Bagel shop – Page 12 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Learning about Jewish Heritage through Languages

Pažintis su žydų kultūros paveldu šiemet vyks pasitelkiant kalbas

We invite you to participate in events scheduled throughout Lithuania for September 2 to 5 to celebrate the European Day of Jewish Culture. This year the theme is Jewish languages. Events will include the now almost traditional excursions and tours of Jewish heritage buildings with a focus this time on Hebrew language and calligraphy lessons, discussions, exhibits, concerts, educational games and even bagel breakfasts!

Diana Varnaitė, director of the Cultural Heritage Department under the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture, said: “We still have a significant amount of architectural heritage in Lithuania despite the intense destruction of Jewish material and intangible culture carried out during the Soviet era. Most of it, especially in Vilnius and the other larger cities of Lithuania, as a consequence of Sovietization, is still undiscovered, unrecognized and ‘unread.’ We invite you to take a look at our Jewish cultural heritage, to take it in and to understand that it is not just our past, but also an opportunity for the future. By educating the public and developing cultural tourism, we can slowly impart new vitality to our cities and towns.”

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2016-09-022016-09-08

Jewish Languages in Lithuania

by Akvilė Grigoravičiūtė, Germanic studies doctoral candidate, Sorbonne

We invite those interested in Lithuanian Jewish culture and heritage to participate in walking tours, attend exhibitions, meetings and concerts and take part in other cultural activities scheduled for Sunday, September 4. The point is to regain a portion of our own historical memory, to disrobe it from a mantle of suppression and to add color beyond black and white to a rather amicable and good-willed former life together.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2016-09-022016-09-08

Rabbi Ben Tzion Zilber Visits Latvia and Lithuania

Rugpjūčio 15-16 Latvijoje ir Lietuvoje lankėsi rabinas Bentsiyonas Zilberis

Rabbi Ben Tzion Zilber, son of legendary Rabbi Yitzchok Zilber, visited Latvia and Lithuania August 15 and 16.

Rabbi Kalev Krelin of the Vilnius Jewish Community escorted Rabbi Zilber to locations where the latter’s ancestors lived. His father Rabbi Yitzchok Zilber belonged to a long line of scholars and suffered under Stalin, both at labor camps and under the atheist policies of the Soviet Union. Despite extremely difficult circumstances, Rabbi Yitzchok Zilber not only managed to hold steadfastly to his faith in the Creator and to keep His laws, but also to deepen his Torah study and teach others. After making aliyah to Israel Rabbi Yitzchok Zilber had hundreds of followers in whom he inspired faith in the Creator and adherence to the Torah.

2016-08-232016-08-23

Keeping the Faith in Vilnius

VilnaFaina
photo © Delfi/K. Cachovskis

Ellen Cassedy, author of We Are Here: Memories of the Lithuanian Holocaust (ellencassedy.com), has written about the Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Bagel Shop initiative.

Amit Belaite adores the long ode to the city of Vilna that was penned by writer and poet Moyshe Kulbak 90 years ago. Lines from the poem about Vilna’s stones and streets were running through her head on a warm summer afternoon as she led a walking tour through the narrow, winding streets of the city now known as Vilnius, the capital of the small Baltic nation of Lithuania.

Belaite, 23, heads the Lithuanian Union of Jewish Students. When she posted the announcement for the group’s tour of Jewish Vilnius, she expected a couple of dozen people to be interested. To her amazement, 400 signed up, many of them non-Jews.

“People know the city is rich in Jewish history,” she said. “They feel a big need to learn about it.”

2016-08-192016-09-09

European Days of Jewish Culture: September 4

Come learn about the Jewish cultural and historical legacy. European Days of Jewish Culture, September 4. This time the theme is Jewish languages. Event begins at 2:00 P.M. on the third floor of the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius.

EDJW2

2016-08-182016-09-08

Event in Dieveniškės to Commemorate Regional Jewish History

Dieveniškėse vyko renginiai, skirti regiono žydų istorijai

On August 4 Lithuanian Jewish Community representatives sold traditional Litvak bagels and sweets and spoke about Jewish tradition under the aegis of the LJC Bagel Shop Café at the Dieveniškės town square. The bagels quickly disappeared but local residents stuck around for the events to commemorate regional Jewish history.

The Dieveniškės Technological and Business School hosted the lectures “Jewish Funeral and Cemetery Traditions” and “Synagogues: How They’re Built, What Happens in Them and Why.” Participants manufactured models of synagogues from cardboard and other materials, and bricks made of clay to mark the locations of former Jewish buildings.

2016-08-09

Bagel Shop Café Draws Attention of ARD-1 German Public TV Crew

Vokietijos Visuomeninės televizijos ARD-1 kūrybinės grupės ypatingas dėmesys LŽB „Beigelių krautuvėlei“

German public television channel ARD-1 filmed footage at the Lithuanian Jewish Community on July 13 with a focus on the Bagel Shop Café for a program to be called “Berlin-St. Petersburg,” according to director Christian Klemke.

He said although the itinerary for the film crew had been decided carefully prior to their trip through Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Russia, they had encountered interesting sites along the way which they will include in the final production.

When they were considering what to film in Vilnius, they discovered Vilnius’s rich pre-war Jewish cultural and spiritual life. “I wanted to know what there is now, so many years after the Holocaust,” Klemke said. Local producer Karolis Pilipauskas told him about the Bagel Shop Café. The Lithuanian Jewish Community facilitated meetings with members of the older generation, including Holocaust survivors. “I was very interested to hear their stories. Young members of the Jewish community also came to the café,” Klemke said.

2016-07-182016-07-18

Call for Recipes

Dear members,

This year the Lithuanian Jewish Community will be actively involved in the European Jewish Culture Day program and is organizing different events to present the Jewish languages and Jewish cultural heritage to the public. European Jewish Culture Day will happen September 4, 2016.

The Bagel Shop Café will have on offer Jewish culinary heritage and is asking you to recall dishes made by your parents and grandparents, to find handwritten recipes (including in Yiddish) and to share them. We will prepare the best examples and offer them to the public during the event, and publish the recipes and descriptions.

2016-07-04

New Issue of Bagel Shop Newsletter

Download

2016-07-012016-07-05

Litvak Won’t Give Grandchildren Pancake Recipe

As kosher cafés open around Vilnius and it’s possible to eat kosher food and bagels, Lithuanians are rediscovering Jewish culture with an emphasis on cuisine. That pleases the chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, attorney Faina Kukliansky, 61.

Jewish cuisine has always been popular in Lithuania. And it’s no wonder, since many Jews have lived in our country from ancient times, the Lifestyle Section of the Lietuvos rytas newspaper writes.

Some dishes which everyone thinks are traditional Lithuania are actually borrowings from Jews.

One such is potato pancakes, called latkes in Jewish cuisine. Kugel is also of Jewish origin.

Many are shocked to discover that even zeppelins, of which we are so proud, are also somewhat connected with Jews. They travelled to our country about 100 to 150 years ago from northern Germany together with Jews.

Read the entire article in Lithuanian here.
img class=”alignnone wp-image-9629″ src=”http://www.lzb.lt/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/lr.png” alt=”lr” width=”83″ height=”26″ />

2016-04-21

Bagel Shop Editor Published in Israeli Academic Journal

Radvilė Rimgailė-Voicik

Radvilė Rimgailė-Voicik, who writes and compiles the quarterly Bagel Shop newsletter, has had an academic article published by the Israel Journal of Plant Sciences. The article, called “Plant Community Associations and Complexes of Associations in the Lithuanian Seashore: Retrospective on the Studies and Tragic Fate of the Botanist Dr Abromas Kisinas (1899–1945),” pursues the topic Radvilė wrote about in a previous issue of the Bagel Shop newsletter.

Abstract:

The life and scientific activities and discoveries of Dr Abromas Kisinas (1899–1945, also appearing in the literature as Avraham, Abraham, Kisin or Kissin) are presented here for the first time. He was a botanist, a Lithuanian, a graduate of Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, a polyglot and a social figure. In 1936, Kisinas’ major phytosociological work “Plant Associations and Complexes of Associations in Lithuanian Seaside (without Klaipėda Region)” was published in the Works of Vytautas Magnus University Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. The publication was written in Lithuanian with a summary in German and summarized Kisinas’ PhD dissertation, which was defended in 1934 under the supervision of Prof. Constantin Regel. In his research, Kisinas applied ideas proposed by the Uppsala School of Phytosociology. For plant communities evaluation he used linear transects with 1 m², 4 m² and 16 m² sampling squares. In a 15 km seashore range Kisinas determined 63 plant community associations and 26 sub-associations. The fate of this gifted scientist was tragic. In 1941 he and his family were deported to the Kaunas Ghetto. In 1945 Kisinas died at the Dachau concentration camp in Germany.

2016-04-13

Challa at the Bagel Shop Café

The Bagel Shop Café has begun making challa bread for Sabbath the way it should be. Besides bagels, visitors can now purchase authentic challa bread, not too sweet but very delicious. A good Sabbath to all.

2016-04-01

Lox on Bagels: An Answer to Eggs Benedict?

A Bit about Bagels

The history of the bagel is surrounded by myth and legend but seems to begin in the 12th century. One version has it that a Church ban on commercial Jewish bakeries was responsible for its appearance. In 1264 Polish grand duke Bolesław the Pious issued his Statute of Kalisz or Charter for Jews of Grand Poland which allowed Jews to freely by, sell and touch bread in common with Christians. In response a group of Polish bishops forbade Christians from buying any food at all from Jews, as it were anathema. As Moses ben Israel Isserles put it in the 16th century” “it is preferable to live on dry bread and in peace in Poland” than to remain in better conditions in lands more dangerous for Jews. At some point Jews were allowed to work with bread which was boiled, and they created the bagel to comply with his ruling, according to this version. In 1610 the first mention appears of the word “bagel” in Yiddish in the written sources, in regulations issued by the Jewish council of Kraków, which stated that bagels were to be given as a gift to women in childbirth.

Whatever the case, the bagel was popular among Jews in Eastern Europe, and came with them to America in the 19th and 20th centuries.

2016-03-31

New Issue of Bagel Shop Newsletter

An English translation of the new issue of the Bagel Shop newsletter is now available.

Please click BK_16_1_ENG_A4_screen for a PDF version.

2016-03-23

Bagel Shop Café Purim Holiday Schedule

The kosher Bagel Shop Café of the Lithuanian Jewish Community is in full gear getting ready for the Purim holiday. There are several new pastry items the chefs there have cooked up, including the “red velvet” pastry taking the Jewish culinary internet by storm. Their special hamantashen recipe passed down through the generations uses yeast as well.

Senior chef Riva Portnaja says her family calls hamantashen “omentashen,” and that her mother always put yeast in the dough. According to her, Litvak hamantashen only contain poppy-seed fillings, and the triangular pastry is made so that is almost closed.

2016-03-23

Bagel Shop Café on Television

bern

The Catholic newspaper and website bernardai.lt now has a video outlet as well and has presented a feature on the new Bagel Shop Café located at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius. The video presentation in Lithuanian, Hebrew and English features short conversations with Lithuania’s two new rabbis on the meaning of kosher food and cooking, as well as a brief interview with Smhuel Levin, the chairman of the Lithuanian Jewish Religious Community, among others.

To view the interview, please direct your browser here.

2016-03-07

Shtetl at Kaziukas Fair

>>Photo album

The Jewish shtetl section of the annual Kaziukas Fair in Vilnius came to life at 4:00 P.M. last Friday when the Jewish ensemble Fayerlakh performed on the adjacent stage. Jewish music including those sung in the pre-WWII Lithuanian Republic rang out from the Old Town Hall and enveloped fair-goers. On-lookers swayed to the beat as Fayerlakh performed wedding melodies and love songs. As the afternoon turned into Sabbath evening, there was a prayer and those assembled had the chance to hear it, observe Sabbath rituals and listen to the music.

A line of people wanting to get a taste of a Jewish bagel formed at the Bagel Shop Café booth and more than a thousand bagels were sold on Friday afternoon alone. Some scenes from the shtetl exhibit are provided below and at the facebook link provided above.

2016-03-062016-06-14

Traditional St. Casimir’s Fair Kicks Off in Vilnius

VILNIUS, March 4, BNS–The traditional St. Casimir’s Fair is starting in Vilnius on Friday, for the 1st time including a Jewish Township.

During the fair on March 4-6, the township will be based in the Town Hall Square, featuring traditional Jewish crafts, Jewish literature and Jewish food.

The township will include about a dozen of craft tents and marketplaces with Jewish souvenirs, a bookstore, a fabric shop, a laundry and a gramophone shop.

About 500 guests from 16 foreign countries are expected at the St. Casimir’s Fair this year.

St. Casimir’s Fair evolved from the Casimir’s processions that date back from 1604.

2016-03-06

Fayerlakh Concert and Bagel Shop at the Kaziukas Fair in Vilnius

Kaziukas2

The opening of Vilnius’s annual street fair will feature a concert by the Jewish song and dance ensemble Fayerlakh, at 5:00 P.M. at the Vilnius Old Town Hall square. The group is promising a whole range of music and performances, including a traditional Sabbath prayer and song.

Don’t forget, the Bagel Shop Café will also be at the fair on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. LJC staff, members and volunteers are all invited to come and help sell Jewish bagels during the fair. It should be a lot of fun and this year the annual street fair will include a Jewish shtetl section.

2016-03-04