The Sabbath begins at 6:08 P.M. on Friday, October 13, and concludes at 7:17 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Lithuanian Schools Closed Due to Bomb Threats
Schools, kindergartens and universities across Lithuania were closed in the early afternoon Friday as numerous emails in Russian and Lithuanian were received claiming bombs had been placed at these locations. This followed the same threats made to schools in Klaipėda Thursday as Lithuanian military and security forces were scheduled to carry out drills on the marine liquified natural gas terminal located there. Police spokesmen said the same threats were made in Latvia and Estonia over previous days. They said the threatening emails in Lithuania were in Russian with some in Lithuanian and contained two separate demands: ransom for “de-mining” the schools, and political demands Lithuania stop supporting the Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.
The Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium in Vilnius decided several days ago to cancel in-school classes Friday and to conduct lessons via internet instead because Hamas had called upon supporters to attack Jewish institutions around the world on October 13. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman told Lithuanian media the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius was closed and almost all staff at the LJC were working from home. All events and programs scheduled at the LJC have been cancelled for now, according to LJC executive director Michailas Segal. Chairwoman Kukliansky said the regional Jewish communities had all been apprised of growing security concerns.
Lithuanian police had started making regular patrols outside the Sholem Aleichem school and the Choral Synagogue since the Hamas attack on southern Israel last Saturday.
Update: Around 1,500 schools and educational institutions received bomb threats again on Monday, October 16.
Pro-Palestinian Protests, Rash of Attacks on Jews around the World
Israel War: Hamas Attacks Lead to Rising Anti-Semitism
by Beth Bailey, October 12, 2023, Washington Examiner
As another devastating side effect of the deadly October 7 Hamas terror attacks on Israeli civilians, Jews around the world are becoming the targets of anti-Semitic hate. First came celebrations of the slaughter. In Cyprus; Sydney, Australia; Ontario and Toronto, Canada; Beirut; Damascus; Baghdad; Cairo and Ramallah supporters of Palestinian resistance came together to applaud attacks on the Israeli state.
The Anti-Defamation League tracked 39 anti-Israel rallies in the United States. They included events in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Tucson, Anaheim, San Francisco, Columbus, Tampa Bay, Albuquerque, Providence, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. In New York one reveler displayed pictures of dead Israelis on his phone. Another showed off a picture of a Nazi swastika. A speaker in Philadelphia attested that “every person who died yesterday wasn’t innocent. Every Israeli settler by default is a terrorist.” In Chicago, crowds chanted, “No Zionism in our town.”
“Make no mistake,” a speaker told crowds in D.C., “We are in celebration.”
These celebrations soon gave way to acts of outright anti-Semitism.
Guests from Kupiškis Join Sukkot Celebrations in Panevėžys
A delegation from the town of Kupiškis attended the Sukkot celebration by the Panevėžys Jewish Community and presented a new book and student art exhibit about the former Jewish community in the small town.
The local history book “Kupiškio žydų bendruomenės atspindžiai. Kupiškėnų atsiminimai apie žydų bendruomenė” [Reflections of the Kupiškis Jewish Community: Kupiškis Residents Recall the Jewish Community” was compiled by historian Aušra Jonušytė who also delivered an address at the Sukkot celebration about the former Kupiškis Jewish community and their fate. Book illustrators Augustė Žalkauskaitė, Nojus Pajarskas and Vytė Sabaliauskaitė spoke about their work on the book.
Kupiškis regional NGO coalition executive chairwoman Marytė Semaškienė and art school principal Daiva Šakickienė also spoke in Panevėžys. Šakickienė’s students from the Kupiškis Art School also presented an exhibit of their works of art revolving around the former Kupiškis Jewish community.
Intellectual Heritage of Vilner Jews
The Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities invite you to attend an international conference called “The Intellectual Heritage of the Jews of Vilnius” on October 10 and 11 at the Lithuanian Academy located at Gedimino prospect no. 3 in Vilnius.
According to the Lithuanian Academy’s press release:
“Thanks to the support of the Research Council of Lithuania, we were able to invite such world-renowned experts in Jewish history and culture as Israel Bartal, David Fishman, David Roskies, Benjamin Brown, Alex Lubotzky, Marcin Wodzinski, Jon Seligman, Avner Holtzman, Tsvia Walden, Mordechai Zalkin and others.
“The conference will also feature presentations by prominent Lithuanian scholars: Giedrė Jankevičiūtė, Mindaugas Kvietkauskas, Lara Lempertienė, Jurgita Verbickienė and doctoral student Saulė Valiūnaitė.”
A program is available in English here.
For more information, visit the Lithuanian Academy’s website here.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 6:25 P.M. on Friday, October 6, and concludes at 7:34 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Simchat Torah at the Choral Synagogue
The Choral Synagogue in Vilnius will provide the following prayer services for Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah:
October 6
6:30 P.M. Kabalat Shabat and Hag Shmini
October 7
10:00 A.M. Shacharit
11:00 A.M. Megilat Kohelet (reading from the Book of Ecclesiastes)
12:00 noon Yizkor
7:40 Simchat Torah eve with hakafot dance/procession
October 8
10:00 A.M. Shacharit with hakafot
11:00 A.M. Torah reading
Discussion Club on Sukkot and Other Jewish Holidays: How Do They Compare with Lithuanian Holidays?
The 15th of Tishrei, which fell on Friday, September 29 this year, is when Sukkot, one of the more important Jewish holidays, begins. Jewish families pitch a tent or build a booth where every day, except on the Sabbath, they “dwell,” meaning they spend some time at the table inside, or spend the night in warmer climes. This is meant to remind us of the 40 years the Hebrew people dwelt in the desert following the exodus from Egypt living in tents.
The ŽydiškiPašnekesiai discussion club led by writer and journalist Arkadijus Vinokuras is inviting participants to come inside the traditional sukka this Wednesday, October 4, to talk about the Jewish holidays in the fall season.
“Sukkot is a week-long Jewish holiday which is celebrated five days after Yom Kippur. Sukkot celebrates the harvest and recalls God’s miraculous protection to the children of Israel after the exodus from Egypt. We celebrate Sukkot in a booth called a sukka decorated with vegetation and by handling the four species of vegetation,” Vinokuras said.
Telzh Yeshiva Reopens to Public
The famous Telzh (Tels, Telšiai, Telz) Yeshiva, a cultural heritage site, has reopened with a new public use. Last week a branch of the Alka Museum opened its doors inside the yeshiva building. The new museum space housed in the Jewish school will feature and protect the Jewish material heritage there.
The Telzh Yeshiva exhibit there was set up based on the yizkor Sefer Ṭelz (Sefer Ṭelz (Liṭa): matsevet zikaron li-ḳehilah ḳedoshah) compiled by Yitzhak Alperowitz and published in Israel in 1984. In 2022 the books was translated into Lithuanian as “Telšiai. Atminties knyga” [Telzh: Book of Memory], opening the door for Lithuanian speakers to discover the traces of Jewish life in the small town and find out more about its history.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 6:43 P.M. on Friday, September 29, and concludes at 7:51 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Sukkot Begins Today
Sukkot or Sukkos beings at 6:43 P.M. in Vilnius on Friday, September 29, 2023.
The festival of Sukkot–literally meaning booths, tents, tabernacles–is celebrated for seven days in Israel and eight days in the Diaspora, starting on the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei. It is one of the three festivals during which Jewish men were required to make pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the times of the Holy Temple.
This year the first day of the week-long holiday coincides with the Sabbath, adding another layer to the observance of taking the lulav, or the four species, and dwelling in the sukka or booth is postponed till after the conclusion of the Sabbath. For more information, see here.
United States Funding for Žiežmariai Wooden Synagogue
Photo: Synagogue in Žiežmariai, by Andrejus Tomenko.
An international agreement is already bearing fruit: the United States Commission for the Preservation of American Heritage Abroad has collected $10,000, the first tranche to be used for restoration of the second floor, the women’s gallery, of the wooden synagogue in Žiežmariai, Lithuania.
Several months ago Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky and United States Commission for the Preservation of American Heritage Abroad director Star Jones signed an agreement to join forces for the restoration of the second storey of the unique wooden synagogue in rural Lithuania. The Commission pledged to find financing for that project and the LJC pledged to insure its smooth implementation.
The synagogue was built in the 19th century but burned down in 1920 and was rebuilt. For the thousand or so Jews of the small town before the Holocaust, the synagogue served as both a house of prayer and school, and the central community meeting place.
Rosh Hashana at the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community
The Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community celebrated the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana, at the Žemaitis restaurant in Šiauliai. Community chairman Naumas Gleizeris greeted celebrants and wished everyone a good and healthy year. Vadimas Kamrazeris performed live music and Community members took to the dance floor. The shofar horn was blown during the celebration. Some snapshots follow below.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 7:01 P.M. on Friday, September 22, and concludes at 8:09 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Yom Kippur at the Choral Synagogue
The Choral Synagogue in Vilnius will hold mincha at 7:00 P.M. and kol nidrei and maariv services at 8:00 P.M. on Sunday, September 24, to mark Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
On Monday, September 25, there will be morning prayer service at 10:00 A.M., followed by a yizkor service at 12:00 noon and mincha and neil at 7:00 P.M.
President Nausėda Unveils Plaque Commemorating Librarian, Bibliographer Antanas Ulpis at YIVO
Photo: YIVO executive board chairwoman Ruth Levine, Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda with wife Diana Nausėdienė and YIVO executive director Jonathan Brent, photograph by Robertas Dačkus
September 19, 2023
As part of his working visit to New York Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda attended the unveiling of a memorial plaque to the Lithuanian librarian and bibliographer Antanas Ulpis at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.
Gitanas Nausėda said it is important to preserve the memory of the deeds of Lithuanian librarian, bibliographer and director of the Vilnius Book Chamber Antanas Ulpis and the Paper Brigade because thanks to them thousands of Jewish books and documents were safeguarded during the Nazi and Soviet occupations.
During the Nazi occupation around 20 Jews from the Vilnius Ghetto, the so-called Paper Brigade, hid Jewish books, Torahs and other documents, risking their lives. Later Antanas Ulpis, director of the Book Chamber, saved these unique documents and texts from destruction by the Soviets by hiding them in nooks and crannies at St. George’s Church in Vilnius.
“This is not only an important part of the history of Lithuanian Jews which has been preserved, but also an example of humanism, when evil is countered with good and darkness with light,” the Lithuanian president said.
Schedule of Commemorative Events for the 80th Anniversary of the Anti-Nazi Resistance and Liquidation of the Vilnius Ghetto
European Days of Jewish Culture
Time: Starts at 10:00 A.M. on September 3, 2023
Location: Lithuanian Jewish Community, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius; Choral Synagogue, Pylimo street no. 39, Cvi Park (Petras Cvirka Square across the street from the Lithuanian Jewish Community).
Exhibit “Ghetto Children Tell Their Story to Contemporary Children”
Time: September 4 to September 30, 2023
Location: Adomas Mickevičius Public Library, Trakų street no. 10, Vilnius.
Special Concert to Remember Victims of the Holocaust
Lithuanian prime minister Ingrida Šimonytė, patroness
Time: September 6, 2023
Location: Lėlė Theater, Arklių street no. 5, Vilnius.
by invitation only
Kaunas Jewish Community Celebrates Rosh Hashana
The Kaunas Jewish Community ushered in the Jewish new year 5784 with greetings from chairman Gercas Žakas to a large number of members who assembled for the celebration, tables laden with holiday dishes, singing, games and lively conversation.
Snapshots from the party below.
Eightieth Anniversary of Liquidation and Uprising of Vilnius Ghetto: Play “Symphony of Dance from the Jerusalem of the North”
The dance troupe Lietuva and the Prabudimo orkestras present a song and dance spectacular called “Symphony of Dance from the Jerusalem of the North.” The performance is based on Jievaras Jasinskis’s work “Simfonija iš Šiaurės Jeruzalės” [Symphony from the Jerusalem of the North]. The story begins 4,000 years ago and extends till the present. The performance will take place on different dates around Lithuania. Tickets available here.
Schedule:
7:00 P.M. on September 23 at the State Youth Theater in Vilnius, by invitation only.
6:00 P.M. on September 24 at the State Youth Theater in Vilnius
7:00 P.M. on September 27 at the State Drama Theater in Kaunas
6:00 P.M. on October 7 at the Concert Hall in Palanga
#VilniusGhetto80
Panevėžys Jewish Community Celebrates New Year
Rosh Hashana is one of the most important Jewish holidays. The new year 5784 has begun. A small picnic took place in the courtyard of the Panevėžys Jewish Community on September 17 with apples and honey and challa bread, and warm wishes were expressed for Jews around the world.
This year for the first time this century Lithuanian Jewish scouts from Vilnius visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community. They were returning from the Žalioji Forest where they had camped for two days with scouts from Panevėžys. The Panevėžys Jewish Community treated them to a tour of the town including stories about the Jews of Panevėžys and the Holocaust.
After a brief rest at the Community, the scouts joined Community members for a holiday meal including the traditional dishes which according to custom should be sampled in greeting the Jewish New Year.