Lithuania proposes setting aside nearly $40M for Holocaust survivors and their heirs
Two years ago, Lithuanian lawmakers considered declaring that neither the country nor its leaders could be blamed for participating in the Holocaust
Two years ago, Lithuanian lawmakers considered declaring that neither the country nor its leaders could be blamed for participating in the Holocaust
In 2014, Jonathan Brent discovered something he didn’t know he was missing. Walking into the Wroblewski Library in Vilnius, he saw a long table covered with boxes. Inside were documents belonging to the organization he heads, YIVO, the Institute for Jewish research, which was founded in Vilna and moved its operations to New York in…
(JTA) — The Jewish Community of Lithuania temporarily closed the only functioning synagogue of the capital Vilnius, citing security issues that may be connected to a debate about the honoring of Nazi collaborators. “The Lithuanian Jewish Community has received threatening telephone calls and letters in recent days,” Faina Kukliansky, the chairwoman of the community, wrote…
A Lithuanian church has removed the Jewish gravestones that had been serving as stairs and returned them to the cemetery where they likely originated from, an organization representing Lithuanian Jewry announced Monday. The Protestant Evangelical Church in Vilnius had been converted by the Soviet regime to a movie theater in 1957 as part of a…
(JTA) — Lithuania’s state historical institute on the Soviet domination of the country defended in court a deceased collaborator with Nazi Germany who is accused of murdering Jews. The Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of the Residents of Lithuania defended Jonas Noreika against the allegations by numerous historians last month in…
(JTA) — Pope Francis prayed at the site of the former Vilnius Ghetto in Lithuania on the 75th anniversary of its liquidation. He offered the prayers on Sunday in the presence of survivors and Jewish community leaders at the site. He also led a mass for more than 100,000 in Kaunaus, the second largest city…
(JTA) — A Lithuanian museum housed in a camp where Nazis and collaborators murdered 50,000 Jews is hosting an event for families featuring battle re-enactments. The May 12 event, which the Kas Vyksta news website billed as a “feast,” is scheduled to take place at the Ninth Fort, a 19th century bunker complex that the…
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. For hundreds of years, books played a powerful role in the lives of Vilna’s Jews. The city was home to the two most influential publishing houses of religious and secular books, Romm and B. Kletskin, as well as the great Strashun Library. Several synagogues, houses of study…
100% of profits support our journalism