Announcements

Gesher Club Offers Tour

Gesher Club Offers Tour

The Gesher Club at the Lithuanian Jewish Community is offering a two-day tour of the Panemunė castles and the Curonian Spit on August 28 and 29. The group will visit the Pažaislis monastery, the Raudondvaris manor estate, Vilkija, the Veliuona earth-mounds and the Raudonė and Panemunė castles. They will also visit the Holocaust memorial and Alley of Synagogues in Jurbarkas, with rest and an overnight stay in Klaipėda with an evening tour of the Klaipėda Old Town. Following breakfast on Sunday the group will move on to the Curonian Spit with visits to Juodkrantė, the Dead Dunes and Nida, followed by the return trip to Vilnius. The tour will be conducted by long-time LJC member and professional tour guide Markas Psonikas. For more information and to register, call+37067881514 or send an mail to zanas@sc.lzb.lt. For more about Markas’s tours, see here.

The Great Synagogue of Vilnius: Finds from the Past and a Vision for the Future

The Great Synagogue of Vilnius: Finds from the Past and a Vision for the Future

At 6:00 P.M., August 24, Israeli Antiquities Authority department of digs and research director Jon Seligman will deliver a lecture called “The Great Synagogue of Vilnius: Finds from the Past and a Vision for the Future” at the Lithuanian Jewish Community located at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius. The lecture will be in English and is open to the public.

Archeological investigation resumed this year at the synagogue site on August 9 and the team of archaeologists including Seligman have begun fully uncovering the remains of the bima and aron kodesh there. They plan to uncover the main floor and the southeast and northwest wall sections as well.

Event announcement here.

Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 8:37 P.M. on Friday, August 13, and concludes at 10:03 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.

Ceremony to Unveil Plaque Commemorating Jascha Heifetz

Ceremony to Unveil Plaque Commemorating Jascha Heifetz

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.

News from the Kaunas Jewish Community

News from the Kaunas Jewish Community

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.

Read more
Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

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.

Storm Damage at the Jewish Cemetery and a Request from the Administration

Storm Damage at the Jewish Cemetery and a Request from the Administration

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

Topic for This Year’s Jewish Culture Day: Dialogue

Topic for This Year’s Jewish Culture Day: Dialogue

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.

Table of Truth Web Event

Table of Truth Web Event

 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/

Black Honey: A Film about Abraham Sutzkever

Black Honey: A Film about Abraham Sutzkever

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.

Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

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.

Evening of Poetry and Music

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.

Dancing at Cvi Park

Dancing at Cvi Park

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.

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Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

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.

Jewish Summer Camp Update

Jewish Summer Camp Update

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

Forgotten Names: The Symbol of Lithuania in Works by Musicians Scattered around the World

Forgotten Names: The Symbol of Lithuania in Works by Musicians Scattered around the World

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.

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Tisha b’Av on Sunday

Tisha b’Av on Sunday

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.