The Pakruojis wooden synagogue hosted an event yesterday to support Israel, organized by the Šiauliai Jewish Religious Community. Before the Holocaust the wooden synagogue–one of only a handful still standing in Europe–was the center of Jewish life and religion. The…
Pakruojis Wooden Synagogue Hosts Photo Exhibit on Kinder Aktion and Hamas Hostages
The Šiauliai Jewish Community is holding a half-day photography exhibit at the wooden synagogue in Pakruojis on November 20 detailing the painful past of the Jewish people and current events. The first part of the exhibit is a joint project…
Lithuanian News Site on Pakruojis Synagogue
Pakruojis Synagogue is a Monument to All the Jewish Houses of Prayer Which Stood in Lithuania 15min.lt, reprinted from a facebook user It’s believed there were about 500 or 600 different Jewish houses of prayer in our country, although no…
Fifth World Litvak Congress Participants Visit Panevėžys, Pakruojis, Šeduva
A delegation of participants from the Fifth World Litvak Congress travelled to Panevėžys May 25 and were met there by members of the Panevėžys Jewish Community and the local municipality. Panevėžys city municipality deputy director of administration Žibutė Gaivenienė said:…
Searching for the Synagogues of Pakruojis, They Found Part of the Old Town
by Živilė Kavaliauskaitė Archaeologists working in Kranto street in Pakruojis, Lithuania, found the foundations of the Winter Synagogue and also uncovered cultural strata from the 17th and 18th centuries of the Old Town there. They were unable to locate a…
New Archaeological Discoveries at Pakruojis Synagogue Complex
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, Pakruojis regional administration mayor Saulius Margis, administration director Ilona Gelažnikienė, deputy mayor Virginijus Kacilevičius and others attended a lecture by Dr. Ernestas Vasiliauskas presenting new archaeological discoveries at the Pakruojis synagogue complex. The Pakruojis…
Renaissance Photo Exhibit at Pakruojis Wooden Synagogue
by Vilijus Žagrakalys (pictured above) Renaissance, an exhibition of photographs at the Pakruojis synagogue from November 10 to 30, 2018, with the opening at 5:00 P.M. on November 9. Everything that’s old comes back around. The 19th century was the…
Pakruojis Wooden Synagogue Featured on Lithuanian Public TV Culture Channel
“Lithuania is slowly restoring the country’s rich legacy of synagogues. Synagogues are still standing in towns, the former shtetlakh, where not a single Jew has remained. Braver and cleverer mayors and communities, encouraged by the Lithuanian Cultural Heritage Department and…
US Ambassador Anne Hall Visits Oldest Wooden Synagogue in Pakruojis
US ambassador Anne Hall with Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky and the chairmen of the Panevžys and Šiauliai Jewish Communities toured the renovated Pakruojis wooden synagogue in late December. The oldest wooden synagogue in Lithuania was restored using period…
Oldest Wooden Synagogue in Pakruojis Opens after Renovation
The renovated wooden synagogue in Pakruojis, Lithuania, was opened to the public on May 19. Jews settled in Pakruojis in the 1710s. The majority were merchants and they contributed heavily to the growth of the local economy. The growing Jewish…
Pakruojis Wooden Synagogue Restored
Following renovation, the wooden synagogue in Pakruojis, Lithuania, is to open its doors to the public Friday. The synagogue is to house the Pakruojis Regional Juozas Paukštelis Library. The women’s gallery and a permanent exhibition will remind visitors of Jewish…
Unique Interior Design of Pakruojas Wooden Synagogue Restored
The administrators of the EEE and Norwegian Grants program and the Optus Optimum restoration group invite you take a look at the interior of the oldest wooden synagogue still standing in Lithuania in Pakruojas. The original paintings from the 19th…
Wooden Synagogue in Pakruojas, Lithuania
EEA and Lithuanian state support as well as from the Pakruojas regional administration has been allocated for fixing the wooden synagogue in Pakruojas, Lithuania. The plan is to house a children’s literature section of the Juozas Paukštelis Public Library in…
First Religious Ceremony at Žiežmariai Synagogue since World War II
For the first time since World War II the wooden synagogue in Žiežmariai has hosted a bat mitzvah ceremony. Aleksandra and Viljamas Žitkauskas’s daughter Ariana read from the Torah in the ceremony conducted by Rabbi Nathan Alfred and cantor Alan…
Three Groups Found Worthy of “Legitimate” Derision in Lithuania: The Circus, Homosexuals and Jews
by Arkadijus Vinokuras Conservative Party candidate for Vilnius mayor Valdas Benkunskas yells in his political advertisements: “A mayor without circuses!” Kaunas mayor Visvaldas Matijošaitis, frightened by public debate, echoes the sentiment: “Kaunas doesn’t need a circus!” The press frequently carries…
Events Program for the Fifth World Litvak Congress in Vilnius
The following is the program of events for the Fifth World Litvak Congress to be held in Vilnius from May 23 to May 26, 2022. A PDF file of the program can be downloaded here. §§§ Events Program for the…
On War, Women and Sunflowers
The Pakruojis synagogue will host this event at 3:00 P.M. on Friday, March 18. Neringa Latvytė will give a presentation called “We Were All Heroines: Experiences of Jewish Women in World War II.” An exhibit of photographs by Sošana Zaksaitė…
Synagogue in Žiežmariai Opens Doors
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…
Happy 10th Birthday to Maceva, the Litvak Cemetery Catalogue
Photo: Restored Jewish cemetery in Šeduva, Lithuania. Mazl tov to Maceva, the Litvak Cemetery Catalogue, which is celebrating a milestone: ten years of activity documenting, cleaning, digitizing, and restoring Jewish cemeteries in Lithuania. “Beit Olam, cemeteries are the house of…
Panevėžys Jewish Community Tours Historic Jewish Sites in Liepāja
Early in the morning on September 14 we went to the Pakruojis synagogue, where we were met by a cultural worker who received us warmly and spoke about the wooden synagogue built by the local Jewish community in 1801. Its…