Learning – Page 12 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Liova Taicas Memorial Tournament Marks 15th Year

The Šiauliai District Jewish Community held the 15th iteration of the sporting tournament to commemorate Liova Taicas (1952-2009) on February 9. The annual event began back in 2010.

The commemorative games not only honor Taicas’s memory and bring teams together from Jewish communities throughout Lithuania, but have also come to promote healthy living and an active lifestyle.

The Ukmergė Jewish Community sent athletes this year for the ping-pong competition and they made an excellent showing with Feliksas Lermanas taking first place and Lina Kuzmienė a respectable third. The Šiauliai district firefighters team of Jonas Poškus, Karolis Laukutis, Andrius Orlovas and Ugnius Tarasevičius won in basketball. Josifas Buršteinas took first place in the chess competition. Teams from Kaunas and Vilnius played in various sports and French soldiers from the NATO forces patrolling Lithuanian airspace took part in the basketball competition.

2025-02-13

National Library Celebrates 100 Years of YIVO

The Martynas Mažvydas Lithuanian National Library conserves a YIVO document collection of very significant volume and content. The YIVO was established exactly a century ago in Vilnius in 1925. It is the only Vilnius Jewish institution which did not stop operating during the Holocaust and which continues to operate today. After World War II YIVO made its main headquarters at its branch in New York City. This branch took over the institute’s functions as a center for the preservation of Jewish heritage and research.

Many traces of the institute’s work survived in Vilnius: fragments of its documentation, correspondence, library collection and archives, scattered among several commemorative institutions. The National Library is conducting a study of the institute’s archives which is revealing YIVO’s origins in Vilnius and its especially fruitful period of activity in Vilnius before WWII.

The 100-year anniversary of the founding of the YIVO was noted back in 2023 in a resolution by the Lithuanian parliament as being of special significance to world culture and the National Library. Lithuanian National Library director Aušrinė Žilinskienė spoke about this at the Lithuanian embassy in Washington, D.C., on December 9, 2024. That event to mark the anniversary was organized with YIVO headquarters in New York.

The National Library is holding an event in cooperation with a large number of Lithuanian and foreign partners with a spectacular program, including the publication of books on the history of the YIVO, an international academic forum and an exhibit of textual heritage.

2025-02-122025-02-12

New US Attorney General Unveils Anti-Semitism Task Force

Newly-appointed United States attorney general Pam Bondi announced last Monday (February 3) the creation of an inter-agency task force to fight anti-Semitism using “the full force of the federal government,” according to Leo Terrell, senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, specifically aimed at protecting the rights of American Jews on college campuses.

Measures are to include arrests and the withholding of federal funds to universities which fail to protect Jewish faculty and students from harassment.

The Civil Rights Division was created in 1957 and came to prominence in protecting the rights of black students in America’s South during the Kennedy and Johnson era.

2025-02-102025-02-10

Israeli Speaker to Address LJC Sunday

Litvak Raffael Hletzer will speak at the Lithuanian Jewish Community Sunday. He was born in Lithuania but left for Israel with his family at a young age. He is currently the executive director of the renowned Kehilor Netaim Jewish educational program. His presentation will be about his roots in Lithuania, the upcoming holiday Tu b’Shvat and connections with the past and present. The event is free but registration is required by sending an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt.

Time: 1:00 P.M., Sunday, February 9
Place: Room 306, Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius

2025-02-062025-02-06

Natalja Cheifec’s Discussion Club: Secrets of Longevity of the Jewish Family

This Thursday Natalja Cheifec’s discussion club will address male and female relations in Judaism. The Talmud says a God-fearing man vindicates an immoral woman and becomes immoral himself, but when an unjust man marries a God-fearing woman, he comes God-fearing.

This discussion will also talk about the hidden strengths of the Jewish family, the circumstances surrounding quick divorce, legends about Jewish weddings, the concept of love in Judaism and miracle-births by Jewish women.

To receive zoom credentials, click here. To make a donation to #NataljosPaskaita and/or the LJC, click here.

Time: 5:30 P.M., February 6
Place: internet

2025-02-05

Remembering Sutzkever

Ambassadors from Germany, the USA and Israel and the Lithuanian Jewish Community marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day by attending a play about the life of Abraham Sutzkever at the Vilnius Puppet Theater, a venue which was the Vilnius ghetto theater during the Holocaust.

Abraham Sutzkever was a Yiddish poet before, during and after the Holocaust and was imprisoned in the Vilnius ghetto. He joined the underground and fought as a Jewish partisan against the German and Lithuanian Nazis. In February of 1946 he was called up as a witness at the Nuremberg trials, testifying against Franz Murer, the murderer of his mother and newborn son.

The play, “Witness,” was written by Sutzkever’s granddaughter Hadas Kalderon. Israeli actor and stand-up comic Michael Hanegbi performed the role of Sutzkever.

Lithuanian foreign minister Kęstutis Budrys introduced the play. After the play Kalderon and Hanegbi shared reminiscences of Sutzkever and their thoughts and feelings about the play itself.

2025-02-042025-02-04

Condolences

Elizabeth Lichtenshein has passed away. She was born in 1949. She was a remarkable teacher, who worked for many years as the head teacher of the Sholem Aleichem school in Vilnius, and will be remembered as a wonderful wife, mother and grandmother. Our deepest condolences to her family, friends and students.

2025-02-03

Panevėžys Marks Auschwitz Anniversary: No Statute of Limitations on Holocaust, nor Memory

The Panevėžys Jewish Community marked the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on January 27, the date UNESCO proclaimed the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust back in 2005, with ceremonies and educational outreach.

Students from local schools attended a quiz on the Holocaust at the Panevėžys Jewish Community. Community members and chairman Gennady Kofman also met with reporter Jogintė Četkauskienė to talk about Jewish life in the city and country during WWII.

“Today it is our duty to do all we can to ensure this tragedy never happens again. That means encouraging tolerance, there is enough air for everyone on our beautiful planet. It also means courageously fighting against anti-Semitism, which is the most urgent problem in the world today,” Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman told the reporter.

He also touched upon statements made by Lithuanian MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis during the interview.

“This politician’s apathy towards the tragedy of the Jewish people and his anti-tolerance are incomprehensible. How is it possible not to think about normal, friendly relations between the different ethnic communities in Lithuania?” Kofman asked the reporter.

2025-01-30

NAALE Offers Students Chance to Study in Israel

Younger Community members exclusively again have the opportunity to meet with a representative of the NAALE Elite Academy at the Lithuanian Jewish Community this Sunday.

NAALE is a unique program providing Jewish adolescents the opportunity to receive a scholarship and to study from 3 to 4 years at an institution of higher learning in Israel.

The program was established in 1992 by the Society for Advancement of Education in partnership with The Ministry of Education and the Jewish Agency, as a response to the pressing need for quality education for Jewish youth after the dissolution of the former Soviet Union had left the educational system there in disarray. Initially intended for those repatriating to Israel, it came to include talented Jewish teenagers from around the world, providing them the best high school education and a priceless tool to achieve their future goals. NAALE Elite Academy also helps reestablish firm ties with Jewish roots and friendships which last a lifetime.

Different Israeli schools have NAALE programs which have their own individual features tailored to different styles, interests and religious and secular views.

Project leader of the NAALE directorate Igal Brantman will visit the Lithuanian Jewish Community this week to answer all your questions.

You must register to attend the event by sending an email to viljamas@lzb.lt.

Time: 11:00 A.M., Sunday, February 2
Place: Lithuanian Jewish Community, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius

2025-01-29

WJC President Lauder Warns Anti-Semitism that Led to Holocaust Still Threatens Global Stability

OSWIECIM, Poland–The virulent anti-Semitism that led to the Holocaust is still rampant around the globe today, World Jewish Congress president Ronald Lauder said against the backdrop of Monday’s solemn commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration and death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.

In a fundamental way, he added, a common thread links what happened at Auschwitz to the recent manifestations of Jew-hatred, including the October 7, 2023, terror attacks on Israel: the age-old hatred of Jews. Anti-Semitism “had its willing supporters then, and it has them now,” Lauder, who also serves as chair of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation and who has dedicated decades to preserving the site, said. “It was fed by the indifference of people who thought they were not affected because they were not Jewish.”

Lauder also stressed that anti-Semitic acts undermine the central tenets of civil society. “These attacks are not just targeting Jews,” he said. “They are an attack on Judeo-Christian values, which are the bedrock of Western civilization.”

He delivered his remarks alongside four Auschwitz survivors and Piotr Cywiński, director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Museum.

Full text and video here.

2025-01-282025-11-06

Šiauliai District Jewish Community Marks International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust

The Šiauliai District Jewish Community marked the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust proclaimed by UNESCO in 2005 Monday with members and friends attending the remembrance ceremony.

Actors Juozas Bindokas and Monika Šaltytė read translations of texts and poems by Abraham Sutzkever accompanied by Motiejus Dudnikas on accordeon. The composition was called “Prayer Just to Myself” detailing Sutzkever’s life before the Holocaust, being imprisoned in the Vilnius ghetto, liberation and the testimony he gave against Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials.

2025-01-282025-01-28

Natalja Cheifec’s Discussion Club on Judaism and Vegetarianism

Natalja Cheifec’s #EDUKACIJOS discussion club invites you to a zoom discussion on the place of vegetarianism in Judaism at 5:30 P.M. this Thursday, January 30. She will cite precedents mentioned in the Bible, for example, the hidden meaning of the story of Cain and Abel and their sacrifices, as well as tackling Nazi ideology about subhumans and the more recent controversy surrounding the ad campaign “The Holocaust on your plate.” She will also address a number of points about blessings over food, Judaism’s restrictions on meat consumption, the hierarchy of God’s Creation and others.

To register and receive zoom credentials, click here.

2025-01-28

Kaunas News

The United Kingdom’s newly-appointed ambassador to Lithuania Elizabeth Boyles and embassy staff visited Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas last week and asked him about current events in the Community and Community members’ views on political events in Lithuania and the world. Marija Oniščik guided a tour for the British delegation and Žakas of the history of Jewish Kaunas, and they were joined by the ambassadors of Japan and the Netherlands for a presentation of the new exhibits at the Sugihara House Museum in Kaunas.

2025-01-28

Letter to My Grandfather

Photo: Samuel Gochin, in Lithuanian military uniform of 5th Grand Duke Kestutis Doughboys Infantry. Source: Gochin Family Archive

by Grant Gochin

Dear Zayde,

Growing up in South Africa, you implored me to remember. Zachor. I was to remember who we Jews are, and where we came from. You showed me the photos and told me stories. You taught me only love. You asked me to visit our family cemetery in the “old country” and to recite Kaddish for our family. Zayde, I have.

So then, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, I travelled to the “old country,” specifically, Lithuania. Once there, my first destination was your shtetl. There was nothing Jewish remaining. They destroyed everything. Deliberately. I erected a new gravestone where I could say Kaddish.

The cemeteries were in utter disarray and in shambles. It was glaringly apparent to me that the overgrowth was intentional. No one wanted to remember that Jews had lived in Lithuania.

2025-01-272025-01-27

Pistorius Visits Ponar

German defense minister Boris Pistorius visited Ponar Wednesday to pay his respects to victims of the Holocaust in Lithuania. He was accompanied by Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky.

Pistorius said despite his tight schedule during his visit to Lithuania, he couldn’t imagine visiting the country without visiting Ponar. Ponar is a mass murder site just outside Vilnius where at least 70,000 Jews were murdered, although the number of dead is sometimes estimated much higher. Ethnic Poles and Soviet POWs were also murdered there in lesser numbers.

“That Mr. Pistorius found the time to honor victims of the Holocaust demonstrates how important it is to remember the scope of tragedy, even eighty years later, which can be caused by incautious political action and manipulation of man’s basest instincts,” Kukliansky commented.

Lithuanian national defense minister Dovile Šakalienė, German ambassador to Lithuania Cornelius Zimmermann and Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein also attended the wreath- and stone-laying ceremony.

2025-01-242025-01-24

Screening of Izaokas at Vilna Gaon Museum’s Litvak Museum

The Litvak Culture and Identity Museum will show the film Izaokas for free at 4:00 P.M. on Sunday, January 26. The event includes an introduction by film critic Izolda Keidošiūtė and a discussion between her and actress Severija Janušauskaitė who plays a role in the film.

The film begins with a Lithuanian murdering the Jewish man Izaokas at the garage massacre in Kaunas in 1941. The perpetrator is haunted by visions of the crime and an increasing sense of guilt for years afterwards.

The screening is in honor of the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust proclaimed by UNESCO in 2005 on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army in 1945. That anniversary is Monday.

The film is in Lithuanian.

Time: 4:00 P.M., Sunday, January 26
Place: Litvak Museum, Pylimo street no. 4A, Vilnius

2025-01-232025-01-23

Kaunas Jewish Community Honors January 13 Victims with Concert

The Kaunas Jewish Community hosted a concert last Sunday to remember the victims of January 13, 1991, when Soviet troops stormed the Vilnius television tower, killing and wounding civilians holding vigil there. The list of victims include Titas Masiulis whose family rescued Jews from the Holocaust.

Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas thanked the musicians and the Israeli embassy for making possible the arrival of saxophonist Amit Friedman, who will go on to tour Lithuania with a series of concerts to be announced.

2025-01-222025-01-22

Natalja Cheifec’s Discussion Club: Health and Medicine

Natalja Cheifec’s discussion club meets via internet at 5:30 this Thursday, January 23, with the topic of health and medicine. She will discuss 33 recommendations by Maimonides on how to stay healthy into old age, including the relationship between physical and spiritual health, the place of vegetarianism within the Jewish worldview, and much more information on avoiding illness and maintaining a healthy mind.

To receive zoom credentials, click here.

2025-01-21