Happy birthday and mazl tov to all members born in September!
Vilnius Jewish Community and Social Programs Department members:
Sofija Ivšina (September 10)
Jefim Levin (September 16)
Mark Burbaickij (September 22)
Ala Tiktina (September 26)
Borechas Judelis Kacas (September 26)
Sonia Aron (September 26)
Klaipėda Jewish Community:
Meri Sluckaja (September 25)
Kaunas Jewish Community:
Inda Feldman (September 28)
Judita Mackevičienė (September 13)
Happy birthday, Jeni Vilen!
We all wish you endless health, a playful spirit and smiles from all your friends and family on the happy occasion of your birthday!
Mazl tov! May you live to 120!
The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Rositsan and Maccabi Elite Chess and Checkers Club invite you to a chess tournament to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the club at 11:00 A.M. on September 18, 2016 at the Lithuanian Jewish Community, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius.
Tournament director: FIDE master Boris Rositsan
For further information and to register, please contact:
email: info@metbor.lt
telephone: +3706 5543556
Lieutenant Artūras Jasinskas, commander of the Lithuanian military’s volunteer defense forces, awarded Nicholas Benjamin Israel, head of Baltic regional military information operations support team of US special operations in Europe, for his exceptional personal contribution to expanding and strengthening cooperation between the US military and Lithuania’s volunteer defense forces Friday, September 9.
The name of the Lithuanian military medal is “For Distinguished Service.”
Israel’s cousin, Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, attended the ceremony.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes member Dr. Eva Ščupak a happy 75th birthday! Eva is a neuropathologist who has devoted so much of her time to doing volunteer work at the Community. We wish you great health and long and peaceful life! Joy and success to you, your children and your grandchildren! Mazl tov! May you live to 120!
The first day of school, September 1, is a real holiday event for children, their parents and their teachers at the Sholem Aleichem school in Vilnius. This is the school’s second year in new premises renovated and built to the latest construction standards, located in the Žvėrynas neighborhood of Vilnius. This year there are 390 students. Principal Miša Jakobas says the large student body shows the school is an attractive one for city residents, and that people are talking about the school.
“In ratings of Lithuanian gymnasia, we take 17th place, and 5th in Vilnius. That’s a good indicator. We will work and strive, and competition is growing. The last school year was successful. Our graduates entered higher education and chose different subjects, including microbiology, chemistry, philology, engineering and technological fields,” he said.
A classroom at Sholem Aleichem Gymnasium
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky sends greetings to all the children of our members in school, from first grade to university students, and to all their parents on September 1, the official start of the school year throughout Lithuania. Whatever your age, we all get nervous on this day, we remember our childhoods, we smile and we grimace and we wish one another success in our studies.
I especially congratulate all the students of the Vilnius Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium and their parents, because you have selected to study at one of the best schools in Vilnius, the Jewish gymnasium run by principal Miša Jakobas, who has brought most highly-qualified teachers who love their profession and children together to staff the school. The school is doing well in its new building with modern classrooms and an atmosphere conducive to learning.
Another piece of good news for the school is that negotiations are under way with the Vilnius municipality for improvements there. Mayor Remigijus Šimašius responded quickly to a request by the school principal and me to improve athletics for students by covering the square used for sports there, since the school doesn’t have an indoors gym.
Today I am also happy about a new law which allows students to get credit for public service. High school students will receive extra points for volunteer activity on their university entrance exams. I am hoping this will encourage you, dear students, to do volunteer work at the Lithuanian Jewish Community. Those entering institutions of higher education in 2018 will receive additional credit for graduation work and volunteering.
I wish all of you to experience the joy of learning which imparts an appetite for knowledge, and not to be discouraged by failures along the way.
I wish you an interesting school year!
The Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes Chasia Španerflig a happy 95th birthday. Chasia was a ghetto prisoner and partisan fighter in World War II. Currently she is ill, so we wish her a full recovery and a very happy birthday!
We sincerely congratulate long-standing and very active Vilnius Jewish Community member Michlia Lorman on her 70th birthday.
We wish you eternal beauty and happiness, health and continued energy! And may all your birthday wishes come true.
Mazl tov!
On August 3, 2016, Liusia Šperling, the volunteer Community doctor of many years, turns 80!
For 15 years Dr. Šperling has volunteered in the Community’s Social Center.
We all wish her and her family perfect health!
<img width=”670″ height=”300″ src=”http://www.lzb.lt/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/rozes-raudonos-670×300.jpg” class=”attachment-featured size-featured wp-post-image” alt=”Sveikiname su 90-uoju jubiliejumi!” title=”Sveikiname su 90-uoju jubiliejumi!” />
The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Social Center congratulate Feiga Koganskienė, a Holocaust survivor and active member of the Kaunas Jewish Community, on the occasion of her 90th birthday.
We all wish her perfect health. Mazl tov!
Dr. Yusuf Hamied was awarded the first ever Department of Chemistry alumni medal in a ceremony on March 17, 2016. The vice-chancellor of the University of Cambdridge, professor Leszek Borysiewiecz, presented the medal “for services to the community that have brought honour to the Department of Chemistry.”
May he live in health to 120!
Levas Jagniatinskis and his family were active participants in the reestablishment of the Lithuanian and Vilnius Jewish Communities around the time of Lithuanian independence from the Soviet Union. In 1992 he was elected to the Community’s Council of World War II Veterans and worked with recompense, putting finances in order and organizing events with the veteran’s council and the executive board of the Lithuanian Jewish Community. Those first years were financially hard for the Community, and so he donated his car three times per week winter and summer, parking it in the courtyard of the LJC for use by the Community. He was very active in preparing documents for the Claims Conference and tried to find greater funding for the Community. His son was one of the organizers of the Community’s union of scholars, Vilnor, and later became its director. When he left, the union stopped operating. The family’s third generation, his granddaughters, began attending children’s events put on by the Community, and now, in adulthood, continue their activities, trying to mitigate the losses from the Holocaust.
Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Amir Maimon delivered a birthday greeting to Holocaust survivor, Vilnius ghetto prisoner and Jewish partisan Fania Brancovskaja at a small ceremony Friday, May 23, calling her an enduring miracle of hope and passion for everyone. He said her life was spoken of proudly and she serves as an inspiration and reminder to the younger generation.
The Makabi Lithuanian Athletics Club held a tennis tournament at the SEB Arena in Vilnius May 21 with seven contestants, 5 male and 2 female. All contestants received a participation medal and the women also received flowers.
A dinner party for the contestants followed. Young professional tennis player Alisa Gavronskytė took first place and Grigorij Khiterer and Kęstas Faktorovičius took second and third.
Results here.
Photo gallery here.
The ORT Vilnius Sholem Aleichem Gymnasium held a Jewish rite of passage Monday as a small group of Jewish boys and girls were ushered into adulthood at a public Bar and Bat Mitzvah on the third floor of the Lithuanian Jewish Community.
School principal Miša Jakobas greeted an overflow audience of parents, pupils, friends and Community members, and singled out the children undergoing the ritual, saying if he could wish them one thing, it would be patience.
Lithuanian Jewish Community deputy chairwoman Maša Grodnikienė congratulated the youngsters and spoke with evident joy about a new generation of Lithuanian Jews reaching maturity. She noted it was the 100th anniversary of the birth of the famous Yiddish writer Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich whose pseudonym was Sholem Aleichem, and wished everyone peace and health.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community celebrated Israeli Independence Day Monday. Happy 68th birthday, Israel! In 1948 David Ben-Gurion declared the independence of Israel from the British Mandated Palestine and became the country’s first prime minister. On November 29, 1947, the United Nations partitioned Mandate Palestine between its Arab and Jewish inhabitants with heavy lobbying in favor of the move from the United States. Fighting ensued in Palestine. The British were resolved to pull out by May 15, 1948, the day their League of Nations mandate ended, no matter what happened, and most diplomats though a direct UN trusteeship was the only solution. At 4:00 P.M. on the afternoon of Friday, May 14, Ben-Gurion as leader of the Jewish Agency proclaimed Israeli independence at the Tel Aviv Museum and the event was broadcast live on Kol Yisrael radio. Those present broke into singing Hatikvah, which was to become the national anthem. President Harry S. Truman in Washington, D. C., recognized the state of Israel at 6:11 P.M., just after midnight in Israel.
Israelis often spend the holiday with family outdoors at scenic locations around the country.
Our celebration featured holiday greetings from Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Amir Maimon and Lithuanian Jewish Community deputy chairwoman Maša Grodnikienė, and a concert by the Rakija Klezmer Orkestar. Guests also got to sample traditional Israeli treats and snacks. A big thank you goes to Žana Skudovičienė who not only organized the entire event, but also served as MC.
The Lithuanian Jewish Student Union congratulate Karina Segal and Aleksandr Segal on tying the knot after a long and beautiful friendship! May you spend many happy years together, may you be an example for others to follow, and may you keep Jewish traditions! Mazl tov! Hurrah!
Vilnius (May 11, 2016)–On the 68th anniversary of the Independence of the State of Israel (this year it is on May 12) the Embassy of Israel in Lithuania will mark the day in a different way: together with Save the Children day centers in a number of towns of Lithuania. The funds assigned for the traditional National Day reception will be used to present the children and the centers with a variety of equipment, furniture, games and other supplies that are required for the daily operations of these centers.
“We are honored to join forces with Save the Children organization and to contribute our modest support to improve the children’s surroundings and environment, which we hope they will successfully use not only for doing their homework, but also for having more fun together, which is no less important” Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon said.
On May 12 and 13 Embassy of Israel teams will visit Save the Children day centers in Alytus and the Alytus district and in the Utena, Pasvalis, Druskininkai, Širvintos and Kaišiadorys municipalities, to meet altogether about 300 children. The wish list is quite varied and includes furniture, computers, kitchenware and cutlery, home appliances, stationary supplies, art supplies, television sets and many more. In addition, every child will be presented with a blue and white schoolbag with a light reflector.
The Panevėžys Jewish Community marked Victory Day on May 8 and 9. On May 8 members laid wreaths at a monument to Jews murdered in the Holocaust. Candles were lit and honor was paid to the dead, both in the city and in Europe at large, to those who were murdered during World War II at mass murder sites in Panevėžys and more than 200 other mass murder sites around Lithuania. Almost no Jewish eyewitnesses survived in Panevėžys.