Monthly Archives: August 2015

The Holocaust was Also a Matter of Plundering the Jewish Victims

Posted on 31 August 2015 by Defending History

O P I N I O N    /     H I S T O R Y    /    L A T V I A

by Roland Binet  (Braine-l’Alleud/Belgium)

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Having recently spent a few days in Germany, and watching different television channels, I once more realized that that country still broadcasts regular programs on the Holocaust. Nearly each and every evening during my stay, I had the opportunity to see fragments of such programs, broadcast on less popular channels (“ZDF History” for example). And, it is true, it is one of the things that I admire most in modern Germany — the regular televising of documentaries on the Holocaust, never hiding the enormous responsibility of the Nazis in the destruction of the Jews.

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Breaking the Silence

Posted on 28 August 2015 by Defending History

B O O K S

by Merilyn Moos

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1783482966-230x345While there has been some research on and recognition of the exiles from Nazism who settled in the UK, little is known about their children: the British second generation, and what the long term effects of their parents’ exile have been on them. Indeed, this has been a largely invisible group. My book Breaking the Silence. Voices of the British Children of Refugees from Nazism  (Rowman and Littlefield, 2015) set out to cast light on this second generation group.

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Posted in Books, Memoirs, News & Views, United Kingdom | Comments Off on Breaking the Silence

US Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad Does Photo-Op with CPJCE in Washington D.C.

Posted on 27 August 2015 by Defending History

D O C U M E N T S    /    P I R A M O N T    /    S T A T E   D E P T.

The following image and text appeared on the website of the Jewish Community of Lithuania earlier today.

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Posted in Cemeteries and Mass Graves, CPJCE (London), Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok), United States, US State Dept Manipulated?, USCPAHA (US Commission for Preservation of the American Heritage Abroad) | Comments Off on US Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad Does Photo-Op with CPJCE in Washington D.C.

International Rabbinic Delegation Issues Press Release on Visit to Lithuania to Appeal for Reprieve for the Old Jewish Cemetery at Piramont

Posted on 26 August 2015 by Defending History

NEW YORK—A spokesperson for the rabbinic delegation from the United States, Israel and Europe that came to plea for a reprieve for the old Jewish cemetery in Vilnius issued the following press release upon completion of the group’s meetings. Its content contrasts sharply with the BNS report published in various Lithuanian media today.

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International Rabbinic Delegation Travels to Vilnius to Plea for the Cancellation of Development Plans on the Šnipiškės Cemetery

Group Meets Deputy Chancellor and the Vilnius Mayor to Relay Calls of World Jewry to Spare 500-Year Old Šnipiškės Cemetery from Further Desecration

VILNIUS—A rabbinic delegation visited Vilnius yesterday and met the authorities to plea with them to cancel plans to construct a congress hall on Šnipiškės Jewish cemetery. The Šnipiškės cemetery was established over five centuries ago, and it interred the most famous Jewish leaders of Vilnius.

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Posted in Appeals to the European Commission on Piramónt, Cemeteries and Mass Graves, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok) | Tagged , , | Comments Off on International Rabbinic Delegation Issues Press Release on Visit to Lithuania to Appeal for Reprieve for the Old Jewish Cemetery at Piramont

US Rep of London Rabbis Involved with Vilnius Cemetery Fiasco Boasts of Photo-Ops at the US Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad

Posted on 26 August 2015 by Defending History

O P I N I O N

WASHINGTON, DC—The chairman of “Admas Kodesh” today posted on a public Facebook page the following item and images, including an obviously posed photo featuring the chairperson of the United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, and Rabbi Andrew Baker of the American Jewish Committee, a close ally of the Lithuanian government and member of its controversial “red-brown commission” that has caused some pain to Holocaust survivors via its support of Baltic “Double Genocide” Holocaust revisionism. “Admas Kodesh” (‘holy earth) is generally used interchangeably for the London-based CPJCE (“Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe”), which is currently involved in a potentially major scandal over alleged payments in return for paid “supervisions” of cemetery desecrations allowed at the old Jewish cemetery in Vilnius. The CPJCE continues to adamantly defend the twenty-five million dollar convention center slated for the middle of the old Jewish cemetery, at a time of virtually unanimous condemnation by rabbis internationally and local people alike. That story was covered in today’s Jerusalem Post.

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Posted in "Admas Kodesh", American Jewish Committee (AJC) in Lithuania, Cemeteries and Mass Graves, CPJCE (London), Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok), United States, US State Dept Manipulated?, USCPAHA (US Commission for Preservation of the American Heritage Abroad) | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on US Rep of London Rabbis Involved with Vilnius Cemetery Fiasco Boasts of Photo-Ops at the US Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad

A New Yorker’s Open Letter to the Vice President of the European Commission

Posted on 25 August 2015 by Defending History

THE PAPER TRAIL   /   THE OPPOSITION   /   DH SECTION   /   BACKGROUND

Mr. Berel Fried of New York City, an Orthodox Jewish scholar and businessman, has authorized this publication of his letter, sent earlier today to Frans Timmermans, first vice president of the European Commission, regarding plans for a convention center at the old Piramónt (Šnipiškės) Jewish cemetery in Vilnius. He is a frequent visitor to Vilnius, where he is known for his exquisite Torah readings at the Choral Synagogue. The most recent public response from the European Commission is here.

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Hon. Frans Timmermans

First Vice President of the European Commission

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Posted in Appeals to the European Commission on Piramónt, Berel Fried, Cemeteries and Mass Graves, CPJCE (London), Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok), Opinion, Politics of Memory | Tagged , , | Comments Off on A New Yorker’s Open Letter to the Vice President of the European Commission

London “Graveyard Rabbis” Issue Statement that Fails to Mention Cemetery Convention Center (CCC)

Posted on 23 August 2015 by Defending History

LONDON—The “Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe” (CPJCE), affiliated with “Admas Kodesh” and the “Aaronite” splinter group of Satmar hasidism, comprising the rabbis received by the prime minister of Lithuania in Vilnius last April, issued an extraordinary press release today, full of praise for the prime minister (which he no doubt deserves), but without even mentioning the issue at hand: the imminent construction of a twenty-five million dollar convention center in the heart of the cemetery. People attending conventions, concerts, and congresses naturally cheer, clap, drink in bars and use toilets. Here they will do so surrounded by thousands of Jewish graves from over a half millennium of Jewish life in Vilna, once known as the Jerusalem of Lithuania.

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Posted in "Admas Kodesh", Cemeteries and Mass Graves, CPJCE (London), Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok) | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on London “Graveyard Rabbis” Issue Statement that Fails to Mention Cemetery Convention Center (CCC)

Serge Klarsfeld Calls on EU to Desist from “Structural Funds” for the “Cemetery Convention Center” in Vilnius

Posted on 23 August 2015 by Defending History

PARIS—Following publication earlier today of Didier Bertin’s letter (in French) to the president of the European Commission, Holocaust documentarian and Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld added his voice to the growing European chorus asking the Europan Commission’s “structural funds” program to desist from funding a convention center in the heart of Vilnius’s oldest Jewish cemetery. The international opposition has been growing by the day.

Mr. Klarsfeld’s statement, issued in response to publication of Mr. Bertin’s, was released today, with Mr. Klarsfeld’s permission, by the France-based Association for a New Model of Human Rights and Duties.

Nous nous associons à votre protestation et il nous parait inadmissible que des fonds européens puissent soutenir ce projet sacrilège.

— Serge Klarsfeld

In translation:

We join your protest and we consider as unacceptable that EU funds would support a project of such sacrilege.

— Serge Klarsfeld

Posted in Appeals to the European Commission on Piramónt, Cemeteries and Mass Graves, France, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok) | Comments Off on Serge Klarsfeld Calls on EU to Desist from “Structural Funds” for the “Cemetery Convention Center” in Vilnius

What It Is to Defend Your Own History

Posted on 23 August 2015 by Defending History

O P I N I O N    /    C O L L A B O R A T O R S   G L O R I F I E D

by Kristina Apanavičiūtė Sulikienė

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krokuva2

Kristina Apanavičiūtė Sulikienė

One can hear various stories about history here in Lithuania. The main narrative is about Bad Communists and Good Nazis. Yes, it is true. Especially very recently, after the civil (or whatever kind of) war broke out in Ukraine, the Nazis and those who justify and glorify them, both in Ukraine and Lithuania, have found new strength. Under the banner of “Ukraine Fights For All Of Us,” some have decided to bring back such “heroes” as the killer Antanas Baltūsis-Žvejas.

For my part, I would like to defend our Tauras district (in the Kaunas region) from the legacy of this genre of “hero.” For his history was not only one of guerilla warfare against Soviet forces but about what he was doing in 1941 when the wholesale slaughter of our Jewish population was underway.  This has a lot to do with Lithuania, who we are as proud Lithuanians whose history, like every other people on this earth, has its high and its low moments.

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Posted in Collaborators Glorified, History, Human Rights, Kristina Apanavičiūtė Sulikienė, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on What It Is to Defend Your Own History

Didier Bertin’s Letter to the President of the European Commission on the Old Vilnius Jewish Cemetery

Posted on 22 August 2015 by Defending History

Didier Bertin, president of the Association for the Promotion of a New Model of Human Rights and Duties, today sent this letter to the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker. The text was released by the Association.

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  • Monsieur Jean-Claude Juncker
  • Président de la Commission Européenne
  • president.juncker@ec.europa.eu
  • Rue de la Loi / Wetstraat 200 – 1049 Bruxelles – Belgique
  • Objet : Profanation du cimetière juif de Vilnius par les autorités lituaniennes utilisant pour cela des fonds de l’Union européenne.
  • 22 Août 2015

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Posted in Appeals to the European Commission on Piramónt, Cemeteries and Mass Graves, Didier Bertin, France, Human Rights, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok) | Comments Off on Didier Bertin’s Letter to the President of the European Commission on the Old Vilnius Jewish Cemetery

Motke Chabad Weighs In on Vilnius Debate

Posted on 21 August 2015 by Defending History

C E M E T E R I E S    /    P I R A M Ó N T    /   L I T V A K     H U M O R

by Motke Chabad

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Our community has asked me to help them find a new chief rabbi, and to formulate the primary requirements specific to Vilna, as only Motke can. No problem.

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OUTSTANDING EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

NEW ORTHODOX CHIEF RABBI OF VILNIUS AND LITHUANIA

MAJOR QUALIFICATION:

MUST BE A DEDICATED SUPPORTER OF A $25,000,000 CONVENTION CENTER IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OLD JEWISH CEMETERY AND MUST PUT HIS SUPPORT IN WRITING UPON APPLICATION

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Posted in Cemeteries and Mass Graves, Humor (Of Sorts), Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Motke Chabad, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok), Opinion, Politics of Memory | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Motke Chabad Weighs In on Vilnius Debate

Grant Arthur Gochin in the Jerusalem Post on Memorials for Holocaust Perpetrator J. Noreika in Central Vilnius

Posted on 20 August 2015 by Defending History

Gochin’s Jerusalem Post Article   Who was Noreika?   Street Names for Nazis?   Reburials?   More Honors?

2023748827

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Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Exotic Jewish Tourism, Human Rights, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory | Comments Off on Grant Arthur Gochin in the Jerusalem Post on Memorials for Holocaust Perpetrator J. Noreika in Central Vilnius

U.S. Author of Lithuanian Heritage Comments on “Cemetery Convention Center”

Posted on 17 August 2015 by Defending History

O P I N I O N    /     C E M E T E R I E S    /    P I R A M Ó N T

by Donna Druchunas

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Seriously, who wants to go to a convention on top of an old graveyard, Jewish or otherwise, anyway?

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Donna Druchunas is a Vermont based author of Lithuanian heritage. Her new book is Lithuanian Knitting: Continuing Traditions.

 

Posted in Cemeteries and Mass Graves, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok) | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on U.S. Author of Lithuanian Heritage Comments on “Cemetery Convention Center”

Lithuanian Translation of Professor Pinchos Fridberg’s Times of Israel Article on the Vilnius Jewish Cemetery

Posted on 16 August 2015 by Defending History

O P I N I O N   /   C E M E T E R I E S    /   P I R A M Ó N T

Pinchos Fridberg

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NOTE: The following Lithuanian translation of Professor Pinchos Fridberg’s Yiddish article on the fate of the old Jewish cemetery in Vilnius was prepared by Julius Norwilla. The English version, “Dancing on Jewish Graves in Vilna” appeared in The Times of Israel on 25 June 2015.

 

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Posted in Cemeteries and Mass Graves, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok) | Tagged , | Comments Off on Lithuanian Translation of Professor Pinchos Fridberg’s Times of Israel Article on the Vilnius Jewish Cemetery

Chairperson of Official Lithuanian Jewish Community Issues Statement After Sacking Chief Rabbi

Posted on 15 August 2015 by Defending History

D O C U M E N T S   /   C E M E T E R I E S    /   P I R A M Ó N T

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VILNIUS—Several hours after the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s website announced the effective dismissal of Chief Rabbi Chaim Burshtein (rapidly reported by JTA and in DH), the community chairperson issued the following statement, also on its website, focusing on the debate over the planned $25,000,000 convention center in Vilnius’s oldest Jewish cemetery, a project that has attracted considerable international opposition and press coverage, and has involved both political and financial intrigue. The text follows:

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Posted in Cemeteries and Mass Graves, CPJCE (London), Faina Kukliansky, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok) | Comments Off on Chairperson of Official Lithuanian Jewish Community Issues Statement After Sacking Chief Rabbi

Lithuania’s Chief Rabbi Fired Days After Public Statement on Old Jewish Cemetery

Posted on 14 August 2015 by Defending History

 

D O C U M E N T S   /   C E M E T E R I E S    /   P I R A M Ó N T

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VILNIUS—The following report appeared today on the website of the Jewish Community of Lithuania concerning Chief Rabbi Chaim Burshtein, who has held the position since March 2004. It comes several days after his public statement on the old Jewish cemetery, and following other disagreements with community head Faina Kukliansky, who recently posted statements on the subject. Defending History has attempted to provide fair representation to both community leaders (see Burshtein and Kukliansky sections), at a time when editorial policy is staunchly in agreement with the rabbi on the subject of the old Jewish cemetery, with personal malice toward none.

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Report by Vilnius Jewish Religious Community on August 14, 2015

We report that today, August 14, 2015, an extraordinary general meeting of the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community was held. The Vilnius Jewish Religious Community resolved that after the current contract with Chaim Burshtein ends, it will not be extended, and that Shmuel Yatom is to perform the function of rabbi temporarily, until a new rabbi is found.

Shmuel Levin
Vilnius Jewish Religious Community

Posted in Cemeteries and Mass Graves, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok) | Comments Off on Lithuania’s Chief Rabbi Fired Days After Public Statement on Old Jewish Cemetery

Satmar Grand Rabbi and Rabbinical Court Call on Lithuanian Gov. to Abandon Convention Center in Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery

Posted on 14 August 2015 by Defending History

D O C U M E N T S   /   C E M E T E R I E S    /   P I R A M Ó N T

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BROOKLYN, NEW YORK—The high rabbinical court of the most populous Hasidic group in the world, Satmar, today released to the media the text of its judgment of 6 July 2015 calling on the Lithuanian government to abandon its multimillion dollar convention center project in the heart of Vilna’s old Jewish cemetery. The bilingual text, in rabbinic Hebrew and English, also calls on the American government to exert its influence to save the thousands of graves on the site from further desecration. The document was further signed, with an added note, by Satmar grand rabbi  (der Sátmerer Rébe) Yekusiel Yehuda Teitelbaum on 10 July 2015.

“We were horrified to hear that the government of Lithuania intends to renovate an abandoned building in the heart of the ancient cemetery of Vilna, and turn it into a place of assemblage and entertainment; and invest a huge sum of money to make it into an attraction for the masses from their country and worldwide.”  

— from the Satmar Rabbinic Court’s ruling

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Posted in Appeals to the European Commission on Piramónt, Cemeteries and Mass Graves, CPJCE (London), Documents, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok), Politics of Memory | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Satmar Grand Rabbi and Rabbinical Court Call on Lithuanian Gov. to Abandon Convention Center in Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery

What Does the 27 May 2009 Cable from the US Embassy in Vilnius Tell Us About the CPJCE, Money and Secrecy?

Posted on 14 August 2015 by Defending History

D O C U M E N T S   /   C E M E T E R I E S    /   P I R A M Ó N T

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VILNIUS—The following is the text of a cable sent by the United States ambassador in Vilnius to Washington, on 27 May 2015, concerning the old Jewish cemetery at Piramont (Snipiskes). Though initially confidential, it enetered the public domain via publication by Wikileaks where the document is available at: http://cables.mrkva.eu/cable.php?id=208864.

SEE ORIGINAL DOCUMENT

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Posted in "Good Will Foundation" (Jewish Restitution in Lithuania), Cemeteries and Mass Graves, CPJCE (London), Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok) | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on What Does the 27 May 2009 Cable from the US Embassy in Vilnius Tell Us About the CPJCE, Money and Secrecy?

European Commission Redirects Cemetery Inquiry to Lith. Finance Ministry, Cites CPJCE’S “Close Cooperation”

Posted on 13 August 2015 by Defending History

D O C U M E N T S   /   C E M E T E R I E S    /   P I R A M Ó N T

VILNIUS—The following is the reply received to an inquiry concerning press reports that European Union funding of 13 million euros (around 14.5 million dollars at current exchange rates) would be sought as part of the new 22.8 million euro (= US 25.4 million dollar) budget for a convention and congress center in the heart of the historic Jewish cemetery at Piramont (Snipiskes). The current debate, entailing reports of high intrigue, has engendered a long paper trail and considerable international opposition to the project. A DH section is dedicated to the topic.

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Posted in Appeals to the European Commission on Piramónt, Cemeteries and Mass Graves, CPJCE (London), EU, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok) | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on European Commission Redirects Cemetery Inquiry to Lith. Finance Ministry, Cites CPJCE’S “Close Cooperation”

Lithuania’s Chief Rabbi Cites Evidence that London CPJCE Gets Paid Secretly for “Permissions” to Desecrate Vilnius Jewish Cemetery

Posted on 13 August 2015 by Defending History

VILNIUS—In a new Facebook post today, Lithuania’s official chief rabbi, Rabbi Chaim Burshtein, mentioned a Wikileaks-published cable sent by the United Stated ambassador to Lithuania to Washington in 2009. The cable references the need to supply a $100,000 payment to the London-based CPJCE (Committee for the Protection of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe) for “supervision” of “beautification” and “exploratory digging” at the old cemetery. It notes the rabbis’ request for secrecy about their doings. In the chronology, the cable postdates the unknown arrangements by which the two buildings started in 2005 were allowed to stand, and it predates public mention of future plans for a congress and convention center. Observers have been struck, however, by the disparity between one of the secret agreements reached and the impression given in 2009 to the outside world by press releases that in effect, in return for no further “fuss” over the two buildings on the old cemetery’s land, no more would ever be built on the remainder. It was a “compromise” many could “live with.”

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Posted in Cemeteries and Mass Graves, CPJCE (London), Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok) | Comments Off on Lithuania’s Chief Rabbi Cites Evidence that London CPJCE Gets Paid Secretly for “Permissions” to Desecrate Vilnius Jewish Cemetery