Bagel shop

New Bagel Shop Opens with Great Expectations

Bagel shop, Vilnius, 1910, by Mstislav Dobuzhinsky.

A new kosher café in Vilnius, Lithuania, had its grand opening Thursday with an overflow crowd spilling into the street.

The Bagel Shop café is housed on the first floor of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, which some visitors still refer to as the Kahilla, in a mostly neglected and empty cafeteria hall.

Guests and LJC staff began filtering in well before the scheduled 3 P.M. start and four cheerful women behind the counter began placing bagel sandwiches cut into quarters on plates on the café’s six small tables.

LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky addressed the small packed room and said the Bagel Shop Café is an important part of the Bagel Shop tolerance program the LJC has been carrying out for the last year or so with funding from Norway and the EEA Grants program. She said the project was supposed to end earlier but had been continued into the next year.

2016-02-04

The Smell of Fresh Jewish Bagels Returns to Vilnius

The Bagel Shop, a new kosher food café, opens its doors February 4. The café will prepare kosher food and different traditional sweets according to the rules of Judaism. The Bagel Shop’s main draw will be freshly-baked bagels and bagel sandwiches. Adhering to the strictest rules, the bagels will be made under the supervision of a rabbi versed in kosher food rules.

Bagels are a traditional European Jewish food product often referred to as a “baronka” in Lithuania in the past, and when cooked may be cut in half and made into a sandwich. The book Joy of Yiddish furnishes one version of the origin of the bagel, according to which the recipe for bagels was created in Cracow at the beginning of the 17th century, and that bagels were given then as gifts to women giving birth. The bagel was supposed to symbolize the “wheel of life” because of its roundness. The bagel’s popularity quickly grew and spread to other countries where Jews speaking Yiddish lived, and was quickly adopted in America, where today about five million bagels are baked daily!

2016-02-02

Haifa and Community: Lessons in Tolerance from Israel

by Živilė Juonytė

Israelis sometimes joke that while Tel Aviv is partying, and Jerusalem is praying, Israel’s third-largest city and largest port Haifa is busy at work. Maybe that’s why the people of Haifa don’t have time for squabbles and why the different ethnic groups—Jews, Druzes, Arab Christians and Muslims, Ahmadiyya Muslims and Baha’i—get along so well, despite their many differences.

Newest World Religion Recognizes All Others

The unique Baha’i, Druze and Ahmadiyya communities in the kaleidoscope of cultures and religions of Haifa are probably the least known to outsiders. Baha’i is one of the newest religions of the world whose origins are found in 19th century Persia, now Iran. It was immediately banned there, and continues to be. Baha’i believe all religions are valid and study them and their sacred texts. Their emphasis on the shared features of all religions means they are tolerant of mixed marriages. Children born to Baha’i parents don’t become Baha’i automatically. It is the parents’ duty to teach them about all religions, and the young adult chooses the one which most resonates with him or her at the age of 15.

2015-12-02

New Bagel Shop Magazine On-Line

The Bagel Shop newsletter is now a magazine and is available on-line in three languages, Lithuanian, English and Russian.

In this issue we present an interview with Laurina Todesaitė about Jewish cuisine, an excursion through the world of Jewish botanists in the inter-war period, a tour of Jewish Vilna, a new questions section and a new Mystery Photograph contest as well as all the usual columns.

2015-12-01

Amit Belaitė: Jewishness Isn’t Always a Religious Thing

“The busier you are, the more you get done,” Vilnius University medical student Amit Belaitė says. The young woman studying social medicine has earned the tolerance award for her work with the Bagel Shop campaign and she is an active promoter of Jewish culture. Belaitė currently heads the Lithuanian Jewish Student Union and was elected vice-president and executive board member of the European Jewish Student Union last summer.

The organization Belaitė leads operates at the Lithuanian Jewish Community. She says the student union’s spectrum of activities is broad and shouldn’t be construed as an exclusively religious or exclusively cultural institution.

“We celebrate Jewish holidays, attend cultural events and attempt to learn more about our history. We organized a Purim holiday party, for example…”

Full article in Lithuanian at the Vilnius University website.

2015-10-22

Invitation to the conference on Anti-Semitism, Radicalisation and Violent Extremism

Lithuanian NGO Programme operator Human Rights Monitoring Institute is organizing a conference on Anti-Semitism, Radicalisation and Violent Extremism. The event will take place on 30 September, 2015 in Vilnius.

2015-09-15

Interview with the cantor of the Vilnius Choral Synagogue

The Synagogue‘s Cantor Shmuel: What Jews Need in the Diaspora, Is Unity

Even though Shmuel Yatom, the cantor of the Vilnius Choral Synagogue and a Hebrew teacher, wasn‘t born in Vilnius, he has a special connection with this town. Shmuel says that he comes from a family with a long-lasting cantorial tradition, which was transferred from generation to generation.

2015-07-13

Lithuanian Jewish Tolerance Awards Presented at Lithuanian Government

Vilnius, June 5 BNS — On Friday the Government House in Vilnius hosted an awards ceremony by the Lithuanian Jewish Community for fostering tolerance in Lithuania. The awards are presented to six people or organizations.

Historian Lara Lempertienė was recognized for her work in passing on the Jewish cultural legacy to future generations and Žana Skudovičienė, long-time coordinator of LJC Social Center programs, received the award for her lifelong devotion to her work.

Museum specialist Monika Žąsytienė received the distinction for her work in preserving historical memory and the heritage of ethnic minorities, and the Jewish song-and-dance ensemble Fayerlakh were awarded for their enduring promotion of Yiddish culture in Lithuania and abroad.

2015-06-10

Exhibition “The White Rose: Student Resistance against Hitler 1942/1943”

The Jewish (Litvak) Community of Lithuania kindly invites

to the opening of the exhibition “The White Rose: Student Resistance against Hitler 1942/1943” and reception

to be held on April 28, 2015, 17:00

in the Jewish (Litvak) Community of Lithuania, Pylimo Street 4, Jascha Heifetz Hall (3rd floor).

2015-04-25

Contest „Signs of the Lithuanian Jewish Culture“ is open for submissions

Tolerance campaign “The Bagel Shop” is glad to announce that the photo contest “Signs of the Lithuanian Jewish Culture” is now open for submissions.

You are kindly invited to send us photos or their compositions, capturing traces of the Lithuanian Jewish cultural and historical heritage as well as signs of the Jewish Community’s presence in Lithuania nowadays.

The deadline for submissions is 30 April, 2015. The winners will be rewarded!

Please find more information in the Regulations listed below.

2015-03-09

Bagel shop

LESS HATE, MORE TOLERANCE

In the activities it carries out, the Lithuanian Jewish Community constantly emphasizes the importance of human respect. In its various programs, initiatives and projects the Lithuanian Jewish Community strives not only to preserve and pass on historical memory, but also to foster relationships based upon tolerance and mutual understanding between people of different cultures.

2014-07-21

Bagel Shop invites to VOLUNTEER!

Are you an active personality looking for a new experience?

Do you want to eliminate at least one stereotype about ethnic minorities in Lithuania?

Do you believe that human equality and variety make life more beautiful?

“Bagel Shop” IS WAITING FOR YOU!

2014-07-14

Authoritative Commission Will Decide on “Bagel” Nominations

As an initiative of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, special “Bagel” nominations will be given for actions which promote tolerance in the society. The Authoritative Commission will decide who will be awarded and for what endeavours.

2014-07-12