B”H
Sunday, September 27
5:45 P.M. Meal before fast
6:46 P.M. Start of fast
6:30 P.M. Kol Nidre prayer
Monday, September 28
10:00 A.M. Shacharit
12:30 P.M. Iskor (remembrance prayer)
5:30 P.M. Mincha
6:30 P.M. Final prayer Neila
7:55 P.M. End of fast/meal
Donations in the memory of loved ones (as written in the Izkor prayer) will be accepted on Sunday from 4:00 P.M. in the synagogue
The Lithuanian Jewish Community is holding a concert at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius featuring world-famous violinist and orchestra leader Gidon Kremer and the talented young pianist Georgiy Osokin on September 24 as part of commemorations of Lithuania’s Day of Remembrance of Jewish Victims of Genocide. The classical music concert is scheduled to begin at 6:00 P.M. on Thursday and will include works by Polish Jewish composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg, and an exhibit of photographs of Holocaust survivors by Lithuanian photographer Antanas Sutkus.
Registration is required and space is limited. Please send an e-mail to info@lzb.lt to register.
10:00-11:00 A.M., September 22
A reading of the names of Holocaust victims will be held at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius to mark the Lithuanian Day of Remembrance of the Jewish Victims of Genocide. Participants will have the opportunity to light a candle in memory of their lost family members.
Vyautas Magnus University in Kaunas and the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry will host a conference dedicated to Japanese wartime diplomat and Righteous Gentile Chiune Sugihara in the Great Hall of the University located at Simono Daukanto street no. 28 in Kaunas from 9:00 A.M. till 2:00 P.M. on Thursday, September 24. The conference will include a ceremony to award Righteous Gentiles in Lithuania. The conference will have synchronous translation available via mobile telephone requiring the installation of a special app for that purpose.
This year, 2020, marks the 80th anniversary of Sugihara’s work rescuing Jews in Kaunas from the Holocaust in 1939 and 1940. The Lithuanian parliament in 2019 declared 2020 the Year of Chiune Sugihara.
Please indicate your intention to attend by sending an email to sugihara-year@urm.lt
You are invited to attend a commemoration of the Day of Remembrance of the Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide at the Ponar Memorial Complex
Wednesday, September 23, 2020
10:50 A.M. Procession from memorial complex parking lot to monument
11:00 A.M. Commemoration ceremony begins
Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda is scheduled to attend the ceremony.
Prayer service schedule
Friday, August 18, 6:45 P.M: Mincha/maariv holiday prayers, kiddush, holiday treats
Saturday, August 19 10:00 A.M.: Shacharit (morning prayers); 12 noon blowing of shofar horn; treats and gifts (Jewish calendar for 5781, honey cakes, special gifts for children); 6:00 P.M. Tashlich prayer service at Bokšto street no. 19 in Vilnius
The year 5781 is almost upon us. The Lithuanian Jewish Community is celebrating the new year with our calendar, which has become a tradition, dedicated this time to the unique symbols of the Jewish people and their significance.
Before talking about the next year, I can’t pass over the foregoing which became a year of challenges and coming together for the entire world. The corona virus restricted our social life and the Community’s operation, but at the same time showed to us we are capable of taking care of our members, especially the elderly, that we can apply and perfectly well use digital technology and that even under the most difficult conditions we were able to mark the dates so important to Jews, Israel, Lithuania and the world and our own holidays.
The Community was not able to mark appropriately the Year of the Vilna Gaon and Litvak History declared by the Lithuanian parliament because of the pandemic. But the historical past of Jews and its importance for Lithuania’s culture don’t fit within the frames of a single year, so I promise we will continue to organize events dedicated to Lithuania’s Jews, to Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman aka the Vilna Gaon and other important people. There can never be too many such events.
The Makabi Athletics Club and the Lithuanian Jewish Community are holding the annual Fun Run for charity again starting at 11:00 A.M. on Sunday, September 13, from the stage in Vingis park in Vilnius. Participants will chose one of two runs, 1.5 or 3 kilometers. Runners on the 1.5 km route will leave the starting line at 11:30 A.M. and those on the 3 km route will kick off at 12:15 P.M. This is for charity so runners will be required to pay a small fee to participate, 3 euros for students and retirees and 5 euros for others. The fee may be paid by bank transfer to the account
Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club
LT69 7040 0600 0090 8716
at SEB Bank, or paid in cash on site before the run. The money will be used by the Makabi Athletics Club to develop more activities.
Register by internet at https://dbsportas.lt/lt/varz/2020128 and/or call or email competition coordinator Daniel dubrovinas at +370 68783005 and dubrovinas@yahoo.com
Program:
10:00-11:00 A.M. assignment of numbers
11:00 A.M. opening ceremony
11:30 A.M. start of 1.5 km route
12:15 P.M. start of 3 km ruote
1:00 P.M. awarding of prizes with special prizes for winners in specific age groups
Seimonas Finkelšteinas, president
Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club
The Fayerlakh song and dance ensemble invites children aged 6-12 to attend dance studio classes at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius . For more information, call Liza at 868473592 or Larisa at 868779309
A presentation of Rūta Vanagaitė’s book “Kaip tai įvyko? Christoph DIeckmann atsako Rūtai Vanagaitei” [How Did It Happen? Rūta Vanagaitė Interviews Christoph Dieckmann] and a panel discussion will be held at 6:00 P.M. on August 15 at the Adomas Mickevičius Public Library at Trakų street no. 10 in Vilnius. Speakers and panelists will include Rūta Vanagaitė, Lithuanian History Institute director Alvydas Nikžentaits, Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, professors Irena Veisaitė and Tomas Venclova, and by video Christoph Dieckmann and Saulius Sužiedelis, moderated by Aurimas Švedas. The event is being held by the Adomas Mickevičius Public Library and the Vilnius Jewish Public Library in cooperation with the LJC.
Registration is required, spaces are limited and visitors will be required to wear surgical masks. To register, send an email to info@vilnius-jewish-public-library.com or call (8-5) 219 77 48 work days between 11:00 A.M. and 6:00 P.M.
Press release
Concerts and meetings with composer and pianist Dr. Uri Brener (Israel) presenting his work for the first time in Lithuania, featuring by M. K. Čiurlionis’s paintings. Concerts will take place:
Vilnius, 6:00 P.M., September 9, at the house of M. K. Čiurlionis (Savičiaus street no. 11), entrance free to the general public, face mask required;
Kaunas, 6:00 P.M., September 10, at the National M. K. Čiurlionis Art Museum (Putvinskio street no. 55), entry with museum ticket, face mask required.
Events partially financed by the Goodwill Foundation.
More information in Lithuanian here.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community is continuing the tradition of marking the annual event European Days of Jewish Culture, this time for the fifth year, with a program of events in Vilnius scheduled for Sunday, September 6, 2020.
All parts of the event program are free and open to the public. The number of participants has been limited this year due to health concerns so please register as soon as possible.
For cooking lessons, register by sending an email to kavine@lzb.lt
For the Jerulita tour, register by sending an email to travel@jerulita.lt
To register by internet, click here.
A public tender has been announced for a conceptual sculptural and architectural project to erect a monument to Lithuanian residents who rescued Jews during the Holocaust.
The Vilnius city municipality and the Lithuanian Culture Ministry said the project is to be guided by principles of historical justice for honoring, commemorating and recalling at a national and international level Lithuanian residents who saved Jews during the Nazi occupation, for creating a respectful and socially effective solution in continuance of traditions of respecting the Jewish people, for representing appropriately the content and foundation of the site commemorating Righteous Gentiles, and for contributing to the education of the general public regarding history and the world.
Criteria for judging projects submitted include context, social efficacy, aesthetics, the quality of the space created, cost and financial soundness. The site selected for the monument is on Ona Šimaitė street near Maironis street in Vilnius where a commemorative stele stands announcing this as the location for a future monument to Righteous Gentiles, those who rescued Jewish lives during the Holocaust.
Dear members of the Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club,
We will hold a mini-Maccabiah to commemorate the Year of the Vilna Gaon and the 30th anniversary of Lithuanian Makabi between 11:00 A.M. and 3:00 P.M. on Sunday, August 30, at the Tauras School of Athletics located at Žygio street no. 46 in Vilnius. Your local teams are invited to participate in the following competitions:
1. Indoor soccer (7 players plus trainer)
2. Basketball (5 players and a trainer)
3. Volleyball (8 players plus trainer)
4. Ping-pong (men’s, women’s)
5. Badminton (men’s, women’s)
6. Swimming (men’s, women’s)
7. Chess (men’s, women’s)
Our school has good soccer players and we encourage children who play soccer or who are interested in it to register as soon as possible. Our gymnasium’s soccer team might get new uniforms as well. Makabi is preparing a surprise here.
Rules and regulations will be determined when the exact number of teams and players becomes clear. Please contact tautvilija@gamail.com or call 865746071 to register and for more information.
Also, the Makabi Club is holding our annual fun-run starting in Vingio park in Vilnius on Saturday, September 5, so stay tuned for the exact schedule for that.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community invite you to a attend an evening of poetry and music with writer Sergei Kanovich and violinist Boris Kizner at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius. Sergei Kanovich will read passages from his poems and prose and Boris Kizner will perform works from his repertoire on violin. It begins at 6:00 P.M. on Tuesday, August 11, at the Choral Synagogue located at Pylimo street no. 39 in Vilnius. Entry is free to the public and no RSVP is required. Visitors will be required to wear face masks and the event will be filmed.
Tisha B’Av, the ninth day of the month of Av which begins this evening, July 29, is the Jewish day for mourning the loss of both Temples in Jerusalem, the first in 586 BC and the second in AD 70, and other tragedies which have befallen the Jewish people through history. Jews mourn, fast and read from Eicha (Lamentations) and the Kinnot (dirges from the Bible and later) during Tisha B’Av.
Jews mark Tisha B’Av today as the world is undergoing rapid changes: a global pandemic with no clear end in sight and closed national borders, economic crises and civil unrest. We know the Second Temple fell because of disagreements between Jews. Tisha B’Av today resonates deep sadness for the Temple and for the reality in which find ourselves now. Not just the pandemic, but the deep, incomprehensible division of society.
This new kind of physical and moral division of the people compels us to mourn even more the loss of unity and common goals.
The Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community invites everyone to participate in “Sholom, Akmenė” events at the Akmenė Cultural Center (Sodo street no. 1, Akmenė, Lithuania) on July 24.
12:00 Conference “Memories of the Shtetl in Our Hearts”
Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community members Frida Šteinienė and Josifas Buršteinas will share their childhood memories, young participants at a creative workshop will speak about digitization efforts to record and preserve the Jewish cemeteries in the Akmenė region and Daumantas Todesas will share the secrets of making Sabbath treats. Also, Rita Ringienė will read excerpts from Indrė Daščioraitė’s work in 2001 recording the memories of Augustina Rušinaitė (1922-2007).
2:00 Jewish market (outside the Cultural Center)
The conference will be followed by a Jewish market set up by the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community showcasing traditional Litvak treats on offer, with haggling required. The organizers are promising a lot of fun at the market.
6:00 Sabbath concert
The Jewish music concert, already a tradition at the Akmenė Days celebrations, will be performed by students from the music schools in the Akmenė region and from the Sholem Aleichem Gymnasium in Vilnius. The concert will teach traditions of the Sabbath evening in artistic form.
All events are free and open to the public. Organizers are asking participants to adhere to the authorities’ current recommendations for preventing corona virus infection. The events will be filmed and photographed.
Centropa, the Central European research and documentation center, and ESJF, the European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative, are pleased to announce registration is open to a teacher training seminar called “Teaching Jewish Heritage: How to Include Jewish Cemeteries in the Education Process” to be held in Kaunas on August 25 and 26.
The series of seminars will be directed by specialists in the fields of Jewish cemetery studies and Jewish history education. Participants will be given the resources necessary for presenting Jewish heritage meaningfully and in an interesting way in the classroom.
Lithuanian teachers and NGO representatives are invited to participate. The conference will be held in Lithuanian and English with synchronous translation.
Please register by July 22 at this address: https://bit.ly/2Cx6Zxo
Dear Community members,
Those with a penchant for painting and a love of art, the great outdoors and good company will surely not be disappointed by this year’s sixth annual plein air outdoor painting workshop. This year’s workshop will consist of 5 days and 4 nights at a scenic natural location with the noted painters Raimondas Savickas and Ramunė Savickaitė.
Participants will spend 4 nights at the Karvio Dvaras farm next to Lake Karvys in Paežeriai village in the Maišagala aldermanship in the Vilnius region (http://www.karviodvaras.lt/kontaktai) with three daily meals provided, and will attend practical activities with personal consultation with teachers, along with an educational and recreational program.
The fee is 190 euros per person. To register by July 15 and for further information, please write zanas@sc.lzb.lt or call +370 678 81 514 during working hours. Places are limited.
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.