Kaunas deputy mayor Simonas Kairys Thursday announced the plan to commemorate Dutch consul Jan Zwartendijk who rescued Jews during World War II. Following four years of work between partners in Lithuania and the Netherlands, the deputy mayor said: “This day…
Tolerant Person of the Year Award and Leonidas Donskis Prize Winners to Be Named Sunday
The Tolerant Person of the Year Award and Leonidas Donskis Prize for 2017 will be presented at 3:00 P.M. on February 25 in the Large Auditorium of Vytautas Magnus University located at Gimnazijos street no. 7 in Kaunas. The event…
What Happened to Poland?
The Jews of Poland were once the largest Ashkenazi Jewish community in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but those of them who remain today, it seems, will not be able to understand the decision made by the Polish Sejm on January 26,…
Discussion on Maintaining Žaliakalnis Jewish Cemetery in Kaunas
Work has begun on restoring a monument to Holocaust victims at the mass grave at the Žaliakalnis Jewish cemetery in Kaunas. Members of the Kaunas Jewish Community, representatives of the Kaunas municipality, Lithuanian Jewish Community executive director Renaldas Vaisbrodas, LJC…
Raoul Wallenberg Exhibit in Kaunas
Sugihara House in Kaunas is hosting an exhibit by the Swedish Institute called “I Didn’t Have Another Choice” dedicated to architect, businessman, Swedish diplomat and rescuer of Jews Raoul Wallenberg. Wallenberg distributed Swedish passports to Jews in Budapest in 1944.…
Japanese Volunteer Teacher Visits Panevėžys Jewish Community
Last week Susumu Nakagawa from Japan visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community. Mr. Nakagawa is visiting Panevėžys for the second time as a volunteer teacher, teaching beginning Japanese at the Panevėžys Technology and Business Faculty of Kaunas Technology University. Mr. Nakagawa…
NHK World Documentary Painting with Soul
Japan’s largest broadcast NHK invites you to watch their documentary “Painting with Soul.” The “To-Kon Painters” add color to the lives of people who are short on cash. They’re volunteers who will travel anywhere for a good cause, painting buildings…
Story Told through Dance at Kaunas Railroad Station Bridges Peoples and Eras
A story told through dance at the Kaunas railroad station bridged peoples and eras. This was where Japanese diplomat and Righteous Gentile Chiune Sugihara issued his final “visas for life” through the train window as he and his family departed…
Bravery of a Japanese Diplomat on Exhibit in Cape Town
“Sugihara didn’t only save my grandfather, he also saved me. Because if not for Sugihara I may very well not be standing here today.” These were the words of Rebbetzen Sarah Feldman of the Gardens Synagogue in Cape Town, speaking…
Lecture “Lithuanian Anti-Semitism, 1939-1940: Causes, Expressions, Trends”
The Sugihara Foundation Diplomats for Life organization invites you to the second lecture in the Northern Casablanca Academy series called “Lithuanian Anti-Semitism, 1939-1940: Causes, Expressions, Trends” to be held at 5:00 P.M., February 22, at the Sugihara House Museum in…
Writer Vanda Juknaitė Receives Tolerance Award
Info from kauno.diena.lt The Lithuanian writer Vanda Juknaitė has been named the Person of Tolerance of the Year in the annual Lithuanian award for spreading tolerance in Lithuanian society. The board of directors of the Sugihara Foundation had narrowed the…
We Bow Our Heads in Common in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust
The diplomats and staff of the Lithuanian embassy to Japan mourn with you and hope the example set by Chiune Sugihara, Righteous Gentiles and all rescuers of Jews will lead to efforts to make sure it never happens again Violeta…
Greetings from Japan
Mr. Takanobu Fuchikami, the mayor of Tsuruga, Japan, sends holiday and New Year’s greetings to the Lithuanian Jewish Community. Tsuruga is a Japanese port city which received Jewish refugees issued transit visas by Japan’s consul in Kaunas, Lithuania, Righteous Gentile…
US Embassy Reps Visit Kaunas
Two weeks ago representatives from the United States embassy in Vilnius visited Kaunas. They toured the Seventh Fort and met at the Sugihara House museum with Sugihara Foundation founders Ramūnas Garbaravičius and Egidijus Aleksandravičius, Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas…
Lithuanian and Japanese Cities Join in Commemorating Righteous Gentile
Events to commemorate Chiune Sugihara, Japanese WWII-era consul in Kaunas and a Lithuanian festival were held in Sugihara’s hometown of Yaotsu, Japan, from July 31 to August 7. Sugihara rescued thousands of Lithuanian Jews from the Holocaust and has been…
Plans to Amend Lithuanian Citizenship Law for Litvaks
As the Lithuanian Migration Department and the courts issue rejections on applications for Lithuanian citizenship by Litvaks, parliamentarians are preparing to amend the Lithuanian law on citizenship, even though, they say, the current law provides for granting citizenship to the…
Plans to Commemorate Zwartendijk in Kaunas
BNS reports on plans to commemorate Holocaust-era Dutch consul in Kaunas Jan Zwartendijk, who issued end-visas to complement the “visas for life” transit visas Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara issued to Jews, saving thousands of lives. Speaking to BNS, Dutch ambassador…
An Unforgettable Concert
Dutch pianist Marcel Worms performed melodies by interwar Jewish composers at the Lithuanian Jewish Community on April 29, in the same hall where he played 11 years ago. Most of the composers were murdered in the Holocaust, and Worms said…
Valdas Balčiūnas Named Person of Tolerance of the Year for 2015
February 13, BNS–The Person of Tolerance of the Year for 2015 was named Saturday at a ceremony in Kaunas, the Sugihara Foundation informed BNS. Chiune Sugihara’s son Nobuki presented the award to the recipient. Recipients usually receive a commemorative medal…
Students and Teachers Converge on Ariogala to Remember the Holocaust
Ingrida Vilkienė, education program coördinator of the International Commission to Assess the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania reports on the commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day at a conference held at the high school in…