Greetings – Page 2 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Congratulations to Rafael Gimelštein

Photo: Rafael Gimelštein, right

Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club member Rafael Gimelštein and his Kilvatai team from Vilnius have won in the second league of the Lithuanian table tennis championship, beating Vilnius Tech, Tamsta from Vilnius and Kaunas’s Red and Black teams.

The final match against a team from Šiauliai will determine the distribution of medals. If Klivatai loses that match, they take 5th place, and if they win, 1st. \\

Rafael Gimelštein coaches the after-school tennis club for young people at the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium in Vilnius.

Congratulations, Rafael!

2025-05-05

Passover in Kaunas

The Kaunas Jewish Community always celebrate the holidays in an exceptional manner, the members are the dictionary definition of holiday spirit and there is never a lack of music and a avariety of delicious foods to sample, for many years now made by the wonderful Višta Puode or Chicken in the Pot restaurant in Kaunas.

This year was not the exception which proves the rule. In high spirits and with the warmest of wishes, the Kaunas Jewish Community celebrated Passover in the manner to which they are accustomed. Some snapshots, pale reflections of course of the real celebration, follow below.

2025-04-22

Seniors Club Passover

Taking care of our elderly is a Jewish tradition. Our Seniors Club which operates throughout the year with concerts, lectures and lots of fun, attended a special Passover celebration and seder at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius last week.

LJC programs coordinator Žana Skudovičienė came up with a special program for our seniors this year with music and prayer by cantor Shmuel Yaatom and a speaking event by Natalja Cheifec on Jewish history.

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky was on hand to deliver holiday greetings from the entire Community.

Reportedly every member of the Seniors Club attended.

2025-04-222025-04-22

Passover in Ponevezh

Passover is one of the most important holy days. The name of the holiday in Hebrew means “to pass over.” This refers to an event recorded in the Torah when the final curse of ten was visited upon the Land of Egypt. When the pharaoh refused to release the Jewish people from slavery, Egypt was visited by ten plagues. In the last plague, the Angel of Death passed over the homes of Jews but took the firstborn of the families of the Egyptians. That’s where the name of the holiday comes from.

On the first night of Passover in 2025 the members of the Panevėžys (Ponevezh) Jewish Community and friends gathered at the holiday table to celebrate together with the traditional seder, the ceremonial holiday meal. The ceremony began with the traditional Hebrew prayer Kadesh intoned by Community board member Katerina Krasnočiarova. There were readings from the Haggadah, the story of the Jewish exodus from Egyptian slavery.

Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman greeted the assembly with the start of the holiday. The traditional four cups of wine were consumed, four being the number of promises God has given to the Jewish nation. The fifth cup remained untouched, intended for the prophet Elijah. Candles were also lit and prayers uttered and sung, the holiday spirit complemented with song and dance.

2025-04-222025-04-22

Seder with Israeli Embassy at LJC

For the third year now the Lithuanian Jewish Community has hosted a small seder at the Community building in Vilnius with friends from the Israeli embassy in Vilnius and Sholem Aleichem Gymnasium.

Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein, chargé d’affaires Erez Golan, Israeli consul in Vilnius Vladas Bumelis and staff and students from the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium made this seder special and Sholem students provided a highly entertaining musical performance.

Some snapshots follow..

2025-04-222025-04-22

Easter Greetings

The Lithuanian Jewish Community greets all our friends who are Catholic and Orthodox with the holiday of Easter. Not only do all the Christian churches agree on the date today, but it also coincides with the last day of Passover this year.

A happy and blessed Easter.

2025-04-212025-04-22

Happy Passover

Dear Community members, friends, supporters and dear reader,

Greetings to all Jews on the great holiday Passover. This holiday crows the liberation of the Jews from the oppression of the Egyptian pharaoh and our becoming one people and a free people.

Passover isn’t a time of noisy gatherings. It is a traditional family holiday when the home is cleansed of leavening agents, children seek out the hidden pieces of matzo, when the whole family sits down at the seder table and reads the Haggadah.

We are so very happy that this year the majority of Litvak families are celebrating Passover in line with all traditions and rules, celebrating at home with their families. Our staff and homecare workers are also visiting our members who live alone that they might also feel cared for and share in the holiday spirit of warmth and joy.

I wish everyone a happy family Passover. Let’s always remain free and let’s always be happy.

Happy Passover! Hag Pesach sameach!

Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community

2025-04-15

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday to Palanga Jewish Community chairman Vilnius Gutmanas. The entire Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes you good health, happiness and success in all your efforts. May the coming year bring new opportunities and many moments of happiness.

Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community

2025-04-112025-04-11

Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium Holds 7th Bar/Bat Mitzvah at LJC

For the seventh year now the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium in Vilnius has held a bar and bat mitzvah ceremony for young Jews coming of age.

Sholem has held the ceremony at both the Choral Synagogue and the Lithuanian Jewish Community in past years, and the LJC was proud to host it yet again last Thursday.

We are grateful to Viljamas Žitkauskas and the Bnei Maskilim association he directs for their sincere and moving concern and care, and for the help they provided the young people, and to Rabbi Nathan Alfred who came from Israel for the fourth year now to guide our young people in their extremely important journey moving into adulthood.

A big thank-you as well goes to our special guests including LJC friend, cantor of the Pestalozzistraße Synagogue and director of the Geiger Cantor Collegium in Berlin, Isidor Abramowicz, and to collegium student and rebbetzin Alla Mitelman.

May all our new adults experience the fullness of life. Mazl tov!

2025-03-31

Happy Birthday to Moshe Shapiro

Dear Moshe,

We wish you a very happy 75th.

Your dedication and many years of work conserving and celebrating the culture and history of the Švenčionys Jewish Community is a priceless contribution to our shared heritage, and your work bringing people together and spreading mutual understanding inspires us to take on new challenges.

We wish you good health, endless energy and everyday joy. May respect, human warmth and beautiful life moments always follow you.

Mazl tov. Bis 120!

Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community

2025-03-202025-03-20

Kaunas Jewish Community Marks Righteous Gentile Day

Conservative member of parliament Paulė Kuzmickienė initiated legislation back in 2022 to make Righteous Gentile Day an official Lithuanian holiday. This year the Kaunas Jewish Community marked Righteous Gentile Day for the third time with a group of Community members, interested citizens and Kaunas tourist guide Mariya Onishchimk.

It’s sad to report that our Righteous Gentiles, those brave and courageous souls who rescued Litvaks from the Holocaust, Lithuania’s true heroes, remain largely unsung and are barely commemorated in Kaunas, and remain largely unknown throughout the country.

Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas commented: “There have been and are, of course, many initiatives, many things done, many researchers studying this topic, but then there is truly so much more to be done. This is our duty, not just to pay honor and respect to the rescuers of Jews, but also for the mission which can be performed though knowledge of them and their activities, even those actions which the rescuers themselves don’t consider heroic, though conserving and forming humanitarian, altruistic values, teaching empathy and reconciliation.”

2025-03-19

Purim in Panevėžys

Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman was master of ceremonies at the Panevėžys Jewish Community’s Purim celebration last week.

“The Purim holiday is filled with fun, a sense of community and faith that the Jewish people are strong and able to withstand all misfortunes,” he said.

He also delivered greetings to celebrants from Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky.

Kofman also retold the Purim story to participants at the fully-laden holiday table.

2025-03-192025-03-19

Righteous Gentiles Day at the Choral Synagogue

Last week Lithuania marked the third annual commemoration of Righteous Gentiles Day and the Lithuanian Jewish Community remembered their courage, risking their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust, at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius.

Sulamita Fromanaitė-Lev, rescued by nuns, shared her family story. Descendants of Righteous Gentiles Kazys and Sofija Binkis, Iga Mautėnienė and Romualdas Juknelevičius, talked about their family. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky spoke about the rescue of her family and Evangelical Lutheran reverend Mindaugas Sabutis and father Aligrdas Toliatas also addressed the commemoration.

Violinist Simas Tankevičius and bayan accordion player Yevgeni Musiyets provided music at the event. Students from Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium read excerpts from Yitzhak Mer’s Holocaust memoirs. Thank you to Sholem students Dina Perelman iand Markas Šulmanas, and to Sholem graduate Jokūbas Davidavičius who was master of ceremonies.

2025-03-17

Happy Purim

Dear reader,

A happy Purim holiday to everyone. Let the jokes and songs ring out, let the fun begin and the happy holiday mood reach all.

Hag Purim saameach,

Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community

2025-03-172025-03-17

March 11 Greetings

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky extends here greetings on the occasion of March 11:

Dear reader,

Thirty-five. That’s how old our restored independent country is today where we enjoy the freedom to live, speak and discuss. That many years we have been able to take pride in our ethnicity and identity openly, to share our culture, knowledge and individuality. This is the greatest gift which we hold so dear and appreciate so much.

Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community

2025-03-12

Happy March 11

On this day in 1990 the Lithuanian parliament voted to restore Lithuanian independence 50 years after the interwar republic was incorporated into the Soviet Union. To those brave deputies who signed the restoration of statehood legislation, including Emanuelis Zingeris, we say thank you, and to the people and peoples of Lithuania, we say congratulations to you, and to ourselves. Mazl tov. Bis 1,200!

2025-03-102025-03-10

Happy Birthday

A very happy birthday to Artūras Taicas, chairman of the Ukmergė Jewish Community. The Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes you strength and endless energy and enthusiasm, health and happiness and the love of friends and family. Mazl tov. Bis 120!

2025-02-242025-02-24

Happy February 16

In the name of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, chairwoman Faina Kukliansky sends greetings to everyone on the Day of the Restoration of Lithuanian Statehood. May unity and respect become our guideposts. Happy February 16!

2025-02-17

Tu b’Shvat

Today is the Jewish holiday of Tu b’Shvat, the 15th day of the month of Shvat, the New Year for trees also known as Israeli Arbor Day. It is traditional to eat of the shvat ha’minim (seven species endemic to the Land of Israel): wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates. Hag sameakh!

2025-02-132025-02-13