Many events have taken place recently at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius. Besides daily prayer services and Kollel Torah studies, seminars, traditional Jewish holidays, Sabbath and kiddush with many visitors from around the world as well as Women’s Club activities, there is a growing demand for traditional Jewish rituals.

We can take pride that this year there were two circumcision and 3 bar mitzvahs as well as a traditional huppah or Jewish wedding ceremony held at the Choral Synagogue.

Last week two families from the USA held bar mitzvah ceremonies at the Choral Synagogue. The young men were born in America but have family roots in Lithuania.

The boys had been prepared well for the Torah reading. Their gratitude to their parents and their parents’ stories about the footsteps taken on the way to adulthood and how much they love their children moved the large audience of friends, relatives and guests.

“Lithuanian Jews are so glad these ancient Jewish traditions are being reborn and continued,” Vilnius Religious Jewish Community chairman Simas Levinas said, giving the lion’s share of the credit to Rabbi Krinski and Rebetzin Dina who carry out their work so scrupulously and lovingly.

Repairs to the synagogue have been going on for several years now. The most important part of the work, Levinas said, is the preservation of authenticity, which is extremely attractive to Jews from Lithuania and abroad. They are happy the synagogue looks vi amol (as it did before), Levinas noted.