Gennady Kofman, chairman, Panevėžys Jewish Community:

Happy Passover, one of the most important holidays on the Jewish religious calendar.

Passover holiday greetings to all. We wish you a happy time talking with your families.

This is the evening of sacrifice which took place before God led the Israelites out of Egypt. During Passover we eat unleavened bread, matzo. The first, second and last evening are marked with a large dinner with strict traditions: the head of family reads a passage from the Book of Exodus, prayers and a collection of liturgical hymns. A hand-washing ceremony is performed before eating. Before the end of the holiday meal a beautiful cup with grape juice is placed and the door is left open, and this is called “Elijah’s cup.”

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Greetings from Feliksas Puzemskis, chairman, Klaipėda Jewish Community:

Dear brothers, friends and simply good people! I greet you with the holiday of Passover. Today we all left Egypt together. During seder we all experience liberation from slavery and teach our children and grandchildren to stay free. Freedom is not the freedom to do as one likes, freedom is the freedom to live according to the Creator’s laws! Success and victory will always be with us then, with God’s help we will exit from corona virus as well. I wish everyone good health, success and happiness!

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Passover at the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community:

On March 27 the Jewish people around the world began celebrating Passover, the spring holiday commemorating the exodus of the Jews from slavery in Egypt which begins on Nisan 15. The holiday will be celebrated for the entire week until April 4. We would like to share some snapshots of the happy Passover celebrations by members of the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community in their homes. Members of the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community are being prevented for the second year in a row from gathering together and happily marking this beautiful spring holiday as a group to the sound of Jewish melodies. This year again we are each celebrating at home.

The Lithuanian Jewish Community made delivery of matzo to every regional community and the administration of the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community insured matzo would be distributed or home-delivered to all Community members.

Furthermore, all members of the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community received Passover holiday seder kits with the traditional Jewish foods by the first day of the holiday. The meal kits included minced herring, chicken liver pâté, wrapped chicken, chicken broth with matzo balls and imberlakh. For this we are grateful to the Žemaitis Restaurant and the Goodwill Foundation. So even though the pandemic has changed our tradition of sitting down together as a group at the holiday seder table, we are striving to maintain the holiday spirit in the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community and to spend time together at the table if only in our thoughts.

 

All Lithuanian Jewish Community-associated Jewish Communities received holiday packages with kosher matzo. The two photos above show the Kaunas Jewish Community receiving a matzo shipment.