OPINION | VILNIUS JEWISH COMMUNITY ISSUES | OLD VILNA JEWISH CEMETERY | ARKADY KURLIANDCHIK
◊
VILNIUS—Last Thursday, 22 August, Defending History distributed the link to an ultranationalist announcement of a demonstration scheduled for the following day at the Old Vina Jewish Cemetery. The demonstration would be against not, directly speaking, the preservation of the Jewish cemetery (though that is the upshot), but against the recent “compromise” that would effectively in any event destroy the cemetery forever: keeping the hated Soviet monstrosity and turning it into a memorial center with exhibits 75% Jewish and 25% Lithuanian. As pointed out by Defending History, this is in any case a (disguised) new events center with seating for thousands who would clap, cheer and flush lavatories surrounded by thousands of extant graves.
Far-right demonstrators stand atop thousands of extant Jewish graves at the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery. To prevent preservation and restoration of the old cemetery they seem to have just decided that a hated Soviet building is in fact a symbol of Lithuanian independence (!). Defending History photo by William Adan Pahl.
It is ironic that just like cemetery preservation champions, the ultranationalist far right is opposed to a “cockamamie compromise.” Either it is a cemetery or it is not. If it is a cemetery (and it is, and thousands are still buried there), it must be restored. Indeed — were it a Christian cemetery of the Lithuanian majority, it would no doubt be lovingly restored, but in the case of even Lithuania’s major historic Jewish cemetery, where centuries of great scholars lie interred, the lame government restitution ersatz “Lithuanian Jewish Community” once again betrayed its interests, history and future while its alleged rigged-election leaders, and American Jewish Committee (ASJ) partners, continue to be decorated by high government medals.
The ultranationalist demonstration, with an overt antisemitic component, on Friday 23 August, was undertaken in response to the Vilnius Jewish Community’s 25 July demonstration. In addition to coverage of the demonstration, and posting of Rabbi Elchonon Baron’s historic interview there with LRT, Defending History published a full translation of the LRT evening news coverage, which included a Vilnius “professor of Judaic studies” for whom the cherished memory of basketball games and rock concerts at the Soviet facility weighs in at much higher value than half a millennium of a cemetery in which tens of thousands of Vilnius citizens were buried in plots purchased by their families in freehold.
And so, irony of ironies, both the defenders of the cemetery’s integrity and the ultranationalist far-right are equally opposed to the recent Working Group document, enabled by alleged moral bribing of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER) by the leaders of the (woefully misnamed) Good Will Foundation, which provides the tens of millions of euros over many years to be disbursed as per the wishes of the official head of community and her American Jewish Committee counterpart. The CER allegedly provided prominent Orthodox members who would not utter a public word against the construction of seating space for thousands in the middle of the most sacred Jewish cemetery in the historic Lithuanian lands.
Friday’s ultranationalist demonstration implied that there is some sort of a contest between a “Jewish narrative” and the status of the Soviet eyesore which is suddenly being claimed as a major symbol of modern Lithuanian statehood (to the contrary, it is the symbol par excellence of Soviet occupation and ruination of much of beautiful Vilnius). It is the premises of Sąjūdis, the inspirational freedom movement that helped liberate Lithuania from Soviet occupation and dictatorship, that need to be immortalized, not a brutalist Soviet monstrosity where they held a rally. (All other Soviet monstrosities are torn down, even if nice events once transpired there. It rings hollow to exempt the one build in the middle of the Jewish cemetery that the antisemitic far right does not want in the nation’s capital.)
Mounting international opposition to destruction of the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery via a “museum/memorial center complex”
The issue is singularly simple: Is a cemetery a cemetery? One of the prominent posters at the 25 July Vilnius Jewish Community demonstration reads: “Jews are not Soviets! A cemetery is not a museum!” (the first phrase counters another kind of local antisemitism: the wish for Jews to be associated with Soviets in the spirit of the Hitlerist “Judeo-Bolshevik” conspiracy theory, hence the idea of a Jewish memorial in the major Soviet relic in Lithuania’s capital; this was eloquently explained by Lithuanian scholar Andrius Kulikauskas).
Video of demonstrators standing on top of Jewish graves shouting “Lietuva!” as if the existence of the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery is a contradiction to Lithuania’s nationhood (?!). Would they countenance others dancing on their ancestors’ graves? Unwittingly they may have revealed the unspoken heart of the matter. But this is also a splendid opportunity here for the gov. to teach its people that the tragic Litvak history is indeed a proud heritage for all of Lithuania. And restoration of the country’s major and oldest cemetery will bring honor, tourism and grandeur to beautiful modern Vilnius.
But Friday’s far-right demonstration did not go unopposed. Arkady Kurliandchik, a beloved member of the democratically structured Vilnius Jewish Community, turned up with his Jewish flag. His lone opposition was duly recorded even in the antisemitic daily Respublika’s coverage of the event. The paper writes: “And here is Arkady who came to the event with a Jewish flag, and said that ‘There should not be any building at all in this place. This is a cemetery here, and there can be neither buildings nor museums here. The existing [Soviet] Sports Palace must be demolished,’ this man made clear.” Guess what? Arkady is right.
And, so the multicentury history of genuine Vilna Jewish heroes is enriched by the eternal image of one of the few remaining genuine Jewish leaders in town not fearing a larger ultranationalist, antisemitic crowd. He came and uttered some words that might constitute a mere truism in the West, but that are words of huge courage, integrity and vision here in Vilnius: A cemetery is a cemetery.
The restitution calamity in Lithuania (tens of millions going to the sole control of a tiny Vilnius-American clique) will no doubt be studied by historians in years to come. The power to corrupt with money, careers, and power has included everything from secret scholarships for children of lackeys to study abroad to the setting up of a fake Vilnius Jewish Community in an attempt to destroy the weak, small, and genuine remnant of Lithuanian Jewry.
Arkady Kurliandchik’s flag is proudly visible at the ultranationalist, antisemitic demonstration denying the historic status of Vilnius’s half-millennium old sacred Jewish cemetery, where many thousands still lie buried. Defending History photo by William Adan Pahl.
That genuine remnant has near-miraculously given rise to various true heroes over the years, who have not feared to stand up for the truth. They include Shimon Alperovich, Ruta Bloshtein, Milan Chersonski, Pinchos Fridberg, Rachel Kostanian, Rachel Margolis, Joseph Parasonis, and Jacob Piliansky among others. They have been joined by fearless Lithuanians over the years, including Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis, Andrius Kulikauskas, and Julius Norwilla. Lithuanians in the spirit of Gediminas and Vytautas, not the narrow, petty, far right racist cult that wants Holocaust perpetrators for heroes and that sees a threat in the project to restore the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery and rid it of a Soviet eyesore that symbolizes occupation and brutalism, both architecturally and humanistically.
That noble pantheon is much enriched by this week’s heroism of Arkady Kurliandchik. One Jewish person did turn up to explain to the demonstrators that a cemetery is a cemetery is a cemetery. He came to stand up, in the age-old spirit of one against the mob, to resolutely stand up for the integrity, dignity and peace of the tens of thousands who were brought to rest at this sacred site. They have the same human right as all other humans to rest in peace and dignity, in the cemetery hosting their plots, purchased by their families freehold and in perpetuity.