Tag Archives: Pylimo 4

Vilnius Jewish Community (VJC) Announces Peaceful Demonstration on Monday, 28 May



OPINION  |  VILNIUS JEWISH LIFE

VILNIUS—The 21 democratically elected members of the Council of the Vilnius Jewish Community have issued an invitation to Vílner of all backgrounds to come this Monday morning, 28 May 2018, at 10:30 AM, to a friendly and peaceful event at the park right across the street from the long “kidnapped” official Jewish community building at Pylimo 4. Indeed, the purpose of the meeting is to speak out against the destruction of the community’s proud democracy by last year’s disenfranchisement of the thousands of Jewish residents here by a mid-campaign switch to a new “voting system” comprising a roomful of powerbrokers loyal to the chief. The election was declared illegal by the Lithuanian courts. That roomful comprises wannabee oligarchs who have nearly all received favors of one kind or another from the same “Good Will Foundation” that has been the distributor of restitution funds, deriving from the religious properties of the annihilated communities, that they themselves often decide how to disburse. Loyal and beloved Jewish employees of many years’ standing have been fired and replaced by folks with zero lifetime Jewish background or prior interest, but lots of political ties to high places and a penchant from the plumb salaries offered courtesy of the assets of annihilated Jewish people of the land. Some of these wannabe oligarchs have two or three votes each. Some represent defunct organizations. One happens to live in Brussels.

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Posted in A Stolen Election and a Small Jewish Community's Protest, Lithuania, Lithuania's Jewish Community Issues, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Vilnius Jewish Community (VJC) Announces Peaceful Demonstration on Monday, 28 May

Young Vilnius Jews Converge on Jewish Community Center to Protest Rigged Election



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

by Defending History Staff

VILNIUS—In one of the most remarkable events in post-Soviet Jewish Lithuania, around a hundred Jewish residents of this city, most of them from younger generations, came today to the Pylimo 4 headquarters of the “official” Jewish community to monitor the quadrennial elections for chairperson of the Jewish Community of Lithuania which they believed to be rigged. First, the rules had been changed right in the middle of the campaign, on 19 April, disenfranchising the small Jewish population of Lithuania by reducing to one vote each Jewish community and abandoning the long-standing formula of 1 vote for 100 persons which gave a voice to actual Jewish people (while retaining one, two or even three votes for various oligarchs from NGOs and other organizations, associations, and entities, including a not-yet built museum in a town with no Jews). That meant that the 2,200 or so Jews of Vilnius would have one vote rather than around 22.

UPDATES OF 29 MAY:

Vilnius District Court today nullified the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s decision to eliminate proportional representation and reduce the electoral weight of Vilnius Jewry to one vote. It offered temporary relief with a right to appeal within seven days. Net moral effect of the decision is to delegitimize the “re-coronation” of the incumbent chairperson.

Also: The “Good Will Foundation” released its latest allocation figures of funds deriving from the communal religious properties of the annihilated Jewish communities. Incredibly, it contains money for the state-sponsored “Red-Brown Commission” that is dedicated to the 2008 Prague Declaration

Second, the fifteen representatives which the newly elected Vilnius Jewish Community Board designated to attend the election conference were not admitted to the conference. Last Wednesday evening, the VJC elected Simon Gurevich (Simonas Gurevičius) its chairperson. He is the challenger candidate for the national chairpersonship position.

Third, a massive multi-layered security presence (guards in the building wore at least three kinds of fancy uniforms, police and security cars graced the sidewalk outside) added both bad will and farce to a day that will invariably go down in Vilna Jewish history on a number of counts. The Vilnius Jewish Community’s report on the day’s events (in Lithuanian) is available on its Facebook page.

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Posted in "Good Will Foundation" (Jewish Restitution in Lithuania), A Stolen Election and a Small Jewish Community's Protest, Chabad in Vilnius, Free Speech & Democracy, Lithuania, Lithuania's Jewish Community Issues, Litvak Affairs, News & Views, Opinion, Simon Gurevich (Simonas Gurevičius) | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Young Vilnius Jews Converge on Jewish Community Center to Protest Rigged Election