Lithuanian Jewish Community

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Lights World’s Largest Menorah in New York

photo courtesy Ministry of Foreign Affairs

VILNIUS, December 11, BNS–Lithuanian foreign minister Linas Linkevičius
lit the world’s biggest menorah in New York as part of his official visit to the United States. During the festival in New York Linkevičius said the people of Lithuania were discovering their rich Jewish heritage and taking pride in the significant contribution of Lithuanian Jews to world culture, the Foreign Ministry reported.

The nearly 10-meter-tall menorah in Grand Army Plaza at Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York,
is considered the largest in the world. Inviting guests to light the menorah has been practiced there since 1985, the press release said. This annual menorah-lighting ceremony takes places during the eight-day holiday of Hanukkah. This year Hanukkah is celebrated from December 6 to 14.

BNS

2015-12-11

Maestro Anatolijus Šenderovas at the “Destinies” Series at the LJC

The twenty-second installment of the “Destinies” series regularly organized by Lithuanian Jewish Community deputy chairwoman Maša Grodnikienė featured one of the most famous of contemporary Lithuanian composers, National Prize recipient Anatolijus Šenderovas. Kamilė Rupeikaitė-Mariniuk, PhD, deputy director of the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum and an expert in cantillation and music, led the conversation with the composer.

Šenderovas, considered modern composer of unique talent, spoke cheerfully of his life and his musical career. Lithuanians seem quite proud of their composer. His works are performed by many musicians and orchestras, and new variations upon them constantly appear. Many people turned out for the “Destinies” event and left the auditorium inspired by his amazing energy.

2015-12-11

Square Named after Emmanuel Levinas in Kaunas

December 11, BNS–The Kaunas city council executive body has agreed to rename the square next to lift carrying passengers to the neighborhood of Žaliakalnis after the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, the municipality reported Friday. Levinas is considered one of the most famous of Kaunas’s sons. He was born and lived there. Viktoras Bachmetjevas, an early proponent of the project to rename the square, said the proposal is four or five years old.

“I was thinking about how Levinas was one of the most important people ever born in Kaunas, and that there is almost no sign of him here. As a resident of Kaunas, I felt it my duty to increase the number of those signs. If he becomes an attraction in the city, that will be the best way to remember him,” Bachmetjevas commented. Levinas was an existentialist philosopher and a professor at the Sorbonne. He was born and lived in Kaunas’s Old Town and met his future wife there, whom he later married in Paris. His family living in Kaunas were murdered at the beginning of World War II.

A street in Kaunas was named earlier in his honor and there is a memorial plaque to mark his place of birth on a building on Karaliaus Mindaugo prospect.

BNS

2015-12-11

Israeli Security Forces Arrest Five-Member ISIS Cell in Nazareth

With the spread of global terrorism and ISIS on the march, Israel is clamping down on domestic Islamic terrorist threats.

Israeli security forces arrested five Arabs with Israeli citizenship from Nazareth on suspicion of planning terror attacks on behalf of the Islamic State (ISIS) terror organization, the Shin Bet (Israel’s Security Agency) revealed Tuesday.

The suspected terrorists, aged 19, 20, 22, 23, and 27, were exposed as members of the Salafia Jihadiya organization, which adheres to the ISIS ideology.

2015-12-10

Trump to Visit Israel in December as Controversy Rages over Proposed Ban on Muslims

Photo: Associated Press/Mic Smith

After calling for a sweeping temporary ban on all Muslims trying to enter the US, 2016 presidential candidate Donald Trump has angered many including in the Middle East where he is expected to visit Israel later this month.

Donald Trump’s call to keep Muslims from traveling to the United States is causing dismay among business leaders in the Middle East, where the billionaire presidential candidate has done business for years, a region viewed as well-suited for his brand of over-the-top luxury.

Trump announced Tuesday he intends to visit Israel in the coming weeks, and his announcement has already generated a stir among Israel’s Arabs and left-wing lawmakers.

2015-12-10

New Exhibit of Litvak Artists

2015-12-10

Darbėnai: Žemaitijan, Jewish, Japanese

Darbėnai, getting more beautiful by the day, has finished erasing its blemishes. Maintaining respect for its past, the town has reconstructed its main square and the areas around it, and has finally torn down the Soviet Palace of Culture which had become an abandoned eye-sore long ago. There’s only one thing left for the residents of Darbėnai to do: to come to terms with historical memory and let the Jewish past back into town, and learn how to live with it.

by Jūratė Kiliulienė, veidas.lt

While the ever-more-frequent chill winter winds still haven’t brought snow, the beauty of the small town is plain to see. Most likely the residents themselves still haven’t got used to it, and the changes so pleasant to the eye are a topic of conversation among the townspeople, who can now show the place off to outsiders. After archaeological digs, the sidewalks and pavement have been put back in order, there are new street lights and modern benches. Several years back the changes began in Darbėnai from the center, the old Market Square. In line with the preferences of residents, here, in front of the pre-war Jewish houses, paving stones were laid.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2015-12-09

Auschwitz Guard on Duty When Anne Frank Arrived to be Tried

An SS guard who was on duty when Anne Frank was brought to Auschwitz in 1944 has been found sufficiently healthy to stand trial for mass murder, the Daily Mail reports.

Hubert Zafke, 95, was examined by psychiatric doctors this week appointed by a court in Rostock and judged mentally sound to go on trial for his part in the murders of 3,681 people.

Full story here.

2015-12-09

ORT Media Center and Lithuanian Jewish Community Organize Computer Courses

The ORT Media Center and the Lithuanian Jewish Community are offering the public the chance to improve their IT skills. Two different courses are planned: a series of Cisco network administration courses with exams and qualifications, and a general computer literacy course including Google products and electronic banking. For more information on the two Cisco network courses, contact lauras@lzb.lt . For more information on the general computer literacy class, contact valentin.baltija@gmail.com

2015-12-09

Mini Limmud Begins Friday!

The Mini Limmud 2015 Judaism conference will take place on December 11 to 13, 2015, at the Vilnius Grand Resort Hotel.

Mini Limmud is three days of meaningful meetings with friends and the like-minded with the very best speakers from the Baltic states, Israel, Russia and other countries. It includes a special program for children. There will also be an evening Hanukkah celebration with special performers!

Registration and Ticket Sales

Registration took place in November. Please contact project coordinator Žana Skudovičienė, telephone +37067881514 and email zanas@sc.lzb.lt, to find out if there are still spaces available. Tickets cost 85 euros for adults, children aged 0 to 5 get in free, tickets for children aged 5-13 cost 25 euros and adults who don’t need the hotel stay can buy tickets for 60 euros, provided there are still places available.

Limmud program in Russian here.

2015-12-08

Vilnius Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium Scores Highest in Physics

The Lithuanian magazine Reitingai [Ratings] published Tuesday a list of the top schools and universities in the country. As in earlier years, gymnasia in the capital city scored highest. The list was compiled using National Test results for 2015. The ratings included number of students: not just how many students were graduated from the high schools, but also how many took each test.

The top scorers in the physics test: 1. Vilnius Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium, 2. Vilnius Lyceum, 3. Marijampolė’s Marionites Gymnasium, 4. Kaunas Technical University Gymnasium, 5. Vilnius Jesuit Gymnasium.

Best results for the English language exam: 1. Vilnius Lyceum, 2. Kaunas Technical University Gymnasium, 3. Vilnius Jesuit Gymnasium, 4. Klaipėda Lyceum and 5. Vilnius Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2015-12-08

When Chiune Sugihara Celebrated Hanukkah in Lithuania

Hanukkah, 1939.
Kaunas.

I told him the story of how Judah Maccabee led his men into war against the powerful Greeks, who had defiled the temple, and how their tiny force defeated the much greater armies of Antiochus. Judah and his followers liberated Jerusalem, and set about rededicating the temple, but when they went to light the lamps they could find only enough oil to burn for one day. Keeping the faith, they used the one small cruse they had, and God made the oil burn for eight full days. This is how Chanukah became the festival of lights. Each evening the shammers, the one candle used to light all the others, was used to light one more candle, until on the eighth day all eight candles were burning.

The tables were laden with the best of food and drinks, including some Japanese food which [aunt] Anushka supplied from her shop. We also had veal with small roasted potatoes, roast duck in orange sauce, and many other wonderful things.

Mr. Sugihara also asked me about our family life and my hobbies. When I told him that I collected stamps, he invited me to come and visit him at the consulate. He said he would give me some stamps from Japan.

2015-12-08

Giant Menorah Lit in Klaipėda

The Klaipėda newspaper Vakarų Ekspresas reports the city mayor and representatives of the Chabad Lubavitch movement in the Lithuanian port city held a ceremony on central Lietuvninkų square to light the first Hanukkah lamp on the menorah erected there.

Full story and photo gallery here.

2015-12-08

Israeli Exchange Students Donate Menorah Display to City of Kaunas

story and photo: Elijus Kniežauskas

Last Sunday evening just as the sun set two Israeli students lit the first two lights of the Menorah set up at the city gardens, symbolizing the beginning of Hanukkah. Lighting the menorah symbolizes for Jews liberation from oppression and the victory of good over evil. For another seven days in a row the Israelis will climb up and light another lamp daily.

“The menorah symbolizes a miracle. When the Jews were at war with the Greeks all the oil reserves at the Temple were destroyed. There was only one vessel left, but a miracle happened and the lamps burned for eight days,” one of the students explained.

Meir and Eyal came to Kaunas from Israel. One is studying medicine and the other odontology.

2015-12-08

Condolences

On November 27, 2015, Lithuanian Jewish Community Social Center member Kęstutis Bytautas passed away. He was born on July 11, 1958.

Our deepest condolences to his loved ones for his loss.

2015-12-08

Condolences

On December 6, 2015, Adolfas Poškus, a member of the Klaipėda Jewish Community and the Lithuanian Jewish Community Social Center, passed away. He was born May 14, 1939. The Community send our deepest condolences to his survivors.

2015-12-08

Vyacheslav Ganelin’s Prophecy Fulfilled, Fans’ Love for Him Unchanged

Even in these modern times friendship between nations is just a dream. Three decades ago Lithuanian and Israeli jazz musician and composer Vyacheslav Ganelin, 70, prophetically perceived this, and so moved to Tel Aviv. But infatuation with the wild soundtrack for the film “Velnio nuotaka” [Devil’s Bride, 1973] and the palpitations as they wait for him to appear in the hearts of his fans remain. The best in Eastern Europe—this is how even young jazz enthusiasts still describe Ganelin, although his work garnered renown in the previous century. For a decade now there has been nothing equal to the progressive jazz Ganelin has come up with jamming with fellow musicians.

And now when he occasionally visits Lithuania with his musical notions, the tension during his performance is palpable: the star’s aura and the thought this might be his last concert—as time passes it becomes harder and harder to travel overseas—affect the audience.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2015-12-08

Kaunas Jewish Community Hanukkah Celebration

Members of the Kaunas Jewish Community gathered on the afternoon of the first Sunday of December, 2015, at the cafe and music club Punto Jazz to light the first Hanukkah candle and celebrate the start of this eight-day holiday of light and miracles. One of the most senior and most active members of the Community, Šmuelis Šragė, was supposed to light the first candle, but he unexpectedly left us just a week before Hanukkah. His widow Basia Šragienė was called upon by her sons to light the first candle in his place. Despite the somber circumstances, participants managed to have fun at the event, aided by guests from Vilnius Michail Jablonskij and Leonard Zenkevič, musicians from the Fayerlakh musical ensemble. There was a latke-eating contests for the men and a doughnut-eating contest for the women, and a general quiz to test the participants’ knowledge of Hanukkah. Rabbi Efraim Piryampolski and his family who currently live in Kaunas attended and the rabbi addressed the participants. Their visit pleasantly surprised the audience and added spiritually to the Community’s holiday gathering.

Snapshots here:
http://www.lzb.lt/kauno-zydu-bendruomene-uzdega-pirmaja-chanukos-zvake/

2015-12-08

Klaipėda Jewish Community Celebrates Hanukkah

Members of the Klaipėda Jewish Community came together to light the first Hanukkah candle on the first night of Hanukkah. More than a hundred people gathered for the event which included a klezmer concert by the band Anavim and the dance group AishhAim from Minsk. Hanukkah gelt was passed out to the children.

More snapshots here: http://www.lzb.lt/klaipedos-zydu-bendruomene-svencia-chanuka/

2015-12-08

Hanukkah-Themed “Great Debate” Tries to Shed Light on Israel’s Future

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (photo: Reuters/Mario Anzuoni)

It was the first night of Hanukkah and the “Great Debate” in Tel Aviv on Sunday between Rabbi Shmuley Boteach and Peter Beinart posed a basic question: what will ensure Israel’s commonwealth today as it was ensured over 2,000 years ago when the Maccabees defeated the Greeks?

Up first, American Jewish author, political writer, and CUNY professor Peter Beinart said for Israel to survive, it must eschew the extreme religious nationalism which to some degree motivated the Maccabees.

“The Hanukkah story is a very inspiring idea in our time because it’s a Zionist story,” the author of “The Crisis of Zionism” told a packed hall at the David Intercontinental Hotel where the Globes Israel Business Conference hosted the event in conjunction with Tel Aviv International Salon and StandWithUs. “The Maccabees were fighting for national liberation, no question about that, and it was an inspiring fight, but they were not fighting for religious freedom for all people.”

2015-12-07