The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites you to attend the unveiling of a plaque commemorating the 120th anniversary this year of the birth of Vilnius native and violin master Jascha Heifetz. The unveiling will take place at 5:00 P.M. on August 19 in the foyer on the third floor at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius. Event will take place in full conformity with whatever healthcare rules are in place at the time for public gatherings.
I am endlessly grateful for the friendship and fruitful cooperation from the very beginning with the Kaunas 2022 team (and especially the Memory Bureau team) and I am thankful for the honor bestowed me as a member of the consultation committee for the Litvak Forum to take place in 2022.
I am so very glad because it is always pleasant to communicate with open, tolerant people who are hungry for knowledge and who are striving to insure our society might also become more open, more tolerant and more accepting.
I am glad because we are joined in a common goal: to encourage recognition of the multicultural history of our city and to appreciate what we have, while not averting our gaze from painful episodes.
The Sabbath begins at 8:51 P.M. on Friday, August 6, and concludes at 10:15 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
The most recent storm in Vilnius did damage to the Jewish cemetery on Sudervės raod in Vilnius. Many grave monuments fell down and some broke. If you have loved ones interred at this cemetery, the administrator of the cemetery is asking you to renew your contact information including telephone numbers and email addresses so that the administration can contact you.
The administration’s telephone number is 370 67025750 and the email is es48e@hotmail.com
The Lithuanian Jewish Community has been celebrating the European Day of Jewish Culture for a number of years now on the first Sunday in September with events in Vilnius and at associated LJC member communities around the country. The topic this year is dialogue, #Žydiškipašnekesiai, revealing different aspects of Jewish culture, the Litvak contribution to Lithuanian history, culture and democracy and the living Litvak legacy. The LJC usually opens its doors, the Choral Synagogue and other locations to visitors on this day with lectures, musical performances and authentic Jewish food. This year the event will take place on the eve of the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah. Stay tuned for the full program.
About the event
Learn about the extraordinary connection to one chess table with Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman, Lithuanian Jewish Community; Shulamit Rabinovich, San Francisco engineer; Dudu Fisher, Israeli-based world-renowned entertainer; Grant Gochin, South African wealth Manager and Silvia Foti, Chicago journalist.
We will reveal recently discovered facts about the Holocaust in Lithuania, Holocaust denial by the Lithuanian Government, and present new paths to education about the horrors of the past.
The table WILL talk.
We will conclude the program with Dudu Fisher chanting Kaddish.
When: 10:00 A.M. PST, 1:00 P.M. EST, 7:00 P.M. South Africa, 8:00 P.M. Israel, September 12, 2021
Representatives of the Lithuanian Government have also been invited to attend and speak.
For more information and to register, see http://israelusa.org/table-of-truth/
The Vilnius Jewish Public Library will screen the film Black Honey about Vilnius partisan and Yiddish poet Abraham Sutzkever created by his granddaughter and actress Hadas Kalderon of Israel. She will retell stories she heard directly from him and talk about film and filming. The screening is open to the public and will take place at 7:00 P.M. on August 8. The Vilnius Jewish Public Library (not affiliated with the Lithuanian Jewish Community) is located at Gedimino prospect no. 24 in Vilnius with entry through the alley and to the right.
Register by calling (8-5) 219 77 48 or sending an email to info@vilnius-jewish-public-library.com
The film is in English, Hebrew and Yiddish with English subtitles.
The Sabbath begins at 9:05 P.M. on Friday, July 30, and concludes at 10:32 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites you to an evening of poetry and music at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius at 6:00 P.M. on Tuesday, August 11. Sergejus Kanovičius will read selections of his prose and poetry accompanied by Boris Kirzner on violin.
Have you visited what we’re calling Cvi Park, on Petras Cirkva Square in Vilnius? Come enjoy the company and authentic Israeli street food, and watch how they dance to bachata music on hot July evenings.
The Sabbath begins at 9:27 P.M. on Friday, July 16, and concludes at 11:04 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.
Additional registrations are being accepted for young people aged 13 to 17 to attend the Amehaye Jewish summer camp with overnight stays from August 2 to August 6. The cost is 140 euros per person. For more information call +37060146656 or send an email to amehaye2021@lzb.lt
The spiritual formation of an artist is impossible without a creative environment. This is indivisible from the specific people who set a great example, who direct the artist, enrich the artist spiritually, and support and encourage the artist. That sort of environment is exactly what existed in Vilnius in the early 20th century, giving rise to wonderful musicians including Jascha Heifetz, the Schneider brothers, the Reizenberg sisters, the great Hofmekler family and others.
Some left Lithuania and made incredible careers, others remained and became known in their homeland. Their lives were different, but their legacy is very clear. Let’s remember them, let’s enjoy their works. We will discover a world we didn’t know which was hidden from us for almost a century.
During the event we will learn about the lives of these renowned musicians and their works will be presented.
Tisha b’Av, the 9th day of the month of Av on the Hebrew calendar, falls on Sunday, July 18 this year. The holiday actually begins at sundown on July 17 and a 25-hour fast is observed, ending this year in the Vilnius region at 10:34 P.M., July 18.
Tisha b’Av commemorates the destruction of the First Temple of Solomon ca. 587 BCE and the Second Temple in 70 CE in Jerusalem and is traditionally a day of fasting and mourning. Observance includes five prohibitions, the main one being a 25-hour fast. The Book of Lamentations is read in the synagogue followed by the recitation of kinnos, liturgical dirges for the Temple and Jerusalem. Since the day has become associated with other major Jewish tragedies, some kinnos recall other events, including the murder of the Ten Martyrs in ancient Rome, pogroms against medieval Jewish communities and the Holocaust.
According to tradition, the sin of the Ten Spies is the real origin of Tisha B’Av. In the Book of Numbers, 13:1-33 when the Israelites accepted their false report of the Promised Land, they wept, thinking God could no help them. The night the people wept and wailed was the ninth day of Av, which then became a day of weeping and misfortune for all time, according to tradition, following which the Jews were made to wander the desert for 40 years.
The Sabbath begins at 9:35 P.M. on Friday, July 9, and concludes at 11:17 P.M. on Saturday.
ELTA, July 8, 2021
A general meeting of the members of the Lithuanian Jewish Community held Wednesday voted for a third time to elect Faina Kukliansky the chairwoman of the organization. Twenty-six members of the LJC’s executive board were elected at the same time.
The chairperson of the Community is elected for a four-year term by a majority of the regional Jewish communities and associate members constituting the LJC. Of the 32 organizations under the LJC umbrella, 31 representatives took part in Wednesday’s ballot. Kukliansky received 30 votes out of the possible 31, according to a press release from the LJC.
Kukliansky said her most important task as chairwoman is to inspire unity among the different Jewish communities in Lithuania. She said the LJC’s other priorities haven’t changed, but life is changing: the generation which experienced the horrors of World War II is growing old and dying, and so caring for them is becoming even more crucial.
“We are continuing to strengthen the activity of our social center, taking care of those requiring support, employing people with disabilities and engaging them in Community activities. Another important priority is preservation and putting to use the surviving Jewish cultural heritage: we have wonderful examples of restored synagogues being used as cultural activity centers,” Faina Kukliansky said.
An Israeli street food kiosk called “Tzvi in the Park” opened on July 2 in the Petras Cvirka Square park across the street from the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius. The food booth is offering humous, carrots with anise, chicken shwarma and other traditional foods with pita bread, with ingredients to order by the customer. The menu is planned to expand over time. While the food kiosk is the initiative of the culinary masterminds at the Bagel Shop Café across Pylimo street, the food booth will offer different dishes and hopes to inspire people to linger and talk.
“When we set up the Bagel Shop, we wanted to offer people delicious food, but also to offer them a way to have a good time, to hang around and talk about different things, even such sensitive and important topics as tolerance, human equality and so on. So this summer we want to create a space for city residents and visitors where they can spend some time in the green space of the park and learn about Israeli culinary culture,” LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky commented.
While the Bagel Shop offers more traditional Litvak fare, the food kiosk will present characteristically Mediterranean food, the new director of the Bagel Shop and of the Israeli food kiosk Aistė Košienė said. She said Israeli street food has distinct characteristics, but the main features are that it’s healthy and of good quality.
The Sabbath begins at 9:39 P.M. on Friday, July 2, and concludes at 11:26 P.M. on Saturday.