Survivor of the Kaunas ghetto and Ereda and Stuffhof concentration camps Dobrė Rozenbergienė has died. She was born in 1928. Our deepest condolences to her son, grandchildren, relatives and friends.
The Sabbath begins at 6:54 P.M. on Friday, September 24, and concludes at 8:05 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Honored guests,
I stand before you in order to deliver a speech, but this place and this sad occasion calls for concentrating and remaining silent. The reflection, respect and humble silence which meets every thinking and feeling person in this place cannot be confused with the silence of apathy, ignorance and fear. All of us have kept silent too long. Too long. We have kept quiet about what happened, where it happened and why. It was kept quiet for most of those eight decades we count since the beginning of the Holocaust in Lithuania. Out of fear? Ignorance? Apathy?
The Panevėžys Jewish Community commemorated the 80th anniversary of the onset of the Holocaust in Lithuania on September 22 with a “Road of Memory” procession meeting at the Sad Jewish Mother statue and regrouping later at the former ghetto gates and the mass murder site in the Kurganava Forest were about 8,000 Jews were shot in 1941.
“Eighty years ago a black mark was made in the history of Lithuania, resulting in the taking of almost 200,000 lives and the lives of about six million Jews in Europe,” Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman said.
The largest mass murder sites near Panevėžys are in the Žalioji and Kurganava Forests, but the district has more than 30 mass murder sites in total.
by Daiva Savckienė
On the eve of the Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide, the Panevėžys Jewish Community and guests marked this date with a “Road of Memory” procession, meeting at the Sad Jewish Mother monument, then later at the monument at the intersection of Krekenavos and Klaipėdos streets marking the site of the ghetto the Nazis established in Panevėžys, and then in the Kurganava Forest where about 8,000 people were murdered in 1941.
Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman said: “The small towns and large cities are marking the 80th anniversary of the Holocaust with processions.”
It’s not just this tragedy and the innocent people murdered being remembered. All of Lithuania suffered.
The Vilnius Photography Gallery located at Stiklių street no. 4 will open an exhibit by Kęstutis Grigaliūnas at 6:00 P.M. on September 22 called “Lithuanian Jews Who Came Back from the Nazi Concentration Camps.” The exhibit features 335 people who came back, with photographs and short biographies. It will also showcase the book “Lietuvos žydai grįžę iš nacių konclagerių” [Lithuanian Jews Who Came Back from the Nazi Concentration Camps] which contains 2,700 short bios and 335 portraits.
“The visualization of cases in this project becomes a space in which the violence of the Soviet state is examined and whose exhibiting under new spatial, media and institutional conditions allows for the execution of historical justice, and allows the eye and mind of the spectator to enter into intensive interaction with the past seen this way for the first time,” exhibit curator Natalija Arlauskaitė explained.
The Kaunas Jewish Community and the Ninth Fort Museum in Kaunas invite the public to attend a commemoration of Holocaust victims at 11:00 A.M. on Thursday, September 23, at the large statue to remember the victims of Naziism.
The commemorative program will last an hour and a half, to be followed by coffee in the museum’s administration building.
Program:
10:30 A.M. Registration
11:00 A.M. Commemoration begins, followed by an artistic reading of recollections by children who lived in ghettos, read by students from the Jonas Jablonskis Gymnasium, followed by a presentation of the “Ecce Homo: To Those Who Remain” project by the Ninth Fort Museum and the Kaunas 2022 organization including meeting the artists.
Sukkot or Sukkos beings at 7:04 P.M. in Vilnius on Monday, September 21, 2021.
The Festival of Sukkot–literally meaning booths, tents, tabernacles–is celebrated for seven days in Israel and eight days in the Diaspora, starting on the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei. It is one of the three festivals during which Jewish men were required to make pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the times of the Holy Temple.
The Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community is marking the Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide, September 23, with several events this year.
At 4:00 P.M. on September 22 an exhibit will open in the exhibit hall of the Cultural Center of the Šiauliai Regional Administration located at Ventos street no. 11A in Kuršėnai, Lithuania, an exhibit of photographs by Rolandas Parafinavičius called House Spirits and by photographer S. Zakasaitė who operated in the period between the two world wars, with the combined exhibit called “Jews Then and Now.” Righteous Gentiles Pranas Grigalaitis and Ona Bielskienė will also be honored during the opening ceremony. The exhibit will run till November 5. The Cultural Center is open from 10:00 A.M. and 5:00 P.M. on week days and during scheduled events.
Additional related exhibits include an exhibit of calendars called “The Jews of Lithuania: An Indivisible Part of Our Society” running from September 6 to October 1 in the exhibition space at the Kuršėnai manor estate in Kuršėnai, Lithuania; the “Don’t Turn Your Back on the Past” exhibit of publications running from September 20 to September 30 at the Augustinas Gricius Library in Gruzdžiai and “Memory Comes of Age through the Past…” running from September 20 till October 22 at the library in Meškuičiai.
The Makabi Club in Šiauliai invites you to attend the traditional Liova Taicas memorial competition at the Uniqa Arena in Šiauliai starting at noon, October 24, 2021, to include ping-pong, chess, volleyball, 3-on-3 basketball and indoor soccer. For more information contact Rašella at 869910621 or Sania at 864025950.
LJC member and long-time client of our Social Center David Magid has passed away. He was born in 1927. Our deepest condolences to his family and friends.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites the public to a Holocaust commemoration at the Ponar Memorial Complex located at Agrastų street no. 15A with a ceremony and speeches at 1:00 P.M. on September 23. Please register by sending an email to office@lzb.lt or by calling (8 5) 2613 003.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community and all of its member organizations sincerely wish LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky a very happy birthday. May you always enjoy the energy you’ve shown as chairwoman and may the light you spread to all of us shine back upon you. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
The Sabbath begins at 7:12 P.M. on Friday, September 17 and concludes at 8:22 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
The Navarėnai Cultural Center, Navarėnai aldermanship, Navarėnai primary school and Navarėnai library located in the small town in the Telšiai district of northwest Lithuania invite the public to attend events marking the Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide on September 23 this year. The commemoration begins at 1:00 P.M. at the Navarėnai Cultural Center, whence participants will travel to the Jewish mass murder site in the Šiliškė forest. The program includes the unveiling of a monument and speeches by guests with music dedicated to the memory of the dead performed by Valda Valužienė of the Viešvėnai Cultural Center.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Kaišiadorys city municipality invite the public to visit the restored synagogue in Žiežmariai, Lithuania, September 17.
As part of the European Days of Jewish Culture, the LJC is sponsoring the event in Žiežmariai to discuss the public utilization of Litvak heritage sites and the relationship between the local community and this synagogue specifically.
The event will be moderated by Martynas Užpelkis, the LJC’s heritage specialist.
Participants will include LJC chairwoman Faina, Kukliansky, Kaišiadorys mayor Vytenis Tomkus, Lithuanian heritage expert and historian Diana Varnaitė, Kaišiadorys Museum director Olijardas Lukoševičius and others.
The event begins at the synagogue at 2:00 P.M. on September 17.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community is pleased to announce a concert by St. Christopher chamber orchestra from Vilnius and other classical, jazz and folk performers to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Holocaust in Lithuania.
Program:
Premiere of Symphony from the Jerusalem of the North by composer Jievaras Jasinskis
Special guest: Israeli multi-instrumentalist Yaron Cherniak
The concert begins at 7:00 P.M. on Thursday, September 23, in the courtyard of the President’s Office at Daukanto street no. 3 in Vilnius (gate opens at 6:00 P.M.).
Prior registration before September 20 and proof of vaccination(s) at the gate required. Register here.
We are sad to report the death of Rabbi Krinsky’s sister. The rabbi sat shiva Tuesday evening.
It has become a tradition now to meet on the first Sunday in October at the Menorah in the park in Švenčionys to remember and honor the large Jewish community of Švenčionys who had their own culture and traditions, and to remember their tragic fate.
I am please to invite everyone to attend the Holocaust commemoration at the Menorah statue in the Švenčionys city park marking the boundary of the Švenčionys ghetto. The commemoration starts at 11:00 A.M. on October 3, 2021.
Program:
