The Kaunas Jewish Community is inviting the public to mark the 85th anniversary of the Lietūkis Garage massacre on Monday, June 29. The ceremony will take place at the commemoration to victims at Miško street no. 3 in Kaunas at 4:00 P.M., followed by a concert in the Great Hall at Vytautas Magnus University, Gimnazijos street no. 7, Kaunas, at 6:00 P.M.
Natalja Cheifec continues her lecture series and discussion club Thursday at 6:00 P.M. with a presentation on King Solomon, both on his monarchy considered a time of peace and plenty, and on his renowned wisdom. To receive zoom credentials and participate, click here.
Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas in cooperation with the US Holocaust Museum, the Sugijara House Museum in Kaunas and the Ninth Fort Museum in Kaunas is holding a conference called “Jewish Life in the Baltic Countries, 1917-1945: from June 9 to June 11. The conference marks the 85th anniversary of the beginning of the Holocaust in the Baltic states with presentations on Jewish life including art, music, literature, education, languages, religion, government, land and nature, emigration, resistance, the rescue of Jews and commemoration. The Kapela Kotra trio will perform Litvak music and documentary films by Saulius Beržinis will be screened.
The conference will be held in the Senate Hall at Vytautas Magnus at Donelaičio street no. 28 in Kaunas. The program begins at 9:00 A.M. on Tuesday, June 9. It begins at 11:00 A.M. on June 10 and at 9:30 A.M. on June 11.
by Geoff Vasil
Last night the Israeli-American relationship was cast into doubt when Trump told the press he was about to call Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and “tell” him not to respond to Iranian missile attacks on Israel.
Trump has gone back and forth for weeks now claiming he’s close to “a deal” with some group of Iranians on a peace plan. It’s fairly obvious the gangsters in the Islamic Republic have been goading and cajoling him on into some sort of idea of a peace plan, but that’s what Iran is best at, endless negotiations on a set of untenable principles.
It should be obvious to everyone watching that the best way to end the impasse with Iran is through military victory. They’re claiming some sort of sovereignty over the choke-point on world commerce, the Strait of Hormuz. They want Israel to stop bombing Hezbollah. They want war reparations from America. There are no common points for negotiation, but Trump keeps pretending there are. Even regarding nuclear enrichment.
A delegation of three guests from Israel visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community last week. Mordechai (Moudi) Ben Shach’s father and grandparents had lived in Panevėžys and ran the former Kommerts Hotel there. His grandfather Yaacov Chachvich from the Tuch family came to Panevėžys in 1890 from the town of Gedera in what is now Israel.
The rabbi accompanying the other two visitors was looking at the Community’s photography exhibit and was surprised to see a photograph of his great-grandfather, also a rabbi. He said it was a great honor to visit Panevėžys, one of the most important Jewish religious and cultural centers in the world.
Moudi Ben Shach said the foundation for the life of the community is not just various activities and projects, and that meeting and talking to people, keeping in contact and working together for the good of the community are just as important if not more so.
Congratulations to Community member and Lithuanian Makabi athlette Rafael Gimelstein who won three medals at the 52nd Lithuanian Table Tennis Veterans Championship last week. Gimelstein took bronze in the men’s 45-49-year-old group, silver in doubles with Vidas Stašauskas and silver in mixed-doubles play with Jurgita Jucytė. Well done!
The Šiauliai District Jewish Community is pleased to present a neighborhood evening of entertainment called “The Story of One Building from Memory and Live.” The story circles around the building at the address Višinskio street no. 24, told by historian and guide Alfonsas Zaleskis. Next door over you’ll have the chance to take in a new exhibit at the From Šiauliai Studio. Šiauliai State Drama Theater actor Juozas Bindokas is to recite poetry and students from the Sondeckis Art Academy will perform music. Reporter Jūratė Sobutienė will talk about interesting books over tea and coffee.
Time: 5:30 P.M., Tuesday, June 9
Place: Jewish House, Višinskio street no. 24, Šiauliai
Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium is offering a day camp for children aged 8 to 12 starting next Monday. Activities include creative workshops, sports, educational field trips, origami lessons and jewelry-making, films and a discotheque and a challa-making workshop. The day camp will run from June 8 to 12 from 8:00 A.M. till 6:00 P.M. at the Sholem Aleichem school located at Kraševskio street no. 5 in Vilnius. For more information, contact Vilma Bieliūnienė by telephone at +370 659 41244 or write vilma.bieliuniene@ort.lt.
Educator and lecturer Natalja Cheifec will lead another guided tour of the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius Thursday. The synagogue is generally closed to tourists at this time. During the tour, Cheifec, will talk about the architecture, traditions and symbolism of Vilnius’s only working traditional synagogue. The tour starts at 6:00 P.M. on Thursday, June 4, at the Choral Synagogue located at Pylimo street no. 38 in Vilnius. Participants are asked to donate 5 euros to the synagogue during the event. To register, click here.
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
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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