Members of Lithuania’s parliament Gediminas Kirkilas and Aušrinė Armonaitė sent Rosh Hashanah greetings to the Lithuanian Jewish Community as the country’s Jewish community marked the beginning of the new year, 5781 on the Jewish calendar.

Former prime minister Gediminas Kirkilas, now deputy speaker of parliament and chairman of the European Affairs Committee there as well as heading his Social Democratic Labor Party, regularly sends greetings to the Community on major holidays and occasions.

Aušrinė Armonaitė was voted in as an MP in 2016 on the Liberal Movement ticket and was a member of the independent faction there. In 2019 she helped found and was voted in as chairwoman of the new Freedom Party. Vilnius mayor Remigijus Šimašius is a deputy chairman in the new party.

The Lithuanian Jewish Community appreciates these holiday greetings from our friends old friends well as new. A rough translation can be found below underneath each document.

Su 5781-aisiasKirkilas

The Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania

To the highly respected Lithuanian Jewish Community,
and madam chairwoman Faina Kukliansky,

I congratulate the Lithuanian Jewish Community and you personally on the occasion of the New Year, 5781. May it be good and sweet to us. Each new year brings joys and challenges, but the preceding year was truly unexpected. Due to the viral pandemic which overtook the world, many of us have worked and studied from home. Suddenly we have learned to stop and not to hurry as much as before. We began to appreciate and love more what he have, and we listened to and understood one another better.

From home, and not as ceremoniously as we should have, we marked major anniversaries for our country–30 years of Lithuanian independence, the 100th anniversary of the first Constituent Seimas (parliament) and the 300th anniversary of the birth of the Vilna Gaon–without the arrival of foreign delegations, and we canceled many other important events.

So today, friends, please accept my sincere gratitude for your understanding, seriousness and everyone’s efforts during this time which is so difficult for all of us. As well look forward to the New Year, let’s be optimistic and cherish our beautiful hopes for the future.

I wish all of you mutual concord, love and respect.

[signed]
Gediminas Kirkilas, deputy speaker of parliament, chairman of the parliamentary European Affairs Committee

September, 2020

ArmonaitėsSVEIKINIMAS

Member of the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania

Dear Lithuanian Jewish Community,

I would like sincerely to congratulate you on the occasion of the Jewish New Year. The foregoing year was exception in its challenges, but also very important in Lithuania for remembering, understanding and commemorating the great legacy of the history of the Jews of Lithuania and the Vilna Gaon.

I wish each of you individually and all members of the Community in Lithuania a sweet, peaceful and happy 5781!

I thank you for your solidarity and pleasant cooperation.

Respectfully,

[signed]

Aušrinė Armonaitė, member of parliament