The Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes all Community members a Happy Passover! Take a listen to the musical greetings from the Fayerlakh Jewish song and dance ensemble below.
Happy Passover
EJC: EU Grant for Jewish Communities Confirmed
Dear Presidents,
Dear Friends,
For the last few years, one of SACC to the EJC’s objectives has been to increase its cooperation with the European institutions to enhance security, support and preparedness for our communities.
The European Council Declaration of 6 December 2018 on the fight against anti-Semitism underlined that the security of Jewish people is an immediate necessity and requires timely action.
Our engagement with the European Commission, in particular at the Working Group for the Protection of Public Spaces, has strengthened our belief in the importance of working together with other communities and finding synergies in the fight against hatred and terror.
Helping other communities with the security challenges that they face is of course in line with Jewish core values and with our mission.
WJC Video Guide to Passover
A time to reflect, learn and continue to fight for justice, freedom and rule of law
Katharina von Schnurbein, coordinator on combating anti-Semitism and fostering Jewish life, endorsing the tradition of asking questions in a video guide to Passover produced by the World Jewish Congress (WJC), reflects on the following:
“It’s been thousands of years since Moses led the Jews out of Egypt, yet Jews still read the story of this miracle each year. What can the world learn from the story of Passover in 2021?”
Hagada in Three Languages for Community Members
The Lithuanian Jewish Community is making available Hagada for the first night of Passover in Hebrew, Lithuanian and Russian. To order, call +370 678 81 514 from 10:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. and pick up your order at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius before 2:00 P.M. on March 26.
LJC Makes Virtual Sabbaths with Global Communities a Regular Thing
The Lithuanian Jewish Community has been using the Zoom platform to hold virtual Sabbath celebrations with Jewish communities around the world, including lessons on Jewish subjects and meetings with Liberal or Progressive Judaism congregations.
On March 19 the LJC held a joint virtual Sabbath with Rabbis Alexandra Rait and Igor Zinkov at the London Liberal Synagogue.
Rabbi Alexandra’s ancestors came from Plungė, Lithuania. Her great-grandfather N. Levit was also a rabbi. Her grandfather left Lithuania for New York, but ended up in Dublin instead. It seems the ship’s captain lied to the young man about their final destination.
Rabbi Alexandra Rait said her family visited Lithuania several years ago and toured Vilnius, Kaunas and Plungė. She recalled ushering in the Sabbath in an abandoned synagogue in Plungė where her ancestor had led prayer services. “There was no electricity and we read the prayers by candle light. There was loud thunder, and it rained. … We also visited the mass murder site in Plungė. My cousin was working with the Tolerance Center in Plungė.” She recalled how her family financed a commemorative marker at that mass murder site. “We also met the last Jew from that shtetl, the famous woodcarver and sculptor Jakovas Bunka, and his son Eugenijus,” Rabbi Rait said during the virtual Sabbath last week.
Rabbi Igor Zinkov was born in Chelyabinsk to a family of secular Jews with roots in Odessa and Kiev.
History of the Alytus Synagogue: From House of Prayer, to Salt Storehouse, to Poultry Hatchery
Cultural Infrastructure Center
The Cultural Infrastructure Center of Lithuania is completing renovation work on the synagogue in Alytus. Emergency preservation work followed by renovation led to a fuller restoration and the building is now housing a section of the Alytus Museum.
The old synagogue on Kauno street in Alytus, Lithuania, appeared in total ruin just five years ago, with boarded-up windows and bricks falling from the walls. Experts saw even worse things at work.
“The condition of the outer wall was poor… In spots several bricks were missing, and in some places even larger sections of bricks had fallen out. The mortar on the lower portion was visibly damaged by moisture or salt which it will still take several years to drive out of the building walls. The façades on the southern side of the building were especially damaged. We found the interior also deeply damaged, with the floor dug up and windows and doors removed,” Cultural Infrastructure Center acting deputy director Viktoras Vilkišius said.
Strong Jewish Community Formerly Lived in Alytus
The first wooden synagogue was built in the western section of Alytus in 1856 apparently at the same site the currently restored synagogue occupies. It was a small building heated with a stove and housed a school and the rabbi’s living quarters.
Celebrate Sabbath with Liberal Jewish Synagogue in London
The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites you to a virtual Sabbath celebration with the Liberal Jewish Synagogue in London March 19. A virtual tour led by Rabbi Igor Zinkov begins at 7:15 P.M. Lithuanian time, followed by Kabbalat Shabbat at 8:45 P.M.
Registration form: https://forms.gle/epwPn31GTD5qoHpf8
New Dead Sea Scroll Fragments, World’s Oldest Basket Found in Desert Cave
6,000-year-old child skeleton also found in Judean Desert cave. It is the first such discovery since the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1947 and the early 1950s.
Some 1,900 years ago, Jewish refugees fleeing the Romans made their way to the Judean Desert. Among the belongings they carried with them were scrolls featuring the biblical books of Zechariah and Nahum. Two millennia later, fragments of those texts have reemerged, the Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced Tuesday.
It is the first such discovery since the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1947 and the early Fifties.
In recent decades, the caves have been targeted by looters eager to find artifacts to sell on the private market. For this reason, a few years ago, the IAA, in cooperation with the Civil Administration’s Archaeology Department, launched a rescue operation to survey all the caves in the area.
The findings, which include not only the biblical fragments, but also dozens of artifacts dating back as early as 10,000 years ago, have been astounding.
Bagel Shop Café Selling Passover Seder Packages via Internet
The Bagel Shop Café is offering prepared Passover seder meal kits this year. One package costing 45 euros serves two but contains enough to share with children as well. Orders will be accepted until March 24. To order, go to the internet form in Lithuanian at http://bit.ly/Pesach_užsakymai
Bagel Shop Café Offering Passover Matzo
The Bagel Shop Café at the Lithuanian Jewish Community at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius is offering Passover matzo for sale from March 15 to March 26. The café will operate from 10 A.M. till 3:00 P.M. from Monday to Friday. A one-kilogram box of matzo costs 5 euros and payment may only be made using a bank card.
Sabbath Lesson on Branches of Judaism
Viljamas Žitkauskas held an internet Sabbath discussion called “Differences and Shared Features of Branches of Judaism: Orthodox, Conservative, Modern, Progressive” last Friday as part of the continuing series of internet Sabbath meetings and discussion. He spoke about the unprecedented decision by the Supreme Court of Israel March 1 following 15 years of hearings recognizing conversion to Judaism in conservative and reform communities, and that every convert has the right to move to Israel.
Žitkauskas thought this decision and the recent joint Sabbaths the Lithuanian Jewish Community has held with Reform synagogues in Johannesburg and Minsk would be a good starting point to talk about the different schools of thought and differences among the currents in Judaism.
He began by defining the terms “Jew,” “Jewish people,” and “our sons, the pride of Israel.”
Community members from Vilnius, Panevėžys and other Lithuanian towns and cities participated in the Zoom conference. Participants learned about the origins of Judaism, what the words Torah and Tanakh mean, what the religious significance of being a Litvak is, that misnagdim means orthodox, how misnagdim differ from chassidim, how reform Judaism arose and more.
The lecture/discussion concluded with the havdalah ceremony, distinguishing the Sabbath from the working days of the week.
Order Matzo by Internet
This year again the Lithuanian Jewish Community is asking members to order matzo via internet with home delivery. The cost for one one-kilogram box of matzo is six euros. The LJC is partially subsidizing delivery costs. This is only being offered in Vilnius for the time being and orders will be taken till March 25.
How to Order and Pay
1. Fill out the form at https://forms.gle/wRSoZ1Sf4kvVPxFj7
2. Open your internet banking profile.
3. Transfer funds to the Lithuanian Jewish Community at account number LT09 7044 0600 0090 7953 to the amount of matzo you wish to purchase.
You must indicate in the payment field the information we need to deliver the matzo to you, namely, your name and surname, exact postal address, telephone number, email address and the exact number of boxes you are ordering.
Virtual Sabbath
You’re invited to a virtual Sabbath celebration featuring a lecture by Viljamas Žitkauskas called “Differences and Shared Features of Branches of Judaism: Orthodox, Conservative, Modern, Progressive,” followed by havdalah, all starting at 7:00 P.M. on Friday, March 12. Registration required: https://forms.gle/P4tiLVUndP1NjKUe7
Lithuanian Jewish Community Marks Sabbath with Johannesburg Rabbi Julia Margolis
Julia Margolis of the Beit Luria Progressive Shul in Johannesburg led a Sabbath celebration with the Lithuanian Jewish Community last Friday via the internet. She was the first female rabbi to open a progressive synagogue in South Africa along with others from the South African Union of Progressive Jews. The synagogue is the eleventh progressive synagogue in South Africa and the first in Gaunteng province in many years.
Tull Eckhart provided music during the virtual meeting.
Invitation to Celebrate Sabbath with Beit Luria Progressive Shul Rabbi Julia Margolis
Shalom haverim! The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites you to usher in the Sabbath together at 6:00 P.M. on March 5 with a virtual meeting with Rabbi Julia Margolis of the Beit Luria Progressive Shul in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Sabbath event will be held in English. Please register at the link below to receive Zoom room credentials.
Registration: https://forms.gle/cn5KCv3mLdb1c4Z36
Protecting the Summer Synagogue in Kalvarija from Rain and Snow
A special project to conserve and prevent the collapse of the summer synagogue in the Lithuanian town of Kalvarija was prepared back in 2016.
The Kalvarija synagogue complex belongs to the Lithuanian Jewish Community. Under an agreement signed in 2014 the Kalvarija municipality has exclusive use of the buildings for 50 years for cultural, educational and academic needs and for tourism.
Advisor at the Alytus-Marijampolė section of the Lithuanian Cultural Heritage Department Violeta Kasperavičiutė said work to conserve the synagogue was just approved, including installing wooden columns in the interior and along the perimeter of the outside walls, reconstruction of the wooden roof, bricking and mortaring windows and the roof cornice to protect them from precipitation, installing doors, roof shingling to protect against rain and snow and tin roofing where needed for further protection.
One Hundred and Ten Years of Fighting for Women’s Rights and Peace
Now 110 years have passed since German socialist Klara Zetkin proposed setting aside one day per year for women around the world to talk about their rights. The first such day happened in 1911. According to reports from the time, crowds of people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland took to the streets to demand for women the right to study, vote and work. On March 8 two years later, on the eve of World War I, women marched for peace.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community is marking this anniversary of the struggle for women’s rights with a virtual meeting with female leaders of different ages and cultural backgrounds. Participants will include Svetlana Novopolskaja, director of the Roma Social Center; a representative from the Lithuanian Human Rights Center; Natalja Cheifec, teacher of Judaic and Jewish tradition as well as Choral Synagogue guide; and others.
The meeting will be held mainly in Lithuanian and broadcast live on youtube March 8.
Israeli Modern Art Curator Ory Deassau: Give Artists the Freedom to Decide
by Jolita Jankuvienė, www.DELFI.lt
Well-known Israel art curator and writer Ory Dessay with the modern art gallery Vartai presented an international exhibition at the end of 2020 called “An Unfinished Project” to mark the Year of the Vilna Gaon and Litvak History. It wasn’t easy to hold the exhibition during the virus pandemic and the curator was unable to travel to Lithuania as had been planned, but despite everything, art is priceless in removing limitations, it is free and mobile, posing questions as well as answers, which the curator presented to the public in a virtual form.
Which exhibit was the most significant and memorable for you?
As the musician Duke Ellington once said when asked about his best musical work, I would repeat that the most important exhibit is the one coming up next which I will curate. I give all of myself to the project on which I am working. Currently an exhibit is taking place at the Vartai art gallery in Vilnius. This location makes the process of my curating and presentation easy. I am especially intrigued by the historical conditions of the location of the exhibit “An Unfinished Project,” it is part of Jewish history. There are many untold stories here which we can show to the audience. I am enchanted by the vitality of Vilnius, not just because of the recent success Lithuanians enjoyed at the 58th modern art Biennale in Venice, but because I really feel a strong attraction to this city.
Full interview in Lithuanian here.
Sabbath Discussions: New Project by Lithuanian Jewish Community and Viljamas Žitkauskas
It has been said the Sabbath is the time to forget food for the body and provide food to the soul. The Lithuanian Jewish Community and Viljamas Žitkauskas have invited members and the public to a series of Sabbath discussions, the first one dedicated to Zionism among Litvaks.
Viljamas Žitkauskas recounted to the virtual audience historical facts about the Vilna Gaon and his contribution to Zionism. Religious Litvak Zionists consider the Gaon the father of the national movement. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the father of the modern Hebrew language, spent his whole life adapting Hebrew, which had become mainly a liturgical language, for use in daily life. Abraham Mapu was a Hebrew novelist. Menachem Begin helped found the State of Israel and served as Israel’s seventh prime minister.
Žitkauskas spoke about these Litvaks and the history of Zionism and his audience showed rapt interest throughout.
The virtual meeting and discussion concluded with the havdalah ceremony to mark the end of Sabbath.