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
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matter, who asked to remain anonymous, say that more than $400 million in federal grant funds from HHS and DoED will be rescinded from Columbia as a result of the antisemitism that is allegedly continuing on campus.
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!
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
The Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club invites members to a target-shooting contest using live rounds at the GSKA shooting club indoor gun range in Vilnius on March 23.
Competing in three age groups, shooters will get 15 shots including 5 practice rounds and 10 which count. Ammunition and revolvers will be provided to participants at the range.
The cost to participate is 11 euros.
Registration is open till midnight on March 20. To register, click here. For more information, click here.
Time: 10:00 A.M. to 1:30 P.M., Sunday, March 23
Place: GSKA shooting club, Mindaugo street no. 42, Vilnius
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.
The Sabbath begins at 6:07 P.M. on Friday, March 7, and concludes at 7:02 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 5:49 P.M. and completed before sunset at 6:07 P.M. Additionally, Saturday, March 8, is International Women’s Day, and Tuesday, March 11, is Lithuanian Independence Day, marking the date in 1990 when the Lithuanian Supreme Soviet voted to leave the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Purim starts on the evening of Thursday, March 13, at sundown.
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.
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.
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 continues Thursday, March 6 at 5:30 P.M. This week’s topic is the Jewish woman.
To receive zoom credentials, click here.
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.
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
The Sabbath begins at 5:53 P.M. on Friday, February 28, and concludes at 6:49 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 5:35 P.M. and completed before sunset at 5:53 P.M. Friday is also Losar, Tibetan New Year 2152, and Saturday is the related Mongolian New Year, Tsagaan Sar.
Eulogy by Yarden Bibas, husband of Shiri and father of Ariel and Kfir.
I remember the first time I said “mi amor” to you. It was at the very beginning of our relationship. You told me to only call you that if I was certain I loved you, not to say it carelessly. I didn’t say it then because I didn’t want you to think I was rushing to say “I love you.” Shiri, I’ll confess to you now that I already loved you back then when I said “mi amor.”
Shiri, I love you and will always love you!
Shiri, you are everything to me!
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
The Sholem Aleichem kindergarten in Vilnius is accepting applications until March 1. For more information, call +370 672 35592 or write rastine@ort.lt.
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.
A very happy birthday to Artūras Taicas, chairman of the Ukmergė Jewish Community. The Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes you strength and endless energy and enthusiasm, health and happiness and the love of friends and family. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
The Sabbath begins at 5:39 P.M. on Friday, February 21, and concludes at 6:35 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 5:21 P.M. and completed before sunset at 5:39 P.M. Sunday is also the Emperor’s Birthday in Japan, observed on Monday, and National Day in the Sultante of Brunei. Monday is Independence Day in Estonia.