Published: 9 August 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
CITING THREATS AND “INCITEMENT,” the Lithuanian Jewish community on Tuesday announced that it was shutting its doors, and that of Vilnius’s only functioning synagogue, for an indefinite period, in what appeared to be an escalating public debate over the way the Baltic state deals with its complicated history.
The Jewish community’s drastic steps came as Lithuanian nationalists fumed over decisions by the Vilnius municipality last week to rename a street that had been named after wartime diplomat and Hitler ally Kazys Skirpa, and to remove a plaque of Nazi collaborator Jonas Noreika at the entrance to the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences.
Both men, who fought the Soviets after World War II, are revered as national heroes but were involved in anti-Jewish measures as well. Jewish historians and activists welcomed the municipality’s move as two steps in the right direction, while Lithuanians nationalists called for nationwide protests.
FULL STORY Lithuanian Jews indefinitely shut community centre, only synagogue after threats (Times of Israel)
Photo: Lithuanian Jewish men pray, during a morning service in a synagogue in Vilnius in November, 2018 (AP/Mindaugas Kulbis)
