[UPDATED]

UPDATE OF 5 DEC 2016: VILNIUS SYNAGOGUE REOPENED WITHOUT INCIDENT

◊

NEWS AND UPDATES FROM 28 OCT TO 1 DEC 2016:

GROWING FALLOUT FROM DECISION TO USE POLICE TO OUST RABBI SHOLOM BER KRINSKY (AND HIS CHILDREN AND FELLOW WORSHIPPERS) ON 28 OCT. AND — SHUT DOWN VILNIUS’S ONE SYNAGOGUE

City’s Last Functioning Pre-Holocaust Prayerhouse Was Shut from 28 Oct. to 4 Dec. 2016

◊

THE DEBATE:

 BLOSHTEIN (2), FACEBOOK DISCUSSION;  BURSHTEIN; KAPLAN; KATZ; KRELIN & IZAKSON (2) (3); KRINSKY; KUKLIANSKY; OLICKIJ; PAZERAITE; PILIANSKY.  NEW SECTION: VILNIUS JEWISH LIFE. RABBI KRINSKY’S NEW BLOG.

MEDIA COVERAGE: JTA (+ THE TIMES OF ISRAEL / ALSO IN: FRENCH EDITION); JULIA RETS IN MZ (IN RUSSIAN)

RABBI KRINSKY’S NEW BLOG EMPHASIZES RESTITUTION ISSUES, LINKING TO A RECENT ALLOCATION LIST OF THE STATE’S “GOODWILL FOUNDATION” WHICH SEEMS TO HAVE “STRAIGHT ZEROS” FOR KRINSKY’S LONG STANDING JEWISH RELIGIOUS EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS BUT €193,174 FOR PR (“GOYISHKE BAGEL”?), €43,753 FOR MULTIMILLION NY YIVO RESEARCH INSTITUTE, PLUS TENS OF THOUSANDS FOR A GANDHI-KALLENBACH STATUE IN RUSNE. MONIES DERIVING FROM RELIGIOUS COMMUNAL PROPERTY OF MURDERED JEWISH POPULATION WERE INTENDED TO PRESERVE LOCAL, LIVING LITHUANIAN JEWISH LIFE AND COMMUNITY. THE BOARD.

BUT HEAD OF OFFICIAL COMMUNITY POSTS STATEMENT (2 NOV.) CLAIMING TO “HAVE INFORMATION THAT IT [Vilnius Chabad] IS BEING SUPPORTED FOR AN ULTERIOR PURPOSE” (PDF); AFTER INSTALLATION OF BARBED WIRE, HEAD OF OFFICIAL “RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY” ISSUES A STATEMENT (1 DEC.) ON NECESSITY OF SAFETY AGAINST TERRORISM, NOT MENTIONING SYNAGOGUE CLOSURE OR POLICE CALLED TO CLEAR AWAY RABBI KRINSKY’S WORSHIPPERS (ON 28 OCT.).

◊

BELOVED VILNIUS CHORAL SYNAGOGUE, ONLY ONE TO SURVIVE THE HOLOCAUST AND SOVIET MISRULE AS ACTIVE PRAYER HOUSE, IS STILL CLOSED IN HUMILIATING BLOW TO VILNIUS JEWISH LIFE. CLAIMS ABOUT “PLUMBING REPAIRS” RING INCREASINGLY HOLLOW AS CLOSURE CONTINUES INTO A SECOND MONTH. TIME FOR A NEW PLUMBER?

One of community’s “official worshippers” tells Defending History: “Rabbi Krinsky is guilty of having more charisma than the new guys they brought in.” Rule no. 5 for closed synagogue seems to some to imply that personal prayerbooks brought by worshippers for their own use need to be approved by official rabbi before admission by security guards. English,  Lithuanian,  Russian.  The “Religious Community” of Vilna or of Chelm?

Images of the newly installed barbed wire and secondary fencing posted on 22 Nov. 2016 by Ruta Bloshtein on Facebook (reproduced by permission):

PUBLIC APPEAL:

Please, Please, Reopen the One Surviving Vilnius Synagogue!