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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Sabbath begins at 7:59 P.M. on Friday, April 3, and concludes at 8:57 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 7:41 P.M. and completed before sunset at 7:59 P.M. Sunday is Easter. Passover ends on Wednesday in Israel and Thursday elsewhere.
by Geoff Vasil
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese began this spectacle Thursday with a rare address to the nation. According to accounts even in the friendly media, he didn’t really say anything about rising fuel prices. “It might not be easy,” Albanese said, strangely paraphrasing the election slogan the Liberals (=Conservatives down under) used against him in the last election, “It won’t be easy under Albanese.”
British prime minister Keir Starmer was next, again saying almost nothing, but seeming to posture in a New Labour kind of way, like Tony Blair’s famous “I have no reverse gear,” saying the UK would not be drawn into America and Israel’s war in Iran because it wasn’t in the interest of the British people. On rising fuel costs, Starmer parroted Albanese’s line, saying: “It won’t be easy.”
Donald Trump was next, delivering a speech late Thursday East Coast time, again saying nothing. Trump in fact read excerpts of his own posts made earlier on his social media outlet, Truth Social.
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!