As Jewish New year approaches, to take place September 14 and 15 this year, it’s traditional to visit the graves of relatives. The tragic events of World War II, the Holocaust, means that there is usually more than one mass Jewish grave in every Lithuanian city and town. On September 3 members of the Kaunas Jewish Community visited mass murder sites in Petrašiūnai and at teh Seventh Fort, where Jews were murdered in August of 1941.

On August 30, 1941, 23 children, 72 women and 30 men were murdered at Petrašiūnai because they were Jews. More than 4,000 Jews were murdered at the Seventh Fort and on August 18, 1941, alone more than 500 Jewish intellectuals imprisoned in the Kaunas ghetto were murdered in an attempt to kill the elite and most educated first.

A conference organized by the Congregation of the Sisters of the Apparition of God was held August 30, 2015, in Panevėžys, Lithuania. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky gave the welcome speech and presented the organizers with a certificate of gratitude and flowers. The chairwoman spoke warmly of those who rescued Jews during the Holocaust and underlined the role played by Marija Rusteikaitė, who officially rescued 15 Jews during the war and also saved several others by sending to other people. For her heroism, the state of Israel awarded Marija Rusteikaitė the medal and certificate of Righteous Gentile posthumously.

Danutė Selčinskaja, the director of the department of Rescue and Commemoration of Jews at the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum in Vilnius, delivered a paper devoted to Marija Rusteikaitė. One of those Marija Rusteikaitė rescued was in the audience, Sulamita Lev, who in turn spoke about the hardships and history of her family. Danutė Selčinskaja also presented a museum exhibit panel with photographs and material on the history of Sulamita Lev’s rescue, and commented on details contained in the exhibit.

On August 7, 2015, members of the Panevėžys City Jewish Community visited the Riga ghetto. The Riga ghetto was established in October of 1941 by order of Nazi politician Hugo Wittrock. They placed the ghetto in the most Jewish neighborhood of Riga called the Moscow Suburb by locals. All Riga Jews living outside the territory were ordered to leave their homes immediately and move into the ghetto, 9,000 square meters surrounded by fences.

About 30,000 Jews in total were forced to live under atrocious conditions in the Riga ghetto. Approximately 12 people had to share a room with five beds.

A ghetto prisoner gave the group from Panevėžys a short tour of the ghetto during which he recounted how they murdered Riga ghetto Jews continuously from November of 1941 till June of 1944. On November 28, 1941, the Nazis ordered the men separated from the women, including children.

Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Amir Maimon visited Panevėžys on August 6. The purpose of his visit was to expand cooperation and encourage the growth of trade between Israel and Lithuania, to meet with Panevėžys businesspeople and to meet with the Jewish community. The ambassador visited city hall where he met with the mayor Rytis Račkauskas.

“We live in the middle of Lithuania, in a favorable geographic location, halfway between the capitals of Lithuania and Latvia. We are a compact city favorable for business growth. We have large enterprises such as AB Amilna, the Panevėžys Construction Conglomerate and Panevėžio keliai, we have received foreign investment and we are pleased by the Norwegian companies which have been established here.

“We can be proud of the free economic zone operating here, this year the enterprise Devold should be established here, and two other potential investors are considering doing business here. We strive to make Panevėžys attractive for investors, so we have invited representatives of Israel. I would like to note that ten years ago a protocol was signed with the city of Ramla [in Israel], but sadly this process has come to a halt. One wishes one of the Israeli cities was among the ranks of our partners,” mayor Račkauskas said.

The Embassy of Israel to Lithuania organized a fun event, inviting everyone who wanted to ride bicycles together through the beautiful city of Vilnius.

Riding under the motto “Have fun, ride safe,” around 200 participants rode through the streets of  Vilnius wearing t-shirts made especially for the event. At the end riders were treated to apples with honey, in anticipation of the upcoming Jewish New Year.

Pictures

August 30, 2015  lrytas.lt

Until only recently, Kraševskio street in the Lithuanian capital was a dilapidated and abandoned section of the Žvėrynas neighborhood. Today this location has received new life. Although surrounding buildings appear just as dilapidated as before, the sidewalks are still uneven and tree branches still litter the ground, there is a shiny newly-renovated building standing right in the middle.

So this year the traditional start of the school year, September 1, will also feature the opening of the impressive new school building, the Sholem Aleichem Gymnasium. The Lithuanian and Israeli flags fly atop tall flagpoles in the yard. This is a secular school in whose cafeteria pork products are not to be found, and the cafeteria workers ask whether it’s alright to add sour cream to the beet and meat soup. The majority of children attending the school are Jewish.

School principal Miša Jakobas, 66, is bright, polite and calm, but also speaks emotionally. A true teacher by calling. He describes himself as a Lithuanian patriot and is happy that almost all of his graduates pursue successful careers in their own country, and almost none seek their fortunes abroad.

For full interview in Lithuanian, see Lrytas.lt

An exhibition of photographs called “Pope Francis’s Visit to Israel in 2014” opened on Cathedral Square, the center of the city of Vilnius, on August 28. The photographs presented in the exhibit were selected to best show the historical nature of the visit and the most important meetings during the Pope’s trip. Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon and Vilnius archbishop metropolitan Gintaras Linas Grušas opened the open-air public exhibition.

In May, 2014, Pope Francis made his first visit to the Holy Land. It was the fourth pilgrimage by a Pope to Israel, and came on the 50th anniversary of the visit Pope Paul VI made to Israel.

Shimon Peres, president of Israel then, met Pope Francis at Ben-Gurion Airport. The Pope then travelled to Jerusalem where he met the patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew outside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. They prayed together inside the church. The Pope participated at a synod of bishops later that day.

On the sunny afternoon of August 26 a contingent of the ever-cheerful and bright Hesed Club activists gathered at the Kaunas Jewish Community to celebrate the 95th birthday of fellow Hesed Club and Kaunas Jewish Community member Ana Orlova. Ana Orlova was born in Byelorussia. When the war began she was evacuated to Kazan. After the war she contineud her medical studies in Minsk and came to Lithuania in 1948 along with her husband, a military doctor. Initially the young family with two small daughters lived in Marijampolė, then moved to Kaunas in 1956, where the young female doctor was appointed director of the internal diseases section at a Kaunas hospital, where she worked for many years. She retired after Lithuanian independence. Ana Orlova has raised three beautiful daughters and has five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Ana Orlova has always been the life of the party and is happy, inventive and creative. She recently has been reading some of her written work at Kaunas Jewish Community events. Community chairman Gercas Žakas greeted her on the occasion of her birthday and called upon everyone to try to follow her example of sharp wit, inexhaustible energy and great sense of humor. He said she would live to be at least 120!

Photo: Ana Orlova with daughters: Olia visiting from Israel and Nataša who lives in Kaunas.