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VILNIUS—The Respect Cemeteries group (Gerbkime kapines), based here in the Lithuanian capital, today released the following statement:

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Please Email Lithuania’s Prime Minister and Vilnius’s Mayor to Defend Vilnius’s Oldest Jewish Cemetery

Lithuania’s newly appointed Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius and Vilnius’s Mayor Valdas Benkunskas will be meeting in mid-August to discuss the fate of Vilnius’s oldest Jewish Cemetery and the Soviet Palace which continues to desecrate it.

Gerbkime kapines (Respect Cemeteries), an informal fellowship led by Ruta Bloshtein, Arkadij Kurliandchik, Artūras Imbrasas, Edmundas Kulikauskas and Andrius Kulikauskas, urges defenders of the Cemetery to write emails to these officials. We include below their addresses and a sample letter.

Lithuania’s Parliament, Seimas, will in its Autumn session further deliberate a bill to revive the Soviet Palace as a convention center, desecrating the Cemetery for decades to come, now in the name of independent Lithuania, a member of the European Union and NATO.

Respect Cemeteries is responding! Arkadij, Artūras, Rūta and Edmundas are creating a mobile exhibit to highlight key facts: Czarist Russia built fortifications on one-quarter of the Cemetery, the Soviets seized the Cemetery in 1940, but most of the remains, many thousands, exist to this day.

Seimas member Emanuelis Zingeris is curating an art show by Andrius Kulikauskas, which will take place in Seimas, September 17-23, in the prestigious Stained Glass gallery, 17 m x 12 m. He will expand upon our mobile exhibit with replicas of life-size ohels, traditional but also unconventional, and a 6 m x 6 m model of the Cemetery as he envisions it, without the Soviet Palace.  The title is „Lietuvos Jeruzalės Nekropolis“ (The Necropolis of the Jerusalem of Lithuania).

Respect Cemeteries is realizing that a chief priority is to convince the Vilnius City Municipality to accord legal status as a cemetery to the Cemetery as it had until 1955. Currently, the Cemetery is listed on the Registry of Cultural Heritage as „the site of a former cemetery“ even though thousands of remains are there just as they ever were! We insist it have the status of a legally recognized cemetery.

Andrius spoke with Vilnius chief architect Laura Kairienė. The City is against any plans for a convention center at the Sports Palace because it would be too small and instead they have plans for a large modern center near Seimas. Truly what she would like is to reach out and include all views for an entirely new discussion on our visions for the future of the area, which is to say, the Cemetery.

We are writing emails to the Prime Minister and the Mayor to make clear that we don’t want any revival of the Soviet Palace and we do want discussion of its removal from the Cemetery.

Please write an email and send it to LRVkanceliarija@lrv.lt (the Chancellery of the Prime Minister)  and to valdas.benkunskas@vilnius.lt (the Mayor of Vilnius).  If you send us a copy to ruta@kapines.com then we will publish your letter at our website. Please let us know if you would like to become a member of Respect Cemeteries. We will invite you to zoom meetings and be happy for your help on our many projects. We are very happy that Rabbi Elchonon Baron has joined Respect Cemeteries and is sharing his rabbinical understanding. You can use any/all of the following text and/or compose your own letter.

Recognize Vilnius’s Historic Jewish Cemetery. Condemn the Soviet Palace.

Dear Prime Minister of Lithuania, Mindaugas Sinkevičius, and Mayor of Vilnius, Valdas Benkunskas,

I am writing from […where I am…].  I care about Vilnius’s oldest Jewish cemetery because […my connections with, for example, the Cemetery, Vilnius, Lithuania, Judaism… 

Please understand that the Soviet Palace is in the heart of a Jewish Cemetery, surrounded by thousands of remains. No activity should take place there which is unrelated to the Cemetery. In particular, the Soviet Palace should not be used as a convention center nor as a Jewish memorial.

1) This Jewish Cemetery is designated as such for all times. Orthodox rabbis and believers won’t enter any so-called “memorial” at the Soviet Palace. Please do not divide us!

2) The Soviets committed crimes by banning the Vilnius Jewish Community, seizing the Cemetery and desecrating it. Please recognize and condemn these crimes. Please restore justice!

3) The Soviets violently propagated their culture to form atheistic Soviet people. The Soviet Palace served as a Soviet Temple. This is not an appropriate place for a Jewish memorial.

4) Holocaust perpetrators equated Jewish victims with Soviet criminals. Please don’t conflate Soviet heritage and Jewish heritage.

I add my voice to those of the Respect Cemeteries (Gerbkime kapines) fellowship (www.kapines.com). We ask you, please:

1) Confirm that the Soviets committed crimes by banning the Vilnius Jewish Community, seizing the Cemetery and desecrating it.

2) Confirm that the Cemetery contains the remains of thousands of people.

3) Ask the Registry of Cultural Heritage to grant the Cemetery the highest status (national significance) given its international significance. Almost 54,000 people have signed Ruta Bloshtein’s petition in defense of the Cemetery.

4) Act so that the City of Vilnius promptly restores to the Cemetery the legal status which the Soviets took away in 1955, so that it is legally recognized as an actual cemetery.

5) Instruct Vilnius Chief Architect Laura Kairienė, with assistance from the Ministries, to invite all interested people for a truly new and open discussion on the future of the Cemetery, the Soviet Palace and the surrounding area.

6) Invite the Respect Cemeteries leadership to bring their mobile exhibit at Vilnius City Hall and at the Ministries to present the historical facts and also the perspectives of Vilnius Jews who are defending the Cemetery.

Please do reply!