Lithuanian Jewish Community

Two Litvak Videos Posted on YouTube

by Dovid Katz

We have this week made available two more videos from late 1990s expeditions to record the language, memories and world view of the last Yiddish-speaking Litvaks in Belarus. These videos are of return trips in 1998 to friends made in previous years, this time accompanied by the famed Lithuanian documentary film maker and Holocaust educator Saulius Beržinis, founder of the Independent Holocaust Archive of Lithuania.

One video is of the famous Litvak Yiddish author, Hirsh Reles (1913—2004), a native of Tsháshnik (Časniki, northeastern Belarus). Speaking in his apartment in Minsk, he talks about his father, Leybe, of Kovno (Kaunas) who himself dreamt of becoming a writer and moved to Vilna for that purpose. When things didn’t work out, he relocated northeastward to Tsháshnik, where he worked as a teacher, and was the one and only misnáged (non-hosed, Litvak in the popular religious sense) in town. He was trusted to read the Torah in the synagogue (it’s the same for both) but not to lead in prayers, because there are differences between the Litvak and Hasidic rites (even today here in Vilnius…).

2015-03-24

High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini addreses Moshe Kantor

>>Letter from High Representative,Vice-President Federica Mogherini

Dear Friends,

Please find attached a letter from High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini addressed to Moshe Kantor, following their meeting and correspondence.

The letter suggests that she will work closely with First Vice President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, and coordinate their efforts in the fight against Antisemitism.

We have been informed by the cabinet of Commissioner Jourova that the Commission’s initiatives to fight Antisemitism will include the following key elements:

2015-03-24

White House ‘rethinking’ Israel ties, peace process rules

Almost certainly, what happened yesterday in the White House briefing room is provoking joy among Palestinians, concern if not fear in Israel, and urgent “taking of views,” as the British put it, in foreign ministries worldwide.

For the first time in decades, Washington is not reflexively and unconditionally standing with Israel.

As a matter of fact, the Obama administration is explicitly doing the opposite.

Repeatedly, President Obama’s aptly-named spokesman, Josh Earnest, told reporters Thursday the U.S. is “rethinking” and “re-evaluating,” and “reconsidering” its decades-long, unwavering support of a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The days of Washington automatically supporting Israel at the UN, striving to protect it from international isolation may be over: “That foundation has been eroded,” said Earnest. “It means that our policy decisions need to be reconsidered.”

And the president’s spokesman was happy to provide everyone with the reason for America’s change of heart: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pre-election declaration earlier this week that shattered, finally, the idea of “the peace process.”

I use those quotation marks deliberately. The peace process has been a fiction for many years, if it was ever real at all.

But it was a fiction nearly everyone had an interest in perpetuating: negotiations leading to “two states, living side by side in peace and security.”

2015-03-23

Israel and Lithuania have much to offer one another, says Lithuanian official

Opening of the Embassy of Israel in Vilnius and Political consultations between two foreign ministries, led by political directors Rolandas Kačinskas and Alon Ushpiz, are signs of solid and profound relations that Lithuania and Israel enjoy today, according to Lithuania’s MFA.

Both countries are determined to promote common goals and to further strengthen bilateral relations in areas of foreign and security policy, economy and trade, science and education, people-to-people contacts, culture, tourism and others.
Rolandas Kačinskas, political director at the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, shares his insights on the prospects of Lithuanian-Israeli cooperation.

2015-03-22

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Deadline April 15, 2015

2015-03-21

Keepsakes of Old Jewish Vilna (16)

Dovid Katz’s new article (in Yiddish) on the differing Jewish names for the city Vilnius, and the cultural origin and background of each, has just appeared in connection with an old bookbinder’s ‘spine stuffing card’ made from title pages containing all three Jewish traditional names. The article points out that Vilna Jewish books started using a fourth name for the city in the final pre-Holocaust years.

The article, whose Yiddish title translates “Vilno, Vilne, Vilna — the three together in a Vilna bookbinder’s hands: three (factually four) names for the city used by its own Jewish residents”
is at:

Keepsakes of Old Jewish Vilna (16)

2015-03-19

National Israel TV presents

2015-03-19

An “Inner” View of the Neo-March on Vilnius, 2015

by Geoff Vasil

Afunny thing happened on the way to the neo-Nazi march. I saw a man walking towards me, and thought I knew him. Apparently he thought the same thing, and we both said hello in Lithuanian as we passed one another. As I pondered how we might know each other, it came to me: I had seen him at an earlier neo-Nazi march, probably the one in Kaunas a month earlier. He thought I was a fellow marcher, apparently, or at least not an enemy to the cause.

But what is their cause? What does staking out a Lithuanian place in history, or taking pride in a mythical genetic complement, or taking pride in a language to which they have made zero contributions actually mean?

I was in a bit of a hurry. The reason was, besides leaving the house a little late, I wasn’t sure exactly when the march was supposed to start. In Kaunas the Lithuanian news portal Delfi.lt (a trans-Baltic phenomenon with URLs made with TLDs for Latvia and Estonia as well) had either been a victim or perpetrator/purveyor of disinformation (and is there a difference?) and had misdirected both the fascist youth and their would-be opposition to attend a march there on February 15th instead of the usual February 16th, the pre-World War II day of Lithuanian independence which, paradoxically, was called and is called the Day of the Restoration of Lithuania, a reference to the mediaeval Grand Duchy thereof rather than to the pre-World War II state of the same name made into a Soviet republic in 1940 and then again in 1945. Is the third time a charm?

2015-03-19

Botched TV exit polls earn vote of no confidence

Pollsters try to explain why they got the election result wrong, say many voters refused to participate

Having heard the results of the exit polls for Tuesday’s elections, Israelis went to bed thinking that the Likud and Zionist Union were neck and neck. Two TV exit polls (on Channels 1 and 10) showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud and Isaac Herzog’s Zionist Union, the country’s two largest parties, tied at 27 Knesset seats each. The third (on Channel 2) showed the Likud leading the Zionist Union by one seat, 28-27

2015-03-18

New Traveling Exhibit Unveiled at Tolerance Center

by Geoff Vasil

Usually when you hear a new Holocaust exhibit or book is being presented at the Tolerance Center of the Vilna Gaon Museum in Vilnius, you can expect a whole gaggle of diplomats and a certain number of people from that new Lithuanian elite which does understand Holocaust issues to some extent to be in heavy attendance.

Perhaps it was because it was held in the early afternoon on a Tuesday in early March, more likely it was a conscious decision to forego the pageantry and fanfare made by the director of the museum, but for whatever reason the opening ceremony for Danutė Selčinskaja’s new mobile exhibit was subdued, even somber to some extent, befitting the subject matter. There was no Californian wine awaiting toasts after the ceremony, no cheese snacks or fruit on the table in the foyer. Instead, there were about twenty apparently photocopied and hand-folded brochures laid out carefully for guests to take before or after the event.

2015-03-17

In the East of EU-NATO-Land: Again, Latvian Authorities Grant Riga Old Town and its “Liberty Monument” on March 16th to 1500 Worshippers of Hitler’s Waffen SS Latvian Divisions

All Waffen SS members swore an oath to Adolf Hitler, some were recycled Holocaust killers; Lithuania’s far-right leaders J. Panka and R. Čekutis, fresh from neo-Nazi march in Vilnius, were on hand as honored guests; for the second year in a row, the prime minister forbade his ministers from attending.

2015-03-17

Six Months After Protective Edge, Hamas Says Bases Near Gaza Border Rebuilt

Hamas’ “military wing”, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, issued a statement on Saturday claiming that many of its bases on Gaza’s border with Israel have been fully rebuilt, and asserting that it had recovered from Israel’s summer offensive.

The Brigades’ statement added that Hamas was “not afraid” of confronting the IDF again.

An official report on the Brigades’ website said that, “No sooner had the war ended, than the Qassam Brigades started a new stage of the conflict [with Israel] in preparation for the battle of liberation,” according to the Palestinian Maan news agency.

2015-03-17

Israel opens its first embassy in Lithuania, pre-war home to 250,000 Jews

The event was celebrated during a ceremony Thursday, the Baltic News Service reported, in the capital city of Vilnius, where one in four residents was Jewish before the Holocaust.

Lithuania used to have 250,000 Jews but the vast majority were killed by German Nazis and their local collaborators.

Israel’s first ambassador to the Baltic nation is Amir Maimon.

Lithuania opened its embassy in Israel shortly after the two countries established diplomatic relations, in 1992 — a year after Lithuania regained its independence from Russia following the fall of the Soviet Union. In 2012, Lithuania, which has been a member of the European Union since 2003, appointed a commercial attache to serve in Israel.

Israel, however, refrained from opening an embassy in Lithuania. The Jewish state was represented in Lithuania by Israel’s embassy in the capital of neighboring Riga.

2015-03-15

Decision 2015: Israelis’ Choices When They Head to the Polls

The leaders of the eight political parties running in the March 17 Israeli Knesset election participated in their first televised debate on Feb. 26, moderated by anchor Yonit Levi of Israel’s Channel 2 network. Absent from the discussion, however, were current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his most formidable challenger, Zionist Union alliance chairman Isaac Herzog.

If Zionist Union wins the most seats in the Knesset (Israel’s legislature) and is able to form a governing coalition, Herzog—whose Labor party merged with Tzipi Livni’s Hatnuah party for the election—would rotate the role of prime minister with Livni.

When Israelis enter the “kalfi” (Hebrew for ballot box) next month, they will cast votes for entire parties—not for specific candidates. Each party, which presents a list of candidates for membership in the Knesset, must win at least 3.25 percent of the total vote to get the minimum representation of about four seats. The new Israeli government will be established based on how many seats each party wins, and the president will appoint the prime minister, who is usually the leader of the party that won the most Knesset seats.

2015-03-14

Yiddish Reading Circle Returns

On March 12, 2015 the Yiddish Reading Circle conducted by world-renowned Yiddishist Dovid Katz returned to the large hall on the second floor of the Lithuanian Jewish Community building in Vilnius.

Dovid Katz, who was a professor of Yiddish at Vilnius University for 11 years, has been conducting the informal circle off and on for lovers and native speakers of Yiddish for several years now, as his schedule allows.

The first class in the current round of readings began in the traditional manner with those in attendance giving their names and place of origin in Yiddish to the best of their ability.

This was followed by the also-traditional reading of a short text in Yiddish by volunteers around the table. Dr. Katz offered help when needed and punctuated the reading with explanations of general and more obscure aspects of the language.

2015-03-14

Vilnius Neo-Nazi March 2015

About 1,500 people assembled and marched at 4:00 P.M., March 11, 2015–Lithuania’s second independence day–from the central Cathedral Square to the square next to parliament down Vilnius’s main street Gedimino prospektas.

As in previous years, marchers carried a black-and-white flag with a swastika and the inscription “Skinhead Lietuva” (Skinhead Lithuania) employing the lightning-bolt SS symbol, a flag which featured prominently as the marchers spoke at length and sang next to the parliament building.

Witnesses including native Lithuanian speakers reported the marchers again used the offensive slogan “Lithuania for Lithuanians” as the marched up the main street.

The turnout was somewhat smaller than in previous “peak” years but was nonetheless impressive, since the march was rescheduled at the last moment when the Vilnius municipal authorities again caved in to fascist youth demands for a permit to sanction their public spectacle. It had originally been scheduled for 3 P.M. March organizers claimed they would go forward with it without a permit. The neo-Nazis had to squeeze in between other regularly scheduled events, and actually ended up pooling their forces behind the sound-stage on Cathedral Square where the combined martial orchestras of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were performing a concert for the public.

2015-03-14

Jews in Lithuania Do What They Do Best

Dalius Simėnas

The Israeli-capital companies operating in Lithuania work in sectors well known to Jews: they control real estate, develop the IT business and, as an example, make cash registers. The heads of Israeli companies in Lithuania welcome the first Israeli ambassador to Vilnius but say that opening an embassy isn’t enough, hard work awaits for Israeli business to discover Lithuania as a country in which to invest and expand.

Direct Israeli investments in Lithuania, according to the Lithuanian Department of Statistics, are not especially great this year, comprising 12.71 million euros. The main sector, worth 10.5 million euros, is real estate, with the remainder going to refining and refinishing industry, IT and other spheres. This doesn’t compare to the much more significant investments made by EU partners in Sweden, Denmark and other Nordic countries, nor to US investments.

2015-03-14

JDC greetings

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2015-03-12

Dailyslave.com | Jews In Baltics Afraid Of An Increasing Amount Of People Who Dislike Them

Look at what this Yiddish fool said. A Jew named Dovid Katz is apparently upset that people are realizing that much of what we’ve been told about Adolf Hitler have been Jewish lies. He is also mad that there are more people in the Baltics who are coming to the realization that they don’t like Jews.

He even claims that looking at Hitler favorably is not a Western value. This is a total lie as it is absolutely a Western value to look at Hitler favorably. He was the last White European leader who stood up for Western civilization and against the Jewish Marxism that has turned this world into a cesspool of war and degenerate filth.

From Fox News:

“We have to say that the support of Hitler and rewriting history to turn Hitler into a liberator of this area is not a western value,” Yiddish scholar Dovid Katz, founder of the DefendingHistory.com website, told FoxNews.com. “If you’re repatriating Nazi war criminals to be re-buried and honored as part of national history, that is not behavior compatible with western ethics and values.”

2015-03-12

Chair of the Lithuanian Jewish-Litvak Community Statement

Faina Kukliansky, chair of the Lithuanian Jewish-Litvak Community, has issued the following statement on the eve of the March 11th Lithuanian Independence Day holiday, following reports in the media that a march through the heart of the Lithuanian capital by ultranationalists would go forward as planned:
Faina Kukliansky, chair of the Lithuanian Jewish-Litvak Community, says the March 11th holiday is to very important and dear to Lithuanian Jews, and therefore should not be an occasion for insulting citizens of other ethnicities through means unacceptable in a democratic society.

The Lithuanian Jewish Community strongly condemns the Nazi chants often heard on this day of great import to the Lithuanian state, and we are very encouraged by the words of Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius
uttered on the eve of the holiday at the Sholem Aleichem Jewish school in Vilnius that he will not allow the sowing of ethnic discord through various slogans and chants on the occasion of the birthday of the state.

He said that the head of the Government and other government officials want to stress that anti-Semitism and intolerance will not be tolerated in Lithuania.

2015-03-12

Israeli President Isaac Herzog Visits Lithuania

On the War in Israel and the Situation in Lithuania