Opinion

Sariel Rosenberg, Chief Judge (Av Beis-Din) of Bnei Brak Rabbinic Court, Issues New Ruling on Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery

Posted on 14 August 2026 by Defending History

OPINION | 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 Hebrew rabbinic ruling signed on 4 August 2026 by Rabbi Sariel Rosenberg, Chief Rabbinic Judge (Av Beis Din) of the Beis Din Tzedek, in Bnei Brak, Israel, was released for publication today by Jewish Heritage in Lita. The release came in the form of one PDF of the original Hebrew text, alongside another of the rabbinical court’s authorized English translation. This is the rabbinical court considered the highest, or one of the highest Orthodox rabbinical courts serving the international Litvish (Lithuanian tradition) sector of modern Haredi Jewish law and practice worldwide.

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Posted in Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok), Opinion | Comments Off on Sariel Rosenberg, Chief Judge (Av Beis-Din) of Bnei Brak Rabbinic Court, Issues New Ruling on Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery

Converging Signs of a New Antisemitic Cauldron in Eastern Europe?

Posted on 7 August 2026 by Defending History

ANTISEMITISM

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OPINION

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by Dovid Katz

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VILNIUS—It is never easy to determine with precision the point at which a bigot with a fancy degree should cease to be regarded as a fringer best ignored, and when the moment has arrived for a public alert. In that spirit of frank uncertainty, we offer a PDF of today’s email blast by a veteran mass-mailer whose geopolitical musings from Kaunas—he holds a master’s degree from Vytautas Magnus University—reflect a conspiracy theory about the war in Ukraine that has circulated since its onset, and is ridiculous enough for people far from the current European war zone to laugh off.

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Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Christian-Jewish Issues, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Dovid Katz, EU, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Žemaitaitis Affair | Comments Off on Converging Signs of a New Antisemitic Cauldron in Eastern Europe?

Please Email Lithuania’s PM and Vilnius Mayor to Defend Vilnius’s Oldest Jewish Cemetery

Posted on 6 August 2026 by Defending History

OPINION | 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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by Andrius Kulikauskas

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VILNIUS—Lithuania’s newly appointed Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius and Vilnius’s Mayor Valdas Benkunskas will be meeting in mid-August to discuss the fate of Vilnius’s oldest Jewish Cemetery and the Soviet Palace which continues to desecrate it.

LITHUANIAN TEXT

Gerbkime kapines (Respect Cemeteries), an informal fellowship led by Ruta Bloshtein, Arkadij Kurliandchik, Artūras Imbrasas, Edmundas Kulikauskas and Andrius Kulikauskas, urges defenders of the Cemetery to write emails to these officials. We include below their addresses and a sample letter.

Lithuania’s Parliament, Seimas, will in its Autumn session further deliberate a bill to revive the Soviet Palace as a convention center, desecrating the Cemetery for decades to come, now in the name of independent Lithuania, a member of the European Union and NATO.

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Posted in Andrius Kulikauskas, 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), Opinion | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Please Email Lithuania’s PM and Vilnius Mayor to Defend Vilnius’s Oldest Jewish Cemetery

The Magic Wand for Making Holocaust Perpetrators into Heroes in Lithuania — While Jewish Resistance Heroes become ‘Enemies of The State’ …

Posted on 8 July 2026 by Defending History

LITHUANIA | POLITICS OF MEMORY | BLAMING VICTIMS | GLORIFYING PERPETRATORS | LAST REMNANT OF JEWISH PARTISAN RESISTANCE IN THE FORESTS OF LITHUANIA | HISTORY

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OPINION

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by Roland Binet  (De Panne, Belgium)

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  • “Soviet rule has disappeared. The Jews are left behind as fair game.”
  • Entry of July 7, 1941. From  Surviving the Holocaust: Kovno Ghetto Diary, by Avraham Tory.
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In the late sixties while working in a small company in Brussels my Jewish boss who had been “geschmuggelt’’ out of the ghetto in Lvov (former Lemberg, now Lviv, Ukraine) in a truck, before it was liquidated in 1942, had repeatedly told me that after his escape he had repeatedly tried to join with partisan groups in the area, mostly Polish or Ukrainian. Had they known that he was Jewish, he would have been killed outright. His luck was that he could pass himself off as a Pole as he spoke the language well. He had been fifteen years old at the time. I remembered these words recently on the occasion of the scandal that has erupted these past months regarding the Jewish Partisan Fort in the Rūdninkai Forest (Yiddish; Rudnitsker vald) which is now in danger of being erased due to the presence in that zone of the new German NATO Panzer Brigade (Litauenbrigade).

EFFECTS OF THE LITHUANIAN GOVERNMENT’S ‘MAGIC WAND’? Left: Public monument to Holocaust collaborator Juozas Krikštaponis (photo: Seimas). Right: One of the collapsing bunkers at Lithuania’s only relic of the Jewish anti-Nazi resistance that sits next door to Germany’s new Panzer brigade and may soon disappear (photo: DefendingHistory.com).

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Posted in A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Collaborators Glorified, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Roland Binet | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Magic Wand for Making Holocaust Perpetrators into Heroes in Lithuania — While Jewish Resistance Heroes become ‘Enemies of The State’ …

Averting an imminent grave error on the ruins of the Great Vilna Synagogue. Finding a happy, ethical solution.

Posted on 28 June 2026 by Defending History

OPINION | THE GREAT SYNAGOGUE SAGA | TEXTBOOK CASE OF RESTITUTION GONE AWRY | STOLEN ELECTION SAGA | THE LJC | THE AJC | THE GWF | USCPAHA

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OPINION

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by Dovid Katz

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I have argued that Jewish diaspora history comprises a permanent, central religious spine, a tree trunk if you will, characterized by “secular outbursts” that produce magnificent contributions both to Jewish and to world culture, arts and sciences. The recurring and harmonious patterning includes the great religious treasures remaining precious also to the secularists, be it the Bible, or a wall in Jerusalem or a synagogue in Prague. There has also been bidirectional cross-fertilization of achievements and their use, without either group wanting to usurp the other’s treasures, but rather to benefit from them. One of the outcomes is that great Jewish religious sites around the world, including synagogues and cemeteries, have become invaluable survivals of a rich and varied diaspora history that have a profound meaning for the non religious or not-so-religious — as well as for wider, multiculturalist non-Jewish society.

UPDATE

Please consider signing Ruta Bloshtein’s new petition.

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Posted in "Good Will Foundation" (Jewish Restitution in Lithuania), Lithuania, Lithuania's Jewish Community Issues, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Vilna's Great Synagogue & its Courtyard (Shúlheyf) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Averting an imminent grave error on the ruins of the Great Vilna Synagogue. Finding a happy, ethical solution.

Lithuania’s Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky Challenges WJRO (‘World Jewish Restitution Organization’) to Stop Enabling Travesties of State Sponsored GWF (‘Good Will Foundation’)

Posted on 25 June 2026 by Defending History

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—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 president of the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO):

It is deeply painful that the restitution process in Lithuania has been flawed from the start.

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Posted in "Good Will Foundation" (Jewish Restitution in Lithuania), A Stolen Election and a Small Jewish Community's Protest, Chabad in Vilnius, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky, Vilnius | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Lithuania’s Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky Challenges WJRO (‘World Jewish Restitution Organization’) to Stop Enabling Travesties of State Sponsored GWF (‘Good Will Foundation’)

Barbarossa Plus One: The 85th Anniversary of June 23rd 1941 in Lithuania

Posted on 23 June 2026 by Defending History

OPINION | LEGACY OF 23 JUNE 1941 | 2011 ATTEMPTS TO SANITIZE THE LAF  |  LAF’S INTENTIONS IN WRITING | ŠKIRPA’S PLANS | COLLABORATORS GLORIFIED | LITHUANIAN JEWISH AFFAIRS | CHRISTIAN-JEWISH RELATIONS

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OPINION

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by Dovid Katz

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In the opinion of every Lithuanian Holocaust survivor interviewed, the magnificent six-century record of tolerance and enlightened coexistence, including the years of the successful interwar Lithuanian Republic, were in a single day, June 23rd 1941, replaced by the eruption of barbaric mass murder that is all too well documented. It is “Barbarossa Plus One” (the major killing started one day after Hitler’s invasion was launched, in survivors correct memory: the Monday after the Sunday). The far right’s history department, sometimes rewriting history on an industrial scale with support from certain state agencies (most infamously, the “Genocide Center”), has attempted to “fix” this by ignoring the facts and claiming that this was actually the LAF (Lithuanian Activist Front) leading an “uprising” which drove out the Soviet army and restored independence.

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Posted in Christian-Jewish Issues, Collaborators Glorified, Legacy of 23 June 1941, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Barbarossa Plus One: The 85th Anniversary of June 23rd 1941 in Lithuania

Der Spiegel’s Solveig Grothe Elicits Official Culture Ministry Position on Destruction of Lithuania’s Last Relic of Jewish Anti-Nazi Resistance

Posted on 19 June 2026 by Defending History

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OPINION

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by Dovid Katz

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VILNIUS—Solveig Grothe’s article in Germany’s weekly Der Spiegel, appeared today in the journal’s print edition, and yesterday, in a slightly longer version, in the online edition (alternate link; PDF of print edition). The piece resulted from months of research including onsite work in Vilnius, and at the forest fort, and seeking out statements for the record from all sides in the debate.

For some, the article’s greatest revelation will be the degree to which not only the state-sponsored Genocide Center, but also its prestigious Ministry of Culture, rushed to go on the record to trash the legacy — and the memory and possibility of commemoration — of the tiny handful of Lithuanian Jewish citizens who survived the Holocaust by joining up with the partisan anti-Nazi resistance in the forest.

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Posted in Germany, Human Rights, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News & Views, Opinion, Remnants of Europe's Last Jewish Anti-Nazi Partisan Fort | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Der Spiegel’s Solveig Grothe Elicits Official Culture Ministry Position on Destruction of Lithuania’s Last Relic of Jewish Anti-Nazi Resistance

Berliner Zeitung’s Maritta Tkalec Breaks (Weird) German Media Taboo on the Sinking Jewish Partisan Fort in Lithuania

Posted on 16 June 2026 by Defending History

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OPINION

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by Dovid Katz

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VILNIUS—Maritta Tkalec is to be congratulated on her fine article in today’s Berliner Zeitung (PDF; English; Lithuanian). It breaks the (weird) taboo in mainstream German media on the mystically powerful and rapidly sinking Jewish anti-Nazi partisan fort in a forest in Lithuania that — by the majesty of history or the hand of higher powers — has ended up just next door to the vast German Army 45th Brigade training grounds now under construction in the context of NATO.

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Posted in Christian-Jewish Issues, Germany, History, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News & Views, Opinion, Remnants of Europe's Last Jewish Anti-Nazi Partisan Fort | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Berliner Zeitung’s Maritta Tkalec Breaks (Weird) German Media Taboo on the Sinking Jewish Partisan Fort in Lithuania

Text of Rabbi Elchonon Baron’s Letter to the Chancellor of the Office of Lithuania’s President

Posted on 3 June 2026 by Defending History

DOCUMENTS | OPINION | OLD VILNA JEWISH CEMETERY AT PIRAMÓNT: THE SAGA OF 2015-2025 | EARLIER OPPOSITION | 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 Rabbi Elchonon Baron, president of Jewish Heritage in Lita (JHL), today released this letter to Petras Zapolskas, Chancellor of the Office of the President of the Republic of Lithuania. English text of the letter follows. For the Lithuanian text, please use the page-turning handle at upper left.

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Posted in Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, Documents, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok), Opinion, Politics of Memory, Rabbi Elchonon Baron | Tagged , | Comments Off on Text of Rabbi Elchonon Baron’s Letter to the Chancellor of the Office of Lithuania’s President

Poster for the Macabre June 3rd Demo Planned by Ultranationalists at Vilnius’s Old Jewish Cemetery (Slated to become a National Conference Center)

Posted on 1 June 2026 by Defending History

OPINION | OLD VILNA JEWISH CEMETERY AT PIRAMÓNT: THE SAGA OF 2015-2025 | EARLIER OPPOSITION | 2023-2024 “WORKING GROUP” ON VILNA CEMETERY | LIST OF MEMBERS | MOUNTING OPPOSITION TO NEW “MUSEUM PROJECT” | USCPAHA (UNITED STATES COMMISSION FOR THE PRESERVATION OF AMERICA’S HERITAGE ABROAD) | THE CPJCE (COMMITTEE FOR THE PRESERVATION OF JEWISH CEMETERIES IN EUROPE) | THE AJC (AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE) | THE CER (CONFERENCE OF EUROPEAN RABBIS) | THE GWF (GOOD WILL FOUNDATION) | CEMETERIES & MASS GRAVES | CHRISTIAN-JEWISH RELATIONS | HUMAN RIGHTS

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The poster for the June 3rd 2026 demonstration at the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery calling for the building the Soviets plonked in its center to become the new national conference center

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VILNIUS—The poster in question invites people to a protest action on June 3 at the Vilnius Palace of Concerts and Sports. Three prominent public figures and their quotes are depicted:

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Posted in Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, Events, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok), Opinion, Politics of Memory | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Poster for the Macabre June 3rd Demo Planned by Ultranationalists at Vilnius’s Old Jewish Cemetery (Slated to become a National Conference Center)

Please Email Lithuania’s Seimas Committee on Culture to Defend Vilnius’s Oldest Jewish Cemetery

Posted on 31 May 2026 by Defending History

OPINION | OLD VILNA JEWISH CEMETERY AT PIRAMÓNT: SAGA OF 2015-2026 | EARLIER OPPOSITION | 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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by Andrius Kulikauskas

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Inset from photo below by E. Kulikauskas

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On March 18, 2026, twenty-three members of Lithuania’s parliament, Seimas, sponsored a bill to Promptly Renovate the Vilnius Concert and Sports Palace. On April 21, twenty-five members, representing all of Lithuania’s political parties, with the support of President Gitanas Nausėda, sponsored a revised bill On the Further Utilization of the Vilnius Concert and Sports Palace, cherishing it as a masterpiece of 20th century brutalist architecture which must be revived and exploited as a conference center and tourist site.

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Posted in Andrius Kulikauskas, 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 , , , , | Comments Off on Please Email Lithuania’s Seimas Committee on Culture to Defend Vilnius’s Oldest Jewish Cemetery

Updates on Effort to Save Vilnius’s Old Jewish Cemetery from Plans for a National Convention Center

Posted on 29 May 2026 by Defending History

[LATEST UPDATE]

OPINION | YIDDISH INSTRUMENTALIZED FOR EAST EUROPEAN STATE PR | OLD VILNA JEWISH CEMETERY AT PIRAMÓNT: THE SAGA OF 2015-2025 | EARLIER OPPOSITION | 2023-2024 “WORKING GROUP” ON VILNA CEMETERY | LIST OF MEMBERS | MOUNTING OPPOSITION TO NEW “MUSEUM PROJECT” | USCPAHA (UNITED STATES COMMISSION FOR THE PRESERVATION OF AMERICA’S HERITAGE ABROAD) | THE CPJCE (COMMITTEE FOR THE PRESERVATION OF JEWISH CEMETERIES IN EUROPE) | THE AJC (AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE) | THE CER (CONFERENCE OF EUROPEAN RABBIS) | THE GWF (GOOD WILL FOUNDATION) | CEMETERIES & MASS GRAVES | HUMAN RIGHTS

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A Tale of Two Visions for a European Capital’s Old Jewish Cemetery

Which of these two visions  for Piramónt (Shnípishok, today’s Snipiskes on modern, beautiful Vilnius) reflects true love of modern Lithuania? The historic cemetery restored or a convention center that would haunt the capital for centuries to come? DH images by Vulovakas of Kaunas (not to scale).

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May 12th Seimas statement and responses by DH (May 13) and state restitution sponsored official LJC (May 22nd):

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Posted in 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), Opinion | Comments Off on Updates on Effort to Save Vilnius’s Old Jewish Cemetery from Plans for a National Convention Center

Sadness and Shock, as Famed Opera Singer ‘Sings in Yiddish’ at Free Concert to Promote Vilnius ‘Convention Center in the Jewish Cemetery’ Project

Posted on 21 May 2026 by Defending History

OPINION | YIDDISH INSTRUMENTALIZED FOR EAST EUROPEAN STATE PR | OLD VILNA JEWISH CEMETERY AT PIRAMÓNT: THE SAGA OF 2015-2025 | EARLIER OPPOSITION | 2023-2024 “WORKING GROUP” ON VILNA CEMETERY | LIST OF MEMBERS | MOUNTING OPPOSITION TO NEW “MUSEUM PROJECT” | USCPAHA (UNITED STATES COMMISSION FOR THE PRESERVATION OF AMERICA’S HERITAGE ABROAD) | THE CPJCE (COMMITTEE FOR THE PRESERVATION OF JEWISH CEMETERIES IN EUROPE) | THE AJC (AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE) | THE CER (CONFERENCE OF EUROPEAN RABBIS) | THE GWF (GOOD WILL FOUNDATION) | CEMETERIES & MASS GRAVES | HUMAN RIGHTS

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OPINION

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VILNIUS—There was sadness and shock in the international Litvak community this week as news spread that famed Lithuanian mezzo-soprano Judita Leitaitė, a professor at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, was featured in the program of the free 18 May 2026 concert arranged to promote the project to situate a new national convention center in a Soviet ruin that lies in the middle of the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery where many thousands still lie buried. The Soviets pillaged all the stones, but left untouched the graves that were not under the building of the “Sporto Rumai” building.

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Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, Dovid Katz, Dovid Katz on the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Music, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok), Opinion, Politics of Memory, Yiddish Affairs | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Sadness and Shock, as Famed Opera Singer ‘Sings in Yiddish’ at Free Concert to Promote Vilnius ‘Convention Center in the Jewish Cemetery’ Project

Translation of Speech by MP & Former Vilnius Mayor Artūras Zuokas at Concert Supporting ‘Convention Center in Old Jewish Cemetery’

Posted on 21 May 2026 by Defending History

OPINION | OLD VILNA JEWISH CEMETERY AT PIRAMÓNT: THE SAGA OF 2015-2025 | EARLIER OPPOSITION |  2023-2024 “WORKING GROUP” ON VILNA CEMETERY | LIST OF MEMBERS | MOUNTING OPPOSITION TO NEW “MUSEUM PROJECT” | USCPAHA  (UNITED STATES COMMISSION FOR THE PRESERVATION OF AMERICA’S HERITAGE ABROAD) | THE CPJCE (COMMITTEE FOR THE PRESERVATION OF JEWISH CEMETERIES IN EUROPE) | THE AJC (AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE) | THE CER (CONFERENCE OF EUROPEAN RABBIS) | THE GWF (GOOD WILL FOUNDATION) | CEMETERIES & MASS GRAVES | HUMAN RIGHTS

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DOCUMENTS

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The following is Defending History’s translation of the transcript of the speech made by member of parliament and  former mayor of Vilnius Artūras Zuokas at the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences on 18 May 2026 (souvenir program). The original Lithuanian speech is available on youtube (courtesy of Willian Adan Pahl). The Defending History community continues to hope that the late London rabbi the former mayor invokes was himself deeply deceived by others in the name-out-of-Orwell “CPJCE” (Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe), a group exposed inter alia by Wikileaks for receiving secret payments for “supervising” the destruction of the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery, currently via plans for establishment of a convention center in a Soviet ruin where thousands would cheer, clap, drink and flush lavatories surrounded by thousands of Jewish graves, including some of the greatest Lithuanian rabbis of the last half millennium. See one of the historic complaints to the UK Charity Commission.  The long-term damage caused by foreign Jewish groups who in effect “sell permissions” to destroy Jewish cemeteries becomes obvious from this citation at this rally all these years later. For the actual international rabbinic consensus see here and here. There is widespread agreement, moreover, that the “convention center in the cemetery” would not be happening if it were a five hundred year old cemetery of the majority ethnicity and religion.

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Posted in Christian-Jewish Issues, CPJCE (London), 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, Vilnius | Tagged | Comments Off on Translation of Speech by MP & Former Vilnius Mayor Artūras Zuokas at Concert Supporting ‘Convention Center in Old Jewish Cemetery’

Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky and DH Editor Dovid Katz at BNS Press Conference: Calling on Lithuania to Preserve Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery and Cancel ‘Convention Center in the Cemetery’ Project

Posted on 15 May 2026 by Defending History

OPINION | OLD VILNA JEWISH CEMETERY AT PIRAMÓNT: THE SAGA OF 2015-2025 | EARLIER OPPOSITION |  2023-2024 “WORKING GROUP” ON VILNA CEMETERY | LIST OF MEMBERS | MOUNTING OPPOSITION TO NEW “MUSEUM PROJECT” | USCPAHA  (UNITED STATES COMMISSION FOR THE PRESERVATION OF AMERICA’S HERITAGE ABROAD) | THE CPJCE (COMMITTEE FOR THE PRESERVATION OF JEWISH CEMETERIES IN EUROPE) | THE AJC (AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE) | THE CER (CONFERENCE OF EUROPEAN RABBIS) | THE GWF (GOOD WILL FOUNDATION) | CEMETERIES & MASS GRAVES | HUMAN RIGHTS

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Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky (r.) and Dovid Katz. Photo: Lukas Balandis / BNS

VILNIUS—At a BNS (Baltic News Service) press conference today called by Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky, Vilnius’s one resident rabbi over the last 32 years, he was joined by Defending History editor Dovid Katz, former professor of Yiddish language, literature and culture at Vilnius University. Both pleaded with the Lithuanian government to preserve the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (Shnípishok, modern Vilnius’s Šnipiškės section), where many thousands still lie buried. The oldest recorded stone was from 1487. They called on the government to abandon plans for a convention center and or museum/memorial complex, now planned for a dilapidated Soviet-era building (“Sporto rumai”) on the site.

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Posted in Chabad in Vilnius, Christian-Jewish Issues, Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, Dovid Katz, Human Rights, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok), Opinion, Politics of Memory, Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky | Comments Off on Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky and DH Editor Dovid Katz at BNS Press Conference: Calling on Lithuania to Preserve Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery and Cancel ‘Convention Center in the Cemetery’ Project

Defending History’s Rapid Response to Statement from the Seimas on Fate of Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery

Posted on 13 May 2026 by Defending History

OPINION | OLD VILNA JEWISH CEMETERY AT PIRAMÓNT: THE SAGE OF 2015-2025 | EARLIER OPPOSITION |  2023-2024 “WORKING GROUP” ON VILNA CEMETERY | LIST OF MEMBERS | MOUNTING OPPOSITION TO NEW “MUSEUM PROJECT” | USCPAHA  (UNITED STATES COMMISSION FOR THE PRESERVATION OF AMERICA’S HERITAGE ABROAD) | THE CPJCE (COMMITTEE FOR THE PRESERVATION OF JEWISH CEMETERIES IN EUROPE) | THE AJC (AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE) | THE CER (CONFERENCE OF EUROPEAN RABBIS) | THE GWF (GOOD WILL FOUNDATION) | CEMETERIES & MASS GRAVES | HUMAN RIGHTS

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The following statement was circulated to Defending History readers today in response to the statement from the Seimas, Lithuania’s parliament, on the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (Shnípishok, in the Šnipiškės district of modern Vilnius):

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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, Vilnius | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Defending History’s Rapid Response to Statement from the Seimas on Fate of Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery

Protected: Let Us Together Restore the Last Jewish Anti-Nazi Partisan Fort in Lithuania

Posted on 11 May 2026 by Defending History

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Posted in Germany, Gert Weisskirchen, History, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Remnants of Europe's Last Jewish Anti-Nazi Partisan Fort | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Protected: Let Us Together Restore the Last Jewish Anti-Nazi Partisan Fort in Lithuania

New Documentary on Holocaust Perpetrator Glorification in Eastern Europe: ‘No Secret Monuments’

Posted on 8 May 2026 by Defending History

OPINION | FILM | ARTS | GLORIFICATION OF COLLABORATORS | HISTORY

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FILM REVIEW

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by Roland Binet  (De Panne, Belgium)

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No Secret Monuments. Silent Statues and the Distortion of Truth.

A documentary by Paula Kirman and Adam Bentley.

The film’s website. Trailer on youtube. Announced on Film Freeway.

 

Having previously produced two documentaries related to monuments in honor of Nazis and their collaborators, Paula Kirman and Adam Bentley journeyed to the three Baltic States and to Finland in order to track and unearth monuments to Nazi collaborators displaying a hero-worship in these countries, eighty years after the war. In their own words, the purpose of the documentary is ‘exposing monuments that commemorate Nazis and their local collaborators.’ In the documentary, of one hour and twelve minutes, Kirman is our guide and narrator.

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Posted in Arts, Film, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Roland Binet | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on New Documentary on Holocaust Perpetrator Glorification in Eastern Europe: ‘No Secret Monuments’

April-May 2026 Updates in the Saga of the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery

Posted on 1 May 2026 by Defending History

[LAST UPDATE]

OPINION | OLD VILNA JEWISH CEMETERY AT PIRAMÓNT: THE SAGA OF 2015-2025 | EARLIER OPPOSITION | 2023-2024 “WORKING GROUP” ON VILNA CEMETERY | LIST OF MEMBERS | MOUNTING OPPOSITION TO NEW “MUSEUM PROJECT” | USCPAHA (UNITED STATES COMMISSION FOR THE PRESERVATION OF AMERICA’S HERITAGE ABROAD) | THE CPJCE (COMMITTEE FOR THE PRESERVATION OF JEWISH CEMETERIES IN EUROPE) | THE AJC (AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE) | THE CER (CONFERENCE OF EUROPEAN RABBIS) | THE GWF (GOOD WILL FOUNDATION) | CEMETERIES & MASS GRAVES | HUMAN RIGHTS

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The new debate is between the factions of would-be destroyers of the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery, where thousands lie buried:

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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 , , , , , , | Comments Off on April-May 2026 Updates in the Saga of the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery