The Ilan Club for children aged 7 to 12 is meeting this Saturday at 1:00 P.M. at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius. This session includes a shadow theater, Purim gifts and lots of fun.
Purim Celebration
The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium invite you to a celebration of the happiest holiday of the year, Purim, on Thursday, March 13, at the Loftas performance space in Vilnius.
The program includes the customary costume ball, purimshpil skits and performances by Sholem students, the traditional games and many prizes, as well as a DJ and other entertainment. Michael Frishman will be master of ceremonies.
Tickets available here: https://topticket.lt/event/PURIM-2025
Time: 6:30 P.M., Thursday, March 13
Place: Loftas, Švitrigailos street no. 29, Vilnius
Two Klezmer Bands on World Theater Day
To celebrate World Theater Day on March 27, the Russian Drama Theater in Vilnius, now rechristened Old Drama Theater, will host two klezmer bands. Called “Klezmer on Pogulanka” (the older name of Basanavičiaus street in Vilnius where the theater is located), the Franco-Lithuanian ensemble Rakija Klezmer Orkestar“ and the Yiddish Atmospheric Touch trio from France will perform classics and improv. Stay tuned for more information.
Natalja Cheifec’s Special Purim Edition
Natalja Cheifec’s lecture series features a special Purim edition Wednesday. She will talk about the meaning of and traditions associated with the holiday, why it is considered a holiday of Jewish liberation and unity and about the Book of Esther and why it does not mention the name of God.
To register and receive zoom credentials, click here.
Time: 5:30 P.M., Wednesday, March 12
Place: internet
Righteous Gentiles Day in Vilnius
This year will be the third Lithuania has officially remembered her Righteous Gentiles who rescued Jews from the Holocaust. It is another opportunity to remember the bravery and shining example set by those who risked their lives to help their fellow man.
“Time is pitiless. Every year more rescuers and more survivors pass away, but the memory of their experience will never fade,” Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said. She added that her family was also saved by Righteous Gentiles.
Time: 12:00 noon, Thursday, March 13
Place: Choral Synagogue, Vilnius
Target Shooting Contest
The Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club invites members to a target-shooting contest using live rounds at the GSKA shooting club indoor gun range in Vilnius on March 23.
Competing in three age groups, shooters will get 15 shots including 5 practice rounds and 10 which count. Ammunition and revolvers will be provided to participants at the range.
The cost to participate is 11 euros.
Registration is open till midnight on March 20. To register, click here. For more information, click here.
Time: 10:00 A.M. to 1:30 P.M., Sunday, March 23
Place: GSKA shooting club, Mindaugo street no. 42, Vilnius
Hebrew Classes Continue
Ruth Reches’s Hebrew classes for the general public continue at the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium in Vilnius every Sunday. Beginners and more advanced students are invited to attend. For more information, contact Reches at ruthreches@gmail.com.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 6:07 P.M. on Friday, March 7, and concludes at 7:02 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 5:49 P.M. and completed before sunset at 6:07 P.M. Additionally, Saturday, March 8, is International Women’s Day, and Tuesday, March 11, is Lithuanian Independence Day, marking the date in 1990 when the Lithuanian Supreme Soviet voted to leave the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Purim starts on the evening of Thursday, March 13, at sundown.
Knafaim Club Meets Fridays
The Knafaim Club for adolescents aged 13 to 17 meets this Friday and every Friday with games and other activities to strengthen Jewish roots and deepen knowledge of tradition, followed by a ceremony to usher in the Sabbath. The club meets at 6:00 P.M. at the Lithuanian Jewish Community. For more information, contact Žana Skudovičienė at zanas@sc.lzb.lt.
Natalja Cheifec’s Discussion Club to Meet
Natalja Cheifec’s discussion club continues Thursday, March 6 at 5:30 P.M. This week’s topic is the Jewish woman.
To receive zoom credentials, click here.
Šiauliai Remembers Righteous Gentiles
The Šiauliai District Jewish Community invites you to an event to mark Lithuania’s Righteous Gentiles Remembrance Day called “Witnesses to the Miracles of Life” on March 16.
Program:
1:00 P.M. Commemoration ceremony at Righteous Gentiles Square including words and wreath-laying with MP Paulė Kuzmickienė and the architect Tauras Budzys who began marking the graves of Righteous Gentiles in Lithuania with a special symbol back in 2018;
2:00 P.M. Exhibit of Righteous Gentiles called “Unafraid to Die, They Became Immortal” at the Šiauliai District Jewish Community, Višinskio street no. 24, and a musical performance by Dalia Dėdinskaitė on violin and Gleb Pyšniak on cello.
Time: 1:00 P.M., Sunday, March 16
Place: Righteous Gentiles Square and Šiauliai District Jewish Community, Šiauliai
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 5:53 P.M. on Friday, February 28, and concludes at 6:49 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 5:35 P.M. and completed before sunset at 5:53 P.M. Friday is also Losar, Tibetan New Year 2152, and Saturday is the related Mongolian New Year, Tsagaan Sar.
Samuel Bak Presents Catalog
Samuel Bak himself and a panel of experts will launch a Bak catalog in Lithuanian on the first day of the Vilnius Book Fair. The catalog of his artwork is called “Gydantys simboliai.”
Joining via video link from the USA, Litvak painter from Vilnius Samuel Bak will speak with Bak Museum senior curator Ieva Šadzevičienė, illustrator Jokūbas Jacovskis and others with synchronous translations in Lithuanian and English.
Time: 2:00 P.M., February 27
Place: conference hall 5.5, Litexpo building, Laisvės prospect no. 5, Vilnius
Jewish Kindergarten Registration Open
The Sholem Aleichem kindergarten in Vilnius is accepting applications until March 1. For more information, call +370 672 35592 or write rastine@ort.lt.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 5:39 P.M. on Friday, February 21, and concludes at 6:35 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 5:21 P.M. and completed before sunset at 5:39 P.M. Sunday is also the Emperor’s Birthday in Japan, observed on Monday, and National Day in the Sultante of Brunei. Monday is Independence Day in Estonia.
Music Tells Stories
Internationally-acclaimed violinist Evgenia Epshtein makes her debut appearance in Lithuania with pianist Donaldas Račys at 7:00 P.M. on Friday, February 28 at the Organum hall in Vilnius then at 5:00 P.M. on Sunday, March 2, at the Kaunas State Philharmonic in Kaunas.
Epshtein was born in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) in the Soviet Union and now lives in Split, Croatia. She began her musical career at the Buchmann-Mehta school of music in Tel Aviv and has performed in Azerbaijan, Mexico, Czechoslovakia, Great Britain and Croatia.
Račys is a professor of music at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas. He received his musical training at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow and has also performed around the world.
The program includes Nimrod Borenstein’s Quasi Una Cadenza solo work for violin, works by Brahms, Moritz Moszkowski and Edvard Grieg.
The Vilnius concert has tickets available starting at 12 euros. More information on the Vilnius concert available by clicking here or by calling +370 686 87510. Tickets for the Kaunas appearance cost 15 euros with discounts for seniors and students if purchased at the box office, and are also available here. More information is available here.
Natalja Cheifec’s Discussion Club on Jewish Tradition
Natalja CHeifec’s #ŠALOM discussion club continues this Thursday, February 20, at 5:30 P.M. on the zoom platform. This week she’ll lead a discussion on Jewish tradition in general. To register and acquire zoom credentials, fill out the form here.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 5:24 P.M. on Friday, February 14, and concludes at 6:22 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 5:06 P.M. and completed before sunset at 5:24 P.M. Friday is also Valentine’s Day and Sunday, February 16, is Restoration of Lithuanian Statehood Day celebrated now and during the first Lithuanian republic between the two world wars.
National Library Celebrates 100 Years of YIVO
The Martynas Mažvydas Lithuanian National Library conserves a YIVO document collection of very significant volume and content. The YIVO was established exactly a century ago in Vilnius in 1925. It is the only Vilnius Jewish institution which did not stop operating during the Holocaust and which continues to operate today. After World War II YIVO made its main headquarters at its branch in New York City. This branch took over the institute’s functions as a center for the preservation of Jewish heritage and research.
Many traces of the institute’s work survived in Vilnius: fragments of its documentation, correspondence, library collection and archives, scattered among several commemorative institutions. The National Library is conducting a study of the institute’s archives which is revealing YIVO’s origins in Vilnius and its especially fruitful period of activity in Vilnius before WWII.
The 100-year anniversary of the founding of the YIVO was noted back in 2023 in a resolution by the Lithuanian parliament as being of special significance to world culture and the National Library. Lithuanian National Library director Aušrinė Žilinskienė spoke about this at the Lithuanian embassy in Washington, D.C., on December 9, 2024. That event to mark the anniversary was organized with YIVO headquarters in New York.
The National Library is holding an event in cooperation with a large number of Lithuanian and foreign partners with a spectacular program, including the publication of books on the history of the YIVO, an international academic forum and an exhibit of textual heritage.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 5:10 P.M. on Friday, February 7, and concludes at 6:08 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 4:52 P.M. and completed before sunset at 5:10 P.M.