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Birthday Party for LJC Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky
Here are some snapshots from a very special birthday celebration for Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky last week. A big thank-you to everyone who attended and made this afternoon birthday party a success, including the German embassy, the US embassy, the Polish embassy, the Lithuanian Government, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry, the Lithuanian parliament, the Lithuanian Department of Ethnic Minorities, the Vilnius Jerusalem of Lithuania Jewish Community, the Kaunas Jewish Community, the Palanga Jewish Community, the Ukmergė Jewish Community, the Švenčionys Jewish Community, the Klaipėda Jewish Community, the Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum, Northway Medical Centers, the Vilnius regional administration, Bella Toscana, Lithuanian Makabi, the Prabudimo orkestras, Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium, Cvi Park Israeli street food kiosk and performance space, the Šiauliai Jewish Community and many others too numerous to name.
Happy Birthday
We wish LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky a very happy birthday today.
Dearest Faina,
Your life sets an example and is an inspiration to so many people. Thank you for your work and sacrifice for the betterment of the Community and the entire country. May this birthday bring you joy, love and health, and may the coming year be filled with new opportunities and happiness. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
Happy Birthday to Faina Kukliansky
The Šiauliai District Jewish Community sincerely wishes Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky a very happy birthday. We wish her strength, health and joy in her daily life. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
Happy Birthday
A very happy birthday to Semionas Filnkelšteinas, the soul, founder and former chairman of the Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club as well as member of the executive board of the Lithuanian Jewish Community. We wish you excellent health, time for yourself, the love of those around you and many more years to come. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
Happy Birthday to Maja Moskovina
We wish a very happy birthday to Maja Moskovina, a beloved member of the Community, volunteer and medical doctor. The entire Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes you health, continuing energy, continuing curiosity and the warmth of friends and family. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
Happy Birthday
We wish a very happy birthday to Leonidas Markovičius who celebrated a milestone this year on July 20. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
Happy Birthday
We wish a very happy birthday to Gennady Kofman, the chairman of the Panevėžys Jewish Community and a member of the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s executive board. We wish you great health, continued success in all your endeavors and all the best. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
Silvia Foti Honored by City of Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills, probably the highest concentration of wealth, success and power in the world, honored Lithuanian citizen Silvia Foti on Monday, July 15, 2024. The award was signed by all members of the city council.
In deciding to honor Foti the city council considered the following facts:
Silvia Foti holds dual citizenship in America and Lithuania. She has always remained loyal and patriotic to both countries. As a devout Catholic, she has stalwartly represented the finest ideals of honesty, integrity and compassion.
Silvia Foti is the granddaughter of the genocidal Lithuanian Holocaust perpetrator Jonas Noreika who is continuously and fraudulently honored by the Lithuanian government as a national hero of Lithuania and a rescuer of Jews.
Lithuanian National Olympic Committee Awards Former Makabi President
The Lithuanian National Olympic Committee issued an award to Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club founder and former president Semionas Finkelšteinas July 11 in recognition of his contributions to Lithuanian athletics and the Olympic movement.
Happy Birthday to Algirdas Malcas
The Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes Vilnius Jerusalem of Lithuania Jewish Community executive board member Algirdas Malcas a very happy birthday. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
Miša Jakobas Receives State Award
Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda presented Miša Jakobas the state award the Officer’s Cross “For Merit to Lithuania” at the Presidential Palace in Vilnius on Coronation of Mindaugas Day, July 6.
The long-serving principal of the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium was recognized for forging an education model for ethnic minority schools, for creating a school open to change with a modern educational environment and for providing bilingual education.
Rabbi Andrew Baker Receives State Award
Photo by Robertas Dačkus
Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda conducted a state awards ceremony July 6, Lithuania’s Coronation of Mindaugas Day. Co-chairman of the Goodwill Foundation and AJC International Affairs Department director Rabbi Andrew Baker received the Commander’s Cross “For Merit to Lithuania” at the ceremony in recognition of his work for justice for the Lithuanian Jewish community and commemoration of victims of the Holocaust, among other things.
Happy Birthday to Antanas Sutkus
Legend of Lithuanian photography and friend of the Lithuanian Jewish Community Antanas Sutkus is celebrating a milestone birthday. The LJC wishes him a very happy birthday, and continuing good health, energy and the endless creative inspiration which has given us so many unique works of art over these many years. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
Congratulations to Our Young Chess Master Candidate
Heartfelt congratulations go to our young chess champion Daniel Ser from Šiauliai competing as part of the Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club. He took silver in the European Union chess championship and met the rating requirements for FIDE to bestow the title of candidate chess master upon him and is now the youngest candidate for master in the three Baltic states. We are very proud of Daniel and his parents and wish him every continued success.
Happy Shavuot
Dear readers,
Happy Shavuot!
Today Jews around the world celebrate Shavuot, one of the most important holidays on the Jewish calendar for centuries, with not one but several significant meanings.
The first is the religious one which tells the story of how seven weeks after the Hebrews left Egypt, God gave the gift of the Torah to Moses and the entire Jewish people, the sacred text in the form of the Pentateuch with 613 mitzvot, or laws. Shavuot is also called the Feast of Weeks. Traditionally Jews do not sleep on this night and spend it studying Torah, intoning the morning prayer when dawn breaks.
This is an especially important holiday because God’s Ten Commandments have determined the whole course of human morality and civilization. Having received the oral Torah, only a portion was written down, with the rest inscribed only 1,500 years later, after the destruction of the Second Temple.
Shavuot is also the celebration of the first harvest, featuring abundant dairy products and homes decorated with flowers. Traditionally Jews make pancakes with curds and cheesecake, and eat ice cream, drink milk shakes and consume other treats.
Have a delicious holiday!
Lithuanian Makabi Triumphs in Table Tennis Tournament
Last weekend the 50th annual Lithuanian ping-pong championship was held in Kelmė. Congratulations to Rafaelis Gimelsteinas representing the Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club who took away one gold and two bronze medals.
Playing singles and doubles in the 45-49 age group with partner Jurgita Grucytė from the Sostinė club, Rafaelis competed against the strong team of Aidas Čeponka and Anželika Petrauskienė who have won before. After pitched battle, in the fourth set Rafaelis and Jurgita only needed one more point to win, and concentrated sufficiently to get that point, winning 3:2 and taking gold.
“I dedicate this victory to the Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club and trainer Alirgdas Majorovas,” Rafaelis Gimelsteinas said, adding there would be chess and table tennis tournaments next Sunday at the Cvi Park space in Vilnius where he will be taking on contenders.
Germany Bestows Award on Faina Kukliansky on D-Day
Yesterday, on historic D-Day, “decision day” marking the entry of the western Allies into Nazi-occupied France and the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany, German ambassador to Lithuania Cornelius Zimmermann presented Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky the Order of Merit from the Federal Republic of Germany for her tireless work commemorating Lithuanian Holocaust victims and long-term efforts to unite the LJC including enhancing the organization’s role on the national and international level.
Ambassador Zimmermann presented the honor, saying Germany’s responsibility for the Holocaust will remain forever. He said the Holocaust was a barbaric crime against humanity which led to the death of 95% of the Lithuanian Jewish community. He also said the small Litvak community which survives plays an important role in Lithuanian political life and in the international community, thanks to the efforts of the exceptional person occupying the post of leadership at the LJC.
“I received this award truly not only because my parents were imprisoned in a ghetto and experienced other horrors of the Holocaust, along with other Lithuanian Jews. Their children are not presented medals because of that. I hope this award is an evaluation of preserving memory. I’m not the only person doing this, each of our communities in every region where they have been established are doing everything possible to maintain the old cemeteries and restore synagogues. Sometimes I’m asked why we are doing this if there are no Jews left in the towns anyway. In order to preserve their memory. We no longer possess our parents’ candelabra which every family had for lighting the Sabbath candles. The only thing we have left is memory and respect, and not just self-respect, but also that of the state of Germany which, despite the tragic lessons of history, today is a shining example in many regards. I truly cherish this award because it wasn’t presented to me personally but as an assessment of the work by the entire Jewish community,” chairwoman Kukliansky said, thanking the German president, ambassador Zimmermann and previous German ambassador to Lithuania Matthias Sohn.