Lithuanian Jewish Community

IN MEMORY OF GENYA RUBELSKI

Just a few months ago we were wishing happy 75th birthday to the Vilnius Choral Synagogue’s inimitable and much-loved caretaker (and gate-keeper), EUGENIUSZ RUBELSKI, a Catholic Pole of many generations’ Vilna/Wilno heritage who lived all his 75 years in a dwelling in the synagogue’s historic courtyard. He has just passed away suddenly.His earliest memory of life was of one of the last (or the last) large group of Jews from the ghetto opposite being marched from Rūdninkų Street (Yiddish: Rudnítsker gas) right up Pylimo (Zaválne) past the synagogue and past the entrance to his courtyard, where the little boy stood by the gate watching the macabre and unforgettable scene.He recalled the Jewish men, women and children from the Vilna Ghetto, surrounded, driven mercilessly and taunted, by a large contingent of armed local Vilnius police, on their way to the mass killing site Ponár (Paneriai).

For many years, his warm welcome to visitors and kindness to everybody, and unique spritely humor, were part and parcel of the Vilna synagogue experience for visitors from every part of the world. He will be very much missed.

—Dovid Katz

2014-08-18

EU calls again for ‘all terrorist groups in Gaza to disarm,’ durable ceasefire ‘must end threat posed by Hamas to Israel’

BRUSSELS (EJP)— The European Union reiterated its call for ‘’all terrorist groups in Gaza to disarm and said the situation in the Gaza Strip ‘’has been unsustainable for many years and a return to the status quo prior to the latest conflict is not an option.’’

In conclusions on Gaza issued after a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Brussels, the EU stressed that ‘’adurable ceasefire’must lead to a fundamental improvement in the living conditions for the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip through the lifting of the Gaza closure regime and it must end the threat to Israel posed by Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza as demonstrated by rocket attacks and tunnel construction’’.

‘’The EU is extremely concerned about the fragile situation on the ground following the recent conflict in the Gaza Strip,’’ it said.

The EU strongly welcomed the ceasefire which has been in place since 11 August and called on all the parties concerned ‘’to agree on and abide by a durable ceasefire’’.

More at ejpress.org

2014-08-18

An Open Letter to the Israel Defense Forces

Thank you for your service and sacrifice on behalf of the Jewish State and Jewish Nation.

We thank the leaders and members of the Israel Defense Forces for their courage, commitment, and humanity in the battle against Hamas and other terrorist organizations that constantly and deliberately endanger civilians in Gaza and Israel. We remember those who fell and their families and pray for the quick recovery of those who were injured.

A grateful American and world Jewish community thanks you.

We are one people with one heart.

World Jewish Congress

Ronald S. Lauder, President
Robert Singer, CEO

Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations

Robert G. Sugarman, Chairman

2014-08-17

The Hushed-Up Hitler Factor in Ukraine

Behind the Ukraine crisis is a revision of World War II history that seeks to honor eastern European collaborators with Hitler and the Holocaust by repackaging these rightists as anti-Soviet heroes, a reality shielded from the U.S. public, as Dovid Katz explains.

By Dovid Katz

Would America support any type of Hitlerism in the course of the State Department’s effort to turn the anti-Russian political classes of Eastern Europe into paragons of PR perfection that may not be criticized, howsoever mildly?

It was frankly disconcerting to see Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, embracing the leader of Ukraine’s far right, anti-Semitic, pro-fascist Svoboda party last December. It was disturbing to learn of the neo-Nazi elements that provided the “muscle” for the actual Maidan takeover last February (BBC’s Newsnight was among the few major Western outlets to dare cover that openly).

More at consortiumnews.com

2014-08-16

The Real Face of Hamas

A true understanding of the month-long conflict in Gaza depends on a careful examination of Hamas’ ideology, characteristics and objectives.

Hamas is a radical Islamist Palestinian movement dedicated to the destruction of Israel. Since its establishment in 1987 as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, it has remained committed to the path of terrorism. Its violent actions have led Hamas to be recognized as a terrorist organization not only by Israel, but by the US, European Union, UK, Canada, Australia, Japan and Egypt.

Hamas’ Charter rejects peace with Israel and stresses the terrorist organization’s commitment to destroying it through holy war (jihad). This is an overtly antisemitic and anti-Western document that expresses the organization’s radical agenda.

Hamas implements its ideology by carrying out horrific terrorist attacks. Its first suicide bombing was in April 1993, shortly before the signing of the Oslo Accords. Hamas’ bombing campaign undermined efforts to reach a peace accord and culminated in the unprecedented wave of suicide bombings during the second intifada that murdered and injured thousands of Israeli civilians.

2014-08-16

Reporters Have Finally Found Hamas. What Took So Long?

The Western media have found Hamas. A month into the group’s mini-war with Israel, journalists have begun publishing images of Hamas fighters and reports on its human-shield tactics and intimidation of journalists. Whatever the reason—Hamas PR savvy, media incompetence, or the fear of retribution—it is astounding that the discovery has taken this long.

The Gaza Strip, after all, is just 25 miles tip-to-toe and seven miles at its widest. More than 700 journalists went there to cover Israel’s ground offensive, during which Hamas fired more than 3,500 rockets into Israel—an average of more than 100 a day.

Still, since Israel launched its operation on July 8, the media focus has barely shifted from the loss of life in the Strip. That emphasis is understandable: Images of dead and wounded civilians are heartbreaking.Forty-three percent of Gaza’s population is under 14 (and half under 18), meaning the brunt of force is borne primarily by the young.

Read newrepublic.com

2014-08-16

Uneasy about future in Russia, ‘Putin’s Jews’ seek quiet exit

MOSCOW — A short drive outside of Moscow, luxury shopping malls stand out against the heirloom forest, their large glass windows advertising Ferrari and Prada. Russian President Vladimir Putin and many senior civil servants travel this route to their dachas (summer homes) in convoys of black limousines with blaring sirens
A suburban development another 15 minutes out looks like a showcase for life in Russia’s upper middle class. Businessmen, bureaucrats, journalists, a prominent event producer, a lobbyist, and bankers all live here.

A high-ranking government bureaucrat lives in a large mansion at the far end of the development. The handyman who takes care of the property is Ukrainian, but over the last half a year, since Russia occupied Crimea, he has been telling people that he is Belorussian.

One mansion houses a family of refugees from Ukrainian Slovyansk, a city taken by pro-Russian rebels who have since fled. The family’s Ukraine apartment was requisitioned by pro-Russian separatists ahead of heavy fighting with Ukrainian government troops in early May. When a firing point was established in their living room, the family left their home and came to Moscow to stay with friends.

Read timesofisrael.com

2014-08-15

News from European Jewish Communities

Danish Jewish school bans Jewish religious attire

A Jewish school in Denmark has informed parents that its pupils are no longer allowed to wear religious symbols near school grounds.

The private Caroline School in Copenhagen informed parents of the policy in a recent letter. The letter said it was not permissible for students of the 7th, 8th and 9th grades to leave school premises if they are wearing visible Jewish symbols.

“If a boy wears a kippah, we will ask him to put in a cap so it is no longer visible,” principal Jan Hansen said.

Hansen said the measures were part of his schools “level of security, which is higher than in normal schools.” He added: “Unfortunately, it is the consequence of being a Jewish institution, but it something that we and the students are used to.”

Hansen also said the move was “pure preventative.” He added: “I know there has been an increase in the number of Jews who have been accosted over the summer in connection with the conflict in Gaza.”

More news

2014-08-13

Foreign Press Association blasts Hamas’s intimidation of journalists in Gaza

The Foreign Press Association (FPA), which represents reporters working in the Middle East, today blasted the terrorist group Hamas for threatening and intimidating reporters working in Gaza.

“The FPA protests in the strongest terms the blatant, incessant, forceful and unorthodox methods employed by the Hamas authorities and their representatives against visiting international journalists in Gaza over the past month,” the organization said in a statement. “The international media are not advocacy organisations and cannot be prevented from reporting by means of threats or pressure, thereby denying their readers and viewers an objective picture from the ground.”

In several cases, the group said, “foreign reporters working in Gaza have been harassed, threatened or questioned over stories or information they have reported through their news media or by means of social media.”

More WJC news

2014-08-13

Little Day Camp “Anoye”

Want something new? Then bring the kids to the new creative and educational children’s day camp called Anoye!

Group 1 is for kids aged 3-5, group 2 for 6 to 8-year-olds.Location: The Lithuanian Jewish Community at Pylimo street No. 4 in Vilnius.

The mini-camp will take place from 10:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M. from August 18 to 22, with a special event called Ensemble for parents and kids on August 24.

The children will be taught new things and skills playing with professional educators from the preschool education institution Vaikystės sodas“ ( http://www.vaikystes-sodas.lt/ ) using the Kimochi method.Not only will your kids learn about Jewish arts and crafts, they’ll become true craftspeople for the entire week, including candle-makers, potters, weavers and braiders.

Don’t miss this great opportunity to encounter new ways of learning! gistration is open until August 14.

If you’d like to take part in the camp, please fill out the electronic registration form at

http://form.jotformeu.com/form/42092291294354

For further information please contact Julija Lipšic by telephone at 8 659 52604 or Diana Cadovič at 8 652 10642.

Please note that space is limited and enrollment is on a first-come, first-serve basis.

We strongly believe the mini-camp will help the children learn new things and skills, become better acquainted with Jewish arts and crafts and will be a lot of fun as well as a creative and meaningful way to pass the time.

2014-08-13

Israelis race to find Ebola vaccine

Two Israeli doctors are studying Ebola and Marburg virus survivors to develop a human antibody therapy.

By Avigayil Kadesh

On August 8, the World Health Organization declared the West African Ebola epidemic, which has killed about 1,000 people, an international public-health emergency. It called upon member states and private donors to expend greater resources toward finding a cure for the worst Ebola outbreak in history. Currently there is no vaccine or cure.

Significant gains in this field are happening in Israel, where Dr. Leslie Lobel and Dr. Victoria Yavelsky have been working for years to track down all survivors of the Ebola and Marburg viruses in Uganda and take blood samples from them. Both of these Equatorial viruses cause hemorrhagic fever and kill close to 90 percent of victims.

2014-08-12

ISIS, Nazis and the ideology of hate

It would be eminently reasonable to suppose that the kind of evil embodied by the Nazis and their radical ideology of hate and exclusion should have disappeared from the face of the earth along with the total defeat of the Third Reich nearly seventy years ago. Such Ideologies, however, did not die out with the end of the Nazi regime. Today far too many groups still pursue exclusionist visions, propelled by ideologies of hate. They think, like the Nazis before them, that in the name of fanatical beliefs they have the right to decide who should live and who should die, and they act zealously on their murderous convictions. Perhaps most menacing among them today is the Islamic State, also known as IS, ISIL, ISIS, and DAESH.

More at timesofisrael.com

2014-08-12

Old City to Become Disabled-Friendly, After 3,000 Years

Jerusalem Development Authority announces 20 million shekel project to open the Old City, Western Wall for tourists with disabilities.

Accessibility ramps and other improvements are being added throughout Jerusalem’s Old City, allowing the disabled easier access to the Western Wall 3,000 years after Solomon built his Temple there, the Jerusalem Development Authority (JDA) announced Tuesday.

A special project of the Jerusalem Development Authority, the Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs Office, the Jerusalem Municipality and Social Security, the project will see ramps built in the Jewish Quarter, at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the City of David – places that were previously inaccessible to the handicapped. The project will cost, in total, roughly 20 million shekel ($5.75 million).

Improvements include installing sloping ramps over stairs to help wheelchairs maneuver comfortably, changing signs to accommodate visitors with vision problems, and other cues to help the handicapped find their way.

More at iraelnationalnews.com

2014-08-12

Clinton: anti-Semitism an important factor in criticism of Israel on Gaza

Former American Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is identifying anti-Semitism as an important motivation for the international criticism of Israel’s incursion in Gaza, according to a new interview.

“It is striking … that you have more than 170,000 people dead in Syria. … You have Russia massing battalions—Russia, that actually annexed and is occupying part of a UN member-state—and I fear that it will do even more to prevent the incremental success of the Ukrainian government to take back its own territory, other than Crimea. More than 1,000 people have been killed in Ukraine on both sides, not counting the [Malaysia Airlines] plane, and yet we do see this enormous international reaction against Israel, and Israel’s right to defend itself, and the way Israel has to defend itself,” RodhamClinton said in an August 10 interview with The Atlantic magazine. “This reaction is uncalled for and unfair.”

Clinton continued: “You can’t ever discount anti-Semitism, especially with what’s going on in Europe today. There are more demonstrations against Israel by an exponential amount than there are against Russia seizing part of Ukraine and shooting down a civilian airliner. So there’s something else at work here than what you see on TV.”

Read at www.worldjewishcongress.org

2014-08-12

After quiet night, Gaza rockets begin anew

Code Red sirens pierce the air as Operation Protective Edge enters 33rd day of fighting; latest salvo comes after 10-hour lull; IAF strikes targets in Gaza overnight.

Residents of southern Israel awoke early Saturday morning to the piercing sound of code red rocket alerts, as a barrage of rockets from Gaza targeted their neighborhoods.

Militants in the Strip renewed fire just before 7:00 a.m. as sirens blared throughout communities in the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council in the northwestern Negev, and in the Eshkol region, which borders Gaza.

A rocket landed in open territory in the Sha’ar Hanegev area, while four rockets exploded outside a community in the Eshkol Council. A second round of sirens were heard in the Eshkol area just before 9:00 a.m., as a rocket launched from the Strip hit a field just outside a community

The latest salvo comes after ten hours of quiet on the Gaza border. Over 50 rockets were fired on Friday towards Israel, as Hamas renewed its rocket fire at the end of a temporary,72-hour lull in fighting.

2014-08-09

Action «Stand with Israel» in Jewish Community of Estonia

We stand with I

On 7 August the Jewish Community of Estonia has organized an event called “Stand with Israel! Support Israel!” that gathered over one hundred participants in the courtyard of the Community Center at Karu 16 who came to voice their support of the people of Israel and to remember the fallen. The event was conducted by a well-known radio presenter Ilja Ban.

The Community Center’s courtyard was decorated with banners with words of support to the state of Israel. Each of the participants was holding a flag with the Star of David. Israel music was played.

Participants were able to take pictures against a specially made banner and the snapshot was immediately posted on the board titled “We stand with Israel!”

Everyone was able to add a wish to a photo: “Am Yisrael Chai!”, “The people of Israel lives!”, “Shalom!”, etc.

Among the speakers were Alla Jakobson, the chairwoman of the Jewish Community of Estonia, Igor Grjazin, a member of Riigikogu and a chairman of the parliamentary group for Estonian-Israeli relations, Gennadi Gramberg and Hanon Barabaner – memebrs of the Community board, Rabbi Shmuel Kot.

Jonah Adams, a US volunteer working in the Community, together with madrichs performed the prayer “ACHEINU. Our Brothers”.

In the end all the participants sang the Hatikvah together with the Jekaterina Erlich, the principal performer of the Community band “Machol” and then released to the sky balloons matching the colors of Israeli flag while once again chanting “Am Yisrael Chai!”

2014-08-08

Special Message from Prime Minister Netanyahu to Jewish communities leaders

2014-08-08

Condolences

BASHEVA RAN (1916-2014)

The Jewish Community of Lithuania extends sincere condolences to our friend Professor Faye Ran (New York City), who has visited our community on a number of occasions, on the death of her mother, Basheva Ran (born in Vilna in 1916 to Josef Konski and Sarah Ahs Konski; passed away in the US on 30 July 2014). Basheva Ran was the wife of the late Leyzer Ran, author of the three volume Jerusalem of Lithuania, one of the greatest works ever compiled about Jewish Vilna (it appeared in New York in 1974), and of many other works, most of them about the prewar cultural wealth of the city once known as Jerusalem of Lithuania.

2014-08-07

LJC is looking for partners

CALL FOR PARTNERS FOR A JEWISH BOOKS’ HERITAGE PROJECT!

The Lithuanian Jewish Community is looking for partners to implement a project, aimed at preserving and promoting the Lithuanian Jewish books’ heritage. The main goal of the project is to make a large collection of the Jewish books, present in Lithuania, more accessible to researchers as well as to the wider audience.

For more information you are very welcome to contact Zivile (zhivileh@hotmail.com).

Kind regards from Vilnius,

The Lithuanian Jewish Community

2014-08-05

Why Vilna was Called Jerusalem of Lithuania and Today’s Date in the Jewish Calendar…

VILNA, JERUSALEM OF LITHUANIA — VÍLNE, YERUSHOLÁYIM D’LÍTE (Yiddish) — VÍLNO, YERUSHOLÁYIM D’LÍTO (Ashkenazic Hebrew) — VÍLNA, YERUSHALÁYIM D’LÍTA (Israeli):

According to an old Vilna tradition, the Jewish-calendar date starting this evening (4 August 2014, lasting until after dark on the 5th), the ancient fast-day Tíshebov (Tisha b’Av, Ninth of Av) commemorating the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar’s armies (“Jews have a long memory”) is ALSO the 202nd anniversary of the day that Napoleon, in Vilna in the course of his attempted conquest of the Russian Empire, coined the name “Jerusalem of Lithuania” (in some versions: “Jerusalem of the North”).

When, during his summer 1812 sojourn here, on the fast-day Tíshebov, he saw the extraordinary magnitude of wailing in the Jewish quarter, over an event rather deep in antiquity, as if it had happened just yesterday, he spontaneously came out with the words.

[But to be a Litvak who tells and then spoils a good story with the actual facts — There is documentary evidence that the concept “Jerusalem of Lithuania” for Vilna had by then taken hold in strictly internal Jewish sources; it occurs in poetic recombinations of biblical passages referring to Jerusalem in the memoir that two sons of the Gaon of Vilna dedicated to their father who died in 1797. I attempted a translation into English; it appears on pp. 94-105 of “Lithuanian Jewish Culture,” Baltos lankos, Vilnius 2010). For example: “Blessed are you, O Vilna, City of Splendor” where the Hebrew text is an epithet for Jerusalem from Jeremiah 49: 25.]

— Dovid Katz

2014-08-04

Israeli President Isaac Herzog Visits Lithuania

On the War in Israel and the Situation in Lithuania