Jewish Cuisine

LJC Holds Purim Celebration for Ukrainian Refugees

LJC Holds Purim Celebration for Ukrainian Refugees

The Lithuanian Jewish Community held an event to introduce refugees from Ukraine about the Jewish holiday Purim.

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky met with families who arrived a week ago from Ukraine and taught them the traditions of Purim, including Hamantashen, the pastry usually shared during this holiday.

“The story of Hamantashen pastry brings hope. And if you can kindle hope in people, you enrich yourself as well, and you can look at life in a different way. Jews know what it means to be a refugee. No one wanted to take us in, and we lived through horrific times. We cannot allow the children of today to have such sad eyes. We must extend a helping hand and inspire hope in them and their parents,” Faina Kukliansky said.

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Purim Celebration for Children

Purim Celebration for Children

The Lithuanian Jewish Community will hold a Purim carnival with purimshpilen and a performance by Fayerlakh for children at 12 noon on March 20. To register and for more information, contact Margarita by calling 37061800577 or by sending her an email at margarita.kozevatova@gmail.com

Purim Lecture

Purim Lecture

Purim is almost here, the happiest spring holiday, but its true meaning is the Jewish struggle for physical survival, just as topical now as ever. Natalja Cheifec invites you to her internet lecture on the meaning and traditions of Purim. It will take place beginning at 5:30 P.M. on Thursday, March 17, in the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s zoom room. Register here.

Classes for Making Challa and Other Jewish Foods

Classes for Making Challa and Other Jewish Foods

The Lithuanian Jewish Community’s Bagel Shop Café is offering students and teachers the opportunity to learn Jewish cooking secrets in classes held every Thursday. The classes are intended for students in grades 5 to 10 and the cost is 12 euros per 60-minute class. For more information see the details in Lithuanian here.

Purim Celebrations

Purim Celebrations

Purim is coming up and as usual the Lithuanian Jewish Community is sponsoring multiple celebrations for all age-groups, including but not limited to the following three:

Purim celebration for seniors from the LJC Social Department starting at 1:00 P.M. on March 17. Register by sending an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt or call +37067881514;

Family Purim celebration at 6:30 P.M. on March 18 at the Bagel Shop Café with Rabbi Nathan Alfred, including reading the Book of Esther, Sabbath ceremony and food. Cost is 15 euros. Register by contacting Viljamas at viljamas@lzb.lt or +3067250699;

Purim carnival for children at 12 noon on March 20 with a traditional Purim shpil with the Fayerlakh musical ensemble and our favorite madrichs. Purim foods including Hamen tashn and special guests. Children expected to wear costumes. Register by contacting Margarita at margarita.kozevatova@gmail.com or +37061800577. The event is free.

Snapshots of Last Friday’s Kabbalat Shabat

Snapshots of Last Friday’s Kabbalat Shabat

Progressive Rabbi Nathan Alfred from Israel led a Kabbalat Shabat ceremony with about 50 members of the Lithuanian Jewish Community including our seniors and families with children. In the afternoon prior he attended the LJC Seniors Club Abi Men Zet Zich and sang the hymns to usher in the Sabbath. One of our oldest members, Libė Britaniskina, lit the Sabbath candles and the meeting concluded with songs in Hebrew and Yiddish. He led the prayer service and delivered the weekly Torah portion.

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Kabbalat Shabat

A Kabbalat Shabat ceremony will be held to usher in the Sabbath under the tenets of progressive Judaism at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius at 6:00 P.M. on January 14, followed by a glass of wine and challa bread. To register, write Viljamas at viljamas@lzb.lt or call 8 672 50699.

Wine Tasting Saturday

Wine Tasting Saturday

Dear Community members,

An exceptional Hanukkah Evening: we’ll light the seventh Hanukkah candle while tasting and discussing wine.

Do you know which wine goes with what dish at the dinner table? Wine expert Edvinas Gurinas will be present at this wine tasting and you’ll learn which wine is appropriate for different dishes through tasting. Traditional Jewish snacks and dishes will be served. We’ll learn why some wine/food combinations work while others put a damper on taste and mood.

Please register by sending an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt. Space is very limited. The event will take place at 5:00 P.M. on December 4at the Bagel Shop Café.

Traditional Jewish Music at the Ukmergė Regional History Museum

Traditional Jewish Music at the Ukmergė Regional History Museum

Residents of Ukmergė (Vilkomir) and others were invited to attend a Hanukkah concert at the Ukmergė Regional History Museum with the Rakija Klezmer Orkestar performing on November 29, the second day of the eight-day holiday. Ukmergė Regional Jewish Community chairman Artūras Taicas briefly told the audience the story of Hanukkah and what it means. Ukmergė Regional History Museum director Violeta Reipaitė was invited to light the first candle and chairman Taicas lit the second.

Guests were invited to sample traditional Hanukkah dishes with special food packages to take home.

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Children’s Cooking Workshop at Community

Children’s Cooking Workshop at Community

It was quite a Sunday afternoon at the Lithuanian Jewish Community. We were not able to count the number of children in attendance nor the abundance of food made. We cooked, we baked, we sampled and we did it all over again numerous times. This was the fourth round of the Kinder Tish Sunday school activities. The chicken bullion–Jewish penicillin–was cooking in the pot since 8 in the morning. We’ll be meeting again in two weeks for the Miracle of Hanukkah. #BalabostaRiva

Pumpkins and Bagels: Halloween at the Community

Pumpkins and Bagels: Halloween at the Community

Fun is tricks, costumes, ghosts, pumpkins and screaming children.

Last Friday evening the third Kinder Tish event was held at the Bagel Shop Café. The children made bagels with maple syrup and pumpkin-seed toppings. Friends from the US embassy in Vilnius also attended. We learned all about Halloween, received many horrible gifts and had fun ushering in the Sabbath. Cultural attaché Caitlin Nettleton from the US embassy in Vilnius and colleagues explained Halloween traditions, costumes, tricks and jack-o’-lanterns.

Bagel Shop Café Produces Seventy-Five Loaves of Challa Bread

Bagel Shop Café Produces Seventy-Five Loaves of Challa Bread

The Bagel Shop Café baked 75 small and large loaves of challa bread Friday evening as part of the world Shabbos Project. The Sabbath on October 22 was special. The Lithuanian Jewish Community invited everyone young and old to bake challa together with the world Jewish community. Members, friends and a ton of children gathered at the Bagel Shop Café, had fun making and baking challa, and were treated to a performance by the Fayerlakh ensemble. We counted around 75 loaves. Snapshots below.

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Bagel Shop Café to Teach Cooking Secrets to Children

Bagel Shop Café to Teach Cooking Secrets to Children

Dear reader,

You might make it a point to have bagels for breakfast, to bake challa on Fridays and to drive out all colds with chicken broth on those cold winter nights, but do you really know how to make these foods? We’re inviting children aged 7 to 12 to come learn old Jewish recipes from balabosta Rivka and to spend Sunday afternoons in the kitchen of the Bagel Shop Café at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius. All events are free.

Register here.

For more information, write projects@lzb.lt

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Some Snapshots from Events This Fall

Some Snapshots from Events This Fall

It’s encouraging to see parents and children returning to spend time at the Community. At one recent meeting at the Bagel Shop Café the children presented their works in clay, held the premiere of a film they made and starred in and performed music, while the mothers made challa bread.

Larisa Vyšniauskienė, the director of the Fayerlakh ensemble, chimed in during the musical part of the program and spoke about the ensemble’s musical career which has spanned a half century now.

Avital Libman, coordinator of children’s and youth programs, passed on the happy news that the Ilan and Knafaim Clubs will now be open every day to young people for fun and productive after-school activities.

Meanwhile, weekly art activities continue led by Raimondas Savickas, and the seniors’ club Abi Men Zet Zich carries on as usual.

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Topic for This Year’s Jewish Culture Day: Dialogue

Topic for This Year’s Jewish Culture Day: Dialogue

The Lithuanian Jewish Community has been celebrating the European Day of Jewish Culture for a number of years now on the first Sunday in September with events in Vilnius and at associated LJC member communities around the country. The topic this year is dialogue, #Žydiškipašnekesiai, revealing different aspects of Jewish culture, the Litvak contribution to Lithuanian history, culture and democracy and the living Litvak legacy. The LJC usually opens its doors, the Choral Synagogue and other locations to visitors on this day with lectures, musical performances and authentic Jewish food. This year the event will take place on the eve of the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah. Stay tuned for the full program.

Lithuanian Jewish Community Kids Enjoy Summer Camp

Lithuanian Jewish Community Kids Enjoy Summer Camp

Two LJC children’s summer camps took place in July, full of activities and fun. Not only did the kids have a chance to shake off state restrictions for fighting the virus by getting a little wild, they also learned a lot. The LJC camps among other things taught Jewish history and tradition. The kids learned to make challa, visited the Ninth Fort Holocaust site in Kaunas and engaged in other learning activities.

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Dancing at Cvi Park

Dancing at Cvi Park

Have you visited what we’re calling Cvi Park, on Petras Cirkva Square in Vilnius? Come enjoy the company and authentic Israeli street food, and watch how they dance to bachata music on hot July evenings.

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