One thing we kept hearing from all of our guides is that “everything is complicated”. Some people on our trip felt that we were in a Jew hating country others felt the opposite and saw progress in modern Lithuanian Jewry. Meeting Rita who restores the Jewish cemetery stones in Jurbarkas gave me hope but not everyone respects her like we do for what she is doing. We met the gentile man who takes care of the wooden synagogue in Ziezmariai who is not respected for caring for the holy structure. We went to Slobatka across the river in Kaunas and saw that the memorial plaque noting the ghetto and the murder of 30,000 Jews had acid splashed on it. When we were in Vilnius we saw some weird march with some idiots dressed with CIA on their backs with holding a chain someone wearing a concentration camp uniform in shackles. A few minutes later some local drunks were dancing around singing “Havana Gila” for money. But not in a cute or funny way. It was rather icky. Didn’t want to confront either of them as we weren’t sure what would happen.
Everyone we met in Lithuania was very nice, courteous, and helpful. I think the Soviet years severely held them back in embracing diversity. We met and had dinner with American Attaché Jonathan Berger. The US embassy is working with educators to bring them up to speed with teaching about crimes against former “Jewish soviet citizens”. Time will tell. I would highly encourage everyone with Lithuanian roots to visit. It is a beautiful country with a lovely educated culture that is finally coming back.