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.
Sabbath Times
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.
Musical Seder April 4
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
Dear Jewish Scientific Institute! Book Launch
The Judaica Research Center of the Lithuanian National Library is launching the book “Dear Jewish Scientific Institute!” April 7. The book is a collection of YIVO correspondence presented in Lithuanian (and presumably English judging from the cover) providing readers a look at the textual legacy of the YIVO and their fruitful work in pre-Holocaust Vilnius.
Judaica Research Center director and editor of the book Lara Lempertienė, historian Juozapas Paškauskas, Yiddish translator Aistė Puidokaitė, English translator Dalia Cidzikaitė and book designer Deimantė Rybakovienė will speak on a panel moderated by Jolanta Budriūnienė.
Time: 6:00 P.M., April 7
Place: Lithuanian National Library, Vilnius
Musical Seder April 4
The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites you to come celebrate Passover together, with a musical seder scheduled for April 4. Stay tuned for more information.
Fayerlakh Concert
The Song Club at the Adomas Mickevičius Public Library in Vilnius is hosting a concert by the Jewish song and dance ensemble Fayerlakh at the end of March. Club members will receive instruction in singing Yiddish folk songs in Yiddish, with synchronous texts in Lithuanian and Yiddish, under the tutelage of Fayerlakh veterans. The event is free and open to the general public.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Monday, March 30
Place: Adomas Mickevičius Public Library, Trakų street no. 10, Vilnius
Modestas Saukaitis: Between Gold Dust and Fluxus
The Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center in Vilnius is hosting an exhibit of works by the late Modestas Saukaitis. Saukaitis was an artist, art and book restorer and interior designer. He curated the first Fluxus exhibition in Lithuania with Gintaras Sodeika. Fluxus was an art movement started by Lithuanian-American artist, writer and filmmaker Jonas Mekas and was loosely associated with Guy de Bord’s Situationist International movement. Saukaitis passed away in 2024. He was deeply interested in Litvak history and his works on exhibit include a tribute to Righteous Gentile Ona Šimaitė and various takes on Jewish Vilna, with inscriptions in Hebrew and Greek characters, displayed in mirror-reverse for whatever reason. This exhibit is based on a previous exhibit of works by Saukaitis at the Shofar Gallery under the Jewish Culture and Information Center in Vilnius was based on texts by Abraham Sutzkever, the Yiddish poet and Litvak partisan (see below).
According to the host gallery, the exhibition features “verre églomisé works, assemblages, archival Fluxus material and video documentation as well as an overview of the artist’s work in interior design and restoration.” The exhibit opened March 6 and runs till May 23. The gallery is located at Malūnų street no. 8 in the Užupis neighborhood of Vilnius.
Natalja Cheifec on Passover
Natalja Cheifec continues her internet lecture and discussion club on the topic of Passover this Thursday. To receive zoom credentials and participate, click here.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Thursday, March 26
Place: internet
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 6:32 P.M. on Friday, March 20, and concludes at 7:28 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 6:14 P.M. and completed before sunset at 6:32 P.M. Depending on your location and local customs, the spring equinox will be marked on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Nowruz, or Persian New Year, happens on the spring equinox and is now celebrated in multiple countries on multiple dates.
Valentinas Kaplūnas and Co. to Perform at LJC
Photo by Virginija Valuckienė
Dear members,
The Lithuanian Jewish Community is pleased to invite you to a concert by cellist Valentinas Kaplūnas and friends. The program includes painting and literature as well as music.
Registration is required by sending an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt.
Time: 2:00 P.M., Sunday, March 22
Place: Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius
Exhibit on Jewish Vilna
The Films & Coffee café at the corner of Šv. Mikalojaus and Pranciškonų streets in the Vilnius Old Town will host an exhibit by Gediminas Dubonikas and Vytautas Tinteris on the Litvak population of the Old Town before the Holocaust and when Jews were imprisoned in two ghettos there. The exhibit opens at 7:00 P.M. on March 25. Triteris said the exhibit is appropriate for children.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 6:18 P.M. on Friday, March 13, and concludes at 7:14 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 6:00 P.M. and completed before sunset at 6:18 P.M. Tuesday, March 17, is St. Patrick’s Day (March 16 in Labrador and Newfoundland). Sunday is Rescuers of Jews Day in Lithuania.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 6:05 P.M. on Friday, March 6, and concludes at 7:00 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 5:47 P.M. and completed before sunset at 6:05 P.M. Sunday is International Women’s Day. Wednesday, March 11, is Lithuania’s Day of Restoration of Independence, a national holiday marking the act passed by the Lithuanian Supreme Soviet on March 11, 1990, restating the country’s independence from the Soviet Union.
Ceramics Workshop for Children
The Ilan Club is pleased to announce a pottery class for children aged 4 to 12 and their parents. The cost is €10 per lesson, but the first class on Saturday, March 7, is free. To register, send an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt.
Time: 11:30 A.M. to 12:30 P.M., Saturdays (first class March 7)
Place: Ilan Club, Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius
Natalja Cheifec on Purim
Natalja Cheifec continues her lecture series and discussion club with a discussion of Purim symbols, traditions and the deeper significance of the Jewish holiday. To receive zoom credentials and participate, click here.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Thursday, March 5
Place: internet
Jews of Palanga: An History in Photographs
The Palanga Jewish Community invites you to visit an exhibit of photographs called “Jews of Palanga: An History in Photographs” at the Palanga Youth and Volunteer Center, Vytauto street no. 110, Palanga, opening March 3 and running till March 31.
With more than 20 authentic period portraits of interbellum Palanga, the exhibit tells the story of the Palanga Jewish community’s daily life, urban spaces and communal and cultural sites integrated in the landscape of the Lithuanian seaside resort town.
The exhibit is a joint project of the Palanga Jewish Community and the Palanga Youth and Volunteer Center. Mindaugas Surblys is the curator.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 5:51 P.M. on Friday, February 27, and concludes at 6:46 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 5:33 P.M. and completed before sunset at 5:51 P.M. Purim begins at sundown on Monday, March 1 and continues through Tuesday, March 2, extending into Wednesday in Jerusalem and other cities in Israel which were walled during the time of Joshua.
Faina Kukliansky Bio at Vilnius Book Fair
Publisher Alma Littera will present “Dainos iš mėlynos užrašinės” [Songs from a Blue Notebook] at the Vilnius Book Fair Friday.
The book tells the story of the family of the author, Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky.
Covering three generations of Litvaks, the recorded memories move from her grandparents who miraculously survived the Holocaust, her parents in the concentration camps to the youngest generation, Faina and her sister Sulamita, the generation of Jews who came out of survivors of the Holocaust.
Readers say the book reads like a film with one frame following another painting a moving picture of the Jewish spirit: culture, heritage, traditions, holidays, cooking, children’s games and communal life. It’s also about a people who were condemned to death who, despite the great love of their families, carry grief from generation to generation, but also boundless courage, resolution, energy and an unstoppable ability to take joy in those things which make up daily life.
“Sometimes people ask me why I spend so much energy on the status of Jews in the world and history, especially since the majority of my people are gone. My only answer is, to safeguard their memory. We no longer have our parents’ candelabra which held the Sabbath candles in every Jewish home. All we have left is memory and respect,” Faina Kukliansky said.
The public is invited to the presentation with Faina Kukliansky who will sign books from 1:30 to 3:30 P.M. on Friday and from 6:30 to 8:30 P.M. on Saturday in Hall 5 at the Alma Littera Stand at the Litexpo pavilion in Vilnius. The Vilnius Book Fair starts Thursday.
Purim Workshop for Children and Young Adults
Members of the Dubi and Ilan Clubs and their parents are invited to take part in a Purim workshop in preparation for the upcoming holiday. We’ll make masks and hamantashen along with many other fun and interesting activities. Registration required by 12 noon on Friday by sending an email to levickajasimona@gmail.com.
Time: 1:00 P.M., Saturday, February 28
Place: Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius
A Modern Story of Esther at the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community
The Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community is staging the musical a Modern Story of Esther to celebrate Purim and invites you to attend. It happens at 6:00 P.M. on March 3 at the Laiptai Gallery in Šiauliai. Students under professors Sabina Martinaitytė and Audronė Eitmanavičiūtė from Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas will perform. The event is free and open to the public. Purim is March 3.