The Sabbath begins at 7:28 P.M. on Friday, September 18, and concludes at 8:19 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit and prayers recited by or before 7:10 P.M. and completed before sunset at 7:28 P.M. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, begins at sundown on Sunday. This Wednesday, September 23, is the Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide, a commemorative day on the Lithuanian calendar.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites you to mark the Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide with us, remembering the more than 200,000 victims of the Holocaust in Lithuania, at the mass murder site in Ponar just outside Vilnius.
The LJC is providing transportation for those wishing to make the short trip. Please register by 12 noon on September 22 by sending an email to info@lzb.lt containing your full name and the purpose of the email. The bus will leave from the LJC at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius at 11:45 A.M. sharp on September 23. If you arrive late you’ll miss the bus.
Time: 12:30 P.M., Wednesday, September 23
Place: Ponar Memorial Complex, Memorialo street no. 15 aka Agrastų street no. 15, Vilnius
The Šiauliai District Jewish Community invites you to a ceremony to mark the Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide at the site of the former first ghetto gates at 11:00 A.M. on Wednesday, September 23. There will then be a procession to the second ghetto gates.
Time: 11:00 A.M., Wednesday, September 23
Place: Memorial marking gates of first ghetto at the intersection of Traku and Ezero streets, Righteous Gentile Square, Šiauliai
The Droga Dō chamber concert series is dedicated to the memory of the escape route Polish and Lithuanian Jews took to Japan during the Holocaust, and to Japanese ambassador and Righteous Gentile Chiune Sugihara who made it possible, saving thousands of Jews. Dō (Dou, Doo) means “way” in Japanese, as does droga in Polish.
Droga Dō will be performed at the Kaunas State Philharmonic on September 19 with works by Toru Takemitsu, Dai Fujikura, Kishio Kirao, Mieczysław Weinberg, Władysław Szpilman, Aleksander Tansman, Aleksandr Veprik, Joseph Achron and others. For more information, click here. For information in Lithuanian and to purchase tickets, click here.
Time: 5:00 P.M., Saturday, September 19
Place: Kaunas State Philharmonic, E. Ožeškienės no. 12, Kaunas
A gathering of members of the Panevėžys Jewish Community and family, friends and guests celebrated Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, last week at the Community building in the northern Lithuanian city with traditional dishes prepared by members. This year the start of Rosh Hashanah coincided with the onset of Sabbath and the celebration began with the lighting of candles and intonation of prayers.
Community member Nerijus Jakštonis, an accomplished trumpet musician, blew a small shofar horn, seen in photographs below. Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman spoke about what the holiday means and the ten-day period before Yom Kippur for self-reflection, taking responsibility for one’s past and future actions and reconciliation.
Last weekend the Jewish song and dance ensemble Fayerlakh delighted the audience at the Kaunas Gardens 2026 festival in Kaunas with the collective’s unique program of Jewish music and movement. They’re scheduled to perform again next Sunday, September 20, in Vilnius at Kudirka Square outside Government House in central Vilnius as part of the Ethnic Fair held annually along Gediminas prospect. The concert starts at 2:00 P.M. Sunday and is free and open to the public.
B”H
This Friday–the 11th of September–evening, at sunset when Rosh Ha’Shonoh begins, we usher in a New Year.
In Judaism a New Year is not just a new cycle of time, it represents a unique, unparalleled, new spiritual entity, with unprecedented fresh opportunities for each and every one of us. As reflected in our prayers on Rosh Ha’Shonoh ” …This day is the Beginning of Your work” (actions). This year in our calendar is 5787. 87 is the numerical equivalent of the Hebrew word for fine-gold “poz” (pei zayin), reminding us that this year we have an exceptional golden opportunity, for positive, constructive change and transformation.
The holy Master of the Good Name Rebbe Yisroel Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760), teaches us that nothing in the world, even the seemingly most insignificant thing, is random. Everything without exception is Guided by Divine Particular Providence. It follows that everything we see or hear in the world, contains a moral and spiritual lesson for us, also as an individual. It follows, that the fact that Rosh Ha’Shonoh this year begins on and follows “11th of September” must be communicating a timely inspirational teaching and life-lesson to us. “11th of September” reminds us of, and represents, destruction. Rosh Ha’Shonoh is about “Binyan Ha’Malchus,” Building a new and fresh, better world.
However deep the destruction might be, we can rebuild, even better.
This coming year we can and need to utilize the new golden opportunities that are being presented to us, wisely, to build and construct brick by brick, a better self, and a better world for Everyone.
With my very best wishes for a Good, Sweet and Meaningful New Year!
Kesivoh V’Chasimoh Tovoh!
Gut Shabbes! Gut Yom Tov! Shabbat Shalom! Chag Sameach!
Natalja Cheifec continues her internet lecture series and discussion club with a lecture on Yom Kippur this Thursday evening.
Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement, one of the most important Jewish holidays, celebrated on the tenth day of Tishrei following ten days of repentance after Rosh Hashanah. It is a day of fasting, prayer and reflection on the year past and the year to come, seeking forgiveness for oneself and others. On this day the Book of Life is opened where entries began on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, on our fates for the next year.
To receive zoom credentials and participate, click here.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Thursday, September 17
Place: internet
Vandals attacked the monument to one of the mass graves in the Pivonija Forest outside Ukmergė (Vilkomir) following a commemoration there on September 6. Local police say the desecration happened on September 6. The mass grave site has suffered vandalism including from four-wheel off-road vehicles before. Police said they will investigate fully the latest incident.
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, Israeli ambassador Shelly Hugler Livne and members of the Šiauliai Jewish Community, the Ukmergė (Vilkomir) Jewish Community and Kaunas Jewish Community attended a ceremony to commemorate Holocaust victims at the memorial and mass grave site in the Pivonija Forest on September 6. The United States embassy’s deputy ambassador Dan Hunt and diplomat Emma Locatelli attended, as did Lithuania’s deputy minister for culture Lina Baublienė and others.
After the ceremony participants were invited to attend an exhibit of Righteous Gentiles at the Ukmergė Tolerance Center. Ukmergė Jewish Community chairman Artūras Taicas took the opportunity to announce a new initiative to create an internet archive of historical Jewish passports and identity documents.
A ceremony to mark the 85th anniversary of the liquidation of the Ponevezh ghetto was held in the northern Lithuanian city September 8 with a number of speakers and music.
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said they had gathered both to honor the dead and keep memory of the Holocaust alive for future generations.
Israel’s ambassador to Lithuania Shelly Hugler Livne said 85 years is long time in human life but only an instant in terms of historical memory.
Lithuanian MP Ramūnas Vyžintas reiterated the need to safeguard historical memory.
Sister Leonora Kasiūlytė from the Congregation of the Sisters of God’s Providence told the story Marija Rusteikaitė, the nun from the Panevėžys area who rescued 15 Jews including children.
A delegation of about 30 Litvaks living in Israel are visiting the northern Lithuanian city Panevėžys, or Ponevezh, and have met with the mayor of the city, Loreta Masiliūnienė. For many of the visitors the trip is very personal, an opportunity to visit where their parents, grandparents and forefathers lived and died.
Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel Grisha Deitch sat with mayor Masiliūnienė at city hall in front of the rest of the Israeli delegation and they discussed the history of the Ponevezh community, securing its future and ties with Litvaks abroad.
A memorial ceremony will be held at the monument marking the gates of the Panevėžys ghetto will be held at 2:00 P.M. on Tuesday, September 8, followed by a walking tour of Jewish sites. Later the delegation and others will visit the mass murder site in Kurganava Forest where about 8,000 Jews were murdered, and the mass murder site in Žalioji Forest, where about 5,000 Jews were murdered.
Last week the Vilnius Jewish Public Library recognized Irina Guzenberg and Henrik Agranovski’s impressive and encyclopedic book Vilnius, the result of more than 30 years of research, published in English and Russian.
The book is both a short encyclopedia and a chronicle of Yerushalayim d’Lite, the Jerusalem of Lithuania, Vilnius. Israeli ambassador Shelly Hugler Livne, Lithuanian deputy foreign minister Kristupas Vaitiekūnas, a large contingent from Beit Vilna, Lithuanian Jewish Community members and academics from Lithuania, Israel and the USA attended to book presentation.
The book was previously published as a much shorter version of Jewish sites in Vilnius for tourists and others. The larger volume goes into much greater depth about the sites and histories.
The Kaunas Jewish Community is celebrating this year’s theme for the European Day of Jewish Culture, love, with a free concert. A new installment in the Dance Me Back to the Future called Erev Shel Shoshanim, Evening of Roses, is a two-voice musical dialogue featuring Hebrew love songs and operatic arias.
Katya Kov is the organizer with support from Pasaka and the Create Culture Group in cooperation with Cvi Parkas. Supporters include the Goodwill Foundation and the city of Vilnius.
“The title Dance Me Back to the Future combines Leonard Cohen’s Dance Me to the End of Time and Robert Zemeckis’s film Back to the Future,” she explained. “Together, they open a path between the past and the present, following Lithuanian and Litvak history and stories, recollections and cultural ties which travel from generation to generation and find new voices today,” she said.
The concert is free and open to the public.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Tuesday, September 8
Place: Mikas and Kira Petrauskas House, K. Petrausko street no. 31, Kaunas
The Sabbath begins at 8:03 P.M. on Friday, September 4, and concludes at 8:57 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 7:45 P.M. and completed before sunset at 8:03 P.M. This Friday, September 4, is Labor Day in the United States. Wednesday, September 9, is Day of the Victims of the Holocaust and of Racial Violence in Slovakia. This holiday first established by the Slovak Parliament in 2000 commemorates the day in 1941 when the Slovak government issued a decree on the legal status of Jews in the country, known as the Jewish Codex, which led to the deportation of Jews from the country, resulting in the murder of approximately 70,000 Slovak Jews. The commemorative day was created to ensure this event remains fresh in the minds of all Slovaks so that this tragedy is never repeated.
Eugene Smotkin, 72, currently lives in Puerto Rico and works in renewable energy. He and wife Linda recently visited Panevėžys whence his family comes, and visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community where they were warmly received by chairman Gennady Kofman. They visited the mass murder sites in the Žalioji Forest and Kurganava Forest together.
Eugene Smotkin said his father Morris was 16 when his uncle, Rabbi Meyer Kimmel, arrived in Ponevezh. He took Morris to New York where he entered yeshiva, then enlisted in the army. Morris knew five languages and during his service he interrogated captured SS officers, collecting intelligence on Nazi Germany.
“I never wanted to write a book about myself. My goal was to tell the story of post-war Jewish life, and the example I know well is our family,” Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said Friday at a reading room in Palanga where she presented her book Dainos iš mėlynos užrašinės [Songs from the Blue Notebook].
She spoke about her family’s story, including stories about the post-war reality, and the childish fears and joys which sometimes last a lifetime.
“Don’t be surprised if I cry. My whole family got teary-eyed reading this book,” she cautioned.
Her book about her parents, grandparents and cousins, their experiences and fates, was more than an autobiography. It’s a portrait of three generations of Litvaks, the story of how they carried on after the Holocaust and learned to take joy in life again, while always carrying inside the unfathomable tragedy.
The European Day of Jewish Culture enters its 22nd year this Sunday, September 6, with this year’s theme love. In Judaism love is more than romantic emotions, it’s the connection between cultures and communities, linking the past with the present and people with generations.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites you to celebrate the European Day of Culture with us with a special program of events.
Program:
11:00 A.M. Ruth Reches will deliver an introductory Hebrew lesson at the LJC. Registration required before 5:00 P.M. Friday by clicking here.
Police were called Wednesday to Ožeškienės street nos. 19 and 21 in Kaunas after construction workers prevented a man from destroying an art installation there with a hammer. Neighbors called the police and told the media the perpetrator is a citizen of the Republic of Ireland who teaches at Kaunas Techological University. They also said this isn’t the first time he’s vandalized the tribute to Lithuanian Jews and Jewish partisans from the Kaunas ghetto. This time he was caught on video, which was played on the national evening television news in Lithuania.
The Kiemo galerija, or Courtyard Gallery as it’s known began 12 years ago and was the brainchild of resident Vytenis Jakas. He started collecting stories from local oldtimers in both buildings who told him many of the residents were Jews before they were rounded up and murdered. One such couple was Juda Zupavičius and Dita Sperling-Zupavičienė. Dita’s brother Hirsh, their mother and Juda’s comrade Ika Grinberg, the son of the owner of the building, also lived there.
In the summer of 2014 Dita travelled from Tel Aviv to Lithuania with the hope of commemorating her husband Juda and his fellow members of the Kaunas ghetto resistance during the 70th anniversary of the liquidation of the Kaunas ghetto.