OPINION | VILNIUS | LITVAK AFFAIRS | STOLEN-DEMOCRACY OFFICIAL COMMUNITY | CHABAD IN VILNIUS

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by Ruta Bloshtein

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As a member of the very small religiously observant (Orthodox) Jewish community of Vilnius, and as someone born here in Vilnius, I at times feel it important to speak out publicly on current issues of Jewish life. I am writing this open letter first and foremost to express my public question as to whether a shameful document very widely circulated for several months now, purporting to come from the office of the official Head of the “Vilnius Jewish Religious Community” was indeed written by or approved by the personage whose name appears on top: Mr. Shmuel Yatom (whom I recall previously using the spelling Yusem), the official head of this “religious community” that is financed by the restitution-fueled official so-called “Jewish (Litvak) Community of Lithuania” which has done so much damage to genuine Jewish life here in Vilnius, not least by dismantling its longtime democratic structure.

Could this libelous screed really have originated from the office of Mr. Yatom (Yusem), official head of the Vilnius Jewish religious community?

It is very much in the spirit of an earlier despicable defamation of the city’s only resident rabbi of thirty-two years standing that appeared on the website of the “official” community nearly one year ago (13 April 2025), on the occasion of the shameless closure of the synagogue “just in time” to prevent the Passover seder from proceeding (see report). Yet again, the defamation extends to referring to Rabbi Krinsky as “Mr. Krinsky” as one of a series of immature and hurtful insults.

Or — has the name “Shmuel Yatom” atop the new circular, and the email address of the entity headed by Mr. Yatom, been used here without his knowledge and permission? The document is dated 23 February 2026. With each passing day since that date, Mr. Yatom has had, and continues to have, the opportunity to issue a public statement explaining that his name and that of the organization he heads were used without his permission, and that he publicly condemns the campaign of personal and professional attempted destruction leveled at Rabbi Krinsky who has done so much to generously support him over the years and decades?

Dear Mr. Yatom (Yusem):

Might you kindly clarify publicly whether the widely circulated document (reproduced below), bearing your name and title, is authentic or not?

And if it is not, will you today repudiate it openly?

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CANTOR YATOM’S LETTER TO RABBI KRINSKY