News

LJC Hosts TOLI Seminar

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.

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Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 8:39 P.M. on Friday, April 24, and concludes at 9:44 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 8:21 P.M. and completed before sunset at 8:39 P.M. Saturday is ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand with observation leading into Monday. Sunday is the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident when one of the nuclear power plant’s four reactors slipped into uncontrolled fission and exploded during a power-down test.

New Jacques Lipchitz Museum in Druskininkai

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.

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Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 8:26 P.M. on Friday, April 17, and concludes at 9:27 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 8:08 P.M. and completed before sunset at 8:26 P.M. Tuesday is Yom haZikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day, and Wednesday is Yom haAtzmaut, Israeli Independence Day.

Jewish Music: From Liturgical Tradition to Klezmer and Minimalism

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

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.

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Yom HaShoah in Vilnius

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

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Holocaust Seminar for Teachers in Palanga

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.

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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.

Iran Turns to Stand-Up Comedy to Ward Off Trump

Iran Turns to Stand-Up Comedy to Ward Off Trump

by Geoff Vasil

When president Trump announced an American counter-blockade at the mouth of Hormuz, a wild-eyed Islamic Revolutionary Guard spokesman took to what’s left of Iranian state television to denounce the move as an “illegal act” and “piracy.”

Pretty rich coming from the country that attacked all its neighbors and at least three nominally European countries, then claimed it wasn’t attacking, then claimed it was only attacking US bases. It wasn’t. It was attacking energy and civilian sites in Saudi, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the Emirates, Oman, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Israel and Turkey. Then Iran attacked a Thai-flagged ship at Hormuz, then about 19 more in and around the area, saying it was allowing international shipping, but not for US allies.

The Iranian protection shakedown at Hormuz was a major issue at the pro forma alleged negotiations in Pakistan. Iran demanded the world cede the international waterway to Iran, and even demanded the UN Security Council approve that aggression by the Islamic Republican mafia. “Nice tanker ship. It’d be a shame if something happened to it,” Iran tells the world in its last gasp as some sort of regional power, regional bully. Iran isn’t like its neighbors, it’s more like the psychopathic neighbor whose ire all avoid.

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Passover through the Eyes of Children

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.

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Happy Birthday

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

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

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.

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March of the Living for Yom HaShoah

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

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.

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Passover in Kaunas

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.

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