OPINION | OLD VILNA JEWISH CEMETERY AT PIRAMÓNT: 2015-2025 | EARLIER OPPOSITION TO CONVENTION CENTER | 2023-2024 “WORKING GROUP” ON VILNA CEMETERY | LIST OF MEMBERS | MOUNTING OPPOSITION TO THE NEW “MUSEUM PROJECT” | THE USCPAHA | THE CPJCE | THE AJC | THE CER | CEMETERIES & MASS GRAVES | HUMAN RIGHTS | CHRISTIAN-JEWISH RELATIONS
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VILNIUS—The following is the text of Defending History’s emailed letter to readers today concerning news of the Lithuanian prime minister’s statement announcing that the derelict Soviet building in the middle of the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery, instead of being torn down to make way for the cemetery’s loving restoration would be restored and rebuilt to become Vilnius’s new national convention center. There was, for all intents and purposes, no mention of the recent “Working Group” and its non-starter recommendation for it to become a museum. The Defending History community will continue to pursue peaceful and appropriate public-discourse means to defend the dignity of the thousands of Vilna Jews buried there over half a millennium of Litvak history.
[UPDATES: See also Rabbi Elchonon Baron’s rapid reply to prime minister; Vilnius mayor’s complaint that he wasn’t informed, noting he is studying alternative site near the Seimas.]
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Dear Readers
Lithuania’s Prime Minister has just announced full reversion to the convention center project in the heart of the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery that would prove so damaging and tragic for Lithuania’s standing in the world. The many thousands of Vilna citizens buried there have no local descendants to defend their graves because of the Holocaust. Moreover, the unique hand of East European antisemitism is in play (and an antisemitic party lamentably forms part of the PM’s coalition). The simple tests: (a) all other hated Soviet monstrosities are (rightfully!) dismantled; and (b) this would never happen to a five hundred year old city center cemetery of the ethnic/religious majority in the country. Both EU and US congressional law clearly designate the sacrosanct rights of minority cemeteries internationally.
The announcement on the prime minister’s own website, followed by news reports:
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“A convention center cannot be built in the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery. There are many fine sites for conference centers. A cemetery is not one of them. People deserve to be able to clap and cheer and enjoy entertainment and bars without being surrounded by thousands of extant graves. The most important Jewish cemetery in the region must be lovingly restored, to the eternal credit of Vilnius and Lithuania.”
The path was most recently paved by the morally lamentable failure of the “Working Group” and its “international Jewish members” (with only one dissenting voice) who came to Vilnius to be wined and dined, in some cases receiving government medals and honors (one rabbinical organization was even allegedly paid to help organize it all) as they in effect morally sold the graves of tens of thousands of Vilna Jews buried in their plots, purchased by their families in perpetuity, in the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery at Piramónt (in the Shnípishok/ Šnipiškės) section of Vilnius.
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The history of the Working Group:
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The members of the Working Group:
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The sole dissenting voice of its one unbuyable member who acted with inspirational integrity that will live on in the annals of Jewish history (but his dissent was not even mentioned in the ensuing press releases):
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The history of the Old Vilna Jewish Cemetery debate over the last decade:
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Local and international opposition from the last few years:
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News and views in reverse chronological order:
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Defending History calls on the members of the Working Group to examine their conscience and now demand the Soviet ruin’s demise and the preservation and restoration of the cemetery; calls on international advocates for the defense of Jewish cemeteries on ground zero of the Holocaust to speak out loudly and clearly to stop this travesty from moving forward (including the American taxpayer funded “USCPAHA” which has participated as enabler in the shameful process from start to finish; and the American Jewish Committee, which has conducted itself even more dishonorably).
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For all of us who love modern Lithuania: It would be a curse on beautiful, modern, democratic Lithuania forever, and a carbuncle in the heart of historic Vilna so soon after we all celebrated in harmony the city’s 700th birthday. The instrumentalization of foreign Jewish “leaders” via medals, junkets, publications, translations, grants and assorted honors to come and “bless” the travesty will also go down in the annals of lamentable betrayers of the community and its history.
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Please do not remain silent. The Soviet dump must be torn down, like all the other hated Soviet dumps. The cemetery must be lovingly and beautifully restored. The human rights of the deceased to rest in peace in their freehold-purchased plots are indeed human rights too.
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Please support Defending History’s work for the dignified preservation and restoration of Jewish cemeteries and burial sites in Eastern Europe.
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Thank you.
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