Litvak Affairs
Welcome to Defending History! Issues & Projects in Autumn-Winter 2026
Posted in Germany, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views
Tagged Jewish issues in Lithuania (2025)
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A First Roster: 403 Rūdninkai (Rudnitsker) Jewish Partisans
Opinion | Last Jewish Partisan Fort | History | Blaming the Victims | Germany
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AI is no replacement for original historical research. But AI is a good place to start compiling a list from well-known and widely available published sources. This was the first result of a query about the names of known Jewish partisans who spent part of their time during the Holocaust at the Rūdninkai (Rudnitsker) Jewish partisan fort in Lithuania, some 25 to 27 miles south-southwest of Vilnius.
Among the remarkable people on this list of 403 Lithuanian Jews who survived the Holocaust by joining the anti-Nazi resistance are Dina Abramowicz (1909–2000), YIVO’s legendary librarian; Joseph Harmatz (1925–September 2016), head of World ORT from 1960 to 1994; Abba Kovner (1918–1987), partisan leader and acclaimed poet in Israel; Dov Levin (1925–2016), historian of Lithuanian Jewry; and Joseph Melamed (1924–2017), longtime leader of the Israeli Litvak community. Chaim Lazar (1914–1997), Różka Korczak (1921–1988), Zvie A. Brown and Isaac Kowalski did much to preserve the history of Jewish resistance. Avram Zeleznikow (1924–2013) became a leading figure in Melbourne’s Jewish community. Sara Ginaite (Rubinson) became a leading Holocaust educator and author in Toronto. Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky (1922–2024) and Rachel Margolis (1921–2015) devoted decades to preserving Jewish culture and Holocaust memory in Vilnius, where both were subjected (from 2008) to pre-trial investigations widely seen as part of a wider attempt at a rewriting of history that included defamation of Jewish partisans. Dr. Margolis was a prime founder of Vilnius’s Green House which remains to this day a rare bastion of unvarnished, unrewritten history. This extraordinary remnant in the forest has untold historical, Jewish spiritual, and educational significance. Germany has a unique historic responsibility to immediately issue a morally clear statement on the fort’s preservation and to make that happen, rather than continuing to be a tool, howsoever benign or via entrapment, of the East European antisemitic far right that yearns for its disappearance.
Posted in Germany, Jewish Fort in the Lithuanian Forest: A Last Remnant of Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion
Tagged Abba Kovner, Avram Zeleznikow, Dina Abramowicz, Dov Levin, Dr. Rachel Margolis, Fania Brantsovsky, Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky, Jewish partisans, Joseph Harmatz, Rachel Margolis, Rudninkai (Rudnitsker) partisan fort, Solveig Grothe, Vilna Jewish partisans
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Vilnius’s Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky Issues Response to Official ‘State Restitution’ Community’s Statement on Violent Attack at Synagogue Gate
“GOOD WILL FOUNDATION” | GWF’s CAMPAIGN AGAINST VILNIUS’S ONE RESIDENT RABBI | US & ISRAELI MEMBERS OF THE BOARD PROVIDING LEGITIMIZATION [ARCHIVED] | LITHUANIAN JEWISH COMMUNITY ISSUES | TEXTBOOK CASE OF FAILURE OF RESTITUTION FOR VALUE OF PREWAR JEWISH RELIGIOUS PROPERTIES | STOLEN ELECTION SAGA | AJC MISADVENTURES IN LITHUANIA | CHABAD IN LITHUANIA | LITVAK AFFAIRS
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Sept. 14 photos at gates of Vilnius Synagogue and in nearby hospital emergency room by Moshe Diamant, one of the visiting tourists who witnessed violent attack on Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky by a security guard.
VILNIUS—The following statement was circulated via email today by the office of Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky, who has been a full-time resident rabbi in Vilnius for thirty-two years. It comes in the wake of the shocking violent attack on him, perpetrated on 14 September at the gates of the city’s one functioning synagogue, the Choral Synagogue at Pylimo Street 39, where he has been the only officiating rabbi for years. The syngagogue security guard who attacked him, in the view of witnesses who photographed the incident and then issued written statements, is an employee of the Good Will Foundation (GWF).
Posted in "Good Will Foundation" (Jewish Restitution in Lithuania), Chabad in Vilnius, Lithuania, Lithuania: Textbook Case of East European Restitution (for Lost Jewish Assets) Abused to Dismantle a Vibrant Jewish Community, Lithuania's Jewish Community Issues, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Quango Called 'Good Will Foundation' (GWF): Has it Been Using Jewish Restitution Funds for Bitter, Sometimes Violent Campaign against Chabad Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky?, Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky
Tagged Geros valios fondas, Good Will Foundation, Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky, violence at Vilnius synagogue
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Dr. Andrius Kulikauskas’s Remarks at Sept. 2026 Seimas Opening of Exhibition on Old Jewish Cemetery
OPINION | OLD VILNA JEWISH CEMETERY AT PIRAMÓNT: SAGA OF 2015-2026 | EARLIER OPPOSITION TO CONVENTION CENTER PROJECT | COMMENT BY ANDRIUS KULIKAUSKAS, SID LEIMAN, JULIUS NORWILLA, DOVID KATZ | 2023-2024 “WORKING GROUP” ON VILNA CEMETERY | LIST OF MEMBERS | MOUNTING OPPOSITION TO “‘COMPROMISE’ MUSEUM PROJECT” | THE USCPAHA | THE CPJCE | THE AJC | THE CER | THE GWF | CEMETERIES & MASS GRAVES | CHRISTIAN-JEWISH RELATIONS | HUMAN RIGHTS
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Editor’s note: Eminent philosopher and mathematician Dr. Andrius Kulikauskas, one of the founders of Gerbkime kapines (Respect Cemeteries), and the author of around thirty articles on the subject of Vilnius’s oldest Jewish cemetery, was one of the speakers at the official 17 Sept. 2026 opening of the Seimas exhibition (on video). The exhibition is entitled “The Jewish Cemetery at Šnipiškės in Vilnius — A Choice for Today’s Lithuania.” It runs from 17 to 24 September at the Seimas’s Stained Glass Gallery. He was among the few speakers to speak informally and from the heart rather than deliver a prepared address (his remarks at timecode: 55:53 to 59:22). A (human!) translator has rendered his words into English, supplying clarifying information in square brackets [ ], adding links for further reference (via underline), as well as providing notes for readers who may not be familiar with the scene.
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On behalf of the association Gerbkime kapines [‘Respect Cemeteries’], I invite Artūras [Imbrasas] to return [to the stage], along with Ruta [Bloshtein], as well as Edmundas Kulikauskas and Arkady Kurliandchik. We’d like to present a gift, so please, everyone, come.
First of all, we’d like to thank the Seimas Committee on Culture for postponing the debate,[1] giving us a chance to think things through calmly. We’d also like to thank Emanuelis Zingeris,[2] the curator of the exhibition, and his advisor, Auksė Dransard. Let’s give them a round of applause. Thank you, Jovita Morkūnaitė.[3]
You might reasonably assume that these tulips are for Artūras Imbrasas—for all his labors [as principal compiler of the exhibition’s eighteen panels], but he has just said that everything here is in honor of his sister, Ruta Bloshtein, our leader. And indeed, we must not forget Dovid Katz. [He] inspired me ten years ago to take up this cause, just as older people had inspired him even earlier. Pinchos Fridberg[4] saw this cemetery with his own eyes. He couldn’t be here today because he’s taking care of his wife.
Andrius Kulikauskas thanks Ruta Bloshtein, Artūras Imbrasas, Edmundas Kulikauskas and (not in photo) Arkady Kurliandchik at Seimas opening of exhibition. Photo: William Adan Pahl.
Posted in Andrius Kulikauskas, Andrius Kulikauskas on Vilnius's Oldest Jewish Cemetery, Christian-Jewish Issues, Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, Human Rights, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok)
Tagged Jewish cemetary Piramont (Shnipishok), Old Vilnius Jewish Cemetary, Snipiskes Jewish cemetery
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‘Respect Cemeteries’ Group That Prepared Current Seimas Exhibition Asks: What is Lithuania Choosing Today?
DOCUMENTS | OLD VILNA JEWISH CEMETERY AT PIRAMÓNT: SAGA OF 2015-2026 | EARLIER OPPOSITION TO CONVENTION CENTER PROJECT | COMMENT BY ANDRIUS KULIKAUSKAS, SID LEIMAN, JULIUS NORWILLA, DOVID KATZ | 2023-2024 “WORKING GROUP” ON VILNA CEMETERY | LIST OF MEMBERS | MOUNTING OPPOSITION TO “COMPROMISE’ MUSEUM PROJECT” | THE USCPAHA | THE CPJCE | THE AJC | THE CER | THE GWF | CEMETERIES & MASS GRAVES | CHRISTIAN-JEWISH RELATIONS | HUMAN RIGHTS
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Editor’s note: The following is an English translation of the statement posted at the 17 September 2026 opening of the Seimas exhibition “The Jewish Cemetery in Šnipiškės, Vilnius” in the Stained Glass Gallery of the Seimas, Lithuania’s Parliament. The exhibition, running from 17 to 24 September, is being presented under the auspices of Member of Parliament Emanuelis Zingeris. (whose own statement is online). The exhibition was prepared by Artūras Imbrasas together with the association Gerbkime kapines (“Respect Cemeteries”). The creative team also included the association’s chair, Rūta Bloštein, as well as Arkadij Kurliandčik, Andrius Kulikauskas and Edmundas Kulikauskas. The original Lithuanian statement posted at the exhibition is available online. It is thr third of the exhibitions’s eighteen panels posted on the Gerbkime kapines website.
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What Is Lithuania Choosing Today?
The Gerbkime kapines (“Respect the Cemeteries”) Association seeks to ensure that the Lithuanian state respects the Jewish faith and honors those buried here; fulfills the pledge of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to protect them; investigates and publicizes the historical facts; identifies the crimes committed by the Soviet regime; legally recognizes the entire original territory as a cemetery; safeguards its dignity and maintains it properly; allows the international Jewish community to restore the cemetery; and, in doing so, restores justice.
Posted in Christian-Jewish Issues, Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok), Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Andrius Kulikauskas, Arkadij Kurliandchik, Arturas Imbrasas, Edmundas Kulikauskas, Emanuelis Zingeris, Gerbkime kapines, Respect Cemeteries, Ruta Bloshtein
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Lithuania’s MP Emanuelis Zingeris Issues Major Statement on Fate of the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery in Šnipiškės District of Modern Vilnius
DOCUMENTS | OLD VILNA JEWISH CEMETERY AT PIRAMÓNT: SAGA OF 2015-2026 | EARLIER OPPOSITION TO CONVENTION CENTER PROJECT | COMMENT BY ANDRIUS KULIKAUSKAS, SID LEIMAN, JULIUS NORWILLA, DOVID KATZ | 2023-2024 “WORKING GROUP” ON VILNA CEMETERY | LIST OF MEMBERS | MOUNTING OPPOSITION TO “COMPROMISE’ MUSEUM PROJECT” | THE USCPAHA | THE CPJCE | THE AJC | THE CER | THE GWF | CEMETERIES & MASS GRAVES | CHRISTIAN-JEWISH RELATIONS | HUMAN RIGHTS
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Editor’s note: The following is an English translation of the 3rd of the 18 exhibits featured in the current Seimas exhibition “The Jewish Cemetery in Šnipiškės, Vilnius” in the Stained Glass Gallery of the Seimas, Lithuania’s Parliament (The original Lithuanian panel is online). The exhibition, running from 17 to 24 September, is being presented under the auspices of Member of Parliament Emanuelis Zingeris whose own statement appears here (Lithuanian original).The exhibition was prepared by Artūras Imbrasas together with the association Gerbkime kapines (“Respect Cemeteries”). The creative team also includesd the association’s chair, Rūta Bloštein, as well as Arkadij Kurliandčik, Andrius Kulikauskas and Edmundas Kulikauskas.
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Redressing the Crimes of Tsarist and Soviet Rule
85 Years Since the Beginning of the Holocaust in Lithuania
Today, in the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, we open an exhibition of documents and images recalling a living, painful wound in Vilnius that has yet to heal. The exhibition is dedicated to the old Jewish cemetery in Šnipiškės, dating back to the Middle Ages — historic Piramónt. The fate of this place demands our ethical responsibility, political will, moral resolve and an ability to regard the history of all the peoples who built Lithuania and Vilnius as our own.
Posted in Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, Documents, History, Human Rights, It Pays to Defend History: Success Over the Years..., Lithuania, Lithuania's Jewish Community Issues, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok), Opinion, Politics of Memory, Vilnius
Tagged Andrius Kulikauskas, Arkadij Kurliandchik, E. Zingeris on Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery, Edmundas Kulikauskas, Emanuelis Zingeris, Gerbkime kapines, Piramont Jewish cemetery, Ruta Bloshtein, Seimas considered fate of Shnipiskes Jewish cemetery, Shnipishok (Snipiskes
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A Veteran German Public Figure Speaks Out—and Suddenly Withdraws—Statement on the Last Jewish Partisan Remnant in Lithuania
Opinion | The Last Jewish Partisan Fort | History | Blaming the Victims | Germany
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Top: One of the collapsing bunkers at the Vilna Jewish Partisans’ fort in the forest just outside the new German Panzerbrigade 45 training grounds (photo: DefendingHistory.com). Bottom: Panzerbrigade forces just down the road (photos: Panzerbrigade 45).
Editor’s note: The text below is the final English version of a statement by a veteran German public figure. It was approved by the author, then withdrawn on the day scheduled for publication, May 11, 2026. In an accompanying email, the author explained that he had been persuaded to withdraw his statement by an eminent retired Lithuanian parliamentarian who “is ready to ask the Jewish authorities, in what condition the resistance bunker now is actually,” after which he would be “ready to convince the political leaders in Berlin, that the process of renovation could start very soon.”
Posted in Germany, Gert Weisskirchen, History, Jewish Fort in the Lithuanian Forest: A Last Remnant of Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky, German 45th Brigade in Lithuania, Gert Weisskirchen, Litauenbrigade, Lithuania's last Jewish partisan remnant, Rudninkai Jewish partisan fort
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When Will ‘Made in Vilnius’ Start Reporting ‘Both Sides of the Story’?
MEDIA WATCH | “GOOD WILL FOUNDATION” | GWF’s CAMPAIGN AGAINST VILNIUS’S ONE RESIDENT RABBI | US & ISRAELI MEMBERS OF THE BOARD PROVIDING LEGITIMIZATION [ARCHIVED] | LITHUANIAN JEWISH COMMUNITY ISSUES | TEXTBOOK CASE OF FAILURE OF RESTITUTION FOR VALUE OF PREWAR JEWISH RELIGIOUS PROPERTIES | STOLEN ELECTION SAGA | AJC MISADVENTURES IN LITHUANIA | CHABAD IN LITHUANIA | LITVAK AFFAIRS
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OPINION
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VILNIUS—The excellent and informative web journal Made in Vilnius has once again made the serious error of presenting only one side of a controversial story. A deeply disturbing incident took place in Vilnius on Monday morning, when the city’s resident rabbi of thirty-two years was attacked and injured at the gates of its sole functioning synagogue by a security guard allegedly employed by entities funded by Lithuania’s most notorious quango, the Orwellian-named “Good Will Foundation.” It is the same quango that funds the state-supported “official Jewish community.”
A free press seeks out the opposing views of matters in conflict.
Posted in Chabad in Vilnius, Lithuania, Lithuania: Textbook Case of East European Restitution (for Lost Jewish Assets) Abused to Dismantle a Vibrant Jewish Community, Lithuania's Jewish Community Issues, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News & Views, Opinion, Quango Called 'Good Will Foundation' (GWF): Has it Been Using Jewish Restitution Funds for Bitter, Sometimes Violent Campaign against Chabad Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky?, Vilnius
Tagged Good Will Foundation, Made in Vilnius, Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky
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All Welcome at Seimas Exhibition on Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery; Public Opening on 17 Sept. 2026
DOCUMENTS | OLD VILNA JEWISH CEMETERY AT PIRAMÓNT: SAGA OF 2015-2026 | EARLIER OPPOSITION TO CONVENTION CENTER PROJECT | COMMENT BY ANDRIUS KULIKAUSKAS, SID LEIMAN, JULIUS NORWILLA, DOVID KATZ | 2023-2024 “WORKING GROUP” ON VILNA CEMETERY | LIST OF MEMBERS | MOUNTING OPPOSITION TO “COMPROMISE’ MUSEUM PROJECT” | THE USCPAHA | THE CPJCE | THE AJC | THE CER | THE GWF | CEMETERIES & MASS GRAVES | CHRISTIAN-JEWISH RELATIONS | HUMAN RIGHTS
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The following press release was received today from the Vilnius office of Gerbkime kapines (Respect Cemeteries):
Visitors are warmly invited to attend the opening of the exhibition on Thursday, Sept. 17, at 1 p.m. Those wishing to attend should contact Emanuelis Zingeris’s adviser, Auksė Dransard, no later than the preceding day, providing their first and last names and date of birth so that admission to the Seimas can be arranged.
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On Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, at 1 p.m., an exhibition titled “The Jewish Cemetery in Šnipiškės, Vilnius” will open in the Stained Glass Gallery of the Seimas, Lithuania’s Parliament. The exhibition is being presented under the auspices of Member of Parliament Emanuelis Zingeris. It was prepared by Artūras Imbrasas together with the association Gerbkime kapines (“Respect Cemeteries”). The creative team also includes the association’s chair, Rūta Bloštein, as well as Arkadij Kurliandčik, Andrius Kulikauskas and Edmundas Kulikauskas.
Posted in Christian-Jewish Issues, Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, Documents, It Pays to Defend History: Success Over the Years..., Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok)
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Please Email Lithuania’s Seimas Asking that it Recognize Vilnius’s Oldest Jewish Cemetery!
OPINION | OLD VILNA JEWISH CEMETERY AT PIRAMÓNT: SAGA OF 2015-2026 | EARLIER OPPOSITION TO CONVENTION CENTER PROJECT | COMMENT BY ANDRIUS KULIKAUSKAS, SID LEIMAN, JULIUS NORWILLA, DOVID KATZ | 2023-2024 “WORKING GROUP” ON VILNA CEMETERY | LIST OF MEMBERS | MOUNTING OPPOSITION TO “COMPROMISE’ MUSEUM PROJECT” | THE USCPAHA | THE CPJCE | THE AJC | THE CER | THE GWF | CEMETERIES & MASS GRAVES | CHRISTIAN-JEWISH RELATIONS | HUMAN RIGHTS
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by Andrius Kulikauskas
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One of the panels of the Seimas exhibition. A mechanically translated English version is available here. Photo: Andrius Kulikauskas / Gerbkime kapines.
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VILNIUS—Lithuania’s Seimas (Parliament) started its Autumn session on September 10, 2026. The Committee on Culture will continue to deliberate the future of the Soviet Sports Palace, which desecrates Vilnius’s oldest Jewish cemetery. As Defending History readers know, this has been a longstanding issue. Gerbkimes kapines (Respect Cemeteries) is inviting interested readers to write to ruta@kapines.com and join our international team, meet with us by zoom, and help with our activities, including our email campaigns.
Posted in Andrius Kulikauskas, Andrius Kulikauskas on Vilnius's Oldest Jewish Cemetery, Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok)
Tagged Andrius Kulikauskas, Arkadij Kurliandchik, Arturas Imbrasas, Arunas Bubnys, Edmundas Kulikauskas, Gerbkime kapines, Piramont Shnipishok cemetery, Robertas Zukovskis, Ruta Bloshtein, Valdas Valiūnas, Vilnius Jewish cemetery Snipiskes
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Opinion: Assault at Vilnius Synagogue Gate
OPINION | “GOOD WILL FOUNDATION” | TEXTBOOK CASE OF FAILURE OF RESTITUTION FOR VALUE OF PREWAR JEWISH RELIGIOUS PROPERTIES | GWF’s CAMPAIGN AGAINST VILNIUS’S ONE RESIDENT RABBI | US & ISRAELI MEMBERS OF THE BOARD PROVIDING LEGITIMIZATION [ARCHIVED] | LITHUANIAN JEWISH COMMUNITY ISSUES | STOLEN ELECTION SAGA | AJC MISADVENTURES IN LITHUANIA | CHABAD IN LITHUANIA | LITVAK AFFAIRS
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OPINION
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by Dovid Katz
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When good intentions produce bad consequences, those with the power to act have a moral obligation to do so. Lithuania — a proud and successful EU and NATO democracy — did the right thing in providing tens of millions of euros in restitution for the assessed value of pre-Holocaust Jewish communal religious property. Yet the institution created to administer those funds, the Orwellian-named “Good Will Foundation” (GWF), has, over a decade and a half, become an entrenched structure under the same two non-rotating co-chairs. The latest lark conceives plonking a modernist multi-million euro luxury building for GWF executive offices, among other things, on top of the precious remnants of the Vilna Great Synagogue.
Beyond directing resources to cronies, relatives and self-promotional projects, the Foundation has used its publicly endowed power to marginalize, defame and undermine various of the people who actually rebuilt Jewish life and culture in Lithuania after independence. Among the most serious developments have been the dismantling of long-standing Jewish community democracy through the disenfranchisement of individual voters (that 2017 change having come in the middle of an election campaign that was “going the other way”); the use of substantial funds to construct ersatz communities for the purpose of undermining existing ones not deemed sufficiently compliant (most notoriously, ensuring that the democratically preserved Vilnius Jewish Community receives not a penny and has no premises, while a concocted “second one in an office” fixes things on paper); repeated failures to stand up for Jewish values in the spirit exemplified by the community before restitution; and the use of security and police in ways that have served to harass and intimidate.
Posted in "Good Will Foundation" (Jewish Restitution in Lithuania), Chabad in Vilnius, Lithuania, Lithuania: Textbook Case of East European Restitution (for Lost Jewish Assets) Abused to Dismantle a Vibrant Jewish Community, Lithuania's Jewish Community Issues, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Quango Called 'Good Will Foundation' (GWF): Has it Been Using Jewish Restitution Funds for Bitter, Sometimes Violent Campaign against Chabad Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky?, Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky
Tagged Dovid Katz, Good Will Foundation (GWF), Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky, Vilnius synagogue
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Were ‘Good Will Foundation’ Funds Used in Today’s Assault on Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky at Vilnius’s One Synagogue?
“GOOD WILL FOUNDATION” | GWF’s CAMPAIGN AGAINST VILNIUS’S ONE RESIDENT RABBI | US & ISRAELI MEMBERS OF THE BOARD PROVIDING LEGITIMIZATION [ARCHIVED] | LITHUANIAN JEWISH COMMUNITY ISSUES | TEXTBOOK CASE OF FAILURE OF RESTITUTION FOR VALUE OF PREWAR JEWISH RELIGIOUS PROPERTIES | STOLEN ELECTION SAGA | AJC MISADVENTURES IN LITHUANIA | CHABAD IN LITHUANIA | LITVAK AFFAIRS
0260914092826/https://gvf.lt/en/◊
DOES RESPONSE FROM GWF-SPONSORED LJC JUSTIFY VIOLENCE AGAINST OPPONENTS BY INVOKING AN ADL ALERT?
A DECADE-OLD STORY EDITOR’S OPINION
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VILNIUS—Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky, the city’s resident rabbi, now a full-time provider of Jewish religious life in the city for thirty-two years, was beaten and thrown to the ground at the synagogue gates by a man described by witnesses as one of the security guards. The guard is apparently employed by entities funded in part or in whole by the quango called “The Good Will Foundation” (GWF) which has been awarded tens of millions of euros for a decade and a half.
These funds are designated as restitution and derive specifically from valuations of prewar communal Jewish religious property. Throughout its existence, the GWF’s two joint, nonrotating chairs have been a Lithuanian citizenship specialist attorney and a leading figure of the American Jewish Committee in Washington, DC. In addition to locals who have benefitted from GWF funding, the boards are “legitimized” by major Jewish organization figures, primarily from the United States and Israel. Coopted organizations—whose current or recent leaders serve on these boards—include the American Jewish Committee (AJC), the American Zionist Movement (AZM), B’nai B’rith International, and the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO).
Posted in "Good Will Foundation" (Jewish Restitution in Lithuania), A Stolen Election and a Small Jewish Community's Protest, American Jewish Committee (AJC) in Lithuania, Chabad in Vilnius, Lithuania, Lithuania: Textbook Case of East European Restitution (for Lost Jewish Assets) Abused to Dismantle a Vibrant Jewish Community, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Quango Called 'Good Will Foundation' (GWF): Has it Been Using Jewish Restitution Funds for Bitter, Sometimes Violent Campaign against Chabad Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky?, Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky
Tagged Geros valios fondas (Vilnius), Good Will Foundation (Vilnius), Lithuanian Jewish Community, Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky, Vilnius Chabad
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US’s Ambassador Yehuda Kaploun, President’s Envoy on Antisemitism, Sends Powerful Letter to Lithuanian Gov. on Fate of Old Vilna Cemetery
OLD VILNA JEWISH CEMETERY AT PIRAMÓNT: SAGA OF 2015-2026 | EARLIER OPPOSITION | COMMENT BY ANDRIUS KULIKAUSKAS, SID LEIMAN, JULIUS NORWILLA, DOVID KATZ | 2023-2024 “WORKING GROUP” ON VILNA CEMETERY | LIST OF MEMBERS | MOUNTING OPPOSITION TO NEW “MUSEUM PROJECT” | THE USCPAHA | THE CPJCE | THE AJC | THE CER | THE GWF | CEMETERIES & MASS GRAVES | CHRISTIAN-JEWISH RELATIONS | HUMAN RIGHTS
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VILNIUS—The office of Ambassador Yehuda Kaploun, the U.S. president’s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, today released on X the 10 August letter sent to Lukas Alsys, Lithuania’s Minister of Culture, on the subject of the fate of the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramont in Shnipishok, today the Šnipiškės district of modern Vilnius. The letter can be accessed as PDF. In the following embedding, please use the handles in the upper left-hand corner to turn pages. The embedded PDF is followed by a transcription of the letter’s text.
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, It Pays to Defend History: Success Over the Years..., Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok), Politics of Memory, United States, US State Department
Tagged Ambassador Yehuda Kaploun + Lithuania, Old Piramont Jewish Cemetery, Shnipishok (Snipiskes) Jewish cemetery, US State Department + Lithuania
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Panzerbrigade 45, Repeatedly Citing Cemetery Cleaning in its PR, Fails to Mention Even Once the Next-Door Sinking Jewish Partisan Fort
LAST JEWISH PARTISAN FORT IN EUROPE | LATEST REPORTS ON THE FORT| 20-YEAR CAMPAIGN TO DEFAME THE VILNA JEWISH PARTISANS | HISTORY | GERMANY | CHRISTIAN-JEWISH RELATIONS | HUMAN RIGHTS
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OPINION
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VILNIUS—In the present context, we are limiting this survey to the official German governmental and Bundeswehr public-relations apparatus active in connection with Panzerbrigade 45 in Lithuania. We are therefore not including serious journalistic treatments carried by institutions such as the Goethe-Institut, which is legally independent and has mixed public and self-generated funding, even where such treatments importantly discuss the Jewish partisan fort. Our concern here is narrower: what Germany’s own military and governmental communications machinery chooses to publicize about Panzerbrigade 45 and Jewish history in Lithuania, while not uttering a syllable about the Jewish partisan fort right near its own training ground. As detailed in earlier reports, the arrival of the Panzerbrigade’s massive military infrastructure has already badly damaged the fort’s accessibility and has been responsible for rapid deterioration.
Posted in A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Christian-Jewish Issues, Germany, History, Human Rights, Jewish Fort in the Lithuanian Forest: A Last Remnant of Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
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German Bundestag and Government Statements on the Rapidly Sinking Remnants of the Last Jewish Partisan Fort in Lithuania
LAST JEWISH PARTISAN FORT IN EUROPE | 20-YEAR CAMPAIGN TO DEFAME THE VILNA JEWISH PARTISANS | HISTORY | GERMANY | CHRISTIAN-JEWISH RELATIONS | HUMAN RIGHTS
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Berlin speaks of respect for the last remnant of Jewish partisan resistance, and particularly the partisan fort where the Vilna Jewish Partisans, all escapees from the Vilna Ghetto, lived and fought the Nazis, most famously after the ghetto’s liquidation on 23 September 1943 and right up to the end of Nazi occupation in July 1944.
But the German army’s new Panzerbrigade 45 is the new factor causing the fort’s rapid deterioration. In spite of all the laudable German government statements and commitments set out below (with links to sources), the remnants of Lithuania’s last surviving Jewish partisan fort from the resistance to Nazi rule — in the historic Rudnitsk Forest, today Rūdninkai Forest — have been deteriorating rapidly since the arrival immediately nearby, in the same forest, of Germany’s new NATO-affiliated Panzerbrigade 45 (“Litauenbrigade”).
Posted in A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Christian-Jewish Issues, Documents, EU, Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky (Fania Brancovskaja): 1922-2024, Germany, History, It Pays to Defend History: Success Over the Years..., Jewish Fort in the Lithuanian Forest: A Last Remnant of Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
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Books in the Debate (a DefendingHistory.com selection)
[last update]
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see also: BOOKS SECTION
New: Prof. Karen Sutton’s review
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Not yet published:
Michael Shafir, Competitive Martyrdom [working title].
Draft manuscript of the book circulated to colleagues (for comments and criticism) before the author’s sudden death in 2022. See Defending History’s Michael Shafir section. It is hoped that Professor Shafir’s heirs will enable rapid publication of this major and indispensable work in the field.
2025
Saulius Sužiedėlis,
Reactions, reviews, and citations:
Roland Binet: Autopsy of the Annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry. Or: How to Subtly Rewrite History
Clemens Heni: Mit Kojak gegen die Rot=Braun-Ideologie
Karen L. Sutton: Review in Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs
Posted in Books, History, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Rūta Vanagaitė
Tagged Alexander Gendler (Khurbn), Dan Rabinowitz, Holocaust in Lithuania, Jonas Noreika, Leyb Koniuchowsky & Jonathan Boyarin, Nazi's Grnddaughter, Ruta Vanagaite & Christoph Dieckmann, Ruta Vanagaite + Efraim Zuroff, Saulius Suziedelis, Silvia Foti
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Blaming the Victims: Documents from a 20 Year Campaign to Defame and Decommemorate the Jewish Partisan Resistance against the Nazis
LAST UPDATE
(originally published 21 Aug. 2010). See also (older, not updated) Responses page.
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2024 2025 2026
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The campaign of defamation by Lithuanian state prosecutors and allied elites (particularly in the Genocide Center and the antisemitic right-wing press) has resulted in a number of cherished Holocaust Survivors being smeared as “war criminals” without a single charge ever having been leveled against anybody. Launched in 2006, the campaign, abusing tools such as “pre-trial investigations” and leaks to the media, have sought to brand as “war criminals” the heroes of the war against Hitler. It grew in 2011 with the addition of equally perverse “libel charges,” launched with fanfare when Interpol (!) was sent to disturb in Tel Aviv the elected head of the last active group of Litvak Holocaust survivors in the world. Then, in 2013, the state’s “red-brown commission” defamed one of Vilnius’s last survivors on equally perverse grounds, all the while putting on “Holocaust events” for naive Western audiences, usually funded by the (unknowing) Lithuanian taxpayer, in venues including London, New York, Toronto, and Vilnius.
Posted in A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Documents, Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky (Fania Brancovskaja): 1922-2024, Germany, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory
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Office of Vilnius’s Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky Releases Text of Public Letter to WJRO and Foreign Board Members of GWF
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
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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 released for publication the following statement addressed to the WJRO and other foreign members of the two boards of the Good Will Foundation:
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Posted in "Good Will Foundation" (Jewish Restitution in Lithuania), Chabad in Vilnius, Lithuania, Lithuania: Textbook Case of East European Restitution (for Lost Jewish Assets) Abused to Dismantle a Vibrant Jewish Community, Lithuania's Jewish Community Issues, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Quango Called 'Good Will Foundation' (GWF): Has it Been Using Jewish Restitution Funds for Bitter, Sometimes Violent Campaign against Chabad Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky?
Tagged Andrew Baker (AJC), Andrew Baker (GWF), Arie Bucheister (Claims Conference), Faina Kukliansky (GWF), Gideon Taylor (WJRO), Herbert Block + AZM, Mark Weitzman (WJRO), Nachliel Dison (WJRO), Ted Deutsch (AJC)
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