OPINION | LITHUANIAN JEWISH COMMUNITY ISSUES | LITVAK AFFAIRS | TEXTBOOK CASE OF FAILURE OF RESTITUTION FOR PLUNDERED PREWAR JEWISH ASSETS | GOOD WILL FOUNDATION | STOLEN ELECTION SAGA | AJC MISADVENTURES IN LITHUANIA | CHABAD IN LITHUANIA

◊

VILNIUS—The office of Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky, Chabad’s rabbi in Lithuania, who for thirty-two years has been the city’s only resident rabbi, today issued the following statement addressed to the WJRO and other foreign members of the two boards of the Good Will Foundation:

• To: 
• Herbert Block (Executive Director of the American Zionist Movement / AZM)
• Arie Bucheister (Chief of Staff at the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany / Claims Conference)
• Ted Deutsch (Chief Executive Officer of the American Jewish Committee / AJC)
• Nachliel Dison (Acting Director General of the World Jewish Restitution Organization / WJRO)
• Faina Kukliansky (co-chair of the Good Will Foundation / GWF)
• Gideon Taylor (president of the World Jewish Restitution Organization / WJRO)
• Mark Weitzman (chief operating officer of the World Jewish Restitution Organization / WJRO

Dear Members of the Good Will Foundation Board and Leaders of the Organizations Represented on the WJRO, 

The Talmud teaches that silence is a sign of agreement.  For months, neither the GWF Board nor the WJRO has responded to my letters, in which I have repeatedly urged meaningful changes in the operation and transparency of the Lithuanian Jewish restitution foundation known as the Good Will Foundation (GWF). 

For some twelve years, the restitution system in Lithuania has been administered in ways deeply troubling and offensive to the memory of the Lithuanian Jewish martyrs of the Holocaust, particularly to the detriment of our work throughout Lithuania since 1994.

We did not wait for restitution funds before beginning our exhaustive work throughout Lithuania, nor did we build activities and institutions simply to qualify for funding. We came to Lithuania to rebuild Jewish life destroyed by the Nazis and suppressed by the Soviets, despite very limited local funding. (Chabad Headquarters does not fund Chabad centers worldwide; each center raises its own support.)

For more than three decades, we have continued this work, often with substantial deficits, because we regard teaching Torah and reconnecting Lithuanian Jews with their heritage as a sacred mission of Jewish spiritual survival (even more vital than fighting antisemitism).

The damage caused by actions against our work has been enormous — not only the tens of thousands of euros spent responding to attacks supported or financed through GWF funds, but, more importantly, the loss of Jewish opportunities. Dozens of children were influenced to leave the only Lithuanian school teaching Torah daily. Constant disparagement and obstruction forced us to spend resources protecting our work rather than expanding it.

Meanwhile, individuals and institutions aligned with the leadership of the Jewish Community of Lithuania with WJRO support have continued receiving GWF resources, raising serious questions about whether these allocations truly reflect the needs and wishes of the martyrs whose memory these funds are meant to honor. How many opportunities to establish institutions, strengthen Jewish education, and reconnect Jews with their heritage have been lost because of these decisions?

The first wrong to be addressed is the discrimination against those actually rebuilding Jewish life — the work that would bring comfort to the souls of the martyrs.

As a first step toward correcting this long-standing inequity, the GWF must immediately designate ten million euros for rebuilding and strengthening Jewish life throughout Lithuania, entrusted to those who have faithfully carried out this work since 1994.

These funds should come from the substantial amounts being reserved annually for future use, all while our urgent needs were neglected.

We are now in Elul, a month of introspection, accountability, and repentance. The time for meaningful action is now. This ten million euro immediate  funding would be a tangible first step toward ensuring that these sacred restitution funds are finally used in a manner worthy of the memory of those whose lives and communities were destroyed.

Ksiva v’chasima tova, may you be written and sealed for a good year, 

Rabbi Sholom Krinsky