Learning – Page 2 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Natalja Cheifec’s Discussion Club: Holiday Edition

Natalja Cheifec continues her series of discussions with “The Miracle of Hanukkah” which will address:

• The holiday of Hanukkah as a conservator of tradition;
• What the Most High does during Hanukkah;
• Why Jews observe the burning of candles during Hanukkah;
• What the doughnuts are about and what Hanukkah geld means.

It’s happening this Thursday, December 19, at 5:30 P.M. via zoom.

To register and receive zoom credentials, click here. Remember to includes which topics interest you for possible future discussion while registering.

2024-12-172024-12-17

IHRA Member-State Reps Meet in London

Delegations and representatives of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance met in congress in London from December 2 to 5 to discuss current events in Holocaust and Roma genocide commemoration, education and combating anti-Semitism. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky was part of Lithuania’s legation.

The plenary session discussed rising anti-Semitism in Europe and conflicts in the Middle East.

Eric Pickles who serves as chairman of IHRA said Jews are more afraid now than ever before, making fighting hatred and preserving memory more important than ever as well.

Lithuanian ambassador for special assignments Arvydas Daunoravičius led the Lithuanian legation. Other members of Lithuania’s team were chosen by the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry, Education Ministry, Ethnic Minorities Department, the International Commission for the Assessment of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania and the Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum. Kukliansky represented the Lithuanian Jewish Community among the Lithuanian delegates.

2024-12-12

EJC and UNESCO Reps Meet in Paris to Discuss Combating Anti-Semitism

Representatives from the EJC and UNESCO have been meeting for several days in Paris to discuss better ways of fighting anti-Semitism through public education. Faina Kukliansky represented the Lithuanian Jewish Community at those talks.

2024-12-12

Natalja Cheifec’s Discussion Club Continues

Natalja Cheifec’s #ŠALOM discussion club will meet via zoom at 5:30 P.M. on Thursday, December 12. Register here. Don’t forget to mention topics of interest to you on the registration form!

2024-12-10

Ping-Pong at Sholem

The Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium and the Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club invite everyone to take part in a table tennis tourney called Hanukkah Special with five separate groups competing.

To register, click here.

Time: 12:30 P.M., Wednesday, December 11
Place: Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium, Kraševskio street no. 5, Vilnius

2024-12-092024-12-10

Gita-Enta Broydy Performs Yiddish Song in Šiauliai

The Šiauliai Jewish Community invites you to a concert by internationally-acclaimed songstress Gita-Enta Broydy, former resident of Šiauliai, performing Yiddish favorites at the Šiauliai Jewish Community this Friday, December 13, starting at 5:30 P.M. Everyone is welcome.

2024-12-09

News from Šiauliai

Ričardas Pikelis launched his first book “Čia mano žemė” [My Land Is Here] at the Šiauliai Jewish Community Friday. The publication of his book was the idea of the late Sania Kerbelis, the long-standing chairman of the Community who passed away this year.

It contains poetry and prose with an emphasis on the author’s appreciation of the beauty and pathos of the natural world. Monika Šaltytė and Vladas Baranauskas recited his poetry. Jūratė Adomavičiūtė played the kanklės, a Lithuanian folk instrument, and Morta Meiliulytė played violin. Albertas Martinaitis gave guests gifts hand-carved from stone.

2024-12-09

Šakiai Commemorates Lost Jewish Community

The town of Šakiai in the Marijampolė district in extreme western Lithuania paid homage to its once vibrant Jewish community with a series of presentations followed by the unveiling of a metal sculpture of a boy on November 28.

The Zanavykai Museum began events with a series of lectures about Jews from Šakiai, the history of Jews in the town and their historical legacy. Lost Shtetl Museum senior academic correspondent Jolanta Mickutė and director of the Vincas Kudirka Museum at the Lithuanian National Museum Vida Palionienė spoke on the town’s former Jewish community and regional historian Gražina Žemaitienė spoke about Jewish life in nearby Kudirkos Naumiestis.

The speakers and audience moved to the town square following these presentations where a metal statue by Kęstutis Dovydaitis portraying a school boy was unveiled by Kęstutis Dovydaitis, MP Darius Jakavičius and mayor of the Šakiai regional administration Raimondas Januševičius. Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas, and other guests attended the events along with local residents and students.

2024-12-042024-12-04

Shalom Cheverim!

The Bnei Maskilim iProgressive Judaism community invites you to the Shaharit morning prayer with Rabbi Grisha Abromavich from Israel. Registration is required by sending an email to viljamas@lzb.lt.

Time: 11:00 A.M., Saturday, November 30
Place: Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius

2024-11-282024-11-29

Tour of Herring Exhibit Followed by Tasting at Jonas Šliūpas Museum in Palanga

The Jonas Šliūpas Museum in Palanga invites the public to a second guided tour of the herring exhibit “From the North Sea to the Christmas Table” at 5:00 P.M. on November 29. This time co-creator of the exhibit Akvilė Poškienė of Klaipėda University will guide the tour. Afterwards the Palanga Jewish Community will host a presentation of Jewish culinary heritage accompanied by sampling of Jewish snacks with herring presented by Lithuanian Jewish Community educator Dovilė Rūkaitė.

The cost is 4 euros. Registration is required by sending an email to j.sliupo.muziejus@lnm.lt.

Time: 5:00 P.M., November 29
Place: Jonas Šliūpas Museum, Vytauto street no. 23A, Palanga

2024-11-26

Recipe for Murder

by Liova Kaplanas

Many Jews visit Lithuania to tour the paths of the slaughter of our families, also known as death tourism. Lithuania has much to offer tourists: forests, lakes, an extraordinary number of death-pits containing our murdered Jewish families, cool summers, lovely open parks, destroyed Jewish heritage and foods we Jews remember from our childhood, including potato latkes with sour cream, smoked salmon, pickled herring, kishke, kugel and potato kneidels. These food recipes are originally Jewish recipes, appropriated by Lithuania, and now claimed as theirs. Visiting Lithuania is almost akin to taking a step back in time, just, without living Jews. The sights, smells, recipes and foods are reminiscent of our grandparents before they were slaughtered. Some Jewish heritage remains, and plenty of Lithuanian heritage is intact.

Those visiting Lithuania will be only slightly surprised to discover another unpleasant heritage recipe–a recipe for murder!. And not just a plain recipe, but a recipe officially, legally and governmentally registered in the official Lithuanian “Register of Folk Heritage!” It should be absurd and unbelievable, but, unfortunately, it’s true.

Lithuanian parliament member Remigijus Žemaitaitis re-popularized this Lithuanian National Folk Heritage “recipe” in his election campaign, exploiting it to win in excess of 15% of the national vote in Lithuania’s most recent election. The wording of this heritage “recipe” is:

2024-11-252024-11-25

Labyrinths of the Old Town: A Tour for Community Members

Lithuanian Jewish Community members are invited to a special tour next Saturday in Vilnius called Labyrinths of the Old Town led by accomplished guide Markas Psonikas. The tour will invoke the mediaeval aura of the courtyards of the Old Town and continue on to the secrets and discoveries of the present day.

The cost is 7 euros per person. Registration is required by sending an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt before 12:00 noon on November 28.

Time: 11:00 A.M., Saturday, November 30
Place: starting point to be announced following registration
Duration: ~2 hours

2024-11-252024-11-25

Kaunas Jewish Community Unveils Plaque to Righteous Gentile

The Kaunas Jewish Community invites you to a ceremony to unveil a plaque commemorating Righteous Gentile Ona Jablonskytė-Landsbergienė on the 130th anniversary of her birth. Yad Vashem recognized her as a Righteous Gentile in 1995.

The plaque was commissioned by the Kaunas Jewish Community and an association of Lithuanians deported by the Soviet Union to the Laptev Sea in the Arctic, and was made by sculptor Gediminas Pašvenskas. It is to be unveiled on the clinic at A. Mickevičiaus street no. 4 in Kaunas where Jablonskytė-Landsbergienė worked as an ophthalmologist. The ceremony will take place there at 3:00 P.M. on Friday, November 29.

For more information, click here: https://fb.me/e/9E4lBBdWK

2024-11-25

Lithuanian Makabiada

The Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club held their annual Makabiada November 10 where former president and current executive board member Semionas Finkelšteinas delivered a welcome speech and current president Olga Bliumenzon thanked all the athletes for their participation.

In 3-on-3 basketball the joint Vilnius-Kaunas team placed first. In volleyball the Makabi team also took first place. In the ping-pong youth group Naomi Tarakhovskaya won. In the adult ping-pong group Viktor Petrovsky came in first. In women’s badminton Marija Jurkevičiutė and in men’s Igor Movšovič triumphed.

This Makabiada included some new prize categories and Naomi Tarakhovskaya was recognized as the youngest athlete, Aleksandr Bliumenzon the eldest, best volleyball player was Danielius Racinas and best player in basketball was Elvinas Ušpicas. The Burštein family was recognized as the most athletic family with new athletes Aaron, Anelė and Ana. Everyone shared dinner together after the tournament.

2024-11-21

Statement by Gercas Žakas, Chairman of the Kaunas Jewish Community

I, Gercas Žakas, have been the chairman of the Kaunas Jewish Community for almost three decades now. I know, not from second-hand sources, what irreparable damage anti-Semitism causes, because I grew up in the family of a former ghetto and concentration camp prisoner. My parents survived the Holocaust but lost their families and almost all of their relatives.

Sadly, we hear many anti-Semitic statements being made in Lithuania at this time, and I have never heard in my lifetime the avalanche of cynicism and lies being poured out by Remigijus Žemaitaitis. Among other things, he has told multiple media outlets he has met with the chairman of the Kaunas Jewish Community.

I say with full responsibility that I have never met with this figure who was recognized as an anti-Semite by the Constitutional Court. This claim alone is in opposition to my values and does harm to my reputation in the eyes of the Jewish communities and society. I therefore demand Remigijus Žemaitaitis retract his words to the effect has met with the chairman of the Kaunas Jewish Community. Otherwise I reserve the right to defend my honor and dignity through legal remedy.

Gercas Žakas, chairman
Kaunas Jewish Community

Photo: Erikas Ovčarenko/15min.lt

2024-11-202024-11-20