Jewish Cemetary in Vilnius Slated for Destruction

It's clear why you think it is important, and the pictures are quite nice too, but there is no ANY "Jewish cemetery of Vilna is threatened with destruction".
This rumour, as i remember, had rose a year ago, and then "disappeared". Now, i see, it is rising again, or what?

I find it strange that as a "Vilna Resident" you are not aware of the facts on the ground, i.e. the site of the old Jewish cemetery is indeed being desecrated and demolished.

Please find the following URL's useful as resources for further reading & verification.

1)
Report from Lithuanian National Radio and TV (LR TV) that was aired in Vilnius on 26 July 2007.

The featured report concerning the plight of the old Jewish cemetery in Vilnius can be found on the "Panorama" programme, online at:

http://www.lrt.lt/archyvas/?channel=234940&section=4&filter=2007-07-26

scroll to 9:18 (9 minutes & 18 seconds) into the programme, where the report on the Vilnius Cemetery begins.

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2)

http://www.vilnius.lt/newvilniusweb/index.php/116/?itemID=34851

Jewish delegation visited the Municipality of the capital
2006-05-10

Yesterday Mayor of Vilnius Artūras Zuokas and Deputy Mayor Vitas Karčiauskas accepted delegation of Jewish communities from different countries. During the meeting, questions of further development of previous Jewish cemetery territory (presently the Sports Palace and its approaches) were discussed. Mayor’s advisor Vytautas Toleikis, archaelogist Kęstutis Katalynas, architect Kęstutis Pempė and city development specialists also participated in the meeting.
“We respect, value and understand traditions, culture and history of every nationality. We are absorbed into the historical documents of the old Jewish cemetery and are open for discussions. Though we are not responsible for mistakes, made many years ago, we are ready to solve the questions in united efforts”, said Mayor Artūras Zuokas. While feeling concerned about the future of destroyed Jewish cemetery territory, representatives of Jewish communities seek that peace of Jewish burying places will not be disturbed. During the meeting efforts were made to detect the topographical limits of the former cemetery and discuss further development of this territory.
Remarking that Lithuania is a democratic and lawful country, leaders of the city assured their guests that any accepted decisions will involve respect of the rights of all the nationalities and strict following all the laws of the Republic of Lithuania.

More information:
Vitas Karčiauskas, Deputy Mayor tel. 211 2545
Vytautas Toleikis, Mayor’s advisor tel. 211 2602

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3) http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/103254.html

4) http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/news/article/20070731Vilniuscemetery.htm...

As a resident of Vilnius, it would be kind of you to investigate the current situation & report back to us all.

Garry

It is impossible to speak about any destruction of Vilnius Jewish cemetery for it was demolished in 1950's by the Soviet authorities. The Sports Palace was built in this place. Although some fragments of the cemetery accidentally survived beneath the ground, they are not cemetery anymore (monument to commemorate the former cemetery is built there) and these are not threatened by any destruction. The area under discussion is purely hypothetical. A new building, according to some historians, partly occupies the edge of the Jewish cemetery, which was appropriated in 1831 by the Russian government and included into the fortress of Vilnius. An approximate plan made in the year 1808 is the main source for such an assumption, though there were no undisputable archaeological evidence found in that place (the scholars who believe that the cemetery was there doubt the accuracy of the investigation). I don't think that dispute over the supposed boundaries of the Jewish cemetery prior to 1831 has anything to do with the "destruction" of Jewish cemetery.

A few sources of information pertaining to the current situation on the site of the Snipiskes Cemetery in Vilnius:

1) U.S. rebuke of Lithuania over construction on Jewish cemetery

http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/105436.html

U.S., Lithuania spat over Jewish cemetery
Published: 11/20/2007
The U.S. House of Representatives is considering a rebuke of Lithuania over construction atop a Jewish cemetery.
A congressional resolution, which has the potential to upset bilateral relations between the United States and Lithuania, chastises the Lithuanian government for not stopping the building of luxury apartments.

The Snipiskes Cemetery in Vilnius was built in the 16th century and closed in the 19th century. Developers built on a site adjacent to the burial ground prior to last year, but international outcry led the government to form a commission to mark out the cemetery.
Construction began in February on a site that is likely above the cemetery, but the government did not issue a stop order until September, when much of the work was already done.

“Today the construction continues and the fate of the remaining parcels, some of which are most certainly atop the cemetery, is unknown,” wrote American Jewish Committee director Rabbi Andrew Baker in a letter supporting the resolution, which charges the Lithuanian government with violating a 2002 bilateral agreement to preserve the cultural heritage of religious and ethnic groups.

The daily newspaper Lietuvos Zinios reported that Lithuanian presidential adviser Vilius Kavaliauskas called the resolution “highly unpleasant and exaggerated in some places.”

Lithuanian Ambassador Audrius Bruzga met with Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-N.J.), who proposed the House resolution, on Nov. 16 and stressed that the issue was being addressed by the courts in Vilnius. The bill has 50 co-sponsors and will be added soon to the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s calendar.

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2) Similar to No.1: US Congress may rebuke Lithuania over Jewish cemetery

As publicised by the World Jewish Congress on 21 November 2007

http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/news/globalnews/gn_archives/2007/11/g...

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3) Jews protest to Lithuania over ancient cemetery

http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSL2183316620070822

Wed Aug 22, 2007 11:08am EDT

By Nerijus Adomaitis

VILNIUS (Reuters Life!) - A new office block going up in Vilnius seems like any other project in this booming city, but the local Jews are angry.
They say the work is on the site of an ancient cemetery, and the dispute has reopened old wounds and accusations of anti-Semitism in Lithuania, where the Nazi Holocaust wiped out a Jewish community of more than 200,000.
"This was a very special place," said Mordechai Gurwicz, 84, as he wandered slowly around the area of the 600-year-old Snipiskes cemetery, or Shnipishok in Yiddish.
He recalled his imprisonment in the Vilnius ghetto during World War Two, escape, fighting with partisans against the Germans and, in the Soviet era, emigration to Israel.
His memories include rabbis from all over Poland taking part in the burial of old Torah scrolls in the 1930s, when Vilnius belonged to Poland and was called the "Jerusalem of Lithuania".
Protests over the cemetery, the final resting place in 1797 of the Vilna Gaon (genius), a world famous Jewish rabbi and scholar, have come at home and from abroad, including a letter from U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Developers dismiss the idea they are working on the site of the cemetery.
One block, the grandly named King Mindaugas apartments, has already been completed, despite the protests.
"Unfortunately the Lithuanian government and the Vilnius municipality are not sensitive to such an important issue. This could not happen in a (western) European state," said the Chief Rabbi of Lithuania, Chaim Burshtein.

STILL SACRED
The cemetery was closed by the Tsarist Russian authorities in 1831 and partly built over. In the 1950s, Soviet authorities built a stadium and concert hall, but allowed the remains of the Vilna Gaon, Elijah ben Shlomo Zalman, to be removed.
Jews say the burial ground is still sacred and no work should take place to disturb any remains. &"There is no such thing as a 'former' Jewish cemetery,"grave; ;Burshtein said.
Such talk and international pressure persuaded the government to form a working group, but no action is imminent.
"The group's conclusion should come by the end of this year," said Vilius Kavaliauskas, an adviser to Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas. He had earlier said the government was concerned and seeking a solution.
Unconvinced, orthodox Jews from Belgium and other EU countries rallied outside the headquarters of EU institutions in Brussels in July and vowed to stage bigger worldwide protests.
Western diplomats have also voiced concern.
"All people want to see their ancestors' remains protected. It is not normal to build on cemeteries," the U.S. embassy in Vilnius said in an e-mail to Reuters.

TROUBLED HISTORY
Lithuanian experts disagree whether construction work is in progress on the territory of the cemetery, but the developer of the apartment block is clear.
"This is an artificial scandal. There is only a guess that there was a cemetery," said businessman Kazimieras Musteikis.
Mindaugas Valkiunas, a construction supervisor at the site, said no human bones had been found, only animal bones.
Calls to stop the construction have also found little support so far from the public and mainstream media.
"Let‘s say that there was a cemetery. So what? All cities inevitably had to expand on former cemeteries, and there is no difference who was buried there," the daily Lietuvos Rytas said in an editorial.
Rabbi Burshtein said anti-Semitism remained a problem in Lithuania, where Nazi forces and local collaborators decimated the Jewish population during World War Two.
Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center has accused Lithuania of dragging its feet on prosecuting the remaining Lithuanians accused of war crimes.
However, Jewish community leader Simonas Alperavicius says the issue is not anti-Semitism.
Apartments being built in the city now fetch up to 4,000 euros ($5,500) per sq meter.
"When an apartment costs more than 1 million litas ($400,000), who would want to stop construction?" he said.

© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved.

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Special Request to residents of Vilnius & all those concerned:
Please keep us posted of any developments concerning this sensitive issue.
Thanks.
Garry