Wooden Synagogue in Alanta Renovated
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LJC, International Comminission and Olga Lengyel Institute Holding Holocaust Seminars for Teachers
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LJC Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky Speaks at Commemoration of Grosse
Aktion in Kaunas
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Šiauliai Opens Righteous Gentile Square at the Intersection of Vilniaus and Ežero Streets at Former Ghetto Gates
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"Symphony from Jerusalem of the North” Mark Day of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide in Presidential Courtyard
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The renovated synagogue in Žiežmariai will become a new cultural center. The first synagogue in appeared sometime between 1690 and 1696. In the 19th century there three synagogues. Not surprising, since the majority of the population were Jewish. This synagogue which has survived and has now been renovated stands in the southern part of town between Vilniaus and Žalgirio streets, with the Strėva river flowing from southeastward from there.
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The Lithuanian Post Office has issued a stamp commemorating 300 years since the birth of the Vilna Gaon
The Lithuanian Post Office has issued a stamp commemorating 300 years since the birth of the Vilna Gaon
with a face value of 0.81 euros, enough to mail letters abroad.
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Lithuania Marks 300th Anniversary of Birth of Vilna Gaon, 2020 Named Year of the Gaon and Litvak History.
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Most important events at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in 2018
Most important events at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in 2018
Revival of Jewish Scouting in Lithuania: The first new Litvak scouting camping trip with children from Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Panevėžys and Molėtai took place August 24 to 26.
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Jewish newspapers and advertisements from Vilnius in the period between the two world wars. Jews and other minorities were given equal rights in the reconstituted Lithuanian state. Yiddish thrived with many newspapers and books published in the language.
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Germany’s National Day of Mourning

Germany’s National Day of Mourning

Germany’s National Day of Mourning was marked Sunday, November 13, at the military cemetery in Vingis Park in Vilnius.

In Germany, the second Sunday before Advent is known as Volkstrauertag, or the National Day of Mourning in English. This holiday commemorates everyone who has served in the armed forces of all nations, as well all of the civilians who have died during armed conflicts and oppression.

It’s a holiday that was first observed in its modern form during the 1950s but actually comes from a much older Prussian tradition. Although it’s a public holiday in Germany, it’s also categorized as Stiller Tag or a Day of Silence. That means that there may be restrictions on concerts, dances, and other such activities.

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Lithuanian Makabi Ping-Pong Wins

Lithuanian Makabi Ping-Pong Wins

Last weekend Lithuanian men’s and women’s table tennis league held matches at the Daukantas pre-gymnasium in Vilnius. Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club women’s team members Neta Alon, Maja Bliumin and Orinta Ramonaitė, adult male team members Mathias Maindron, Ignotas Blaževičius and Justas Rutkauskas and second team members Uosis Račinskas, Arnas Federas, Ąžuolas Račinskas represented the Lithuanian Jewish Community at the competition. Arnas Juodelis from the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium formed the youngest team in league competition and while they didn’t win demonstrated a fighting spirit and resolution to play on at future matches.

Arnas Federas celebrated a 3:2 point victory over his counterpart from the Vilnius Capital Team and significantly raised his point rating. First Makabi adult team members won 3:0 over the second Makabi team but then lost 2:3 against the Tauras men’s team. The Makabi women’s team won 3:1 against the Grigiškės women’s team and 3:0 against the Tauras women’s team, but lost against the Jonava team 2:3. The female Makabi team looks poised nonetheless to enter the women’s upper league this season.

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Lithuanian PM Proposes Compensating Expropriated Jewish Private Property

Lithuanian PM Proposes Compensating Expropriated Jewish Private Property

Lithuanian prime minister Ingrida Šimonytė proposed the Lithuanian Government set up a 37-million euro fund to compensate the Jewish community for private property expropriated during World War II.

The fund would complement a previous initiative launched a decade ago which has paid out a similar amount of money to Lithuania’s Jewish community in compensation for seized communal property.

Under the Law on Goodwill Compensation adopted in 2011, Lithuania pledged to pay out over 37 million euros over a decade in compensation for the property of Jewish communities nationalized by totalitarian regimes.

Full story here.

Evening Hike for Jewish Scouts and Young People in Vilnius

Evening Hike for Jewish Scouts and Young People in Vilnius

A hiking excursion in the Pilaitė neighborhood of Vilnius for Jewish scouts will be held at 5:00 P.M. on November 18. Young people in the 5th to 8th grades are also invited to make the hike and come and experience scouting for themselves. The hike is free but prior registration is required before 9:00 P.M. on November 15. For more information and to register, write skautai@lzb.lt or call scout leaders Audrius at +37061611505 or Adomas at +37060645094.

Condolences

Bela Tontak passed away November 9. She was born in 1946. Our deepest condolences to her son Eduard and her other friends and family members.

Lithuanian Attitudes on Ethnicity and Religion

Lithuanian Attitudes on Ethnicity and Religion

The NGO Diversity Development Group, the Ethnic Studies Department of the Lithuanian social sciences center Sociology Institute and Media4Change invite you to a virtual event on International Tolerance Day to present the results of a study and media monitoring on the topic of Lithuanians’ views of ethnic and religious groups.

When: 10:00 A.M. to 11:30 A.M., November 16.
Where: MS Teams via login link https://bit.ly/3EhuyI1

Speakers:

Giedrė Blažytė, migration sociologist, Diversity Development Group, the Ethnic Studies Department of the Lithuanian social sciences center Sociology Institute

Neringa Jurčiukonytė, founder and director, Media4Change

Invitation and program here.

Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 4:05 P.M. on Friday, November 11, and concludes at 5:20 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.

Vilnius Jewish Public Library Showing Films

Vilnius Jewish Public Library Showing Films

The Vilnius Jewish Public Library is screening two films in November and invites the public to attend free of charge.

November 10: Afterthought. Afterthought is a 2015 Israeli philosophical comedy film written and directed by Elad Keidan. It was screened in the Special Screenings section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. It has been nominated for Best Film at the 2015 Ophir Awards. The film has won 3 Ophir prizes: best script, best editing, and best sound design. The film was awarded best film at the Haifa film festival.

November 24: Testament. Testament is a 2017 drama film. Yoel, a meticulous historian leading a significant debate against Holocaust deniers, discovers his mother has a false identity. A mystery about a man who is willing to risk everything to discover the truth. Director: Amichai Greenberg.

The library is located at Gedimino prospect no. 24-9, Vilnius. For more information, call 219 7748.

Global Sabbath and Challa Bake-Off at the Bagel Shop

Global Sabbath and Challa Bake-Off at the Bagel Shop

The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites you and your family to come back challa and celebrate the Sabbath in the Shabbos Project’s Global Challa Bake-Off at the Bagel Shop Café in Vilnius from 2:00 to 4:00 P.M. on Friday, November 11.

Every fall millions of Jews around the world come together in an extraordinarily moving activity, baking challa, blessing the wine and bread, singing the Sabbath hymns, celebrating the Sabbath together with friends and family and lighting the havdalah candle.

Senior Bagel Shop Café chef Riva Portnaja and other Community members will share their families’ traditions celebrating the Sabbath. You are invited to come make challa together, to take the loaves home, to invite our more isolated members to come as well and to bless the loaves and the wine together with the entire world Jewish community as we enter into the blessed rest of the Sabbath. The event is free and open to the public.

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Thank You, Rabbi Nathan Alfred

Thank You, Rabbi Nathan Alfred

The Lithuanian Jewish Community thanks Rabbi Nathan Alfred for three meaningful and fascinating days spent with our community.

We took some snapshots of the Kabalat Shabbat on Friday and the Shacharit prayer service last Saturday morning, below.

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Litvaks Who Came Back: An Exhibit

Litvaks Who Came Back: An Exhibit

Kęstutis Grigaliūnas’s personal exhibit “Litvaks Who Came Back from the Nazi Concentration Camps” will open at the Museum of Photography in Šiauliai at 5:00 P.M. on November 10. Grigaliūnas is a recipient of Lithuania’s Culture and Art Prize.

Natalija Arlauskaitė is the curator of the exhibit. She’s a professor at the International Relations and Political Science Institute of Vilnius University.

The exhibit features photographs of 335 Lithuanian Jews who survived and returned from the concentration camps with brief bios. A book of the same name as the exhibit, actually the source of the exhibit, will be launched at the opening. The exhibit runs till December 18.

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A Very Happy Birthday to Arkadijus Vinokuras

A Very Happy Birthday to Arkadijus Vinokuras

We congratulate our famous journalist, actor, write and all-around good person Arkadijus Vinokuras on the occasion of his milestone birthday. We wish you great happiness and personal fulfillment, excellent health and continued creative success! Mazl tov. Bis 120!

World of Trakai Executed in Varnikai Forest: A Fancy Menorah, a Mad Mob and a Leather Briefcase

World of Trakai Executed in Varnikai Forest: A Fancy Menorah, a Mad Mob and a Leather Briefcase

Photo: Trakai in 1952. From the personal collection of Algimantas Dočkus courtesy LRT.

by Rasa Kalinauskaitė

“Sir, I report that while inventorying the Jewish property taken to the synagogue I discovered seven fur coats suitable for police service. Three of them are of a yellow and unlined falling to below the knees, four are lined with cloth material, coming down to the knees. I request an order these fur coats be seized for police officers to wear as they perform their duties.”–from report by chief of Trakai police department to chief of district police, October 17, 1941.

I and a contingent of Trakai residents as well as two people who came from further off went on a tour of the Trakai Old Town, visiting sites recalling the Jews who lived here before World War II, stopping at former Jewish homes which are still standing. We became fellow travellers, in that those who toured Trakai in earlier times have shared their memories from many decades ago in the photographs they took, which show a town which has now completely changed. I wanted to share this with those who were not able to come, so I will attempt to describe this trip.

This is a journey through memory, because that same day, September 30, was the day in 1941 when the Jews of Trakai, Aukštadvaris, Lentvaris, Rūdiškės, Onuškis and Žydkaimis, 1,446 people of whom 597 were children, were murdered in Varnikai Forest.

Full article in Lithuanian here.

Jewish Scout Meeting

Jewish Scout Meeting

The Lithuanian Jewish Community will host a Litvak scouting meet at 3:30 P.M. on Thursday, November 10 at the Ilan Club room at the Community building at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius under the direction of scout leader Adomas Kofman. We will continue to learn about the scouting movement and engage in edifying and fun activities. All young people aged 6 to 18 are invited. For more information, write skautai@lzb.lt.

Condolences

We extend our deepest condolences to Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda on the death of his father, Antanas, and to all his many friends and family members.

Romany Language Day

Romany Language Day

November 5 is celebrated as International Romani Language Day by UNESCO, Croatia and by Roma and friends around the world. One’s mother tongue is an important element of identity maintaining community cohesion and the sense of belonging. The Lithuanian Jewish Community and partner organizations including Padėk Pritapti will hold a celebration of the international day at 5:30 P.M. on November 8 this year at the Bagel Shop Café at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius. There will be readings from the Lithuanian Roma oral history archive and traditional song and dance. Participants will also receive postcards created by children containing a short Romany-Lithuanian vocabulary. The event is free and open to the public.

More information available here.

To Fall in Love with the World through Painting

To Fall in Love with the World through Painting

To Fall in Love with the World through Painting: Exhibition of Paintings by Solomon Teitelbaum

The Pylimo Gallery located at Pylimo street no. 30 in Vilnius will host an exhibit of paintings by Solomon Teitelbaum called “To Fall in Love with the World through Painting” beginning November 9. The exhibition will run till November 26.

“To go inside, to reincarnate into the portrayed object, to feel the tragedy and joy of the world portrayed, this is the essence of my work. That’s why I fall in love with the world through painting,” he said of his latest exhibition.

Full description in Lithuanian available at the gallery’s website here.

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