Fayerlakh is to perform at the Ninth Ethnic Communities Festival with other ethnic performers in Trakai south of Vilnius on Saturday.
Time: ~3:30 P.M.-6:30 P.M., Saturday, May 30
Place: Trakai castle, Karaimų street no. 1, Trakai, Lithuania
Al Jolson Birthday Celebration in Hometown
The town of Seredžius (Srednike back in the Russian Empire) where Al Jolson was born into a Litvak family on May 26, 1886, is celebrating the 140th anniversary of his birth on May 29, 2026, with performances by musicians from the Kaunas Jewish Community and the unveiling of a commemorative bench honoring the Hollywood star. Born Asa Yoelson, he starred in Hollywood’s first “talkie,” meaning a motion picture with synchronized soundtrack, the Jazz Singer (1927, USA). The event starts at 4:00 P.M. on Friday, May 29, outside the former synagogue in Seredžius in the Kaunas district.
Sholem Aleichem Field Trip to Ponevezh
Students from the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium in Vilnius took a field trip to the Lost Shtetl Museum in Šeduva, then visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community last week.
Chairman Gennady Kofman and other Community members received the young people and their teachers and showed them what the Community does, spoke about local history and gave them a tour of the photography exhibition there.
Ethnic Minorities Department Awards Ruth Reches, Gercas Žakas
The Lithuanian Culture Ministry awarded its order of merit to psychologist and school principal Ruth Reches and Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas on Friday, Lithuania’s Cultural Minorities Day.
Gercas was recognized for his work in preserving Jewish identity, commemorating famous Litvaks, care for Holocaust victims and rescuers and Holocaust commemoration.
Lithuanian Ethnic Minorities Department director Dainius Babilas presented Reches the silver order of merit, third degree, for her consistent work in minority education, teaching Jewish culture and history and her work to have the Yiddish language included on Lithuania’s list of immaterial cultural treasures.
Reches is actually a Hebrew teacher as well as psychologist and principal. She earned a PhD in psychology several years ago and her publications and academic work include topics such as attachment disorders, trans-generational Holocaust trauma and developmental psychology. She has served as the principal of the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium in Vilnius, the capital city’s only Jewish primary and secondary school, for over a decade. She is the daughter of Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky.
LJC on New Decisions on the Sports Palace and the Šnipiškės Jewish Cemetery
The Lithuanian Jewish Community expresses its profound concern regarding the decision adopted by the parliament or Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania following its initial approval of draft resolution No. XVP-1423 which effectively revives plans first proposed more than a decade ago to convert the former Vilnius Sports Palace into a venue for congresses, conferences and cultural events (Government Resolution No. 597 of June 9, 2015).
These plans had previously provoked strong opposition from international Jewish organizations, including Jewish religious authorities. According to Jewish religious law, a cemetery is sacred and inviolable ground; not only are entertainment events and concerts prohibited there, but even disturbing the soil is forbidden. It was precisely for this reason that a special working group was established, bringing together representatives of state institutions, the Lithuanian Jewish Community and international organizations.
After lengthy and complex discussions, a compromise solution was reached, one that balanced respect for the dead, preservation of historical memory and the public interest. This agreement was confirmed by the Government of the Republic of Lithuania in July of 2024 (No. S-2174 of July 17, 2024).
Exhibit by Savickas Art Studio Students
Students from the Raimondas Savickas Art Studio will exhibit their paintings at the Lithuanian Jewish Community and you’re invited to the opening at 6:00 P.M. on Friday, May 29. The exhibit will be shown in the foyer on the third floor. Please register for the opening by sending an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt.
Great Synagogue Exhibit at Litvak Identity Museum
The Litvak Identity Museum of the Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum will open a new exhibit dedicated the Great Synagogue in Vilnius, damaged by the Nazis and destroyed by the Soviets, but never completely forgotten by Vilnius and the residential community.
The exhibit includes archaeological discoveries, depictions in art, historical photographs and reconstructions.
The opening ceremony is to include a performance by cantor Shmuel Ya’atom and a guided tour of the Gros-Shul exhibit by its curators. The exhibit runs till January 31, 2027.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Tuesday, May 19
Place: Litvak Culture and Identity Museum, Pylimo street no. 41, Vilnius
Kaunas Jewish Community Thanks Righteous Gentiles
For more than 30 years now the Kaunas Jewish Community has thanked rescuers of Jews every spring with a special ceremonial dinner, expressing deep gratitude and appreciation for the bravery and humanity they demonstrated. This the ceremony was held last week.
“Discussing Lithuanian and other European Jewish communities after World War II is impossible without the stories of the rescuers of Jews. If not for them, who are mainly humble and quiet about it, not boasting of their heroism, many of us would not be here in this land, and the dark time of the Holocaust would be even darker,” Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas told the audience this year.
As time passes there are fewer and fewer rescuers remaining, although there are examples of living rescuers such as Righteous Gentile Vladas Palkauskas who is now 93 and still going strong.
News from Panevėžys
Last weekend volunteers from the Panevėžys Jewish Community cleaned the interior and grounds of the Chevra Torah synagogue there. The brick synagogue was built in 1910. It was closed in 1940, the interior was destroyed and the decorative façade heavily damaged.
On May 6 Panevėžys Jewish Community representatives attended a lecture at the Lost Shtetl Museum in Šeduva by Holocaust historian Christoph Dieckmann called “How Did It Happen?” During questions afterwards, Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman thanked Dieckmann and asked about sources on Jewish vital statistics from the period between 1938 and 1941, engendering a discussion about the drop-off in marriages and births at a time when the Jewish community sensed the onset of tragedy.
Shavuot Celebration for Community Members
Dear members,
The Programs Department of the Lithuanian Jewish Community invites you to come celebrate Shavuot together with us. Shavuot, or Shavuos, is one of the three most important occasions in Judaism, celebrating the gift of the Law. On this holiday homes are decorated with flowers, we talk about traditions, we sing Jewish songs and dance Jewish dances. We eat the traditional foods.
The celebration will include a presentation by Natalja Cheifec and a performance by the Jewish song and dance ensemble Fayerlakh. It begins at 6:30 P.M. on the evening of Thursday, May 21. The location will be disclosed following registration. Please register by May 20 by writing zanas@sc.lzb.lt. Note that space is limited.
Kurkliai Synagogue Opens Rhona Gorvy Exhibit for European Museum Night
The restored Kurkliai synagogue in the Anykščiai region north of Vilnius will open its doors to the public on European Museum Night, May 23, with an exhibit of graphic works and sculpture by the late South African artist Rhona Gorvy called “Life and Dreams.” The program for the evening includes an address by Ieva Šadzevičienė, curator of the Samuel Bak museum of the Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum, live percussion by Arkadijus Gotesmanas and recollections of the past and stories from others. The event is free and open to the public.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Saturday, May 23
Place: Kurkliai synagogue, Salomėjos Neries street no. 4A, Kurkliai, Anykščiai district
Congratulations to Matanas Etinas
Congratulations to Matanas Etinas who has become Lithuanian ping-pong champion for children born in 2015. Matanas didn’t lose a single set in the tournament and triumpher over the other contestants 3:0. Matanas following this latest victory and his great showing last week where he took 4th place in the age group for players born in 2014 will compete in the European Mini-Cadet Championship in France this August. Matanas began playing two years ago in the afterschool ping-pong group at Sholem Aleichem Gymnasium in Vilnius under the tutelage of Rafeilis Gimelsteinas and joined the New Stars club a year ago where he began to compete more widely.
Natalja Cheifec to Give Guided Tour of Choral Synagogue
Teacher and lecturer Natalja Cheifec will provide a guided tour of the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius on Wednesday evening. The only traditional synagogue still working in Vilnius has a long and interesting history. Cheifec will talk about its architecture, symbolism and traditions, and about its place in Jewish life before and now. Cheifec will conclude the tour with questions from the audience. Participants are asked to donate 2 euros to the synagogue.
Prior registration is required, click here.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Wednesday, May 13
Place: Choral Synagogue, Pylimo street no. 39, Vilnius
Lost Shtetl Fifth Most Beautiful Museum in the World
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.
Lag b’Omer Today, May 5
Lag b’Omer is a minor Jewish holiday celebrated with bonfires and an occasion for weddings and cutting children’s hair. It happens approximately one month after Passover, and the name means the 33rd day of the of the Omer count, on the 18th day of the Jewish month of Iyar, which is about the midpoint in time between Passover and Shavuot.
Lag b’Omer, according to tradition, was the day on which the plague that killed 24,000 of Rabbi Akiva’s disciples stopped (Yebamoth, 62:72). For this reason it is customary to cease mourning customs of the Omer period, which include prohibition of marriages, cutting hair, and public expressions of joy such as singing and dancing. Some traditions hold that the period of mourning ends at Lag b’Omer and others end it three days before the holiday of Shavuot.
Dance Me Back to the Future
The Karlsruhe Concert Duo of Reihard Armleder on cello and Dagmar Hartmann on piano will perform a concert program called “Dance Me to the End of Time and Back to the Future” at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius in mid-May. The two will perform works by Leonard Cohen, Back, Beethoven, Moscheles, Bloch, Gershwin, Heifetz, Schumann and Liszt. The concert is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the culture section of the German embassy in Vilnius in cooperation with the Goodwill Foundation and Pasaka x Create Culture Group.
Registration is required by May 16. Send an email to koncertas.lzb@gmail.com.
Time: 5:00 P.M., Sunday, May 17
Place: LJC, Vilnius
Holocaust Exhibit at Ninth Fort in Kaunas
The Ninth Fort Museum in Kaunas has opened a new exhibition called “Raised from the Ashes, Kaunas,” a series of drawings by Mindaugas Lukošaitis.
Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas expressed his own enchantment, respect and gratitude for the exhibit, as all as that of the Kaunas Jewish Community, and thanked the Ninth Museum, the organizers of the exhibit, the performer at the opening and the artist.
The exhibit will run till October 4.
Panevėžys Jewish Community Member Launches Book
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.
LJC Hosts TOLI Seminar
The Lithuanian Jewish Community hosted for the seventh time last week a seminar organized by the New York-based Olga Lengyel Holocaust Studies and Human Rights Institute (TOLI) and the International Commission to Assess the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania. Thirty teachers from 15 countries attended.
The motto for this seminar was “Learning from the past, we work for the future.” The seminar provides participants the opportunity to hear Holocaust testimonies from survivors and provides access to the best research material in order to attempt to make sense of what happened and what the consequences were and are.
Rafailas Karpis Performs Israeli National Anthem
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.