Camp Olameinu is a Jewish summer camp we recently visited in the Baltics. There are about 160 kids, ages 7 to 12, who, without the assistance of the JDC and our Federation’s funding, would probably not express their Judaism as strong as they do, if at all. They sing in Hebrew, bench after meals, and the counselors wear kippot. This is the 12th year of the camp and it continues to grow.
We visited the Baltics with 50 educators from Los Angeles and Tel Aviv as part of our annual Joint Teachers Seminar. Being there not only helped us learn about Klal Yisrael, it also proved to the Jewish community in Vilnius that we care about them and they are not forgotten.
Fania Brantsovsky is 91 years young. She was a partisan during WWII in Lithuania. She took us to Ponary, the place where 70,000 Jews were killed and their bodies were left in the pits. She told us the story of the place and her history of the Vilnius Jews. The coordinators prepared a ceremony that left all of us in tears. One played the violin, others read and sang. We recited El Male Rachamim and Kadish. Fania sang the partisan anthem for us and we concluded with Hatikva.
Then we drove to the Shalom Aleichem School where Misha Jakobas, the head of the school, and Teresa Segaliene, our program coordinator, gave us a tour. Shalom Aleichem is home to 300 students in 1st through 12th grades, 75% of them Jewish, with all students learning Judaic content. We brought them books from the Slavin Children’s Library.
We spent one afternoon in Vilnius doing tikkun olam projects and volunteering in the community. Fifteen of us visited elderly members of the Jewish community who are supported by the JDC, and they spent some time performing the mitzvah of Bikkur Holim. The rest of us went to the Gaon’s cemetery to volunteer cleaning the over 3,000 graves there. In just two hours, we filled dozens of bags with weeds and trash. “Duvedel” was the name on the last grave I cleaned. He was five years old and passed away in 1966. I wondered why he had no one to visit him.
We spent one day in Riga visiting the Jewish community and joined the elderly in Israeli folk dancing, singing songs, and practicing Yiddish. We would have stayed there if we could.
For the last decade, the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles has supported the Jewish communities of the Baltics. Everywhere we went we saw the Federation’s logo and felt proud to be part of this organization. About two years ago we started a new exchange program, TALAVI, which matches three schools: one in L.A., one in Tel Aviv, and Shalom Aleichem School in Vilnius. This opened the door for all schools to be involved with the Jewish community in the Baltics. After this seminar, the educators will bring what they learned in the Baltics to all 41 schools in the School Twinning program both in Los Angeles and in Tel Aviv.
Here are a few quotes from the educators:
“…from now on… in my school, we will use the ceremony transcript from Ponary”
“…I will teach my students about the Jewish Community in Vilnius and what happened there during the time of the Holocaust. We always teach about Poland and people do not know that 95% of the Jewish community in Lithuania was killed by their neighbors and the Nazis.”
“…so much richness was in Vilnius. I will teach about Abba Kovner and Leah Goldberg”
“…this experience changed my life as a person and as an educator…”
We must also thank the JDC representative in Vilnius, Ariel Nadbornik, and his assistant, Vika Juse, for all their help in making the Seminar happen. Ariel’s support and advice were above and beyond. We admire the JDC’s work with the community in Vilnius and Riga, and we appreciate their work with us. On behalf of the entire group, we thank the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles for this opportunity to see how the Federation’s funding brings to life the Jewish community in the Baltics.
