Next Sunday, June 19, the two-part play “Getas” [Ghetto] will be performed at the Kaunas Drama Theater, directed by Gintaras Varnas.
Wooden Synagogue in Alanta Renovated
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Israeli President Isaac Herzog Visits Lithuania
Play “Ghetto” at Kaunas Drama Theater
Condolences
Markas Gliauberzonas has died following a long battle with chronic illness. He was a member of the Vilnius Jerusalem of Lithuania Jewish Community. We extend our deepest condolences to his daughter Judita and many friends and family members.
Guided Tour of Gedimino Prospect Followed by Sabbath Ceremony
Jewish tour guide Mark Psonic will lead a walking tour of Vilnius’s main street, Gedimino prospect, on June 17 as part of a larger event being held by the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s Gesher and Kaveret Clubs.
Those wishing to take the tour will assemble at the bell tower of the Cathedral in central Vilnius at 6:00 P.M. Friday. The walking tour will conclude at the Cvi in the Park Israeli street food kiosk located in the former Petras Cvirka square across the street from the LJC, where the Sabbath will be ushered in in the traditional manner.
The cost per person is five euros with registration by internet till June 15 and no later. Send an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt to register.
Tzedekah Lecture
Tzedakah or Ṣedaqah, literally “righteousness” in ancient Hebrew, is the duty to charity in Judaism, often directed towards coreligionists living in poverty.
The Talmud says mercy is an essential Jewish characteristic, and that the rich man has a duty to give and the poor man a duty to receive. Giving charity isn’t so much a burden as a privilege and a mitzvah.
During this lecture Natalja Cheifec will present various aspects of tzedekah, including why we are obligated to give, to whom are we obligated to give, when charity should be given, how much should be given, how the giver should behave towards the receiver, charity and numerology, and others.
The lecture and discussion will take place via internet at 5:30 P.M. on June 16, most likely in Lithuanian and/or Russian. Register here: https://bit.ly/3K73kEE
Lithuanian Roots of Holocaust Denial and Distortion
by Evaldas Balčiūnas
Reading through the writings of various Lithuanian historians engaged in “historical memory policy” (an interesting term recalling totalitarian order in and of itself), texts which distort and even deny the Holocaust, I often wonder when it began. It began before the mass murder of Jews in Lithuania.
For instance, the Lithuanian Activist Front’s call to action “Dear enslaved brothers” appeared March 19, 1941, and was published in several versions. At least, two different versions have survived.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 9:35 P.M. on Friday, June 10, and concludes at 11:26 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Marking 100th Anniversary of Birth of Matilda Olkinaitė
The 100th anniversary of the birth of Matilda Olkinaitė took place June 6. She was a Lithuanian Jewish poet from Panemunėlis who was murdered with her family and the neighboring Joffee family in July of 1941 at the Sahara peat bog in the Rokiškis region before larger mass murders began there.
Events to mark the date at the Rokiškis Regional History Museum began with the play “Nutildytos mūzos” [Silenced Muses] by the Rokiškis People’s Theater. This was followed by a screening of the films “Atrandant Matildą” [Finding Matilda] and “Dangaus stulpai – skambančios sinagogos” [Pillars of Heaven: Singing Synagogues], and the opening of a museum exhibit.
Other events were held in her native town Panemunėlis just outside the city of Rokiškis. Rokiškis librarians set up a folk-art monument to honor Olkinaitė on the lawn of the Panemunėlis railroad station near Olkinaitė’s house. People from the Rokiškis People’s Theater also placed a stone monument at the site of Holocaust mass murder victims at the Sahara peat bog where Olkinaitė’s family and the Joffee family were murdered. Flowers were also laid at their family graves.
Discussion Club #ŽydiškiPašnekesiai with Arkadijus Vinokuras
Back in the time of King David, 3,000 years ago, the king was considered the best singer, and under his reign the professional musicians dynasty of the Levites from the tribe of Levi began. Music schools were established for singers of hymns and players of instruments. Hymns and instrumental music accompanied rituals for the offering of sacrifices at the Temple in Jerusalem built by Solomon in 959 BCE. During sacred rituals the priests blew 120 trumpets at the same time.
Of course we won’t go that deep into history. We’ll just discuss the period of Jewish music from Smetona’s Lithuania till today, discussion club #ŽydiškiPašnekesiai initiator Arkadijus Vinokuras promises.
The next discussion is called “Jewish Music: What Is It, and Why Doesn’t It Ever Grow Old?” on June 14, 2022.
The club will meet outside this time at the site of the former statue to Petras Cvirka where the Cvi in the Park Israeli street food kiosk is operating for the summer. The meeting will take place inside the Bagel Shop Café due to rain at 5:00 P.M. It’s open to everyone and will be live-streamed on the LJC facebook page.
Participants are to include Leonidas Melnikas, Boris Traub, Boris Kizner and Masha Dushkina, moderated by Arkadijus Vinokuras. The discussion will likely take place in Lithuanian.
Amehaye Summer Camp for 2022
LJC children aged 7 to 14 are invited to attend the Amehaye Summer Camp for 2022. Registration is simple by filling out the questionnaire at https://forms.gle/aB5qGkyZ1xm3RW18A. The camp will take place from July 11 to 16. The cost is 190 euros per child. The location will be announced to parents during registration, which is open till June 26. For more information contact Viljamas at viljamas@lzb.lt or by calling +370 672 50699.
Students from Miami University Visit Community
Students from Miami University in Ohio recently visited the Lithuanian Jewish Community to learn more about the Jewish community in Lithuania, our history and Jewish life in the country. We baked bagels together at the Bagel Shop Café, gave them a tour of the recently opened Saul Kagan Welfare Center and invited them to our Israeli street food kiosk Cvi in the Park.
#OurCommunitiess #MūsųBendruomenės EVZ Foundation
Condolences
Anna Kaplan passed away June 6. She was born in 1943. Our deepest condolences to her daughter Tatjana and her family and friends.
Condolences
Our deepest condolences to the family on the death of honorary Lithuanian consul in South Africa Ivor Feinberg, whose family came from Panevėžys. Our condolences to his wife Miri, children Shirley Dorfan and Josi Feinberg and his brother Alfie.
Silvia Foti Releases Paperback Edition Renamed “Storm in the Land of Rain”
A year after the publication of Silvia Foti’s book about her Lithuanian Nazi grandfather Jonas Noreika, she has published a paperback version renamed “Storm in the Land of Rain: A Mother’s Dying Wish Becomes Her Daughter’s Nightmare.” According to the press release, it is already available from internet vendors and the plan is to offer it for sale at supermarket chains including Costco, HEB, BJ’s, Target, Fred Meyer, Kroger and Meijer.
Full press release here.
Daughter’s Dedication Speech for Saul Kagan Welfare Center
Julia Kagan Baumann, the daughter of the late Saul Kagan, delivered the following speech at the Lithuanian Jewish Community on the occasion of the opening of the Saul Kagan Welfare Center there on May 24, 2022:
I am deeply honored to be here at the dedication of the Saul Kagan Welfare Center at the 5th Litvak World Congress in Vilnius, the city of my father’s birth. I speak for myself; for his sister, Dr. Emma Kagan Rylander; for my beloved stepmother Eleanor Kagan, who is 97; for my cousin Dr. Frances Koblenzer, who is here today from my mother Elizabeth’s side of the family, which embraced my dad. And also for my family of marriage, the Baumanns, who were from Strasbourg in France. My late husband Philippe’s father, Raymond Baumann, co-founded ARIF (the Association for the Restoration of Jewish Works and Institutions in France) to support the Jewish community of France during and after World War II from America. My stepdaughter, Andrea Baumann Lustig, is ARIF’s current president.
Ger Tzadek Count Potocki Story Likely a Myth
Abraham ben Abraham (Hebrew: אברהם בן אברהם, lit. “Avraham the son of Avraham”) (c. 1700 – May 23, 1749), also known as Count Valentine (Valentin, Walentyn) Potocki (Pototzki or Pototski), was a purported Polish nobleman (szlachta) of the Potocki family who converted to Judaism and was burned at the stake by the Roman Catholic Church because he had renounced Catholicism and had become an observant Jew. According to Jewish oral traditions, he was known to the revered Talmudic sage, the Vilna Gaon (Rabbi Elijah Ben Shlomo Zalman [1720–1797]), and his ashes were interred in the relocated grave of the Vilna Gaon in Vilna’s new Jewish cemetery.
Although the Orthodox Jewish community accepts the teachings about Abraham ben Abraham, including the involvement of the Vilna Gaon, secular scholars have largely concluded that it is a legend.
Jewish Traditions
The Vilna Gaon (1720-1797) was according to the Jewish tradition a mentor to Abraham ben Abraham.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 9:28 P.M. on Friday, June 3, and concludes at 11:16 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Fifth World Litvak Congress Participants Visit Panevėžys, Pakruojis, Šeduva
A delegation of participants from the Fifth World Litvak Congress travelled to Panevėžys May 25 and were met there by members of the Panevėžys Jewish Community and the local municipality.
Panevėžys city municipality deputy director of administration Žibutė Gaivenienė said: “It is nice to welcome today guests arriving in Panevėžys from the Fifth World Litvak Congress and members of the city’s Jewish community. Panevėžys has long been a multi-ethnic and multicultural city, and the Jewish community has played an important role in the life of the city and the whole district. At certain periods of history Jews constituted a very significant part of the population of the city and were active participants in the city’s economic and service sectors. A larger Jewish community formed in the city in the second half of the 18th century. In the mid-19th century Jews constituted about 60 percent of the city population, and in the early 1920s Jews accounted for about 35 percent of the population. So the Jewish community’s contribution to the development of Panevėžys, and especially its transformation into a modern city, is a great one, and the Jewish legacy in different forms still operates in our daily life.”
Shavuot Celebrations
Shavuot celebrations at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius:
Shavuot eve at 8:15 P.M. on June 4
Shavuot at 10:00 A.M. on June 5
Shavuot at 10:00 A.M. on June 6
Greetings on this special holiday and try not to work on June 6. We wish you a happy holiday and delicious dishes made with milk products!
Tour of Žiežmariai Wooden Synagogue and Wanderings of Moses Exhibit
The Vilnius Jerusalem of Lithuania Jewish Community is sponsoring a free tour of the wooden synagogue in Žiežmariai and the exhibit of works of art by Daumantas Todesas currently being held there. Daumantas Todesas himself will lead the tour. Transportation will leave the Lithuanian Jewish Community at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius at 10:00 A.M. on Tuesday, June 7. Registration is required by calling lead secretary Liuba Šerienė at (8 5) 2613003 or by calling+370 685 06900, or by sending an email to office@lzb.lt. Please note that the exhibit of artworks is scheduled to end June 9, so this might be your last opportunity to view it.
Ben Tsiyon Klibansky: Lithuanian Holocaust Perpetrators Turned into Heroes
Lithuanian State Television and Radio LRT.lt interview with Ben Tsiyon Klibansky
Lithuanians are still heroizing people who took part in the Holocaust, regrets historian and author Ben Tsiyon Klibansky. It’s up to the nation’s leaders to start a long-overdue conversation about these painful pages from the country’s history.
Ben Tsiyon Klibansky teaches at Tel Aviv University and researches Eastern European Jewry. This is now a lost world, and the Jews of Lithuania were the cornerstone in this world, Klibansky tells LRT.lt, something he feels it to be his duty to research.
You were born in Lithuania, Vilnius, but now, you live in Israel. Could you tell me more about your connection to Lithuania?
My family was a traditional family. My grandfather was a spiritual leader of the community. … I was a student at the Antanas Vienuolis School for two years, then my parents got permission to leave Lithuania and immigrate to Israel, which had been their dream for many years.
You should understand that it wasn’t because they hated Lithuania, but because of the prophecies of the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, who promised one day we will return to the land of Israel and settle there again. They tried to get permission to leave Lithuania and go to Israel, but it was Soviet Lithuania and the Soviets didn’t let them to go. It took them 13 years, from 1956 when they returned from Siberia until 1969. …
After I finished high school in Israel I started studying at Tel Aviv University. I studied electronic engineering. I joined the army and served for many years. I was a high-ranking officer in the army and when I finished my army service, I got a very good contract in the industry.