Dear friends,
The Gešer Club invites you to greet the Sabbath and take part in our quiz game “Who? What? Where? Why?” at 7:00 P.M. on Friday, March 10. Teams will be formed when we meet. Moderator: Irina Slucker.
We’ll meet on the third floor of the Lithuanian Jewish Community at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius.
For more information, contact Žana Skudovičienė by telephone at 8 678 81514 or by email at zanas@sc.lzb.lt
Dear Community members,
The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Vilnius Religious Jewish Community greet you on the upcoming holiday of Purim and invite you holiday celebrations on March 12.
The LJC youth clubs Ilan, Dubi and Dubi Mishpaha will hold a Purim celebration at 1:00 P.M. on March 12 on the third floor of the Lithuanian Jewish Community. Entrance is free but only those in costume and/or masks will be allowed in!
For more information contact Jelizaveta Šapiro at +370 65527411 or Pavel Guliakov at +370 68542463.
The Bagel Shop Café will be on site again this year for the annual Kaziukas (St. Casimir) Fair in Vilnius March 3-5 with a new menu item rarely seen in Lithuania but an old Jewish favorite: matzo ball soup!
Besides matzo kneydlakh (matzo-ball dumpling) soup, visitors to the Bagel Shop Café stand will also be served fresh bagels with a variety of spreads. If you’re in the area, be sure to stop by and support the team!
Matzo-ball soup recipe from Nina Sondakaitė-Mandelshtam, originally from Vilnius now living in Israel:
½ cup matzo flour (or ground matzo bread crumbs)
½ cup boiled water
1 egg
1 tablespoon rapeseed oil or chicken fat
salt, pepper to taste
Mix the matzo flour or crumbs with the water. Pour in beaten egg, mix, add oil or fat. Boil chicken broth. With moistened hands form matzo balls about 5 cm in diameter, boil in the broth. If you want the broth to be clear, boil the balls in water and then place in a bowl and cover with broth. If there are left-over matzo balls, cut them in half the next day and cook, eat with sour cream.
The New Stars Club and the Lithuanian Jewish Community in anticipation of Purim invite you to a ping-pong tournament this Sunday, March 5, at 3:00 P.M. at the Simonas Daukantas Pre-Gymnasium, Naugarduko street no. 7, Vilnius.
Registration begins at 2:30 P.M. and group competition at 3.
All are invited.
Participation is free for Jewish Community members.
Prizes:
first place winners to receive trophy cups
second, third and fourth place winners to receive medallions
all participants to receive a diploma for playing
For more information and early registration, call +370 6137124
or email stalotenisoklubas@yahoo.com
Project supported by the Goodwill Foundation
Dear friends,
You’re invited to Rabbi Shimshon Daniel Isaacson’s lesson
Secrets in the Jewish Family
at 6:35 PM. at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius on Thursday, March 2.
Everyone welcome on Shrovetide, Tuesday, February 28.
To celebrate the Lithuanian holiday known as Užgavėnės, also known as Shrovetide and Carnival, stop by the Bagel Shop at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius for some blintzes and a cup of the best coffee in the Lithuanian capital.
Parliamentary Culture Committee chairman Ramūnas Karbauskis on his social media page invites everyone to celebrate Užgavėnės [Lithuanian Shrovetide, or Carnival] in Naisiai, Lithuania. Event organizers used illustrations reminiscent of anti-Semitic propaganda used by the Nazis. This was reported on the internet site of the newspaper Lietuvos žinios on February 24, 2017.
“At the invitation of the most influential member of parliament R Karbauskis [Karbauskis is the chairman of the ruling Peasants and Greens Union party], the public is called upon to celebrate Shrovetide at the Naisiai location, associated with the politician, where, it seems, anti-Semitic ideas not only thrive, but are a part of everyday communication. Under the header of “Big Shrovetide in Naisiai” on social media, the invitation and publicity for the event provides more than just an events program, it also includes [anti-Semitic] sayings…”
It didn’t take long for the Lithuanian public to react. A wave of outrage appeared, as did anti-Semitic comments on the internet. One of the leaders of the governing coalition of the nation, after all, presented an invitation to celebrate Shrovetide using fascist propaganda from 1939. “Lithuanians know the Holocaust began soon after that,” LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky commented.
“Following the February 16 march in Kaunas where it was hard to tell the ultra-nationalists from the patriots, this is continuing now into Shrovetide,” chairwoman Kukliansky said. “Is this the policy of the new ruling party? How are we to understand this? An innocent holiday celebration is transformed in the Naisiai announcement into clearly anti-Semitic jingoism, a return to the pre-World War II era. How should Lithuanian Jews feel? The Shrovetide celebration is a holiday, we understand ethnology, but this is beyond Shrovetide and even its masks, these are anti-Semitic Nazi masks which arrived in Lithuania from Hitler’s Germany. We would like to hear from Mr. Karbauskis’s lips whether he is or is not an anti-Semite. I am the chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and I am requesting an answer to the question about what his views are regarding Jews, if he has the courage to display such masks in public. Existing Lithuanian laws criminalize the spreading of fascist propaganda,” Kukliansky said.
Dear friends,
You are welcome to attend a lecture by Rabbi Shimshon Daniel Isaacson
“Study of the Law in the Book ‘Kitzur Shulchan Aruch: The Code of Jewish Law'”
beginning at 6:35 P.M., Thursday, February 23, at the Choral Synagogue, Pylimo street no. 39, Vilnius.
Dear women and girls,
You are invited to a lesson by Rebbetzin Esther Isaacson called
The Laws of Washing Hands
at 6:30 P.M. on February 22 on the third floor of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius.
In the run-up to the Lithuanian holiday of Užgavėnės (Shrovetide), the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum’s Tolerance Center will hold a discussion called Portrayal of Other Ethnicities in Shrovetide Traditions. The traditional holiday features people dressed up as Jews with masks with hooked noses. Speakers are to include Dr. Laima Anglickienė, the head of the cathedral of ethnology and folklore studies at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas; Libertas Klimka, an ethnologist and professor at the Lithuanian Educology University; the writer Dainius Razauskas and representatives from the Lithuanian Human Rights Center and the Equal Opportunities Ombudsman Service.
The discussion is open to the public and is to take place at 4:30 P.M. on February 21. The Tolerance Center is located at Naugarduko street no. 10/2 in Vilnius.
On February 9 the Lithuanian Jewish Community signed an agreement with the Jurbarkas regional administration and the New Artists College CAN of Israel on a projected called “Synagogue Square Memorial.” The memorial is dedicated to remembering the Jews of the shtetl (formerly known as Yurburg or Jurburg in Yiddish and Georgenburg in German) and is to be located on Kauno street in Jurbarkas where one of the most beautiful wooden synagogues in Europe once stood. The memorial is being created by Israeli sculptor David Zundelovich, who comes from Lithuania. It is to portray the waves of the Nemunas River and the wooden synagogue and is to be made of gray and black basalt. It is to include the names of Jews who lived in Jurbarkas and the names of people who rescued them during the Holocaust, with inscriptions in English and Hebrew.
Jurbarkas regional administration head Skirmantas Mockevičius said the group is looking for funding for the memorial. “Jews lived in Jurbarkas for a long time and there is no monument, so sign, even though they were the majority of the community,” Mockevičius told BNS. From three to four thousand Jews called Jurbarkas home before the Holocaust. The head of the regional administration said residents weren’t interested in a graveyard memorial and wanted the memorial to appeal to the people, including the youth. Under the plan the memorial is to be built within 8 months from the signing of the agreement. Mockevičius expected it to be in place in Jurbarkas by the fall.
Preliminary design concept for the Lost Shtetl Museum
Plans have been announced for a state-of-the-art Jewish museum scheduled to open in 2019 as part of the Lost Shtetl memorial complex in Šeduva, Lithuania.
The museum complex is to be designed by the Finnish company Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects who also designed the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. POLIN won the 2016 European Museum of the Year Award. They are towork together with local partner Studia2A established in 1994 and headed by Vilnius Art Academy dean of architecture Jonas Audejaitis.
The museum is to be located next to the sprawling Šeduva Jewish cemetery, completely restored and opened in 2015 as part of the memorial complex. The complex includes memorials at three sites of Holocaust mass murders and mass grave sites and a symbolic sculpture in the middle of the town. A study of the Jews of Šeduva was conducted as part of the project and is to result in a documentary film called Petrified Time by film director Saulius Beržinis.
Memorial statue in Šeduva. Photo © Ruth Ellen Gruber
Sergey Kanovich, founder of the Šeduva Jewish Memorial Fund, said the Lost Shtetl Museum will employ advanced technologies to teach visitors the history and culture of Šeduva and similar Litvak shtetls. It is expected to serve as an educational and cultural center.
“Visiting the Lost Shtetl will be a history lesson which will allow national and international visitors to learn about the lost Litvak shtetl history and culture,” he said.
“Lifestyle, customs, religion, social, professional, and family life of Šeduva Jews will serve a center point of the Museum exhibition,” he said. Visitors to museum will learn “the tragedy of Šeduva Jewish history which in the early days of World War II ended in three pits near the shtetl.”
Ilai Szpiezak of London will give a seminar about dance for the first time in Lithuania. Registration is required.
The event is for both accomplished dancers and beginners who have just started or danced in childhood and now want to renew their skills.
To register, send an email to karina.semionova@gmail.com and please indicate the participant’s name, email and telephone number.
Registration is open till February 20.
Ilai Szpiezak, half-Israeli half-Argentinian, started his career as a dancer and choreographer of Israeli dance in 2006, rapidly moving into choreography and the direction of performing troupes and artistic organizations in Argentina at the age of 16. He danced in the international Israeli Dance Company Agshama performing in different countries around South America while training as a professional ballet dancer and was graduated from the Ulpan of Rikudei Am with honors in 2017. He moved to London in 2011 to take on the role of dance development manager in the Israeli dance community. Since then he has been responsible for directing, organizing and managing annual classes, workshops and concerts in London and around the UK including Machol Europa and many other events in Europe. He is looking forward to seeing you all soon!
The fifth annual Jasche Heifetz violin contest will take place in Vilnius February 13-19, 2017. The Jascha Heifetz contest is one of the most significant musical competitions held in Vilnius celebrating the enduring legacy of the great Litvak violin virtuoso.
Although the 20th century produced so many excellent violinists, Heifetz stands out as the star of the highest magnitude within that constellation.
He was born in Vilnius in 1901 to a Jewish family. Vilnius was home to many nationalities, and Heifetz preserved the memory of his multicultural hometown and the life and musical traditions of his home. He began the climb to greatness in 1907 in Kaunas as a six-year-old prodigy. In 1912 he received European recognition for his talent in Berlin, and in America, beginning in 1917, he achieved world acclaim. Heifetz’s mastery has become the template for all modern violinists. The scholar Yuri Grigoryev believes the essential feature which set Heifetz apart from all others was actually the inspiration he took from the architecture of Old Vilnius, manifesting in architectonic grandiosity, classical sensibility and variety of expression.
Once George Bernard Shaw, won over by Heifetz’s performance, warned the artist in a letter the next day: “If you provoke a jealous God by playing with such superhuman perfection, you will die young. I earnestly advise you to play something badly every night before going to bed, instead of saying your prayers. No mortal should presume to play so faultlessly.” But God was kind to the artist. His art became part of the eternal repertoire of Grand Music and Vilna has the honor to be remembered as his birthplace.
Profesorius Jurgis Dvarionas
Full story in Lithuanian here.
Basia Nikiforova gives the lecture “Zygmunt Bauman: Life and Legacy” at 12 noon, Sunday, February 12 in the conference hall of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius.
January 27 has been marked as an official day to commemorate Nazi victims since 1996. On this occasion the film “Karl Jäger und Wir – die langen Schatten des Holocaust in Litauen” [Karl Jäger and Us: The Long Shadow of the Holocaust in Lithuania], a multi-generational project, is to be screened in Waldkirch, Germany. A monument commemorating the Jews murdered in Lithuanian and Holocaust victims from 1941 and 1942 is also to be unveiled there on January 29.
The City of Waldkirch, the “Waldkirch in the Nazi Period” workshop and the Catholic pastoral care unit in Waldkirch are to unveil the new memorial on January 29. The public is invited to attend the unveiling.
The “Waldkirch in the Nazi Period” workshop initiated the idea for the memorial in October of 2011 and it was approved by city council in 2015. It will be located by the Church of St. Margarethen and the Elztal Museum. The opening begins at 6:00 P.M. at the museum and will feature Mike Schweizer accompanied on saxophone.
The second part of the event is scheduled to take place in the church and will feature Katharina Müther, who is renowned for Yiddish, Sephardic, Sinti and Roma songs from Eastern Europe. German MP Gernot Erler, who served as state minister in the foreign ministry from 2005 to 2009, will deliver a speech, as will historian Dr. Wolfram Wette and pastor Heinz Vogel, with possible discussion and reflection afterwards.
The film “Karl Jäger und Wir – die langen Schatten des Holocaust in Litauen” is to be screened at the church at 8:00 P.M. The film is the fruit of a multigenerational project by Black Dog eV.
Representatives of the Lithuanian Jewish Community plan to attend the commemoration which has caused some surprise in Lithuania. It’s important to note Karl Jäger lived in Waldkirch as a young man, although he was born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Jäger, an SS colonel, was the main force behind the Holocaust in Lithuania. His report, known in Holocaust studies as the Jäger Report, is a detailed account of Nazi mass murder operations against Jews in Lithuania, listing mass murders by date and location and breaking down the number of victims in the categories of males, females and sometimes children.
After the war Jäger evaded capture by the Allies using a false identity. He worked as a farm hand until his report was discovered in March of 1959. Jäger committed suicide in Hohenasperg prison near Stuttgart in the German state of Baden-Württemberg awaiting trial in June of 1959. The Soviet Union only released the Jäger Report to West Germany investigators in 1963 during the trial of Hans Globke in East Germany.
The Jäger Report is one of the primary documents witnessing to the scope of the Holocaust in Lithuania. The Jäger Report details the murder of 47,326 men, 55,556 woem and 34,464 children in Lithuania, for a total of 137,346 Lithuanian Jews murdered in the first months of the Nazi occupation of Lithuania in the summer and fall of 1941.
Full story in German here.
Press Release
January 24, 2017
Ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27:
Thousands of We Remember photos to be projected at Auschwitz-Birkenau as World Jewish Congress campaign reaches millions world-wide
AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU – Thousands of photos of people holding “We remember” and “I remember” signs in honor of the victims of the Holocaust are on display on a giant screen at the former Nazi German death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau from January 24 to 26, 2017, ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day this Friday. The display next to the International Monument at Birkenau is part of a global social media campaign conceived and run by the World Jewish Congress whose aim is to raise awareness of the Holocaust.
More than 100,000 people from every continent have already taken part in the WJC’s campaign which calls on participants to post their photos to facebook, twitter and other social media sites along with the hashtag #WeRemember.
“The goal is to reach those who don’t know much about the Holocaust, or who might be susceptible to those who deny it, and to remind the world that such horrors could happen again. Using the tools of social media we hope to engage the next generation, because, soon, it will be their responsibility to tell the story and ensure that humanity never forget.
“Auschwitz-Birkenau was the Nazis’ biggest killing site and is the best-known symbol for the Shoah world-wide.
“We thank the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum for allowing the screening on the grounds of the former death camp, and for supporting our campaign,” said World Jewish Congress CEO Robert Singer.
A live stream of the screening is to be made available at the following link: https://www.facebook.com/WorldJewishCong/videos/vb.130945114804/10154953773549805/?type=2&theater¬if_t=live_video_explicit¬if_id=1485262793563023
Photo of the installation
Dear friends,
We are pleased to share with you this issue of our Justice Magazine (Number 58).
The timing of this issue is significant, since on January 27th we commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The articles from our Paris Conference are therefore particularly relevant .
You are also welcome to view some of the presentations from the Paris
Conference on our web: www.intjewishlawyers.org .
IAJLJ Staff
You’re invited today at 4:30 P.M. to attend a ceremony at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius where candles will be lit in memory of the victims of the Holocaust and the El malei Rakhamim prayer will be sung. Afterwards all are invited to the Lithuanian Jewish Community at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius to a discussion of Jewish history with professor Antony Polonsky, moderated by professor Šarūnas Liekis, at 6:00 P.M.