The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Rositsan and Maccabi Elite Chess and Checkers Club will hold classes to teach children chess from 5:30 to 6:30 P.M. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Virginijus Dumbrauskas will be the instructor. Registration is required by calling +370 676 07907. The classes will take place at the Lithuanian Jewish Community at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius and by internet.
Israeli Dance Club Rekudim
The Israeli dance club Rekudim will meet on Sundays from 11:00 A.M. to 12 noon for beginners and from noon to 1:30 P.M. for more advanced dancers. Julija Patašnik will teach the classes. For more information call +370 569 60512.
Seasonal Jewish Dishes for Spring
Take Part in the “I Love Lithuania” Campaign
The Šiauliai District Jewish Community invites all the Jewish communities to take part in the “I Love Lithuania” public campaign by taking photographs with the Lithuanian flag on February 16, the pre-World War II Lithuanian Independence Day.
Kabbalat Shabat with Rabbi Nathan Alfred
The Choral Synagogue in Vilnius will host a Kabbalat Shabat ceremony with Rabbi Nathan Alfred from Israel at 6:30 on February 18, followed by a Sabbath meal. To register contact Viljamas by telephone at 867250699 or write viljamas@lzb.lt
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 4:59 P.M. on Friday, February 11, and concludes at 6:16 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Lithuanian Jewish Community Children’s Clubs
The LJC children’s club for our youngest members–Dubi Mishpakha if for those under 3 and Dubi for children aged 3 to 6–will resume February 15. Dubi Mishpakha will be held on Tuesdays and Fridays starting at 11:00 A.M. and Dubi on Sundays from 11:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. For more information call Alexandra Žitkauskienė-Khenkin at telephone number 370 672 50 599.
Šiauliai’s First Professional Photographer Reveals Interwar World
The Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community is hosting an exhibit of photographs from their archive by Sošana Zaksaitė, the city’s first professional photographer. Zaksaitė’s photos capture Jewish life in Šiauliai before the Holocaust.
This is the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community’s second exhibit of Zaksaitė’s photography.
Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community chairman Sania Kerbelis says the current exhibit continues where the last one left off. The Community has a digitized collection of Zaksaitė’s work numbering around 300 photos.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
Kabbalat Shabat
A Kabbalat Shabat ceremony will be held via internet under the tenets of Progressive Judaism at 6:30 P.M. on February 11. To register, write Viljamas at viljamas@lzb.lt
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 4:44 P.M. on Friday, February 4, and concludes at 6:03 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Art Classes
The Raimondas Savickas School of Art and the Lithuanian Jewish Community invite you to attend art classes under the tutelage of Raimondas Savickas, including drawing, painting and art history basics. Color and form composition, still life, sketching, life-drawing–these are just some of the topics to be covered. Classes will be held on Sundays starting February 6. To register call 8 699 63 522 or send a letter to savickogalerija@gmail.com
Sergei Liser Exhibit Opens
The opening of an exhibition of paintings by Sergei Liser called “Išlikę indai” [Surviving Vessels] was held January 30 at the Bagel Shop Café at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius with the painter and his family, many friends and some famous artists. LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, Vilnius Art Academy rector and teacher Ieva Skauronė and LJC programs director Žana Skudovičienė welcomed visitors at the event.
“Surviving Vessels is my second individual exhibit. It’s strange tales about the history of dishes where the fates of people as well as dishes are intertwined. Dishes, like people, change in appearance over time–they mature, grow old and die, they change color and form, they wear out,” Sergei Liser said. “But sometimes they become members of the family, preserving important memories and pass biographies and stories on to us. And for that, we love and honor them, even when they get grey and old, break down and become dysfunctional.”
The exhibit will run till February 28 and the paintings are available for purchase.
Project “Young Leaders of the Jewish and Roma Communities for the Preservation of Historical Memory and Justice”
The year 2021 reminded us all of the suffering and misfortune the people of Lithuania had to live through in the 20th century, finding themselves at the intersection of the interests of the world’s great powers. There were commemorations, conferences and exhibitions throughout Lithuania. Even so, we haven’t done all our homework to insure the preservation of historical memory and teaching the younger generation a deeper sense of history don’t merely become annual events, but an inalienable part of national politics where all institutions work towards a common goal in a coordinated way, so that the combined resources of the state and society work together according to a clear strategy.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Roma Social Center are beginning the implementation of a project called Young Leaders of the Jewish and Roma Communities for the Preservation of Historical Memory and Justice organized by Germany’s EVZ Foundation aimed at teaching the public the importance of the history of the Roma and Jewish communities with the goal of including and engaging the younger generation of both communities.
Do members of these communities feel safe living in their own country?
Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe on Šnipiškės Cemetery
PRESS RELEASE by the Committee for the Protection of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe
(CPJCE)
January 18, 2022
The Lithuanian Government reaffirms its commitment to follow CPJCE guidelines on future plans of the Sports Palace Building situated in the Snipiskes Jewish cemetery in Vilnius.
The future function of the existing Sports Palace Building was discussed at a meeting held in Vilnius on November 25, 2021, between first deputy chancellor Mr. Rolandas Krisciunas, accompanied by his working team, and Mrs. Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, together with Rabbi H. Gluck OBE and Rabbi Y. Schlesinger representing the CPJCE.
Rabbi Gluck pointed out that regardless what the future plans hold, the Government must respect the agreements signed between the Government and the CPJCE in 2009 and 2015 and therefore no movement of soil is allowed in the entire cemetery area, and the Government should continue to work hand-in-hand with CPJCE to ensure the safeguarding of the cemetery and other cemeteries in the framework of the halachic guidelines.
Challenges of the Holocaust to Commemorative Culture and the Legal System
Arkadijus Vinokuras will host a discussion on the topic “Challenges of the Holocaust to Commemorative Culture and the Legal System” in Lithuanian as part of the #ŽydiskiPašnekesai series of discussions at 5:00 P.M. on February 9. The discussion will likely include a streaming video available via the Community’s facebook page.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 4:30 P.M. on Friday, January 28, and concludes at 5:50 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Kabbalat Shabat
A Kabbalat Shabat ceremony will be held to usher in the Sabbath under the tenets of progressive Judaism at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius at 6:00 P.M. on January 28, followed by a glass of wine and challa bread. To register, write Viljamas at viljamas@lzb.lt or call 8 672 50699.
EJC Live-Streaming Event for Holocaust Day
Dear Friends,
We would like to remind you about EJC’s online International Holocaust Remembrance Day commemoration, which will be held tomorrow at 4PM CET.
The event will be available live on EJC website <http://www.eurojewcong.org>, as well as on YouTube <https://www.youtube.com/user/eurojewcong> and Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/Eurojewcong/>.
No registration is required. The event will appear live on all the above-mentioned channels shortly before the scheduled time.
Thank you in advance.
Kind regards,
Raya and the EJC team
Invitation to Mark International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust
January 27 is International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, recalling the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust. The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites Lithuania’s educational and scientific community to join us in the campaign #WeRemember/#MesPrisimename and to remember the victims, eye-witnesses and heroes of the Holocaust who lived in the cities and towns of Lithuania.
We invite you to engage actively in International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust and to spread the news about the importance of this day among the various educational communities and institutions of general, higher and professional learning. Assign the activities of this day to teaching young people about the memory of Holocaust victims and organize encounters with the older members of the Jewish communities who remember and won’t let these horrific periods of history slip into oblivion. We invite you to pay special attention to remembering those who rescued Jews. Their courage set an example of humanity for future generations.
You can find educational materials, testimonies and stories told by survivors and other useful information which will help present the story of the Holocaust in an interactive and understandable way to young people on the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s webpages lzb.lt, lzb.lt/en and lzb.lt/ru, and at our virtual initiative @AtmintiesKalendorius on our facebook page.
You can also take part in the campaign by visiting the mass murder sites in your local area and by taking photos there and posting them to your social media with the hashtags #WeRemember and/or #MesPrisimename. Take a photo of yourself holding a piece of paper or a sign with the inscription #WeRemember and/or #MesPrisimename. Also, on the eve of the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, join the global campaign by adding a #WeRemember frame to your social media profile. Frames can be found at #WeRemember and/or #MesPrisimename.
#WeRemember #MesPrisimename #Neveragain #NiekadaDaugiau #HolocaustMemorialDay
Thank you,
Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community
#MesPrisimename@80 in Šiauliai
The International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust is on January 27. It commemorates the date the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was liberated and the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust in Europe. In Lithuanian entire Jewish communities in cities and towns were exterminated.
The Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community invites residents to come to monument marking the site of the Šiauliai ghetto at the corner of Vytauto and Žalgirio streets at 12 noon on January 27 to light candles and remember the victims of the Holocaust.
At 12:30 we’ll move to the Square of Righteous Gentiles to honor the heroes of the Lithuanian nation who rescued their Jewish fellow citizens during World War II. At 1:00 P.M. we will light candles at the site of the former second ghetto at the corner of Trakų and Ežero streets.