Grateful

From Sukkot to Artificial Intelligence: A Meeting with Students

From Sukkot to Artificial Intelligence: A Meeting with Students

Last week Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky visited the Martynas Mažvydas Pre-Gymnasium in Vilnius and held an open-format discussion with students there in a tent erected outside the school. The students and the chairwoman spent several hours in the sukka discussing Jewish life after the Holocaust and today, the importance Judaism places on learning, artificial intelligence and its influence on our opportunities, as well as a number of other topics.

We’d like to thank sincerely the teachers for their invitation to come and speak and for their attention to Jewish history and identity. Likewise we are grateful to the wonderful students for their interest, keen questions and the delicious latkes they served. True friendship begins when we have the courage to question, listen to and recognize one another.

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Sukkot Celebration in the Courtyard

Sukkot Celebration in the Courtyard

The Lithuanian Jewish Community celebrated Sukkot Thursday in the courtyard shared with the Litvak Identity Museum of the Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum in Vilnius. Cantor Shmuel Yaatom from the Choral Synagogue performed the prayers. A great big thank-you to all who came and made the event a success.

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Sukkot Celebration in Šiauliai

Sukkot Celebration in Šiauliai

The Šiauliai Jewish Community gathered Monday to celebrate Sukkot. The event was attended by a special guest: Rabbi Shalom Kaplan, the rabbi at both the Beit Izrael synagogue in Jurnala, Latvia, and the Birkat Baruch synagogue in Jerusalem. The rabbi gave a presentation on the history, traditions and meaning of the holiday of Sukkot, and shared his knowledge of and insights into the special significance Sukkot holds. The entire Community was grateful for the opportunity to learn more together and grow stronger as a community.

Hag Sukkot sameach!

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Kaunas Jewish Community Thanks Righteous Gentiles

Kaunas Jewish Community Thanks Righteous Gentiles

For more than 30 years now the Kaunas Jewish Community has thanked rescuers of Jews every spring with a special ceremonial dinner, expressing deep gratitude and appreciation for the bravery and humanity they demonstrated. This the ceremony was held last week.

“Discussing Lithuanian and other European Jewish communities after World War II is impossible without the stories of the rescuers of Jews. If not for them, who are mainly humble and quiet about it, not boasting of their heroism, many of us would not be here in this land, and the dark time of the Holocaust would be even darker,” Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas told the audience this year.

As time passes there are fewer and fewer rescuers remaining, although there are examples of living rescuers such as Righteous Gentile Vladas Palkauskas who is now 93 and still going strong.

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Holocaust Exhibit at Ninth Fort in Kaunas

Holocaust Exhibit at Ninth Fort in Kaunas

The Ninth Fort Museum in Kaunas has opened a new exhibition called “Raised from the Ashes, Kaunas,” a series of drawings by Mindaugas Lukošaitis.

Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas expressed his own enchantment, respect and gratitude for the exhibit, as all as that of the Kaunas Jewish Community, and thanked the Ninth Museum, the organizers of the exhibit, the performer at the opening and the artist.

The exhibit will run till October 4.

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Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday

The Lithuanian Jewish Community is pleased to wish Shmuel (Simas) Levinas a very happy birthday. He was the first principal of the Sholem Aleichem School in Vilnius (post Holocaust), actively contributed to the founding of the LJC Social Center and served as its first director, was the first chairman of the Goodwill Foundation and served as the chairman of the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community as well as the Lithuanian Jewish Religious Community.

Dear Simas,

The Lithuanian Jewish Community with great honor and warm gratitude congratulates you today on your birthday. You are a person without whom the history of the rebirth of the Lithuanian Jewish Community would have been written much differently.

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Day of Rescuers of Jews in Kaunas

Day of Rescuers of Jews in Kaunas

The Ninth Fort in Kaunas opened an exhibit called Rescuers on March 15. The opening coincided with Lithuania’s Day of Rescuers of Jews. The museum invited members of the Kaunas Jewish Community, families of rescuers of Jews and Righteous Gentiles and others.

Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas, Palanga Jewish Community chairman Vilius Gutmanas, daughter and granddaughter of Righteous Gentiles Iga Makutėnienė, speaker of Lithuanian parliament Juozas Olekas and Darius Jakavičius, chairman of the Commission on Battles for Freedom and Historical Memory, participated, along with other family members of Righteous Gentiles.

A moment of silence was followed by a reading of the names of rescuers of Jews in the city and district of Kaunas. Students from the Naujalis music gymnasium performed. the Ninth Museum’s Vytautas Petrikėnas and Vytautas Švėgžda, the director of Multimediamark who organized the exhibit, presented it in more detail to the audience.

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Remembering Righteous Gentiles in Panevėžys

Remembering Righteous Gentiles in Panevėžys

The Panevėžys Regional History Museum hosted an event to mark Lithuania’s Day of Rescuers of Jews Sunday. Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman, son of Righteous Gentiles Vidmantas Markevičius and museum director Donatas Juzėnas spoke at the event.

The official Lithuanian commemorative day was first marked on March 15 in 2023. March 15 is the date Yad Vashem recognized Lithuanian librarian Ona Šimaitė for her work rescuing Jews from the Holocaust. Vidmantas Markevičius’s family rescued nine Jews in the Kupiškis region.

Viltis school students read the names of Jews rescued and their rescuers in the Panevėžys district.

The event featured a screening of the documentary film “Irena” about the late Irena Veisaitė. Veisaitė as a girl was rescued from the Holocaust by Stefanija Ladigienė.

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Małgorzata Quinkenstein Presents Book “Stronger than Fear”

Małgorzata Quinkenstein Presents Book “Stronger than Fear”

Author Małgorzata Quinkenstein will speak at a presentation of her book “Stronger than Fear” at the Lithuanian Jewish Community. The book features 36 portraits of Righteous Gentiles from France, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and other countries and testimonies from rescued Jews. The interview with Quinkenstein is to take place in Polish with simultaneous translation to Lithuanian. Registration is required, click here.

Time: 1:00 P.M., Friday, March 6
Place: Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius

Courage and Hope: Remembering the Rescuers

Courage and Hope: Remembering the Rescuers

The Palanga Jewish Community and the Jonas Šliūpas Museum in Palanga are holding an event to remember the courage displayed by the Righteous Gentiles, those who rescued Jews from the Holocaust. MEP professor Liudas Mažylis will share his insights and Palanga Jewish Community chairman Vilius Gutmanas will talk about his family’s experience. The Mažylis family rescued Jews and were recognized posthumously as Righteous Gentiles by Yad Vashem in 2006. The presentation and discussion will be in Lithuanian. The event is free and open to the public.

Time: 5:00 P.M., December 11
Place: Jonas Šliūpas Museum, Vytauto street no. 23A, Palanga

Happy Birthday, Liuba

Happy Birthday, Liuba

Everyone’s favorite Community staff member Liuba Šerienė is xelebrating a milestone birthday this week.

Dear Liuba,

Your dedicated work over many years at the Lithuanian Jewish Community is deeply appreciated by all who know you. Your unfailing respect and cheerfulness strengthen and unite the entire Community. We are all very grateful to you.

May this year bring even more joy, peace and precious moments. We wish you health, a great homelife, love and that your seemingly endless source of inspiration never fail.

Mazl tov. Bis 120!

Child’s Bracelet Marks Site of Righteous Gentiles’ Maternity Clinic

Child’s Bracelet Marks Site of Righteous Gentiles’ Maternity Clinic

by Skirmantė Javaitytė

On Friday the Kaunas Jewish Community and Liudas Mažylis unveiled a plaque commemorating the site of the birthing clinic formerly run by the Righteous Gentiles Pranas Mažylis, Liudas’s grandfather, Pranas’s wife Antanina and their daughter Liūda.

The plaque features a child’s bracelet inlaid with the inscription: “In Pranas Mažylis’s ,maternity clinic in this building from 1936 to 2025 thousands of babies entered the world. During World War II the Pranas and Antanina Mažylis family saved Jews here.” The family rescued a number of Jews.

Grandson Liudas Mažylis said at the ceremony he hadn’t been a part of it because he was born in 1954. He said his grandparents saved Liliana Levintoff, Isaac Yudelavitch, Grigory Teper and Bela Gurvitch.

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Righteous Gentiles Mažylis Family Remembered in Kaunas

Righteous Gentiles Mažylis Family Remembered in Kaunas

Liudas Mažylis and the Kaunas Jewish Community will unveil a plaque commemorating Righteous Gentiles Antanina and Pranas Mažylis on the façade of the Pranas Mažylis Birth Center in Kaunas next week. The couple hid Jews during the Holocaust at the birth center including Lilijana Levintoffskytė, Isakas Judelevičius, Grigorijus Teperis and Bela Gurvičiūtė.

“Back then in our family even thought about whether to hekp these poor people. WE just had to, that’s all,” the couple’s daughter Liūda Mažylytė-Rasteikienė recalled later.

Time: 2:00 P.M., Friday, October 24
Place: Putvinskio street no. 3, Kaunas

Memorial to Righteous Gentiles Unveiled in Kaunas

Memorial to Righteous Gentiles Unveiled in Kaunas

A plaque commemorating Righteous Gentiles Sofija Kymantaitė-Čiurlionienė, her daughter Danutė Čiurlionytė-Zubovienė and her daughter’s husband Vladimir Zubov was unveiled at Žemaičių street no. 10 in Kaunas last month. The Lithuanian state radio and television Jewish affairs program Menora documented the event.

Television program in Lithuanian here.

Condolences

Aldona Raf has died. She was born in 1936. She was a member of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and a client of the Saul Kagan Welfare Center. Oir deepest condolences to her friends and family.

Birthday Greetings from Šiauliau Regional Jewish Community

Birthday Greetings from Šiauliau Regional Jewish Community

The Šiauliau Regional Jewish Community warmly congratulates Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky on her birthday. May every day be filled with meaning, may every person you meet bring a smile, and every experience become one more step towards true happiness. On your birthday we wish you inner peace, self-confidence and endless courage o forge your own path. Take joy in each day of life and don’t be afraid to dream, because only those who believe in their dreams are able to make them come true.

Birthday Greetings from the Ukmergė Jewish Community

Birthday Greetings from the Ukmergė Jewish Community

Dear Faina,

We sincerely congratulate you on the ocassion of your birthday!

Your endless energy, focused work and the responsibility you take upon yourself for the entire Community are an inspirational example for all of us. Even those daily taks you do behind the scenes result in tangible changes which touch many.

In the name of the Ukmergė Jewish Community I wish you strong health, inner tranquility, meaningful ideas and a loyal team bsside you. May each day bring not merely new ideas, but also joyful moments among friends, family and the like-minded.

With grea respect and the warmest wishes,

Ukmergė Jewish Community

Happy Birthday to Faina Kukliansky

Happy Birthday to Faina Kukliansky

Dearest chairwoman,

We sincerely congratulate you on your birthday! May this special day be filled with the warmth of those around you and the love of family and friends. We wish you good health, happiness and success in all your endeavors. Mazl tov. Bis 120!

The Lithuanian Jewish Community

Farewell Concert at LJC

Farewell Concert at LJC

A concert to mark the end of Algirdas Malcas’s five-year tenure as chairman of the Vilnius Jerusalem of the North Jewish Community was held at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius last week. The concert featured works by Čiurlionis, Šenderovas amd Gorbulsky with performances by violinist Dalia Dėdinskaitė, tenor Rafailas Karpis, cellist Glebas Pyšniakas amd pianist Darius Mažintas.The concert was followed by a laudatory word from Lithuanian Jewish Community executive director Michail Segal thanking Malcas for his dedication and achievements as chairman.

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