaining the Islamic State Phenomenon

The Islamic State is a terrorist state with almost all governing elements. Over the last four years, it has developed from an extremist fringe and marginal faction to become the strongest, most ferocious, best-funded and -armed militia in the religious and ethnic war which is being waged today in Syria and Iraq.

ISIS rules today over a swath of land bigger than the United Kingdom with a population of almost 10 million. ISIS changed its name to the Islamic State to illustrate that its goals are not limited to Iraq and the countries of the Fertile Crescent.

Since the fall of Muslim empires and supremacy, Muslim scholars and philosophers have tried to understand the reasons behind its collapse. The conclusion of most was that Muslim civilization had drifted away from the teachings of the Koran and adopted foreign and heretical inputs which destroyed its fabric. The remedy they proposed was to return to “pure Islam” and reconstruct Muslim society.

Full article here.

2016-01-20

Poll: 43% of French Jews Interested in Aliya

More than 7,900 French Jews made aliya in 2015, up 10% from the previous year, when the western European nation became the leading source of immigrants here with 7,000 olim.

More than 40 percent of French Jews are interested in making aliya to Israel, according to a new poll released this week. Pollsters at the Institut français d’opinion publique spoke with more than 700 self-declared Jews, asking them about their preferences regarding a range of issues. Among the findings: 43% are thinking, or have thought about, immigration to the Jewish state. Given France’s approximately 700,000 Jews, that means that around 200,000 people are mulling aliya.

Full story here.

2016-01-20

Jewish Leaders in Germany: It’s Not Safe for Us Here Anymore

Hamburg Jewish community representative Daniel Killy says it’s not safe for Jews in Germany and they feel in peril now. There have been more and more expressions of anti-Semitism in the country.

“No, it’s not safe for us here anymore,” Killy told reporters in Hamburg Tuesday. “There is a feeling of the disintegration of government in the German state, right-wing extremism is increasing, the government has lost confidence. People are afraid of Islamization. This entire recent situation has contributed to the insecurity of Jews.” The Hamburg Jewish community consists of about 2,500 people.

Germany has taken in more than one million refugees from Muslim countries. Jewish leaders there have warned of growing anti-Semitism as a result of the influx of people from countries where hatred of Jews and Israel is the status quo. In a comprehensive article on taggeschau.de Patrick Gensing, an expert on extremist ideologies, wrote anti-Semitic sentiments take on a variety of forms in Germany. The author based his piece on surveys conducted on “historical defensive Holocaust guilt” and discussed fanatical criticism of Israel, National Socialist racism and Muslim and Christian anti-Semitism.

2016-01-20

Three-Day Seminar for Teaching Holocaust Opens at Vilna Gaon Museum

The Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum Wednesday kicked off a three-day seminar with speakers from around the world for sharing ideas with Lithuanian teachers teaching the Holocaust.

Museum director Markas Zingeris welcomed the audience and said the Holocaust has become topical in the news media again because of a convergence of events: Islamic fascists carrying out acts of terror on European streets and the response by right-wing extremists to the influx of refugees and others from Middle Eastern countries.

Danius Junevičius, roving ambassador-at-large from the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the history of Lithuanian Jews is inseparable from general Lithuanian history, and the lessons of the Holocaust are needed now more than ever, and that history must not repeat itself.

2016-01-20

Vilna Gaon Museum to Hold Three-Day Holocaust Seminar

To mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum is hosting three days of seminars on the Holocaust featuring a panel of speakers from Lithuania and Western Europe. Speakers are to include Philippe Boukara and Georges Bensoussan from Mémorial de la Shoah, the French co-sponsor of the event with the International Commission for the Assessment of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania from Lithuania.

The seminars are called “The Holocaust, Collaboration and Mass Murder in Lithuania” and will run from January 20 to January 22.

2016-01-19

Events to Mark Holocaust Day in Panevėžys at Noon, January 26

On November 1, 2005, the General Assembly of the United Nations Organization adopted a resolution to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27. Remembering the Holocaust is inseparable from studying the causes of this tragedy which rocked civilization to its core and inseparable from teaching and inculcating tolerance and human respect. Lithuania is a member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and an active participant in international programs to fight anti-Semitism.

The mass murder of Jews began even before the Nazis occupied Lithuania in 1941. Over a few months the majority of the Lithuanian Jewish community were murdered. Survivors were sent as slave labor to the ghettos set up in the cities and towns. The Nazis “liquidated” most of the ghettos after a few short months while the remaining ghettos in Vilnius, Kaunas and Šiauliai operated for another two to three years. The Vilnius ghetto was liquidated on September 23, 1943. Most of the inhabitants were shot to death at Ponar while others were transferred to concentration camps. The Panevėžys ghetto was liquidated on August 15, 1941. Thirteen and a half thousand Jews were shot. More than 200,000 Jews were murdered in Lithuania during World War II, accounting for approximately 95 percent of the Lithuanian Jewish community. There are more than 200 mass murder sites in Lithuania and about the same number of old Jewish cemeteries.

The Jewish community in Lithuania formed near the end of the 14th century. They were a thriving ethnic community in Lithuanian towns and cities by the beginning of the 20th century. In the period between the last half of the 19th and early 20th century, Jews accounted for between a quarter and a half of the population in many cities and towns. They were citizens of Lithuania with their own individual daily cares, worries and joys. Compared to other ethnic communities, the Jewish community was one of the largest in Lithuania.

2016-01-19

Israeli PM Denies US Ambassador’s Allegations as “Unacceptable and Untrue”

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted with anger over the US ambassador’s criticism of Israeli policy vis-à-vis the Palestinians, coming at the height of a Palestinian terror campaign.

The US ambassador to Israel criticized Israeli policy in Judea and Samaria at a high-profile security conference Monday, a rare public rebuke which drew an angry response from prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Ambassador Dan Shapiro said Washington was “concerned and perplexed” over Israel’s strategy of building West Bank settlements. Speaking to the annual conference of the Institute for National Security Studies, a top Israeli think-tank, he claimed Israel’s “continued expansion of settlements” raises questions about Israel’s intentions and its stated commitment to establishing an independent Palestinian state. Shapiro added Israel had also legalized some outposts despite pledges to the United States not to do so.

2016-01-19

Anti-Israel Reporter Loses Case at German Press Council

BERLIN–The Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper falsely claimed tens of thousands of Israelis had fled to Germany because of the policies of the Netanyahu administration, the German Press Council has determined.

The council’s 5-to-1 vote to uphold their initial ruling against the largest broadsheet newspaper in Germany is the latest act in a long-running media dispute playing out with high-powered lawyers and media experts.

The case began in 2014 and the decision was made public in the first week of January. It was obtained by the Jerusalem Post late last week.

2016-01-19

Swedish MEP: Aid to Palestinians Should Depend on Rejecting Terrorism

BRUSSELS (EJP)—EU aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) should be linked to the clear pre-condition of an actual Palestinian renouncement of hate and all kinds of violence, member of European Parliament Lars Adaktusson (EPP, Christian Democrat) said while addressing a multi-party Middle East Peace Process Conference he hosted with the Brussels-based Israel advocacy group EIPA (Europe Israel Public Affairs) last week.

Adaktusson’s comments came as serious strains were showing in the EU-Israel relationship due to the EU’s decision last November to issue guidelines for the labeling of Israeli products from beyond the 1967 Green Line.

2016-01-19

Tel Aviv Terrorist Shot Dead after Hiding for Week in Israeli-Arab Hometown

After an intense, week-long search, security forces eliminated the terrorist who opened fire at innocent civilians in Tel Aviv.

An Arab-Israeli terrorist who killed three people in Tel Aviv on New Year’s Day was slain Friday in a shootout with security forces, following a massive manhunt.

The terrorist, Nashat Milhem, opened fire at a bar on a busy Tel Aviv street on January 1, killing two people and wounding six.

Full story here.

2016-01-19

Israeli President Isaac Herzog Visits Lithuania

On the War in Israel and the Situation in Lithuania