US envoy warns against further desecration of Vilnius Jewish cemetery site

Any attempt to further desecrate the historic Jewish cemetery at the Vilnius Concert and Sports Palace would face opposition, US special envoy for monitoring and combating antisemitism Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun said, according to LRT.

“Any attempt to further desecrate this cemetery is shameful for the Lithuanian government and will face opposition,” Kaploun wrote in a letter to Culture Minister Lukas Alsys published on the social media platform X on Friday.

Kaploun criticised the minister’s statements about the future of the Jewish cemetery in the Šnipiškės district and urged opposition to plans to build a conference centre on the site. He said such a plan would send a message to the global Jewish community that cemeteries can be desecrated in Lithuania.

Alsys has said that discussions over the future of the Vilnius Concert and Sports Palace are among the country’s most contentious. He said the building is strongly associated with the Sąjūdis movement, the origins of independent Lithuania and the country’s statehood, while the nearby Jewish cemetery is subject to strict religious rules governing what may and may not be done there.

“The cemetery is a sacred place for all humanity. No self-respecting government, institution or even community organisation claiming to represent Jewish interests can allow it to be desecrated,” Kaploun wrote. He said he had previously conveyed his position to Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius.

Built in 1971 on the bank of the Neris, the Vilnius Concert and Sports Palace stands on the former site of an ancient Jewish cemetery that had been in use since the 16th century. Jewish religious law strictly restricts the disturbance of graves.

In May, the Seimas began considering a resolution proposing that the government adapt the palace into a congress centre while commemorating the former cemetery and the Sąjūdis movement. Part of the Jewish community opposes the congress centre and wants the building converted into a memorial to Lithuanian Jewish history.

Rabbi Sholom Krinsky, a representative of the Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish organisation in Lithuania, has previously said that a memorial would be unacceptable because the cemetery still exists. He called for the cemetery to be left in place and enclosed by a wall.

Under an earlier approved project, the reconstructed building would include conference spaces, a library, a cultural and information centre, exhibitions on the national revival and Sąjūdis, and memorial and educational spaces dedicated to Jewish history.