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Wooden Synagogue in Alanta Renovated
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Lithuanian Jewish Community on the Participation of Nemuno Aušra Party under Remigijus Žemaitaitis in Next Government
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Iran Fires on Israel
Iran fired 181 mainly ballistic missiles at Israeli cities Tuesday evening. Iran claimed they fired over 400 missiles including a new hypersonic missile. Israel reported one death of an Arab in Jehrico and some damage to buildings in Tel Aviv, a missile hitting near the Ayalon Mall and damaging a school with no one inside. Iran claimed they had delivered a crippling blow to the Jewish state and had only targeted military and intelligence installations. The first volley appeared to target Mossad HQ in Tel Aviv but apparently were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Arrow anti-missile systems. The Kingdom of Jordan and the United States reportedly helped intercept incoming Iranian missiles. A Pentagon spokesman said American warships off the coast fired 11 interceptor missiles at incoming Iranian missiles. The United States and the United Kingdom condemned Iran’s attack while the prime minister of Australia again called for deescalation. Two Islamic terrorists from the West Bank murdered 6 Israelis and wounded another 12 using a knife and a gun at a transit station in Jaffa just before Iranian missiles were fired.
Shofar Procession through Vilnius
Dear Community members,
In celebration of Rosh Hashanah a shofar procession will make its way from the inner courtyard of the Old Arsenal next to the Tower of Gediminas, in honor of grand duke Gediminas who invited Jewish merchants, artisans and craftsmen from European cities to come settle in Lithuania, and wind through Cathedral Square to end up at the Vilnius Old Town Hall on Wednesday, October 2.
Shofar horns and shofar blowers from the Baltic states, the Ukraine, Israel and Great Britain will take part in the procession and sound the ancient ram horn instrument, dispelling evil and announcing the new year 5785.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community will hold a reception at the Old Town Hall following the procession.
Schedule (approximate):
October 2
4:00 P.M. Ceremony to kick off the march, inner courtyard, Old Arsenal, Arsenalo street no. 3
4:30 P.M. Procession along Arsenalo and Vrublevskio streets
4:40 P.M. Procession through Cathedral Square and along Pilies and Didžiosios streets
5:05 P.M. LJC reception for participants at Old Town Hall with sampling of holiday dishes
5:45 P.M. End of event
Superpower Israel Goes It Alone in Proxy Wars with Iran
Following an operation coup against Hezbollah, Israel targeted and killed almost all of the terrorist organization’s top leaders including the supreme leader on Friday, despite calls from the United States, France, Great Britain, Canada and Australia to Israel to work out a ceasefire with the Iranian-backed proxy army in Lebanon. Israel also says it has destroyed all but one battalion of Hamas, also an Iranian proxy, again despite international calls to Israel to make peace with the terrorists attacking the country. Israel also bombed Houthi positions in Yemen over the weekend, another proxy army funded and armed by Iran. News reports Sunday and Monday claimed the new president of Iran and/or the supreme leader the Ayatollah were taken to allegedly safe locations in case Israel decided to bring the war back to Tehran.
Rosh Hashanah Event Program
Rosh Hashanah is almost here. When the sun sets Wednesday, the celebration begins.
Program of LJC Rosh Hashanah events:
Choral Synagogue:
October 2
6:00 P.M. Mincha and Maariv prayer service
October 3
10:00 A.M. Shacharis
12:00 noon Blowing of the shofar
12:15 P.M. Torah reading and Musaf
2:30 P.M. Mincha
6:00 P.M. BLowing of the shofar
7:42 P.M. Maariv
Bnei Maskilim Progressive Judaism Community Invites You to Celebrate Rosh Hashanah
Dear reader,
As Rosh Hashanah draws near, the Jewish new year 5785, with its accompanying holiday, we invite you to join in with our community’s holiday prayers and events.
This year one of our guests will be former US Army chaplain Rabbi Hanoch M. Fields.
During the celebration we will pray, sing and sample sweet symbolic foods, for example, apples with honey, so that the New Year would be sweet and filled with delight.
May this New Year bring everyone health, peace and happiness!
Shana tova u’metukah!
The cost is 20 euros per person. For more information and to register, send an email to viljamas@lzb.lt.
Time: 6:30 P.M., October 3
Place: Third floor, Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius
Šiauliai Jewish Community Remembers the Murdered Jews of Žagarė
Šiauliai Jewish Community members are planning to leave the Šiauliai Jewish Community building at 10:00 A.M. on Sunday, October 6, to reach the town square in Žagarė where a ceremony to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust will be held. Everyone is invited to attend.
Final Concert in the Shalom Culture and Music Festival
The final concert of the Shalom Culture and Music Festival will take place at 7:00 P.M. on October 3 at the Church of St. Catherine (St. Kotryna) in Vilnius. The special ROsh Hashanah program includes works by Ofer ben Amots, Philip Glass, Faustas Latėnas and others.
Tickets available here: https://bit.ly/4d3993B
Rosh Hashanah Celebration for Seniors
The LJC’s Saul Kagan Welfare Center and the Abi Men Zet Zich Club invite seniors to celebrate the new year 5785 together.
Registration required by contacting Žana at zanas@sc.lzb.lt or +370) 678 81514.
Time: 2:00 P.M., Tuesday, October 1
Place: Third floor, Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius
Shana tova!
Condolences
Irina Felgina passed away September 27. She was born in 1931 and was a member of the Union of Former Ghetto and Concentration Camp Prisoners as well as a client of the Saul Kagan Welfare Center. We extend our deepest condolences to her daughter Anna, grandson Alex and her other friends and family members.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 6:46 P.M. on Friday, September 27, and concludes at 7:55 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Vilkaviškis Unveils Statue to Litvak Ballerina Sonia Gaskell
The western Lithuanian town of Vilkaviškis is to unvei a public sculpture Friday commemorating native Sonia Gaskell, a world-class ballerina who went on to teach ballet in Paris and the Hague, according to Lithuanian state television LRT. Gaskell was born in Vilkaviškis on April 14, 1904, and died in Paris on July 9, 1974.
The statue by sculptor Lukas Šiupšinskas is located in a square in front of the Vilkaviškis Children’s and Youth Center near where Gaskell is believed to have been born. She was originally named Sarah. Vilkaviškis reportedly also has a small museum dedicated to the details of her rather amazing life which includes making aliyah to Palestine and returning to Europe before the Holocaust. Vilkaviškis, aka Vikovishk, had a Jewish population which hovered at about 50% compared to the Christian population, sometimes reaching 60% and falling back to 45% just before the Holocaust. William Shatner’s maternal grandmother was born in Vilkaviškis, as were Aharon April, Jonas Basanavičius, Vincas Kudirka, Miriam Markel-Mosessohn and Galina Shurepova.
Earlier LRT reporting in Lithuanian on Sonia Gaskell here.
Correction
Yesterday Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky attended a press conference at the Lithuanian parliament and made comments which have become the object of speculation by the media and by social media posters.
The joint press conference with the LIC chairwoman, Lithuanian MP and chairman of the parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee Emanuelis Zingeris, MP Žygimantas Pavilionis and MP Liudvika Pocienė was called to discuss rising anti-Semitism in Lithuania.
Asked by reporters for comment, LJC chairwoman Kukliansky said words to the effect Lithuania’s foreign partners were concerned by reports a political party known for its anti-Semitic remarks led by a man the Constitutional Court of Lithuania found guilty of spreading ethnic discord could come to power.
Pressed for further comment, chairwoman Kukliansky said, to paraphrase in translation: “I heard there is a very stern letter by a German ambassador regarding this.”
She was referencing a statement by Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda speaking to Lithuanian state television’s LRT Forumas broadcast who said (in unofficial translation): “These statements, which may seem as if are innocent little jokes and short songs, have travelled very far indeed. And they have travelled to those partners of ours whose support to us is so crucially important. I mean Germany.”
The Lithuanian Jewish Community and our chairwoman would like to correct the record and quell possible speculation by stating that chairwoman Kukliansky wasn’t referring to Germany’s ambassador to Lithuania Cornelius Zimmermann, nor to any other specific German diplomatic or political official. She only attempted to relay what she had heard the president say on state television, if getting some of the details perhaps slightly wrong.
Chairwoman Kukliansky and the Lithuanian Jewish Community apologize for any misunderstanding regarding this matter.
We would also like to say that during this period of intensifying anti-Semitic attacks we are very grateful to a number of foreign embassies which have provided us constant great and staunch support, including the embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany. In gratitude for that support, LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky has sent written thank-you letters expressing our collective appreciation for their consistent and strong support to ambassador to Lithuania Cornelius Zimmerman, German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier and chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Remembering the Holocaust Victims in Švenčionys
Traditionally there is a commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust in Švenčionys held the first Sunday in October. We remember the Jews tortured and murdered, and those imprisoned in the ghetto set up in the town square and later murdered at nearby Platumai village. You are invited to attend the commemoration this year on October 6.
Program:
11:00 A.M. – 11:30 A.M. Remembering the victims in a gathering at the Menorah statue in the central park
12:30 P.M. Paying respects to the victims at the mass murder site in Platumai village approximately 13 kilometers to the west of Švenčionys