The Sabbath begins at 7:20 P.M. on Friday, September 25, and concludes at 8:01 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit and prayers recited by or before 6:52 P.M. and completed before sunset at 7:20 P.M. Sukkot also begins at sunset on Friday. Simchat Torah begins Friday, October 2, at sunset and concludes at sundown on Sunday, October 4.
Sukkot begins Friday, September 25 at 6:52 P.M. 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 leads on to Simchat Torah celebrated for two days outside Israel, this year starting at sundown on October 2. Sukkot 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 Choral Synagogue in Vilnius has set up a sukka for members of the Community.
We know the Great Synagogue in Vilnius was mainly subterranean, because of Christian restrictions limiting the height of houses of prayer of other confessions. Until now, we only had period illustrations of the interior, lost when the shul damaged by Nazi bombardment was demolished by the Soviets in the 1950s. For about a decade now archaeologists from the Israeli Antiquities Authority in cooperation with Lithuanian archaeologists from the Department of Cultural Heritage have been excavating the Shulhoyf, and last year and this they’re reached the floor of the main hall and uncovered most of the meter-high bimah, the central point in the main hall.
Their discoveries have inspired an exhibit of artworks by Lithuanian Eglė Ridikaitė called Depositions at the St. George the Martyr Church, K. Sirvydo street no. 4, in Vilnius, which opened May 14 and runs till October 3. Admission is from 5 to 10 euros and is payable by card only.
“Eglė Ridikaitė’s exhibition, through an unexpected artistic gesture, weaves together sites of faith, painful historical experiences, and a sense of present vulnerability. With striking clarity, serenity, and simplicity, Depositions unfolds as a silent yet conceptually dense narrative about the city. It invites us to experience, simultaneously, the layered histories of prewar Jewish and Christian Vilnius, while tracing processes of survival and extinction, life and its erasure in memory.
Photo: Ian MacAlpine/The Canadain Press
A man drove up in a pick-up truck to the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, Sunday evening during Yom Kippur services and opened fire on an off-duty Belleville Police Service constable working as a security guard there as he sat in his vehicle.
Police say the man, 29-year-old Sean Ward who lived in nearby Quinte West and served in the Canadian armed forces in Alberta, joining in 2017 and leaving in 2022 at the rank of corporal, was hit by return fire from the security guard, and from another off-duty constable working as a security guard who rushed to the scene. The first constable and the shooter were wounded, and the shooter Sean Ward died from his wounds in hospital in Kingston, Ontario, Monday night.
Ward is said to have been discharged from the Canadian military’s Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry division because he refused Covid vaccinations. One military source told the GlobalNEWS.ca news website Ward believed Jews were responsible for the virus, restrictions and vaccinations.
The first Sabbath Table to Remember Jewish History exhibit as part of the Children of the Holocaust: Lighting Up the Shadows of Lithuanian History project took place at the Pabradė Culture Center last week. The exhibit will be a changeable one depending on the decisions and sensibilities of the designers and exhibit item creators. This time the Sabbath table was laden with pomegranates, figs, apples and challa.
Residents of Pabradė in eastern Lithuania, visitors and local students and teachers attended the event. Švenčionys Jewish Community chairman Moshe Shapiro welcomes the attendees, followed by a panel discussion moderated by Sholem Alechem ORT Gymnasium students, moderated by Algis Davidavičius, who discussed local history, memory and modern forms of commemoration. Then visitors learned about Sabbath traditions, sampled traditional dishes and attended a Jewish cloth-dying workshop.
The Sabbath Table to Remember Jewish History exhibition is the fruit of a two-year meaningful journey during which brave and knowledge-thirsty students from Vilnius and Palanga and their teachers dove into live research on local Jewish history. The young people conducted tours, creative workshops, celebrated Purim and Sabbath together, marked commemorative dates, visited synagogue and spoke with representatives from the Palanga, Vilnius, Darbėn and Israeli Jewish communities.
The Sabbath begins at 7:28 P.M. on Friday, September 18, and concludes at 8:19 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit and prayers recited by or before 7:10 P.M. and completed before sunset at 7:28 P.M. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, begins at sundown on Sunday. This Wednesday, September 23, is the Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide, a commemorative day on the Lithuanian calendar.
Yom Kippur starts Sunday evening. It is considered the most important holiday on the Jewish calendar. The Choral Synagogue at Pylimo street no. 39 in Vilnius will host Yom Kippur services. G’mar khatima tova, May your name be inscribed in the Book of Life.
Schedule:
September 20
5:45 P.M. Mincha
6:00-6:45 P.M. Feast before fast
6:45-7:05 P.M. Candle lighting and beginning of fast
7:00 P.M. Kol nidre
September 21
10:00 A.M. Shacharit
12:15 P.M. Yizkor
6:00 P.M. Mincha
7:00 P.M. Ne’ila prayers, shofar and closing prayers
8:14 P.M. End of fast, break-fast meal
The Šiauliai District Jewish Community sincerely congratulates Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky on the occasion of her birthday!
May Success never leave you, accompanied by Litvak Strength!
Respectfully,
Šiauliai District Jewish Community
The entire Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky a very happy birthday. Your attitude, perseverance and dedication set an example for us all. You don’t just talk about serving the Community, you embrace it with your actions every day and continue to grow the Community. On this day we wish you iron-clad health, energy, inspiration and people with whom you can share your work as well as your joys in life. Happy birthday, Faina! Mazl tov. Bis 120!
The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites you to mark the Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide with us, remembering the more than 200,000 victims of the Holocaust in Lithuania, at the mass murder site in Ponar just outside Vilnius.
The LJC is providing transportation for those wishing to make the short trip. Please register by 12 noon on September 22 by sending an email to info@lzb.lt containing your full name and the purpose of the email. The bus will leave from the LJC at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius at 11:45 A.M. sharp on September 23. If you arrive late you’ll miss the bus.
Time: 12:30 P.M., Wednesday, September 23
Place: Ponar Memorial Complex, Memorialo street no. 15 aka Agrastų street no. 15, Vilnius
The Šiauliai District Jewish Community invites you to a ceremony to mark the Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide at the site of the former first ghetto gates at 11:00 A.M. on Wednesday, September 23. There will then be a procession to the second ghetto gates.
Time: 11:00 A.M., Wednesday, September 23
Place: Memorial marking gates of first ghetto at the intersection of Traku and Ezero streets, Righteous Gentile Square, Šiauliai
The Droga Dō chamber concert series is dedicated to the memory of the escape route Polish and Lithuanian Jews took to Japan during the Holocaust, and to Japanese ambassador and Righteous Gentile Chiune Sugihara who made it possible, saving thousands of Jews. Dō (Dou, Doo) means “way” in Japanese, as does droga in Polish.
Droga Dō will be performed at the Kaunas State Philharmonic on September 19 with works by Toru Takemitsu, Dai Fujikura, Kishio Kirao, Mieczysław Weinberg, Władysław Szpilman, Aleksander Tansman, Aleksandr Veprik, Joseph Achron and others. For more information, click here. For information in Lithuanian and to purchase tickets, click here.
Time: 5:00 P.M., Saturday, September 19
Place: Kaunas State Philharmonic, E. Ožeškienės no. 12, Kaunas
A gathering of members of the Panevėžys Jewish Community and family, friends and guests celebrated Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, last week at the Community building in the northern Lithuanian city with traditional dishes prepared by members. This year the start of Rosh Hashanah coincided with the onset of Sabbath and the celebration began with the lighting of candles and intonation of prayers.
Community member Nerijus Jakštonis, an accomplished trumpet musician, blew a small shofar horn, seen in photographs below. Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman spoke about what the holiday means and the ten-day period before Yom Kippur for self-reflection, taking responsibility for one’s past and future actions and reconciliation.
