Lithuanian foreign minister Linas Linkevičius awarded a Foreign Ministry award called the Star of Lithuanian Diplomacy to Good Will Foundation and Lithuanian Jewish (Litvak) Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky on July 5.
The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry’s highest award was bestowed on chairwoman Kukliansky in recognition of her active involvement in organizing international dialogue and important agreements, cooperation between the LJC and Foreign Ministry, her contribution to making the Goodwill Law a reality and the active involvement of the LJC under her leadership in projects at Lithuanian diplomatic offices.
“I am proud of our friendship and cooperation. This is vital to the interests of our state. Your work goes beyond just leading the Jewish community, and your work for the good of Lithuania is very visible,” Lithuanian foreign minister Linkevičius said.
Chairwoman Kukliansky upon receiving the Star of Lithuanian Diplomacy award thanked the Lithuanian Jewish Community for their support and cooperation.
Attorney Kukliansky was deputy chairwoman of the LJC from 2009 to 2013 and became chairwoman in 2013. She has devoted many long years to serving the Lithuanian Jewish community and Litvaks living abroad. She has striven to integrate Lithuanian Jews in Lithuanian society and to educate Lithuanians and members of other ethnic communities inside Lithuania about Jewish culture, religion and life. Kukliansky says we live in a single society and people must learn about and understand one another in order to avoid the recurrence of the tragedy of the Holocaust, when almost the entire Lithuanian Jewish community was annihilated.
Information from the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry (http://urm.lt/default/en/