Announcements – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Kaunas Jewish Community to Hold General Reporting and Election Meeting

A general reporting and election meeting of the Kaunas Jewish Community is scheduled for 5:00 P.M., July 29, 2020. Those wishing to contest the post of Kaunas Jewish Community chairman must submit their candidacies by July 9.

2020-07-08

Kaunas Jewish Community Invites You to Remember Victims of Lietūkis Garage Massacre

The Kaunas Jewish Community will hold a commemoration of the victims of the Lietūkis garage massacre at Miško street no. 3 at 4:00 P.M. on June 26. Joris Rubinovas will perform Maurice Ravel’s Kaddish and Gabrielė Jocaitė will perform a song in member of the victims. The public is invited and encouraged to attend. Following the ceremony we will move to the Slobodka (Vilijampolė) Jewish cemetery on Kalnų street and then the Žaliakalnis Jewish cemetery on the Radvilėnų highway.

2020-06-26

Stop European Holocaust Denial, Focus on Lithuania

Please join us for a special online town hall event Stop European Holocaust Denial Focus: Lithuania co-hosted by ICAN and the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists (AAJLJ).

Tuesday, June 23, at 8 PM EDT | 5 pm PDT

Watch live!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ICANAction/videos/285276522660390/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v6KNnjikfs

Please join us for a special live event, a virtual town hall featuring Grant Gochin and Silvia Foti speaking about state-sponsored Holocaust denial in Lithuania. Grant Gochin asked the question: “Who actually murdered my family during the Holocaust?” and discovered the fact that the murderer is a current national hero of Lithuania. Silvia Foti was asked by her mother to write the biography of her national hero grandfather, only to discover that he was one of the worst genocidal murderers of Jews during the Holocaust. Silvia Foti’s grandfather murdered Grant Gochin’s family. They have come together to tell the awful truth of how their families have been connected for the past 100 years, and how the Lithuanian government has engaged in a massive cover-up to implement the tenth stage of genocide: denial. In this town hall meeting, we will discuss with Gochin and Foti their paths to discovery of this cover-up, and how it impacts the real world today.

2020-06-19

Jewish Culture Week in Krakės: Let’s Learn about the Krakės Jewish Community

Photo: Krakės Jewish cemetery

The Jewish Culture Week in Krakės: Let’s Learn about the Krakės Jewish Community project will take place from June 16 to 18 in Krakės in the Kėdainiai district of Lithuania. More information is available here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/2751960485049357

Robertas Dubinka, director
Krakės Cultural Center

Laisvės alley no. 1, LT – 58242, Krakės, Kėdainiai region
tel. 8 347 38274, mob. 8 615 85084
email: krakiukc@gmail.com

2020-06-15

Lithuanian Post Office to Issue Stamp Commemorating 300th Birthday of Gaon Friday

The Lithuanian Post Office will issue a special stamp commemorating the 300th anniversary of the birth of the Vilna Gaon on Friday, June 5. The nominal value of the stamp is 81 euro cents, meaning it will be valid for sending letters abroad.

The stamps have a print-run of 20,000. The issue will also feature a first-day release envelope for sale. Post-marking stamps on the first day of issuance will take place at the Central Post Office in Vilnius, located at Gedimino prospect no. 7, on Friday.

The JUDVI & AŠ design group (Victoria Sideraitė-Alon, Jūratė Juozėnienė and Albinas Šimanauskas) designed the postal stamp celebrating the Vilna Gaon.

The letter shin (ש) appears near the top of the postage stamp with a stylized crown atop the final branch symbolizing the spiritual authority of the Vilna Gaon. According the gematria the value of this letter is 300, as Lithuania celebrates the 300th anniversary of the birth of the Gaon this year. Underneath is a stylized Torah scroll along with an open book, an allusion to the Decalogue, the two slabs of stone Moses received on Sinai inscribed by God with His Commandments, and at the same time representing the tradition of a pair of windows on the façade of the synagogue. The coloring of the symbols and characters and the graphic design was based on the stylization of the decor of ancient Jewish writings.

2020-06-042020-06-10

Shavuot Begins May 28

Shavuot is the holiday which celebrates the receiving of the Torah. This marks the day the Jewish people received the Law. It is celebrated on the 6th day of Sivan on the Jewish calendar. This is a state holiday in Israel.

Shavuot means “weeks” in Hebrew. It is the seventh week from the second day of Passover. It marks the day when Moses received the Ten Commandments of G_d on Mount Sinai. They were written on two stone slabs. These are known in Hebrew as “Aseret haDvarim” and in Greek as the Decalogue.

2020-05-282020-06-02

Choral Synagogue Reopens

The Choral Synagogue in Vilnius reopened for morning prayers on Monday, May 25, following the quarantine. Special measures in place include mandatory wearing of face masks and gloves, taking the temperature of those attending and disinfectant for hands.

The faithful had to rediscover their seats, now marked, at a safe 2 meters distance from one another.

Agreement was reached with the congregation on how to behave during Torah reading. We agreed to abbreviate the number of prayers temporarily, they will now take place during the day during Torah readings on Monday, Thursday and Saturday. This will be changed according to traditional holidays.

2020-05-272020-06-03

NCSEJ Webinar with Lithuanian, Latvian Jewish Community Leaders May 14

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Please join us for a webinar Thursday, May 14, 2020, at 11:00 A.M. ET with Dmitry Krupnikov, deputy chairman of the Latvian Council of Jewish Communities and Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community

They will discuss the impact of the corona virus on the Jewish communities in Latvia and Lithuania and other issues affecting the Baltic region.

About the Speakers:

Dmitry Krupnikov is deputy chairman of the Latvian Council of Jewish Communities and Chairman of the Latvian Jewish Community Restitution Fund (LEKOREF), which was set up by the Council after restitution to the Community by Latvia of five religious and communal properties in 2016. All restituted properties were transferred to LEKOREF, which is now in charge of maintaining and managing the properties.

Faina Kukliansky is chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community. She has also served as chairwoman of the Vilnius Jewish Community. In May, 2017 she was re-elected chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community. She is the co-chair of the Foundation for the Disposal of Good Will Compensation for the Immovable Property of Jewish Religious Communities (Goodwill Foundation).

Note: ZOOM has numerous significant security flaws. Use it at your own risk.

2020-05-14

Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community: Life under Quarantine

It’s no secret the quarantine has altered the rhythms and habits of our lives. It had been customary in the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community to celebrate all sorts of holidays and birthdays and to attend different events, educational activities and tours we organized, and simply to gather and talk at the Community building… Today that building stands quiet and empty…

Jews around the world were celebrating Passover when the quarantine began here in Lithuania. The Jews of Šiauliai were not able as we were in past years to come together and celebrate happily to the sound of Jewish melodies this beautiful spring holiday. This year each of celebrated separately at home. The Lithuanian Jewish Community provided home deliveries of matzo to all the regional Communities, so as the quarantine got under way the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community had to insure every member had the requisite matzo for the Passover seder table. Every member of the Community did receive safe delivery of boxes of matzo before the holiday began.

Despite disruption to the rhythm and conventions of daily life, we continue to provide crucial care to our seniors who were victims of the Nazis. Home-care workers continue to visit them and help them with their daily needs, insuring the safety of our elderly during these days so difficult for all of us.

2020-05-132020-05-13

Lithuanian Jewish Community Statement on May 9 Incident

The Lithuanian Jewish Community has asked the Lithuanian Office of Prosecutor General and the commissar general of the Lithuanian Police Department to investigate a so-called action held by motorcyclists in Vilnius on May 9, 2020, during which Nazi symbols and other attributes were used.

The media report the bikers dressed in Wehrmacht uniforms rode through the Vilnius OId Town playing march music from the Third Reich and rode in circles around the embassy of the Russian Federation on Latvių street.

“As you know, the distribution and demonstration of Nazi and Soviet symbols are banned by law in Lithuania and involve criminal accountability. We would like to emphasize the marches mentioned have painful associations for Jews because it was this sort of music which was played during selections at concentration camps during World War II,” the statement from the LJC reads.

Although the participants in the action did wear Nazi uniforms, it appears the police took no actions and didn’t stop the ride.

The LJC has received a report an LJC member who saw the motorcyclists near the Old Town Hall in Vilnius reported it to a police patrol nearby. The officers gave assurances the bikers would be punished, but Lithuanian Police Department representative Ramūnas Matonis told reporters there were no arrests for sowing ethnic discord anywhere in Lithuania on May 9.

The LJC therefore is now requesting:

1. an internal investigation and determination of the identities of the officers who were on duty in the police patrol at the Old Town Hall and an explanation on why the bikers were not cited.

2. determination of the identities of the people who rode around Vilnius dressed in Nazi uniforms and played Third Reich march music loudly.

3. an explanation on what instructions police street patrol officers receive and whether they are trained to recognize hate crimes and expressions of anti-Semitism.

4. to tell us whether the May 9 incident will be addressed in a future meeting of the special working group formed by the Lithuanian interior minister for fighting hate crimes and hate speech in Lithuania.

Visual material presented by the media shows this public violation was known at the time of its commission (URL: https://www.delfi.lt/news/daily/lithuania/pergales-diena-vilniuje-aplink-rusijos-ambasada-vazinejo-i-nacistines-vokietijos-karius-panasus-motociklininkai.d?id=84241879 )

2020-05-122020-05-15

Virtual Lectures: Escape from Ponar and Jacques Lipchitz’s Memories of Lithuania

Please note: the ZOOM platform used for the virtual lectures below is widely known to be unsafe and is considered spyware by competent observers, deployed most likely by China. It can usurp control of cameras and microphones on your computer and telephone. Its use is banned by the U.S. military and U.S. government organizations. The Lithuanian Jewish Community takes no responsibility for those infected by clicking the links below.

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The Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum is sponsoring two virtual lectures called “Story of Escape from Ponar” and “Lithuania in Jacques Lipchitz’s Reminiscences.”

“I am a sculptor from Lithuania,” Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973) used to say to introduce himself at openings of his works in museums and galleries around the world, even though Lithuania had disappeared from the world map when these shows took place. Sculpture and memorial heritage researcher Aušra Rožankevičiūtė talks about Lipchitz’s image of Lithuania and his contacts with Lithuanian artists and thinkers.

2020-04-27

Yom haShoah Holocaust Commemoration Day Marked around the World

The traditional air-raid siren will announce the beginning of the Jewish day and the beginning of Yom haShoah throughout Israel at 7:45 P.M. on April 20. Yom haShoah–the Day of the Shoah–is one of several days commemorating the victims of the Holocaust and the most important of the commemorative days in Israel.

At 10:00 A.M. on Tuesday, April 21, the Lithuanian Jewish Community invites all to visit the LJC facebook page to mark the day with us via internet. We are asking everyone to observe a minute of silence for the victims when the siren sounds. The LJC facebook page is here.

Yad Vashem is asking people to take part in international readings of the names of victims and to post video using the hashtags #RememberingFromHome and #ShoahNames. More information on the Yad Vashem initiative here.

March of the Living: the annual march from Auschwits to Birkenau is taking place this year at 7:00 P.M. Lithuanian time on April 21, 2020. It will include recollections by Holocaust victims and an address by Israeli president Reuven Rivlin. The event will be broadcast live here.

The Holocaust Center for Humanity, the Holocaust education center in Seattle, will hold a virtual event at 12 noon Pacific Daylight Time on April 21. More information here.

For more events around the world, see here.

2020-04-202020-04-24

Yom Ha’Shoah: Local EU Statement

Dear friends and colleagues,

On the occasion of Yom HaShoah, let me share with you the joint statement by the Ambassador of the European Union to the State of Israel and the Ambassadors of all European Union member states represented in Israel:

“The Delegation of the European Union (EU) to the State of Israel, together with the 26 Embassies of EU Member States present in Israel, remember and pay tribute to the six million Jews who were murdered, on European soil, more than seven decades ago.

We join Jewish communities worldwide in commemorating the individual lives that were lost in the unimaginable tragedy of the Shoah, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters; in cherishing the survivors among us so that their experiences are not forgotten. As Shimon Peres has said: “We are their eyes that remember. We are their voice that cries out.”

2020-04-20

WJC Yom HaShoah Commemorative Ceremony April 20

Dear Friends,

This year Yom HaShoah will be very different.

For the first time ever there will be no commemorative ceremonies bringing people together physically in solemn reflection held around the world.

Whilst we are of course all preoccupied with the effect that the COVID-19 corona virus pandemic is having on our lives, we still feel that it is important to mark this day and pay our respects to the victims of the Holocaust.

2020-04-15

Passover 5780

This year we are recommending you spend Passover at home with family. We have prepared kits with everything needed for the traditional kosher seder which can be ordered by internet. Orders must be received before April 5.

The order form in Russian and Lithuanian is available here:
https://www.torah4lithuania.com/seder-to-go

2020-04-01

Jewish Scouts Invited to Internet Jamboree

The International Forum of Jewish Scouts based on Paris is inviting Jewish scouts around the world to take part in an internet “Jewboree” on April 5 using the ZOOM platform.

2020-04-012020-04-01

Commemorating the Victims of the Children’s Aktion in Kaunas

The Kaunas Jewish Community reports the annual commemoration of the mass murder of the children of the Kaunas ghetto was canceled this year because of the virus epidemic. Usually scheduled during the last days of March, this year we are invited to remember the victims at home, by lighting a candle, writing a name on a stone and reflecting.

The following is a list of some of the children who died in the Kaunas ghetto, drawn up on the 70th anniversary of the Children’s aktion by the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum. The names are presented in modern Lithuanian orthography.

2020-03-302020-04-01

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