Announcements

Shavuot Celebrations

Shavuot Celebrations

Shavuot or Shavuos, the Feast of Weeks, begins on the evening of Friday, May 26, and extends into May 27 until sundown this year. The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites you to attend several events to mark this important holiday on Sunday, May 28.

Israeli dance lesson with Julija Potašnik

Location: Cvirka Park, across the street from the Lithuanian Jewish Community at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius.
Time: from noon on

Enjoying nature with children

The LJC’s children’s clubs Dubi and Ilan are inviting youngsters and their parents to spend Sunday in a beautiful natural setting along the river. Every family is invited to bring their own food for a potluck and barbecue. Water and snacks will be provided.

Location: Valakupiai (Valakampiai) beach no. 2 at the northeastern reach of Vilnius, GPS coordinates 54.742762, 25.293022.
Time: noon

Registration is required for participants at both events. Please contact Žana Skudovičienė by telephone at (+370) 678 81514 or write an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt to register and for more information.

Exhibit of Shtetl Artworks by Simon Karczmar

Exhibit of Shtetl Artworks by Simon Karczmar

The AP Gallery in Vilnius’s Užupis neighborhood is holding an exhibit of drawings and paintings by Simon Karczmar featuring shtetlakh. He was born in Warsaw in 1903, left France for Israel in 1962 and died in 1982. His grandfather with whom he spent his vacations as a youngster lived in the shtetl Divenishok near Vilnius/Wilno.

AP Gallery is located at Užupio street no. 4 in Vilnius. The exhibition called Luminous Shtetls opens at 6:00 P.M. on May 31. No information was provided on when the exhibit ends.

Ilan Club for Children Aged 7-12

Ilan Club for Children Aged 7-12

They’re not yet adolescents, but already have a firm opinion on almost everything, are constantly coming up with new and unusual words and get excited about things we don’t always understand. More than mobile phones and as much as the oxygen they breathe, they need to spend time with people their own age. Ilan Club is intended for children aged 7 to 12, and meets every Sunday at noon at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius. For more information, contact LJC programs director Žana Skudovičienė by e-mail at zanas@sc.lzb.lt.

Dubi Club for Children Aged 4-6

Dubi Club for Children Aged 4-6

Members of the Dubi Club engage in fun activities every Sunday. Last time they learned to make desserts. They did a great job and their parents were happy to try the treats and watch their young ones learn practical life skills. Dubi Club is for children aged 4 to 6 and meets at noon every Sunday at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius. For more information, contact LJC programs director Žana Skudovičienė by e-mail at zanas@sc.lzb.lt.

What Do You Know about Litvak Writers?

What Do You Know about Litvak Writers?

Arakdijus Vinokuras’s monthly quiz asks that question at the next quiz scheduled for 2:00 P.M. on Sunday, May 21 at the Bagel Shop Café in Vilnius. This quiz will be dedicated to the three Litvak writers Icchokas Meras and the recently deceased Grigoriy Kanovitch and Markas Zingeris, may they rest in peace. It will be streamed on facebook as well.

Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 8:55 P.M. on Friday, May 12, and concludes at 10:26 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.

Markas Zingeris in Memoriam

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

Makabi Three-Day Sporting Camp in Mid-May

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.

Mini Klez-Fest at Tolerance Center, National Library

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

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

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.

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Lesson on Passover

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

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:

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Discussion Club on Lithuanian Heroes and Collaborators

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.