On May 21, teacher Nijolė Teišerskienė taught students about the history of the Šiauliai ghetto. Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community member Ida Vileikienė survived that ghetto and told the children her story, including how she was rescued by the Staškas family, how she lived in hiding and what she did after the war. She invited the children to learn to respect one another as a general life lesson.
On May 23 Inga Kvedariene of the Šiauliai territorial medical system met with community members and talked about the payment system hospitals use and which services are free to those who have social insurance. She then fielded questions from the audience.
On June 14 members of the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community visited the site of the former Lithuanian shtetl Zhagar (Žagarė) beginning with tours of the Žagarė Regional Park and the Naryškinas manor estate. Land management specialist Giedrė Rakštienė spoke authoritatively on the Jewish population of Zhagar and many community members learned new things about Jewish life there. Žagarė gymnasium geography teacher Alma Kančelskienė led the tour which included still-standing Jewish buildings which used to be synagogues, the house of the rabbi and a school, and members also visited the site of the former mikvah there. Members also visited the home of E. Vaičiulis. He is the owner now of the site of the former Jewish textile factory on the banks of the Švėtė river and of a wooden Jewish house where he now lives. Under several layers of wallpaper there are parts of old Jewish newspapers on his walls which the former owners glued there once upon a time. He has preserved the original exterior and the interior is decorated with period pots and dishes. Surrounded by a stone wall, Vaičiulis’s collection is a veritable museum of the former time when Jewish life was front and center in what is now a Lithuanian town. Pride of place is occupied by a Torah scroll discovered in Zhagar. Members also visited the Jewish cemetery and mass murder sites in and around the town.
On June 16 athletes from the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community S. Neverauskienė and Vilmantas.Bočkus participated in the mini-Maccabiah games put on by the Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club. Bočkus earned third place in doubles badminton.
On June 26 members toured the windmill at the Žaliūkiai farm which has been operating there since 1875. Members learned the mechanics of grinding grain, but also the unusual history of the place.
Young community member Daniel Šer has been busy making a name for himself at various chess tournaments in Lithuania and abroad.
On July 22 community members attended an event called “Šimaitė Wants to Talk” in Akmenė, Lithuania. Ona Šimaitė was the famous Righteous Gentile from Vilnius. The Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community was one of the sponsors of the event which began with a conference on the history and fate of the Akmian (Akmenė) Jewish community. The event included exhibits of Šimaitė’s manuscripts and letters, the Jakovas Bunka Fund’s “Kaddish for Lithuania’s Wooden Synagogues,” wooden sculpture by Jakovas Bunka himself and “The Litvak Creative Legacy” by the Akmenė regional library. A ceremony was held after the conference to officially rename the Akmenė Regional Library the Ona Šimaitė Library. This was followed by a tour of Jewish sites in the area. A performance based on the Anne Frank diary greeted spectators after lunch, put on by the talent club of the local high school, followed by songs and music performed by students from the music schools in Venta and Naujoji Akmenė, and the concert “Sounds of the Shtetl” directed by Daiva Kvaukienė with Vitalij Neugasimov as artistic director.
