Seimas discusses marking Year of Jews; community leader shrugs

On Tuesday, the parliament was planned to discuss the bill registered last October to declare 2019 as the Year of Jews of Lithuania, however, the authors updated their initiative and now want to declare 2020 as the Year of Vilnius Gaon and the Jews of Lithuania.

Kukliansky has expressed indignation over the failure to discuss any of the initiatives with her.

‘Yesterday you told me this news, today you are telling me another news. It is you who is telling me, not the people behind the bill. They are not talking to us, I do not know the reasons behind it,” Kukliansky told BNS on Tuesday.

Mantas Adomėnas, conservative MP and co-author of the bill, said the initiative had been discussed with the Jewish Community of Vilnius that is headed by Simonas Gurevičius. Adomėnas said he had attempted to contact Kukliansky but was not successful.

Both Jewish communities disagree between themselves and are in litigation.

Gurevičius, who was elected as the leader of the Jewish Community of Vilnius last May, wanted to invalidate of the election for the leader of the Jewish Community of Lithuania that took place later that month. Kukliansky was then re-elected for another four-year term at the helm of the community.

Meanwhile, Kukliansky protested against election of Gurevičius as the representative of the Jews of Vilnius.