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Responses
3 April 2008. Resolution of the Board of Directors of the Vilnius Yiddish Institute.
6 April 2008. Professor Dov Levin of Jerusalem protests, returning his own earlier award to the president of Lithuania.
15 April 2008. Professor Deborah Lipstadt of Emory University: 'The Holocaust and contemporary antisemitism in Lithuania'.
30 April 2008. The Embassy of the United States in Lithuania issues a certificate of appreciation, signed by Ambassador John A. Cloud, to Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky; presented by political officer Joseph Boski at a luncheon organized by the Vilnius Yiddish Institute.
3 June 2008. The Embassy of Ireland in Lithuania issues a certificate of lifetime achievement to Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky, signed by Ambassador Dónal Denham, who presented the award at a reception at the ambassador's residence. Linas Vildziunas, Dovid Katz and Vytautas Toleikis celebrate. Ambassador Denham's speech concluded with the words: 'Fania is one brave woman! You are a beautiful person, a special person, an inspiration to us all.'
Photo: Ambassador Dónal Denham (courtesy Embassy of Ireland, Vilnius).
11 June 2008. 'Persecution of former Jewish partisans in Lithuania' on Vilna Stories by Dr Michael Good.
19 June 2008. Response of the Jewish Community of Lithuania and the Union of Former Ghetto and Concentration Camp Prisoners.
20 July 2008. Washington Times op-ed by Dan Mariaschin, of B'nai B'rith International.
1 August 2008. United States congressmen Howard Berman, Paul Hodes and Robert Wexler protest the actions of the Lithuanian government.
19 August 2008. Open Letter from students and faculty of the summer program in Yiddish language and literature at the Vilnius Yiddish Institute at Vilnius University (text by Elliott Palevsky, director of the cultural program).
20 August 2008. Jewish Week op-ed by Mark Weitzman (director of government affairs at the Simon Wiesenthal Center USA): ‘Capital of culture or injustice?’
21 August 2008. Economist article [by Edward Lucas]: ‘Prosecution and persecution: Lithuania must stop blaming the victims’; alternate link; 2nd alternate link.
25 August 2008. Letter to Dr Rachel Margolis from nine NATO embassies in Vilnius.
27 August 2008. Lecture and walking tour of the Vilna Ghetto, led by Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky, attended by ambassadors / chargés d'affaires of fifteen NATO nations: Austria, Britain, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, USA.
4 September 2008. Question to the German parliament by a group of members.
10 September 2008. 'Lithuanian-Jewish relations: paper justice' by Valdas Vasiliauskas on delfi.lt. English translation.
25 September 2008. Response of UK MP Denis MacShane: excerpt from p 33 of his Globalising Hatred. The New Antisemitism (see Recent Books → 2008 → MacShane).
October-December 2008. 'Bitter pill of history' by Milan Chersonsky in Jerusalem of Lithuania, 143-144 (7-8), p 7.
15 March 2009. Holocaust Council of Metro West issues a Woman of Valor award to Dr Rachel Margolis.
7 April 2009. Letter to Dr Rachel Margolis from the chairman, president and executive director of NCSJ.
9 April 2009. Keene State College in New Hampshire honors Dr Rachel Margolis.
16 April 2009. Letter to Dr Rachel Margolis from the National Director of ADL.
19 June 2009. Lord Janner of Braunstone issues a certificate of appreciation to Dr Rachel Margolis, delivered at the Dr Rachel Margolis event chaired at Leivick House in Tel Aviv by its director, composer Daniel Galay. The keynote speaker was Israeli ambassador to Latvia and Lithuania, Chen Ivri Apter, who awarded Dr Margolis a certificate of merit from his embassy. Tel Aviv school children who study Yiddish with Hannah Pollin-Galay presented a cultural program of song, and a gift of flowers to Dr Margolis. Other speakers included professors Israel Bartal, Dov Levin (Jerusalem) and Dovid Katz (Vilnius). Dr Margolis addresses the audience. After the event. Dr Margolis with Ambassador Apter. Photos by Leyzer Burko. Leivick House report on the event.
23 September 2009. Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman of the Vilnius Jewish Community, and legal advisor to the Jewish Community of Lithuania, speaking at the annual Septembr 23 commemoration a Ponar (Paneriai), cites prosecutors' attempts to mischaracterize the status of Jewish anti-Nazi partisan veterans Fania Yocheles Brantsovsk and Rachel Margolis; comments cited in column 5 of the report by Milan Chersonski, editor of the Jewish community's Jerusalem of Lithuania (Fall 2009 issue).
28 October 2009 (I). Germany's ambassador to Lithuania, Hans-Peter Annen, presents Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky, librarian of the Vilnius Yiddish Institute, with the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (known as the Federal Cross of Merit) at the German embassy in Vilnius. The Order was signed by the president of Germany, Horst Koehler, in Berlin, on 21 September 2009. Fania with the Order; with Ambassador Annen. Fania, wearing the medal, celebrates with Jewish Community chairman Dr Shimon Alperovich, German ambassador Hans Peter Annen, and Professor Dovid Katz.
28 October 2009 (II). Meanwhile, in Rechovot, Israel, Dr Rachel Margolis celebrates her 88th birthday. Greetings arrived (among others) from the ambassadors of France and Norway in Vilnius, and from the Israeli Embassy in Riga (which covers Latvia and Lithuania).
26 November 2009. A group of Vilnius-based ambassadors and chargés d'affaires — from Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Norway, Poland, Portugal and Russia — participate in a walking tour of the Vilna Ghetto led by Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky, 87, librarian of the Vilnius Yiddish Institute. Translation was provided by the institute's director of research, Professor Dovid Katz. While on Zemaitijos gatve (the former Strashun Street), the group stood for a photo outside the building that housed the Ghetto Library. More images: 1 (center: ambassador Steinar Gil and Mrs Turi Gil); 2 (center: French ambassador Francois Laumonier); 3. The walk was preceded by a discussion at the Jewish Community of Lithuania, where Ms Brantsovsky outlined the Holocaust history of the city. The group was addressed by Norwegian ambassador HE Steinar Gil; Dr Shimon Alperovich, chairman of the Jewish Community of Lithuania; Mr Simon Gurevich, its executive director; and Professor Katz.
3 December 2009 [released to the media by the Margolis family on 27 January 2010]. United States congressmen Shelley Berkley, Howard Berman (chairman, House Foreign Affairs Committee), Paul Hodes, James Moran, and Robert Wexler (chairman, House Subcommittee on Europe) protest the Lithuanian government's defamation and persecution of Holocaust Survivors Dr Rachel Margolis and Ms Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky.
