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On 16 June, a memorial plaque was unveiled at Vilnius old Jewish cemetery in Šnipiškės. During the ceremony, Lithuanian Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Asta Skaisgirytė Liauškienė noted that Vilnius was always famous for its tolerance and openness to different peoples and religions, and invited Vilniusites and guests to preserve the tradition of social harmony in the modern world.

“Since the times of Gediminas, the founder of the city, Vilnius has been well-known as a capital, open to all people from various ethnic and religious backgrounds who can freely disseminate and foster their cultures, languages and religious faith in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania,” Vice-Minister A.Skaisgirytė Liauškienė said.

Speaking about the role of the Lithuanian Jewry in the history of our state, their contribution to the world’s culture and to that of Lithuania, the Vice-Minister noted that when visiting Lithuania, Litvaks from all over the world could find ever more precious places, rooted in Lithuania’s unique cultural and historical landscape.

Recently in Vilnius, a memorial plaque has been unveiled to Abraham Sutzkever, famous Litvak poet and former prisoner of the Vilna Ghetto. Over the past twenty years of independence, Lithuania has perpetuated the memory of Vilna Gaon Eliyahu ben Solomon Zalman, writer and diplomat Romain Gary, one of the founders of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Doctor Tsemakh Shabad, violinist Jascha Heifetz, founder of the Ažuoliukas boys’ choir Herman Perelshtein and other prominent personalities.

“Vilnius Historic Centre is inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List – it is a unique creation of many peoples and an inestimable value of all humankind, and we all have to preserve it, so that we could all be proud of it,” A.Skaisgirytė Liauškienė said.

The ceremony to honour the memory of the Jews who were buried at the old cemetery in Šnipiškės was attended by Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius, Vilnius Mayor Artūras Zuokas, Deputy Chair of the Lithuanian Jewish Community Faina Kukliansky, Chairman of the Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe Rabbi Elyakim Schlesinger, Lithuanian public figures and people in culture, foreign guests.

On the same day, Lithuanian Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs together with Lithuania’s Jewish and Polish Communities paid tribute to the memory of the Jewish and Polish victims, who were shot by the Nazis in July 1941 in Vilnius.

The ceremony commemorating the victims of the Holocaust in Paneriai was attended by Prime Minister’s Chancellor Deividas Matulionis and Director General of the Lithuanian Genocide and Resistance Research Centre Teresė Birutė Burauskaitė. Rabbi E.Schlessinger and priest of the Vilnius Cathedral Robert Šalaševičius said prayers for the dead.