Happy Easter greetings. We wish you a warm, joyful and happy holiday of renewal!
Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community
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Lithuanian PM Sends Passover Greetings
Lithuanian prime minister Ingrida Šimonytė has issued greetings on the Jewish holiday of Passover:
“The Passover holiday has been associated with essential values for millennia and testifies to the spiritual rebirth and aspiration to freedom of the Jewish people. This is an important reminder especially today to all of us that only free people are capable of overcoming the most horrific losses, only they can be happy and only they are able to create a life for themselves and the state courageously. The special spirit of this holiday teaches us that, led by faith, we can cross the driest dessert, cross the most powerful seas, and reach the Promised Land. I sincerely greet the Jews of Lithuania and the world on the occasion of Passover and wish the joy of sharing accompanies your seder, and that faith, love and hope never abandon your heart nor your home. Hag Pesakh sameakh!”
Passover Greetings from Lithuanian Jewish Community Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky
Dear readers,
I greet you all with our very important holiday Passover. This holy day celebrates the liberation of the Hebrews from the yoke of the Egyptian pharaoh. Let’s always remain free and happy.
I wish you a wonderful holiday. Hag Sameakh!
Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community
Happy Birthday to Naum Gleizer
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky in the name of the entire Community wishes Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community chairman Naum Gleizer a very happy birthday.
We wish you good health, a great mood and many fruitful years to come. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
Happy Birthday to Aleksandra Narsevič
The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Panevėžys Jewish Community wish a very happy birthday to Aleksandra Narsevič. We wish you many bright days, unforgettable moments and eternal friendships.
Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman:
The year has passed like fog in a ravine,
Like a song at twilight.
It has flown like the fluff of a dandelion,
Scattering in our hair
Like white blossoms.
It was meaningful, and happy.
The year was hard like stones.
So today from our heart we wish you
A happy year and many more to come.
Mazl tov. Bis 120!
Panevėžys, Lithuania
March 28, 2023
Happy Birthday to Josif Burštein
A very happy birthday from the entire Lithuanian Jewish Community and chairwoman Faina Kukliansky to Josif Burštein, who has been an active member of the Šiauliai Jewish Community since its inception in 1988 and served as chairman and executive board member there, as well as serving on the executive board of the Lithuanian Jewish Community. We wish you continuing good health, energy, happiness and the fulfillment of your dreams. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
First Day of Rescuers Celebrated at Lithuanian Jewish Community
In 2022 the Day of Rescuers of Lithuanian Jews was added to the list of official commemorative dates in Lithuania. The date March 15 was chosen as the day in 1966 when the Yad Vashem Holocaust authority in Israel first recognized a Lithuanian as a Righteous Gentile. As a new commemorative date, there is no set tradition on how to celebrate the holiday. The Lithuanian Government urged public commemoration of March 15 and included two events as possible venues: the opening of an exhibit about Righteous Gentiles at a museum in Vilnius, and a reading of the names of rescuers at Vilnius University, a tradition associated with the many victims of the Holocaust, many of whom remain unknown except for their names, rather that with the heroes of the Holocaust, most of whose biographies at least in Lithuania have been fully explored and documented.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community celebrated the first instance of Rescuers Day by recalling how the Jews of Lithuania actually live. As LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky has said repeatedly, if not for the Righteous Gentiles in Lithuania, no Litvaks would have survived in Lithuania.
Purim in Panevėžys
This year the Panevėžys Jewish Community held a joint celebration of Purim and International Women’s Day. Community chairman Gennady Kofman kicked off the party with a reading from the Book of Esther, passed out small gifts to the children and conveyed Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky’s holiday greetings. At the holiday table the men greeted the ladies present on International Women’s Day, proposed toasts, gave flowers and sang songs in their honor.
March 15 Is Day of Rescuers of Lithuanian Jews
This year Lithuania marks March 15 as the day of rescuers of Lithuanian Jews for the very first time. To celebrate this important date, the Lithuanian Jewish Community presents a special plaque to commemorate the rescuers. The plaque, with multiple layers of symbolism and meaning, will be placed on residences where the rescuers lived and hid Lithuanian Jews from the Nazis.
“This is our thanks to the brave people who didn’t falter in the face of danger and who were not just the rescuers of Jews, but, as Icchokas Meras wrote, were also the blossom of goodness of their nation and heroes of the spirit who resisted the murderers,” LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky commented. Her family was also saved from the Holocaust by brave Lithuanians with big hearts, rescuers who number among the 900 Yad Vashem recognizes as Righteous Gentiles in Lithuania.
Plaque designed by the JUDVI & AŠ creative group.
Project author: International Commission for Assessing the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania.
Ilja Bereznickas Wins National Culture and Art Prize
ongratulations to Lithuania’s most talented animator, not just in drawing but as a master of the spoken word as well, Ilja Bereznickas, who was just awarded the Lithuanian Government’s Culture and Art Prize. May your success continue!
March 11, Restoration of Lithuanian Independence Day
Dear readers,
March 11, 1990, meant rebirth for the Jews of Lithuania. When the country regained independence, the surviving Jewish community began to unite. This was the beginning of restoring our ethnic identity, of active ethnocultural life, and finally we all began to talk openly about the Holocaust and the role played by ethnic Lithuanians.
We have rights and freedoms in independent Lithuania. We speak courageously about what isn’t right, and we initiate change. We host guests and we travel. Our children and grandchildren live here and the whole world is now open to them. Our home is here and we are an integral part of Lithuania.
So congratulations and greetings on this holiday which belongs to all of us, March 11.
Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community
Purim for Seniors at the Community
One of the distinguishing features of the Lithuanian Jewish Community is how we care about our oldest and wisest members, both in daily life and during the holidays. So we celebrated Purim together with our venerable senior citizens in the Jascha Heifetz Hall at the Community building in Vilnius, decorated for the occasion. A pleasant evening was had by all with dinner and a concert performance by members of the Fayerlakh Jewish song and dance ensemble, now celebrating their 50th birthday.
LJC Chairwoman Delivers Purim Treats to Ukrainian Child Refugees
For the second year now the Lithuanian Jewish Community has reached out to child war refugees from the Ukraine on Purim, in additional to aiding Jewish families who have fled the war zone there. This year LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky visited a Ukrainian school in Vilnius with several trays of hamentashen pastry. The school has about 800 students currently. Kukliansky shared the story of Purim with children and young people there, spoke about the traditions associated with Purim and spent time with the unusually welcoming staff who transformed a ruined building into an educational institution by hand over the course of a few months.
“We understand well that material aid is needed during time of war… Even so, we can’t just cry about everything, so we are trying to spread some joy as well. Purim is, after all, the happiest Jewish holiday of the year. I am glad we have shared at least a little bit of that with the children from the Ukraine,” Kukliansky said.
Hag Purim Sameach!
Dear readers,
I would like to greet you in the name of the entire Lithuanian Jewish Community on the occasion of the happy holiday of Purim.
May this Purim be filled with happiness, fun, good moods and the warmth of family and friends.
Hag Purim sameach!
Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community
Purim Wouldn’t Be the Same without Hamentashen
Purim starts tonight at sundown when the 14th day of the month of Adar begins on the Jewish calendar. One of the constituent features of Purim is the traditional pastry known as hamentashen. Although everyone has their own special recipe, Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky makes her family’s version with poppy-seed filling, the traditional Litvak treat. The recipe dates beck to the period between the two world wars.
“This recipe was probably used earlier and recalls the time when the aroma of the pastry filled the Vilnius Old Town and many other cities and towns where Jews lived in Lithuania. Although you can purchase this version now, it’s always more fun to make it yourself,” she commented.
Happy Purim! Hag Purim sameakh!
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Faina Kukliansky’s hamantashen recipe:
Happy Birthday to Dmitrijus Zaičikas
A very happy birthday to Dmitrijus Zaičikas. We wish you happiness, health and continued longevity. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
Happy February 16
The Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes you a very happy February 16, the traditional Lithuanian day of independence celebrated by citizens of all ethnic backgrounds in the period between the two world wars.