As we near the eight days of Hanukkah, the Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Rositsan and Maccabi Elite Chess and Checkers Club invite you to a chess tournament to be held at the LJC, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius, at 5:00 P.M. on Sunday, December 18.
Tournament director: FIDE master Boris Rositsan
For more information, please contact:
info@metbor.lt
+3706 5543556
for lzb.lt by Dr. Aušra Pažėraitė, associate professor and lecturer, Religious Studies and Research Center, Vilnius University
“…While the Chabad Hassidim cannot be excluded from the ranks of Lithuanian Jews (their communities in Vilnius go back to the time of the Russian Empire), they do not represent all Lithuanian Jews, and especially not those who consider themselves misnagdim, largely known simply as Litvaks. Perhaps the Vilnius municipality this year could seek for some sort of Solomonic solution which wouldn’t step on the toes of the Litvak community and would take their traditions into account. Or simply point out that the erection of a giant menorah is not tacitly understood as a universal Jewish tradition…”
The holiday of Hanukkah, celebrated for 8 days beginning on Kislev 25, is one of those holidays which the Torah does not demand be celebrated. That’s understandable, since the holiday comes from a time after the Torah was given. The name of the holiday is explained by examining the root, which indicates inauguration, celebration, dedication, establishment, and these actions are connected with the reconsecration of the Temple in Jerusalem. The holiday is begun by lighting a candle or an oil lamp, over the eight days lighting one more flame each day. The Talmud (Shabbat 21b-22a) relates that one school of thought in the first century, Beit Shammai, was of the opinion all eight flames should be lit initially and successively extinguished one by one daily, while Beit Hillel followers believed one flame should be lit the first day, two the second day until all eight were lit, which is the belief which took hold and is followed till today. As Rabba bar bar Hana explains, relying upon what Rabba Johanan said on the issue: “The thinking of Beit Hillel is that we should grow in the light, not shrink” (Shabbat 22a). Light should increase daily. It is the opinion of many authors that something which burns up by itself in a limited time should be burned, and that there be just enough “fuel reserves” that it extinguish itself within 30 minutes after “the onset of night.” Therefore electric light bulbs are inappropriate. Although some allow their use, if there is nothing else available, no special blessing is said upon their lighting.
Cultural historian Aurimas Švedas’s book “Irena Veisaitė. Gyvenimas turėtų būti skaidrus” [Irena Veisaitė. Life Should Be Transparent] will be launched at the Vilnius Picture Gallery at 6:00 P.M. on December 15. Historian Saulius Sužiedėlis says the book contains unforgettable images of 20th century Lithuanian history, including the Jewish and Lithuanian interwar period in Kaunas, the ruthless reality of the war and the Holocaust, rescue and rebirth.
Author Švedas, the subject of the book Irena Veisaitė herself, theater producer Audra Žukaitytė, director Gintaras Varnas and literary scholar Kęstutis Nastopka are to attend the book launch, to be moderated by Vytenė Muschick. The book details the extraordinary life of the German literature specialist, drama expert and long-time director of Lithuania’s Open Society Fund.
Poet, translator and student of culture Tomas Venclova said of the book: “This book belonging in the genre of long conversational is a prerequisite for everyone who is interested in Lithuanian history over recent decades. Irena Veisaitė is one of the most enlightened people of our land, the incarnation of tolerance and common sense. She devotes the most attention to culture, especially the theater, and the cultural opposition in the Soviet period, but very wisely, avoiding extremism and empty words, also lays out painful philosophical questions.”
Full story in Lithuanian here.
Word has reached the Lithuanian Jewish Community Dov Levin passed away December 3. Levin was born in Kaunas January 27, 1925. He joined the partisans and left Lithuania on foot for Jerusalem on January 17, 1945. He is the author of numerous groundbreaking works about the Holocaust in Lithuania and about Litvak culture. Our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones on the death of a man who meant so much to so many.
A plaque commemorating Litvak coin and medal designer Victor David Brenner (1871-1924) was unveiled in his hometown Šiauliai (Shavl) December 14. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon, Šiauliai mayor Artūras Visockas, Šiauliai Jewish Community chairman Josifas Buršteinas and Community members took part in the ceremony to unveil the plaque on the outside wall of the Šiauliai Bank building at Tilžės street no. 149. Brenner designed the Lincoln-head United States one cent piece still in circulation over 100 years ago.
Travel journalist and photographer Evgenii Golomolzin from St. Petersburg, Russia, has written a long piece about the culinary experiences available in Vilnius, with the Bagel Shop featured prominently.
Vilnius is a cosmopolitan city where all sorts of ethnic dishes are on offer, he writes. As a heavily Jewish city of many centuries, it has preserved Jewish traditions even after the Holocaust. There is an old Jewish quarter. A year ago the Bagel Shop Café appeared as well. The kosher café the Bagel Shop is an exotic attraction. The Bagel Shop is located at Pylimo street no. 4. The café is not large and is very simple, but original. It feels like a small apartment with the books and knickknacks on the shelves. You can read the books as you sip coffee, you can buy a Hebrew dictionary or a Jewish calendar. But people come here not for the books, but for the real Jewish treats and the bagels (€0.85 apiece). Five kinds are sold at the café.
The display case also has lekakh, a Jewish sweet-cake; imberlakh, a pastry made of carrots, ginger and orange; and teiglakh, small cakes cooked in honey. You can order something more filling, for example, soup with dumplings (€2.00), an egg-salad sandwich (€3.60), tuna sandwich (€3.60) or hummus sandwich (€3.60). It’s all delicious. The café opened just recently—in 2016—but has already become a tourist attraction, the St. Petersburg-based travel publication writes.
Full story in Russian with very nice photographs here.
A ceremony to unveil a plaque commemorating Litvak and Šiauliai native Victor David Brenner will take place at 12:00 noon on Wednesday, December 14, at the Šiauliai Bank building at Tilžės street no. 149 in Šiauliai.
Victor David Brenner is best known as the designer of the Lincoln one-cent piece in the United States. which replaced the former one-cent piece featuring an Indian in 1909. He also designed the obverse of the new penny, replacing the former wreath and coat of arms with two sheaves of wheat surrounding the words “United States of America” and “ONE CENT.” The “wheat-back” reverse of the penny has since been replaced with one featuring the Lincoln memorial in the center with the same inscription around the edge in 1959. In 1982 the United States began to mint one-cent pieces with reduced copper content, replacing the earlier copper and tin denomination with a copper-plated zinc fac-simile.
Chuck Hughes, the Canadian celebrity chief who has an entire collection of series on Canada’s Food Network cable channel and the owner of two renowned restaurants in Montréal, visited the Bagel Shop Café last week.
Best known for his show Chuck’s Day Off, now carried by the Cooking Network on cable networks in the United States as well, Hughes has a special place in his heart and his kitchen for seafood.
The LJC’s Ilona Rūkienė caught up with Chuck last week and asked him a few questions.
December 10–In the run-up to Hanukkah children’s activities were held at the LJC. Twenty-two people, parents and children in the LJC Social Department’s Jewish Family Services program, took part.
During the activities parents helped their children and everyone learned how to make candles, an essential tribute of the Festival of Lights. The children seemed to enjoy handling the pliable wax which will light up the holiday this year at their homes. They were also told the Hanukkah story. After the candle-making and story the children were treated to traditional Hanukkah doughnuts. It was an enjoyable event in the run-up to the Hanukkah holidays.
Accomplished author, lecturer and media personality Giedrius Drukteinis has a new book out called “Izraelis – žydų valstybė” [Israel: The Jewish State] and as with his comprehensive treatment of the United States-Viet Nam war, it’s a long one, 832 pages. It was published by Sofoklis publishing house in Vilnius in 2016.
Drukteinis goes through the main events in Jewish history in chronological order, from exile to Babylon, the Middle Ages, modern emancipation, roots of anti-Semitism, aliyah, Zionism, relations with Arabs, the Jewish experience during both world wars, the foundation of the state and modern development in the current period. The chronological layout is intended to help Lithuanian readers orient themselves to the creation and history of the Jewish state, according to the publisher.
The book devotes much space to the concept of aliyah leading up to the founding of the unique State of Israel. One reviewer said most of the book is about warfare.
lrytas.lt
Japan is a market of 125 million tourists. Kaunas is attractive as a destination for them because of the memory of Righteous Gentile Chiune Sugihara. Much has been done, but much more needs to be done, including presenting Kaunas as a kind of Casablanca of the North. Šiauliai University lecturer and historian Dr. Simonas Strelcovas recently returned from the land of the rising sun. There he researched Japanese attitudes towards Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese consul who issues thousands of visas to Jews in Kaunas in 1940, thus saving them. In Japan he is greatly honored. The historian says this respect should be exploited to attract tourists. Dr. Strelcovas is certain the nature of Lithuania then when the rescuer operated needs to be told. That Lithuania was not Nazi, and that, unlike other European states, accepted tens of thousands of refugees. He’s planning to reveal all this in an academic book in Japanese to be published next year.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
Two commemorative plaques honoring the famous Litvaks Solomon Levit (1894-1938) and Chackelis Lemchenas (1904-2001) have been unveiled in Ukmergė (Vilkomir), Lithuania. Levit and Lemchenas were from the area. Levit is noted for his work in biology and medicine, and as the founder of the Genetic Medicine Institute in Moscow. He attended school in the city of Ukmergė. Lemchenas was a talented and respected Lithuanian philologist, lexicographer, linguistic reformer and cultural figure in his own right, and taught at the Jewish Real-Gymnasium in Ukmergė.
The ceremony on December 6 was attended by Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Amir Maimon, Ukmergė Regional Jewish Community chairman Artūras Taicas, Ukmergė regional administrator Rolandas Janickas and vicar Šarūnas Petrauskas, among others.
Chairman Taicas said at the ceremony he was encouraged to see so many people turn out for the event. He invited the Israel ambassador and the regional administrator to unveil the commemorative plaques.
The Kaunas Jewish Community marked the 85th anniversary of the death of Daniel Dolski (stage name of Daniel or Donil Broides), one of the founders of the genre known as “estrada music” in Eastern Europe, popular and sometimes humorous schlager-style songs performed on stage. Iser Shreiberg, the chairman of the Kaunas Hassidic Synagogue Religious Community and a member of the Kaunas Jewish Community, said a prayer for the dead at Dolski’s grave in the Jewish cemetery in the Žaliakalnis neighborhood of Kaunas. Those who turned out for the commemoration recalled the Kaunas Jewish Community had tended the grave of the performer.
You are invited to attend the launch of the compact disc called Four Musical Views on a Jewish Theme at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius at 6:00 P.M. on December 12. The compact disc is a project by the Lithuanian Union of Musicians, Muzikos Barai magazine and the Goodwill Foundation. Participants are to include composer and president of the Lithuanian Union of Musicians Audronė Žigaitytė-Nekrošienė, pianist and music professor Leonidas Melnikas, violinist Borisas Traubas and cellist Valentinas Kaplūnas.
The Four Musical Views on a Jewish Theme CD is a unique musical excursion into the tragic 20th-century history of the Jews. Never before had anti-Semitism and hatred of Jews reached such proportions, never before had epiphanies of evil been accompanied by such violence and suffering. Artists were unable to remain silent and their work testifies to, and sometimes screams about these shameful pages of history, condemning evil and exalting good. Four great 20th-century musicians– Maurice Ravel, Darius Milhaud, Aaron Copland and Dmitri Shostakovich—have immortalized this in their work. The tragic passages of Jewish history retold by these artistic geniuses are performed by Lithuanian artists on the compact disc, including singer Liora Grodnikaitė, violinist Boris Traub, cellist Valentinas Kaplūnas and pianist Leonid Melnik. It is an appeal to every individual and to everyone.
Muzikos Barai magazine has made this disc available to readers as a free gift. In their October issue they published an article about those who rescued Jews from the Holocaust in Lithuania.
The Israeli booth at the annual International Christmas Fair on December 4 at Old Town Hall Square in Vilnius, set up jointly with the Bagel Shop of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, offered passer-by kosher snacks and kosher wine and all types of souvenirs. Young female volunteers from the Bagel Shop Café “manned” the booth and cheerfully explained every item on offer to visitors. The embassy of the State of Israel and the Lithuanian Jewish Community were both very happy with the success of the joint venture and with having the opportunity to contribute to the noble goal of the fair. The Israeli embassy booth took in 1,310.80 euros during the event.
Our deepest gratitude goes out to the volunteers:
Eglė Rimkevičiūtė, Unė Kormilcevaitė, Agota Laurinavičiūtė and Naomi Alon
This fair brings together for charity work annually representatives of the different embassies in Vilnius who present hand-made items for sale to city residents and guests. Thirty-four different countries and a number of communities as well as five international schools in Vilnius are represented traditionally at the winter holiday fair. Income from the Christmas charity fair goes to the coffers of a charity fund which currently supports 10 organizations: The Raseiniai Special-Needs School, the Way of Hope Raseiniai day center, the Vilijampolė social welfare home, the Visaginas social services center, the Overcoming Crises Center, a home for the elderly in Alanta in the Molėtai region, the hospital of the Lithuanian Health Sciences University, the Tautmilės Globa animal shelter, the Family Home of Mother Teresa and the Vilties Namai charity and welfare fund. The International Women’s Association of Vilnius of women from Lithuania and foreign countries who are temporarily living and working in Vilnius stages the International Christmas Charity Fair annually.
by Mark Harold, Vilnius City Council member
15 min.lt
Let us begin with my argument, which is very simple and against which my opponents have counter-arguments. One short paragraph:
Kazys Škirpa led the LAF. Current competent institutions of the Republic of Lithuania recognize the LAF was an anti-Semitic organization. Therefore, naming a street after the leader of this sort of organization in Vilnius, where the Holocaust was especially brutal, within the European Union in 2016 is inappropriate. Now more laconically I will analyze each attempt to argue against this, which I have encountered over recent days, and will explain why these counter-arguments are invalid.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
lzinios.lt
Next year a new book about Chiune Sugihara, Japanese consul in Lithuania and rescuer of thousands of Jews, is scheduled to be published in Japan. The author is Dr. Simonas Strelcovas, historian and professor at Šiauliai University in Lithuania who researched the hero at Japanese archives and only recently returned home. The book is to appear in Japanese.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
A plaque has been unveiled on the western façade of the A. Martinaitis Art School at Šv. Gertrūdos street no. 33 in Kaunas with the inscription: “In this building the first Lithuanian table tennis championships took place organized by the athletics club Makabi.”
Lithuanian Table Tennis Association director Rimgaudas Balaiša said at the unveiling ceremony Kaunas was the cradle of table tennis in Lithuania. Young people imported the game from abroad and by 1922 Kaunas began to see its first enthusiasts. In 1925 the first ping pong tournaments were held in Lithuania. A year later the Ping Pong Committee was established in the Lithuanian Athletics League. And here on March 12 to 13, 1927, the Makabi Club decided to hold the Lithuanian Ping Pong Championship. Makabi was the pioneer in this historic activity.
The Jewish Makabi Club was established on October 19, 1920 in Lithuania. It was the most affluent of any ethnic minority sports organization. The winners in the ping pong championship they held were Ona Gurvičaitė and Josifas Šimensas.
kauno.diena.lt
Full story here.
On November 23, in celebration of Lithuanian Military Day, long-time friend of the Kaunas Jewish Community Raimundas Kaminskas and the Kaunas Council of Lithuanian Sąjūdis held a commemoration of Lithuanian Jewish soldiers at the Jewish cemetery in the Žaliakalnis neighborhood of Kaunas. On November 23, 1918, Lithuanian prime minister professor Augustinas Voldemaras signed Decree No. 1, establishing the Defense Council and the first regiment of the Lithuanian military. The Lithuanian military was officially re-established on that day.
The Lithuanian embassy to Israel and the Lithuanian Foreign Minister held a conference called Lithuania and Israel: Past, Present, Future at the Peres Peace Center in Tel Aviv on November 24, 2016. The conference discussed Lithuanian Holocaust studies, progress in commemorating victims, current activities of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and Lithuanian citizenship restoration issues.
Lithuanian ambassador to Israel Edminas Bagdonas spoke about increasing partnership between the two countries in his opening speech. He noted Litvaks in both countries are making great contributions to this. Lithuanian ambassador-at-large Dainius Junevičius emphasized the change in attitude towards the country’s history by the public and especially young people. Ronaldas Račinskas, executive director of Lithuania’s International Commission to Assess the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania, spoke about progress in Lithuanian Holocaust research and commemoration. Vytautas Magnus University lecturer Robert van Voren presented his studies into the Holocaust in Lithuania and spoke about parallels between Lithuania and the Netherlands. Yad Vashem representative Dr. Arkadi Zeltser addressed the state of monuments for commemorating Holocaust victims in Lithuania. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky provided an overview of the current situation and activities of the community. She also field a large number of questions from the audience about the Litvak legacy and heritage in Lithuania.
