VILNIUS—The controversial Rothschild Foundation (Hanadiv) London conference on Jewish cemeteries wound up here in the Lithuanian capital yesterday afternoon with a triumphant press release that seemed to suggest that there are no serious objections to a $25,000,000 convention center in the middle of the old Jewish cemetery (the release says little about most of the diverse topics and academic contributions that made up the bulk of the actual academically and culturally rich event). A dozen delegates contacted by DefendingHistory.com had no idea from one-sided conference presentations that there was a highly specific, budgeted-for decision taken for the multimillion dollar facility not necessarily appropriate for a historic cemetery where thousands of people’s remains are interred. They were under the impression that there is some consultative, respectful dialogue between the different sides. There was much more they were not told about.
Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites
As Rothschild Conference Winds Up in Vilnius, Kaunas Religious Jewish Community Issues Statement of Defiance
Lithuania’s President Dalia Grybauskaitė Completes Official Visit to Israel
LITHUANIA TRIBUNE / DELFI; JERUSALEM POST
Hopes Dashed She Would Announce Cancellation of “Vilnius Convention Center in the Old Jewish Cemetery” and Promise to Remove Public Memorials for Holocaust Collaborators
Asra Kadisha Calls on Lithuanian President, After Yad Vashem Visit in Jerusalem, to Cancel “Convention Center in the Vilna Jewish Cemetery”
NEW YORK—The Brooklyn based office of the international NGO Asra Kadisha that works to preserve Jewish cemeteries worldwide from desecration has released the following statement to coincide with the official visit to Israel of Lithuania’s president Dalia Grybauskaitė. Titled “World Jewry Hopes that Lithuanian President’s Visit to Holocaust Museum Yad Vashem will Result in Government’s Cancellation of Development Plans on Vilnius Cemetery,” it calls on the president to cancel the mass desecration of the oldest Jewish cemetery in the Lithuanian capital by a convention center where crowds would cheer, sing and drink surrounded by many thousands of Jewish graves. The old cemetery is in the Šnipiškės (Shnipishok) district, and is known in Vilna Yiddish culture as Piramónt. The Asra Kadisha statement reads as follows:
Run-Up to a Vilnius Rothschild Foundation (London) Conference
CONCERN SPREADING OVER “CLOSED [SECRET?] CONFERENCE” IN VILNIUS 25-28 OCTOBER FINANCED BY ROTHSCHILD FOUNDATION (HANADIV LONDON)! LIST OF SPEAKERS INCLUDES SPOKESMAN OF THE LONDON CPJCE “GRAVE TRADER RABBIS” BUT NOT ONE FROM THE MASSIVE INTERNATIONAL OPPOSITION
Lithuanian Government Announces Construction of a $25,000,000 Convention Center in the Center of Vilna’s Oldest Jewish Cemetery
O P I N I O N / H I S T O R Y / P I R A M O N T / C E M E T E R I E S
by Sid Leiman
The following is a reprint, with Professor Leiman’s permission, of his essay originally published on 13 September 2015 (Erev Rosh Ha-Shanah 5776) in The Seforim Blog. He is Professor Emeritus of Jewish History and Literature at Brooklyn College in the City University of New York. Russian versions have to date appeared twice, here and here.
First Moral Victory in the EU, in Effort to Prevent Unprecedented Desecration of Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery
New York Descendant of Jews Buried at Piramónt Receives Reply from the European Commission
THE PAPER TRAIL / THE OPPOSITION / DH SECTION / BACKGROUND
Mr. Berel Fried of New York City, an Orthodox Jewish scholar and businessman, has authorized publication of the reply which he received from the European Commission to his letter of 25 August 2015, sent 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.
Suspicions Rise on Role of “U.S. Commission for Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad” in Plans to Build a $25,000,000 Convention Center in Heart of Vilnius’s Old Jewish Cemetery
VILNIUS—The American taxpayer-funded agency known as the “U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad” has a mission statement that stresses commitment to preserving Jewish cemeteries in post-Holocaust Eastern Europe. They are in special danger because of the Holocaust: the people buried have no descendants or relatives to care for the preservation of their final resting place. Moreover, nationalism and antisemitism sometimes come into play, with powers that be not wanting any city-center reminders of major erstwhile Jewish populations in their cities, and in any case, applying very different standards to the preservation of Jewish and Christian cemeteries. The issue was addressed in a 2014 U.S. Congressional resolution.
SEE MORE ON USPACA’S RECORD ON THE PLANS TO DESECRATE A MAJOR EUROPEAN JEWISH CEMETERY
Israel Faced Some Delicate Post-Holocaust Issues During Lithuanian PM’s September Visit
Efraim Zuroff asked in the Jerusalem Post that the Baltic state’s campaign to revise Holocaust history — and its plans to plonk a convention center in the middle of Vilna’s old Jewish cemetery — be on the table; Zuroff’s post-visit article in i24
INTERNATIONAL OPPOSITION TO “CONVENTION CENTER IN THE JEWISH CEMETERY”
PAPER TRAIL
ISRAEL PAGE
ISRAEL SECTION
7 SOLUTIONS
AFTER MEETING NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER BUTKEVICIUS GLOATED TO MEDIA THAT ISRAEL DOESN’T OBJECT TO THE “GRAVEYARD CONVENTION CENTER” DESPITE INTERNATIONAL OPPOSITION; JTA REPORT; IN THE JERUSALEM POST
CAMPAIGN AGAINST JEWISH PARTISANS NOT EVEN MENTIONED? Does Israel betray its own citizens by not asking apologies for the World War II heroes Yitzhak Arad, (the late) Rachel Margolis and Joseph Melamed? Arad and Melamed are heroes of Israel’s 1948 war of independence. Will there now be a public apology on the prosecutors’ page that still defames him [as PDF] and from the “Human Rights Association”? Apologies to Israeli citizens Rachel Margolis and Joseph Melamed? The 2009 Leivick House (Tel Aviv) speech of the late Ambassador Chen Ivri Apter. What does Dr. Arad think?
BUT PM DECRIED “DOUBLE GENOCIDE” IN PUBLIC (JP REPORT). HE WILL HOPEFULLY FOLLOW UP AT HOME ON STREET NAMES AND PUBLIC HONORS FOR HOLOCAUST PERPETRATORS [CURRENT DEBATE]; OVERDUE APOLOGIES TO JEWISH PARTISANS; RAPID REFORM OR ABOLITION OF GENOCIDE CENTER AND RED-BROWN COMMISSION — AND REPUDIATION OF THE PRAGUE DECLARATION. NEO-NAZI PARADES ON INDEPENDENCE DAYS?
RECENT MEDIA: Slate. The Forward. Jerusalem Post. JTA. Times of Israel.
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US Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad Does Photo-Op with CPJCE in Washington D.C.
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.
International Rabbinic Delegation Issues Press Release on Visit to Lithuania to Appeal for Reprieve for the Old Jewish Cemetery at Piramont
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.
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
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.
A New Yorker’s Open Letter to the Vice President of the European Commission
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
London “Graveyard Rabbis” Issue Statement that Fails to Mention Cemetery Convention Center (CCC)
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.
Serge Klarsfeld Calls on EU to Desist from “Structural Funds” for the “Cemetery Convention Center” in Vilnius
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
Didier Bertin’s Letter to the President of the European Commission on the Old Vilnius Jewish Cemetery
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
Motke Chabad Weighs In on Vilnius Debate
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
U.S. Author of Lithuanian Heritage Comments on “Cemetery Convention Center”
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.
Lithuanian Translation of Professor Pinchos Fridberg’s Times of Israel Article on the Vilnius Jewish Cemetery
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.