The Sabbath begins at 7:57 P.M. on Friday, August 30, and concludes at 9:09 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Monday is also Labor Day, an official US holiday with businesses and government offices closed. Monday is also an official Lithuanian holiday marking the start of the school year.
This year’s topic is family.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community is celebrating the European Day of Jewish Culture this Sunday, September 1, with a full day’s program of events, lessons, workshops, discussions and exhibits. All events are free and open to the public, but registration is required for most of the events below.
Here’s the program:
11:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M. First Hebrew lesson for the whole family with Ruth Reches at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius. Ruth will soon be forming new classes for studying Hebrew. Register here: https://bit.ly/4g5jZbW
The European Day of Jewish Culture celebrated on the first Sunday in September falls on September 1 this year. This year’s celebration will feature Yiddish and Hebrew lessons at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius and a walking tour of Jewish Vilna with guide Viljamas Žitkauskas. The students from Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium are planning performances and the Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club is also sponsoring activities.
Jewish song and dance ensemble Fayerlakh will hold a concert and Raimondas Savickas is planning an open-air art workshop. Julija Patashnik will conduct an Israeli dance class, celebrated author and animator Ilja Bereznickas’s books and animated films will be featured and the Bagel Shop Café will provide the culinary education component.
An exhibit by Litvak artist Theo Tobiasse will open at the LJC in Vilnius, cantor Shmuel Yatom will perform a blessing of families and stand-up comedian Žilvinas Kerbelis is to perform. The Cvi Park Israeli street food kiosk space will host a concert including violinist Dalia Dėdinskaitė, Glebas Pyšniakas on cello, tenor Rafailas Karpis, Tadas Motiečius on accordion and others.
Stay tuned for more details and registration information.
The Sabbath begins at 8:14 P.M. on Friday, August 23, and concludes at 9:28 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
interviewed by Katrina Zeiter
On the topic of Litvak history and personalities, one of the Community’s most active members, Geršonas Taicas, always provides interesting facts and facts unknown even to seasoned researchers. Celebrating his 75th birthday this year, his greatest passion is genealogy. Like a fish in its natural element, he dives into the archives, discovering incredible connections which force us to consider history from another perspective, and also helping Litvak descendants scattered around the world find their family roots. A Litvak himself, he can speak for hours on the notable chef and cooking author Fania Lewando, the crooner Daniel Dolskis and former British prime minister Boris Johnson, but in this interview we spoke about the genealogist’s own story which serves as a mirror of a period in Lithuanian Jewish life which fewer and fewer now remember.
What are your first childhood memories?
I was born in Ukmergė [Vilkomir] in 1949 to a family who had been incarcerated as “enemies of the people” at a gulag in Krasnoyarsk in Siberia. My father Alter was an accountant and my mother Masha was a teacher.
Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel chairman Arie Ben-Ari Grodzensky visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community last week where he learned about Community activities, met members and viewed archival documents. He noted progress in conserving and commemorating the Litvak heritage in Panevėžys.
Grodzensky was born and raised in Lithuania and also serves on the executive boards of the Goodwill Foundation and the Lithuanian Jewish Community.
The Sabbath begins at 8:30 P.M. on Friday, August 16, and concludes at 9:47 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
by Arkadijus Vinokuras, LRT.lt
The goal of the Islamists and their supporters in Europe is to turn Jewish life in Europe into hell. Does this goal have something to do with Israel? It would be as if Lithuanians living abroad were persecuted for decisions made by Lithuanian politicians.
Meanwhile, an anti-Semitic party has been resurrected in Lithuania led by the anti-Semite Remigijus Žemaitaitis. We must note all of that party’s members who have donned the brown shirt have automatically become anti-Semites because they now the stances of their leader.
Reactions? Yes, we’ve seen them. Whether he was invited or not, he participated at the inauguration of re-elected president Gitanas Nausėda. It seems the president’s advisor, the former right-hand-man of the anti-Semitic and homophobic owner of the Respublika newspaper, performed his dirty work, but more about that later. So while there are no questions about the aims of the Islamists, there are many questions about the goals of the democratic West.
Full text in Lithuanian here.
The Sabbath begins at 8:45 P.M. on Friday, August 9, and concludes at 10:06 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Members and friends of the Šiauliai Jewish Community gathered at the Community building Monday to commemorate the late Sania Kerbelis who served as chairman for many years.
Special guest Rabbi Kalev Krelin provided a simple and enlightened exegesis of Torah as the basis for his eulogy of Sania and reminded those assembled that the best commemoration and compensation of loss is prayer and good works.
Community member Ričardas Pikelis recited his poem in memory of Kerbelis.
The Sabbath begins at 8:59 P.M. on Friday, August 2, and concludes at 10:24 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
by Rabbi Moshe Martin Levin
Žilvinas Beliauskas WAS ALWAYS:
Tall and handsome;
Brilliant and articulate;
Talking in long sentences without taking a breath;
He always listened with both ears.
Always was an encyclopedia of so many subjects.
A true patriot who knew the shortcomings as well as the achievements of his homeland.
A husband in love with his wife Ieva.
According to diplomatic sources the Israeli leader’s visit to the three Baltic states had been planned for June.
“The dates of the visit have been adjusted due to the busy agenda of the Baltic leaders and the Israeli president,” press secretary for the president of Lithuania Ridas Jasulionis told BNS.
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky told BNS that she had canceled a trip several weeks ago after learning of the visit planned by the president of Israel. She added Herzog had planned to visit the Lost Shtetl Museum under construction in Šeduva, Lithuania. Herzog is the descendant of Litvaks with roots in Šeduva.
Natalja Cheifec continues her series of lectures on Jewish culture and religion this Tuesday, July 30 with a lecture/discussion called “Justice and the Courts according to the Torah” meeting that day at 5:30 P.M. on the zoom internet platform.
Her lecture will include:
• Criteria for selection of judges
• How theft is defined in Judaism and the 8 types of theft
• Punishment for murder
• What accidental homicide means
• Application of the death penalty in Judaic law
• Who is more at fault, the criminal or the instigator
• What a bribe is
• Compensation for physical and moral damages
• Sanctuary
• Laws of war
The lecture will likely be in Lithuanian, depending on the audience. To receive zoom credentials and attend the virtual lecture, click here: https://shorturl.at/gMbBJ
Žilvinas Beliauskas suddenly died Friday. A teacher at the Mykolas Romeris University, he was a qualified psychologist and for a time, according to his friends, worked at the United Nations in New York. In the early 2000s a private donor attempted to donate a large collection of “Jewish books” in the broadest sense of the term to the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum, which eventually resulted in the Vilnius Jewish Public Library with sponsorship and funding from the Government chancellor. Žilvinas took the concept of the library and ran with it, acquiring many more important books on Jewish culture and religion and fictional works by Jewish authors. He created more than an open and friendly public library by hosting numerous speakers, panels, discussions and book launches in the humble space. Ever cheerful, friendly with all, always willing to lend a hand, Žilvinas will be sorely missed by all who knew him. We extend our deepest condolences to his many friends and family members.
The Sabbath begins at 9:12 P.M. on Friday, July 26, and concludes at 10:41 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
The Israel Antiquities Authority, Kultūros paveldo Išsaugojimo pajėgos, the Good Will Foundation, and the Jewish Community of Lithuania are pleased to announce the results of the fifth season of excavation at the Great Synagogue of Vilna (Vilnius) & the Shulhoyf.
The Vilnius municipality’s webpage madeinvilnius.lt reports a mural depicting a Jewish scholar called “The Sage” was defaced by graffiti recently. The mural is located in the Vilnius Old Town adjacent to what was the city’s Jewish quarter for a time and the Jewish ghetto instituted by the Nazis.
Reporter Šarūnas Černiauskas wrote about the vandalism on facebook: “Something nasty happened. The most known work in the ‘The Walls Remember’ project dedicated to preserving the historical memory of Lithuanian Jews, the mural ‘The Sage,’ was intentionally damaged. The people who did this obviously wanted to ruin the painting. I think this smacks of anti-Semitism. I went there today, recorded it and filed a complaint with the police.”
Černiauskas called on members of the public to come forward to police concerning the act of vandalism. He also called for any video footage from adjacent cameras to be sent to him and police.
The mural was heavily damaged. The mural “Street Musicians” in the same series was defaced with the name “Ivan,” presumably a pejorative for “Russian” rather than a tagger’s name.
Full story in Lithuanian with photographs here.
by Augustė Lyberytė, ELTA, July 17, 2024
The cabinet ministers Wednesday approved a proposal by a working group who has been operating for over a year now on setting up a memorial to the old Jewish cemetery at the site of the Palace of Sports in the Vilnius neighborhood of Šnipiškės.
Government deputy chancellor Rolandas Kriščiūnas said proposals from the working group should be seen as a guidepost.
The plan is for a memorial to be set up inside the Palace of Sports and in the territory of the old Jewish cemetery surrounding that building.
“The site would be open to the public with special focus placed on synergy between the outside territory and the interior space,” Kriščiūnas said.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
The Sabbath begins at 9:23 P.M. on Friday, July 19, and concludes at 10:57 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Saturday is also World Chess Day.