An English translation of the new issue of the Bagel Shop newsletter is now available.
Please click BK_16_1_ENG_A4_screen for a PDF version.
Kaunas Jewish Community Purim Celebration
The Kaunas Jewish Community sends its Purim greetings to everyone and invites you to attend their combined Purim and Sabbath celebration on Friday, March 25.
Extra Day Off
LJC staff will get an additional day off on Thursday, March 24 for the Purim holiday. The community building will remain open as usual so if you need to come in to work for organizing events or other matters, you will be able to do so. Staff are also invited to attend the Purim celebration at the synagogue beginning at 6:00 P.M. Thursday.
Stories about Rabbis: Exhibit of Pastel Work
The Jewish Culture and Information Center’s Shofar Gallery (Mėsinių street no. 3, Vilnius) presented an exhibit of pastel works by Kęstutis Milkevičius called “Stories about Rabbis” March 17.
The collection on exhibit was formed at the initiative of the leader of the Kaunas Jewish religious community, Maushe Bairak. Artist Raimundas Majauskas commented on Milkevičius’s artworks:
“The old portraits of wise Jewish rabbis are suffused with time and come down to us from a modified Rembrandtesque chromatic environment. The artist is a master of line and composition. The individualized, artistically realistic works betraying a deep aesthetic foundation are part of the cultural and communal life of Kaunas and Lithuania.”
Litvak cultural heritage scholar Asia Gutermanaitė opened the exhibit. The opening including stories and interesting tales about rabbis. The exhibit will run until April 12.
Lecture Series
The Sunday lectures continue at 12:00 noon on March 20:
Subject: Sacred Text
by Rabbi Shimshon Daniel Isaacson
Third floor, Lithuanian Jewish Community, Pylimo street no. 4
Purim Begins Evening of March 23 and Runs till March 25
Remember the Victims of the Children’s Aktion in Kaunas
A ceremony to mark the 72nd anniversary of the Children’s Aktion in the Kaunas ghetto will be held at 4:00 P.M. on March 25, 2016, at E. Ožeškienės street No. 13 in Kaunas. We will never forget the horror of that day when over 2,000 children were torn from their families and brutally murdered.
World Jewish Congress Meets in Buenos Aires March 15-17
World Jewish Congress to meet in Buenos Aires March 15-17; Argentine president Macri to address delegates
International Jewish leaders to convene in Argentina to discuss unresolved terror attacks
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky to attend plenary session
NEW YORK/BUENOS AIRES–More than 400 Jewish community leaders from around the world are expected to gather in Buenos Aires next week, as the World Jewish Congress (WJC) holds a special session of its Plenary Assembly, the organization’s highest decision-making body. Argentina’s [resident Mauricio Macri will deliver a keynote speech at the opening event of the assembly, and Paraguay’s president Horacio Cartés will be awarded the Latin American Jewish Congress’ Shalom Prize for his support for Israel.
WJC President Ronald S. Lauder said ahead of the Plenary Assembly meeting: “This will perhaps be the largest gathering of international Jewish leaders in Latin America in recent decades. We look forward to fruitful discussions and to a show of solidarity with the Jewish community of Argentina, the largest and most vibrant in Latin America.
Come Join the March 11 Holiday Procession
Lithuania is celebrating 26 years of the restoration of independence this year. We’re inviting members and friends of the Lithuanian Jewish Community to assemble at Independence Square in front of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library at 11:45 A.M. on March 11 to watch the ceremonial raising of the flags of the three Baltic states and to join the holiday procession from there to Cathedral Square. Together, let’s create a tolerant Lithuania free from stereotypes and hate!
Fayerlakh Concert
The Jewish song and dance Ensemble celebrate their 45th anniversary with a concert at the Russian Drama Theater in Vilnius. The concert is scheduled for 6:00 P.M. on March 22. Tickets cost 12 euros for the general public, 9 euros for Community members and 2 euros for students and senior citizens. To purchase tickets, see here.
Fayerlakh Concert and Bagel Shop at the Kaziukas Fair in Vilnius
The opening of Vilnius’s annual street fair will feature a concert by the Jewish song and dance ensemble Fayerlakh, at 5:00 P.M. at the Vilnius Old Town Hall square. The group is promising a whole range of music and performances, including a traditional Sabbath prayer and song.
Don’t forget, the Bagel Shop Café will also be at the fair on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. LJC staff, members and volunteers are all invited to come and help sell Jewish bagels during the fair. It should be a lot of fun and this year the annual street fair will include a Jewish shtetl section.
Taglit 2016
If you’re between 18 and 26 and always wanted to visit the Promised Land, the Taglit Program offers a wonderful opportunity to make this dream come true. For more information, contact Pavel Guliakov, telephone 8 685 42463, email p.guliakov@gmail.com
Farewell Herr Schwarz (Schnee von gestern, 2013)
You’re kindly invited to the preview of the documentary “Farewell Herr Schwarz” (2013, Germany / Israel) and the meeting with the director Yael Reuveny. The event is to be held at the Tolerance Center of the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum (Naugarduko street 10/2) at 4.00 P.M. on March 10, 2016.
The documentary is in several langaugues with English and Lithuanian subtitles. The discussion with the director is to take place in English.
Help Wanted at the Kaziukas Shtetl!
The Bagel Shop Café will participate at the annual Kaziukas Fair this year on all three days–Friday, Saturday and Sunday–at the Old Town Hall Square in Vilnius. All LJC staff, members and volunteers are invited to take part at the fair and help sell bagels. It should be a lot of fun, and don’t forget: there’s a Jewish shtetl at Kaziukas this year!
Please contact Indrė: irutkauskaite@gmail.com
International Studies Days
The exhibition International Studies Days will be held from 10:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. on March 3 in the conference center at the Radisson Blu Hotel located at Konstitucijos prospect no. 20 in Vilnius. This will be the first time the cultural center of the embassy of Israel participates. Anna Keinan, first secretary of the Israeli embassy in Vilnius, and Ray Keinan, director of the Israeli cultural center, will greet participants.
The exhibition will also be held on March 5 in Riga, Latvia, and on March 6 in Tallinn, Estonia.
For more information contact lietuva@balticcouncil.org or see www.balticcouncil.org
Jewish Mysticism
Dear friends,
We invite you to attend the lecture “Mysticism in Judaism” this Sunday, February 28, at 6:00 P.M. at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius.
Shimson D. Izakson
Rabbi of Vilnius
Documentary Film about Osip Mandelshtam
The Vilnius Jewish Public Library is to host the premiere of a film about the life of the poet Osip Mandelshtam called Sokhani Moyu Rech Navsegda [Save My Speech Forever]. The film was completed in 2015 by director Roman Liberov of Moscow. Its running time is 84 minutes. It is in Russian but the premiere will make Lithuanian subtitles available. This year is the 125th anniversary of the birth famous poet and essayist who worked in the Russian language but who is often described as a Polish Jew. In fact his father, grandfather and great-grandfather allegedly all hailed from Žagarė, Lithuania. Director Liberov is to attend the premiere to be held at the Vilnius Jewish Public Library located at Gedimino prospect no. 24 in Vilnius at 5:30 P.M. on Monday, February 29.
Rabbinate Now Working in Lithuania
Dear Community member,
A rabbinate supported by the Conference of European Rabbis has begun work in Lithuania. It will provide solutions to urgent questions and problems ranging from birth to death:
-circumcision
-weddings (with the Ministry of Justice)
-certification of Jewish origins
-training for conversion
-registration of vital statistics and civil ceremonies (with the Ministry of Justice)
-others
Appointments and consultations will be conducted either at the LJC or the Choral Synagogue at a time agreed upon with Rabbis Kalev Krelin and Shimson Izakson. Telephone numbers, contacts and additional information will be provided at a later time.
Shuel (Simas) Levin, chairman
Vilnius Jewish Religious Community
Presentation of Book about the Maccabi Sports Club
You’re invited to attend a presentation of V. Žeimantas’s new book “Lietuvos sporto klubas Makabi 1916-2016” [Lithuanian Sports Club Maccabi 1916-2016] by Maccabi Sports Club president Semionas Finkelšteinas at 5:00 P.M. on Monday, February 29, at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius.
Presentation of New Issue of Brasta, an Almanac of Jewish History and Culture
You’re invited to attend a presentation of issue number 4 of Brasta, an almanac of Jewish history and culture, at the Vilnius Jewish Library at Gedimino prospect no. 24, Vilnius, at 4:00 P.M. on Friday, February 19. This issue is in English and Lithuania and is arranged on the theme of the origins of Jewish humanitarian medicine and Vilnius doctors.
“This issue of Brasta is not just about showcasing famous or not-so-famous names from the world of medicine, but to make explicit the foundational principles of Jewish medicine and the loyalty of doctors to a centuries-old tradition. The publication attempts to bring into focus the core of Jewish medicine and its foundations enriching the practice and science of healing world-wide, to publicize the traditions Lithuania’s doctors held dear and which are still alive today,” editor-in-chief Dalia Epšteinaitė said.
Attending the event: MEP Petras Auštrevičius; chemist, biotechnologist, businessman and scholar professor Vladas A. Bumelis; historian Arūnas Bubnys; editor-in-chief, author and translator Dalia Epšteinaitė; and project director and director of the Vilnius Jewish Library Žilvinas Beliauskas.
Brasta is a publication published by the Vilnius Jewish Library’s Charity and Welfare Foundation. It describes itself as an almanac of Jewish culture and history which publishes popular, literary and theoretical pieces. The annual publication presents readers interesting positions and insights by Lithuanian and foreign authors, studies and ongoing research on Jewish cultural phenomena and insight and analysis of same.
Bernardinai.lt
