Lithuania’s Jewish Community Issues

Lithuanian Jewish Community Shocked by Cave-In of Titular Head to Genocide Center’s Holocaust Obfuscation



POLITICS OF MEMORY  |  GENOCIDE CENTER | LITHUANIA  |  COLLABORATORS GLORIFIED

The following 5 February 2016 Jewish Telegraphic Agency news item has appeared widely in international Jewish media, including the Forward, Haaretz, Jewish Journal, and the Ottowa Jewish Bulletin.

JTA—The leader of Lithuania’s Jewish community supported a proposal to delay publishing the names of suspected Holocaust perpetrators out of concern for their families’ reputation and privacy. Faina Kukliansky, a former prosecutor and president of the Jewish Community of Lithuania, made this assertion following discussions in Lithuania on publishing a list of 1,000 names that historians from the state-owned Genocide and Resistance Research Center of Lithuania have spent years compiling. The center’s director, Terese Birute Burauskaite, said on Tuesday that her institution would publish the list this year in a book, but later said it would transfer the list to state prosecutors instead. “I have it complete,” she said of the list, “but how will the families [of those named] react if this violates their rights, if their guilt is not proven? I will convey it to the prosecutors.” Burauskaite said she transferred a list with 2,055 names to the government in 2012, but it was neither published nor used in criminal investigations. The center then eliminated more than 1,000 names from that list.

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Posted in Collaborators Glorified, Double Genocide: The New Form of Holocaust Revisionism & Denial, Faina Kukliansky, Lithuania, Lithuania's Jewish Community Issues, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Politics of Memory, Vilnius's Genocide Center and the Genocide Museum it Manages | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Lithuanian Jewish Community Shocked by Cave-In of Titular Head to Genocide Center’s Holocaust Obfuscation

Let’s Dismantle the Sports Palace and Revoke the “Revocation of Hospitality”


 


OPINION  |  PIRAMÓNT  |  PAPER  TRAIL  |  OPPOSITION  |  CEMETERIES

by Andrius Kulikauskas

I am inspired by the deep feelings which have been stirred amongst Litvaks regarding the fate of the Vilnius Sports Palace built on top of the Jewish cemetery. I wish for our state of Lithuania to do its utmost on behalf of Lithuanians to restore the Jewish cemetery in Vilnius as a symbol of our aspiration for the closest friendship between Lithuanians and Jews. I realized that it would be most helpful for me to present my thoughts in Lithuanian.

“From the top of Gediminas Castle, do we want to see and cherish, for hundreds of years to come, what the Communist Party Chief saw (the Sports Palace) or what the Grand Duke of Lithuania saw (the Jewish cemetery)?”

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Posted in Andrius Kulikauskas, Antisemitism & Bias, Citizenship, Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, History, Human Rights, Lithuania, Lithuania's Jewish Community Issues, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok), Opinion, Politics of Memory, Symbology, Vilnius's Genocide Center and the Genocide Museum it Manages | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Let’s Dismantle the Sports Palace and Revoke the “Revocation of Hospitality”

Jewish Community in Shock as Simon Gurevich, Beloved Executive Director for Many Years, is Ousted at Whim of Chairperson



O P I N I O N

VILNIUS—There was widespread shock today among all generations of Lithuania’s small but lively and friendly Jewish community at the unceremonious ousting of Simon Gurevich (Simonas Gurevicius, known throughout the community as Simontshik) as executive director. He had been the favored candidate to succeed the legendary Dr. Shimon Alperovich (Simonas Alperavicius) upon his retirement in 2013, but “higher powers” with close connections to government agencies concerned with restitution engineered the selection of the famous attorney Faina Kukliansky, who is also, along with the American Jewish Committee’s Rabbi Andrew Baker, co-chair of the Good Will Foundation that decides on the disbursement of the generous restitution funds from the government. This follows dismay at the ousting of other employees, hiring of family members of high Lithuanian government officials, and a general shift away from a Jewish community in the direction of a quango for Jewish issues on behalf of the government that is after all now “paying” for the budge via restitution. More and more Jewish people of all ages, persuasions and backgrounds report that they no longer feel comfortable even entering Pylimo 4.

Posted in "Good Will Foundation" (Jewish Restitution in Lithuania), 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 | Comments Off on Jewish Community in Shock as Simon Gurevich, Beloved Executive Director for Many Years, is Ousted at Whim of Chairperson

First Reading of Jewish Communal Property Restitution Bill passes the Lithuanian Parliament


The first reading of the long-delayed restitution bill dealing with Jewish communal property in Lithuania passed the Seimas (Lithuanian parliament) today. It will next be considered by the Committee on Legal Affairs on 21 December. There are diverse opinions regarding various aspects of the text of the law and accompanying documents.

Most seriously, experts say that the document contains no clear mention of the actual legal recipient, leading to fears (despite verbal assurances)  that the project could in the future be diverted to the ‘Disneyland Vilna Ghetto Theme Park’ as per the wish of powerful forces in the government. That project is anathema to the Jewish community (see here and here).

When the bill was announced, the government’s official  Jewish Affairs Advisor, Arkadijus Vinokuras, published a blistering attack on the Jewish Community of Lithuania’s presumed role as future recipient of restitution. Mr Vinokuras is a close ally of Conservative Party MP Emanuelis Zingeris. English translation here.

Reports on  Alfa.ltBNSEuropean Jewish PressOttawa CitizenReuters.

[updated 14 Nov 2010]

Posted in 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 | Comments Off on First Reading of Jewish Communal Property Restitution Bill passes the Lithuanian Parliament