Natalja Cheifec continues her internet discussion club this Thursday with an open discussion format. To register and receive zoom credentials, click here.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Thursday, April 23
Place: internet
New Jacques Lipchitz Museum in Druskininkai
The Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum has opened up a new museum in Druskininkai dedicated to the life and work of Litvak sculptor Jacques Lipchitz.
Newly-appointed Vilna Gaon Museum director Sergejus Kanovičius welcomed guests at an opening ceremony who included Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, Lithuanian MP Emanuelis Zingeris, Lithuanian culture minister Vaida Aleknavičienė and Druskininkai mayor Ričardas Malinauskas.
Lipchitz came from Druskininkai. He was born in 1891 and passed away in 1973 having founded what he called crystal cubism as a genre and leaving a remarkable impression on 20th century art. He gained renown in Paris with a group of artists including Pablo Picasso before fleeing the Nazi invasion for the US, where he continued his work.
Vilna Gaon Museum has a number of geographically-scattered sites including the Tolerance Center, the Green House Holocaust Exhibit and the Litvak Identity Museum in central Vilnius, but also the Ponar Memorial Complex outside Vilnius. Their newest museum is located at Šv. Jokūbo street no. 17 in the spa town Druskininkai on the border with Belarus in southeast Lithuania.
Photos courtesy Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum.
Jewish Music: From Liturgical Tradition to Klezmer and Minimalism
The Magic of Music Club [Muzikos magijos klubas] as part of a series of musical evenings to educate and delight is pleased to announce a lecture by ethno-musicologist Eirimas Velička in Lithuanian called “Žydų muzika: nuo liturginės tradicijos iki klezmerio ir minimalizmo” [Jewish Music: From Liturgical Tradition to Klezmer and Minimalism]. The presentation will include recordings of Yemeni Jewish liturgical music, followed by a klezmer performance by Giora Feidmanas on clarinet. Minimalist composer Steve Reich’s Tehlim, or Psalms, is the capstone of this evening of music. The audience will also be invited to learn two Hassidic songs.
Tickets start at 20 euros and are available here.
Time: 4:00 P.M., Sunday, April 19
Place: Magic of Music Club, Šv. Stepono street no. 10, Vilnius
Šiauliai Holds Three Seders
The Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community celebrated Passover with three seders this year. On April 1 and 2 the Chabad Lubavitch Center in Šiauliai invited Community members to two seders. On April 5 the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community held another seder. Community member Vadimas Kamrazeris performed music at the latter.
Yom HaShoah in Vilnius
The Lithuanian Jewish Community marked Yom HaShoah on Sunday in Vilnius with a March of the Living procession.
“Every day I think about what my father Saulius Kuklianskis, who went through the horrors of the Holocaust in his childhood, would say about the things happening in society today. Most likely he would think the time just before the war had returned… It is our duty to preserve the memory of those who died, but also to speak out loudly so that that dark period would never return,” LJC chairwoman Fainia Kukliansky said.
Photos by Mila Kuizinienė
Holocaust Seminar for Teachers in Palanga
The Lithuanian Jewish Community, Palanga Jewish Community and Claims Conference held a seminar for teachers teaching the Holocaust in Palanga on April 9. Twenty-seven educators and cultural workers attended. The two-year project financed by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany is titled “Education Program for Holocaust Remembrance and Historical Justice in Lithuania, 2025-2027.” It is intended to stimulate formal and informal Holocaust education in Lithuania.
Attendees received a tour of the Lithuanian seaside town including Jewish sites testifying to the once-large local Jewish community there before the Holocaust.
Condolences
Solomonas Isaakovičius Pilkinas has passed away. He was born in 1937. He was a member of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, a father, grandfather and great-grandfather. His memory will shine on brightly in thehearts of his family, friends and all who knew him. We extend our deepest condolences to the family he leaves behind.
Passover through the Eyes of Children
We had a tremendous response to our children’s drawing contest Passover through the Eyes of Children. Every entry demonstrated talent and attention to detail. Thank you to all participants and to their parents for fostering love of Jewish traditions in their families. Every artist will receive a box of chocolate-covered matzo. See below for a selection of works submitted.
Happy Birthday
A happy birthday to Palanga Jewish Community chairman Vilius Gutmanas.
Dear Vilius,
We are so happy with your meaningful activity preserving Jewish traditions and culture, rally young people and keeping memory alive. Your friendship is extraordinarily important to us. We wish you good health, happiness, the support of friends and family and many happy days to come. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 8:12 P.M. on Friday, April 10, and concludes at 9:12 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 7:54 P.M. and completed before sunset at 8:12 P.M. Sunday is Orthodox, Ethiopian and Coptic Easter. Tuesday is Yom haShoah.
Bundestag President Visits Ponar
President of the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament, Julia Klockner made time to visit Ponar outside Vilnius on trip to Lithuania to meet with the Lithuanian president and Lithuanian MPs to discuss European security Thursday. Ponar is the site outside Vilnius where as estimated more than 100,000 Jews were murdered. Klockner was accompanied by Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky at the Ponar Memorial Complex.
March of the Living for Yom HaShoah
A March of the Living event will take place in Vilnius on Sunday to mark Yom HaShoah, Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, which falls on Tuesday, April 14, this year.
Those wishing to join the procession should gather at Rūdninkų Square at 4:00 P.M. to begin walking by 4:30 P.M., ending at Kudirka Square outside Government House at 5:00 P.M. Sunday. The march will have a police escort. Feel free to bring Israeli flags and other flags and banners appropriate for commemorating six million Holocaust victims.
Condolences
Marija Birger has passed away. She was born in 1934. She was a member of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and a client of the Saul Kagan Welfare Center. Our deepest condolences to her daughter, family and many friends.
Passover in Panevėžys
The Panevėžys Jewish Community held a second seder in April, the most important part of Passover. Adults, children and guests gathered and learned about Passover traditions. The Haggadah was read. The table was set with all the traditional dishes recalling the bitterness of slavery and the difficult wandering in the desert.
Passover in Kaunas
The Kaunas Jewish Community gathered for their annual Passover seder. There were lots of smiles, fun conversation, intriguing music, delicious food and a Passover quiz which turned heads.
“Greetings to all still celebrating Passover and Easter. May the nice spring breeze take far awa if not all, then as many of our pressing worries as possible, so that together with nature waking up, so too would our flowers of love, fellowship and peace bloom,” Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas wished the gathering.
Happy Birthday
The Lithuanian Jewish Community is pleased to wish Shmuel (Simas) Levinas a very happy birthday. He was the first principal of the Sholem Aleichem School in Vilnius (post Holocaust), actively contributed to the founding of the LJC Social Center and served as its first director, was the first chairman of the Goodwill Foundation and served as the chairman of the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community as well as the Lithuanian Jewish Religious Community.
Dear Simas,
The Lithuanian Jewish Community with great honor and warm gratitude congratulates you today on your birthday. You are a person without whom the history of the rebirth of the Lithuanian Jewish Community would have been written much differently.
Passover Greetings
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky greets everyone on the occasion of Passover and on this family holiday celebrating the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery wishes you much love and joy.
Gut yontev! Gut Pesach! Hag sameach!
Kupiškis Museum Historian Aušra Jonušytė Recognized
Aušra Jonušytė was recognized for her work on the history of Kupiškis and the former Jewish community there at an awards ceremony at the Panevėžys Regional History Museum on March 30. Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman and the entire Lithuanian Jewish Community congratulate her on receiving the Tarnaukite Lietuvai [Serve Lithuania] prize along with 15 others. The prize was instituted by the Lithuanian parliament 15 years ago and the awards are bestowed annually.
Fayerlakh Performs at Public Library
The Jewish song and dance ensemble Fayerlakh performed at the Adomas Mickevičius Public Library in Vilnius on March 30. They were invited to perform there by the library’s Song Club who wanted to learn more about Jewish song and whose members had bilingual lyric sheets in Lithuanian and Yiddish. Borisas Kizneris began on violin, demonstrating popular Yiddish songs, and invited the audience to join in, which they did. After the music, Fayerlakh director Larisa Vyšiauskienė spoke about Passover. Matzo was distributed to all attendees.
Photos by Mindaugas Masaitis
Children’s Aktion Remembered
On March 27 tand 28, 1944, around 1,700 children, elderly and the infirm were rounded up in the Kaunas ghetto by Waffen-SS troops and murdered nearby. The almost-complete extermination of the children in the Kaunas ghetto on those days is called by its German name in the Holocaust literature, the Kinderaktion.