The Ilan Club for children aged 7 to 12 is meeting this Saturday at 1:00 P.M. at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius. This session includes a shadow theater, Purim gifts and lots of fun.
Purim Celebration
The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium invite you to a celebration of the happiest holiday of the year, Purim, on Thursday, March 13, at the Loftas performance space in Vilnius.
The program includes the customary costume ball, purimshpil skits and performances by Sholem students, the traditional games and many prizes, as well as a DJ and other entertainment. Michael Frishman will be master of ceremonies.
Tickets available here: https://topticket.lt/event/PURIM-2025
Time: 6:30 P.M., Thursday, March 13
Place: Loftas, Švitrigailos street no. 29, Vilnius
Two Klezmer Bands on World Theater Day
To celebrate World Theater Day on March 27, the Russian Drama Theater in Vilnius, now rechristened Old Drama Theater, will host two klezmer bands. Called “Klezmer on Pogulanka” (the older name of Basanavičiaus street in Vilnius where the theater is located), the Franco-Lithuanian ensemble Rakija Klezmer Orkestar“ and the Yiddish Atmospheric Touch trio from France will perform classics and improv. Stay tuned for more information.
March 11 Greetings
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky extends here greetings on the occasion of March 11:
Dear reader,
Thirty-five. That’s how old our restored independent country is today where we enjoy the freedom to live, speak and discuss. That many years we have been able to take pride in our ethnicity and identity openly, to share our culture, knowledge and individuality. This is the greatest gift which we hold so dear and appreciate so much.
Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community
Natalja Cheifec’s Special Purim Edition
Natalja Cheifec’s lecture series features a special Purim edition Wednesday. She will talk about the meaning of and traditions associated with the holiday, why it is considered a holiday of Jewish liberation and unity and about the Book of Esther and why it does not mention the name of God.
To register and receive zoom credentials, click here.
Time: 5:30 P.M., Wednesday, March 12
Place: internet
Trump Cuts $400 Million in Grants to Columbia University over Anti-Semitism
The slashed funding comes amid a review of more than $5 billion in federal grant commitments going to Columbia
March 7, 2025, Fox News
The Trump administration announced on Friday that it will rescind more than $400 million in federal grants to Columbia University, citing concerns over rising anti-Semitism on campus and the school’s failure to address it.
Earlier this week the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Education (DoED) and the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced the initiation of a “comprehensive review” of more than $5 billion in federal grant money that goes to Columbia, “in light of ongoing investigations for potential violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act” related to anti-Semitism on campus.
It has only been four days since the Trump administration’s announcement of this review, but the agencies have already begun slashing funds. Sources familiar with the matter, who asked to remain anonymous, say that more than $400 million in federal grant funds from HHS and DoED will be rescinded from Columbia as a result of the antisemitism that is allegedly continuing on campus.
Happy March 11
On this day in 1990 the Lithuanian parliament voted to restore Lithuanian independence 50 years after the interwar republic was incorporated into the Soviet Union. To those brave deputies who signed the restoration of statehood legislation, including Emanuelis Zingeris, we say thank you, and to the people and peoples of Lithuania, we say congratulations to you, and to ourselves. Mazl tov. Bis 1,200!
Righteous Gentiles Day in Vilnius
This year will be the third Lithuania has officially remembered her Righteous Gentiles who rescued Jews from the Holocaust. It is another opportunity to remember the bravery and shining example set by those who risked their lives to help their fellow man.
“Time is pitiless. Every year more rescuers and more survivors pass away, but the memory of their experience will never fade,” Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said. She added that her family was also saved by Righteous Gentiles.
Time: 12:00 noon, Thursday, March 13
Place: Choral Synagogue, Vilnius
Hebrew Classes Continue
Ruth Reches’s Hebrew classes for the general public continue at the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium in Vilnius every Sunday. Beginners and more advanced students are invited to attend. For more information, contact Reches at ruthreches@gmail.com.
Knafaim Club Meets Fridays
The Knafaim Club for adolescents aged 13 to 17 meets this Friday and every Friday with games and other activities to strengthen Jewish roots and deepen knowledge of tradition, followed by a ceremony to usher in the Sabbath. The club meets at 6:00 P.M. at the Lithuanian Jewish Community. For more information, contact Žana Skudovičienė at zanas@sc.lzb.lt.
Argentina’s Milei Opens Nazi Ratline Files
Up to 10,000 Nazi war criminals fled Europe using these escape routes. President Javier Milei pledges to declassify files related to how his country settled 5,000 of them.
Argentinian president Javier Milei promised officials of the Simon Wiesenthal Center his full cooperation in granting access to documents related to the financing of so-called ratlines which helped Nazis escape Europe after the Holocaust. The promise was made in Buenos Aires at the presidential palace, Casa Rosada, during a meeting with Milei and activists February 18.
For decades organizations including the Simon Wiesenthal Center have sought records related to escape routes taken by thousands of Nazis during the years after World War II. Up to 10,000 Nazis and other war criminals escaped justice by fleeing to Argentina and other countries.
“While some previous leaders promised full cooperation to get to the hard truths that involved Argentina’s past, Milei is the first to act with lightning speed to enable the SWC to uncover important pieces of the historic puzzle, especially as it related to involvement with Nazis before, during and after the Holocaust,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told The Times of Israel.
Full story here.
Knesset Members Visit Sholem
Members of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, visited the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium in Vilnius Monday.
Accompanied by Israel’s ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein, MKs Simon Davidson, Yevgeny Sova, Ariel Kallner, Issak Shimon Wasserlauf and Dor Kaidar toured Vilnius’s Jewish school and met and spoke with students, teachers and staff.
Members of the delegation were encouraged the Vilnius municipality finances the Jewish school and said that wasn’t the case in other countries they visited. The ORT Global Education Network and Israel’s Education Ministry also support the school.
One student asked the MKs if they had been to Lithuania before and was surprised to learn one had been born here. Another had Lithuanian roots.
Natalja Cheifec’s Discussion Club to Meet
Natalja Cheifec’s discussion club continues Thursday, March 6 at 5:30 P.M. This week’s topic is the Jewish woman.
To receive zoom credentials, click here.
Condolences
Dita Sperling has passed away at the age of 102. She was born in Kaunas in 1922. She survived the Kaunas ghetto and Stutthof and went on to be a prolific writer and Holocaust educator. Our deepest condolences to her surviving family and friends around the world.
Šiauliai Remembers Righteous Gentiles
The Šiauliai District Jewish Community invites you to an event to mark Lithuania’s Righteous Gentiles Remembrance Day called “Witnesses to the Miracles of Life” on March 16.
Program:
1:00 P.M. Commemoration ceremony at Righteous Gentiles Square including words and wreath-laying with MP Paulė Kuzmickienė and the architect Tauras Budzys who began marking the graves of Righteous Gentiles in Lithuania with a special symbol back in 2018;
2:00 P.M. Exhibit of Righteous Gentiles called “Unafraid to Die, They Became Immortal” at the Šiauliai District Jewish Community, Višinskio street no. 24, and a musical performance by Dalia Dėdinskaitė on violin and Gleb Pyšniak on cello.
Time: 1:00 P.M., Sunday, March 16
Place: Righteous Gentiles Square and Šiauliai District Jewish Community, Šiauliai
Samuel Bak Presents Catalog
Samuel Bak himself and a panel of experts will launch a Bak catalog in Lithuanian on the first day of the Vilnius Book Fair. The catalog of his artwork is called “Gydantys simboliai.”
Joining via video link from the USA, Litvak painter from Vilnius Samuel Bak will speak with Bak Museum senior curator Ieva Šadzevičienė, illustrator Jokūbas Jacovskis and others with synchronous translations in Lithuanian and English.
Time: 2:00 P.M., February 27
Place: conference hall 5.5, Litexpo building, Laisvės prospect no. 5, Vilnius
Jewish Kindergarten Registration Open
The Sholem Aleichem kindergarten in Vilnius is accepting applications until March 1. For more information, call +370 672 35592 or write rastine@ort.lt.
Criminal, Trash and Enemy of the State
by Grant Gochin
All I sought was information about the murder of my Lithuanian family during the Holocaust. This was my entanglement with the government of Lithuania.
Most barbarians shout about their hideous torture and murder of innocents as a matter of pride. Palestinian terrorists murder Jews and boast about it. They have parades with slain bodies. They hand out candy, and dance with joy, thinking they have done something wonderful. They haven’t.
During the Holocaust, Lithuanians murdered Jews with an even greater level of ferocity and depravity than Hamas currently displays. Their conduct was reprehensible and not even close to human. The Lithuanian slaughter was almost complete. They murdered 96.4% of all Jews they could reach. The current dream of Gaza is the replication of the Lithuanian Holocaust.
Condolences
Marian Turski died February 14. He was born in Druskininkai in 1926. A survivor of the Łódź ghetto, Theresienstadt, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Buchenwald and was liberated by the Soviet Red Army in 1945. He resettled in Poland where he advocated for the Communist regime and served as editor of the newspaper Sztandar Młodych and then as chief of the history department of the weekly Polytika, and authored at least seven books about the Holocaust and Communist politics in Poland. Our deepest condolences to his surviving daughter Joanna.
Natalja Cheifec’s Discussion Club on Jewish Tradition
Natalja CHeifec’s #ŠALOM discussion club continues this Thursday, February 20, at 5:30 P.M. on the zoom platform. This week she’ll lead a discussion on Jewish tradition in general. To register and acquire zoom credentials, fill out the form here.