Everyone is invited to come celebrate Purim starting at 5:00 P.M. on Tuesday, March 7, at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius.
Righteous Gentiles Exhibit
Architect Tauras Budzys and art historian Barbora Karnienė have constructed an exhibit to mark March 15, the day designated to commemorate Lithuanian rescuers of Jews from the Holocaust. The exhibit is called “Righteous among the Nations: Not Afraid to Die, They Became Immortal.” The exhibit will be on display until April 10 in the home and museum of Marija and Jurgis Šlapelis located at Pilies street no. 40 in Vilnius.
Purim Celebration at Former Great Synagogue in Vilnius
A Progressive Judaism celebration of Purim including all mitzvot, reading of the Esther scroll, tzadka collections and mishloah manot will be held at the site of the former Great Synagogue in Vilnius (the school building at Vokiečių street no. 13A, formerly Žydų street no. 6) starting at 6:30 P.M. on March 6. Congregants are urged to bring fruit to share. To register, send an email to viljamas@lzb.lt or call 8672 50 699.
Discussion Club Topic: The Three Abrahamic Religions
The next meeting of the discussion club #ŽydiškiPašnekesiai will be held at 5:00 P.M. on March 8 at the Bagel Shop Café at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius. The topic will be “The Three Major Religions’ Attitude towards One Another, towards Responsibility, Love, Morality, Punishment and Politics.”
Moderator Arkadijus Vinokuras says there is a lack of interfaith dialogue in Lithuania. The benefits of interfaith discussion on society is obvious because of existing superstitions people hold regarding other religions and a general lack of knowledge.
Discussion panel participants are to include Simas Levinas, Lithuanian Mufti Aleksandras Beganskas, author and Catholic priest Mozė Mitkevičius and Arkadijus Vinokuras.
Purim Celebration with the Fayerlakh Ensemble at the Bagel Shop
The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Fayerlakh ensemble invite you to a Purim celebration.
The celebration will include the traditional Purimshpil carnaval, costume contest, live music and other diversions.
Attendees are expected to dress up for the occasion. Tickets are €30 for adults and €20 for children 13 and under.
Tickets and more information available by calling +370 687 79309.
When: 4:00 P.M., Sunday, March 5
Where: Bagel Shop Café, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 5:26 P.M. on Friday, February 24, and concludes at 6:40 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Launch of Lithuanian Translation of Lea Goldberg’s Children’s Book
The Lithuanian translation of Lithuanian Jewish writer Lea Goldberg’s children’s book “Room for Rent” will be launched at the Vilnius Book Fair Sunday with a special panel discussion including the translator, Antanas Jonynas, designer Sigutė Chlebinskaitė who designed the format for the Yitzhak Rudashevski Vilnius Ghetto Diary published in Lithuanian several years ago by the Lithuanian Jewish Community and writer Daiva Čepauskaitė. Israel’s ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Silverstein is also expected to attend.
Goldberg wasn’t born in Lithuania but spent much of her childhood in Kaunas. She returned to Kaunas after World War I and attended university there. She went on to win the Israeli National Prize for her varied literary work in Hebrew.
The book launch and panel discussion will start at 12 noon on Sunday, February 26, in hall 5-3 at the Lithuanian Expo Center in Vilnius, the venue for the annual Vilnius Book Fair.
Dubi Mishpocha Club Open for Children Aged 0 to 3
Traditions are a treasure we pass on from generation to generation. We are glad to be able to share that treasure with others and to see how children grow up and take their children to the Lithuanian Jewish Community youth clubs.
It is so important for the younger generation of Jews to learn and practice our traditions from a very early age, so the Dubi Mishpocha Club welcomes you and your children aged 0 to 3 every Wednesday from 10:30 A.M. The club is located inside the LJC.
For more information, contact LJC programs director Žana Skudovičienė by e-mail at zanas@sc.lzb.lt.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 5:12 P.M. on Friday, February 17, and concludes at 6:26 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Knafaim Club Open Again
After a short vacation, the Knafaim Club for youth aged 13 to 17 has reopened, ready to receive members and friends every Friday at 6:00 P.M., with different games and activities to improve Jewish and general knowledge, followed by a ceremony to greet the Sabbath. For more information, contact programs director Žana Skudovičienė at zanas@sc.lzb.lt or call+370 678 81514.
Applications Being Accepted Now for Compensation for Personal Property Lost in Holocaust
The Goodwill Foundation is planning to disburse from 5 to 10 million euros to those who lost personal property during the Holocaust and their heirs and who meet specific criteria.
Those who survived the Holocaust in Lithuania and their heirs are eligible to make application until December 30, 2023. Compensation is planned to be paid by July 1, 2025.
No claims can be made for plots of land, but applications made by those seeking recompense for commercial buildings, residential homes and apartments will be considered seriously.
Those eligible to apply include Jewish property owners who lived in Lithuania until May 8, 1945, and whose property was seized by the Nazis or Soviets from June 15, 1940, until March 10, 1990, and who didn’t have an opportunity to receive their property and get compensation for it because they weren’t Lithuanian citizens from June 18, 1991, until December 31, 2001. Inheritors eligible for compensation are widows or widowers of former Jewish property owners, parents or children of such, and in the event they are dead, then grandchildren or spouses of grandchildren. Those left property in last wills and testaments are also eligible, as are their widows or widowers, parents, children, grandchildren or spouses of grandchildren.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 4:57 P.M. on Friday, February 10, and concludes at 6:13 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Weekly Quiz
The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites you to a new series of quizzes on Sundays on Jewish history. Writer Arkadijus Vinokuras will moderate the quiz at the Bagel Shop Café on Sundays with a new topic every week. Come and show off your knowledge, or just come to learn something new. The first quiz will be held at 2:00 P.M. this Sunday, February 12, at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius. The topic will be Jewish music, with musc professor Leonidas Melnikas offering his expert opinion as judge. Register by sending an email to katrina@lzb.lt.
Discussion Club: Was Jewish Life Wonderful under Smetona?
The #ŽydiškųPašnekesiai discussion club will address the topic “Was Jewish Life Great during the Smetona Era” at the Bagel Shop Café at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius at 5:00 P.M. on February 8. The discussion will be live-streamed on the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s facebook page.
In the broader public discussion of whether to erect a statue to the interwar Lithuanian president and dictator Antanas Smetona, proponents have begun saying he defended Lithuania’s Jewish population and was even known as “King of the Jews.” Opponents of the monument counter there were no stops placed on anti-Semitism in Lithuania in the period between the two world wars, meaning the entire span of Lithuanian independence, and Jews were banned from public service and elsewhere.
What do today’s Jews and Lithuania’s current crop of historians think about these issues? Attend or tune in to find out.
Moderator and club founder Arkadijus Vinokuras will put the question to Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman, Lithuanian Jewish Community; Žygimantas Menčenkovas, member of the Leftist Alliance, philosopher, teacher and activist and via internet Linas Venclauskas, historian and author of a recent book on Lithuanian anti-Semitism prior to 1940.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 4:42 P.M. on Friday, February 3, and concludes at 6:00 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Remembering Saulius and Silvija Sondeckiai
A concert and discussion will be held at the Stasys Vainiūnas House at Goštauto street no. 2-41 at 5:30 P.M. on Wednesday, February 8, in memory of the remarkable Lithuanian musical couple Saulius and Silvija Sondeckiai. Professor Leonidas Melnikas is to speak and students from the Saulius Sondeckis Art Gymnasium in Šiauliai will perform. The event is free and open to the public.
February 3 marked seven years since the death of renowned Lithuanian musician, conductor and professor Saulius Sondeckis. In the run up to that sad anniversary, his widow, cello player and professor Silvija Sondeckienė, passed away on January 21.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 4:28 P.M. on Friday, January 27, and concludes at 5:47 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Holocaust Remembrance Day in Palanga
Residents of Palanga are invited to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day this Friday, January 27, with a candle-lighting ceremony at the Old Cemetery in Palanga at 11:00 A.M. followed by the unveiling of a new plaque commemorating the town’s synagogues destroyed during World War II at Vytauto street no. 98 at 11:30 A.M.
Israeli Duet to Perform Again
The family duet of Vera Vaidman on violin and Vera Emanuel Krasovsky on piano will perform works by Beethoven and Schubert at the Organum Concert Hall in Vilnius at 7:00 P.M. on Friday, February 3. Tickets are available here and if you enter the code LZB you’ll get a 10% discount. Krasovsky was born in Vilnius and attended Vilnius University among other institutions of higher learning. The couple live in Tel Aviv currently
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 4:15 P.M. on Friday, January 20, and concludes at 5:35 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.