Lithuanian prime minister Algirdas Butkevičius and first deputy chancellor of the Government Rimantas Vaitkus have met with members of the American Jewish Committee. In the meeting, Lithuania’s efforts to restore historical justice and preserve the Jewish cultural heritage in the country were underlined, close cooperation between the Government and the Lithuanian as well as international Jewish communities was noted, and opinions and insights into international developments were shared.

“Members of the Committee, thank you for your visit in Lithuania at this significant period for our country, with the approaching commemoration of the events of January 13 and the 25th anniversary of statehood. At present we pay tribute to those killed for independence, the heroes of our country”, Butkevičius said.

Photo by Robertas Dačkus, courtesy Lithuanian President’s Office

President Dalia Grybauskaitė met Tuesday with leaders of the American Jewish Committee–one of the largest and most influential NGOs in the United States which has always supported the freedom of Lithuania.

During the meeting, AJC leaders gave the president a copy of a letter written to then-president George Bush in 1991, calling for not delaying recognition of independent Lithuania and the other Baltic countries. This organization also supported Lithuania’s aspiration to become a NATO member.

Today the American Jewish Committee focuses on energy security and contributes to forming U.S. energy policies. Therefore the meeting discussed Lithuania’s experience in securing energy independence and key challenges to European energy. The President stressed that exports of U.S. energy resources to Europe were important to ensure competition in the EU market, reduce Gazprom’s influence on European countries and prevent Russian energy blackmail.

Today a delegation from the American Jewish Committee arrived in Lithuania. The AJC is a well-known global organization supporting and defending Jews with offices in the USA and around the world which works in partnership with Jewish communities in Europe and elsewhere. AJC activities are dedicated to the welfare of the Jewish people and the defense of human rights and democratic values. Twenty-five years ago when Lithuania again became independent the AJC lent their support to the activities of Lithuanian Jews and continues to support the Lithuanian Jewish Community and to make sure our rights are respected. The purpose of the delegation’s visit is to meet Lithuanian leaders and discuss geopolitical shifts of mutual concern, the effect of Russian military actions in Ukraine on the region and Eastern Europe as a whole. Discussions are also planned on bilateral relations between Lithuania and the State of Israel and Lithuania and the USA, the activities of the Goodwill Fund, issues of importance to the LJC and the LJC’s relations with the AJC.

“The AJC strove to contribute to the process of restitution of Lithuanian Jewish property, and this served Lithuania’s reputation in the world, it was beneficial not just to Jews but to Lithuania as a democratic state respecting human rights,” LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said. “Many other important changes are connected with restitution. Many different social and cultural projects are being carried out currently in connection with the Jewish community, Holocaust history and the present. A number of Lithuania’s political issues are being solved with the AJC which operates actively in post-Communist states supporting Jews in the fight against anti-Semitism and the rights of Jews around the globe.”

Following Lithuanian restitution for lost Jewish property, a public organization called “The Goodwill Fund for Disbursing Compensation for Property of Jewish Religious Communities” was formed. It was established at the end of 2011 after the law on compensation was adopted on the initiative of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania. This fund was created by the Lithuanian Jewish Heritage Fund in cooperation with the Lithuanian Jewish Community and the World Jewish Restitution Organization. Under the law by the year 2023 the Lithuanian state budget is to pay out 128 million litas to the Fund in compensation which is to be used to finance Lithuanian Jewish religious, cultural, health-care, athletic, educational and academic projects in Lithuania. Information about the Fund’s activities is public.

The resolution accused Israel of restricting Palestinian academic activities in Gaza and the West Bank.

NEW YORK–The American Jewish Committee praised the American Historical Association for rejecting a resolution against Israel Sunday.

The resolution accused Israel of restricting Palestinian academic activities in Gaza and the West Bank and was rejected by a vote of 111 to 50 at the AHA’s 130th annual meeting in Atlanta.

Members of France’s Jewish community wave Israeli and French flags at a ceremony outside the Hyper Cacher supermarket in Paris a year after four Jewish shoppers were killed in a terror attack at the store on January 9, 2015. (photo: Flash 90/Serge Attal)

Members of France’s Jewish community wave Israeli and French flags at a ceremony outside the Hyper Cacher supermarket in Paris a year after four Jewish shoppers were killed in a terror attack at the store on January 9, 2015. (photo: Flash 90/Serge Attal)

(JTA)–The prime minister of France, speaking at a ceremony to remember four Jewish victims of terror at a kosher supermarket in Paris, said he regrets that large numbers of his country’s Jews have left for Israel.

“France would not be France” without its Jews, Manuel Valls said Saturday evening at a commemoration held outside the Hyper Cacher supermarket on the first anniversary of the hostage siege there by an Islamist who was killed by police.

H&M is at it again–they’ve made a women’s scarf that looks remarkably like a tallit, a Jewish prayer shawl mainly worn by men.

Fashion website Racked reported that the fast-fashion retailer is currently hawking a beige scarf with black stripes on its website for $17.99. “H&M even incorporated its own version of tzitzit, the knotted fringe you’ll find on every tallit,” the story noted. The Stockholm-based chain also has a matching fringed poncho for $34.99.

This isn’t H&M’s first foray into prayer-shawl chic. In 2011, they issued a similarly-styled women’s poncho. (Three years later, the brand was accused of anti-Semitism when it issued a tank top with a skull superimposed atop a Star of David.) H&M is not the only major fashion retailer to wade into Jewish (or anti-Semitic) territory. In the summer of 2014 the Spanish chain Zara sold a children’s striped “sheriff” T-shirt which looked very similar to a concentration-camp uniform, complete with a six-pointed yellow star on the left breast. During the ensuing social media storm the brand apologized and pulled the item from stores.

Full story here.

AMSTERDAM (JTA)–Ukrainian-Jewish billionaire Igor Kolomoisky sued Russia in an international court over his inability to operate an airport in Crimea.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration, a Hague-based intergovernmental organization with 117 member states, announced Wednesday that it would review the lawsuit, Reuters reported.

Kolomoisky, a Ukrainian nationalist who funded military actions in the Ukraine-Russia conflict, and Aeroport Belbek sued the Russian Federation for compensation over what they say is their exclusion from operating a commercial passenger terminal at Sevastopol International Airport.

Full story here.

Public activities by the Israeli embassy opened in Lithuania last year have been noticeable. Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon said they hadn’t just settled in, they’d begun specific projects to bring the people of the two countries closer. In a special interview on the 15min.lt website by Paulius Gritėnas, the ambassador talked about plans to set up a modern museum of Jewish culture in Vilnius, bilateral projects and his impressions of Lithuania.

“I think I won’t make a mistake in saying during the last year you were one of the most noticeable ambassadors on the Lithuanian scene. You organized a basketball tournament, a bicycling event, an exhibit, appearances by Israel artists and traveled all over Lithuania and spoke with people. What goals which you listed at the beginning of 2015 have you been able to achieve?”

“It will probably surprise you, but the most important goal which was achieved was clarity on my mission. As I told you last year, this is a continuing process, but it’s more clear to me now what I should focus on. When I arrived in Lithuania a year ago I couldn’t say what the specific goals were. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t given tasks, as diplomats are, but after last year I realized my most important mission was to forge contacts between people. One of the first things I did when I became ambassador was to go to Ponar with the staff. Not because someone told me to, but because I wanted to.”

Full interview in Lithuanian here.

(JTA)–Russia must pay $35,000 to a Jewish activist from Moscow who was imprisoned for demonstrating against the government, the European Court of Human Rights ordered.

Tuesday’s ruling by the court in Strasbourg, France, relates to the 2012 arrest of Evgeny Frumkin, 53, an organizer of many rallies critical of the government of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Frumkin, a founder of Russia’s pro-democracy movement during the last days of Communism, was arrested at a Moscow square during riots which erupted during a demonstration the day before Putin was inaugurated as president in May of that year. He was sentenced to 15 days of administrative arrest for disobeying police orders.

Mark Rylance, center.

The New York Jewish magazine the Jewish Voice is reporting director Steven Spielberg is using back channels to try to influence the jury at the Golden Globe awards.

The magazine cited unnamed sources in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and “Page Six” who were allegedly given intelligence the famous director had obtained a list of the jurists and was attempting to “influence” them to vote for Mark Rylance for best supporting actor. Rylance was the star of Spielberg’s recently released film Bridge of Spies, which recounts behind-the-scenes horse dealing to secure the return of U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers, shot down over Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) and taken prisoner in the USSR on May 1, 1960. Mark Rylance played Rudolf Abel, the Soviet spy exchanged for Powers.

Jewish Voice quoted unnamed sources within the Associated Press as saying “He got their home numbers. He’s schmoozing them, like, ‘Hey, how’s it going.’ It’s the best Christmas gift they ever had.”

Story here.

VILNIUS, January 4, BNS–The Lithuanian state last year started paying more attention to the preservation of Jewish heritage and cemeteries, says Faina Kukliansky, head of the Jewish community in Lithuania.

“The state of Lithuania has started paying more attention to preservation of Jewish heritage and cemeteries. With no more Jews left in smaller towns across the country, old synagogues are being handed over to local towns and cities for cultural needs under loans for use,” Kukliansky said in a comment published Monday.

She also noted work started in Vilnius and New York to digitalize the unique archives of the YIVO Jewish research institute which operated in Vilnius before World War II on the life of Jews in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust.