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The Charlotte Jewish News - November 2016 - Page 12 M I I 1 I ] I I I I I I I I I I Yours Truly Needlepoint and Knitting Handpainted Needlepoint Canvases All New Canvases — Free lessons — Unique Gift Ideas — New and Old Customers Very Welcome Best Selection in Charlotte All Proceeds Go to Local Charities 3802 Columbine Circle 704-366-6765 Open Thursdays 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Stolpersteine (“Stumbling Stones”) Installation Dedicated in Vilnius By Yossi Shem-Avi I recently took part in the opening ceremonies for the first Stolpersteine installation in Vilnius, Lithuania (www.stolpersteine.eu). Here’s a portion of my speech: Mr. Deputy Speaker, Mr. Mayor, Israeli and Lithuanian Ambassadors, Mr. Gunter Demnig, relatives of the sur vivors, and guests. My name is Yossi Shem- Avi and I’m here with my sis ter Chaya Maor, and our daughters Ella and Yael. Today we will memorialize my father’s parents Lejba and Insurance for Home, Auto, Business and Life. “My father, Harry, founded Swimmer Insurance Agency over 60 years ago offering security to the community and helping families through times of trouble. Today, we con tinue that tradition of service with everything we do. We will be there for every mile stone. every hardship and every transition your family or business experiences.” - DAVID SWIMMER Swimmer Insurance Agency 725 Providence Rd Charlotte. NC 28207 704.333.6694 www.swimmerinsurance.com C. PinJ) CRS - Certified Residential Specialist (3% of all Realtors) SRES - Senior Real Estate Specialist Rve Star Professional Winner (7% of agents In Charlotte} ABR. e-PRO, SPS, QSC THE REALTOR WITH EXPERIENCE [FSTif & KNOWLEDGE TRUSTED BY vV Horoes Witn IV^cicnet l-|omes\x/itkC ac ket. PROPERTY Viri*iri4 • BUYERS • SELLERS • RELOCATION The three brass plaques installed on Vasario 16 Street (Mr. Schemiavitz’s childhood home which still stands). Chaya Schemiavitz and his sister Leja 73 years after they perished with no trace. Jews lived mostly in peaceful coexistence in Lithuania (Lita) and particularly Vilnius (Vilna) for almost 700. Grand Duke Ged- iminas actually invited the West ern European Jewry in the 16th century with tax incentives and promise of religious freedom. Our people survived the Crusades, In quisitions, pogroms, and laws de signed to discourage Judaic life but found Lita hospitable for many years. In 1812, Napoleon reaching Vilnius was so impressed with the cultural and academic achieve ment of the community that he coined the term “Jerusalem of the North.” Here’s a picture of the Vilna Jewish community on the eve ofWWIIin 1939: ^ There were 100 synagogues and 10 Yeshiva rabbinical schools Discussion at the Vilna Public Jewish Library. com 704.'236.7536 ulie@J uliel^die .com RQBa download our APP AT THE APPSTORE - Vilna was the foremost center of Rabbinical learn ing in Europe ^ Six daily newspapers ^ Schools (including the famous Tarbut), the atres, a publishing house, and even Shakespeare was performed in Yiddish ^ A museum of Jewish history and ethnography ^ A Jewish Science in stitute ^ A robust network of Jewish social services The term “Vilner” be came a pseudonym to an “educated man with knowledge” in Europe. But everything changed of course starting in the summer of 1939. While translating my father’s memoir “Behind The Gate” by Michael Schemiavitz to English, I learned many details about the war I didn’t know - this was typi cal of the survivors who wanted to protect their children from the horrors they experienced - but one fact kept haunting me - the story of his younger and only sis ter Leja who was burned in Bez- dani with about 200 others when she was 12 years old. What made it incomprehensible is the fact that there is no trace of her, no grave, no piece of garment, not one pho tograph. The German sculpture Gunter Demnig credits a Talmudic quote as inspiration for the Stolpersteine memorial: “A person is only for gotten when his/her name is for gotten.” So with Gunter’s project - translated as “Stum bling Stones” - we can right that histori cal wrong and com memorate Leja and her parents at last in front of their house on Vasario 16 Street where they lived be fore being forced into the ghetto. I feel that against our will, my sister and I, along with the first generation bom in Israel to Holo caust survivors, carry personal and historical burden to remember and make sense of it all. And I am tom: * How to reconcile darkness with kindness, good with evil. * How to connect 600 years of peaceful coexistence with 70,000 dead in Ponar mass grave. * How to tell my friends in America that the Final Solution started in Lithuania where 90- 95% of the Jews were killed or died, arguably the highest ratio in Europe. * How to explain that Lithuania is just now beginning to process their role in the killings 72 years after the war ended and 26 years after independence. * How to accept when folks here equate anti-Soviet activities under the guise of mass killings. * How to accept the sentiment of victimization of Lita by the Nazis and Soviets as an explana tion for the killings of Jews. * How to understand how (Continued on page 14)
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