The Lithuanian Jewish Community congratulates Vytautas Višinskis, the
director of the Goodwill Fund, and Lina Saulėnaitė on the occasion of
their wedding. We wish you much love for each other, concord, faithfulness
and happiness!

Dear community members,

Greetings to you on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. I wish all of you health and happiness in your families! I sincerely wish you human warmth, that you would always be happy in your families and that you would come visit the community more often, and feel a deeper connection with the community.

This year now ending, 5775, was very complicated for our community and for me, but I think the unpleasant experience as we now have no rabbi will make our community stronger and will bear us good fruit in the future. As the major events over the last year, I would point to Lithuanian prime minister Algirdas Butkevičius’s visit to Israel where at the highest level, the president, prime minister and members of the Knesset of Israel said very clearly they have no complaints regarding our community, and on the contrary, the cooperation of the Lithuanian Government with Israel and with the Lithuanian Jewish Community was presented very positively.

Many times over at all levels the contributions made by the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Lithuania and in improving the country’s relations with Israel were underlined. In wishing you happy holiday spirits, I would like to say the Jews of the community are very active and work hard in all fields, from the preservation of the cultural and religious heritage, to organizing activities for children and youth, in the field of human rights and in everyday but nonetheless vital work with the elderly at the Social Center.

The regional communities are also working very intensively. I can say Litvak life has revived, and our events we have prepared for this fall show that only a well-organized team of people can achieve so much. We are publishing newsletters in Russian and Lithuanian. We have our own webpage which in three languages provide timely insight to matters of concern for the entire community as well as global Jewish issues, and everyone who wants to find out how the Lithuanian Jewish Community is doing has access to that information.

Let’s be happy that the community is harmonious, growing, stable, and that we have so many young people. The entire year I have worked with the community I have felt your great support, my friends, and your desire for me to continue, and now I hope the community will be able to select the best rabbi of those who have presented themselves as candidates for working with us, one who not only provides religious knowledge, but who will love his people and try to help them in trouble and in happiness.

Passover is the major Jewish spring holiday celebrated in remembrance of the Jews’ liberation from slavery in Egypt. One often hears the name “Pesakh” used interchangeably for the same holiday, a word which, not coincidentally, refers to the Christian holiday of Easter in different forms in different European languages and cultures. Pesakh means “to pass over,” hence the English name of the holiday, Passover. In Hebrew and Aramaic there is another closely related word which sounds almost the same and means “I will have mercy, I will have compassion.” Both meanings come together in the Old Testament Book of Exodus, where the Jewish children are “passed over” by the angel of death and do not suffer the fate of the Egyptian children, demonstrating the mercy of the Most High.

Passover is first of all a holiday for teaching children Jewish history and culture. The Passover Seder is a dinner where the two prerequisite Passover offerings are savored: matzo bread, and bitter herbs. The matzo reminds us the Jews fleeing Egypt had no time to wait for their bread to rise, and the bitter herbs are tasted to remind us of the bitterness of slavery during the time of the Jews’ sojourn in Egypt.

There are special rules which apply when Passover begins on the Sabbath, as it does this year, on the evening of April 3. The holiday lasts for eight days.

Dear friends!
 
Nida and I wish you Happy Hanukah! We extend our sincere greetings on this wonderful holiday of light.
 
We get some light in Lithuania from snow J but unfortunately it melted away and it’s raining… 
 
Best, Darius

On behalf of the Rabbinical Board of the CPJCE and the Committee members, as we approach the Eve of Rosh Hashana- The Jewish New Year, I hereby take the opportunity to extend our best wishes for a Happy New Year.

We greatly appreciate all your continued help and assistance in our holy and important task of preserving and safeguarding the Jewish cemeteries in Europe in accordance to Jewish Law and Tradition.

Our positive co-operation and your understanding and sensitivity to this important issue, has helped us in our worthy cause and has achieved great results.

We hope that this cooperation and understanding will continue in the future and we look forward to work with you in the future.

May the New Year bring you lots of health and prosperity to you and your family with continued success in all your worthy endeavours.

Sincerely yours

Rabbi Abraham Ginsberg

Executive Director

Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe

34A Fairholt Road

London N16 5HW

Dovid Katz Photo