A delegation of leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis arrived in Lithuania Tuesday to ask for the cancellation of government backed plans to construct a convention center in the middle of Vilnius’ old Jewish cemetery.

The government plan to develop the $25 million complex in the middle of the ancient Snipiskes Cemetery in Vilnius has aroused spirited opposition, garnering condemnations from the Simon Wiesenthal Center and leaders of Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox communities in both the US and Israel.

The local Jewish community has come out in favor of the plan, which would see the new building replace a Soviet-era stadium built in the middle of the graveyard.

The rabbinic delegation, which included Israeli, American and European Rabbis representing the Lithuanian, or non-hasidic branch of ultra-orthodoxy, met with senior government officials, including First Deputy Chancellor Mr. Rimantas Vaitkus and the mayor of Vilnius, as well as the leadership of the local Jewish community.

The group included Rabbis Malkiel Kotler and Osher Kalmanowitz, the deans of the Beth Medrash Govoha and Brooklyn’s Mir yeshiva, as well as Rabbi Avraham Yaffe Schlesinger of Switzerland, Rabbi David Niederman, of the Central Rabbinical Congress of the USA and Canada and Rabbi Chizki Kalmanowitz of the Atra Kadisha.

“We went there to explain to the government that this is not permissible to do,” Niederman told The Jerusalem Post during a telephone interview on Wednesday.

The delegation “basically relayed to the government that this is not appropriate and we asked the government to nullify these plans,” he continued.

While local leaders have claimed nearly unanimous communal support for the project, Niederman asserted that “some of the locals are very opposed,” adding that he told community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky that “it is totally unacceptable” to build on “that holy site.”

Niederman also lashed out at Rabbi Abraham Ginsberg of the London-based Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries, whose rabbinic endorsement has been cited by both Kukliansky and the government in defense of their plans. The group is working closely with the Jewish community and the government and will supervise the digging. It has stated that its involvement will prevent further desecrations of the site.

Responding to comments made by Ginsberg on Tuesday in which he claimed that he spoke on behalf of Jews around the world and that opponents of the plan have been misinformed, Niederman said that he did not know “who gave him the right to speak for all of world Jewry.”

Citing the tens, maybe even hundreds, of thousands of alumni of Rabbi Kotler and Kalmanowitz’s yeshivas, as well as the American communities represented by the Central Rabbinical Congress, Niederman said that he could “only say that world Jewry is against it.”

In a 2009 US government cable published by WikiLeaks, a senior representative of the Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries was cited as stating that “he estimated the cost of rabbinical supervision of digging for the entire project at 100,000 USD.”

“The CPJCE appears to be striving for maximum flexibility – to the point of accepting exploratory digging in or near the cemetery, a stance that would infuriate some other Jewish groups should they learn of it – in order to bring this dispute to a successful conclusion,” the diplomatic dispatch stated, adding that the “Jewish representatives also said repeatedly that excessive publicity would limit their flexibility to move forward with the plan.”

One of the rabbis who signed a letter opposing the plan was Shmuel Aurbach, a prominent Israeli ultra-Orthodox leader.

Responding to comments made by Ginsberg on Tuesday in which he claimed that he spoke on behalf of Jews around the world and that opponents of the plan have been misinformed, Niederman said that he did not know “who gave him the right to speak for all of world Jewry.”

Citing the tens, maybe even hundreds, of thousands of alumni of Rabbi Kotler and Kalmanowitz’s yeshivas, as well as the American communities represented by the Central Rabbinical Congress, Niederman said that he could “only say that world Jewry is against it.”

In a 2009 US government cable published by WikiLeaks, a senior representative of the Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries was cited as stating that “he estimated the cost of rabbinical supervision of digging for the entire project at 100,000 USD.”

“The CPJCE appears to be striving for maximum flexibility – to the point of accepting exploratory digging in or near the cemetery, a stance that would infuriate some other Jewish groups should they learn of it – in order to bring this dispute to a successful conclusion,” the diplomatic dispatch stated, adding that the “Jewish representatives also said repeatedly that excessive publicity would limit their flexibility to move forward with the plan.”

One of the rabbis who signed a letter opposing the plan was Shmuel Aurbach, a prominent Israeli ultra-Orthodox leader.