Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky in the name of the entire Community wishes Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community chairman Naum Gleizer a very happy birthday.
We wish you good health, a great mood and many fruitful years to come. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Panevėžys Jewish Community wish a very happy birthday to Aleksandra Narsevič. We wish you many bright days, unforgettable moments and eternal friendships.
Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman:
The year has passed like fog in a ravine,
Like a song at twilight.
It has flown like the fluff of a dandelion,
Scattering in our hair
Like white blossoms.
It was meaningful, and happy.
The year was hard like stones.
So today from our heart we wish you
A happy year and many more to come.
Mazl tov. Bis 120!
Panevėžys, Lithuania
March 28, 2023
A very happy birthday from the entire Lithuanian Jewish Community and chairwoman Faina Kukliansky to Josif Burštein, who has been an active member of the Šiauliai Jewish Community since its inception in 1988 and served as chairman and executive board member there, as well as serving on the executive board of the Lithuanian Jewish Community. We wish you continuing good health, energy, happiness and the fulfillment of your dreams. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
In 2022 the Day of Rescuers of Lithuanian Jews was added to the list of official commemorative dates in Lithuania. The date March 15 was chosen as the day in 1966 when the Yad Vashem Holocaust authority in Israel first recognized a Lithuanian as a Righteous Gentile. As a new commemorative date, there is no set tradition on how to celebrate the holiday. The Lithuanian Government urged public commemoration of March 15 and included two events as possible venues: the opening of an exhibit about Righteous Gentiles at a museum in Vilnius, and a reading of the names of rescuers at Vilnius University, a tradition associated with the many victims of the Holocaust, many of whom remain unknown except for their names, rather that with the heroes of the Holocaust, most of whose biographies at least in Lithuania have been fully explored and documented.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community celebrated the first instance of Rescuers Day by recalling how the Jews of Lithuania actually live. As LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky has said repeatedly, if not for the Righteous Gentiles in Lithuania, no Litvaks would have survived in Lithuania.
This year the Panevėžys Jewish Community held a joint celebration of Purim and International Women’s Day. Community chairman Gennady Kofman kicked off the party with a reading from the Book of Esther, passed out small gifts to the children and conveyed Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky’s holiday greetings. At the holiday table the men greeted the ladies present on International Women’s Day, proposed toasts, gave flowers and sang songs in their honor.
This year Lithuania marks March 15 as the day of rescuers of Lithuanian Jews for the very first time. To celebrate this important date, the Lithuanian Jewish Community presents a special plaque to commemorate the rescuers. The plaque, with multiple layers of symbolism and meaning, will be placed on residences where the rescuers lived and hid Lithuanian Jews from the Nazis.
“This is our thanks to the brave people who didn’t falter in the face of danger and who were not just the rescuers of Jews, but, as Icchokas Meras wrote, were also the blossom of goodness of their nation and heroes of the spirit who resisted the murderers,” LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky commented. Her family was also saved from the Holocaust by brave Lithuanians with big hearts, rescuers who number among the 900 Yad Vashem recognizes as Righteous Gentiles in Lithuania.
Plaque designed by the JUDVI & AŠ creative group.
Project author: International Commission for Assessing the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania.
ongratulations to Lithuania’s most talented animator, not just in drawing but as a master of the spoken word as well, Ilja Bereznickas, who was just awarded the Lithuanian Government’s Culture and Art Prize. May your success continue!
Dear readers,
March 11, 1990, meant rebirth for the Jews of Lithuania. When the country regained independence, the surviving Jewish community began to unite. This was the beginning of restoring our ethnic identity, of active ethnocultural life, and finally we all began to talk openly about the Holocaust and the role played by ethnic Lithuanians.
We have rights and freedoms in independent Lithuania. We speak courageously about what isn’t right, and we initiate change. We host guests and we travel. Our children and grandchildren live here and the whole world is now open to them. Our home is here and we are an integral part of Lithuania.
So congratulations and greetings on this holiday which belongs to all of us, March 11.
Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community
One of the distinguishing features of the Lithuanian Jewish Community is how we care about our oldest and wisest members, both in daily life and during the holidays. So we celebrated Purim together with our venerable senior citizens in the Jascha Heifetz Hall at the Community building in Vilnius, decorated for the occasion. A pleasant evening was had by all with dinner and a concert performance by members of the Fayerlakh Jewish song and dance ensemble, now celebrating their 50th birthday.
For the second year now the Lithuanian Jewish Community has reached out to child war refugees from the Ukraine on Purim, in additional to aiding Jewish families who have fled the war zone there. This year LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky visited a Ukrainian school in Vilnius with several trays of hamentashen pastry. The school has about 800 students currently. Kukliansky shared the story of Purim with children and young people there, spoke about the traditions associated with Purim and spent time with the unusually welcoming staff who transformed a ruined building into an educational institution by hand over the course of a few months.
“We understand well that material aid is needed during time of war… Even so, we can’t just cry about everything, so we are trying to spread some joy as well. Purim is, after all, the happiest Jewish holiday of the year. I am glad we have shared at least a little bit of that with the children from the Ukraine,” Kukliansky said.
Dear readers,
I would like to greet you in the name of the entire Lithuanian Jewish Community on the occasion of the happy holiday of Purim.
May this Purim be filled with happiness, fun, good moods and the warmth of family and friends.
Hag Purim sameach!
Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community
Purim starts tonight at sundown when the 14th day of the month of Adar begins on the Jewish calendar. One of the constituent features of Purim is the traditional pastry known as hamentashen. Although everyone has their own special recipe, Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky makes her family’s version with poppy-seed filling, the traditional Litvak treat. The recipe dates beck to the period between the two world wars.
“This recipe was probably used earlier and recalls the time when the aroma of the pastry filled the Vilnius Old Town and many other cities and towns where Jews lived in Lithuania. Although you can purchase this version now, it’s always more fun to make it yourself,” she commented.
Happy Purim! Hag Purim sameakh!
§§§
Faina Kukliansky’s hamantashen recipe:
A very happy birthday to Dmitrijus Zaičikas. We wish you happiness, health and continued longevity. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
The Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes you a very happy February 16, the traditional Lithuanian day of independence celebrated by citizens of all ethnic backgrounds in the period between the two world wars.
Virginija Barauskienė has been a nurse in the home-care department of the Social Programs Department at the Panevėžys Jewish Community for many years now. She also a long-standing member of the Panevėžys Jewish Community and has been active in the Lithuanian Jewish Community for more than a decade.
We wish you a very happy birthday. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
Today Vilnius begins celebrating its 700th birthday with a series of events over the coming year. Over its entire 700 years of history the Jewish people have lived, built, created, started families, studied and achieved major milestones in culture, medicine, business, the arts and many other fields of human endeavor.
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky remarked: “Today there remains only a very small Vilna Jewish community, but the contributions made by many generations of Jews to the success and thriving of this city called the Jerusalem of the North won’t allow us to forget.”
The Lithuanian Jewish Community has published a calendar to mark Vilnius’s 700th anniversary with a special Vilnius 700 logo and collages from old Jewish Vilne. The designers of the calendar were Victoria Sideraitė Alon and Albinas Šimanauskas from the creative group JUDVI & AŠ.
“The 700th anniversary of the founding of the city of Vilnius is a wonderful and significant day for all residents of the city and beyond. Sadly, in the excitement in preparing for this holiday, few remember who built the capital of Lithuania, who contributed so significantly to giving birth to this pearl of UNESCO,” chairwoman Kukliansky commented.
Photo: Robert Gilchrist, by D. Umbrasas courtesy LRT.lt
The U.S. embassy in Vilnius said Tuesday the United States hail the Lithuanian parliament’s decision to compensate Jewish private property seized by the Nazis and Soviets to the tune of 37 million euros.
American ambassador to Lithuania Robert Gilchrist said: “The passing of this legislation is an important step in recognizing the tragedy of the Holocaust in Lithuania. It is not, however, only about addressing claims for the past. It is about preserving the memory of the Holocaust for future generations and working together against intolerance and hatred.”
U.S. special envoy for Holocaust issues Ellen Germain commented: “After the Holocaust, there was little time to create successful restitution programs before the Communist regimes nationalized private property. By passing this bill, Lithuania has taken another important step in fulfilling restitution commitments. For survivors and their families, this is a direct acknowledgement of the great wrong that was done to them.”
The Lithuanian parliament Tuesday adopted a new redaction of the existing Law on Goodwill Compensation which additionally allocates 37 million euros for compensating Jewish private property. The existing law and previous compensation payments were for communal and religious property seized by the Nazis and the Soviets. The new legislation comes into effect in January.
Lithuanian prime minister Ingrida Šimonytė proposed the new compensation package saying Lithuania has made compensation for Jewish religious community property, but hasn’t made compensation for nationalized private property.
Joe Biden: Well, folks, Happy Hanukkah, everyone. On behalf of Jill, Doug and Kamala, thank you. And Rabbi Bronia, thank you for hanging out with me la- –a couple weeks ago. And Michèle and Abigale. To all of you here, including so many friends, thank you being–for being part of this moment.
Just over two months ago, Jill and I her- –hosted the first-ever High Holiday reception at the White House.
It was deeply meaningful. It was something that we’ve alwa- –we’ll remember. And I felt–it felt what–what the Jewish proverb teaches: “What comes from the heart goes to the heart.” And it went to our heart, for real. It’s never happened before in the White House.
Full press release here.
Lithuanian state radio and television reported the beginning of Hanukkah at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius Sunday. On Monday, the first Hanukkah light was lit, according to LRT, by speaker of parliament Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen.
“As we light the Hanukkah candles every year, the Jewish community sends out a message of light and friendship to all of the Lithuanian ethnic communities and to the Jewish communities around the world. We want to remind people that we can only overcome the greatest challenges by being and working together, by communicating and trying to understand one another, to light the light of knowledge, understanding and tolerance. We can all be part of the light,” Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said.
It’s customary for people to come together, have fun and share traditional Hanukkah treats such as doughnuts and latkes over all eight days of the Hanukkah holiday. Children receive traditional gifts. Faina Kukliansky recalls Litvaks traditionally ate their Hanukkah latkes with cranberry sauce.