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On July 31, 2021, a remarkable event to celebrate the friendship between Lithuania and India took place in Rusnė, Lithuania for a third time. This year is also exceptional, commemorating the 150th anniversary of Herman Kallenbach’s birth, an architect of Lithuanian origin Jewish who was born and raised in Lithuania Minor.

H. Kallenbach is considered as one of the closest friends of India‘s Independence leader M. Gandhi. For discovering and exploring the friendly connections between H. Kallenbach and M. Gandhi we must be grateful to the Israeli scientist and historian Dr. Shimon Lev who is actively engaged in research of Lithuanian origin Jewish and their unique relations with India. The historian Dr. Shimon Lev is recognized for his researches on the relationships between Kallenbach-Gandhi and Lithuanian origin Jewish Ms. Schlomith Flaum and the Indian national poet Rabindranath Tagore. These studies are presented in the following books as the „Soulmates: The Story of Mahatma Gandhi and Hermann Kallenbach“ and „From Lithuania to Santiniketan. Schlomith Flaum & Rabindranath Tagore“.

This year at the awards ceremony attended by high-ranking guests Dr. Shimon Lev was honored with the award „For Merit to the Friendship between Lithuania and India“ and presented with the reduced copy of Kallenbach-Gandhi statute. The event was attended by Mayor of Šilutė District Mr. Vytautas Laurinaitis, Elder of Rusnė Ms. Dalia Drobnienė, Lithuanian Ambassador to India Mr. Julius Pranevičius, German Ambassador to Lithuania Mr. Matthias P. Sonn, Lithuanian Ambassador to the Czech Republic Mr. Laimonas Talat-Kelpša, Lithuanian Ambassador to Israel Ms. Lina Antanavičienė, Lithuanian Ambassador to Armenia Ms. Inga Stanytė-Toločkienė, Lithuanian Ambassador to Ireland Mr. Marijus Gudynas, President of the Lithuanian-Indian Forum Ms. Kristina Dolinina, Honorary Consul of India Mr. Rajinder Chaudhary, Chairman of the Lithuanian Jewish (Litvak) Community Ms. Faina Kukliansky.

The comics book by an author Miglė Anušauskaitė was launched during the event. The book is about six Lithuanians who travelled to India at the different periods of time and united Lithuania and India through their activities and ideas. In the book, the author vividly illustrates the connection of these travelers with India and their incentives to travel to this far land. The first Lithuanian who landed in India in 1625 was a Jesuit missionary Andrius Rudamina. The memory of this honorable traveler is immortalized in the Old Goa Cathedral. Another famous Lithuanian traveler closely related to the state of Kerala in India was a Lithuanian-born Catholic priest Mikalojus Šostakas (Nicolaus Szostak). In the 18^th century, M. Šostakas served as the Apostolic Vicar of Malabar for more than two decades. In 2016, Lithuanian Embassy in India installed a memorial plate to M. Šostakas in his resting place in Verapoly. The book also describes travel impressions of the famous Lithuanian traveler and researcher Antanas Poška. In 1929 A. Poška traveled to India by motorcycle to look for similarities between the Lithuanian language and Sanskrit. He spent seven years in India studying at the Universities of Bombay and Calcutta. A. Poška has published his travel diary and several articles about India and its culture in the Lithuanian press.  Another remarkable personality of the 20^th century is a Lithuanian origin Jewish Ms. Schlomith Flaum who traveled to India inspired by the famous Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore. The life of Ms. Schlomith Flaum and her acquaintance with the Indian national poet as well as their academic achievements - together they founded the first Rabindranath Tagore University in India - were researched and presented to the public by this year rewarded Israeli historian Dr. Shimon Lev.