Natalja Cheifec invites you to a lecture on the following topics:
Who are Litvaks?
Lithuanian Jewish traditions and customs
What is Hassidism, how it arose and a short history
Mitnagdim: the heirs of the Vilna Gaon
Mitangdim and Hassidim: is there a real reason for the communal conflict?
Time: 3:00 P.M., February 11, 2018
Place: Meeting hall, second floor, Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius
Please register for free here: goo.gl/JbypwU
Lithuanian Limmud 2018 presents an evening with Yulia Rutberg, star of the Vakhtangov theater, and Sabbath celebration at 7:00 P.M., February 9, tickets 35 euros, and a concert by the Hop Stop Banda group at 10:00 P.M. on February 10, tickets 15 euros. Events to be held at the Vilnius Grand Resort Hotel. Contact Žana Skudovičienė at +37067881514 for more information.
Today is the Jewish holiday of Tu b’Shvat, the 15th day of the month of Shvat, the New Year for trees also known as Israeli Arbor Day. It is traditional to eat of the shvat ha’minim (seven species endemic to the Land of Israel): wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates. Hag sameakh!
Dear friends,
This year Limmud will be even better than usual, so if you haven’t registered yet, do so now.
The conference will take place at the Vilnius Grand Resort Hotel from February 9 to 11.
Lecturers and performers are to include:
Prof. Zeef Chanin from Israel.
Yulia Rutberg, an actress from Russia, to host the Creative Evening.
Yuri Tabak, religious studies scholar, Jewish history expert and writer from Russia.
Tzvi Kaplan, rabbi, family specialist and psychologist from Israel.
Dr. Lara Lempertienė, scholar, Vilnius University teacher, senior bibliographer for Jewish books at the Lithuanian National Martynas Mažvydas Library, from Lithuania.
Regina Pats, a film expert from Estonia, to present program of new and interesting films.
Hop Stop Banda, a German musical band.
Maja Tarachovskaja, teacher, writer from Lithuania.
Sasha Song, a vocalist from Lithuania.
Ala Segal, beauty expert, Lithuania.
Grigoriy Abramovich, rabbi, Belarus.
Irina Abromovich, rebitsen, Belarus.
Svetlana Liser, yoga activities, Lithuania.
Laurina Todesaitė, Jewish culinary expert, Lithuania.
Boris Kirzner, violinist, Lithuania.
Daumantas Levas Todesas from Lithuania, to present the film “Aš turiu papasakoti” [I Must Tell the Story].
Boris Burda from Ukraine and the game “Who, what, where?”
Play by students of Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium “Let Me Live.”
For more information, contact limmudlietuva@lzb.lt or call Žana Skudovičienė at +37067881514.
I would like to address our Community again:
• As you know, a group of people calling themselves “the Vilnius Jewish Community” initiated legal proceedings.
• We received no reply to our proposals, made directly and in written form, to give up these legal disputes. A decision was handed down in the Vilnius Jewish Community’s petition which will be appealed in the usual appeals process and we have complete confidence the decision will be annulled.
• In other legal proceedings, the court found the rules and regulations of the LJC were not legal, and the point allowing the formation of a representational quorum during elections was voided. The court again emphasized the rules and regulations must conform to the law: one member, one vote. This affects the regional communities, but moreover all of the associated members, and means that the LJC elections in 2017 were held in keeping with the law. This decision by the court is final and is not subject to appeal.
Again, every Lithuanian Jew may decide for him or herself what sort of community they want, but first, everyone must know the truth. Leaders and community members who await the end of the disputes so they can decide which side to support must wait a little longer. I feel this decision is a matter of conscience for each person to make on their own.
I ask those who are sowing division between Jews, engaging in provocations, filing complaints and spreading rumors and gossip to stop it, without regard to whatever posts they occupy. You are doing harm to the entire Lithuanian Jewish Community.
I invite all members of the community to come together and join forces for things that are important rather than engage in fruitless internal struggles. Our priority tasks are celebrating and passing on the distinct Litvak culture and historical memory of the history of Jews in Lithuania, and making life better for Jews here and now. We can only accomplish this by coming together.
Lithuanian foreign minister Linas Linkevičius and the Lithuanian Jewish Community invite you to come observe International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry at 1:30 P.M. on January 26. Participants to include survivors, rescuers, members of the Jewish community, members of parliament and foreign ambassadors.
A photography exhibition by Mečys Brazaitis called “The Jewish Quarter of Vilnius” will open during the event and opera singer Rafailas Karpis will perform.
Please bring identification to be shown at the entrance.
A commemoration including a composition called “Rescued Worlds” will take place for International Holocaust Remembrance Day at 1:00 P.M. on January 29 at Laisvės alley No. 57. Vilna Gaon Museum Rescuers and Righteous Gentiles Department director Danutė Selčinskaja will attend. Excerpts from the film “Sketches of Hope” will be screened as well. The event is being organized by the Kaunas Art Gymnasium in cooperation with the Kaunas Jewish Community, the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum, the Mikas Petrauskas Music School and the Vincas Kudirka Public Library in Kaunas.
The exhibit at the Zarasai Regional History Museum contains illustrations by Al Jaffee included in Mary-Lou Weisman’s book “Al Jaffee’s Mad Life: A Biography.” In an interview with his biographer Al Jaffee called himself a reverse immigrant: when most people were leaving Lithuania for the USA, he went in the opposite direction. Savannah in the 1920s had electricity, inside toilets, asphalt streets, movie theaters and newspapers with daily comic strips. Zarasai, however, hadn’t changed much since the end of the 19th century. Al was the odd man out among the local children in Zarasai, where multilingualism was the rule and people spoke Lithuanian, Russian, Polish and Yiddish. He did manage to adapt to live there, though. The children invented games as children do and the entire town was their playground. The small town became the petri dish where Al and his brother Harry developed their creative talents. Even now Al says the years of his childhood he spent in Zarasai are some of the happiest years of his life.
Al’s popularity has grown continuously. In 1955 he began drawing for Mad magazine in New York City. He’s still drawing now. He lives with his wife Joyce in Manhattan.
You’re invited to visit the exhibit weekdays from 10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. (other times are available as well if prior notice is given).
The World Jewish Congress has launched this initiative for the second year in a row, with active participation by the Lithuanian Jewish Community. The campaign runs from January 8 to January 27, 2018. To be part of it, take a photo of yourself holding the inscription “We Remember” or “I remember” and post it on social media with the hashtag #WeRemember.
The campaign will run through International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the end of January, culminating with a live projection of all participant photos, interviews with Holocaust survivors, and messages from influencers from varied backgrounds, professions, ages and religions on the grounds of Auschwitz-Birkenau January 24 to January 27.
Last year the initiative had 25 million participants around the world.
Full story here.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community will host a special chess tournament in honor of world champion Emanuel Lasker at 3:00 P.M., Sunday, January 21. FIDE master Boris Rositsan will direct the tournament. For more information, email info@metbor.lt or call +370 6 55 43 556.
You are invited an event to commemorate victims of the Holocaust with a presentation by tenor Rafailas Karpis, pianist Darius Mažintas and Sergejus Kanovičius called “Embrace the Simple Past Tense.”
Is it possible for the Yiddish and the Lithuanian language to meet under one roof?
Is it possible to feel a lullaby even if you can’t understand the words?
Is dialogue possible between sung Yiddish and Lithuanian work read out loud?
Can love, longing and remorse meet in memory?
Come, feel it and find out the answers on the last Sunday in January:
PLACE: Third floor, Lithuanian Jewish Community, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius
TIME: 5:00 P.M., January 28.
The Kaunas Jewish Community will celebrate the 210th birthday of Abraham Mapu at 5:00 P.M. on January 18 and everyone is invited! The event called “Abraham Mapu: Writer, Teacher, Kaunas Resident” is to be held at the Youth, Art and Music Section of the Vincas Kudirka Public Library at A. Mapu street no. 18 in Kaunas.
Participants include Dr. Lara Lempert, director of the Judaic Studies Center at the Lithuanian National Martynas Mažvydas Library; literature studies doctoral candidate Goda Volbikaitė; director of the Ars et Mundus public enterprise and initiator of the statue to Mapu Olegas Darčanovas and members of the Makštutis family who will perform a concert.
The first of seven lessons in the “Oh My G_d” series kicked off Sunday at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius with 40 people attending. They discussed the topic “How can we know G_d exists?” Seminar organizer and moderator Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky engaged the majority of people at the seminar and drew them into the discussion with his passion and characteristic sense of humor.
The main topics of discussion were:
– Is belief based on reason or blind faith?
– What sort of proof is there that G_d exists?
– What are the arguments of atheists?
– Is atheism more rational than belief?
Participants lingered after the formal lesson ended, discussing and spending time with one another, and were treated to cakes and fruit brought by Rebbetzin Dina.
The “Oh My G_d” series of seminars will now include seven classes. The next seminar’s topic will be “Are there logical proofs G_d exists” with the following subtopics for discussion:
– Whence does belief in G_d arise?
– Is there rational proof G_d exists?
– Is it more rational to believe on G_d the Creator, or something else?
All are welcome at the next, the second seminar, at 4:30 P.M. on Sunday, January 21 at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius. Both men and women are encouraged to come. The seminar will last approximately one hour.
Thursday evening the Lithuanian Jewish Community hosted the launch of Živilė Juonytė’s new book “Izraelis ir jo žmonės. Viena šalis. Daug veidų” [Israel and Its People: One Country, Many Faces]. Juonytė and the LJC’s new liaison for social media Viktorija Pajarskė formed a small panel for a brief Q&A session after the author described her experience of Israel as an exchange student there for one year and in trips made after that. Juonytė said she wanted to portray Israel differently from that of the media, which paint a picture of conflict. Juonytė was the editor of the Bagel Shop Newsletter before her trip to Israel and now works for the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum. The softcover 200-page octavo, A5 book (ISBN 978-6098-105-41-4) is full of color photographs on glossy paper and costs 12 euros from the publisher, Aukso pieva.
Dear friends,
Limmud is back and better than ever. Register early this year so you don’t miss your place!
The educational Judaism conference will be held at the Vilnius Grand Resort hotel this year from February 9 to 11. Three days of meaningful meetings with friends and fellow travellers, great speakers from the Baltics, Israel, Russia and other countries, and a special program for young Limmud participants–what could be better?
The cost is 100 euros.
Registration via internet: https://www.lzb.lt/limmud-lietuva-2018/
For further information contact limmudlietuva@lzb.lt
Miami, January 7, 2018–While all grieving is individual, there are grief issues surrounding the loss of Holocaust survivors that are unique to the families of survivors. Until now, however, there has not been a dedicated approach to grief support for this population. Metropolitan Jewish Health System (MJHS) Hospice and Palliative Care based in New York is working to develop a grief support group to support families impacted by Holocaust trauma, and Targum Shlishi is supporting this much-needed initiative.
The Need
“We have found that the children of Holocaust survivors ask for grief support that is specific to their experience as members of the second generation. There are aspects of the grieving process that are uniquely different among family members of Holocaust survivors due to lifelong patterns of communication and behaviors in families of survivors,” explains Toby Weiss, MJHS’s director of cultural diversity and Jewish programming.
MJHS cares for a large number of Holocaust survivors at the end of life, and, by extension, it cares for the family members. As a hospice with a focus on family-centered and holistic care, MJHS also provides pre- and post-bereavement support for thirteen months. Although MJHS has long offered support groups, before now none have been tailored specifically to families of survivors. But as more people began asking for this service, MJHS researched the topic and found a marked lack of grief support groups dedicated to this population.
“This is a very real and unfortunately unmet need until now,” says Aryeh Rubin, director of Targum Shlishi. “We applaud MJHS for recognizing this problem and for taking the initiative to address it. These are the types of projects that, as a foundation, we are honored to support. People need this service and MJHS has the wherewithal not only to provide it to its constituents, but to create a model that it will share with others.”
Classes begin January 7. Second level (advanced) classes will be held at 5:30 P.M. on Tuesday and 9:30 A.M. on Sunday. Third level (more advanced) classes will be held at 11:15 A.M. on Sunday. The teachers is Ruth Reches, who teaches Hebrew at the Sholem Aleichem Gymnasium. Cost is 2 euros for 2 academic hours. To register, write: ruthreches@gmail.com
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky has issued a statement regarding the Vilnius District Court decisions of November 22 and December 21, 2017:
Two contradictory findings have been made by the same court regarding the Lithuanian Jewish Community.
The legal format of the Lithuanian Jewish Community is that of an association, and the corresponding principles and means of operations are regulated by the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania and the Lithuanian Law on Associations. On December 21, 2017, the court issued a finding without regard to the imperative of law guaranteeing the right of every association member to vote and each member’s equality of rights, and without regard to the articles of incorporation and regulations of the Association providing for discretion of action by its board of directors.
Likewise, on November 22, 2017, the court based its findings on a resolution of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania on proposed amendments to section 4 of article 8 of the Law on Associations rather than on existing law. Basic principles of law were ignored, and therefore the LJC plans to utilize its right to appeal this decision through the appeals process in the immediate future.
Furthermore, the court finding of December 21 contradicts a finding by the same Vilnius District Court on November 22, which determined the section of LJC regulations regarding differentiated numbers of votes by members at a Conference is in violation of existing and binding Lithuanian law and was therefore found to be null and void.
On April 19, 2017, the board of directors of the LJC initiated an annual report and elections conferences following the letter of the law and correspondingly seeking to insure the equal representation of the rights of all members of the LJC. At that time it was regretfully impossible to find agreement on this issue based on dialogue and negotiation, and it had to go to court.
This in itself is a defeat, not of the organization, but of all of us, all Jews. The internal disagreements made public will not bring greater honor to anyone, will not quell expressions of anti-Semitism, will not help tear down stereotypes and will not contribute to consolidating energies for meaningful in service of the members of the community. It is regretable that this small Jewish community has been divided when it would be possible to consolidate efforts for achieving greater things, including battling anti-Semitism, caring and providing for the needs of community members, promoting Jewish culture and history and preserving Jewish heritage. In November of 2017 the Lithuanian Jewish Community proposed to the Vilnius Jewish Community we disengage from legal battles through a peace treaty or through mediation. We do not withdraw this offer even now, but to date the Vilnius Jewish Community has ignored the proposal to solve disagreements through negotiation.
The 
European Jewish Congress and the Lithuanian Jewish Community acknowledge the important contribution of Lithuania in creating a positive climate for Jewish life and Jewish tradition to flourish.
We also commend Lithuania for pursuing friendly relations with the State of Israel. This is undoubtedly a positive example for many European countries.
We encourage further respectful discussion on the topic of the tragedy of Lithuanian Jews during the Holocaust in order to allow for the restoration of historical justice. Those who try to reopen the dark pages of the history of Lithuanian collaboration, such as the renowned author Rūta Vanagaitė, should not be victimized or persecuted; instead, their efforts should be acknowledged.
We praise Lithuanian historians such as prof. Saulius Sužiedėlis, Dr. Valentinas Brandišauskas and Dr. Algimantas Kasparavičius who have spoken out on many occasions and written extensively on the topic of the Lithuanian Activist Front’s role in perpetrating the Holocaust in Lithuania. There is a lack of such content, however, to this day in Lithuanian textbooks. Neither is there sufficient mention of the vast Jewish contribution to Lithuanian society over the centuries. In a pluralist society those who speak out on the largest tragedy in European history should not be rendered incapacitated by inappropriate measures taken against them.
Having just concluded the celebrations of Hanukkah which signifies the victory of the mind and the soul against coercion, and just a few days after International Human Rights Day, we wish a happy and peaceful festive season to all the people of Lithuania and call for continued respectful discussion to enable the Lithuanian people to come to terms with their past.
https://eurojewcong.org/ejc-in-action/statements/joint-statement-european-jewish-congress-lithuanian-jewish-community/
