Dear reader,
This year we mark Yom Kippur in difficult times when many of our brothers and sisters are suffering from the ongoing, awful war and hatred. Today, on the eve of Yom Kippur, when we will all stand and reflect on the past, I wish everyone, first of all, to find peace, tranquility and courage within.
G’mar chatima tova.
Dear friends,
On Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement and Repentance, we put aside mundane concerns and reflect on what has happened in our lives.
May our thoughts be heard this day, may our thoughts become pure and our hearts kinder. Good health and strength to everyone, may our mistakes be corrected and our weaknesses overcome. May all continue life’s journey with dignity, sincerity and integrity. Peace and love.
G’mar chatima tova.
Members of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Bnei Maskilim progressive Judaism community were pleased to have US Army chaplain Rabbi Hanoch Fields lead celebrations of the High Holy Days Rosh Hashanah and presently Yom Kippur.
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement and remission from sin, the most important holiday on the Jewish calendar, will be observed Saturday. No matter how religious or not, no Jew risks travelling, bathing or eating during Yom Kippur. The holiday must be observed correctly, so the Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Bnei Maskilim progressive Judaism community invite you to observe the holy day together with us and Rabbi Hanoch Fields from the United States.
Program of events at the LJC in Vilnius:
October 11
6:30 P.M. Kol nidrei
October 12
10:00 A.M. Torah reading
5:00 P.M. Yizkor
5:15 P.M. Neila
6:30 P.M. Blowing of the shofar
7:00 P.M. End of fast, shared feast
Registration required. To register, contact viljamas@lzb.lt
Photo: Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon greets Australian foreign minister Penny Wong at a memorial event in Canberra. (Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS)
Monday didn’t start out easy for Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese. He and his entourage were heckled and picketed before they managed to enter the venue in Melbourne where an October 7 anniversary commemoration was being held.
One woman outside called him “fuckwit” and told him to go away. Others held pre-printed signs also instructing him to leave. At the vigil Australian Jews also expressed shock Albanese was attending, along with former Victoria premiers Jacinta Allen and Dan Andrews. The event was organized by Zionism Victoria and president of the organization Yossi Goldfarb delivered a scathing message to Albanese himself, sitting in the front row, saying the Labor government’s foreign policy vis-à-vis Israel and its handling of pro-Hamas protests domestically had led to an unprecedented surge in anti-Semitism in Australia.
Former Israeli ambassador to Lithuania and now to Australia Amir Maimon also spoke at an October 7 event held at dusk at the Israeli embassy in Canberra, saying:
“Remembering the horror, reliving the anguish and imagining the terror is painful, yet today we must confront those memories. This was not just a terrorist attack. It was an attempt to erase us. Over 1,200 innocent souls were ripped from our world that day. We did not start this war, but we are determined to win this war, not just for our own sake, but for the sake of the free world. This isn’t just another conflict. This is a battle between good and evil, between life and the forces of destruction.”
Opposition leader Peter Dutton received numerous standing ovations at an October 7 commemoration in Sydney.
Senior citizens and elderly members of the Lithuanian Jewish Community gathered for a different kind of Rosh Hashanah celebration at the LJC in Vilnius on the weekend.
With the anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 invasion and mass murder of Israelis last year, there was less of the usual music and fun and more prayers in Yiddish and Hebrew performed by Choral Synagogue cantor Shmuel Yaatom. The cantor’s wife Natalja Cheifec spoke about the history and traditions of Rosh Hashanah and the role of the woman in the Jewish family.
The Panevėžys Jewish Community celebrated Rosh Hashanah last week with music and food, including apples and honey. The prayer was performed before blowing the shofar. Yekaterna Radionova performed Jewish melodies on violin and members of the Community wished one another well in the coming year.
Natalja Cheifec’s #EDUKACIJOS discussion club invites you to join the zoom call at 5:30 P.M. this Thursday, October 10. She’ll discuss Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and what these holidays mean to Jews, traditions for observance and what to avoid to protect yourself from misfortune.
Zoom credentials available here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfRZKhoOgl_UbN-IxT4SO7m4uerwQONUveXaWQvFMKDghE-1A/viewform
Everyone is welcome.
Members of the Lithuanian Jewish Community from throughout Lithuania, students from the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium in Vilnius, special guests from Israel, foreign ambassadors and others gathered at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius Monday to remember Hamas’s invasion of Israel, massacre of 1,200 Israelis and the taking of 250 Israelis, Americans, French and Thais hostage on October 7 last year.
Maya Parizer and Raz Shifer were witnesses to the atrocities and spoke at the synagogue.
Israel’s ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein delivered a moving and somber address there as well.
A special thank-you to the Palanga Jewish Community, the Kaunas Jewish Community, the Israeli embassy and the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium for their help and participation.
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The Kaunas Jewish Community celebrated Rosh Hashanah with gusto and flair, and with a large number of Community members, friends and musicians.
Participants ate and chatted, and listened to Jewish melodies, which led to dancing. There was a quiz to test knowledge of the holiday, well-wishes for the coming year and prayers for more peace, love and human warmth in the world.
The Šiauliai Jewish Community came together to celebrate Rosh Hashanah Thursday evening. It began with a prayer and blowing the shofar horn, followed by breaking of challa and apples with honey, other dishes, well-wishes for the coming year 5785 and a glass of wine with a hearty “lechaim!”
On September 29 the Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club held their annual sports celebration for young and old alike to try their hand at a number of different kinds of sport, from chess and frisbee to volleyball and basketball. This year’s celebration included a workshop on krav maga, the Israeli martial art. The competition and workshop concluded with lunch and a discussion of the Makabi club’s future.
by Geoff Vasil
Monday will be day 365 of the Iranian hostage crisis. On October 7, 2023, Iranian forces took over 250 Americans, Israelis, French and Thais hostage in Gaza, brutally raping, burning, shooting and murdering another 1,200 people. Around 50 were released on humanitarian grounds and it is believed that of the 101 remaining at least half are now dead.
Day 365 is approaching the 444 days of captivity of the 53 American hostages Islamic Republic revolutionaries in Iran held at the former American embassy complex in Teheran which began in November of 1979.
On April 24, 1980, then president Jimmy Carter sent a hostage-rescue team to Iran to bring them home. The operation during that election year in the United States was a failure, but proponents of the Carter campaign for a second term later made allegations it was sabotaged from within, namely by colonel Oliver North and then-pilot Bob Gates, who later became the head of the CIA. Those allegations were never proven sufficiently.
What did happen, though, is that the leaders of the Iranian Islamic revolution upended talks with the Carter administration and announced in October of 1980 they would not release the hostages until after the November election for president in the United States. Carter’s team had hoped to strike a deal with the Ayatollah Khomeini in order to gain American votes for a second term.
The Sabbath begins at 6:28 P.M. on Friday, October 4, and concludes at 7:37 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Sunday is also Tzom Gedaliah, a minor fast day falling after the end of Rosh Hashanah. It is observed with dawn-to-dusk fasting on the third day of Tishrei starting at dawn. This day laments the assassination of the Babylonian-appointed official named Gedalia who was appointed to administer the Jewish population after the destruction of the First Temple and the resulting exile of the Jews in 586 B.C. Also known as the Fast of Gedalia, this fast day’s history can be traced back over 2,600 years to immediately after the death of Gedalia.
Monday is World Architecture Day. Observed annually on the first Monday in October. World Architecture Day is a holiday celebrating the world’s ancient, classical, mediaeval and modern architectural structures. It us also a day to celebrate the architects who designed these works of art. It dates from 1985 and was instituted by the International Union of Architects.
Dear reader,
Today Jews around the world celebrate Rosh Hashana, the New Year 5785. At this difficult time it is more important than ever to take pride in our identity and to celebrate our traditions. So I wish you to sit down with your families and friends at the table laden with challa and sweets, to share your joy and smiles, but not to forget our brothers and sisters target by rockets in our homeland, nor the 101 hostages still held by Hamas. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.
A peaceful and sweet new year. Shana tova u’metuka.
Photo: Police at Copenhagen Central Station on Wednesday, where they arrested suspects in relation to explosions near the Israeli embassy north of the city center. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT/Ritzau Scanpix
Two blasts early Wednesday near the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen were likely caused by hand grenades, Danish police said.
“Two explosions occurred at 3:20 A.M. at the Israeli embassy. It is our preliminary assessment that it was due to two hand grenades,” Jens Jespersen of the Copenhagen police told a press conference, adding that three young Swedes had been arrested.
Police in both Denmark and Sweden said Wednesday they were probing incidents involving explosions or gunfire around Israeli embassies in their capitals.
In Denmark police arrested the three Swedish nationals after two blasts were reported in the “immediate proximity” of the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen in the early hours.
Photo: Police at Palace of Sports by Paulius Skučas
A group of 50 masked, knife-wielding teenage boys has turned the crumbling Palace of Sports complex built on top of the old Jewish cemetery in Vilnius into their gang clubhouse and have threatened pedestrians in the area, including children, with their weapons, as well as attacking a lone security guard in charge of the site, according to Paulius Skučas, an LNK television reporter who posted on Instagram as well as did a Lithuanian state radio interview about the situation.
Skučas posted photos of the incident on Instagram with textual explanations:
This is how the Palace of Sports looked after the massive attack by teenagers this evening. Police and security stood guard for several hours. It seems the gang of teenagers are so uncontrollable and undetainable that all the residents of the surround neighborhoods and buildings have become hostages.
Dear Community members, readers and friends,
May the new year 5785 bring you and your loved ones good fortune and health, happiness and a willingness to share your love with others. May all past and future errors and ill-chosen words be forgiven. May the New Year generously bestow upon all of us good news and good deeds, peace, prosperity and abundance.
Shana tova!
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