The Museum of Applied Art and Design in Vilnius opened an exhibit of mainly tapestries based on the artists’ sketches and ceramic works by Marc Chagall, Max Ernst and Pablo Picasso on April 25. The exhibit will continue until September 30, 2024. The museum is located at Arsenalo street no. 3A in Vilnius.
May 8 and 9 are celebrated as Victory Day, marking the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany which came into effect at 12:01 A.M. on May 9, 1945, Lithuanian time.
Dear children, young adults and parents,
Meaningful and fun activities await you every weekend:
Knafaim Club for those aged 13 to 17 at 6:00 P.M. on Fridays;
Ilan Club for children 7-12 at 12:00 noon on Saturdays;
Dubi Club for children aged 3 to 6 at 12:00 noon on Sundays.
All clubs meet at the LJC in Vilnius. See you there!
The Women’s Club is meeting again this Friday, this time with a male cook in the kitchen. Viljamas Žitkauskas will demonstrate his special breakfast-making techniques with an emphasis on Israeli cuisine.
Registration is required by sending an email to zanas@lzb.lt or by calling (+370) 678 81514.
Time: 7:00 P.M., Friday, May 10
Place: Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius
Archaeological digs have resumed at the Great Synagogue site in Vilnius this summer. With no local press coverage the team of archaeologists placed blinds around the eastern edge of what was a school and are excavating the fill used to protect the discovery of the bimah made several years ago. In past years South African Litvak Jon Seligman from the Israel Antiquities Authority and Hartford University and biblical archaeologist Richard Freund led the dig. Richard Freund passed away in 2022 at the age of 67.
While air-raid sirens blared in Israel to mark the Israeli Holocaust remembrance day Yom haShoah, in Lithuania a cantor performed kaddish for the dead. Beyond remembering the victims, the day also commemorates the Jewish heroes, the partisans who took up arms against the Nazis in World War II, as well as the prisoners of the ghettos who undertook spiritual resistance, creating literature, art, plays and music, in part laying the foundation for the future Jewish state. This commemorative day has never been more important and meaningful than it is today, where we see daily outbreaks of anti-Semitism around the world. Thank you to everyone who took part in our humble commemoration.
#IzraelioAmbasadaLietuvoje #JAVambasadaLietuvoje #NyderlandųKaralystėsAmbasada #PrancūzijosAmbasadaLietuvoje #VilniausŠolomoAleichemoORTgimnazija
Last week the Lithuanian Jewish Community held bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies for young adults from the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium under the tutelage of Rabbi Nathan Alfred who arrived from Geneva and Bnei Maskilim founder Viljamas Žitkauskas.
Sholem Aleichem principal Ruth Reches said during the ceremony: “Today’s ceremony is a crucially important step in the child’s life. It is crucial for us as a school to raise your children–although we call them ours sometimes–together, to unify our values, because we spend the most important part of children’s lives with them, the period when they come of age, become adults, from childhood through adolescence. We’ll only find out later how we did. So at school we are surrogate parents, and we love them so much and are so proud of them.
“Children, remember this moment, what you are like now, not just how well you’re dressed, but how spiritually exalted you are. Take this feeling and go with it for the rest of your lives. Whenever you’re tempted to wander from the path of truth, remember this moment, remember your parents and teachers and with what love they looked upon you, and then you’ll realize that behaving badly isn’t for you, it isn’t your level, because you are those we see today and want to see every day for the rest of your lives,” she said.
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky congratulated participants as did Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein and the teachers in attendance.
As always, members of the Kaunas Jewish Community celebrated Passover in fellowship and fine company, in high spirits to the sound music, eating matzo and all the other great dishes provided by the kitchen staff of the Višta Puode restaurant in Kaunas. As in prior years, they also held a quiz to test members’ knowledge of Passover traditions.
The Panevėžys Jewish Community’s traditional Passover celebration was overshadowed this year by the estimated 120 Israeli hostages left alive in Gaza.
All Passover traditions were adhered to, including reading of the Haggadah, the story of the liberation of the Hebrews from the Egyptian yoke and their desert journey to the Promised Land.
Why is this night like no other? Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman explained why we eat matzo, bitter herbs and the other traditional symbolic dishes.
One Panevėžys Jewish Community homemaker treated celebrants to her homemade gefiltefish which was much appreciated.
This Passover was more bittersweet than usual with Community members praying for the quick release of the Jews taken hostage by the barbaric Hamas terrorists who murdered around 1,200 Israeli civilians on October 7, many of them women and children, claiming they were enemy combatants.
On May 14 the St. Kotryna Church in Vilnius will host the opening concert of a Jewish music and culture festival called Shalom Culture and Music, including performances by vocalist Israel Roytman from Jerusalem, local opera soloists Giedrė Kisieliūtė and Joris Rubinovas, and vocalist Karolina Mint.
The program includes Jewish folk songs and favorites from Lithuania, Israel and the USA.
The Shalom Culture and Music Festival will take place from mid-May till October and will visit 11 Lithuanian cities and towns, with concerts including Jewish, klezmer, classical music and works by contemporary composers. Performers come from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Germany, Israel and the Ukraine.
Tickets for the opening concert are available here: https://bit.ly/3TZ7dS1
Tickets for the 19 other concerts planned are available here: https://bit.ly/3W2MgIl
The Sabbath begins at 8:39 P.M. on Friday, May 3, and concludes at 10:06 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Yom haShoah takes place at sundown this Sunday, the 27th day of Nissan on the Jewish calendar. The Day of the Shoah is observed in Israel such that all activities cease, drivers stop their cars on the highway and everyone observes 2 minutes of silence for the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
We will hold an observance at 12:00 noon on Monday, May 6, in the Jewish section of the Sudervės road cemetery in Vilnius. The address is Sudervės road no. 28, Vilnius.
The Sabbath begins at 8:26 P.M. on Friday, April 26, and concludes at 9:49 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Friday also marks the anniversary of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station accident in 1986 and is observed in many of the affected countries. On December 8, 2016, the United Nations General Assembly also proclaimed April 26 International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day.
April 26, 2024
PRESS RELEASE
Statement from the Lithuanian Jewish Community:
Lithuanian Constitutional Court Recognizes Anti-Semitic Statements Violate the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania
The Constitutional Court of Lithuania has ruled that the continuous anti-Semitic statements made by one politician attacking Israel and Lithuanian Jews are a breach of his parliamentary oath and a gross violation of the Lithuanian constitution.
In its decision on April 25 the Constitutional Court acknowledged that through statements posted on his social media platforms, which included derogatory, dignity-diminishing, and mocking descriptions of Jews, inciting intolerance, and belittling the tragedy of the Holocaust, MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis systematically and deliberately demonstrated hatred based on ethnic origin.
Following the decision chairman of the Constitutional Court Gintaras Goda emphasized to gathered journalists that while the constitution provides the right of a person to hold beliefs and express them freely, it prohibits demeaning the dignity of others, violating their rights and demonstrating disrespect or hatred.
This ruling of the Constitutional Court does not by itself trigger any legal accountability (including criminal) for these actions by MP Žemaitaitis. Based on the finding, however, the Lithuanian Parliament may form an impeachment commission which would present its findings, after which members of parliament could vote in a secret ballot whether to revoke Žemaitaitis’s status as an MP.
by Efraim Zuroff
In recent years, we often encounter various attempts by people adversely affected by historical tragedies, or intent on campaigning for ostensibly “humanitarian” causes, to claim that their issue is equivalent to the Holocaust, or is in fact a case of genocide.
Whether it is those like PETA, who are campaigning for animal rights, who invoke Treblinka, one of the worst Nazi death camps, to pursue their goals, or those campaigning against abortions, who compare the plight of the aborted unborn children to that of the victims of the Shoa.
The same is true regarding the use of the term genocide, which in recent years has been applied in cases which do not fulfill the criteria of the original definition of that crime. What has happened in the past few decades, is that accusations of genocide have emerged as a political tool to be used against enemies to attain geographic and/or financial gains by claiming lost territory and/or reparations for damages incurred.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community and Bnei Maskilim invite you to come and usher out Passover week together with a Mimouna celebration, led by Rabbi Nathan Alfred. Besides leading the ceremonies, Rabbi Alfred will also deliver a lecture on Jewish love in English.
The cost is 10 euros per person, children ten and under are free. For more information and to register, send an email to viljamas@lzb.lt or call (+370) 672 50699.
Time: 7:00 P.M., Tuesday, April 30.
Place: Nykštukas Restaurant, Verkių street no. 27, Vilnius
The Ilan Club for children ages 7 to 12 is open again every Saturday, passing on Litvak traditions, offering a place for meeting like-minded friends and loads of fun activities. The club will now be open starting at 12:00 noon on Saturdays at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius. Contact Žana Skudovičienė for more information at zanas@sc.lzb.lt.
The Knafaim Club is open again for young people aged 13 to 17. Games and learning about Judaism and the world is part of the program, followed by a Sabbath celebration, and it happens every Friday at 6:00 P.M. at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius. Žana Skudovičienė is happy to answer any questions, write her at zanas@sc.lzb.lt.
A plaque commemorating Herman Perelstein was unveiled in Kaunas Wednesday. He was the celebrated founder of the Ąžuoliukas boys’ choir and would’ve celebrated his 100th birthday last year. Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas, the makers of the plaque and a representative from the city of Kaunas spoke at the unveiling ceremony.
The Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club reports on recent changes to its executive board. We welcome Olga Bliumenzion as the new president of Lithuanian Makabi. A long-time member of the club, she took over the post at the last general meeting at the end of February, when founder and long-time president Semionas Finkelsteinas announced his intention to vacate. The club’s executive board unanimously voted in favor of Bliumenzion’s presidency.