American jazz singer Karmen Moxie will perform for the first time ever in Lithuania at the Lithuanian Jewish Community.
It’s happening at 6:00 P.M. on Sunday, December 15, in the Jascha Heifetz Hall on the third floor, a performance space with perhaps seats for 100 people maximum.
Tickets can be purchased at all Bilietai.lt ticket outlets and via internet at bilietai.lt.
For more information, try the following telephone numbers: +370 677 00699, +370 645 36403, +370 618 01331, +370 671 76502.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community has a special Hanukkah events planned for the Dubi Club and Ilan Club. Dubi is for children aged 4 to 6 and Ilan for those 7 to 11.
At 1:00 P.M. on Saturday, December 14, we’ll make and eat delicious sufganiyot doughnuts.
Please note the clubs on these dates will not be meeting at the LJC but at the HEY HEY Kaip Skaniai space located at Odminių street no. 3 in Vilnius.
Space is limited, so make a reservation by sending an email to levickajasimona@gmail.com. Please call +370 678 81514 for more information.
The first evening of Hanukkah falls on December 25 this year.
Delegations and representatives of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance met in congress in London from December 2 to 5 to discuss current events in Holocaust and Roma genocide commemoration, education and combating anti-Semitism. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky was part of Lithuania’s legation.
The plenary session discussed rising anti-Semitism in Europe and conflicts in the Middle East.
Eric Pickles who serves as chairman of IHRA said Jews are more afraid now than ever before, making fighting hatred and preserving memory more important than ever as well.
Lithuanian ambassador for special assignments Arvydas Daunoravičius led the Lithuanian legation. Other members of Lithuania’s team were chosen by the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry, Education Ministry, Ethnic Minorities Department, the International Commission for the Assessment of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania and the Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum. Kukliansky represented the Lithuanian Jewish Community among the Lithuanian delegates.
Representatives from the EJC and UNESCO have been meeting for several days in Paris to discuss better ways of fighting anti-Semitism through public education. Faina Kukliansky represented the Lithuanian Jewish Community at those talks.
Natalja Cheifec’s #ŠALOM discussion club will meet via zoom at 5:30 P.M. on Thursday, December 12. Register here. Don’t forget to mention topics of interest to you on the registration form!
by Geoff Vasil
Last Thursday Australian supporters of Hamas targeted the Great Synagogue in Sydney’s Central Business District with a loud protest across the street. Members of the congregation sheltered in place inside with outer doors locked. Two Jews ventured out and waved an Israeli flag. New South Wales state police crossed the street to arrest both.
The next day in the early hours of Friday two arsonists entered the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, spread accelerants and put the shul to the torch. One man inside was wounded with severe burns on his arm and remains hospitalized. Priceless Torah scrolls and other texts were also damaged.
Monday other locations in Australia were the site of protests by native Hamas and ISIS terrorists featuring anti-Semitic chants.
The Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium and the Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club invite everyone to take part in a table tennis tourney called Hanukkah Special with five separate groups competing.
To register, click here.
Time: 12:30 P.M., Wednesday, December 11
Place: Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium, Kraševskio street no. 5, Vilnius
The Šiauliai Jewish Community invites you to a concert by internationally-acclaimed songstress Gita-Enta Broydy, former resident of Šiauliai, performing Yiddish favorites at the Šiauliai Jewish Community this Friday, December 13, starting at 5:30 P.M. Everyone is welcome.
Liubov Reznik has passed away. She was born in 1956. She was a long-standing member of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and more recently a client of the Saul Kagan Welfare Center. We extend our deepest condolences to her children, relatives and friends.
In the run-up to Hanukkah, the Lithuanian Jewish Community invites you to an evening of music called Awaiting Hanukkah with performances by the jazz group Stardust Trio and violin duo Double Cores with Boris Kirzner and Michail Bolshun.
The cost is 20 euros and prior registration is required via email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt, For more information call (+370) 678 81514.
Time: 7:00 P.M., Friday, December 20
Place: Bagel Shop Café, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius
Ričardas Pikelis launched his first book “Čia mano žemė” [My Land Is Here] at the Šiauliai Jewish Community Friday. The publication of his book was the idea of the late Sania Kerbelis, the long-standing chairman of the Community who passed away this year.
It contains poetry and prose with an emphasis on the author’s appreciation of the beauty and pathos of the natural world. Monika Šaltytė and Vladas Baranauskas recited his poetry. Jūratė Adomavičiūtė played the kanklės, a Lithuanian folk instrument, and Morta Meiliulytė played violin. Albertas Martinaitis gave guests gifts hand-carved from stone.
The Sabbath begins at 3:36 P.M. on Friday, December 6, and concludes at 4:59 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Monday is also World Genocide Commemoration Day.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community has several special Hanukkah events planned for the Dubi Club and Ilan Club. Dubi is for children aged 4 to 6 and Ilan for those 7 to 11.
At 1:00 P.M. on Saturday, December 7, we’ll make menorahs together out of clay.
At 1:00 P.M. on Saturday, December 14, we’ll make and eat delicious sufganiyot doughnuts.
Please note the clubs on these dates will not be meeting at the LJC but at the HEY HEY Kaip Skaniai space located at Odminių street no. 3 in Vilnius.
Space is limited, so make a reservation by sending an email to levickajasimona@gmail.com. Please call +370 678 81514 for more information.
The first day of Hanukkah falls on December 25 this year.
The town of Šakiai in the Marijampolė district in extreme western Lithuania paid homage to its once vibrant Jewish community with a series of presentations followed by the unveiling of a metal sculpture of a boy on November 28.
The Zanavykai Museum began events with a series of lectures about Jews from Šakiai, the history of Jews in the town and their historical legacy. Lost Shtetl Museum senior academic correspondent Jolanta Mickutė and director of the Vincas Kudirka Museum at the Lithuanian National Museum Vida Palionienė spoke on the town’s former Jewish community and regional historian Gražina Žemaitienė spoke about Jewish life in nearby Kudirkos Naumiestis.
The speakers and audience moved to the town square following these presentations where a metal statue by Kęstutis Dovydaitis portraying a school boy was unveiled by Kęstutis Dovydaitis, MP Darius Jakavičius and mayor of the Šakiai regional administration Raimondas Januševičius. Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas, and other guests attended the events along with local residents and students.
The Sabbath begins at 3:41 P.M. on Friday, November 29 and concludes at 5:03 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sunday is also the beginning of Advent, marking the beginning of the Christian liturgical year in many Western churches.
The Bnei Maskilim iProgressive Judaism community invites you to the Shaharit morning prayer with Rabbi Grisha Abromavich from Israel. Registration is required by sending an email to viljamas@lzb.lt.
Time: 11:00 A.M., Saturday, November 30
Place: Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius
The Rikudei Am Israeli Dance Club offers lessons to beginners, advanced and highly advanced students. The schedule has changed. Every Sunday, the classes are now:
11:30 A.M. Beginners group
12:00 noon Advanced
12:30 P.M. Highly advanced group
Classes are held at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius. The cost is 20 euros for 4 classes for the general public, and 10 euros for 4 classes for Community members. Registration is required. To register and find out how to pay, send an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt.
Do you know any young person who doesn’t like chocolate? If so, he’s the exception. Most young people gladly “destroy” anything made from chocolate. And if you can add the ingredients you like, then that’s a chocolate holiday. That’s what the Ilan Club will get up to this Saturday with a chocolate workshop and the story of Elit, the candy so popular in Israel which began here, along with other sweet stories.
Time: 1:00 P.M., Saturday, November 30
Place: Second floor, Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius
by Geoff Vasil
Last week the Australian Government under Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese barred Israel’s former justice minister Ayelet Shaked.who was scheduled to speak at a conference hosted by the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, claiming she would incite unrest in the island country.
Asked a day later to comment on the ICC’s announcement of an international arrest warrant for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Galant, ALbaense’s foreign minister Penny Wong said Australia would honor the arrest warrant. Penny Wong has been publicly flirting with the idea of Australian recognition of a Palestinian state for over a year now.
Meanwhile Australian authorities made their first arrest, if you exclude Jewish detainees harassed by police for being Jewish or carrying Israeli flags in public, since October 7, 2023, of anyone involved in the brewing conflict between Hamas supporters and Australian Jews yesterday, handcuffing Mohommad Farhat, 20, as he waited to board a flight to Bali. Farhat is accused of a spree of vandalism in a Jewish area of Sydney during which he set at least one automobile on fire and spraypainted businesses and cars with the phrase “Fuk Israel” as well as “The PKK is coming,” a kind of mixed message. PKK is best known as the acronym for a Kurdish Communist party recognized as a terrorist organization in the EU and elsewhere.
The Jonas Šliūpas Museum in Palanga invites the public to a second guided tour of the herring exhibit “From the North Sea to the Christmas Table” at 5:00 P.M. on November 29. This time co-creator of the exhibit Akvilė Poškienė of Klaipėda University will guide the tour. Afterwards the Palanga Jewish Community will host a presentation of Jewish culinary heritage accompanied by sampling of Jewish snacks with herring presented by Lithuanian Jewish Community educator Dovilė Rūkaitė.
The cost is 4 euros. Registration is required by sending an email to j.sliupo.muziejus@lnm.lt.
Time: 5:00 P.M., November 29
Place: Jonas Šliūpas Museum, Vytauto street no. 23A, Palanga
