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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Snapshots of Last Friday’s Kabbalat Shabat

Snapshots of Last Friday’s Kabbalat Shabat

Progressive Rabbi Nathan Alfred from Israel led a Kabbalat Shabat ceremony with about 50 members of the Lithuanian Jewish Community including our seniors and families with children. In the afternoon prior he attended the LJC Seniors Club Abi Men Zet Zich and sang the hymns to usher in the Sabbath. One of our oldest members, Libė Britaniskina, lit the Sabbath candles and the meeting concluded with songs in Hebrew and Yiddish. He led the prayer service and delivered the weekly Torah portion.

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Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 5:14 P.M. on Friday, February 18, and concludes at 6:30 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.

Lithuanian State Radio to Air Documentary on Young Jews Who Left for Israel in 1991

Lithuanian State Radio to Air Documentary on Young Jews Who Left for Israel in 1991

LRT Radio-Documentary: An Unknown Story from 1991

On the last two Sundays in February Lithuanian State Radio listeners will have the opportunity to hear an extraordinary two-part radio documentary called “Roots: The Story of One Journey.” This story involves a group of about 27 children who left Lithuania in 1991 to study in Israel.

“We immediately listened up when we heard from historian Violeta Davoliūtė about children who travelled abroad at those times without their parents,” writer Rimantas Kmita recalled. He and the journalists Vaida Pilibaitytė and Vita Ličytė produced the documentary. “Right away we were unable to understand who and how. Why didn’t their parents travel with them? How did these high school students live there by themselves? Back in those times when there were no mobile telephones or internet [in Lithuania]? Why did they send them there at all? What did they do there, where did they live, how did they adapt, what sort of lives did they have? Our imaginations immediately began painting all sorts of different stories and dramas.”

The radio documentary made in cooperation with the Goethe institute in Vilnius tells the stories of five adolescents from the period: Judita, Laurina, Nira, Rašella and Rananas. It includes recollections by the organizers of the trips, Daumantas Todesas and Ilja Bereznickas. Ilja Bereznickas escorted a group of students to Israel at the time.

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Chess Classes for Children

The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Rositsan and Maccabi Elite Chess and Checkers Club will hold classes to teach children chess from 5:30 to 6:30 P.M. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Virginijus Dumbrauskas will be the instructor. Registration is required by calling +370 676 07907. The classes will take place at the Lithuanian Jewish Community at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius and by internet.

Israeli Dance Club Rekudim

The Israeli dance club Rekudim will meet on Sundays from 11:00 A.M. to 12 noon for beginners and from noon to 1:30 P.M. for more advanced dancers. Julija Patašnik will teach the classes. For more information call +370 569 60512.

Condolences

Arkadijus Šeinker, one of the last survivors of the Riga ghetto and the Stutthof and Dachau concentration camps, passed away on February 13 in Lörrach, Germany. He was born in Riga on May 4, 1921. Our deepest condolences to his wife Hanna, sons Ilya, Igal and Garik, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

February 16 Greetings

February 16 Greetings

The Lithuanian Council signed a proclamation declaring the reconstitution of the Lithuanian state on February 16, 1918, and disavowing all former dependences on foreign states. To insure the future course and constitution of the state they called for the formation of the constituent Seimas, or parliament, which enshrined the principles of Western parliamentary democracy and freedom of belief, conscience and speech, ethnic equality under law and individual privacy and freedom from the wanton exercise of power. The Lithuanian State Council and the constituent Seimas ushered in the period of national rebirth. This Seimas adopted the national constitution and land reform legislation, and considered and adopted various laws regulating different areas of national life.

Let’s appreciate and take pride in our country.

Šiauliai Resident Ida Vileikienė Donates Medals to Museum

Šiauliai Resident Ida Vileikienė Donates Medals to Museum

Ida Vileikienė [was] scheduled to donate Lithuanian and Yad Vashem medals awarded to her adoptive parents Zofija and Adolfo Staškas to a local museum at a ceremony there on THursday, February 10.

Ida Vileikienė is one of only a handful of surviving city residents who were imprisoned in the Šiauliai ghetto. She was born in the ghetto in the summer of 1942. Following several operations to murder the children of the Šiauliai ghetto, her parents Aaron and Liuba Rozengard sought a safe haven for their daughter and turned her over to Zofija. The Staškas family protected and raised them.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Photo album on facebook here.

Kabbalat Shabat with Rabbi Nathan Alfred

The Choral Synagogue in Vilnius will host a Kabbalat Shabat ceremony with Rabbi Nathan Alfred from Israel at 6:30 on February 18, followed by a Sabbath meal. To register contact Viljamas by telephone at 867250699 or write viljamas@lzb.lt

Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 4:59 P.M. on Friday, February 11, and concludes at 6:16 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.

Lithuanian Jewish Community Children’s Clubs

The LJC children’s club for our youngest members–Dubi Mishpakha if for those under 3 and Dubi for children aged 3 to 6–will resume February 15. Dubi Mishpakha will be held on Tuesdays and Fridays starting at 11:00 A.M. and Dubi on Sundays from 11:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. For more information call Alexandra Žitkauskienė-Khenkin at telephone number 370 672 50 599.

Lithuanian State Auditor Says Good-Will Compensation Being Used Legally

Lithuanian State Auditor Says Good-Will Compensation Being Used Legally

Good-Will Compensation is being used in compliance with legal acts. The National Audit Office of Lithuania carried out the audit of the compliance of management, use and disposal of state budget funds allocated in 2021 to the public establishment Foundation for Disposal of Good-Will Compensation for the Immovable Property of Jewish Religious Communities. The audit determined that the compensation is being used in accordance with legal acts.

The Law on Good-Will Compensation for the Immovable Property of Jewish Religious Communities entered into force on December 1, 2011. It established the amount of monetary compensation to be paid annualy: EUR 37.07 million. The total amount is planned to be paid by March 1, 2023.

Each year the Lithuanian parliament, the Seimas, approves within the state budget the amount of EUR 3.62 million for this compensation. The compensation is paid to the Foundation by the Office of the Government as manager.

Full story here.

Condolences

The Union of Former Ghetto and Concentration Camp Prisoners mours the passing of Jevgenija Kolman. She was born in 1934 and was a prisoner in the Kaunas ghetto. Deepest condolences are extended to her daughter Diana, son Eduardas and her many friends and relatives. Her loss is our loss.

Lithuanian Parliamentary Speaker Visits Israel

Lithuanian Parliamentary Speaker Visits Israel

Lithuanian speaker of parliament Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen toured Yad Vashem and opened an honorary Lithuanian consulate in Netanya Monday. During her visit she met with Israeli president Isaac Herzog and Knesset speaker Mickey Levy.

She plans to visit Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh in the occupied territories as well, and to attend a round-table discussion with Palestinian women’s organizations. The trip to Israel and the occupied territories is scheduled from February 6 to 10.

She pledged Lithuanian support to Israel in the international arena.

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Šiauliai’s First Professional Photographer Reveals Interwar World

Šiauliai’s First Professional Photographer Reveals Interwar World

The Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community is hosting an exhibit of photographs from their archive by Sošana Zaksaitė, the city’s first professional photographer. Zaksaitė’s photos capture Jewish life in Šiauliai before the Holocaust.

This is the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community’s second exhibit of Zaksaitė’s photography.

Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community chairman Sania Kerbelis says the current exhibit continues where the last one left off. The Community has a digitized collection of Zaksaitė’s work numbering around 300 photos.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Kabbalat Shabat

A Kabbalat Shabat ceremony will be held via internet under the tenets of Progressive Judaism at 6:30 P.M. on February 11. To register, write Viljamas at viljamas@lzb.lt

Panevėžys Jewish Community Receives an Extraordinary Guest

Panevėžys Jewish Community Receives an Extraordinary Guest

The Panevėžys Jewish Community received an unusual guest on January 26: modern art genius from South Africa William Kentridge-Geffen and wife.

The artist was invited to Lithuania to participate in the “Kaunas, Cultural Capital of Europe 2022” program. An exhibition of his work is now showing at the M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum.

Kentridge-Geffen is an intellectual and a person who causes others to think and feel. His sources of inspiration range from science to literature and his artistic methods are the most varied, from sketches with coal to painting, textiles, animated films and opera productions, demonstrating his broad education and broad field of interests.

William Kentridge-Geffen said Lithuania made a deep impression on him because of its natural beauty and architectural legacy. He said with obvious emotion:

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Happy Birthday to Aleksandras Rutenbergas

Happy Birthday to Aleksandras Rutenbergas

Aleksandras Rutenbergas celebrated his 75th birthday Monday.

We wish our always active member a very happy birthday, good health and good times. Aleksandras, your contribution to maintaining Jewish heritage is great. You helped build the Tolerance Center of the Vilna Gaon Museum at the site of the former theater there. You were always there in the middle when there was work to be done. You introduced Europe to Litvak heritage, organizing two exhibitions of Vilnius ghetto posters in Padua and Strasbourg.

We would like to express our great respect for your good work and your tolerance.

Mazl tov. Bis 120!