JDC Rocks Lithuania!

The Ponar Forest

sts@jdcny.org (JDC Short-Term Service) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:45:00 +0000

Hi, this is Leah blogging.

Monday was probably one of the most amazing experiences I have ever encountered. We visited the Ponar forest, which was the place of Jewish extermination in Lithuania. Imagine a mystical forest, covered with moss and greenery. In the midst of this beautiful scenery were not only several memorial plaques commemorating those who had lost their lives, but were also massive pits where nearly 100,000 Jews were brutally murdered. The story behind the Ponar forest and its role in the Holocaust is even more ghastly. It was not the Germans alone who had annihilated 98% of the Jewish population of Lithuania, but it was the local Lithuanians themselves! We had a beautiful ceremony with our Lithuanian peers, where we read passages from eyewitness accounts, said Kaddish, and sang Hatikvah, the national anthem of the State of Israel. Singing Hatikvah in the middle of the Lithuanian forest with Jews from different cultures and backgrounds was truly a great feeling. Knowing that we were still there gave people a sense of hope, or “Tikvah.”

Another truly eye opening event was our visit to Vilnius’s only remaining Jewish cemetery. During the war and even into Soviet rule, Jewish cemeteries were desecrated and destroyed. Not only was desecration a major problem, but as a result of history few Jewish families remained behind to take care of their loved ones graves. One of the biggest “mitzvot” (commandments) or good deeds is caring for those who could never repay your kindness- the deceased. I took great pride in cleaning the graves of those who may have died under very difficult circumstances, or under religious persecution. We scraped moss off the stones, picked weeds, and raked away debris, which had collected around the graves for decades. Afterwards we gathered around the Vilnius Gaon’s memorial, and discussed the day’s intense activity. It was interesting to hear that not everyone shared my view of the cemetery. The great thing about this program was that it brought together a group of Jewish students of different backgrounds. Some of us had been raised traditionally with a formal Jewish education, while others had only recently found a connection to their heritage. Regardless of these differences, we came together and learned a great deal from each other.

Stephanie's Reflections on Our Last Days in Vilnius

sts@jdcny.org (JDC Short-Term Service) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:29:00 +0000

The level of intensity of the last few days has been unlike anything I have ever experienced… sleep has been hard to come by… we have seen a great deal of new things, talked to so many people, gained so much new experience, physically contributed so much, visited so many homes of the locals, had so much fun, bonded as a group, bonded to the Lithuanian students, and learned an enormous amount.

Yesterday we spent the first half of the day cleaning up the gravesites in the second Jewish cemetery in Vilnius. It was unfortunate to find out that there once was a large and important Jewish cemetery right in the center of the town, but when the Communist regime took over, the plot of land that hundreds of our Jewish ancestors were peacefully resting in was put to other use. The gravestones were removed and buildings were erected in their place… even more horrifying is that the gravestones were not placed in another location, but were broken down for other use… why waste such useful material, right? When walking around the city of Vilnius, if you look closely, you can see Hebrew letters on random staircases leading up to buildings. You can see Hebrew letters used to pave roads and sidewalks. Those Hebrew letters make up the names of hundreds of loved ones… they were made with the intent to respect and remember the beautiful life that they once led, and now they are stepped on, walked over, unnoticed, and in the worst cases, forgotten.

We gathered around the burial site of the Vilna Gaon…for those of you who don’t know this man, he is a man worth remembering. He—as a very young child—was realized to be a genius. He had the five books of Moses memorized and had read (and understood) the Talmud by age ten. Despite the fact that he was capable of incomprehensible amounts of intellectual ability, he contributed to the Jewish people by instilling in them the notion that Jews, in order to be successful, should not only respect the Jewish traditions and religion, but should also fully develop a secular component as well. He taught the importance of acquiring knowledge and becoming educated in subjects other than Judaism, which has come to be one of the most valued Jewish ideologies to this day. We recited the Mourners Kaddish and had a moment of silence before our departure to the rest of the day’s activities.

Over the last two days we have had two different home visits. First, we visited some of the community’s elderly and secondly we visited the homes of some of the community members who are recipients of the JDC-sponsored children at-risk program. Many of the elderly were utterly alone, lost all their relatives, and lived through the Communist regime as well as the Nazi occupation. I visited a lady who told us she was living in a tiny Jewish community in Ukraine when Nazi soldiers marched through. One of them stopped to talk to her and fortunately he was one of the few that could speak Russian—which put her on a human level in her eyes. He helped her find her horses, gave her a bar of chocolate, and told her and her family to get out immediately because the entire town would be bombed in less than two hours. As you can imagine, they fled, but her grandparents were lost due to their inability to move quickly and their desire to stay in their homes until their last breath. She told us that the moment they crossed a bridge which led her out of the town, it was blown up and all those who did not make it were killed instantly. She was then loaded on a train and sent to a Ghetto where she was worked almost to death but fortunately made it and can now tell her story. The elderly we visited, if not for the support of the Jewish community of Vilnius and the JDC would generally not be able to afford a place to live and/or would be left alone in their apartments with the inability to care for themselves. One of the greatest obstacles for these people is the current economic situation: rising inflation taking place in the country of Lithuania, the decrease in the value of the dollar, and the stable pensions that the elderly receive which does not adjust to the inflation rate or any other economic crisis that affects the value of the little money they do have access to. The money contributed by the JDC is in the form of US dollars and, with each new day, the dollar loses more and more value, combined with the fact that the cost of the goods are rising, a serious dilemma to say the least.

Mike's Reflections on Jewish Identity

sts@jdcny.org (JDC Short-Term Service) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:00:00 +0000

Being a Jew

There is a sharp contrast in the notion of Jewish identity between Jews living in Diaspora and those living in Israel, and yet we are all part of one people. As an American Jew living as a minority, I find that I must actively seek out observance, from kashrut (Jewish dietary laws) to regular attendance of Shabbat services, to maintain my Jewish identity. Conversely, in Israel, surrounded by Jews, being a member of the community is automatic and so no explicit effort is required, leading to a lack of observance—one of the most popular Yom Kippur activities is riding bicycles on the freeway. Yet this is not to say that people in Israel are any less Jewish, nor are they necessarily explicitly unwilling to participate in Jewish practice, it is simply a matter that, being Jewish by default, no additional effort is necessary; in fact, many Israeli Jews, upon finding themselves living outside Israel are shocked to discover that they need to seek out Judaism, and consequently do so, in order to maintain their identity.

As a part of our discussions of Jewish identity on Shabbat, we broke up into partnerships for discussions of our definitions of community and to which communities we felt we belonged. While it was not my intention, upon learning that my partner identified herself as an Israeli Jew, I asked whether she felt similarly about the nature of Jewish observance inside and outside of Israel, and we proceeded to discuss this one topic almost exclusively. I’m finding that, as the trip progresses, I am continually questioning and refining my definitions of Jewish practice and observance.

Visiting the Elderly

sts@jdcny.org (JDC Short-Term Service) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:58:00 +0000

Hi, this is Briana. Right now I am sitting in a little structure in the Lithuanian Jewish cemetery; we are cleaning off neglected graves. Yesterday we visited JDC’s elderly welfare clients, who are for the most part homebound and don’t have family left to take care of them. Most of them have survived the Holocaust as well, and it was kind of upsetting to see that after all they have lived through, especially the Soviet era and WWII, they still are not finally living in peace and comfort. The first lady we visited was so sweet and inspiring, so happy despite the fact that she lived in a tiny apartment alone, slept on the sofa, and had no family left. She could barley walk, yet still managed to show us around a little bit and tell us a bit about herself. The night before the war, or fighting, or something major broke out, she had traveled from Belorussia to Russia to visit her uncle. Because the war broke out when she was away from home, she was trapped there and could not return home for a few years. She finally reunited with her parents by chance, and you could see the tears welling up in her eyes while she was speaking, yet the smile never left her face. She told us that what keeps her going, and what got her though so much, is simply smiling. Her attitude towards life was the most touching and moving part of the whole day, and I felt that she gave us something no one else and nothing else could. It is as if she has the master key to life and let us in on the secret.

Mike's Reflections

sts@jdcny.org (JDC Short-Term Service) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:40:00 +0000

Hi, this is Mike blogging from Vilnius about August 15th and 16th.

A Jew is a Jew is a Jew

Often, we fail to acknowledge the extent to which we can learn from those we seek to assist, and yet within my first hours after arriving in Tallinn, Estonia, I had this lesson driven home in an incredibly poignant manner. According to halachah (Jewish law), a Jew is somebody born to a Jewish mother (with the notable exception of conversion). While the Nazis attempted to exterminate anybody with even a single Jewish grandparent and for this reason Israel’s Law of Return uses this definition to determine who is allowed to emigrate, few Americans with only one Jewish grandparent—especially one paternal grandparent—would self-identify as Jewish, and fewer yet would be at all observant of their Judaism. Yet in the Former Soviet Union, not only do such people proudly identify themselves as members of the Jewish people, but many are actively participating in the Jewish community.

I do not wish to condone intermarriage nor diminish its devastating effects on the Jewish community, and intermarriage is often cited as a leading cause of the dwindling Jewish observance and community life within America, yet within the Baltic community there seems to be an almost antipodean result. These same self-identified Jews are actively determined to marry within the Jewish community, almost as if the community’s broader acceptance of the results of intermarriage has discouraged the practice of the same. While communities that have come to accept intermarriage as standard practice have often seen a decline in both practice and general community participation, perhaps by warmly accepting, at least into our community, all those who identify as Jewish while simultaneously promoting the importance of marrying fellow Jews, we could achieve a similar resurgence of Jewish life; imagine if within the Baltics the growth has been from a virtually non-existent community decimated by the Holocaust and suppressed by Communism to its current thriving state how incredible the growth of the already active American Jewish community could be.

Towards the close of Shabbat, we had a discussion in which we each came up with a question which we were currently contemplating. As we continue this incredible exploration of our Jewish identities through community service, I and I hope others will continue to keep in mind the question which, at the time, seemed to me most pertinent: what can the Lithuanian Jewish community gain from our visit, and what can we learn from the Lithuanian community that will improve our own community?

Events of 8/18/2008

Kaddish

The extent to which the Mourner’s Kaddish can move me never ceases to amaze me. Standing in the Ponar woods just outside the city of Vilnius, Lithuania, with a handful of rocks to place on the memorial plaque—overcome with sadness, shock, and loss—tears came to my eyes as I thought of the 70,000 Jews, and likely many members of my Stepmom’s family, who were savagely murdered in pits originally intended for fuel storage. While physically standing near the pits shocked and disturbed, knowing that there were people living close enough to the pits for it to be impossible to deny the activities occurring there horrified, and the fact that the bodies were burned to ash and the bones chopped up forcibly by fellow Jews offended any sense of Jewish dignity, none of this was as moving as the simple act of reciting the Kaddish. Perhaps I somehow lie to myself and deny that death has actually occurred until the recitation of the Kaddish, but nothing else so consistently moves me; I have difficulty singing “Eili Eili” in a clear voice, but it is an order of magnitude less difficult and disquieting than reciting Kaddish.

As we moved through the old center of Vilnius, walking where once thousands of Jews walked in the thriving Jerusalem of the North, the words of the Kaddish reverberated through my head, echoing over and over. It seems so shocking that the Jewish community could be so completely decimated, and yet today it is flourishing—not to the extent it once did, but while the community is about one hundredth the size it once was, the members are incredibly active, designing and participating in programs enthusiastically. I can only help but wonder how much more vibrant Jewish life here once was and again could be, and yet I fear this cannot fully come to fruition until the country of Lithuania acknowledges the atrocities that occurred and provides much needed restitution.

Our First Days in the Baltics

sts@jdcny.org (JDC Short-Term Service) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:27:00 +0000

Friday we all met up at the Tallinn International Airport…which was probably the size of one terminal in any of the capitol cities in the US…there were people coming in from all over… some from Prague, some from Greece, some from other Baltic cities… The “Estonian” that we all expected to greet us at the airport was actually from Canada, a former JDC Jewish Service Corps Volunteer in Poland who now works for JDC as the community representative in Estonia… so her English was impeccable and she was able to tell us how she perceived the country and the people from a North American perspective which was cool… our hotel in Tallinn was ridiculously fabulous… we later learned that it is owned by a member of the Jewish community who majorly hooked JDC up pricewise so we were first classin’ it for sure. So as most of you know, we arrived on Shabbat, and considering that we were at an International Jewish Conference, it was natural that we celebrate it. The conference was called OR and is part of JDC’s Jewish renewal work in the Baltics. It brought Jews together from various Eastern European countries to celebrate their Jewish identity and to be together as Jews. So, as tired, exhausted, jet-lagged, and zombie-like as everyone was… we pulled it together, freshened up, and observed Shabbat. We got to sit with students of differing nationalities… compare cultures, compare opinions, compare countries, compare ideas, compare reasons for being here, and all other various sorts of comparisons… as interesting as all of these conversations were, the real thought provoking conversations began the following day (after a full nights sleep). We concluded the night with a Tish… a post-dinner period of wine-drinking, relaxation, and singing in rounds—campfire style—guitar included.

On Saturday, we walked to synagogue in the rain… and attended the last hour or so of the Shabbat service. The synagogue was fascinatingly beautiful. There was a pomegranate tree theme carried on throughout… beautiful wooded walls with carved out pomegranate trees, pomegranate trees painted on the walls on the dining room, and on the ark. The only thing that was surprising for me, that made this service different from any other I had been to (maybe I just haven’t been to too many or don’t have enough to compare it to) was that this was a Chabad service, where the women (including myself) had to sit upstairs… we couldn’t sit with the men downstairs. I personally have never been segregated like that before… but I rather enjoyed watching it all from above. And one of our very own group members actually participated in the putting of the Torah back into the Ark. We were proud.

That afternoon, we were spoken to by the JDC manager from Latvia… Moni… he was a Jew from Bulgaria… which I learned is a country in which the Jewish population was safe during WWII because the Bulgarians as a people were not anti-Semitic and the Germans couldn’t really make it there because they were part of the USSR. He gave us an amazing Baltics history review as well as some other interesting anecdotes… for example…. and this is probably the group’s favorite analogy thus far… “History is like a woman that takes money for sex” … obviously this statement grabbed the attention of everyone, even the nodder-offers…. What he meant by this was that the history of the Baltics (and history in general) is different depending on who it is written by and what their motivation for writing it was. Depending on if they wrote it by their own free will or if it was their job to record the history or if they were writing to please the people that are making the history or even how much they are being paid to record the history (just as a woman being paid for sex is motivated by the amount she is being paid, her current need for the cash, whether this is her job as a personal choice or if it is forced, as well as where she and the customer are personally at in their lives).

Further… he provided us with some answers to the question: why were the Jews in the Baltic region so utterly wiped out during WWII? “Well,” he said….. “the Baltics were occupied by the Soviets prior to German occupation… the Baltic people saw Germany as their liberators from the cruel and culture-inhibiting Russians… thus, when the Germans told the general population that the Russian occupation could be attributed to the Jews, they took the opportunity to scapegoat and actually helped the Nazi’s by shooting the Jews themselves (even before the Nazi’s began to do this as well) in the streets… Baltic Christian neighbors shooting Baltic Jewish neighbors… not a happy ending: 95% of the Jews in the Baltics were murdered. There were, according to Moni, mass graves of Jews every 12 miles throughout the Baltic region.

Amongst ourselves (in organized group discussion) we had some pretty interesting, passionate, and personal conversations. One of our major topics included the question: What makes a person Jewish? This was sparked by the realization that most of the Baltic Jews are considering themselves Jewish even with as little of a connection as one Jewish grandparent, a Jewish great grandparent, as well as many other questionable (in the eyes of some) ties to the Jewish religion/culture. Amongst our group, all similarly aged college students from California, the varying opinions on this matter were staggering… let alone the varying opinions of all the Jews at the conference from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and the US.

After such an intense, thought-provoking, and self reflecting day… we all just really wanted a drink. And for the ones that don’t drink… maybe a nap, a long bath, or a full body massage would have sufficed. Thankfully, organizers of the conference arranged for us all to have a night out… they rented an entire club out solely for the conference attendees. It was awesome…! An entire nightclub full of Jews… that’s gotta be every Jewish parent’s dream party scene for their Jewish offspring. The music was good, the people were friendly, the transportation back to the hotel was arranged for…basically all the bases were not only covered, but they were completely hidden from sight. Two of our very own group members even came in second place in a dance contest where the dancing couple had to keep a CD pressed between them while dancing… without letting it drop.

Sunday we all got to sleep in a bit… after a long night… thankfully… and we scoped out the lovely old town of Tallinn… got a tour… had some free time… Tallinn is not only beautiful, but it is romantic and creative-looking as well. Narrow cobblestone roads, tall buildings all touching each other yet crazy amounts different looking from each other: a pink building with red window panes with flowers draping from the mini-decorative balcony next to a dark green building with stone carved dragons climbing up either side of the building next to a decaying wooden building with broken windows and a bright blue door next to a pearly white building with a metallic gold and green fish design bordering the entire building right through the middle… not to mention this is all surrounded by a fortress from medieval times.

Today, Monday, was our first day of manual labor… we broke off into groups and were all assigned different tasks… some moved bricks, some dug up roots with a pitch fork, some cleaned and painted the fence that surrounded the school, some trimmed the hedges…as a group we accomplished a lot, and the best part about it… is that we were all in such good spirits about it… looking around I saw that everyone was genuinely excited and happy about doing the physical work…we were all feeding off of each others energy level in a very positive way.

Before the manual labor began, we visited the Vilnius JCC, where we met with Simon, the Executive Director of the Lithuanian Jewish community… we were shown a presentation which really put the community that we would be involved with in perspective. We were told about the number of active members in the Jewish community, what sorts of activities are most participated in, which members of the community are in the most need of help, as well as the goals that the JDC has for the Jewish community in Vilnius. Having this as a precedent for our work at the Jewish school helped us to understand where we stood and exactly who and what we are contributing to.

When we got to the school, the principal welcomed us along with several other graduates of the school. The school is the only Jewish school in Vilnius and it serves grades K-12, and there are approximately 250 students in all… that’s a fraction of the size of my Northern California graduating class just of High School—in other words… that’s really, really small! The school is the tenth best school in the country and it is very hard for people to get into and there is a constant waiting list. Students of the Jewish community that want to attend the school are automatically accepted, despite lack of funding and crowded classrooms … students not of Jewish descent undergo an interview process and only a number of openings are available… the reason for the acceptance of any of the community’s Jews and the interview process for any non-Jews is simply because the Jewish school has a moral obligation to provide to the Jews of the area not only a safe place but the opportunity to utilize the resources provided for the Jewish community as a whole. The school received 60% of its funding from the JDC… a very active role… but as the presentation informed us, one of the goals of the JDC here is to find ways for the community to depend on the JDC less and less and eventually become completely self supporting.