WJRO’s Misadventures in Lithuania

Two Letters to Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky, Vilnius’s Resident Rabbi for 32 Years: Right Out of George Orwell?

Posted on 12 November 2026 by Defending History

OPINION | “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 | WJRO MISADVENTURES | LITVAK AFFAIRS | CHABAD IN LITHUANIA 

◊

Shocking video of the assault on Vilnius’s one resident rabbi, Sholom Ber Krinsky, on 14 September 2026 by a security guard reportedly funded through the Good Will Foundation. The attack resulted in the rabbi being taken to hospital for emergency treatment. The incident occurred after the rabbi encountered two Israeli couples speaking Hebrew who asked to have a quick look inside Vilnius’s one functioning synagogue, and invited them in. Both visiting couples have issued eyewitness statements. Testimony no. 1 (audio). Testimony no. 2 (statement). Israelis are always happy (and very well accustomed) to submit to thorough security checks before entering places of public gathering. Neither couple expected to witness the rabbi being physically assaulted without provocation. See Defending History’s section documenting the saga.

◊

VILNIUS—The office of Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky, Vilnius’s resident rabbi for the past 32 years, today released two letters received on 12 November: one from the official, state-restitution funded (“Good Will Foundation”) entity called “Lithuanian Jewish Community” (unsigned), and the other from the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO), signed by Nachliel Dison, a longtime member of the board of the “Good Will Foundation” (GWF), the Lithuanian government quango which distributes Lithuanian state restitution funds (see Defending History’s section on “a textbook case of Holocaust restitution gone wrong“).

Continue reading

Posted in "Good Will Foundation" (Jewish Restitution in Lithuania), Chabad in Vilnius, 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, Vilnius, WJRO's Misadventures in Lithuania | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Two Letters to Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky, Vilnius’s Resident Rabbi for 32 Years: Right Out of George Orwell?

Dramatic Video of ‘Depraved’ Violent Attack on Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky at the Gate of Vilnius’s One Synagogue

Posted on 20 October 2026 by Defending History

[LAST UPDATE. ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 16 OCT. 2026]

by security guard employed by the ‘Good Will Foundation’ (GWF). Still no apology. Just ‘prevarication and attempted inversion’.  Previous reports. Some see retaliation for Rabbi Krinsky’s recent and older critiques of GWF.

Question of the week: Is the assailant still a GWF employee? Until what date was he employed at GWF?

OUR OPINION: Time for the Lithuanian authorities to dismantle the ‘Good Will Foundation’ (a name right out of Orwell), verily at once a quango and a quagmire, a source of largess for one elitist, self-serving clique. Time to replace it with a representative, democratic, accountable new entity to justly process the Lithuanian government’s generous restitution emanating from the valuations of prewar communal religious properties. Jewish people in Lithuania deserve restoration of their stolen democracy.

The Defending History community hopes for an imminent public statement from the major international Jewish organizations that continue to effectively legitimize Lithuania’s weirdest quango by their public membership on the GWF’s board. These include the American Jewish Committee (AJC), American Zionist Movement (AZM), B’nai B’rith International (BB), Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany,  National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry, World ORT, the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO). Are their members and donors aware of the situation over many years, and most recently, the violent attack on Vilnius’s dedicated rabbi who has served the community for 32 years? Is it all about the red-carpet Vilnius junkets provided by the GWF? Something else?

 

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, Vilnius, WJRO's Misadventures in Lithuania | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Dramatic Video of ‘Depraved’ Violent Attack on Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky at the Gate of Vilnius’s One Synagogue

Vilnius’s Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky Issues Response to Official ‘State Restitution’ Community’s Statement on Violent Attack at Synagogue Gate

Posted on 25 September 2026 by Defending History

“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

◊

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).

Continue reading

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, WJRO's Misadventures in Lithuania | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Vilnius’s Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky Issues Response to Official ‘State Restitution’ Community’s Statement on Violent Attack at Synagogue Gate

Were ‘Good Will Foundation’ Funds Used in Today’s Assault on Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky at Vilnius’s One Synagogue?

Posted on 14 September 2026 by Defending History

“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

◊

◊

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).

Continue reading

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, WJRO's Misadventures in Lithuania | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Were ‘Good Will Foundation’ Funds Used in Today’s Assault on Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky at Vilnius’s One Synagogue?

Office of Vilnius’s Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky Releases Text of Public Letter to WJRO and Foreign Board Members of GWF

Posted on 24 August 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

◊

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:

◊

Continue reading

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?, WJRO's Misadventures in Lithuania | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Office of Vilnius’s Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky Releases Text of Public Letter to WJRO and Foreign Board Members of GWF

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

◊

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.

Continue reading

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, 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, Vilnius, WJRO's Misadventures in Lithuania | 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’)

Bravo to Vilnius Jewish Community for Standing Up for Democracy & Continuity of Jewish Life in Lithuania

Posted on 6 June 2025 by Defending History

OPINION | LITHUANIAN JEWISH COMMUNITY ISSUES | LITVAK AFFAIRS | GOOD WILL FOUNDATION | STOLEN ELECTION SAGA | AJC MISADVENTURES IN LITHUANIA

◊

OPINION

◊

VILNIUS—The following is an edited and updated version of Dovid Katz’s post on Facebook today in reaction to the  statement posted today by the Vilnius Jewish Community (VJC) on its website and on Facebook. An English translation of the statement appears in Defending History.

[Updates: See also the media report in Alfa.lt; the statement posted by Jewish Heritage Lita (JHL) on its website; Defending History’s newly compiled section, Lithuania: a Textbook Case of East European Restitution for Lost Jewish Assets Abused to Dismantle and Diminish a Vibrant Jewish Community, which includes contributions over the years by Ruta Bloshtein, Alexander Chernov, Pinchos Fridberg, Simon Gurevich, Leon Kaplan, Arkady Kurliandchik, Zecharya Olickij, Josif Parasonis, the late Jacob Pilansky, among others.]

BRAVO to our democratic Vilnius Jewish Community (which represents over 1,600 Jewish people in Vilnius, constituting the majority of today’s small Jewish community in Lithuania) for proudly standing up and speaking out on this week’s monkey elections at the corrupt “Lithuanian Jewish Community” (which is state-sponsored, via “restitution” no less, deriving from the property values of the annihilated prewar religious institutions). Their statement is on Facebook and their website.

In the middle of the 2017 election campaign, when a certain conflict-of-interest passport lawyer saw that her opponent was winning, the rules were changed mid-campaign to disenfranchise the living Jewish people of Lithuania and replace them with kangaroo “associations” comprising entities themselves receiving monies and/or other benefits from the same restitution.

Continue reading

Posted in "Good Will Foundation" (Jewish Restitution in Lithuania), A Stolen Election and a Small Jewish Community's Protest, Dovid Katz, 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, WJRO's Misadventures in Lithuania | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Bravo to Vilnius Jewish Community for Standing Up for Democracy & Continuity of Jewish Life in Lithuania

Heartfelt Plea for Vilnius Jewish Community to Foreign Members of “Good Will Foundation” (& Charming Reply from AJC’s Andrew Baker)

Posted on 14 August 2020 by Defending History

DOCUMENTS  |  OPINION  |  VILNIUS JEWISH COMMUNITY  |  THE STOLEN ELECTION SAGA  |  GOOD WILL FOUNDATION  |  OLD VILNA JEWISH CEMETERY  |  LITVAK AFFAIRS  |  LITVAK IDENTITY THEFT

◊

The following is the text of the public letter from three elected board members of the Vilnius Jewish Community, posted earlier this week, on 12 August, on Facebook (as PDF), and the reply received today, on behalf of the Good Will Foundation, by the American Jewish Committee’s Rabbi Andrew Baker, who is also a medal awardee of the Lithuanian government and a long-time member of its Holocaust-revisionist “red-brown commission” that has caused decades of pain to Holocaust survivors and their families.

Related:

State medals for ambitious Westerners who cover for Holocaust revisionism

Destruction of Jewish community democracy in Vilnius

Rabbi S. B. Krinsky was first to expose the moral issues at stake

Abusing the identity of the fragile, struggling Litvak heritage

Battle to save Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery from humiliation of convention center

Continue reading

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, Arkady Kurliandchik, 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, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok), Opinion, WJRO's Misadventures in Lithuania | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Heartfelt Plea for Vilnius Jewish Community to Foreign Members of “Good Will Foundation” (& Charming Reply from AJC’s Andrew Baker)

Vilnius District Court Nullifies LJC Head’s Spring 2017 “Election”

Posted on 21 December 2017 by Defending History

DOCUMENTS  |  VILNIUS JEWISH LIFE  |  LITVAK AFFAIRS  |  DEMOCRACY  |  GOOD WILL FOUNDATION  |  HUMAN RIGHTS

◊

VILNIUS—In her ruling issued earlier today, Vilnius District Court Judge Rima Bražinskienė, following up on her crucial 29 May 2017 judgment, confirmed the illegality of last April’s mid-campaign rule change by the board of the “Lithuanian Jewish (Litvak) Community” which effectively disenfranchised the 2,200 members of the Vilnius Jewish community (as well as the Jewish people in the other. smaller communities) by replacing the long-standing proportional voting system with an oligarchic system giving one vote to each board member (most of whom have allegedly received professional, promotional or financial benefits from the funds of the “Good Will Foundation” that finances the community). As a result, the capacity of the Holocaust-remnant Jewish community of Lithuania to democratically choose its leadership was in one tragic fell swoop annulled in favor of a system that gave that authority to a roomful of wannabe-oligarchs, some of whom hold two or three votes each. The large corpus of protests include last summer’s letter from twenty of the elected members of the Vilnius Jewish Community’s council and a more recent article by Professor Josifas Parasonis.

JUMP TO UPDATES

The court action asking for relief was brought by the Vilnius Jewish Community as plaintiff. Its 21 member council was elected last May 24th in the largest Jewish electoral assembly in Lithuania this century with meticulous voting open to all community members. Today’s ruling includes the text:

Continue reading

Posted in A Stolen Election and a Small Jewish Community's Protest, Documents, Free Speech & Democracy, Human Rights, 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, WJRO's Misadventures in Lithuania | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Vilnius District Court Nullifies LJC Head’s Spring 2017 “Election”

US Government Commission’s Herbert Block Visits Defending History Team in Vilnius, Now Pledging Support for Moving Convention Center Project Away from Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery

Posted on 11 December 2017 by Defending History

THE PETITION  |  THE OLD VILNA CEMETERY  |  INTERNATIONAL OPPOSITION TO CONVENTION CENTER ON THE CEMETERY  |  IN LITHUANIAN  |  HUMAN RIGHTS

◊

VILNIUS—Herbert Block, a veteran member of the American government’s Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, and chair of its committee on the old Vilnius Jewish cemetery, visited yesterday and today for two sessions with staff of the Defending History team here in the Lithuanian capital. Mr. Block is a well-known and beloved figure for the Lithuanian Jewish community, with whom he worked closely for many years (1999 to 2015), during his tenure as Assistant Executive Vice President of the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC or “Joint”), where his work included coordinating successful efforts to achieve restitution that could enable the Jewish community’s survival for generations to come. At present, he is executive director of the American Zionist Movement (AZM). Previously Mr. Block served as Assistant Director for Intergovernmental and Public Affairs for the New York City Independent Budget Office (1996-1999) and was Deputy Director for Intergovernmental Relations at the federal Corporation for National and Community Service in  1994-1995.  He was Assistant to the Mayor of the City of New York from 1990 to 1993 and Special Assistant to the Manhattan Borough President from 1986 to 1989. For years he has been a member of the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO) with specialization in the Baltic region and Poland.

Herb Block explained how hard he has been working behind the scenes to ensure the cemetery’s preservation, and pledged his firm personal commitment to work resolutely for the convention center project to be moved to another venue in town — away from Vilna’s Old Jewish Cemetery. 

Continue reading

Posted in Defense of Old Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Grave Sites, Herbert Block and Issues of Lithuanian Jewish Cemetery Preservation, It Pays to Defend History: Success Over the Years..., Lithuania, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in Šnipiškės / Shnípishok), USCPAHA (US Commission for Preservation of the American Heritage Abroad), WJRO's Misadventures in Lithuania | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on US Government Commission’s Herbert Block Visits Defending History Team in Vilnius, Now Pledging Support for Moving Convention Center Project Away from Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery

Rabinowitz-Dorf PR Campaign for Lithuanian Embassy and “Fake Litvaks” Backfires Bigtime

Posted on 30 April 2012 by Defending History

[Updated 3 May 2012] The following is a reprint, including comments up to today, of the 13 April 2012 VilNews.com article “First-time event in Chicago this Sunday, April 15, to address lingering issues affecting Lithuanian-Jewish relations.” This page, as posted today [3 May 2012], is also preserved in webpage format here.

Rabinowitz-Dorf: Did the PR firm sell out Lithuanian Jewry to help the current right-wing government “change” the history of the Holocaust with American Jewish cover, while enabling “Fake Litvaks” to  misrepresent themselves as representing the Jewish community in Lithuania?

Continue reading

Posted in American Jewish Committee (AJC) in Lithuania, Double Games, Foreign Ministries: Holocaust Politics Abuse?, Identity Theft of Litvak Heritage, Media Watch, News & Views, United States, US State Department, Use and Abuse of Sugihara, VilNews.com, What Do Fake Litvak Games Look Like?, WJRO's Misadventures in Lithuania | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Rabinowitz-Dorf PR Campaign for Lithuanian Embassy and “Fake Litvaks” Backfires Bigtime