Yiddish – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Igor Epstein Klezmer Concert and Lecture

The Lithuanian Jewish Community is pleased to announce a concert by Igor Itzik Epstein from Köln and his lecture on klezmer music called “Klezmer Music from Its Origins to Today.”

Epstein’s Klezmer Tov was founded by Igor (Itzik) Epstein in Cologne about 15 years ago. Igor’s musical journey did not begin, however, in Germany. Born in Vilnius, Igor grew up in Rostov-on-Don in a Jewish musical family. It was there that he received his music education, first as a classical violinist and later as a jazz bass performer, graduating from the Rostov State Conservatory.

The development of Igor’s unique style is the result of a lifetime of musical influence. Playing music and growing up in a talented musical family meant that he was always surrounded by different forms of music. Therefore, upon moving to Europe, he became known as a performer who seems to appeal to his listeners on multiple levels simultaneously by fusing together elements of folk, jazz and classical music with sparkling Jewish humor.

Epstein’s Klezmer Tov is a traditional acoustic band which communicates with the audience through their own native musical language called Klezmer. Although the number of musicians in the group can vary from duo to sextet (violin, clarinet, guitar, bass, accordion/piano and percussion) the genuine colorful emotions and the authenticity of its expressive melodies remain unchanged.

Epstein will speak and perfrom April 1 at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius. Registration is required by sending an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt. For more information, call (+370) 678 81514.

Time: 6:30 P.M., April 1
Place: LJC, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius

2025-03-252025-03-25

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.

2025-03-122025-03-19

National Library Celebrates 100 Years of YIVO

The Martynas Mažvydas Lithuanian National Library conserves a YIVO document collection of very significant volume and content. The YIVO was established exactly a century ago in Vilnius in 1925. It is the only Vilnius Jewish institution which did not stop operating during the Holocaust and which continues to operate today. After World War II YIVO made its main headquarters at its branch in New York City. This branch took over the institute’s functions as a center for the preservation of Jewish heritage and research.

Many traces of the institute’s work survived in Vilnius: fragments of its documentation, correspondence, library collection and archives, scattered among several commemorative institutions. The National Library is conducting a study of the institute’s archives which is revealing YIVO’s origins in Vilnius and its especially fruitful period of activity in Vilnius before WWII.

The 100-year anniversary of the founding of the YIVO was noted back in 2023 in a resolution by the Lithuanian parliament as being of special significance to world culture and the National Library. Lithuanian National Library director Aušrinė Žilinskienė spoke about this at the Lithuanian embassy in Washington, D.C., on December 9, 2024. That event to mark the anniversary was organized with YIVO headquarters in New York.

The National Library is holding an event in cooperation with a large number of Lithuanian and foreign partners with a spectacular program, including the publication of books on the history of the YIVO, an international academic forum and an exhibit of textual heritage.

2025-02-122025-02-12

Remembering Sutzkever

Ambassadors from Germany, the USA and Israel and the Lithuanian Jewish Community marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day by attending a play about the life of Abraham Sutzkever at the Vilnius Puppet Theater, a venue which was the Vilnius ghetto theater during the Holocaust.

Abraham Sutzkever was a Yiddish poet before, during and after the Holocaust and was imprisoned in the Vilnius ghetto. He joined the underground and fought as a Jewish partisan against the German and Lithuanian Nazis. In February of 1946 he was called up as a witness at the Nuremberg trials, testifying against Franz Murer, the murderer of his mother and newborn son.

The play, “Witness,” was written by Sutzkever’s granddaughter Hadas Kalderon. Israeli actor and stand-up comic Michael Hanegbi performed the role of Sutzkever.

Lithuanian foreign minister Kęstutis Budrys introduced the play. After the play Kalderon and Hanegbi shared reminiscences of Sutzkever and their thoughts and feelings about the play itself.

2025-02-042025-02-04

Šiauliai District Jewish Community Marks International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust

The Šiauliai District Jewish Community marked the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust proclaimed by UNESCO in 2005 Monday with members and friends attending the remembrance ceremony.

Actors Juozas Bindokas and Monika Šaltytė read translations of texts and poems by Abraham Sutzkever accompanied by Motiejus Dudnikas on accordeon. The composition was called “Prayer Just to Myself” detailing Sutzkever’s life before the Holocaust, being imprisoned in the Vilnius ghetto, liberation and the testimony he gave against Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials.

2025-01-282025-01-28

Šiauliai Jewish Community Marks Holocaust Day with Sutzkever Reading

The Šiauliai Jewish Community will mark the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust at 6:00 P.M. on January 27 with a reading event called “Prayer to Myself” based on texts by the poet Abraham Sutzkever at the Šiauliai District Jewish Community at Vileišio street no. 24 in Šiauliai.

2025-01-20

Tsemakh Shabad

Monday marks the 90th anniversary of Tsemakh Shabad, the renowned doctor from Vilnius. Besides being a medical doctor, Shabad was a philanthropist and served on the Vilnius city council and in the Polish Senate. He was a founding member of the YIVO. Legendary during his own lifetime, Shabad was immortalized in literature as Dr. Aybolit in the work of the same name by the extremely popular Russian-language children’s author Korney Chukovsky. Dr. Aybolit was the main character in three Soviet films and spawned a Soviet cartoon series as well. Janina Valančiūtė from the Lithuanian Library of Medicine wrote a study of the man in Lithuanian several years ago, available below.

2025-01-162025-01-17

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

Is Yiddish Experiencing a Renaissance?

by Daiva Gabrilavičiūtė, LRT.lt, October 26, 2024

“The Yiddish language has become a symbol of Jewish cultural resistance and survival. In spite of waves of historical oppression, the Holocaust and assimilation, Yiddish reflects the resolution, resilience and continuity of the Jewish people,” Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium principal Ruth Reches told Lithuanian state radio and teleivision.

Yiddish appeared about a millennium ago in what is now Germany. Large Jewish communities settled in Eastern Europe. Over time Yiddish became more than the everyday language of communication and was used in Jewish intellectual and cultural life. Books and newspapers were published, songs were written and plays performed in Yiddish.

Before World War II more than 10 million people spoke Yiddish. Most were murdered during the Holocaust. The handful who survived faced Soviet oppression. Others found safe haven on the other side of the Atlantic.

Full article in Lithuanian here.

2024-10-292024-11-11

Somber Tone as Seniors Citizens Celebrate Rosh Hashanah on Eve of October 7

Senior citizens and elderly members of the Lithuanian Jewish Community gathered for a different kind of Rosh Hashanah celebration at the LJC in Vilnius on the weekend.

With the anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 invasion and mass murder of Israelis last year, there was less of the usual music and fun and more prayers in Yiddish and Hebrew performed by Choral Synagogue cantor Shmuel Yaatom. The cantor’s wife Natalja Cheifec spoke about the history and traditions of Rosh Hashanah and the role of the woman in the Jewish family.

2024-10-09

European Day of Jewish Culture 2024

This year’s topic is family.

The Lithuanian Jewish Community is celebrating the European Day of Jewish Culture this Sunday, September 1, with a full day’s program of events, lessons, workshops, discussions and exhibits. All events are free and open to the public, but registration is required for most of the events below.

Here’s the program:

11:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M. First Hebrew lesson for the whole family with Ruth Reches at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius. Ruth will soon be forming new classes for studying Hebrew. Register here: https://bit.ly/4g5jZbW

2024-08-29

Jonas Šliūpas Museum in Palanga to Host Street Play and Discussion on Yiddish Humor

The Jonas Šliūpas Museum and the Palanga Jewish Community invites you to a day of Jewish culture this Sunday with circus and drama director, street-theater creator and comedian Adrian Schvarzstein from Argentina and Lithuania’s historical dance expert and choreographer Jūrate Širvytė who will present the street-play Arrived.

Arrived was born in Sri Lanka in 2015 and was first performed in Lithuania in 2017 under the title Malina.

Actor and comedian Schvarzstein will follow the play up with a discussion on Yiddish humor at the Jonas Šliūpas Museum. In between the play and the discussion the Palanga Jewish Community and the Bella Toscana bakery are promising to provide Jewish culinary heritage treats to attendees. All events are free.

Time: 2:00 P.M. to 3:30 P.M., September 1.
Location: The street-play begins at the Ramybė Café at Vytauto street no. 54, followed by Litvak treats in the courtyard of the Jonas Šliūpas Museum at Vytauto street no. 23a and the discussion at that same location in Palanga.

2024-08-29

European Day of Jewish Culture Coming September 1

The European Day of Jewish Culture celebrated on the first Sunday in September falls on September 1 this year. This year’s celebration will feature Yiddish and Hebrew lessons at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius and a walking tour of Jewish Vilna with guide Viljamas Žitkauskas. The students from Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium are planning performances and the Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club is also sponsoring activities.

Jewish song and dance ensemble Fayerlakh will hold a concert and Raimondas Savickas is planning an open-air art workshop. Julija Patashnik will conduct an Israeli dance class, celebrated author and animator Ilja Bereznickas’s books and animated films will be featured and the Bagel Shop Café will provide the culinary education component.

An exhibit by Litvak artist Theo Tobiasse will open at the LJC in Vilnius, cantor Shmuel Yatom will perform a blessing of families and stand-up comedian Žilvinas Kerbelis is to perform. The Cvi Park Israeli street food kiosk space will host a concert including violinist Dalia Dėdinskaitė, Glebas Pyšniakas on cello, tenor Rafailas Karpis, Tadas Motiečius on accordion and others.

Stay tuned for more details and registration information.

2024-08-27

Geršonas Taicas: Researching My Family’s Genealogy Grew into a Passionate Hobby

interviewed by Katrina Zeiter

On the topic of Litvak history and personalities, one of the Community’s most active members, Geršonas Taicas, always provides interesting facts and facts unknown even to seasoned researchers. Celebrating his 75th birthday this year, his greatest passion is genealogy. Like a fish in its natural element, he dives into the archives, discovering incredible connections which force us to consider history from another perspective, and also helping Litvak descendants scattered around the world find their family roots. A Litvak himself, he can speak for hours on the notable chef and cooking author Fania Lewando, the crooner Daniel Dolskis and former British prime minister Boris Johnson, but in this interview we spoke about the genealogist’s own story which serves as a mirror of a period in Lithuanian Jewish life which fewer and fewer now remember.

What are your first childhood memories?

I was born in Ukmergė [Vilkomir] in 1949 to a family who had been incarcerated as “enemies of the people” at a gulag in Krasnoyarsk in Siberia. My father Alter was an accountant and my mother Masha was a teacher.

2024-08-222024-08-22

Israeli President Planning to Visit Lithuania in Fall

According to diplomatic sources the Israeli leader’s visit to the three Baltic states had been planned for June.

“The dates of the visit have been adjusted due to the busy agenda of the Baltic leaders and the Israeli president,” press secretary for the president of Lithuania Ridas Jasulionis told BNS.

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky told BNS that she had canceled a trip several weeks ago after learning of the visit planned by the president of Israel. She added Herzog had planned to visit the Lost Shtetl Museum under construction in Šeduva, Lithuania. Herzog is the descendant of Litvaks with roots in Šeduva.

2024-07-292024-07-29

Condolences

Žilvinas Beliauskas suddenly died Friday. A teacher at the Mykolas Romeris University, he was a qualified psychologist and for a time, according to his friends, worked at the United Nations in New York. In the early 2000s a private donor attempted to donate a large collection of “Jewish books” in the broadest sense of the term to the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum, which eventually resulted in the Vilnius Jewish Public Library with sponsorship and funding from the Government chancellor. Žilvinas took the concept of the library and ran with it, acquiring many more important books on Jewish culture and religion and fictional works by Jewish authors. He created more than an open and friendly public library by hosting numerous speakers, panels, discussions and book launches in the humble space. Ever cheerful, friendly with all, always willing to lend a hand, Žilvinas will be sorely missed by all who knew him. We extend our deepest condolences to his many friends and family members.

2024-07-29

Velvl Chernin Giving Lecture on Israel and Repatriation

Yiddish poet, literary scholar, author and SF enthusiast Velvl Chernin who is now also an envoy for the Jewish Agency will deliver a lecture next week at the Lithuanian Jewish Community on the current political and economic situation in Israel and opportunities for making aliyah and settling in Israel.

Time: 6:30 P.M., Tuesday, June 25
Place: Third floor, Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius

2024-06-202024-06-20

Litvak Literature Conference

The Vilnius Jewish Public Library will host a conference on Litvak literature on Sunday, June 22, at 1:00 P.M. Yuri Greisman, Arkadijus Vinokuras, Elena Suodienė, Samoilas Lormanas, Leonida Kriščiūnienė and others will give presentations in Lithuanian. The Vilnius Jewish Public Library is located at Gedimino prospect no. 24 in Vilnius.

2024-06-122024-06-12

Germany Bestows Award on Faina Kukliansky on D-Day

Yesterday, on historic D-Day, “decision day” marking the entry of the western Allies into Nazi-occupied France and the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany, German ambassador to Lithuania Cornelius Zimmermann presented Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky the Order of Merit from the Federal Republic of Germany for her tireless work commemorating Lithuanian Holocaust victims and long-term efforts to unite the LJC including enhancing the organization’s role on the national and international level.

Ambassador Zimmermann presented the honor, saying Germany’s responsibility for the Holocaust will remain forever. He said the Holocaust was a barbaric crime against humanity which led to the death of 95% of the Lithuanian Jewish community. He also said the small Litvak community which survives plays an important role in Lithuanian political life and in the international community, thanks to the efforts of the exceptional person occupying the post of leadership at the LJC.

“I received this award truly not only because my parents were imprisoned in a ghetto and experienced other horrors of the Holocaust, along with other Lithuanian Jews. Their children are not presented medals because of that. I hope this award is an evaluation of preserving memory. I’m not the only person doing this, each of our communities in every region where they have been established are doing everything possible to maintain the old cemeteries and restore synagogues. Sometimes I’m asked why we are doing this if there are no Jews left in the towns anyway. In order to preserve their memory. We no longer possess our parents’ candelabra which every family had for lighting the Sabbath candles. The only thing we have left is memory and respect, and not just self-respect, but also that of the state of Germany which, despite the tragic lessons of history, today is a shining example in many regards. I truly cherish this award because it wasn’t presented to me personally but as an assessment of the work by the entire Jewish community,” chairwoman Kukliansky said, thanking the German president, ambassador Zimmermann and previous German ambassador to Lithuania Matthias Sohn.

2024-06-072024-06-07

Rafailas Karpis and Vilnius State Choir Take Audience on Musical Journey through Jewish History

On June 4 the St. Kotryna (aka Catherine) Church in Vilnius was the gathering place for LJC members, foreign embassy staff, members of the Christian community and friends from Israel who came to take in another Shalom Culture and Music Festival in which opera soloist Rafailas Karpis, the Vilnius State Choir conducted by Artūras Dambrauskas, violinist Borisas Kirzneris and pianist Vincenzo de Martino performed an exceptional program of Jewish music with vocal works in Yiddish, Hebrew, Latin, English and Lithuanian, a musical journey through millennia of Jewish and Litvak history.

2024-06-072024-06-07

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