Religion

Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 6:05 P.M. on Friday, March 15, and concludes at 7:19 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.

Women’s Club to Meet

Women’s Club to Meet

Dear women of the Lithuanian Jewish Community,

We are meeting at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius this Friday. You can expect real Women’s Club fun, including interesting conversation, an introduction to Purim, making hamantashen pastries and more. If you’ve been to one of the meetings before, you know this will be an unforgettable evening. Those who haven’t should come and find out for themselves.

Time: 6:30 P.M., Friday, March
Place: Third floor, Lithuanian Jewish Community, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius

Registration is required by writing zanas@sc.lzb.lt or calling (+370) 678 81514.

Choral Synagogue Attacked

Choral Synagogue Attacked

Early on the morning of Sunday, March 10, a group of young people threw a stone at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius. Police were alerted, but police officers said there was no damage done, despite several broken tiles. Security cameras recorded the rock throwing incident.

Damage doesn’t have to be physical. Whether you’re a Catholic or Jew, every house of prayer is sacred. We have as much right to ask for respect towards the synagogue as Catholic and Orthodox believers do for respect to their churches and to any location where rituals are being conducted.

All material was turned over to the police. We expect the perpetrators to be identified and their actions judged.

Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 5:52 P.M. on Friday, March 8, and concludes at 7:05 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sunday the 11th of March is Restoration of Lithuanian Independence Day with government and municipal offices and many businesses closed as well. On March 11, 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic voted to declare Lithuania independent of the Soviet Union, annulling Lithuania’s annexation by the USSR during World War II. March 8 is also International Women’s Day.

Purim Carnival

Purim Carnival

The Lithuanian Jewish Community, the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium and the Vilnius Religious Jewish Community invite you to a celebration of Purim, the happiest holiday on the Jewish calendar.

The program includes the traditional Purimshpil, an appearance by the Shmeikhl choir, the debut of a musical group made up of students, African drumming, a quiz, the costume carnival contest, DJs and other fun stuff, with the indefatigable Michaelas Frišmanas as master-of-ceremonies.

Time: 6:00 P.M., Friday, March 22
Place: Legendos Klubas, Kalvarijų street no. 85, Vilnius

The costume theme is legends of film. Cost for adults is 30 euros. Cost for children aged 7-18 is 20 euros.

Tickets available here: https://topticket.lt/lt/event/PURIM-2024

 

Condolences

We are deeply saddened to report the death of Rimas Timunas. He was born in 1952. A renowned theater director, he staged Grigoriy Kanovitch’s “Nusišypsok mums, Viešpatie” and popularized Litvak culture on the Lithuanian and world stage. He passed away in Italy from lung cancer.

Judaica Research Institute: Yiddish from Georgia

Judaica Research Institute: Yiddish from Georgia

The Judaica Research Institute at the Martynas Mažvydas Lithuanian National Library invites the public to a concert called “Yiddish from Georgia” to be held on the third-floor atrium starting at 6:00 P.M. on Monday, March 18.

The Yiddish quartet was form by Georgian actress Ana Sanaia in 2022. Receiving great acclaim, Sanaia made the quartet part of her mono-drama Martokina in 2023. That same year, with several other talented musicians including Tamar Rtveliashvili, Ioana Navadze and Aleksandra Lortkipanidze, the quartet became part of the Yiddish Theater in Tblisi, also resurrected by Sanaia after more than a century of absence.

The quartet is vocalist Salome Bakuradze, musician Maria Elene Bezhashvili, actress Sofia Akhuashvili and actress and director Ekaterine Kato Sharikadze, and are well known to radio and television audiences in Georgia. While none of them are Jewish, they all feel a deep and abiding respect for the Georgian Jewish heritage and share an understanding of the contribution the Ashkenazi who spoke Yiddish made in bringing Georgia into Europe.

The program includes songs in Yiddish and Georgian. Lasha Shakulashvili, a lecturer in Yiddish language and culture at Tblisi State University, will also speak on Yiddish culture in Georgia and its connections to Litvak culture.

Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman

Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman

Photo: Deborah Feldman by D. Umbrasas/LRT

Lithuanian State Radio and Television has featured another Jewish author who appeared at the Vilnius Book Fair last month, Deborah Feldman, author of “Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots,” under the headline “Author of Bestseller ‘Unorthodox’ with Litvak Roots: My Grandmother Is the Only Reason I’m Not Crazy” [Lietuviškų šaknų turinti bestselerio „Neortodoksiška“ autorė: močiutė – vienintelė priežastis, kodėl neišprotėjau].

Feldman recounts trying to sell her book to a publisher, and their response that it was a Jewish story, and why would it be interesting to non-Jews?

The American-born German author grew up in the close-knit Hassidic community of Satmar in Brooklyn, New York. She travelled to Lithuania to launch the Lithuanian translation of “Exodus, Revisisted,” the sequel to “Unorthodox,” at the Vilnius Book Fair. The Lithuanian translation was published by the Baltas Publishing House.

The New York Times bestseller “Unorthodox” tells the story of a young Jewish woman who extracts herself from an ultra-conservative community and has attracted readers around the world. It was made into a Netflix mini-series of the same name and was nominated for 8 Emmy awards.

Full article in Lithuanian here.

NAALE International Exchange Student Program with Israel Coming to LJC Sunday

NAALE International Exchange Student Program with Israel Coming to LJC Sunday

A representative from the NAALE Elite Academy will give a presentation this Sunday at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius for adolescents who want to study in Israel.

The NAALE program provides an opportunity to young people with Jewish roots to receive scholarships and attend from 3 to 4 years the best high schools in Israel.

The program was established in 1992 by the Progressive Education Association in cooperation with the Israeli Education Ministry and the Jewish Agency. Initially it was intended for children from families repatriating to Israel, but a decade later expanded to include all talented Jewish adolescents from around the globe, giving them the chance to get the best high school education and a priceless tool in aspiring after their future goals. NAALE Elite Academy also helps Jewish young people make a strong connexion with their Jewish roots and friendships to last a lifetime.

NAALE project leader Igal Brantman will give the presentation and answer all questions from the audience.

Time: 9:30 A.M., Sunday, March 10
Place: Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius

Registration is required by sending an email to viljamas@lzb.lt or by calling +370 672 50699. We hope to see you there.

Sabbath with Guitar Music

Sabbath with Guitar Music

Last Friday the Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Bnei Maskilim held a Sabbath celebration with prayer, food, guitar music and an evening of friendship and fun. This is at least a once-monthly event at the Community now. You’re invited to join next time. For more information about the next gathering, stay tuned, or send an email to viljamas@lzb.lt or call (+370) 672 50699.

Anti-Jew Hit List in Australia Bears Fruit: Man Kidnapped, Tortured

Anti-Jew Hit List in Australia Bears Fruit: Man Kidnapped, Tortured

Photo: Australian pro-Hamas activist Laura Allam, from X/Twitter

Following the circulation of a hit-list of around 600 Jews targeted for attacks by pro-Hamas activists in Australia, Victoria State Police are only now disclosing to the public a kidnapping, assault and robbery of a man committed on February 16. The man works for a Jewish employer and was ripped from the driver’s seat of his car, placed in another vehicle, assaulted, robbed and discarded. One of the several perpetrators was known to police and had been reported for making death threats against a female Jewish journalist and television presenter.

Prominent Pro-Hamas Activist Arrested on Kidnapping and Torture Charges

Algemeiner, February 29, 2024

Melbourne–Australian police on Monday announced the arrest of a prominent pro-Hamas advocate accused of orchestrating the kidnapping and torture of a man whose perceived offense was to work for a Jewish employer.

Melbourne resident Laura Allam was charged with kidnapping, armed robbery, illegal detention, assault and battery against the 31-year-old man, who has not been named by authorities. Working with an accomplice who has also been arrested and charged with kidnapping, false imprisonment, armed robbery, threats to kill, intention to cause injury, recklessly causing injury, unlawful assault and assault with weapon, the 28-year-old Allam is understood to have targeted the man solely because his employer is Jewish.

Paideia Accepting Applications

Paideia Accepting Applications

The Paideia Institute for Jewish studies in Stockholm is accepting applications now for international students interested in their Jewish studies program focusing on Scripture for 2024-2025, starting next September and continuing on until May of 2025. Minimum requirements include a bachelor’s degree and proficiency in English.

Application can be made here: https://shorturl.at/qCE02

For more information, send an e-mail to recruitment@paideia-eu.org.

Applications must be received by April 14, 2024.

Ambassadors Ask Lithuanian PM for Police Response to Growing Anti-Semitism

Ambassadors Ask Lithuanian PM for Police Response to Growing Anti-Semitism

The ambassadors of Germany, the United States and Israel have sent a letter to the Lithuanian prime minister pointing out the alarming growth of anti-Semitic attacks in Lithuania over recent weeks and calling for an increased police presence at Jewish community buildings, schools and synagogues.

American ambassador Kara McDonald, Israeli ambassador Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein and German ambassador Cornelius Zimmerman addressed their plea to Lithuanian prime minister Ingrida Šimonytė, invoking shared values of tolerance and inclusion and the rejection of anti-Semitism and citing recent stone-throwing incidents at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius and the Šiauliai Jewish Community in Šiauliai, Nazi symbols graffitied on a former synagogue in Daugai, Lithuania, and on a bridge in Vilnius and the overturning of a monument to the victims of the Druskininkai ghetto in Druskininkai, Lithuania, as examples of the rising number of incidents.

Efraim Zuroff Interview: It Always Starts with the Jews but Never Ends with the Jews

Efraim Zuroff Interview: It Always Starts with the Jews but Never Ends with the Jews

The Visegrad24 news website has been reporting on the conflict with Gaza live from Israel. In a recent interview they spoke with Efraim Zuroff, the director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, about the Holocaust, justice for the victims, justice for the victims of the Hamas massacre on October 7, Israeli security failures and the problem of Islamists migrating to Western Europe and North America and open borders in general.

“It always starts with the Jews, but never ends with the Jews. Hitler wanted to launch a war to destroy the Jews and 50 million people were murdered, and not all of them Jews, far from it. This is what people have to understand: the Jews are like the canaries in the coal mine. They’re the first victims. And if they go after us, be sure that they’ll go after the Christians in Europe and everywhere else because their dream is to take over the world. That’s the problem,” Zuroff said during the interview.

Family Sabbath Celebration with Guitar Music

Family Sabbath Celebration with Guitar Music

The Lithuanian Jewish Community and Bnei Maskilim invite you to a Sabbath celebration this Friday including not only a family atmosphere, good feelings and great company, but also live guitar.

Time: 6:30 P.M., Friday, February 23
Place: Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius

Cost is 5 euros and registration is required by sending an email to viljamas@lzb.lt or by calling (+370) 672 50699.

Congratulations to Daumantas Todesas

Congratulations to Daumantas Todesas

The Lithuanian Jewish Community congratulates Daumantas Levas Todesas, chairman of the Council of Ethnic Communities, for recognition of his efforts in preserving the Litvak heritage in Lithuania, in representing the interests of the ethnic minority communities in Lithuania and in his public activities promoting the integration of minorities into Lithuanian society, as demonstrated by Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda’s presentation to him of the Lithuanian medal the Order of Merit, the Knight’s Cross, on February 16 at the presidential palace in Vilnius.

Israel Rejects Palestinian Statehood

Israel Rejects Palestinian Statehood

Rebuffing Biden, cabinet rejects unilateral Palestinian state as “reward for terrorism”

Approved even by centrist ministers, the statement rejects “international diktats” pushing two states; minister Sa’ar compares reported US-Arab proposal to appeasement of Nazis in 1938

Israel’s cabinet Sunday unanimously approved a declaration rejecting “international diktats” seeking to push Palestinian statehood in the wake of reports the US and several Arab partners were preparing a detailed plan for a comprehensive peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians which was to include a “firm timeline” for a Palestinian state.

“Israel utterly rejects international diktats regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians,” the cabinet decision read. “A settlement, if it is to be reached, will come about solely through direct negotiations between the parties, without preconditions.

“Israel will continue to oppose unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state,” the motion added. “Such recognition in the wake of the October 7th massacre would be a massive and unprecedented reward to terrorism and would foil any future peace settlement.”

Full story here.

Circumcision Specialist Coming to Lithuania Early March

Circumcision Specialist Coming to Lithuania Early March

Circumcision specialist Dr. Martin Harris of Great Britain will visit Vilnius March 3 and 4. He is ready to offer his services to Lithuanian Jewish Community and Jewish religious community members free of charge. Those interested are invited to register by sending an email to sinagoga1903@gmail.com. More information about Dr. Harris is available here.