The Lost Shtetl Museum in Šeduva, Lithuania, placed fifth in the Prix Versailles selection of the world’s most beautiful museums announced May 4 at UNESCO in Paris. Prix Versailles judges singled out the museum’s architecture designed by Finland’s Rainer Mahlamäki. The outer form of the museum is intended to replicate the silhouette of the skylines of typical Lithuanian shtetlakh.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
Panevėžys Jewish Community member, board member and historian Joana Viga Čiplyte launched her new biography of Lithuanian sculptor Kazimieras Kisielis at the Ramygala Regional History Museum this week. The book went on sale April 24. The book is a monument to the life and work of the sculptor who would’ve been 100 this year. Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman praised the book for preserving the heritage of the Panevėžys region.
Opera tenor Rafailas Karpis performed the Israeli national anthem HaTikvah, The Hope, at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius Wednesday to mark Yom haAtzmaut, Israeli independence day.
We had a tremendous response to our children’s drawing contest Passover through the Eyes of Children. Every entry demonstrated talent and attention to detail. Thank you to all participants and to their parents for fostering love of Jewish traditions in their families. Every artist will receive a box of chocolate-covered matzo. See below for a selection of works submitted.
A happy birthday to Palanga Jewish Community chairman Vilius Gutmanas.
Dear Vilius,
We are so happy with your meaningful activity preserving Jewish traditions and culture, rally young people and keeping memory alive. Your friendship is extraordinarily important to us. We wish you good health, happiness, the support of friends and family and many happy days to come. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community
The Kaunas Jewish Community gathered for their annual Passover seder. There were lots of smiles, fun conversation, intriguing music, delicious food and a Passover quiz which turned heads.
“Greetings to all still celebrating Passover and Easter. May the nice spring breeze take far awa if not all, then as many of our pressing worries as possible, so that together with nature waking up, so too would our flowers of love, fellowship and peace bloom,” Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas wished the gathering.
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.
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky greets everyone on the occasion of Passover and on this family holiday celebrating the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery wishes you much love and joy.
Gut yontev! Gut Pesach! Hag sameach!
Aušra Jonušytė was recognized for her work on the history of Kupiškis and the former Jewish community there at an awards ceremony at the Panevėžys Regional History Museum on March 30. Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman and the entire Lithuanian Jewish Community congratulate her on receiving the Tarnaukite Lietuvai [Serve Lithuania] prize along with 15 others. The prize was instituted by the Lithuanian parliament 15 years ago and the awards are bestowed annually.
Passover begins tomorrow at sundown, April 1. As our forefathers escaped slavery and freedom from their enemies in the land of Egypt, so may the spirit of liberation warm our hearts and spirits during these dark days of upheaval and uncertainty, even as we pray for the liberation of our Persian brothers and sisters under the yoke of an evil and anti-human regime, and for the Lebanese peoples oppressed by that same evil. Am Israel chai.
Seventh-graders from the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium gathered to read the Torah in public for the first time, thus becoming adults under Jewish law, as their parents, siblings, teachers and friends looked on last week.
Rabbi Natan Alfred and LJC’s own prayer leader Viljamas Žitkauskas led the ceremony and aided the young adults in their first readings.
A celebration was held afterwards.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community is pleased to invite you to come celebrate Passover together with a seder led by ba’al tfillah (prayer leader) Viljamas Žitkauskas. The public seder will retell the Passover story in music performed by Fayerlakh and prayer. Registration is required by sending an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt by noon Wednesday, April 1. The cost is 15 euros for LJC members, 45 euros for non-members and free entry for children 14 and under.
Time: April 4, Saturday
Place: Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius
Lithuania’s Day of Rescuers of Jews on Sunday was marked by the Šiauliai District Jewish Community and the Lost Shtetl Museum at an event at Righteous Gentiles Square in Šiauliai which then moved on the museum in Šeduva. Community members, members of the Lithuanian parliament and students from the Juventa school remembered the Righteous Gentiles who rescued Jews from the Holocaust. Conservative MPs Ingrida Šimonytė and Paulė Kuzmickienė provided moving speeches and Pinchas Nol spoke about how the Paluckas family rescued him. Nol spoke by video link from Israel. Juventa students provided a live musical performance.
The Sugihara Foundation awarded Holocaust and Righteous Gentile historian Danutė Selčinskaja the Person of Tolerance for the foregoing year 2025 and awarded writer Sergey Kanovich the recipient of the Leonidas Donskis prize in Kaunas Sunday.
Dear Community members,
A happy and colorful Purim!
Our ancestors taught us a very important thing: to make use of every opportunity to enjoy life. Even as history has been full of challenges, we chose light, unity and joy. Therefore laughter, music and song ring out in our homes and community today.
May your tables be laden with fruit, your friendships be sincere and your hearts open. May there be no lack of homentashn, symbolizing the ear of the vizier Haman who sought to harm the Jews as a reminder to us that evil and falseness never win, but courage, hope and unity do.
I hope the joy of Purim inspires in us strength, a sense of belonging and togetherness and faith in the future.
Hag Purim sameakh!
Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community
A very happy birthday to Dalia Grybauskaitė, former Lithuanian president. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
Photo: Lietuvos rytas/Vygintas Skaraitis
We wish you a peaceful and happy New Year filled with light, concord and understanding.
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Dear friends,
We live in unusual times. We are surriunded by the danger of war. In our historical homeland Israel the war has not ended, people are still fighting and dying. In Ukraine people are suffering because of the actions of the aggressor.
I never thought I would live under conditions of war. I thought this generation, of ou children and grandchildren, would grow up without war. But this is what has happened, without regard to what we wanted.
Despite all these tragic circumstances, the holidays still go on, bringing light, jope and joy. Each day we light a candle to remind ourselves the world is entirely dark. There are also good developments in life, there is hope all the wats will end, we will be safe and our children and grandchildren will be sage, healthy and happy and won’t have to face these dangers in the future.
Hanukkah, the festival of lights, jas been celebrated xince ancient times. Ot gives us hope that in the country where we live anti-Semitism will disappear and demonstrations against Israel will fade away. Instead of crying, we will fight anti-Semitism.
I wish you all the best. Most importantly, I wish you health, happiness, hope and a happy Hanukkah.
Hag urim sameakh,
Faina Kuklianksy, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community