Ivan Glasenberg, CEO of Glencore: Celebrated Litvak scion is feted by government operatives in Vilnius
According to a BNS news report released today (full text below), the Lithuanian prime minister’s advisor Mykolas Majauskas reported that discussions were held with Glencore’s CEO Ivan Glasenberg concerning plans to inspire more Litvaks to invest in the country. Mr. Majauskas also claimed that “some Litvaks are considering buying farms in Lithuania in order to take active part in communal activities.”
DefendingHistory.com takes the view that Litvak investment should progress in tandem with genuine progress on Lithuanian-Jewish issues, and not as long as the present “dual-track” (“double game”) policies continue to be applied. Ruses attempted have on occasion entailed usurpation of the Litvak identity by government agencies.
According to a foreign ministry official who spoke to DefendingHistory on condition of anonymity, the groundwork for the Glasenberg visit was laid by the right wing’s ‘court Jew’ Emanuelis Zingeris during his recent visit to South Africa. Mr. Zingeris was the only Jew in Europe to sign the 2008 Prague Declaration.
Seven straightforward solutions to the outstanding issues have been proposed by DefendingHistory. At the present time, the same government that welcomes foreign Jewish business people and communal leaders with the red carpet treatment sadly permits neo-Nazi marches down the center of both Vilnius and Kaunas on national holidays, takes no action against 1930s style antisemitic headlines, continues to defame Jewish Holocaust survivors who joined the anti-Nazi resistance, and invests heavily in a falsified history of World War II that insists on “equality” of Nazi and Soviet crimes. At present, state-sponsored museums, street names and events and programs honor actual Holocaust perpetrators as “national heroes.” In 2010 swastikas were legalized. The same year, it became illegal to state that the Holocaust was the one actual genocide in Lithuania in the twentieth century.
TEXT OF TODAY’S BALTIC NEWS SERVICE (BNS) RELEASE:
Lithuania’s govt expects bigger investments from Litvaks
VILNIUS, Apr 20, BNS — Lithuania’s government expects more investments from Litvaks, Jews of Lithuanian origin, adviser to Lithuania’s Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius said on Friday.
The topic was discussed during the prime minister’s meeting with Ivan Glasenberg, CEO of one of the world’s largest commodities trader Glencore whose father comes from Lithuania.
“We spoke about attracting more Litvaks to Lithuania, about making them feel welcome here and offering them opportunities to find archival information about their ancestors, visit their native soil and contribute to building communities, as well as examine investment opportunities in Lithuania, developing business or buying farms,” adviser Mykolas Majauskas said.
In his words, some Litvaks are considering buying farms in Lithuania in order to take active part in communal activities.
Litvaks are the ethnic-cultural group that was formed in Lithuania and across the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Before the Holocaust, Litvaks made about 10 percent of the global Jewish community. Vilnius was titled the Jerusalem of the North. More than 90 percent of Lithuania’s pre-war Jewish population of over 220,000 perished during the Nazi occupation.
Vilnius newsroom, politika@bns.lt, +370 5 205 85 14