The Makabi Club in Šiauliai invites you to attend the traditional Liova Taicas memorial competition at the Uniqa Arena in Šiauliai starting at noon, October 24, 2021, to include ping-pong, chess, volleyball, 3-on-3 basketball and indoor soccer. For more information contact Rašella at 869910621 or Sania at 864025950.
Holocaust Commemoration at Ponar
The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites the public to a Holocaust commemoration at the Ponar Memorial Complex located at Agrastų street no. 15A with a ceremony and speeches at 1:00 P.M. on September 23. Please register by sending an email to office@lzb.lt or by calling (8 5) 2613 003.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 7:12 P.M. on Friday, September 17 and concludes at 8:22 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Genocide Day in Navarėnai, Lithuania
The Navarėnai Cultural Center, Navarėnai aldermanship, Navarėnai primary school and Navarėnai library located in the small town in the Telšiai district of northwest Lithuania invite the public to attend events marking the Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide on September 23 this year. The commemoration begins at 1:00 P.M. at the Navarėnai Cultural Center, whence participants will travel to the Jewish mass murder site in the Šiliškė forest. The program includes the unveiling of a monument and speeches by guests with music dedicated to the memory of the dead performed by Valda Valužienė of the Viešvėnai Cultural Center.
Synagogue in Žiežmariai Opens Doors
The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Kaišiadorys city municipality invite the public to visit the restored synagogue in Žiežmariai, Lithuania, September 17.
As part of the European Days of Jewish Culture, the LJC is sponsoring the event in Žiežmariai to discuss the public utilization of Litvak heritage sites and the relationship between the local community and this synagogue specifically.
The event will be moderated by Martynas Užpelkis, the LJC’s heritage specialist.
Participants will include LJC chairwoman Faina, Kukliansky, Kaišiadorys mayor Vytenis Tomkus, Lithuanian heritage expert and historian Diana Varnaitė, Kaišiadorys Museum director Olijardas Lukoševičius and others.
The event begins at the synagogue at 2:00 P.M. on September 17.
President’s Office to Hold Concert Commemorating 80th Anniversary of Holocaust in Lithuania
The Lithuanian Jewish Community is pleased to announce a concert by St. Christopher chamber orchestra from Vilnius and other classical, jazz and folk performers to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Holocaust in Lithuania.
Program:
Premiere of Symphony from the Jerusalem of the North by composer Jievaras Jasinskis
Special guest: Israeli multi-instrumentalist Yaron Cherniak
The concert begins at 7:00 P.M. on Thursday, September 23, in the courtyard of the President’s Office at Daukanto street no. 3 in Vilnius (gate opens at 6:00 P.M.).
Prior registration before September 20 and proof of vaccination(s) at the gate required. Register here.
Invitation to Remember and Honor the Large Jewish Community of Švenčionys Murdered in the Holocaust
It has become a tradition now to meet on the first Sunday in October at the Menorah in the park in Švenčionys to remember and honor the large Jewish community of Švenčionys who had their own culture and traditions, and to remember their tragic fate.
I am please to invite everyone to attend the Holocaust commemoration at the Menorah statue in the Švenčionys city park marking the boundary of the Švenčionys ghetto. The commemoration starts at 11:00 A.M. on October 3, 2021.
Program:
Yom Kippur at the Choral Synagogue
Yom Kippur is the most important holiday in Judaism, the Day of Atonement. It begins on the evening of Wednesday. The Choral Synagogue in Vilnius will provide full prayer services for the holiday. The synagogue is located at Pylimo street no. 39 in Vilnius.
Program:
September 15:
6:00 P.M. Dinner before fast
7:00 P.M. Kol nidre
7:17 P.M. Beginning of fast
September 16:
10:00 A.M. Shacharit morning prayer
12 noon Izkor
6:15 P.M. Mincha prayer
7:15 P.M. Niila prayer
8:27 P.M. End of fast/feast
Lithuanian Makabi Invites Students, Parents, Friends to Fun Run
The Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club has been holding so-called fun runs for several years now and the non-competitive jogging events have caught on around the world as well. This year Makabi is holding a charity fun run with entrance fees going to support Makabi activities. The real point, however, is to get together, play together, listen to some music and exert our bodies. This is more important than it might sound in keeping the small Lithuanian Jewish Community together.
Time and place: the run will start at 11:00 A.M. on September 19 at Vingio park in Vilnius, with the starting place next to the stage there.
Participants
All runners from the Lithuanian Jewish Community and people who support the Makabi organization are invited to participate. Each runner may choose whether to run the 1.5 or 3 km course. To participate, you only need to fill out the registration form. Every person participates of their own free will, without any compulsion, and accepts full responsibility for any risk associated with the run (including different health problems). You may register for the fun run in your name only.
Registration
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 7:30 P.M. on Friday, September 10, and concludes at 8:41 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Concerts Celebrate Litvak and Israeli Composers
Vilnius’s St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra has concerts scheduled for September 16 at St. Kortyna’s Church in Vilnius, September 17 at the renovated synagogue in Žiežmariai and September 18 at the Red Synagogue in Joniškis to showcase the music of Litvak and modern Israeli composers and their ties with Lithuania.
More information in Lithuanian available here.
Šiauliai Jewish Community to Commemorate Holocaust Victims at Vilkiaušis Forest
The Šiauliai Jewish Community has announced a program of Holocaust commemoration events scheduled for Sunday, September 12, beginning with a procession from the parking lot next to the Vilkiaušis Forest.
Program:
11:00 A.M. Meet at the parking lot next to Vilkiaušis Forest. Procession to the Jewish genocide site in the Vilkiaušis Forest. Ceremony to honor the victims.
12:30 P.M. Leave for Žagarė. Commemoration on market square.
2:00 P.M. Procession to Naryškinas Park.
4:00 P.M. Ceremony to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Jewish genocide in Lithuania.
4:20 P.M. Leave for Jewish cemetery in Žagarė.
5:00 P.M. Rafailas Karpis and Darius Mažintas’s artistic program “Kaddish for the Dead” at Jaunimo street no. 1 in Žagarė.
Concert to Commemorate Holocaust Victims and Vilnius Ghetto Liquidation
I am very glad that Litvak Leopold Godowsky’s sonnets 1 and 2 will reach the wider world. I would like to inform you my concert on September 23 at the Gaveau in Paris will be dedicated to Holocaust victims and to the date September 23, 1943, the date of the liquidation of the Vilnius ghetto. Please find the program attached.
Sincerely yours,
Mūza Rubackytė
New Jewish Calendar Available
The Lithuanian Jewish Community is happy to announce our annual Jewish calendar has been printed and is ready for distribution. This year’s calendar, for the year 5782, features the communities and people who lived in Lithuania before the Holocaust, with period photography from shtetls across the country. The format this year is smaller and hopefully more convenient and functional but contains the features from past years, including local times for Sabbath, fasts and holidays. It will be made available to the public starting Thursday, September 9, at the Bagel Shop Café.
Rosh Hashanah at the Choral Synagogue
Rosh Hashanah at the Choral Synagogue, Pylimo street no. 39, Vilnius
Monday, September 6
7:00 P.M. Mincha/maariv, holiday prayers, kiddush, buffet
Tuesday, September 7
10:00 A.M. Shacharit morning prayer
12:00 noon Blowing of shofar horn, new Jewish calendar for 5782 presented
12:30 P.M. Musaf prayer
2:00 P.M. Mincha
5:00 P.M. Tashlich (prayer by river at Bokšto street no. 19, Vilnius)
6:30 P.M. Rosh Hashanah celebration (Choral Synagogue):
–blowing shofar horn
–distribution of new Jewish calendar for 5782
–holiday treats
8:51 P.M. Maariv prayer
Wednesday, September 8
10:00 A.M. Shacharit morning prayer
12:00 noon Blowing of shofar horn
2:00 P.M. Mincha
6:30 P.M. Blowing of shofar horn
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 7:47 P.M. on Friday, September 3, and concludes at 9:00 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
European Day of Jewish Culture Events Program
The Lithuanian Jewish Community again marks the European Day of Jewish Culture with a series of events on Jewish culture and the Litvak legacy to contributions to Lithuanian history and culture.
The theme this year is dialogue.
Please register, space is limited.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 8:04 P.M. on Friday, August 27, and concludes at 9:19 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Five Years On Molėtai Marches Again
Five years ago Marius Ivaškevičius wrote of the need to remember the exterminated Jewish community of Molėtai, a town about 60 miles north of Vilnius. His call to mobilize with a march through the town became the second-most popular item ever on this website (the most popular being a reprint of an article about the South African Jewish community which continues to attract hits years later). The march itself was a watershed moment in Lithuanian Holocaust consciousness, drawing ethnic Lithuanians from around the country and the world together with Lithuanian Jews and Jews from South Africa, Uruguay, Great Britain, the USA and other countries. Several thousand people turned up on the town square and listened to the different speeches before marching to the mass murder site across town there.
The march was covered by the New York Times, Washington Post, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Jerusalem Post and other publications.
The march is to be repeated this year. August 29 is the date all Jews from Molėtai were murdered. On that “Day of Wrath” they were marched under armed guard two kilometers from one of the synagogues to the killing ground.
Plein Air Art Workshop Week Planned for Fall
The Lithuanian Jewish Community is sponsoring another open-air painting and art workshop scheduled for September 2 to 5 in Trakai under the tutelage of Raimondas Savickas. For more information call +37067881514 or write zanas@sc.lzb.lt