Writing on the DELFI webpage, long-time Lithuanian editor, writer and journalist Rimvydas Valatka says he detects a sea-change in Lithuanian attitudes towards a painful past.

In an opinion piece/editorial roughly translated as “Whom Does Lithuania Honor, General Vėtra the Partisan Leader, or a Murderer of Jews?” Valatka opens:

“The removal of the idols [human figures in the socialist realist style from the Soviet era] from the Green Bridge [in Vilnius], and consequently the liberation of our history, has been met by some people with pain. There are signs, however, showing that these resolute steps could become the very foundation in a critical assessment of our history of memory. One such [step] is a letter by a group of intellectuals calling upon the mayor of Vilnius to immediately take steps to remove a plaque from the façade of the [Lithuanian] Academy of Sciences [building in Vilnius] commemorating and honoring partisan commander General Vėtra, aka captain Jonas Noreika.”

Valatka goes on to relate what has become an almost mainstream genre of reporting in Lithuania at the present time: the painful truth and horrible crimes lurking in the backgrounds of people who have—almost all posthumously—received the highest state awards and honors since Lithuania regained independence in the 1990-1991 period, by governments and presidents far to the left as well as on the more extreme right side of center.

Following the selection of the two best projects for renovating the Ponar (Paneriai) Memorial Complex, architects have been perfecting and putting the final flourishes on their plans for how the Holocaust site will look, and a special commission is supposed to make a decision by the end of the year.

Jūratė Razumienė, deputy director of the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum which is in charge of the memorial complex, told BNS that the project submitted by the Šnabždesių miškas [Forest of Whispers] group, chosen over sixteen other projects earlier, will compete with the Matyti tyloje [To See in Silence] group’s project.

“It was an idea project, not first or second, formally it only took third place. There was another project which was assessed the best by Lithuanian and foreign specialists. But not all questions were answered in any single project. The work will continue, they will both compete under additional conditions,” she said.

Howard Margol is considered one of the foremost authorities on Lithuanian genealogical research.

Howard Margol began tracing his family history in 1990. After retirement, he plunged into genealogy, traveling to Lithuania in 1993. He joined the newly formed Jewish Genealogical Society of Georgia, and his research took on a much more serious tone. Howard attended his first International Conference on Jewish Genealogy in Washington, DC in 1995 and has attended every annual conference since then.

Howard served a two-year term as President of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Georgia. Under his leadership, the membership in JGSGA grew from 65 members to a total of 130 members. Howard has continued to serve on the board of JGSGA.

• Fri, 24 Jul 2015 World Jewish Congress World Jewish Congress

  Poland: House where gentiles were killed for hiding Jews named national monument

• Fri, 24 Jul 2015 World Jewish Congress World Jewish Congress

  Branko Lustig, ‘Schindler’s List’ Producer, Donates Oscar to Yad Vashem – Reuters

• Fri, 24 Jul 2015 World Jewish Congress World Jewish Congress

  Maccabi Voices: The Revival of Jewish Sport in Poland – Sonti Ramirez

• Fri, 24 Jul 2015 World Jewish Congress World Jewish Congress

  Yes, Europe’s Jews Have a Future – Huffington Post

And more

• “The Clandestine History of the Kovno Jewish Ghetto Police”
• Unveiling of Plaque Commemorating Yuda Zupavich
• During the first few weeks of the war the Germans did not distinguish in Kaunas Lithuanians and Jews. Lithuanians helped them to do so, – told the former Kaunas ghetto prisoner Dita Sperling, quoting German soldiers

The Lithuanian team who have participated in six European Macabbi games since 1995 is constituted of 26 athletes and coaches in five different sports. They include a mini soccer team who became the European champions twice, in the Netherlands in 1995 and in Austria in 2011 and made it to second place three times. Gercas Žakas is the team trainer, Matvejus Frišmanas is the coach and Artūras Sobolis is the team captain. During the training period the soccer team had a number of practice matches in Vilnius with opponents coming from Kaunas and Šiauliai.

Maccabi Games veteran games champion and swimmer Ela Pavinskienė continues to lead the strong swim team. The team includes winner of multiple European championships Andrej Fadeev and the promising Artiom Perepelica and Jekaterina Gamper.

The Lithuanian team also includes badminton player Alanas Plavinas who took second place at the World Maccabiah Games, the powerful table-tennis player Vanessa Ražinskytė and outdoor tennis veterans Ilja Bereznickas and Valentina Finkelšteinienė.

The head of delegation is Kostas Pavinskas, the youth team director is Sofija Pavinskaitė, Arkadij Goldin is the team doctor and Daumantas Todesas is deputy coach of the soccer team.

Delegations from thirty-eight countries in nineteen fields of sport are to take part at the European Maccabi Games in Berlin this year for a total of 2,300 athletes participating. The games are to include a large cultural program, a ceremony for victims of the Holocaust and a Sabbath dinner and a series of excursions and tours for the athletes.

Semionas Finkelšteinas

Head of delegation, Lithuanian Maccabi Athletics Club

Photo : Maccabi delegation at the Lithuanian Jewish Community.

This week the P5+1 and Iran agreed to terms on the Iran Deal, which represents a direct threat to Israel’s national security, and we believe is also detrimental to Europe, bearing in mind EU was also one of the key negotiating partners.

The bottom line of this very bad deal is exactly what Iran’s President Rouhani said immediately following signing of the agreement: “The international community is removing the sanctions and Iran is keeping its nuclear program.”

Meantime, Iran will be rewarded with hundreds of billions of dollars, while its proxies, including Hamas and Hezbollah, which continue to be active throughout Europe, will also present a direct threat to the EU and the national security of European citizens. A number of European nations and companies have already expressed willingness to increase trade with Iran.

Despite the best intentions of those negotiating this deal, unfortunately the world and our region today has become a much more dangerous place, with the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, one step closer to nuclear weapons.

Accordingly, this underscores the need for Jewish communities around the world to unite and consolidate, including in support of the State of Israel, at this critical time of need. This is of course at the very core of The Israeli-Jewish Congress (IJC) mission.

LJC Congratulates Jakovas Braveris on His Final Exam! Well done!

Thursday the high school students with the best final exam results assembled at the Old Town Hall in Vilnius where Vilnius mayor Remigijus Šimašius congratulated them.

Among the best were Jakovas Braveris of the Sholem Aleichem Jewish Gymnasium in Vilnius.

Jakovas’s father is Igor, a doctor in physics and mathematics who has taught at Sholem Aleichem for 20 years. He said both his sons had inherited their father’s gene for science and he had been aware of that since their early childhoods.

Read the press release:

Press Release regarding the Siauliai Mass Graves

In consideration of a request by the Jewish community, the government of the city of Šiauliai, Lithuania has shelved plans to move human remains discovered during road construction. The Šiauliai municipality has given assurances no earth moving work will be performed until due respect is guaranteed for the mortal remains of the people murdered and buried in the mass grave.

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairperson Faina Kukliansky would like to underline the stop in construction is not somehow the fault of Jews, but rather happened because human remains were found at a location where they should have been expected before construction began.

“I can’t say what sort of historical research was performed before construction work was begun. If it had been performed and a new location was discovered accidentally, that would be possible to understand, to forgive and to correct. Until now eight such sites were known. The issue of the Pročiūnai mass murder site was raised earlier and all of the material associated with that issue is preserved in primary sources at the Lithuanian Central State Archive, meaning it has been collected and is known. Although the location hasn’t been determined definitively, today we have all sorts of technology which we can use to determine where human remains are located without even disturbing the surface of the ground. It doesn’t matter whether those remains are of Jews or non-Jews.