Those wishing to bid their final farewell to the late Alfonsas Pilitauskas may attend the wake from 10:00 A.M. till 1:00 P.M. on Thursday, October 21, at the Nutrūkusi styga funeral home, Ąžuolyno street no. 10, Vilnius. The burial is scheduled for 1:30 P.M. the same day at the Antakalnis cemetery, Karių kapų street no. 11, Vilnius.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 6:02 P.M. on Friday, October 15, and concludes at 7:12 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Book Presentation
Dear reader,
The Lithuanian Jewish Community is pleased to invite you to a presentation of the book “Jehudit. Pasaulis galėtų būti toks gražus” by Aneta Anra with readings of passages in Lithuanian by Lithuanian actors Jolanta Dapkūnaitė and Darius Gumauskas at 6:00 P.M. on October 21 at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius. The author will be there.
More information available here.
POLIN Museum and the Polish Memory Wars
At 4:00 P.M. on October 15 the Lost Shtetl project and Vilnius University will continue the series of discussions called “Public Conversations about History.” During these discussions we will raise the issues of historical truth, memory wars and the motivations behind choosing to serve one ideology or another.
This time the topic is “The POLIN Museum and Poland’s Memory Wars.” We will engage historian and former POLIN director Dariusz Stola in conversation.
POLIN, the Polish museum of Jewish history, opened in 2014 and has had millions of visitors since then. The museum successfully addresses the complex past of Poles and Jews. But when POLIN demonstrated an exhibit about the anti-Zionist campaign of 1968 and expressed opposition to Poland’s new law on Holocaust complicity, right-wing nationalists and politicians in the ruling party attacked the museum.
Dariusz Stola will talk about the museum’s achievements and about how everything changed when the culture wars began dividing the country. In the discussion we’ll talk about how national commemoration policy rejects a critical judgment of the past as a “shaming methodology.” We will reflect on how these factors affect us.
Moderators: Sergejus Kanovičius and Paulius Gritėnas
The discussion will take place in English in the Theater Hall of Vilnius University. Certificate of vaccination or equivalent required for entry.
More information available here.
Bagel Shop Café to Teach Cooking Secrets to Children
Dear reader,
You might make it a point to have bagels for breakfast, to bake challa on Fridays and to drive out all colds with chicken broth on those cold winter nights, but do you really know how to make these foods? We’re inviting children aged 7 to 12 to come learn old Jewish recipes from balabosta Rivka and to spend Sunday afternoons in the kitchen of the Bagel Shop Café at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius. All events are free.
Register here.
For more information, write projects@lzb.lt
Launch of Book about Rescuers
The Lithuanian Jewish Community will host the launch of the Lithuanian book “Dešimties stebuklų liudytojai” [Witnesses to 10 Miracles] by Rimantas Stankevičius at 6:00 P.M. on Tuesday, October 19, 2021, at the Community located at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius.
The book’s title comes from a quote by Litvak Holocaust survivor Sameul Bak, who said at least ten miracles had to occur for him to have survived. It tells the story of rescuers at the Benedictine Monastery in Vilnius, Juozapas Stakauskas, Vladas Žemaitis and Marija Mikulska, who hid twelve Jews from September of 1943 to July of 1944.
The book launch will feature a panel of speakers including Ginas Dabašinskas, Libertas Klimka, Indrė Valantinaitė, Benediktas Stakauskas and author Rimantas Stankevičius. The discussion will take place in Lithuanian.
LJC Holding Human Rights Roundtable
The Lithuanian Jewish Community is hosting a round-table discussion on human rights and specifically the rights of Jews in Lithuania at 6:00 P.M. on October 20 at the Bagel Shop Café at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius. The discussion will be broadcast via internet as well.
As a member of the Lithuanian Coalition of Human Rights Organizations, the LJC has contributed this year to a “shadow report” to the United Nations initiated and presented by the Law and Justice and the Educational and Scientific and Human Rights Committees of the Lithuanian parliament, intended to improve the human rights situation for ethnic minorities in Lithuania, including Jews.
Those recommendations are available in Lithuanian here.
Participants will include LJC chairwoman and attorney Faina Kukliansky, Sholem Aleichem principal Ruth Reches, human rights expert Jūratė Juškaitė, diplomat Marius Janukonis, equal opportunities ombudsman Birutė Sabatauskaitė, MP and chairwoman of the parliament’s Commission on Battles for Freedom and State Historical Memory Paulė Kuzmickienė, MP and Lithuanian Supreme Court judge Stasys Šedbaras, General Prosecutor’s Office prosecutor Justas Laucius, former Constitutional Court judge and dean of the International and EU Law Faculty at Mykolas Romeris Justinas Žilinskas and others.
More information about registering and attending virtually available on facebook here.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 6:19 P.M. on Friday, October 1, and concludes at 7:28 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Afternoon for Children
You’re invited to come to the Lithuanian Jewish Community this Saturday, October 9, at 3:00 P.M. to have some fun and talk over coffee [meeting at the Bagel Shop Café, access through the main entrance of the Community, proof of vaccination for those over 16 required].
We will view a film made by and starring children, and the children will have the opportunity to collect their ceramics works. We will also talk about our further plans and goals.
Please register before coming here.
We’ll be looking forward to seeing everyone.
Respectfully,
Avital Libman, coordinator
Children’s and Youth Programs
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at avital@lzb.lt or by telephone at +37064515730.
Hour of Music to Mark 80th Anniversary of the Holocaust
Judita Leitaitė, teacher at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater, will perform a concert with her singing students Aija Jermoloviča, Jūratė Minelgaitė, Greta Rimšaitė, Gabija Žvinklytė, Natalija Dmuchovska, Skirmantė Vaičiūtė, Giedrius Gečys and Joris Gudelevičius at 5:00 P.M. on Tuesday, October 12, on the third floor of the Lithuanian Jewish Community located at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius.
The hour of music is dedicated to commemorating the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Holocaust in Lithuania. Admission free, proof of vaccination required.
Concert to Commemorate Grosse Aktion in Kaunas Ghetto
At 7:00 P.M. on Friday, October 8, the Kaunas Jewish Community and the organization Prabudimo orkestras will hold a concert at the Kaunas Cultural Center to mark the 80th anniversary of the so-called grosse aktion in the Kaunas ghetto. The cultural center is located at Vytauto street no. 79 in Kaunas.
This will a repeat performance of the Symphony from the Jerusalem of the North by Jievaras Jasinskis. Entry is free to the public but registration is required.
More information here.
Register here.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 6:36 P.M. on Friday, October 1, and concludes at 7:46 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Vilnius University to Hold Public Lecture by German Historian Christoph Dieckmann
Vilnius University and the Lost Shtetl Museum are launching jointly a series of lectures and discussions called “Open Conversations on History” which will raise topical questions of historical truth, memory wars and society’s ability to resist the pressure to serve one or another ideology.
We invited Christoph Dieckmann, a prominent historian and author of books on German occupation policy and the Holocaust in Lithuania, to the first discussion at 6:00 P.M. on October 1. He will give a lecture called “Looking back on our past. Lithuanians, Germans, and Jews.”
Dieckmann will share his insights on the relationship between history and memory, talk about personal searches trying to find the best way to study the Holocaust in Lithuania and the method used to help incorporate the different perspectives of Holocaust participants.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 6:54 P.M. on Friday, September 24, and concludes at 8:05 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Litvaks Who Came Back from the Concentration Camps
The Vilnius Photography Gallery located at Stiklių street no. 4 will open an exhibit by Kęstutis Grigaliūnas at 6:00 P.M. on September 22 called “Lithuanian Jews Who Came Back from the Nazi Concentration Camps.” The exhibit features 335 people who came back, with photographs and short biographies. It will also showcase the book “Lietuvos žydai grįžę iš nacių konclagerių” [Lithuanian Jews Who Came Back from the Nazi Concentration Camps] which contains 2,700 short bios and 335 portraits.
“The visualization of cases in this project becomes a space in which the violence of the Soviet state is examined and whose exhibiting under new spatial, media and institutional conditions allows for the execution of historical justice, and allows the eye and mind of the spectator to enter into intensive interaction with the past seen this way for the first time,” exhibit curator Natalija Arlauskaitė explained.
Kaunas Jewish Community and Ninth Fort Mark Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide
The Kaunas Jewish Community and the Ninth Fort Museum in Kaunas invite the public to attend a commemoration of Holocaust victims at 11:00 A.M. on Thursday, September 23, at the large statue to remember the victims of Naziism.
The commemorative program will last an hour and a half, to be followed by coffee in the museum’s administration building.
Program:
10:30 A.M. Registration
11:00 A.M. Commemoration begins, followed by an artistic reading of recollections by children who lived in ghettos, read by students from the Jonas Jablonskis Gymnasium, followed by a presentation of the “Ecce Homo: To Those Who Remain” project by the Ninth Fort Museum and the Kaunas 2022 organization including meeting the artists.
Sukkot Begins
Sukkot or Sukkos beings at 7:04 P.M. in Vilnius on Monday, September 21, 2021.
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 is one of the three festivals during which Jewish men were required to make pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the times of the Holy Temple.
Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community Marks Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide with Several Events
The Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community is marking the Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide, September 23, with several events this year.
At 4:00 P.M. on September 22 an exhibit will open in the exhibit hall of the Cultural Center of the Šiauliai Regional Administration located at Ventos street no. 11A in Kuršėnai, Lithuania, an exhibit of photographs by Rolandas Parafinavičius called House Spirits and by photographer S. Zakasaitė who operated in the period between the two world wars, with the combined exhibit called “Jews Then and Now.” Righteous Gentiles Pranas Grigalaitis and Ona Bielskienė will also be honored during the opening ceremony. The exhibit will run till November 5. The Cultural Center is open from 10:00 A.M. and 5:00 P.M. on week days and during scheduled events.
Additional related exhibits include an exhibit of calendars called “The Jews of Lithuania: An Indivisible Part of Our Society” running from September 6 to October 1 in the exhibition space at the Kuršėnai manor estate in Kuršėnai, Lithuania; the “Don’t Turn Your Back on the Past” exhibit of publications running from September 20 to September 30 at the Augustinas Gricius Library in Gruzdžiai and “Memory Comes of Age through the Past…” running from September 20 till October 22 at the library in Meškuičiai.
Makabi Club in Šiauliai Invites Public to the Liova Taicas Memorial Competition
The Makabi Club in Šiauliai invites you to attend the traditional Liova Taicas memorial competition at the Uniqa Arena in Šiauliai starting at noon, October 24, 2021, to include ping-pong, chess, volleyball, 3-on-3 basketball and indoor soccer. For more information contact Rašella at 869910621 or Sania at 864025950.