Learning, History, Culture – Page 5 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Come Celebrate Rosh Hashanah

The Bnei Maskilim association, the Lithuanian Jewish Community, Art of Shabbat and the Abraham Geiger college invite you to come celebrate Rosh Hashanah. Rabbinical college student Daniel Zekhry will lead the ceremonies.

There will be the traditional blowing of the shofar horn, traditional Rosh Hashanah foods and blessings and accommodations for vegans.

Everyone is welcome. The cost is 20 euros and registiation is required by emailing viljamas@lzb.lt.

Time: 6:30 P.M., September 22
Place: Lithuanian Jewish Community, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius

2025-09-15

Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide in Panevėžys

The Panevėžys Jewish Community invites you to mark the Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide on September 23. The commemoration begins at 2″00 P.M. at the Sad Jewish Mother statue in Memory Square on Vasario 16 strret in Panevėžys.

The commemorative date was adopted by the Lithuanian parliament in 1994 based on the nominal date for the liquidation of the Vilnius ghetto in 1943. The Panevėžys ghetto was liquidated in mid-August, 1941, meaning the 13,500 Jews there were murdered ib the immediate area.

Program:

2025-09-15

Young Voices: YIVO Autobiography Competitions and Their Multilingual Participants

The Lithuanian National Library will host a discussion called “Young Voices: YIVO Autobiography Competitions and Their Multilingual Participants” with Polish researchers Kamil Kijek and Małgorzata Litwinowicz in the library’s conference hall on the fifth floor at 6:00 P,M, on Tuesday, September 16. Kijek will discuss biographies by young people written in Yiddish and submitted to writing contests sponsored by YIVO. Litwinowicz will present youth biographies written in Polish and submitted. Judaica Research Center director Lara Lempertienė will moderate. The event will be in English.

More information in Lithuanian available here.

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Lost Shtetl Museum in Šeduva to Open to Public September 20

by Anthea Gerrie, Hewish Chronicle, August 24

The Jews of Šeduva were murdered 84 years ago. Now a new museum will commemorate their shtetl way of life

Eighty-four years ago more than 600 Jews, men, women and children, of the shtetl of Šeduva in rural Lithuania were executed in the forest outside the town. Now the finishing touches are being made to a museum which will commemorate the shtetl way of life which was extinguished in the Holocaust, not just in Seduva or Lithuania, but all over Eastern Europe.

The Lost Shtetl Museum will use cutting-edge technology to recreate the sights and sounds of everyday pre-war Jewish life, based on the history of Šeduva and more than 200 similar small Lithuanian towns, and the thousands more communities in neighboring Latvia, Belarus, Poland and Ukraine which were wiped off the map forever.

2025-09-11

Vilnius Shalom Festival 2025

From September 21 to October 21, 2025, the Lithuanian capital will host the Vilnius Shalom Festival. The month-long Jewish music and culture festival will bring together the unique Shofar March (unprecedented in the region), educational activities and high-level classical jazz, and klezmer music concerts. The festival will feature the Be’er Sheva Municipal Concert Band, the State Choir Vilnius, the St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra and renowned performers from Lithuania, Israel, Germany, Ukraine and the USA.

We believe these events will gather lovers of Jewish culture and music from across Lithuania and abroad in Vilnius, often called the Jerusalem of the North.
Thanks to our sponsors and partners, all festival events are free of charge. Advance registration required here: www.shalom.lt

Program:

2025-09-112025-09-11

Kaunas Train Station Classical Music Concert Celebrates European Day of Jewish Culture

For the second time in two years the Kaunas train station became the venue for concerts celebrating the European Day of Jewish Culture last Sunday.

Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas welcomed the audience to the concert.

Young soprano Giedrė Kisieliūtė who sang in English, Lithuanian, Yiddish, Hebrew and French, was accompanied by a classical music quintet directed by Tadas Daujotas. Daujotas a;so b;ew the shofar horn at the event.

Photographs by Rūta Ravinskaitė below.

2025-09-102025-09-10

Natalja Cheifec on Misnagidim and Hassidim

Natalja Cheifec carries on her internet lecture series and discussion club this Thursday with a lesson on Litvaks and Hassidim.

The concept of Litvak today isn’t just Jews from Lithuania and the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, but for centuires now has included the idea of Litvaks as the Misnagidim (mitnagidim) who fiercely oppose the Hassidim. How do these two currents of Judaism differ? WHere does the opposition of these two groups originate? Tune in Thursday to hear the full story, from centuries ago to the present time.

Everyone is welcome to participate. To receive zoom credentials, click here.

Time: 6:00 P.M., Thursday, September 11
Place: internet

2025-09-092025-09-09

Pivonija Massacres Eighty-Four Years Later

The 84th anniversary of the mass murder of the Jews of Vilkomir (Ukmergė) in the Pivonija Forest jut outside the town was commemorated on the first Sunday in September, the traditional date selected for honoring these victims of the Holocaust.

The entire Jewish population of Vilkomir and surrounding villages was exterminated ruing three mass murder operations in 1941. A sole survivor hid in the forest and later told the tale to the world.

Pivonija is the third-largest Jewish mass murder site in Lithuania after Ponar and the Ninth Fort.

2025-09-092025-09-09

Lithuanian and Jewish Communities Meet in Los Angeles County

The Lithuanian Consulate and Lithuanian consul Sandra Brikaitė hosted an evening called “History, Heritage and Diplomacy” earlier this mont, bringing together the Lithuanian-American community, the Lithuanian Jewish Community, the local Valley Outreach Synagogue, diplomats and other interested parties.

The Lithuanian Consulate is located in Calabasas in the southwestern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County.

Consul Sandra Brikaitė, Valley Outreach Synagogue Rabbi Ron Li-Paz and Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky all spoke at the event and all three discussed together the deep roots of Litvak culture, the Holocaust and Righteous Gentiles, among other things.

“The Jewish heritage is part of the soul of Lithuania,” Brikaitė said.

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Come Celebrate European Day of Jewish Culture with the LJC

Sunday is the annual European Day of Jewish Culture. This year the theme is People of the Book. The Lithuanian Jewish Community has a full day of events planned starting in the morning. Some events require prior registration, see below. Unless otherwise noted, events will take place at the Lithuanian Jewish Community at Pylimo street no. 4. The outdoor Cvi Park space is across the street from there. The Choral Synagogue is located about 300 meters away on Pylimo street as you go towards the train and bus station.

Program:

10:30 A.M. Beginner’s Hebrew lesson with Ruth Reches at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius. Register here.

2025-09-032025-09-05

YIVO Centennial Exhibit at National Library

Marking 100 years since the YIVO was founded in Vilnius, the Martynas Mažxydas National Library in Vilnius will open an exhibit at 5:00 P.M. on Thursday, September 4, and running till the end of the year entitled “YIVO Centennial: Origins, Journey, Legacy.”

The opening ceremony with keynote speech and a musical performance takes place on the third floor at 5:00 P.M. The action then moves to the 5th floor with a presentation and tasting of Litvak cuisine, culminating in a guided tour by National Library Judaica Center director and exhibit curator Lara Lempertienę.

The event is free and open to everyone.

2025-09-032025-09-04

French Documentary on the Great Synagogue

The French Institute will show a documentary film by Loïc Salfat on the history of the Great Synagogue of Vilnius at 5:30 P.M. on September 10. The French Institute is located at Didžioji street no. 1 in Vilnius.

The film includes ancient lore regarding the synagogue complex and the Vilna Gaon, damage from bombs during WWII, removal by Soviet authorities after the war and archaeological digs over the last several decades there. The French film has English and Lithuanian subtitles.

The event is free but registration is required by filling out the form here.

The screening of the documentary is part of an educational program called “Make No Idols,” For more information about that program in Lithuanian, click here.

2025-09-032025-09-04

Free Klezmer Concert at Government House

The Rakija Klezmer Orkestar will perform a free concert in the square in front of Government House in Vilnius at 5:00 P.M. on Friday, September 5, as part of the city’s Vilnius Days celebrations and the Cities Embracing Jewish Heritage project. For more information, click here.

2025-09-032025-09-04

Remembering the Unknown, Experiencing the Non-Existent

The Vilnius Picture Gallery and the Lithuanian National Art Museum invite the public to a lecture by Giedrė Mickūnaitė called “risiminti nežinomą, patirti nesantį–keli žydiškojo Vilniaus maršrutai” [Remembering the Unknown, Experiencing the Non-Existent: Several Tracks in Jewish Vilnius] at the Vilnius Picture Gallery at 5:30 P.M.om September 9. The galLery is located at Didžioji street no. 4 in Vilnius.

According to the hallery’s announcement of the public lecture:

“Historical knowledge and making it topical, urban planning not just as space and architecture, but as a way of life–these are the questions confronting Vilnius. The lecture invites you to an indirect tour of the current city and provides a glimpse of the Jewish past, asking you to experience that loss in the present.”

The lecture is free, open to the public and registration is not required.

2025-09-032025-09-04

Akvilė Grigoravičiūtė on Early 20th Century Litvak Identity in Yiddish Literature

The Ieva Simonaitytė Public Library in Klaipėda is pleased to host a presentation by Akvilė Grigoravičiūtė, Yiddish literary researcher and translator, on changes to Litvak identity in the early 20th century as illustrated in Yiddish literary works.

The event is scheduled from 5:30 to 6:30 P.M. on Wednesday, September 10.

Called “Yiddish Literature in Interwar Lithuania,” the author discusses the evacuation of Jews from the borderlands in Tsarist Russia during the First World War and the lasting effects that had on Jewish identity. She characterizes Lithuanian Yiddish literature in the 1920s as showcasing separation, alienation and solitude. In the 1930s, she says, a new Jewish identity began to coalesce, tied organically to the culture and society of the Republic of Lithuania. Her presentation will include passages from Yiddish writers, literary clubs and publications from 1918 to 1940

The library is located at Herkaus Manto street no. 25 in Klaipeda. For those unable to attend, the lecture will be live-streamed via the internet, register here.

For more information in Lithuanian, click here.

2025-09-032025-09-03

In Search of the Shtetl in Švėkšna

The Švėkšna Museum presents “In Search of the Shtetl in Švėkšna” illustrating the town’s multicultural and multiethnic past and legacy starting with an exhibit at the Švėkšna synagogue, now the Švėkšna Museum, at 1:00 P.M. on Saturday, August 6. The address is Liepų alley no. 12, Švėkšna, Lithuania. The exhibit features mosaics by Lina Šlipavičiūtė and Lauryna Kiškytė who both plan to attend the event. This will be followed by a guided tour of the town discussing the settlement by Jews in the 17th century, emigration, the period of thriving trade and a thriving economy, life and education of young Jews and the religious life of the shtetl. The event is part of the European Days of Jewish Culture which falls on the first Sunday in September every year.

For more information, call +370 657 57 152. or for more information in Lithuanian, see here:

2025-09-032025-09-05

Vilner Quiz at National Library

The Vilnius Jewish Public Library in concert with the 15min.lt news website will hold a quiz on Jewish Vilna history and culture at the Lithuanian National Library at 3:00 P.M. on Sunday, August 7. The event is intended to commemorate the anniversary of the founding of YIVO in Vilnius and the European Days of Jewish Culture which falls on the first Sunday in September annually..

Master of ceremonies will be Ugnius Antanavičius, an editor at 15min.lt.

Contestants will compete in teams of from 2 to 6 people of their own making. Prizes await the winners. The quiz is expected to last about 2 hours.

The quiz is open to the public and there is no fee for competing. To register send an email to uantanavicius@gmail.com, indicating your team’s name and the expected number of players..

2025-09-032025-09-03

Grigoriy Kanovitch Literary Prize

The Grigoriy Kanovitch Public Library in Jonava in central Lithuania will hold their 9th annual awards ceremony to present the Grigoriy Kanovitch literary prize to the most worthy recipient on September 10.

Attendees will have the chance to meet and talk with the winner afterwards, followed by a street theater performance called Quintetto della Morte.

The Grigoriy Kanovitch Public Library is located at Žeimių street no. 9, Jonava, Lithuania.

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