BALTIC STATES 2008/9

 

REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA

The Jewish Community

There are about 6,000 Jews in Lithuania (out of total population of 3.5 million), most of whom live in Vilnius (Vilna), the capital. The Jewish Community of Lithuania is the umbrella organization of Lithuanian Jewry. A Jewish secondary school and kindergarten operate in Vilnius while other towns have Jewish Sunday schools. The community in Vilnius publishes the monthly Jerusalem of Lithuania in Lithuanian, Russian, Yiddish and English. The Jewish community building in Vilnius houses the State Jewish Museum, the Israel Center of Culture and Arts, the Center of Yiddish Culture and Music, and the Zalman Reizen Foundation which supports Jewish culture, education and science. The town of Trokai has a museum of the Karaite community.

 

Antisemitic Manifestations

Several buildings of the Jewish community were vandalized. During the weekend of August 9−10, swastikas and other antisemitic graffiti were painted on the Jewish community building in Panevezys, while swastikas, Stars of David on gallows and the slogan "Juden raus" appeared on the Jewish community building in Vilnius. In late August, Israeli tourists discovered swastikas and the slogan "Jews − out" on the fence of the Jewish community building in Klaipeda, as well as at the local Jewish cemetery. On September 24, an Israeli flag placed on the building of the Jewish community in Klaipeda, alongside a Lithuanian flag, was set alight.

Two cases of desecration of Holocaust memorials were recorded in 2008. In May there was an attempt to set alight the Holocaust memorial in Vernikai forest, where the Nazis murdered 1446 Jews from nearby towns, while on October 16 antisemitic graffiti was painted on the Holocaust memorial near the village of Pluskiai, and parts of the memorial were broken.

Complaints were filed in all cases and police investigations were launched, but no perpetrators were caught.

At the annual festival in Vilnius held in early February 2008 and which traditionally takes place on Ash Wednesday (during the seventh week before Easter), some participants were dressed as peddlers in stereotypic Jewish clothes and grotesque masques, beards and ear locks and spoke with “Jewish” accents. Imitating Halloween-style trick-or-treating, two children dressed in horns and tails knocked on the door of Simonas Gurevicius, executive director of the Jewish community of Lithuania, and when he opened it they sang in Lithuanian: "We're little Lithuanian Jews/We want blintzes and coffee/If you don't have blintzes/Give us some of your money." Several festival participants also masqueraded as gypsies, wearing gaudy makeup, holding babies and asking for money.

On March 11, 2008 (Lithuanian Independence Day) about 200 skinheads held an unauthorized demonstration in the center of Vilnius. They shouted antisemitic and racist slogans such as "One, Two, Three, Lithuania is beautiful without Russians,” "Juden Raus,” "Kill this Jew” and "Lithuania for Lithuanians.” The participants held banners with swastikas and skulls, as well as the flags of Lithuania and Latvia. Police videotaped the demonstration and opened an investigation. The meeting was condemned by Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminis Kirkilas and President Valdas Adamkus, as well as by the Simon Wiesenthal Center. A public opinion poll published in a Lithuanian daily revealed that 32 percent of respondents approved of the antisemitic and racist slogans shouted during the march. Another 22 percent supported the march in general. In June 2008 an 18-year-old female and two 20-year-old males, who had participated in the demonstration, were convicted of incitement of ethnic hatred and fined 377−867 euros. In February 2009 one of the people arrested after the march was released since in the opinion of the court the slogan he shouted, "Lithuania for Lithuanians" was not racist. In early March 2009 a court sentenced another participant to home detention at night for shouting "A better Lithuania without Russians.”

 

Attitudes toward the Holocaust and World War II

On February 27, 2008, Avner Shalev, chairman of Yad Vashem, handed a letter of protest to Lithuanian Foreign Minister Petras Vaitiekunas during his visit to Israel, after it became known that the Lithuanian General Prosecutor's Office had launched an investigation against Yitzhak Arad, former chairman of Yad Vashem and a historian of the Holocaust in Lithuania, for allegedly killing civilians while he was a partisan in Lithuania during World War II. The FEOR (Federation of Jewish Communities in Russia) also protested. On May 28, the Simon Wiesenthal Center sent an official protest to the Lithuanian authorities after it became know that two more similar investigations were being launched against former partisans − Fania Brantsovsky, a librarian at the Vilnius Yiddish Institute, and Rachel Margolis, founder of Vilnius’s Jewish museum. In September the general prosecutor dropped the investigation against Arad "because of insufficient data.” There is no further information about the other investigations.

            On July 4, the Lithuanian Court of Appeals ruled that Algimantas Mykolas Dailide (87) would not be imprisoned for collaborating with the Nazis during World War II and taking part in atrocities against the Jews, on the grounds of age and the fact that he posed no danger to society. The Appeals Court thus ratified the ruling of the Vilnius District Court handed down in 2006 (see ASW 2006).

On April 19, 2008, a large red cloth with a swastika was discovered on a deserted building in Klaipeda. It was removed by local firemen and the police opened an investigation. This was not the first time that a Nazi flag was displayed in Klaipeda around the time of Hitler’s birthday.

The Nazi and Soviet regimes were equated in practice when on June 18 the Lithuanian parliament approved a law prohibiting public display of Nazi and Soviet symbols, including portraits of Nazi and Soviet leaders, flags, hammer and sickle representations, swastikas, military symbols, uniforms and playing the Nazi and Soviet hymns.

In October 2008, during a meeting with Rabbi Andrew Baker, director of the International Affairs Department of the American Jewish Committee, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Petras Vaitiekunas promised that the government would solve the problem of Jewish property in Lithuania confiscated by the Nazis. The real estate will be used for religious, cultural, educational and charity purposes and Holocaust survivors will be recompensed.

 

Responses to Antisemitism

In October the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the police announced that an investigation would be launched against Lithuanian showmen Algis Ramanauskas and Rimas Shapauskas for distributing a video on YouTube in which they are seen mocking Jews and even blowing them up. One of the episodes is entitled "Orbit – the Jews Are Being Smoked out of the Nest" and another, "Orbit – Jews are Eating Catholic children.” The video was removed from the platform.

 

REPUBLIC OF LATVIA

The Jewish Community

There are about 15,000 Jews in Latvia (out of a total population of 2.2 million), most of whom live in the capital Riga. The leading Jewish organization is the Society for Jewish Culture. Synagogues are active in Riga, Daugavpils, Liepaja and Rezekne. There is a Jewish school where children learn Hebrew and Yiddish. The main Holocaust memorial in Riga marks the site of the Choral Synagogue, in which hundreds of Jews were burnt to death in July 1941.

 

Political Background

Latvia is a parliamentary democracy, where the prime minister is head of the government and the president holds a primarily ceremonial role as head of state. The parliament (Saeima) has 100 members, elected by citizens on the basis of proportional representation for four years. The Saeima elects the president, who must be at least 40 years old. The president appoints the prime minister, who appoints the other ministers. Latvia has a multi-party system and usually no party is able to gain power alone. While there is no official antisemitism or racism in Latvia, an extreme right-wing organization called All for Latvia (Visu Latvijai) and which began as a political youth organization in 2000, became a political party in January 2006.

Racism

Members of "visible" minority groups claim they do not feel safe in many places, including the center of Riga and the old town, and especially at night, due to the increasingly aggressive behavior of youths often dressed as skinheads. The groups most vulnerable to such violence are those of African, Asian and Roma descent. No less worrying are reports that the police do not always behave appropriately when victims complain of racist attacks. In fact, there are reports of police harassment of minority members who came to police stations to file a complaint. According to a report issued for 2008, the Ombudsman's Office received 23 written and 34 oral complaints of ethnic and racial discrimination.

 

Antisemitic Manifestations

Two cases of desecration of Holocaust memorials were recorded: on February 27 swastikas and Stars of David were painted on the Holocaust memorial in Rumbula. More than 25,000 Jews from the ghetto of Riga were murdered there between November 30 and December 8, 1941 by the Nazis and their collaborators. On May 18, footprints were discovered on a Holocaust memorial in Riga.

It was discovered in April that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and other antisemitic works by Russian authors were being sold freely in one of the biggest bookstores in Riga, Pa Rokai. Since there is no list of banned books in Latvia, it is practically impossible to take steps against the stores.

 

Attitudes toward World War II and the Holocaust

In late February 2008 the municipality of Riga announced that it had received several requests to allow events commemorating Latvian soldiers, the so-called legionaries who fought on the Nazi side during World War II against the Soviet Union. The main event, held on March 16, had earlier aroused the concern of Latvian Minister of Interior Marek Seglinsh. However, on that day, after a memorial service was held in a Riga church, about 1500 participants, including, reportedly, several former German soldiers, marched through Old Riga and laid flowers at the Liberty Monument. An anti-fascist demonstration attended by about 200 people was held near the monument. Similar events have been held in Latvia every year on March 16 since 1994. The date marks the day in 1943 when the Latvian Waffen SS legion began to participate in battles against the Soviet army.

 

Responses to Racism and Antisemitism

On March 6, 2008 the regional court in Riga sentenced Andris Yordans to 18 months imprisonment for incitement of ethnic hatred. In February 2007 he attended a discussion titled "The Problems of Nazism, Neo-Nazism and Xenophobia in Latvia," where he announced that he was a neo-Nazi and that "the neo-Nazi idea is the only one that helps a person to live a full life.” He also spoke in favor of ethnic cleansing, claiming it was an "ideal possibility" for Latvia. According to Yordans, Roma and Jews "are not human beings.”

 

REPUBLIC OF ESTONIA

 The Jewish Community

About 2,500 Jews live in Estonia (out of a population of 1.3 million), mostly in the capital Tallinn. The Jewish Community of Estonia is the umbrella organization of Estonian Jewry. A Jewish Sunday school and a Jewish school for 1st−12th grades have operated in Tallinn since the early 1990s. Until the end of 2006 the synagogue in Tallinn was located in a small building that had been adapted for the purpose (the original synagogue was destroyed during the Holocaust). A new synagogue was opened in May 2007, financed by local and foreign donations. On December 17, 2008, a Jewish museum was inaugurated in Tallinn. The ceremony was attended among others by Mayor Edgar Savisaar, Estonia's Chief Rabbi Shmuel Kot and leaders of the Jewish community. The museum, which shows the history of Estonia's Jewry since 1828, also has an archive.

 

Attitudes toward World War II

In July 2008 Estonian SS veterans held their annual meeting in Sinimae, near the Russian border. It was attended by MP Trivimi Velliste and Regional Governor Veikko Lukhalaid, as well as SS veterans from Norway and Denmark. Velliste called on the Estonian parliament to recognize the Estonian SS soldiers as liberators.

In September, a calendar entitled "Eesti Leegioni kalender 09" (Calendar of Estonian Legions 09) went on sale in book stores in Estonia. The calendar contained 12 posters from World War II calling for recruits to the Estonian legions (which collaborated with the Nazis during World War II and numbered about 80,000). The calendar was condemned by the Jewish Community of Estonia and the Union of Camp Prisoners. In November the calendar was still on sale.