Pateikiame D.Katzo ir kitų įžymių žmonių susižavėjimą šia istorine pergale dėl Šnipiškių kapinių
I wrote to you personally, and then you shared my letter and your reply
with Dovid Katz, Dov and Chay Fried, Itzik Pines, Bernard Fryshman,
Shneier Leiman. I take this as a way of introducing me to “your group”,
as I called it. I congratulated you all on our victory and alerted you
to my upcoming report which is now up:
I now likewise include in our discussion Ruta Bloshtein, Arkadij
Kurliandchik, Julius Norwilla, my father Edmundas Kulikauskas and Valdas
Valiūnas. They are the key people in what I meant by “our group”. I
speak for myself but I consult with them, except that I am rarely in
touch with Julius. I edit our website http://www.kapines.com Ruta is
our leader and our email is ruta@kapines.com I am the one writing our
letters from that address. The most important ones we have sent out in
the names of Ruta, Andrius and Arkadij of Draugija “Gerbkime kapines”
(Respect Cemeteries). The Chancellory wrote to us at that address.
Currently, I am exchanging many emails with Dovid, and I have had long
conversations with Arkadij, with Ruta, with Valdas and with Prof.Josif
Parasonis on our visions, goals, strategies and tactics for our next
steps. Which is all to say, as may be clear from my report, that I led
our year long efforts locally, I led our victorious email campaign, and
I lead our follow up campaigns.
I spent two days writing my six page report and then Dovid edited it
thoroughly and added a seventh page. We are still making corrections
and so I ask Dovid to please note Bernard Fryschman’s contributions.
Ultimately, we will have a document that narrates how we came to this
point and what it means for us going further. Certainly, it would be
great to read more articles from any or all of us at Defending History
as regards our perspectives on the past, present and future.
I am writing you now because it would be helpful for our local group to
know the goals, visions, strategy and tactics of your international
coalition as much as you might say. I also would like to keep you
informed although in general I will be posting news at Defending History.
We will know Tuesday that the budget has passed unchanged. But I
learned today that Turto Bankas and “all the interested parties from
before”, definitely including the Finance Ministry, the Foreign
Ministry, the Economics and Innovations Ministry, Vilnius City
Municipality and presumably also the Lithuanian Jewish Community will be
meeting in January with the Chancellery to discuss the situation. When
I pressed my informant whether Respect Cemeteries was to be included,
then after a bit of logical retractions I was told, “all parties involved”.
I thus urge your international coalition to make sure that your best
representatives are present physically or virtually. The Government is
conducting much of its work virtually. Even so there is virtue in your
coalition having a representative here physically throughout the months
of January and even February. Of course, they may have to quarantine
for two weeks here. Currently, the coronavirus situation in Lithuania
is worse than the USA and we are in a severe lockdown. On the other
hand, the severity of the situation means that it will be wholeheartedly
appreciated why you must participate virtually, especially if you are
elderly. It would be helpful if you let me know who represents you so
that we can make efforts so that you do get included. For example, Ruta
and/or Julius could represent you locally, or Rabbi Elchonon may come
here, or others may participate virtually, but I personally ask, please
let me know.
That’s the most important news of the day