JERUSALEM—Leading Lithuanian-tradition (Litvak) rabbis who head yeshivas in Israel have signed an impassioned plea for the Lithuanian government to abandon plans for a massive new convention center in the heart of the old Vilna Jewish cemetery at Piramónt, now in the Šnipiškės district of modern Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania (background; the paper trail to date). Among the signatories to the poster are Rabbi Meir Soloveitchik, Rabbi Israel Isaac Kalmanovitz and Rabbi Tzvi Rotberg. Some of the signatories add handwritten notes with personal observations on the events underway in Vilnius (see lower left area for the handwritten addenda).
Lithuania
Israel’s Leading Litvak Rabbis Issue Impassioned Protest Against Convention Center Plans for the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery
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)
Comments Off on Israel’s Leading Litvak Rabbis Issue Impassioned Protest Against Convention Center Plans for the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery
Central Rabbinical Congress of the USA and Canada Protests Desecration of Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK—The Central Rabbinical Congress (CRC) of the U.S.A. and Canada today released to the media the facsimile of the original Hebrew letter it has issued concerning plans for a convention center at the old Vilna Jewish cemetery at Piramónt, now in the Šnipiškės district of modern Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania (background; the paper trail to date). The facsimile is followed by an English translation provided by the CRC.
EXCERPT:
“We turn to the enlightened government of Lithuania, and to the European Union, and say: Please Brothers—do no evil! O Heaven! Aren’t we all children of the same father and mother? Why are we different than every other nation, that you decreed such terrible things against us?”
Posted in Appeals to the European Commission on Piramónt, Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok), Politics of Memory
Tagged Central Rabbinical Congress + Lithuania, Jewish cemetery at Piramont, Jewish cemetery in Shnipishok, Jewish cemetery in Snipiskes, Jewish issues + Lithuania, Jewish Vilna (Vilnius), Lithuanian Jewish issues, Vilnius Jewish cemetery
Comments Off on Central Rabbinical Congress of the USA and Canada Protests Desecration of Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery
Vilna Gaon Synagogue in Tel Aviv Posts Protest Against Vilnius Convention Center Plan for Old Jewish Cemetery
TEL AVIV—The famous Vilna Gaon Synagogue (Beys Hakneses Ha-Gro / Bet Hakeneset Ha-Gra), founded in Tel Aviv in 1934, issued a poster that has appeared in synagogues, yeshivas and other institutions in various parts of Israel. Reproduced below (sent by a correspondent), it protests plans by Vilnius government and business entities to further desecrate the old Vilna Jewish cemetery at Piramónt, now in the Šnipiškės district, by plans to build a twenty-five million dollar convention center in the heart of the historic cemetery (background; the paper trail to date). The protest poster is signed by a number of famous rabbis, including Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Halevi, head of the rabbinical court of Tel Aviv and Jaffa, and Rabbi Elijah Landa, a direct descendant of the Gaon of Vilna, Elijah ben Shlomo Zalman (Eylióhu ben Shlóyme-Zálmen, 1720 − 1797), who signs on behalf of the entire family.
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)
Comments Off on Vilna Gaon Synagogue in Tel Aviv Posts Protest Against Vilnius Convention Center Plan for Old Jewish Cemetery
The June 2015 Memorial for the Lietūkis Garage Massacre in Kaunas, Lithuania
O P I N I O N / E Y E W I T N E S S A C C O U N T
by Julius Norwilla
◊
To mark the 74th anniversary of one of the iconic events of the Lithuanian Holocaust, the infamous Lietūkis Garage Massacre of 27 June 1941, the Kaunas Jewish Community organized its annual memorial event at the site, last Friday, 26 June 2015. The massacre, carried out by local Lithuanian “patriots” wearing the white armbands of the Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF), butchered dozens of Jewish passers-by at a garage on Kaunas’s Vytautas Avenue, using a variety of execution methods, including clubbing to death with crowbars, and particularly, forcing water from high-pressure hoses into bodily orifices of the victims until they burst. A growing crowd, including women holding up their young children to get the best views, cheered them on.
Posted in Bold Citizens Speak Out, Commemorations for Destroyed Communities, Events, History, Julius Norwilla, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Aleksandras Bosas, Amir Maimon, Embassy of Israel in Lithuania, Holocaust in Lithuania, Julius Norwilla, Lietukis Garage, Lithuanian Activist Front
Comments Off on The June 2015 Memorial for the Lietūkis Garage Massacre in Kaunas, Lithuania
Rabbi Shmuel Jacob Feffer: Rabbinic Judgment on the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery (Manuscript)
by Rabbi Shmuel Jacob Feffer
Editor’s note: The author is president of the World HaGró (Gaon of Vilna) Center in Israel, and co-editor of the Center’s seventy published volumes of the Gaon of Vilna’s works. He has been based in Vilnius around twenty-five years. The digital text of the judgment is available here. For background on the issue, see here. For the paper trail to date, see here.
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), Rabbi S. J. Feffer
Comments Off on Rabbi Shmuel Jacob Feffer: Rabbinic Judgment on the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery (Manuscript)
Rabbi Shmuel Jacob Feffer: Rabbinic Judgment on the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery
O P I N I O N
by Rabbi Shmuel Jacob Feffer
Editor’s note: The author is president of the World HaGró (Gaon of Vilna) Center in Israel, and co-editor of the Center’s seventy published volumes of the Gaon of Vilna’s works. He has been based in Vilnius around twenty-five years. The original handwritten document, with the rabbi’s signature and personal stamp, is available here. For background on the issue, see here. For the paper trail to date, see here. A registry of the mounting international agreement with Rabbi Feffer’s position is here.
◊
בס″ד ח′ תמוז התשע″ה לפ″ק פה ווילנא
◊
זעקת קודש
למען אוהביך שוכני עפר בבית העלמין הישן דווילנא
◊
אני הרב הדר בעיר הזאת זה קרוב ל-25 שנה ומכיר היטב תהלוכותי′ה ובעיותי′ה, וחרד לעתידה היהודי ועל זכרון עברה הק′ והחשוב כידוע לכל, ועתה ראיתי חובה גדולה בנפשי לצאת בגלוי ולהסיר הלוט בעניין הנשגב דלהלן, ולפרסם האמת ללא צל ספק – העובדות הברורות כשמש בצהרים ולעמוד בפרץ ולא לתת למשחיתים לבוא ולנגוף ח″ו, ואדרבה ביתר תוקף ועוז דקדושה לעמוד איתן על משמרת הקודש למען ה′ ותורתו הק′ והאמונה הטהורה.
Posted in 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), Rabbi S. J. Feffer
Tagged Rabbi S. J. Feffer (Pfeffer), Rabbi Samuel Jacob Pfeffer, Vilnius cemetery Snipiskes (Piramont), Vilnius convention center Snipiskes, Vilnius Jewish cemetery
Comments Off on Rabbi Shmuel Jacob Feffer: Rabbinic Judgment on the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery
Why Was Richard Maullin, Head of California ISO, Honored by the Foreign Minister of Lithuania?
O P I N I O N
◊
LOS ANGELES—Richard A. Maullin, elected less than a year ago as the chair of the California Independent System Operator (ISO) Board, was lavishly honored here on May 31st by both the Lithuanian ambassador to the United States and the Foreign Minister of Lithuania. The latter, in the tradition of royalty, meticulously placed the Lithuanian Diplomatic Star around the neck of Dr. Maullin, a major American pollster and principal of the LA polling and public policy research firm FM3, often still known by its older name Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates.
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Double Games, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Richard Maullin, United States, Views of Prof. Sarunas Liekis, Vilnius Yiddish Institute, Yiddish Affairs
Tagged California ISO, Fairbank, FM3 (Los Angeles), FM3 (Oakland), Friends of the Vilnius Yiddish Institute, L:ithuanian consulate Los Angeles, Maslin, Maullin, Maullin + ISO + California, Metz & Associates, Natasha Yatskevich, Richard A. Maullin, Richard Maullin, Sidney Rosenfeld, Vilnius Yiddish Institute, Zane Buzby
Comments Off on Why Was Richard Maullin, Head of California ISO, Honored by the Foreign Minister of Lithuania?
Herbert Block’s Clarification on Participation in Lithuanian Government’s New Heritage Commission
NEW YORK—Herbert Block’s office today issued the following statement which in effect modifies the Lithuanian government’s published list of members of its new commission on the Lithuanian Jewish heritage. This clarification is now linked at relevant points in Defending History’s recent report on the cemetery saga in Vilnius.
Herbert Block has informed Defending History that, while he was appointed to the new Commission by the Government of Lithuania without prior notice, and was honored by the designation, he formally resigned this position. As a Member of the US Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, a US federal government agency, Mr. Block is not permitted to serve on any body appointed by a foreign government.
Mr. Block attended the May 7, 2015 meeting in Vilnius only as an Observer on behalf of the US Commission.
Posted in Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, Herbert Block, Herbert Block and Issues of Lithuanian Jewish Cemetery Preservation, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok), Politics of Memory, USCPAHA (US Commission for Preservation of the American Heritage Abroad)
Tagged Herbert Block, Jewish cemetery in Snipiskes / Piramont, Lithuanian gov. commission on Jewish heritage, US Commission fr the Preservatin of America's Heritage Abroad, Vilnius Jewish cemetery
Comments Off on Herbert Block’s Clarification on Participation in Lithuanian Government’s New Heritage Commission
High Intrigue Over the Fate of the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery
by Dovid Katz
Updates in [brackets] to 12 July 2015
◊
VILNIUS—According to Lithuanian media sources, including the highly respected English-language Lithuania Tribune (now merged with Delfi.lt), the government, working in concert with property developers, plans to declare the controversial project of a huge convention and entertainment center in the heart of the old Vilna Jewish cemetery site as a “project of national importance.” The move enables an application to the European Union for a grant of 13 million euros (14.64 million US dollars at current rates) as part of a grand-total (for now) of 22.8 million euros (25.67 million US dollars) for the new complex. The nation’s prime minister has told Lithuanian media that “after the modern congress center is completed, private investors could build a hotel, parking lots and other infrastructure,” eliciting fears that all of the old Jewish cemetery is becoming a cash cow slated for developers for years to come. The Lithuania Tribune / Delfi.lt report concludes with an estimate of “110 million euros in economic and social benefits over 15 years” in addition to “600,000 foreign tourists and 2.2 million local tourists to Vilnius over that time period, with their spending estimated at 183 million and 60 million euros, respectively,” in other words, with profits from the old Jewish cemetery exceeding the equivalent of 250 million dollars, apart from the millions to be had from the building projects per se. Some estimates are provided in Baltic Course.
Posted in American Jewish Committee (AJC) in Lithuania, Antisemitism & Bias, Appeals to the European Commission on Piramónt, CPJCE (London), Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, Double Games, EU, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Herbert Block and Issues of Lithuanian Jewish Cemetery Preservation, In the Era of Yivo's 100th, Lithuania, Lithuania: Textbook Case of East European Restitution (for Lost Jewish Assets) Abused to Dismantle a Vibrant Jewish Community, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok), Politics of Memory, United States, US State Dept Manipulated?
Tagged American Heritage Abroad Commission, Andrew Baker, Antisemitism in Eastern Europe, Commission for the Preservation of the American Heritage Abroad., Herbert Block, Jewish cemeteries in Lithuania, Jewish Heritage Research Center, Jewish Sites Survey, Jonathan Brent, Jules Fleischer, Lina Saulenaite, Lithuanian-Jewish relations, Michael Maass, preservation of jewish historic sites in Europe, Rabbi Chaim Burshtein, Rabbi Israel Isaac Kalmanovitz, Rabbi Meir Soloveitchik, Rabbi Tzvi Rotberg, Samuel Gruber, Samuel Gruber's Jewish Art & Monuments, US government + Vilna Jewish cemetery, Vilna Jewish cemeter Piramont, Vilnius Jewish cemetery Snipiskes, Yivo + Vilnius, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Yivo Lithuania
Comments Off on High Intrigue Over the Fate of the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery
Evaldas Balčiūnas at Vilnius County Court Next Monday 15 June 2015
VILNIUS THIS MONDAY:
FRIENDS OF HUMAN RIGHTS, FREE SPEECH AND DEFENDING HISTORY INVITED TO COME OBSERVE / SUPPORT OUR WRITER
Evaldas Balčiūnas
Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, EU, Evaldas Balčiūnas, Free Speech & Democracy, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Prosecutors & Police 'Investigate' DH Author Evaldas Balčiūnas, State Glorification of Holocaust Collaborator J. Noreika
Tagged Evaldas Balciunas, Free Speech in Eastern Europe, Free speech in Lithuania, Free speech in the Baltics, Holocaust Obfuscation
Comments Off on Evaldas Balčiūnas at Vilnius County Court Next Monday 15 June 2015
New Conflict Over Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery, As New Heritage Commission Gets Underway
Updates on the new conflict over the old Vilna Jewish cemetery site at Piramónt (now part of the Šnipiškės [Yiddish: Shnípishok] district), and the related issues surrounding a concurrently established new commission on Jewish heritage will be added here as they become available.
THE PAGE IS HERE
Posted in Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, Human Rights, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Media Watch, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok), Politics of Memory
Tagged Commission on Jewish heritage in Lithuania, Jewish cemeter at Piramont (Snipiskes, Old Vilna Jewish cemetery, Shnipishok)
Comments Off on New Conflict Over Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery, As New Heritage Commission Gets Underway
Would this Building Project be Pursued if the Cemetery Were the Resting Place of Christians?
O P I N I O N / C H R I S T I A N – J E W I S H R E L A T I O N S / C E M E T E R I E S
by Pastor Michael Maass
◊
I would like to make an observation concerning the use of Jewish cemeteries for building projects, as this has come to be a major issue of controversy in Lithuania, and in other nations as well.
I would like to pose a question: Would these building projects be pursued if the cemeteries in question were the resting places of Catholics, Protestant Christians, or other non-Jewish people?
Posted in Antisemitism & Bias, Appeals to the European Commission on Piramónt, Christian-Jewish Issues, Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, Human Rights, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Michael & Fausta Maass, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok), Opinion, Politics of Memory, Racism
Tagged cemetery at Piramont (Snipiskes, Christian-Jewish relations in Lithuania, Jewish cemetery in Vilnius, Lithuania, Shnipishok)
Comments Off on Would this Building Project be Pursued if the Cemetery Were the Resting Place of Christians?
Legacy of Rūta Vanagaitė’s 17 April 2015 Conference at Vilnius City Hall
[updated]
Tomas Venclova addresses Ruta Vanagaite’s conference at Vilnius City Hall on April 17, 2015. Photo: Julius Norwilla.
Posted in Events, History, Lithuania, News & Views, Rūta Vanagaitė, Views of Prof. Sarunas Liekis
Tagged Dovid Katz, Efraim Zuroff, Evaldas Balciunas, Holocaust in Lithuania, Ingrida Vilkiene, Julius Norvila, Julius Norwilla, Pavel Tychtl, Ruta Vanagaite, Sarunas Liekis, Saulius Suziedelis, Tomas Venclova
Comments Off on Legacy of Rūta Vanagaitė’s 17 April 2015 Conference at Vilnius City Hall
Lithuania’s President and Entourage Lay Wreaths at Ponár on May 8th…
VIDEO
Dovid Katz in Times of Israel (11 May)
Efraim Zuroff in i24 (12 May)
“Equally” at Monuments for Jewish, Lithuanian and Polish Victims, but Skipping the Stone Commemorating the 7,514 Red Army Prisoners of Various Nationalities Starved and Murdered at the Site.
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, Double Games, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Events, History, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory
Tagged May 8th memorial at Ponar (Paneriai), Ponar (Paneriai, President Dalia Grybauskaite + Holocaust
Comments Off on Lithuania’s President and Entourage Lay Wreaths at Ponár on May 8th…
Dictionary of Lithuanian-Jewish Relations (in progress)
Antisemitism Conferences or Studies = Events guaranteed to exclude any mention of contemporary local antisemitism at the point of production, but will feature excellent glossy brochures on the past and on intolerance in faraway lands
Blizzard = Obfuspeak for when Estonia opts out of Obfuscationist documents and inches away from the expected Baltic positions
Posted in Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Humor (Of Sorts), Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, Opinion, What Do Fake Litvak Games Look Like?
Comments Off on Dictionary of Lithuanian-Jewish Relations (in progress)
SLS’s 2015 Sutzkever Prize: Yiddish Poetry Serving Right-Wing East European Politics?
O P I N I O N
◊
The bizarre saga of the Montreal-based Summer Literary Seminars (SLS) “Jewish Lithuania Sutzkever Prize” continues apace with ever-increasing disrespect toward Abraham Sutzkever and his fellow Jewish partisans who helped liberate Lithuania from the Nazis, and ever more political entanglement with current geopolitical instrumentalization of Yiddish and Jewish causes in Eastern Europe in the context of East-West tensions.
Posted in "Jewish" Events as Cover?, A 21st Century Campaign Against Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors?, Canada, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory, Sutzkever Prize in Lithuania, What Do Fake Litvak Games Look Like?, Yiddish Affairs
Tagged Abraham Sutzkever, André Aciman, Holocaust in Lithuania, Jamie Kirchick, Jewish partisans in Lithuania, Lithuanian Jewish partisans, Mikhail Iossel, SLS (Summer Literary Seminars) Lithuania, Sutzkever Prize in Lithuania, US Embassy in Vilnius, US State Department Holocaust policy
Comments Off on SLS’s 2015 Sutzkever Prize: Yiddish Poetry Serving Right-Wing East European Politics?
What Did President of Lithuania Say, When Latvian Journalist asked about LGBT Rights?
H U M A N R I G H T S / L G B T R I G H T S
by Lithuanian LGBT Rights Organization / LGL
Reposted from the LGL site with permission
◊
A Latvian journalist has felt the wrath of the Lithuanian president after asking several questions that “have not been agreed upon.” The president insistently, and rather gracelessly, refused to answer questions about LGBT* rights in Lithuania.
Posted in Human Rights, LGBTQ Equal Rights, Lithuania, News & Views
Comments Off on What Did President of Lithuania Say, When Latvian Journalist asked about LGBT Rights?
Lithuanian Translation of Efraim Zuroff’s 17 April 2015 Vilnius Conference (Prerecorded) Lecture
O P I N I O N
by Efraim Zuroff
◊
Note: Authorized Lithuanian translation, provided by the Being a Jew project, of the pre-recorded video address by Dr. Efraim Zuroff at the 17 April 2015 conference on the Holocaust in Lithuania organized by Rūta Vanagaitė. The original English text is here.
Posted in Efraim Zuroff, Lithuania, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Efraim Zuroff, Efraimas Zurofas, Efraimas Zuroffas
Comments Off on Lithuanian Translation of Efraim Zuroff’s 17 April 2015 Vilnius Conference (Prerecorded) Lecture
Lithuanian Translation of Dovid Katz’s 17 April 2015 Vilnius Conference Lecture
O P I N I O N
by Dovid Katz
Note: This text is the Lithuanian translation, provided by the Being a Jew project, of the written text of a lecture from the 17 April 2015 conference on the Holocaust in Lithuania organized by Rūta Vanagaitė. The original English is here.
Posted in "Red-Brown Commission", 70 Years Declaration, Dovid Katz, Dr. Rokhl (Rachel) Margolis (1921-2015), EU, Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Politics of Memory
Tagged Dovid Katz, Dovidas Katzas, Dovydas Kacas, Holocaust in Lithuania, Holokaustas Lietuvoje
Comments Off on Lithuanian Translation of Dovid Katz’s 17 April 2015 Vilnius Conference Lecture