DRAUGAS NEWS Lithuanian World Wide News in English

Vilius Žalpys. On Oct. 1, 2015, I flew out of Portland, Oregon, to visit with family and friends in Los Angeles, California, and attend the annual Lithuanian Days Festival at St. Casimir’s Parish in LA. I intended to spend the week in and around LA. As I was filling out …

By Romualdas Adomavičius of the Lithuanian Sea Museum. As early as 1923, the problem of protecting Lithuania’s Baltic Sea coastline from illegal activity had become acute. Huge amounts of alcohol and other contraband were entering Lithuania by sea, most often coming from Danzig (present day Gdansk). The old, slow motorboats used …

The long-sought and assumed lost Declaration of Lithuania’s Independence, signed on February 16, 1918, was discovered in Germany’s diplomatic archives in Berlin. Professor Liudas Mažylis (right) of Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas announced the discovery on March 29, 2017. “The Lithuanian version of the resolution with all 20 clearly visible original …

Sandy Baksys. If his voice is a little ragged and his words come out rapid-fire, that’s because Linas Johansonas, 57, is simultaneously living two very full “Lithuanian lives.” His first life is grounded in Cleveland, Ohio’s 18,000 square-foot Lithuanian Community Center, where Johansonas assists Rūta Degutis, president of the Lithuanian …

By Miltiades Varvounis. The Chodkevičius (Chodkiewicz) family was one of the richest and most influential families of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) in the 16th –17th centuries. The most prominent member of this family was Jonas Karolis Chodkevičius (Jan Karol Chodkiewicz), a renowned Lithuanian military commander. He played a …

Part adventure, part history course and civics lesson, Mission Siberia (MS) is an annual two-week expedition by young Lithuanians to various locales in Siberia, where Lithuanians were once forcibly exiled by the Soviet government. MS has become one the most recognized youth-centered projects in Lithuania. The initial purpose of the …

Ramunė Kubilius. Vaidotas A. Vaičaitis, an Associate Professor of Law at Vilnius University, is one of two recipients of the Joseph P. Kazickas Fellowships at Yale University for 2017. As Visiting Associate Professor in European Studies at Yale University, he will undertake research and analysis dealing with Lithuania’s current constitutional …

Aldas Kriaučiūnas. Within five hours of arriving at Camp Dainava, in Manchester, Mich., to mark the camp’s 60th birthday bash this past Labor Day weekend, I feasted on cold beet soup, joined in singing Lithuanian freedom fighters songs, and waided through thorns and thistles to reach the natural springs feeding …

Gerda Butkuvienė. It has now been 104 years since the sinking of this legendary ocean cruise liner. The memory of the tragedy refuses to fade as a successor liner, the “Titanic II”, is being readied for launch, because difficult-to-answer questions about the disaster continue to be raised and discussed. In a …

Founded in 1886, the Lithuanian Alliance of America, (LAA) the oldest continuously operating Lithuanian organization in the world, has a new lease on life as it expands its multifaceted activities promoting Lithuanian educational and heritage programs. Organized as a fraternal insurance organization, it had over 20,000 members and 300 lodges …