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.
Leader of the Liberal Party Peter Dutton sends Passover greetings to the Jewish community:
On behalf of the Coalition, my warmest wishes to Australia’s resilient Jewish community as you celebrate Passover.
A festival that acknowledges the importance of faith, fortitude and freedom, Passover is of profound significance for Jewish people around the world.
This year, the events of October 7–and the unprecedented level of anti-Semitism that has ensued–have cast a shadow over Passover celebrations.
The world must never forget what happened last year on that day of depravity. The monsters of Hamas acted with glee as they tormented their victims. They brutally murdered 1,200 people in what was the greatest loss of Jewish life on a single day since the Holocaust. And they vowed to repeat their savagery many times over until Israel is annihilated.
Dear reader,
Passover is one of the most important and most beautiful weeks on the Jewish calendar when we celebrate liberation from slavery and our becoming a free and proud people.
Every year we sit at the Passover table, eat the traditional foods, drink sweet wine, take joy in life and read the Haggadah and passages from the Song of Songs. The main thing is being together with family and that no one, whether rich or poor, be left unfed, if there is a way to invite him to our table. This is how it always has been, year after year and century after century.
Over the eight days of the holiday, we symbolically refrain from eating leavened food and we take joy in our freedom and in our historical homeland, Israel, which no one will ever be able to take away from us, not with rockets nor with drones.
We wish everyone freedom and dignity just as we wish these for the Jewish state, and we pray for the hostages still held in captivity.
Hag sameakh. Am Yisrael khai!
The entire embassy of Lithuania in Israel sends greetings to Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky and the entire Community on the occasion of Passover.
Audrius Brūzga, ambassador
We are sad to report the untimely death of Gediminas Kirkilas. Born in 1952, he was a politician, a social democrat, served as prime minister and was a true friend of the Lithuanian Jewish Community. At the heart of the government and in opposition he was instrumental in Lithuania’s efforts to address the enduring injustice of the Holocaust and in compensation payments for lost, destroyed and nationalized Jewish communal and religious property. Our deepest condolences to his many friends and family members.
The Sabbath begins at 8:13 P.M. on Friday, April 19, and concludes at 9:33 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Passover begins at sundown at 8:18 P.M. on Monday, April 22.
Fresh Passover matzo bread has arrived. A one-kilogram box of matzo bread costs 10 euros, the 450-gram box 5 euros and matzo flour 5 euros as well. Purchase can be made at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius between 10 A.M. and 5:00 P.M. on weekdays.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites everyone to Shabbat haGadol, the Great Sabbath, the last Sabbath before Passover, an evening full of tradition which will serve as preparation for the Passover celebration.
Over the course of the evening, under the tutelage of Viljamas Žitkauskas, we will go over the main parts of the seder, learn about keara, the Passover seder plate, read the Haggadah and enjoy the Sabbath meal in pleasant company.
Registration required by sending an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt. The cost is 5 euros per person with children 3 and under free.
Time: 7:00 P.M., Friday, April 19
Place: Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius
Reeling from the recent mass stabbings and mass murder in Bondi Junction, western Sydney became the target of a Hamas supporter who stabbed Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel six times as he delivered a sermon at his Christ the Good Shepherd Church in the Fairfield area.
While the Bondi Junction stabbing spree was originally believed to be an Islamist attack as well–the neighborhood is densely inhabited by Jews and is the location for Sydney’s main synagogue, it turned out the attacker there was mentally ill and targeted women.
The stabbing at the Good Shepherd was live-streamed. The bishop fell down as the attacker yelled Islamic catch-phrases, approached the podium and stabbed the surprised clergy man with a large knife.. Parishioners rushed the lectern, subdued the attacker and held him for police. The assailant lost several fingers during the subduction.
Fania Lewando was a legend of interwar Vilnius, an exceptional personality, an innovator, an excellent cook and an entrepreneur, inspiring thousands of fans even after her death.. An event organized by the Polish Institute and the Lithuanian Jewish Community and held last week was dedicated to her.
A detailed account based on years of research by Magdalena Maślak, a cultural historian and the curator of the Pauline Museum of Jewish History in Poland, painted a vivid portrait of the unusually strong personality of Fania Lewando, and Alessia di Donato, a chef from Rome, an expert in Ashkenazi and Sephardic cuisine, prepared risotto with white wine according to one of Lewando’s recipes and revealed all the intricacies of her vegetarian cuisine.
“I am often asked why I became interested in Fania Lewando’s recipes. In fact, I admire not only her dishes, but also her personality. She was an extraordinary woman, brave, active, full of ideas ahead of her time,” says the Italian, who has been living and working in Poland for ten years.
The Sabbath begins at 7:59 P.M. on Friday, April 12, and concludes at 9:17 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
You’re invited to attend an evening of discussion, demonstration and sampling of the recipes of interwar vegetarian restaurant owner and cook Fania Lewando. Lewando operated a restaurant in Vilnius with a cult following in the period between the two world wars. Artists and the city elite frequented her establishment. Chef Alessia di Donato originally from Rome will provide samples of dishes made according to the recipes Lewando left us in her cook book. Cultural anthropologist Magdalena Maślak from Poland will also tell stories about Lewando.
Registration is required by sending an email to info@lzb.lt. Everyone is invited to attend.
Time: 5:00 P.M., Thursday, April 11
Place: Bagel Shop Café, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius
Women are invited to the Women’s Club meeting this Friday where we’ll prepare for Passover which is coming soon. We’ll talk about traditions from over the millennia and from more recent times and we’ll learn how to make Litvak matzo kneydlakh and a huge matzo cake.
Time: 6:30 P.M., Friday, April 12
Place: Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius
Registration required. Send an email to zanas@lzb.lt or call (+370) 678 81514.
We hope to see you there.
Two Islamic clerics who described Jewish Australians as “vile,” “vermin,” “monsters,” “rats” and “bloodthirsty” have had vilification complaints lodged against them. One appeared to be calling openly upon Muslims to murder Jews.
The largest body of Jewish Australians has launched a vilification complaint against Abu Ousayd, also known as Wissam Haddad, over a sermon delivered last year.
In complaints to the Australian Human Rights Commission, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry says the two “anti-Semitic sermons” delivered by western Sydney clerics Wissam Haddad and Sheikh Ahmed Zoud included “derogatory generalisations about Jewish people”.
The complaint also names Haddad’s Al Madina Dawah Centre and the trading company of Zoud’s mosque.
The Sabbath begins at 7:46 P.M. on Friday, April 5, and concludes at 9:02 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.