The Sabbath begins at 9:06 P.M. on Friday, May 8, and concludes at 10:17 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 8:48 P.M. and completed before sunset at 9:06 P.M. Victory Day is on Friday or Saturday depending on geography. Victory Day marks the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany to the Allies and the cessation of combat.
Violinist Evgenia Epshtein and pianist and Vytautas Magnus University Music Academy professor Donaldas Račys will perform works by Robert Schumann and Edvard Grieg at the Magic of Music Club in Vilnius May 12. The program is called Romanticism Dialogues. Tickets start at €30 and are available here.
Time: 7:00 P.M., Tuesday, May 12
Place: Magic of Music Club, Šv. Stepono street no. 12, Vilnius
Shavuot or Shavuos, the Feast of Weeks, starts at sundown Thursday, May 21. It is a two-day holiday outside Israel and lasts one day from sundown to sundown in Israel. Sabbath rules apply.
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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.
Lag b’Omer is a minor Jewish holiday celebrated with bonfires and an occasion for weddings and cutting children’s hair. It happens approximately one month after Passover, and the name means the 33rd day of the of the Omer count, on the 18th day of the Jewish month of Iyar, which is about the midpoint in time between Passover and Shavuot.
Lag b’Omer, according to tradition, was the day on which the plague that killed 24,000 of Rabbi Akiva’s disciples stopped (Yebamoth, 62:72). For this reason it is customary to cease mourning customs of the Omer period, which include prohibition of marriages, cutting hair, and public expressions of joy such as singing and dancing. Some traditions hold that the period of mourning ends at Lag b’Omer and others end it three days before the holiday of Shavuot.
The Karlsruhe Concert Duo of Reihard Armleder on cello and Dagmar Hartmann on piano will perform a concert program called “Dance Me to the End of Time and Back to the Future” at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius in mid-May. The two will perform works by Leonard Cohen, Back, Beethoven, Moscheles, Bloch, Gershwin, Heifetz, Schumann and Liszt. The concert is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the culture section of the German embassy in Vilnius in cooperation with the Goodwill Foundation and Pasaka x Create Culture Group.
Registration is required by May 16. Send an email to koncertas.lzb@gmail.com.
Time: 5:00 P.M., Sunday, May 17
Place: LJC, Vilnius
The Sabbath begins at 8:58 P.M. on Friday, May 1, and concludes at 10:00 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 8:35 P.M. and completed before sunset at 8:58 P.M. Thursday, April 30, is Walpurgis Night. Friday is May Day, a national holiday in Lithuania. Sunday is Mother’s Day in Lithuania. Tuesday is Lag b’Omer.
The Ninth Fort Museum in Kaunas has opened a new exhibition called “Raised from the Ashes, Kaunas,” a series of drawings by Mindaugas Lukošaitis.
Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas expressed his own enchantment, respect and gratitude for the exhibit, as all as that of the Kaunas Jewish Community, and thanked the Ninth Museum, the organizers of the exhibit, the performer at the opening and the artist.
The exhibit will run till October 4.
The Sabbath begins at 8:39 P.M. on Friday, April 24, and concludes at 9:44 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 8:21 P.M. and completed before sunset at 8:39 P.M. Saturday is ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand with observation leading into Monday. Sunday is the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident when one of the nuclear power plant’s four reactors slipped into uncontrolled fission and exploded during a power-down test.
Natalja Cheifec continues her internet discussion club this Thursday with an open discussion format. To register and receive zoom credentials, click here.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Thursday, April 23
Place: internet
The Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum has opened up a new museum in Druskininkai dedicated to the life and work of Litvak sculptor Jacques Lipchitz.
Newly-appointed Vilna Gaon Museum director Sergejus Kanovičius welcomed guests at an opening ceremony who included Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, Lithuanian MP Emanuelis Zingeris, Lithuanian culture minister Vaida Aleknavičienė and Druskininkai mayor Ričardas Malinauskas.
Lipchitz came from Druskininkai. He was born in 1891 and passed away in 1973 having founded what he called crystal cubism as a genre and leaving a remarkable impression on 20th century art. He gained renown in Paris with a group of artists including Pablo Picasso before fleeing the Nazi invasion for the US, where he continued his work.
Vilna Gaon Museum has a number of geographically-scattered sites including the Tolerance Center, the Green House Holocaust Exhibit and the Litvak Identity Museum in central Vilnius, but also the Ponar Memorial Complex outside Vilnius. Their newest museum is located at Šv. Jokūbo street no. 17 in the spa town Druskininkai on the border with Belarus in southeast Lithuania.
Photos courtesy Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum.
The Sabbath begins at 8:26 P.M. on Friday, April 17, and concludes at 9:27 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 8:08 P.M. and completed before sunset at 8:26 P.M. Tuesday is Yom haZikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day, and Wednesday is Yom haAtzmaut, Israeli Independence Day.
The Magic of Music Club [Muzikos magijos klubas] as part of a series of musical evenings to educate and delight is pleased to announce a lecture by ethno-musicologist Eirimas Velička in Lithuanian called “Žydų muzika: nuo liturginės tradicijos iki klezmerio ir minimalizmo” [Jewish Music: From Liturgical Tradition to Klezmer and Minimalism]. The presentation will include recordings of Yemeni Jewish liturgical music, followed by a klezmer performance by Giora Feidmanas on clarinet. Minimalist composer Steve Reich’s Tehlim, or Psalms, is the capstone of this evening of music. The audience will also be invited to learn two Hassidic songs.
Tickets start at 20 euros and are available here.
Time: 4:00 P.M., Sunday, April 19
Place: Magic of Music Club, Šv. Stepono street no. 10, Vilnius
We had a tremendous response to our children’s drawing contest Passover through the Eyes of Children. Every entry demonstrated talent and attention to detail. Thank you to all participants and to their parents for fostering love of Jewish traditions in their families. Every artist will receive a box of chocolate-covered matzo. See below for a selection of works submitted.
The Sabbath begins at 8:12 P.M. on Friday, April 10, and concludes at 9:12 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 7:54 P.M. and completed before sunset at 8:12 P.M. Sunday is Orthodox, Ethiopian and Coptic Easter. Tuesday is Yom haShoah.
A March of the Living event will take place in Vilnius on Sunday to mark Yom HaShoah, Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, which falls on Tuesday, April 14, this year.
Those wishing to join the procession should gather at Rūdninkų Square at 4:00 P.M. to begin walking by 4:30 P.M., ending at Kudirka Square outside Government House at 5:00 P.M. Sunday. The march will have a police escort. Feel free to bring Israeli flags and other flags and banners appropriate for commemorating six million Holocaust victims.
The Sabbath begins at 7:59 P.M. on Friday, April 3, and concludes at 8:57 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 7:41 P.M. and completed before sunset at 7:59 P.M. Sunday is Easter. Passover ends on Wednesday in Israel and Thursday elsewhere.
Children are invited to submit their drawings on any subject connected with the Passover story until April 7. Please write your name on your drawing or have your parents do it, and send a digital copy to info@lzb.lt. Participants will receive a box of special chocolate-covered matzo bread.
Matzo is available in 5 and 10 euro packages in the lobby of the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius, open from 10:00 A.M. till 6:00 P.M. weekdays, except for April 2 and 3.
The Sabbath begins at 6:46 P.M. on Friday, March 27, and concludes at 7:42 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 6:28 P.M. and completed before sunset at 6:46 P.M. Saturday is Yom haAliyah. Sunday is Palm Sunday, marking the beginning of the paschal week. The eight days of Passover begin at sunset, 7:37 P.M., Wednesday, April 1, adjusted for Daylight Saving Time. Daylight Saving Time begins in begins at 2:00 A.M. on Sunday, March 29, in Lithuania. Set your time devices forward one hour, 2:00 A.M. jumping ahead to 3:00 A.M. on Sunday morning.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community is pleased to invite you to come celebrate Passover together with a seder led by ba’al tfillah (prayer leader) Viljamas Žitkauskas. The public seder will retell the Passover story in music performed by Fayerlakh and prayer. Registration is required by sending an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt by noon Wednesday, April 1. The cost is 15 euros for LJC members, 45 euros for non-members and free entry for children 14 and under.
Time: April 4, Saturday
Place: Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius