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anti-Semitism in Lithuania

People protest at Independence Square outside Parliament in Vilnius, Lithuania, against the inclusion of the Nemunas Dawn party and Remigijus Zemaitaitis, accused of antisemitism, into the country's ruling coalition, November 21, 2024. (AP/Mindaugas Kulbis)
December 9, 2025, 6:59 pm
Lithuanian party whose leader convicted of anti-Jewish hatred to stay in coalition
Ruling party says it will wait until appeal to decide future of populist Nemunas Dawn, whose head was found guilty last week of incitement against Jews, Holocaust revisionism
By Agencies and ToI Staff
Leader of the Lithuanian Nemuno Aušra party Remigijus Žemaitaitis speaks during a press conference after the signing of a coalition agreement in Vilnius, Lithuania, on November 11, 2024. (Petras Malukas / AFP)
December 4, 2025, 3:05 pm
Lithuanian court convicts leader of coalition party of inciting hatred against Jews
Judge fines Remigijus Žemaitaitis 5,000 euros, says populist party chief downplayed the Holocaust, used language that ‘violated human dignity and demonstrated hatred’ toward Jews
By AP
Illustrative: US Ambassador to the Lithuania Robert S. Gilchrist, left, pauses after laying a wreath at the Holocaust memorial at Paneriai during the ceremony marking the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day in Vilnius, Lithuania, April 8, 2021. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
December 31, 2022, 8:05 am
Lithuania passes law allocating $38 million in restitution for Holocaust survivors
Lithuanian parliament nearly doubles money already set aside for claims in country where 90% of Jews were killed in the Holocaust; bill not supported by all lawmakers
By David I. Klein
Valdas Rakutis walks into the Seimas building in Vilnius, Lithuania on Nov. 24, 2020. (Wikimedia Commons/Sofija Vytautaitė via JTA)
February 1, 2021, 3:49 am
Lithuania MP who blamed Jews for Holocaust quits parliament memorial commission
In speech on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Valdas Rakutis said, ‘There was no shortage of Holocaust perpetrators among the Jews themselves’
By Cnaan Liphshiz
Valdas Rakutis walks into the Seimas building in Vilnius, Lithuania on November 24, 2020. (Wikimedia Commons/Sofija Vytautaitė)
January 28, 2021, 5:50 pm
Jews share blame for Holocaust, Lithuanian lawmaker says on remembrance day
US ambassador issues rare rebuke of Valdas Rakutis, who chairs parliament’s commission on historical memory
By Cnaan Liphshiz
Both sides of a commemorative 10 euro coin celebrating the 300th birthday of the Vilna Gaon in Lithuania. (Courtesy of the Bank of Lithuania/ via JTA)
October 24, 2020, 10:51 pm
Lithuania mints first-ever EU coin with Hebrew letters, honoring Vilnius scholar
Bank of Lithuania unveils coin celebrating 300th anniversary of birth of Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, the ‘Vilna Gaon,’ who spent his life in Lithuanian capital of Vilnius
By Cnaan Liphshiz
Screen capture from video of Spanish activist Miquel Puertas. (YouTube)
September 2, 2020, 8:58 am
Lithuania to deport activist against glorification of alleged Holocaust culprits
History tutor Miquel Puertas, from Spain, criticized state honors conferred on those who helped Nazi regime, among them Jonas Noreika, said to have organized murder of Jews
By Cnaan Liphshiz
Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff, right, and Lithuanian journalist Ruta Vanagaite in Jerusalem in this undated photo. (Courtesy)
August 8, 2020, 10:15 am
Nazi hunter teams up with Lithuanian journalist to investigate Holocaust crimes
Efraim Zuroff and Ruta Vanagaite chronicle a partnership and budding friendship as they seek to convince her countrymen to face a genocide perpetrated in part by their forebears
By Matthew Kalman
A memorial at the site of the Lietukis Garage massacre of Jewish Men in Kaunas, Lithuania. (Flickr/Adam Jones)
June 30, 2020, 9:11 am
Lithuania may dedicate 2021 to alleged perpetrator of Holocaust pogrom
Lawmakers seek to honor Juozas Luksa-Daumantas, accused of participating in the 1941 Lietukis Garage massacre in which locals tortured and beat dozens of Jews to death
By Cnaan Liphshiz
Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis of Lithuania, seen in 2016, heads the committee drafting legislation declaring that neither Lithuania nor its leaders participated in the Holocaust. (Petras Malukas/AFP)
January 15, 2020, 5:16 am
Following Poland’s lead, Lithuania proposes controversial Holocaust law
Government drafting legislation declaring neither Lithuania nor its leaders participated in genocide. Survivors, historians and remembrance institutions say this is blatantly false
By Cnaan Liphshiz
File: Nazi-hunter Efraim Zuroff saying Kaddish, a mourning prayer, for Holocaust victims near Kaunas, Lithuania, Feb. 15, 2015. (Cnaan Liphshiz/JTA)
January 4, 2020, 6:23 pm
Lithuania’s ruling party drafting bill exonerating nation from Holocaust crimes
Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Eastern Europe director calls planned legislation an ‘outrage’ and the ‘final stage of a long attempt to whitewash massive complicity’ in murders
By JTA
The Holocaust memorial in the Ponar Forest near Vilnius, Lithuania. (Photo/Ezra Wolfinger, Nova)
October 30, 2019, 8:20 am
Lithuania’s Holocaust record is an ‘open wound,’ Israeli envoy says in Vilnius
Jerusalem has come under criticism from historians in recent years for failing to call out state-sponsored revisionism by its allies in Eastern Europe and the Baltics
By Cnaan Liphshiz
This memorial plaque to Nazi collaborator Jonas Noreika was removed from the Library of Academy of science in Vilnius in July 2019, but demonstrators reinstalled a new one in September. (Alma Pater/Wikimedia Commons via JTA)
September 9, 2019, 4:43 am
Demonstrators hang plaque honoring Lithuanian Nazi collaborator
Vilnius municipality had earlier removed a memorial to Jonas Noreika, who is believed to have personally overseen the murder of Jews when the Nazis controlled Lithuania
By JTA
The interior of the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius, Lithuania (Wikimedia Commons via JTA)
August 8, 2019, 2:09 am
Lithuanian Jews split over closure of only functioning synagogue in Vilnius
Institutions shut indefinitely by head of Jewish community over threats, but other leaders challenge move and call it alarmist and unnecessary
By Cnaan Liphshiz
Lithuanian Jewish men pray, during a morning service in a Synagogue in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. (AP/Mindaugas Kulbis)
August 7, 2019, 12:20 am
Lithuanian Jews indefinitely shut community center, lone synagogue after threats
Amid escalating controversy over national commemoration policies, Jewish leader demands government speak out, wonders ‘whether we are safe or not’
By Raphael Ahren
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