Religion

March 11 Greetings

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 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

Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

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.

Knafaim Club Meets Fridays

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.

Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

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.

Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

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.

Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 5:24 P.M. on Friday, February 14, and concludes at 6:22 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 5:06 P.M. and completed before sunset at 5:24 P.M. Friday is also Valentine’s Day and Sunday, February 16, is Restoration of Lithuanian Statehood Day celebrated now and during the first Lithuanian republic between the two world wars.

Tu b’Shvat

Tu b’Shvat

Today is the Jewish holiday of Tu b’Shvat, the 15th day of the month of Shvat, the New Year for trees also known as Israeli Arbor Day. It is traditional to eat of the shvat ha’minim (seven species endemic to the Land of Israel): wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates. Hag sameakh!

National Library Celebrates 100 Years of YIVO

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.

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Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 5:10 P.M. on Friday, February 7, and concludes at 6:08 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 4:52 P.M. and completed before sunset at 5:10 P.M.

Israeli Speaker to Address LJC Sunday

Israeli Speaker to Address LJC Sunday

Litvak Raffael Hletzer will speak at the Lithuanian Jewish Community Sunday. He was born in Lithuania but left for Israel with his family at a young age. He is currently the executive director of the renowned Kehilor Netaim Jewish educational program. His presentation will be about his roots in Lithuania, the upcoming holiday Tu b’Shvat and connections with the past and present. The event is free but registration is required by sending an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt.

Time: 1:00 P.M., Sunday, February 9
Place: Room 306, Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius

Natalja Cheifec’s Discussion Club: Secrets of Longevity of the Jewish Family

Natalja Cheifec’s Discussion Club: Secrets of Longevity of the Jewish Family

This Thursday Natalja Cheifec’s discussion club will address male and female relations in Judaism. The Talmud says a God-fearing man vindicates an immoral woman and becomes immoral himself, but when an unjust man marries a God-fearing woman, he comes God-fearing.

This discussion will also talk about the hidden strengths of the Jewish family, the circumstances surrounding quick divorce, legends about Jewish weddings, the concept of love in Judaism and miracle-births by Jewish women.

To receive zoom credentials, click here. To make a donation to #NataljosPaskaita and/or the LJC, click here.

Time: 5:30 P.M., February 6
Place: internet

Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 4:55 P.M. on Friday, January 31, and concludes at 5:55 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit starting at 4:37 P.M. and completed before sunset at 4:55 P.M. Different countries celebrate Lunar or Chinese New Year from before to several days after the weekend, and the United States and Canada celebrate Groundhog Day on February 2, which coincides with the Christian holy day Candlemas.

Synagogue Bombing Averted in Sydney

Synagogue Bombing Averted in Sydney

Mark Morri, crime editor for Ausralia’s Daily Telegraph newspaper, reported January 29 a plot uncovered by New South Wales Police over a week ago involving a large amount of explosives placed inside a caravan, or van, to be used to bomb a synagogue, presumably in Sydney where the discovery was made.

According to Sky News Australia, the NSW Police, the Australian Federal Police and the Australian ASIO intelligence agency are investigating and several arrests have been made. Morri told Sky News Australia police believe they have arrested low-level operatives in the plot but not the ring leaders. Police also found a list of addresses of Jewish targets including at least one synagogue in the same van with the explosives, according to Sky News Australia and the Daily Telegraph.

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NAALE Offers Students Chance to Study in Israel

NAALE Offers Students Chance to Study in Israel

Younger Community members exclusively again have the opportunity to meet with a representative of the NAALE Elite Academy at the Lithuanian Jewish Community this Sunday.

NAALE is a unique program providing Jewish adolescents the opportunity to receive a scholarship and to study from 3 to 4 years at an institution of higher learning in Israel.

The program was established in 1992 by the Society for Advancement of Education in partnership with The Ministry of Education and the Jewish Agency, as a response to the pressing need for quality education for Jewish youth after the dissolution of the former Soviet Union had left the educational system there in disarray. Initially intended for those repatriating to Israel, it came to include talented Jewish teenagers from around the world, providing them the best high school education and a priceless tool to achieve their future goals. NAALE Elite Academy also helps reestablish firm ties with Jewish roots and friendships which last a lifetime.

Different Israeli schools have NAALE programs which have their own individual features tailored to different styles, interests and religious and secular views.

Project leader of the NAALE directorate Igal Brantman will visit the Lithuanian Jewish Community this week to answer all your questions.

You must register to attend the event by sending an email to viljamas@lzb.lt.

Time: 11:00 A.M., Sunday, February 2
Place: Lithuanian Jewish Community, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius

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WJC President Lauder Warns Anti-Semitism that Led to Holocaust Still Threatens Global Stability

WJC President Lauder Warns Anti-Semitism that Led to Holocaust Still Threatens Global Stability

OSWIECIM, Poland–The virulent anti-Semitism that led to the Holocaust is still rampant around the globe today, World Jewish Congress president Ronald Lauder said against the backdrop of Monday’s solemn commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration and death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.

In a fundamental way, he added, a common thread links what happened at Auschwitz to the recent manifestations of Jew-hatred, including the October 7, 2023, terror attacks on Israel: the age-old hatred of Jews. Anti-Semitism “had its willing supporters then, and it has them now,” Lauder, who also serves as chair of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation and who has dedicated decades to preserving the site, said. “It was fed by the indifference of people who thought they were not affected because they were not Jewish.”

Lauder also stressed that anti-Semitic acts undermine the central tenets of civil society. “These attacks are not just targeting Jews,” he said. “They are an attack on Judeo-Christian values, which are the bedrock of Western civilization.”

He delivered his remarks alongside four Auschwitz survivors and Piotr Cywiński, director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Museum.

Full text and video here.

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

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.

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Natalja Cheifec’s Discussion Club on Judaism and Vegetarianism

Natalja Cheifec’s Discussion Club on Judaism and Vegetarianism

Natalja Cheifec’s #EDUKACIJOS discussion club invites you to a zoom discussion on the place of vegetarianism in Judaism at 5:30 P.M. this Thursday, January 30. She will cite precedents mentioned in the Bible, for example, the hidden meaning of the story of Cain and Abel and their sacrifices, as well as tackling Nazi ideology about subhumans and the more recent controversy surrounding the ad campaign “The Holocaust on your plate.” She will also address a number of points about blessings over food, Judaism’s restrictions on meat consumption, the hierarchy of God’s Creation and others.

To register and receive zoom credentials, click here.