The Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium and the Lithuanian Jewish Community invite children aged 6 to 15 to an unusual summer day camp involving travelling and hiking from 8:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. on August 14 to 16. Participants will meet at the Sholem Aleichem school in Vilnius. For more information, call Vilma at (+370) 659 41244. Registration here.
Contemporary composer Michael Gordon will present the premiere of his work Resonance in the courtyard of the Youth and Lėlė Theaters accessible at Arklių street no. 5 at 9:00 P.M. on July 5. The courtyard was the home of the Judenrat in the Vilnius ghetto, the Jewish council set up by the Germans. The composer’s family came from Vilnius. The composer will give a talk the next day at Rūdininkai square across Rūdininkų street from the Judenrat at 2:00 P.M. on Thursday, July 6.
Tickets for the concert may be purchased here: https://shorturl.at/gE178
The Sabbath begins at 9:41 P.M. on Friday, June 30, and concludes at 11:29 P.M. on Saturday, July 1, in the Vilnius region.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites those aged 18 and over to an evening of entertainment based on the idea of a return to the roaring 20s, or at least the style and elegance displayed in public in the period between the two world wars. The musical repertoire will reflect the period. For more information, contact mishel.katrina@gmail.com or dovydas.sotland@gmail.com. You may register here:
https://forms.gle/ur5qqFjQHKXxDdX68
When: 7:00 P.M., July 5.
Where: LJC, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius.
Dress: interwar period, flapper girl or otherwise.
Lithuanian state radio and television reports on a new exhibit in Vilnius called Litvak Artists in Paris, demonstrating for the first time here a comprehensive exhibit of works of art by the Litvak ensemble living in Paris before and between the two world wars. Lithuanian state media spoke with Litvak art expert and curator of the exhibit Vilma Grandinskaitė, PhD.
Q.: What story does Litvak Artists in Paris tell?
A. The exhibit talks about the Litvak artists, the wave of Lithuanian Jewish migration to Paris, with Paris the destination most desired by artists at that time. We can differentiate three different waves of migration. The first was in the latter half of the 19th century with Mark Antokolski, the first Jewish sculptor from our Lithuania. Antokolski set up a studio in Paris. Many artists soon flocked to it, his followers. The second wave was students from the Vilnius School of Drawing, including Marc Chagall, Michel Kikoïne, Jacques Lipchitz, Emmanuel Mane-Katz and Chaïm Soutine. Gradually with Chagall the news spread of Paris as the Promised Land, a Mecca of the arts, and one after another artist began moving there. The third wave involves Lithuania in the interwar period when Arbit Blat, Max Band [Maksas Bandas] and Jacob Messenblum [Jacques Missene] left.
The Sabbath begins at 9:42 P.M. on Friday, June 23, and concludes at 11:32 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. The summer solstice, the longest day of the year, is on Thursday, June 22. Saturday, June 24, is an official state holiday, St. John’s Day or Midsummer’s Day.
Advisory Includes Interactive Maps and Guides to Ensure Culturally Sensitive Visit to Vilnius
June 21, 2023
WASHINGTON, D.C.–The Israeli-American Civic Action Network (ICAN), a leading U.S.-based non-governmental organization, is launching a culturally sensitive website and issuing a travel advisory for attendees of the NATO Summit 2023 in Vilnius, Lithuania. The advisory aims to provide attendees with crucial information about certain sensitive historical sites within the city, fostering an environment of intersectionality and understanding.
“ICAN is committed to promoting understanding and respectful engagement during the NATO Summit,” said Dillon Hosier, ICAN CEO. “Our travel advisory and website resources are designed to help attendees navigate Vilnius in an informed and sensitive manner, acknowledging the internalized oppression that can result from historical distortions.”
The travel advisory identifies several locations in Vilnius associated with Holocaust denial and distortion. These sites, which include monuments and plaques, present a distorted view of historical events, leading to a dangerously corrosive form of cultural appropriation further undermining Lithuania’s already vulnerable Jewish population. ICAN encourages attendees to avoid visiting these locations during their stay in Vilnius to ensure focus remains on the important discussions and collaborations of the NATO Summit.
Full advisory here.
The Kaunas Jewish Community will hold a ceremony to commemorate the Jewish victims murdered during the barbaric Lietūkis garage incident in Kaunas in the early days of World War II this June 26 at 4:00 P.M. at the statue to the victims at Miško street no. 3, moving afterwards to the Slobodka Jewish cemetery on Kalnų street and then to the Žaliakalnis Jewish cemetery on the Radvilėnų highway.
The Sabbath begins at 9:40 P.M. on Friday, June 16, and concludes at 11:30 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Last weekend one of the few extant wooden synagogues in Europe opened its doors to visitors following renovation work. Last December Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky signed an agreement with the Anykščiai Cultural Center: in exchange for renovation, the center will enjoy the use of the building for its activities.
Chairwoman Kukliansky commented: “There was a significant Jewish community in Kurkliai before World War II which was lost following the tragic events of the Holocaust. The reconstructed building will soon fall into ruin again if it isn’t used. We are therefore very glad the Anykščiai Cultural Center and the whole regional community stood shoulder to shoulder to outfit the building for a new life. This is yet another wonderful example of cooperation between the Lithuanian Jewish Community and municipal and regional governments as well as cultural centers.”
The synagogue building will include an exhibit about the Kurkliai Jewish community and Jewish life in the village located about midway between Anykščiai and Ukmergė just north of Vilnius.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the outdoor Cvi Parkas vegetarian Israeli street food kiosk invite everyone to a quiz on Jewish cooking and food traditions. The winner gets an Israeli dish from the kiosk and the two runners-up get a free drink. The quiz will be conducted by Arkadijus Vinokuras most likely in the Lithuanian language. It starts at 5:00 P.M. on Sunday, June 18, at food kiosk located in the park across the street from the Lithuanian Jewish Community at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius. The quiz will be streamed live on facebook here.
Silvia Foti is scheduled to visit the Šiauliai Jewish Community on June 22 for a presentation of her book about her grandfather, Holocaust perpetrator Jonas Noreika, followed by an open discussion. Jonas Noreika was appointed head of the Šiauliai district under the Nazis and was responsible for the murder of thousands of Jews from the city and region. The event starts at 6:00 P.M. and is free and open to the public.
The Sabbath begins at 9:35 P.M. on Friday, June 9, and concludes at 11:24 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Julija Patašnik will continue her Israeli dance lessons this Sunday outdoors at the Cvirka Park’s Israeli street food kiosk and café located across the street from Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius. Class starts at 11:00 A.M. Sunday, June 11. Everyone is invited regardless of age and dancing skills, including men, women, children, senior citizens and everyone else. The café will be open and serving all sorts of Israeli street food Sunday.
The Sugihara House museum in Kaunas has opened a special Jan Zartendijk room to celebrate the Dutch Righteous Gentile who worked hand-in-hand with Righteous Gentile Chiune Sugihara to rescue Jews from the impending Holocaust, according to the Russian-language obzor.lt webpage. Although the two men reportedly never spoke, they both issued visas for Jews. Japanese ambassador Sugihara issued visas for transiting through Japan, but Jews needed a visa for a final destination, which Dutch consul Zwartendijk furnished by stamping passports with a fictitious visa for the island of Curaçao in the Caribbean, which at that time didn’t require visas from travellers.
According to obzor.lt, museum staff had considered including a period typewriter in the exhibit, but Zwartendijk’s daughter told them he never used the device.
Full story in Russian here.
Vocalists aged 10 to 35 are invited to register for the Nechama Lifshitz Vocalist Contest to be held in Vilnius in September. The goal of the competition is to inspire creativity and talent in the younger generation, to popularize vocal Jewish music and to discover talented young Jewish performers and song writers. The contest is named after renowned singer Nechama Lifshitz who was born in Kaunas and was sometimes called the Jewish nightingale. She became famous throughout the Soviet Union and the world.
Register here: https://www.competition.lt/registracija/
The International Publishers Association and the Lithuanian Jewish Community invite you to an academic and practical conference on the significance of Litvak literature on the Lithuanian cultural heritage. Besides presentation by individual scholars and thinkers there will also be readings of texts and some more personal commentaries. The conference will be conducted in Russian and is free and open to the public.
The #ŽydiškiPašnekesiai Jewish discussion group led by author and actor Arkadijus Vinokuras is to discuss Jewish cuisine at the Israeli street food kiosk located in the former Cvirka scquare across the street from the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius at 5:00 P.M on Thursday, June 8. The panel is scheduled to include Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, Vilnius Religious Jewish Community chairman and Choral Synagogue cantor Shmuel Yaatom, lecturer Natalja Cheifec, Cvi Parkas Israeli food kiosk director Rafaelis Gimelšteinas, a professor of communications from Vilnius University who has written several books about the history of cooking.
The outdoor discussion is free and open to the public and will be streamed live on facebook as well. It will be conducted in Lithuanian.
The Vilnius Jewish Public Library is to screen the film J’accuse with Lithuanian subtitles at 5:30 P.M. on June 19. Author Silvia Foti featured in the film is scheduled to attend the screening and discuss the film and the Holocaust in Lithuania with the audience.
More information available here.
The Sabbath begins at 9:27 P.M. on Friday, June 2, and concludes at 11:13 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.