The Sabbath begins at 8:42 P.M. on Friday, May 5, and concludes at 10:09 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Markas Zingeris in Memoriam
The Jewish discussion club #ŽydiškiPašnekesiai invites the public to attend a special panel to remember Markas Zingeris, who died unexpectedly recently.
Over fifty years of work Markas has left us a rich inheritance: thoughts, ideas, texts, books, plays, poetry and the Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum, where he served as director since its inception for several decades. His keen insights and very rational thinking had a deep influence on the development of Lithuanian society and politics following independence as well as before. He always demonstrated a spirit of openness, tolerance, rationality and ethical behavior.
Panelists to include Emanuelis Zingeris, Markas’s brother and MP; Emilis, Markas’s son; Violeta Davoliūtė, professor of philosophy and the history of ideas at Vilnius University, cultural historian, Holocaust researcher and colleague of Markas and Gytis Padegimas, a famous Lithuanian theater director who was a close confident (appearing via internet at the discussion club). Actor, popular writer and journalist Arkadijus Vinokuras will moderate the conversation which will be live-streamed on facebook with the help of his son Saulius.
The event is to take place at the Bagel Shop Café at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius at 5:00 P.M. on Wednesday, May 10. The live-stream will be made available on facebook by following this short URL: https://rb.gy/uok94
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 8:29 P.M. on Friday, April 28, and concludes at 9:52 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Makabi Three-Day Sporting Camp in Mid-May
The Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club invites athletes and the athletically-inclined at any and all levels of proficiency to a three-day sporting festival at the Pailgo perlas recreational area on a scenic lake 30 kilometers outside Vilnius. The celebration will include more than just sports in a beautiful natural setting, with a Sabbath celebration, singing, dancing, concerts, bonfire parties, fishing and swimming, among other activities. Sports include badminton, kayaking, ping-pong, volleyball, soccer and perhaps others, depending on the weather. The camp will run from April 19 to 21, but attendees aren’t required to spend all three days there. For more information and to register, send an email to info.maccabilt@gmail.com.
Fayerlakh Concert “Promised Land” to Celebrate Israel’s 75th Birthday
The Fayerlakh Jewish song and dance ensemble will perform a concert called Promised Land to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel at 4:00 P.M. on May 14 at the House of Polish Culture in Vilnius. Tickets cost 10 euros. For tickets or more information, call +370 687 79 309 or +370 5 261 30 03.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 8:15 P.M. on Friday, April 21, and concludes at 9:36 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Mini Klez-Fest at Tolerance Center, National Library
The Judaica Research Center at the Martynas Mažvydas Lithuanian National Library, the Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum and Roma Social Center present their “mini klez-fest” which includes live music and a lecture on klezmer music.
The event will take place at the Tolerance Center of the Vilna Gaon Museum at 6:00 P.M. on Sunday, April 30. The performers decided to call their hour-long concert “From Vizhnitz to Vilne: Klezmer Music from the Carpathians and Beyond.” The program is composed of songs selected by Jewish music researcher, ethnographer and artist-in-residence in the Jewish Studies Program at San Diego State University Yale Strom, recorded during ethnographic field work and which were once performed from the Carpathian Mountains to Jonava in Lithuania and locations inside Belarus. Yale Strom currently teaches music at San Diego State.
The lecture component by Strom will take part on at 6:00 P.M. on Wednesday, May 3, at the National Library in Vilnius. It is called “Relationship between Romani and Jewish Musicians before World War II: How and Why?”
Premiere of J’Accuse with Lithuanian Subtitles Exclusively on 15min.lt
The Lithuanian news website 15min.lt announced they will be showing the Holocaust documentary J’accuse with Lithuanian subtitles on April 17 and 18. The focus of the film is Grant Gochin whose entire family were murdered by the Nazis in Lithuania, and Silvia Foti who published a biography of her grandfather Jonas Noreika, debunking his lionization by post-WWII Lithuanians and revealing his deep collaboration with the Nazis in Holocaust crimes.
The film documents the personal stories of Gochin and Foti in their search for truth and justice, and how their paths came together several years ago, both now demanding accountability and truth from the Lithuanian state in addressing the genocide committed against the Jews in Lithuania during WWII.
Foti’s book is in its second edition in the United States with translations in various languages around the world. Lithuanian publishing house Kitos Knygos is publishing the Lithuanian version of the book.
In the film Gochin talks about his numerous court cases in Lithuania seeking justice for his murdered family members. He talks about the anti-Semitism inherent in the Lithuanian bureaucracy in the first decade after independence from the Soviet Union when he sought Lithuanian citizenship based on family origin, and some of the strange decisions Lithuanian courts made regarding his numerous cases against the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania to force them to tell the truth about Jonas Noreika. Foti also levels criticism against the Center for hiding the truth about genocide in Lithuania.
The film contains a wealth of photography and stories of Jewish life in Lithuania before the Holocaust. 15min.lt says it is offering its readers the rare opportunity to view the film with the original audio with Lithuanian subtitles for two days exclusively.
Full article in Lithuanian and link to the film here.
Results from Passover Drawing Contest
We are pleased to announce we received a number of drawings, water colors and works in other media in our Passover children’s drawing contest. A surprising number of young people in the Community responded, some sending in multiple entries. We were also pleasantly surprised by the talent demonstrated, and insights into the inner life of our children. Some of the entries reminded us of the work of Marc Chagall and Samuel Bak. It was simply too difficult to decide on any one winner, but all contestants will receive a package of chocolate-coated matzo. A big thank-you to all the parents who helped as well.
Lesson on Passover
Natalja Cheifec will do a post-Passover wrap-up on zoom at 5:30 P.M. on April 17, touching on everything you need to know but might have been afraid to ask, including:
• How the Hebrews became slaves in Egypt
• How the Egyptians oppressed the Hebrews
• Moses, leader of the Hebrew people
• Reasons for the exodus
• How God punished the Egyptians, the 10 plagues
• Preparations for the holiday of Passover: why yeast and fermented goods must be dispensed with
• Components of Passover holiday celebration including matzo, the four cups of wine and other required components.
To register and receive zoom credentials, go to https://bit.ly/3K73kEE
Illustration: Seder Table by Lynne Feldman
Yom haShoah
Yom haShoah is the date on Nisan 27 when Israelis remember the victims of the Holocaust. This year Nisan 27 corresponds to April 18. The Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel and the Lithuanian Jewish Community have organized a number of events to commemorate this day in Lithuania this year.
There will be a commemoration in Alytus, Lithuania, on Monday, April 17:
11:00 A.M. Commemoration of Holocaust victims at mass murder site in Vidzgiris forest.
1:30 P.M. Commemorative ceremony at Alytus synagogue.
4:15 P.M. Commemoration at Simnas Jewish mass murder monument.
4:45 P.M. Return to Vilnius
There will be a commemoration in Zarasai on April 18:
Discussion Club on Lithuanian Heroes and Collaborators
The Jewish discussion club #ŽydiškiPašnekesiai will discuss the topic of the lionization of Holocaust perpetrators at 5:00 P.M. on Wednesday, April 19 at the Bagel Shop Café located at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius. It will be live-streamed as well. Panelists will include the new director of the Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum, Simonas Strelcovas, as well an academic, a media specialist and an historian. It will be moderated by writer, publicist and actor Arkadijus Vinokuras. The discussion will be conducted in Lithuanian.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 8:02 P.M. on Friday, April 14, and concludes at 9:20 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Mimouna Shabbat
You’re invited to the first Sabbath celebration following Passover at 6:30 P.M. on Friday, April 14, with the ceremony upstairs at the Lithuanian Jewish Community and kiddush at the Bagel Shop Café at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius. The cost is 12 euros per adult and free to those aged 16 and under. Register with Viljamas by sending a message to viljamas@lzb.lt.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 7:48 P.M. on Friday, April 7, and concludes at 9:05 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Jewish Scouting Camp
An overnight Jewish scouting camp will be held April 29 to 30 in a scenic natural setting. There will be a terrific program and the opportunity to meet other scouts. For more information and to register, send an email to scout leader Michail Adomas Kofman at skautai@lzb.lt. There is a significant discount for early enrollment and for siblings from a single household.
New Bagel Shop Newsletter
A new Bagel Shop Newsletter has been published for the first part of 2023. A PDF file of the newsletter is provided below.
Bagel_Shop_Newsletter_2023If your browser doesn’t display the file, you can download it by clicking here.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 6:35 P.M. on Friday, March 31, and concludes at 8:50 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
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New Book of Names at Yad Vashem
Since its establishment Yad Vashem has endeavored to gather the names of the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, one of its central missions. Yad Vashem’s Book of Names is the unique result of meticulous and painstaking work that commemorates 4,800,000 men, women and children whose details have been gathered and uncovered over the years, through Pages of Testimony, the location of various Holocaust-era documents, cooperation with memorial sites and more, which are memorialized in Yad Vashem’s Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names.
The Book of Names actualizes the inconceivable number of Holocaust victims, and displays their names together with their dates of birth, hometowns and places of death, when known. The information is printed on pages measuring two meters high and one meter wide, with the details illuminated by a gentle beam of light that shines from between the pages. The massive dimensions of the Book of Names testify to the enormity of the collective and unimaginable loss for humanity as a whole and for the Jewish people in particular. The last pages of the book are empty, symbolizing the names that are yet to be retrieved, documented and commemorated, and which perhaps never will be.
Designer: Chanan De Lange
The Book of Names was produced with the generous support of Marilyn and Barry Rubinstein, USA.
Opening: March 29, 2023.