No simple stories: programme of events
6-10 February, 2011. The international colloquium "No simple stories" will be accompanied by a programme of cultural events, which is a collaborative effort of the Lithuanian Embassy in London, Spiro Ark and West London Synagogue. The programme presents the exhibitions "The Synagogues of Lithuania" and "The Sounds of Silence", as well as the film screenings of "I Leave My Child to You" (Lithuania, 1999), and "The World was Ours: The Jewish Legacy of Vilna" (US, 2006). The Vilner Klezmorim will be reviving the klezmer music of Lithuanian and Vilnius Jews and presenting a contemporary take on this expressive music. Following the screening of the film "Yitgadal V’yitkadash: Memorial Statues in the Strashun Forest" (Israel, 2005), there will be an open discussion with the colloquium participants on the theme of "Why is it still difficult to speak about the Holocaust in Lithuania?"
PROGRAMME OF EVENTS
EXHIBITION
6 February, Sunday, 5.30 pm, West London Synagogue
Goldsmid Hall, 34 Upper Berkeley Street, W1H 5AU
SYNAGOGUES IN LITHUANIA
Opening of the exhibition, Launch of the catalogue Synagogues in Lithuania A-M
The exhibition presents Jewish houses of worship and their architecture, bringing into focus the uniqueness of wooden synagogues. It is a vanishing heritage with the distinct artistic aspects of architecture and philosophy gradually disappearing. The organizers of the exhibition have for the first time documented 92 synagogues in 59 Lithuanian cities and towns.
During World War II the Jewish communities that had built the synagogues and lived in their vicinity were wiped out. Because of the brutal attempts during the war years and Soviet times “to adapt” these buildings that had lost their congregants without any regard to preserving their heritage, the distinctive characteristics of the architecture and the interiors of the synagogues were lost and the synagogue courtyard spaces (shulhoyf in Yiddish) became unrecognisable.
Free entrance
Exhibition continues until 22 February, 2011
CONCERT
6 February, Sunday, 7.00 pm, West London Synagogue
34 Upper Berkeley Street, London W1H 5AU
VILNER KLEZMORIM
Liora Grodnikaitė (voice)
Petras Vyšniauskas (reeds)
Raimondas Sviackevičius (accordion)
Borisas Kirzneris (violin)
Arkadijus Gotesmanas (percussion, leader of the project)
Klezmer music is an integral part of the tradition of East European Jewish music. No wedding or any other family or local celebration could do without klezmer music full of joy and fiery emotion mostly meant to be danced to. The aim of the Vilner Klezmorim is to revive the klezmer music of Lithuanian and the Vilnius Jews, to preserve the tradition and to give it a contemporary form. Taking part in this evening’s programme are some of Lithuania’s best jazz musicians and the well-known mezzo-soprano Liora Grodnikaitė.
Tickets: £15 (students £10), to book your ticket(s) online please visit:
http://www.spiroark.org/events/727/vilner-klezmorim-concert/
EXHIBITION
7 February – 29 April, Mon-Fri 10 am – 5pm
Lithuanian Embassy in London
84 Gloucester Place, London W1U 6AU
5 May – 17 June, Mon-Fri 10 am – 5pm
Spiro Ark, Jewish Culture and Education Centre
25-26 Enford Street, London W1H 1DW
THE SOUNDS OF SILENCE: Traces of Jewish life in Lithuania
Exhibition of photographs by Raimondas Paknys
The exhibition is dedicated to the annihilated Jewish communities of Lithuania. The photographs capture the images of the cemeteries, prayer houses, and other buildings and sites, portraying the remnants of the Jewish golden age in Lithuania. Apart from a number of telling figures from the history of Lithuania’s Jews, the viewers will learn about the Yiddish and Lithuanian names of towns and villages where the Jewish inhabitants used to make up a large proportion, perhaps even the majority of the overall population, in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Free entrance
FILM + DISCUSSION
8 February, Tuesday 7.30 pm, West London Synagogue
Samson Family Concourse, 33 Seymour Place, London W1H 5AU
YITGADAL V’YITKADASH: MEMORIAL STATUES IN THE STRASHUN FOREST
Film screening followed by the discussion Why is it still difficult to speak about the Holocaust in Lithuania?
Participants:
Prof Antony Polonsky
Prof Šarūnas Liekis
Prof Saulius Sužiedėlis
Prof Motti Zalkin
Dr Christoph Dieckmann
Dr Darius Staliūnas
In 1992, a Lithuanian mayor and a woodcarver born after the Holocaust, both non-Jewish, erected three memorial wooden statues near the site where 2,200 Jews were murdered, many being buried while still half-alive by the Nazis and their local collaborators in August 1941. In the winter of 2004, the statues were burned down. The perpetrators of the crime have yet to be discovered by the Lithuanian police. The film is the last evidence of the memorial.
Israel, 2005. Directed by: Dov Shinar, Motti Zalkin. Duration: 12’. Language: English
Tickets: £8 (students £5), to book your ticket(s) online please visit:
http://www.spiroark.org/events/729/yitgadal-v-yitkadash-memorial-statues-in-the-strashun-forest/
FILM + Q&A
9 February, Wednesday, 7.30 pm, West London Synagogue
Multimedia Room, 33 Seymour Place, London W1H 5AU
I LEAVE MY CHILD TO YOU
During World War II Pranas Laucevičius hid the Jewish girl Rūta Gurvičiūtė in his house in Telšiai. They soon fell in love and their son Telesforas was born. After a long period of hiding, the couple were reported to the Gestapo and both were shot dead just days before the end of the German occupation. Telesforas was raised by Pranas's sister Jadvyga, who lived to an old age in her native town Telšiai.
This ‘not simple story’ is told by Jakov Gurvich, brother of Rūta Gurvičiūtė, who came from Israel to Lithuania in June 2005, visited the places and people of his childhood, and shared his memories with them.
Lithuania, 2005. Created by Lilija Kopač, Danutė Selčinskaja, Algis Liutkevičius, Virgilijus Kubilius, Anatolijus Teliušinas. Duration: 60’. Language: English
Q&A with the consultant of the film Dr Irena Veisaitė, former chair of the Open Society Fund–Lithuania Board and a member of the OSI-Budapest Board.
Tickets: £8 (students £5), to book your ticket(s) online please visit:
http://www.spiroark.org/events/730/i-leave-my-child-to-you/
FILM
22, 29 January, 11.30 am, Imperial War Museum London
Lambeth Road, London SE1 6HZ
9 February, Wednesday, 7 pm, Jewish Museum
129-131 Albert Street, Camden Town, London NW1 7NB
10 February, Thursday, 7.30 pm, West London Synagogue
Multimedia Room, 33 Seymour Place, London W1H 5AU
THE WORLD WAS OURS: The Jewish Legacy of Vilna
The World was Ours is a documentary film dedicated to the memory of Jewish Vilnius. Vilnius, often referred to as “The Jerusalem of Lithuania”, was one of the great cultural centres of East European Jewry. The film focuses on the pre-war life of this vibrant culture, producing illustrious figures such as Chaim Soutine, Jaques Lipschitz, Jascha Heifetz, Avram Sutzkever, Chaim Grade, and Joseph Buloff, to name just a few, as well as the Vilna Theatre. The film weaves together interviews, diaries, letters, poems, archival photographs and footage. Archival music and specially recorded performances evoke the spirit of the times.
US, 2006. Producer / Director: Mira Jedwabnik van Doren. Producer: Adam van Doren. Duration: 60’. Language: English
Tickets (Jewish Museum): £10 including free admission to the galleries, to book your ticket(s) online please visit: http://www.jewishmuseum.org.uk/?unique_name=whats-on&item=181
Tickets (West London Synagogue): £8 (students £5), to book your ticket(s) online please visit: http://www.spiroark.org/events/731/the-world-was-ours/
Combined ticket offer for all the events (concert + 3 film screenings) at the West London Synagogue - £25 (students £20). To purchase combined ticket in advance please go to:
http://www.spiroark.org/events/738/series-of-lithuanian-events/
Organizers: Lithuanian Embassy in London, Spiro Ark, West London Synagogue
Partners:
The Centre for the Study of the Culture and History of East European Jews, Vilnius: www.jewishstudies.lt
The Vilnius Academy of Arts: www.vda.lt
The Department of Cultural Heritage under the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania: www.heritage.lt
The Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum: www.jmuseum.lt
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania: old.urm.lt
The Vilna Project, Inc.: www.thevilnaproject.org
Supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania
For any further information please contact Lithuanian Embassy in the UK
www.lithuanianembassy.co.uk
Cultural attaché Daiva Parulskienė, 020 7935 9872, culture@lithuanianembassy.co.uk
********************************************************************************
INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM
Institute of Jewish Studies, Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, UCL
Lithuanian Institute of History, Vilnius
No Simple Stories:
Jewish-Lithuanian relationships between coexistence and violence
International workshop
University College London,
February 6-7, 2011
An international colloquium that will bring together experts of Jewish history in eastern Europe, of Lithuanian history, of the history of World War Two and the Holocaust. There will also be experts on the interethnic violence theory, in order to understand the discrepancy between long centuries of peaceful coexistence of Jews and Lithuanians, and the short period of extreme violence during World War Two, in order to assess the various scholarly explanations given for this violence. The investigation will combine an assessment of the long term features of Lithuanian-Jewish coexistence, between the late 18th and the early 20th centuries, with an appraisal of political developments after the establishment of Lithuania as an independent state.
Participants: Prof Werner Bergmann (Germany), Dr Christoph Dieckmann (Germany), Dr François Guesnet (UK), Prof Šarūnas Liekis (Lithuania), Prof Heinz-Dietrich Löwe (Germany), Prof Antony Polonsky (UK), Dr Klaus Richter (Germany), Prof Vladas Sirutavičius (Lithuania), Dr Darius Staliūnas (Lithuania), Prof Saulius Sužiedėlis (USA), Dr Joachim Tauber (Germany), and Prof Motti Zalkin (Israel).
The Institute of Jewish Studies gratefully aknowledges the support by the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in the UK, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania, and of other foundations.
Colloquium venues:
6 February, Sunday, 3 pm – 6.30 pm
Garden Room, North Cloisters, Wilkins Building, UCL
UCL Main Campus Gower Street, Bloomsbury, London WC1E 6BT
7 February, Monday, 10.15 am – 4 pm
Seminar Room, The Warburg Institute
The Warburg Institute, Woburn Square, London WC1H0AB
Free entrance, no registration needed
For any further questions please contact Sara BenIsaac, 020 7679 3520, s.benisaac@ucl.ac.uk
To view full programme of the colloquium please visit:
http://www.lithuanianembassy.co.uk/index.php?-195450864
or
