The U.S. special envoy for fighting antisemitism, Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, sent a letter last month to Lithuania’s culture minister, asking him to block plans to build a conference center atop an ancient Vilnius Jewish cemetery that Soviet authorities had razed.
The office of U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun published on Saturday a copy of the letter, sent on Aug. 10 by Kaploun to the minister, Lukas Alsys.
“I urge you to oppose the pending parliamentary resolution and reject any attempt to develop the sacred site for profane purposes,” Kaploun wrote of a procedure concerning the grounds of the Piramont/Šnipiškės Jewish Cemetery, where thousands of Jews remain buried, including prominent rabbis and scholars. The Vilna Gaon, an 18th century Jewish luminary, was originally buried there, although his remains were later transferred elsewhere.
“This includes any efforts to transform the Palace of Culture and Sports into a conference center or other commercial or cultural facility,” Kaploun added.
The government said it would advance plans for construction there following a May 12 statement it had made about the intended project.
Soviet authorities had razed the tombstones and built a massive sports complex that closed in 2004. A run-down brutalist structure atop some of Vilnius’ most expensive land reservoirs, it sits on top of part of the area that used to be the Piramont Cemetery.
Attempts to promote construction there have been ongoing for at least a decade amid vocal opposition by some local Jews. In 2021, the government said that it was shelving a plan to turn the old complex into a $25 million conference center. But in May, the government revived the plan. In July, Alsys said Jewish sensibilities will be taken into account, but that all options were open, including demolition and construction in places some local Jews say Jewish graves lie.
Jewish religious law prohibits disturbing burial sites. Opponents of the planned construction said it reflected government indifference to the sensitives of a minority that had been devastated during the Holocaust by the Nazis and local collaborators, and then oppressed and driven underground by local communist forces.
Kaploun evoked this bitter historical record in his letter. “God told Cain: ‘Your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the earth.’ Now, the blood of every Lithuanian Jew denied a proper burial during the Holocaust cries out to us as well. Consistent with its historic obligation to do better, I call on Lithuania to stand with its Jewish communities on this important matter.”
