News

On 30 January, an international delegation of Jewish communities' representatives headed by Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Melchior arrives in Vilnius. The delegation will meet Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas, Chairman of the Seimas Artūras Paulauskas, Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis and visit also the grave of Vilna Gaon. More than 300 religious manuscripts (hebr. Sefer tora) will be handed over to the arriving delegation by the Lithuanian Government, in accordance with the law on the transfer of torahs to Jewish religious communities adopted in 2000. The solemn ceremony of presentation of the torahs will take place at the National Martynas Mažvydas library. Later the memory of Antanas Ulpis, former director of the House of Books, who had preserved several hundred torah scrolls, will be honoured at the Tolerance Centre followed by a press conference. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the establishment of Lithuanian-Israeli relations. The transfer of the Jewish Torah Scrolls should be regarded as a sign of good will of Lithuanian Government and its people to the State of Israel and world Jewish religious communities. It is the fulfilment of a promise given by Lithuania during Vilnius Forum in October 2000, to take care and identify Jewish cultural assets, looted during the Holocaust, to assure the identification of the Jewish cultural properties, transparency of the collections and to facilitate their return to the owners.