News

Sholem Aleichem School Offers Day Camps

Sholem Aleichem School Offers Day Camps

The Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium is offering day camps for first to fourth grade students from June 9 to 13 and again from June 16 to 20 with nature outings, educational games and many other activities. The first session is called “Around the World with a Backpack” and the second is “Finding Adventure in the City and the Woods.”

Registration is open till noon on June 1 by filling out the form here. For more information, call Vaiva Seliavienė at 370 613 37709 or write: vaiva.seliaviene@gmail.com.

Kuršiai Social Center Clients Meet Panevėžys Jewish Community

Kuršiai Social Center Clients Meet Panevėžys Jewish Community

Members of Panevėžys chapter of the Kuršiai Social Center visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community and met with chairman Gennady Kofman.

Kuršiai members had the opportunity to learn about Jewish history and culture and the Holocaust. Kofman spoke in detail about the Jewish community who lived in Panevėžys before the Holocaust, their contribution to the development of the horthern Lithuanian city and their mass murder.

He emphasized Jewish education, religious and cultural traditions and efforts to preserve historical memory. The audience learned about the current activities of the Panevėžys Jewish Community including educational projects and memorial initiatives.

Attendees thanked the chairman and the Community for the warm reception and discussed their understanding of cultural diversity and values

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Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 9:21 P.M. on Friday, May 16, and concludes at 10:37 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 9:03 P.M. and completed before sunset at 9:21 P.M. Lag b’Omer begins at sunset on Thursday and ends at sundown on Friday. Parts of Canada celebrate Victoria Day Monday.

Judaism and Paganism: Not Totally Polar Opposites

Judaism and Paganism: Not Totally Polar Opposites

Michael Strmiska, Phd., will deliver a talk about the points of contact between Temple and Rabbinical Judaism and Classical Paganism at the Vilnius Jewish Public Library next Wednesday.

He plans to present striking parallels shared by the two religious traditions which haven’t been considered related since Justin the Apologist, later Justin the Martyr’s times, commonly called pre-Christian Paganism and simply Judaism. He will present common aspects of both which overcome the popular perception Paganism is polytheism and Judaism is mono, and never the trwain shall meet.

His talk will include discussion on the marginalization and also the survival of both traditions through the course of history, the view both traditions take regarding Nature, conceptions of the feminine divine and the traditions both schools share at their mystical extremities.

This perhaps provocative lecture could serve to foster greater understanding of how these two religions are able to intercommunicate in surprising ways. Both Paganism and Temple Judaism together form the context in which the fathers of the Early Church operated.

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Condolences

Julija Ruminienė has passed away. She was born in 1938. She was a member of the Šiauliai Jewish Community and a client of the Saul Kagan Welfare Center. Our deepest condolences to the children and friends she leaves behind.

New Film Looks at Anti-Semitism on American College Campuses

New Film Looks at Anti-Semitism on American College Campuses

A new film called October 8: The Fight for the Soul of America was just released. Directed by Wendy Sachs with appearances by Debra Messinger and others, the documentary examnines the rise of support for Hamas on US college campuses since the October 7, 2023, massacre of Jews in Israel, and the concomitant rise in anti-Semitism in American academia and around the world.

An alternative title, October H6TE, is also circulating, and the subtitle is variously The Fight for the Soul of America and Globalize the Intifada (the latter appearing on official movie posters).

According to wikipedia:

The film covers the 2024 pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses after the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel. It describes how “anti-Israel sentiment came to a fever pitch in the immediate aftermath of the massacre” and argues such sentiment “morphed into anti-Semitism”. The film includes interviews with Michael Rapaport, Noa Tishby, US representative Ritchie Torres, US senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Sheryl Sandberg, Dan Senor, Scott Galloway and Mosab Yousef. It explores the organization Students for Justice in Palestine and argues that SJP promoted anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism on campus. The film also covers the role of social media in allegedly stoking anti-Semitism among young people.

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Hazamir Choir from Helsinki to Perform

Hazamir Choir from Helsinki to Perform

The Lithuanian Jewish Community is pleased to host a concert by the exceptional Jewish choir Hazamir from Finland. The choir has existed for more than 100 years (founded in 1917) and has performed Jewish music or audiences in Europe and America, and has even appeared on MTV. Their repertoire includes traditional songs in Hebrew and Yiddish, but also Swedish, Finnish and more recently Russian as well. This will be their only appearance in Vilnius during this tour.

Registration is required by sending an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt.

Time: 2:00 P.M., Sunday, June 8
Place: Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius

Lecture on Early Jewish Photography in Lithuania

Lecture on Early Jewish Photography in Lithuania

The Vilnius Picture Gallery and the Lithuanian Museum of National Art will host a lecture by Dainius Junevičius called “Early Lithuanian Photography: Jews on Both Sides of the Lens” at the picture gallery at 5:30 P.M., Tuesday, May 20. The event is free and open to the public.

Junevičius is an expert on the history of photography. He will speak on the role Jewish photographers played in early Lithuanian photography from the Jewish owners and photographers of first photo studios in Vilnius to the work of talented photographer Miron Butkovski (1865-1938) who earned the Vatican’s gratitude fir his photos of Vilnius’s churches in the late 19th century, and will also speak about the evolution of photography in Lithuania and in general and the pioneers in other locations in Lithuania.
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His lecture will include demonstrations of the earliest photographs of Jews starting with those from a Russian ethnographic exhibit in 1867 and extending through the Jewish ethnographic field surveys led by An-sky from 1912 ro 1914.

The lecture and slideshow is part of the exhibit “You Shall Not Make an Images” the Vilnius Picture Gallery and YIVO opened March 5 and which will run till September 14. Registration is not required for the lecture and there is no fee for admission..

Time: 5:30 P.M., Tuesday, May 20
Place: Vilnius Picture Gallery, Didžioji street no. 4, Vilnius

Vilnius Cinema Denounces Own Israeli Film Week, Deletes Denunciation Post

Vilnius Cinema Denounces Own Israeli Film Week, Deletes Denunciation Post

by Geoff Vasil

The Skalvija movie theater in Vilnius hosted Israeli Film Week in early May as announced earlier.

Pro-Hamas protestors associated with the website palestina.lt decided to disrupt Israeli Film Week. According to one eye-witness a group of about 6 Hamas supporters entered one of the viewing halls and disrupted the film Seven Blessings (2023, Israel) being screened May 6. Movie theater staff asked them to leave and they reportedly did.

Skalvija then apologized to Hamas supporters on their facebook page, saying members of their “collective” were also anti-Israeli. They explained they had no choice but to host Israeli Film Week because they were not a commercial theater but an arm of city government, and that they had been ordered to show Jewish films. They said they hadn’t advertised the Israeli films in any way on their own website or through any other channels, and that the event was entirely funded by the Israeli embassy in Vilnius.

That post created public controversy and Skalvija “collective” leaders quickly deleted it. The municipality of Vilnius responded to the deleted post saying affiliates and agencies of the municipality were always welcome to discuss issues with the city, and that neither the municipality nor its agencies and departments were responsible for setting foreign policy.

{alestina.lt claimed they would protest Israeli Film Week from May 6 to 9 with daily pickets by 15 people or less outside. There were no further reports by eye-witnesses of protests inside or outside of the theater. Palestina.lt claimed on their facebook page the city of Vilnius had issued them a permit for a protest by up to 15 people outside the theater on May 6, the day 6 people reportedly entered a viewing hall and disrupted the movie..

Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 9:08 P.M. on Friday, May 9, and concludes at 10:20 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 8:50 P.M. and completed before sunset at 9:08 P.M. Thursday, May 8th is the day 80 years ago Nazi Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies Great Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union (Nazi capitulation was on May 9 Moscow time and Victory Day is always celebrated on May 9 in Russia, Belarus and most other former Soviet republics).

Vilna Gaon Museum Offers Free Entrance on Museum Night in Vilnius

Vilna Gaon Museum Offers Free Entrance on Museum Night in Vilnius

The Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum is staying open late and offering free admission at three of its facilities to celebrate Museum Night on May 17, the night most museums in Vilnius offer free addmission and stay open late. The Litvak Identity Museum, the Holocaust Exhibit at the Green House and the Samuel Bek Museum at the Tolerance Center are offering their own programs including an outdoor café open all evening and new exhibit openings. For more information, send an email to aiste.brusokaite@jmuseum.lt.

University of Washington Breaks Up Hamas Sit-In

University of Washington Breaks Up Hamas Sit-In

The University of Washington in Seattle was the site of an attempted occupation by pro-Palestine protestors late Monday night. Members of the Students United for Palestinian Equality and Return (SUPER) group affiliated with the UW attempted to occupy and barricade the engineering library on campus, which was reportedly still open with student visitors. SUPER UW protestors outside addressed their own members with bullhorns, pushed obstables in front of the main doors and lit a dumpster on fire,

UW Police requested help from the Seattle Police Department and police in riot gear arrested around 30 protestors inside the building for criminal trespass after they failed to heed police instructions to leave the building in the early hours of Tuesday. The trespassers were booked into King County Jail.

The University of Washington released a statement the next day expressing zero tolerance for the property damage and alleged anti-Semitic statements promulgated by the Hamas supporters. They estimated the property damage came to around $1 million.

Protestors had brought bedding subsequently abandoned during the arrests and appeared to have planned an extended occupation of the building.

Natalja Cheifec on Lag b’Omer

Natalja Cheifec on Lag b’Omer

Lag b’Omer falls on May 16th this year. The holiday lies midway between Passover and Shavuot on the 33rd day of the Counting of Omer. It is mainly celebrated with bonfires lit in the morning but has a number of deeper traditions and practices.

Natalja Cheifec invites the general public to a discussion of the holiday on the zoom platform at 5:30 P.M. on Thursday, May 8.

To receive zoom credentials, click here.

New Holocaust Education Initiative in Poland and Lithuania

New Holocaust Education Initiative in Poland and Lithuania

A new project called “Education against Anti-Semitism. Learn from the Past to Understand Today’s Challenges. A Selection of Multimedia Teaching Aids” began in April. Over 2 years project participants will create and publicize a varied selection of multimedia aids based on individual historical sources for use by Lithuanian and Polish teachers, history teachers, human rights educators and young people from 14 to 19.

The aim is to foster understanding of the current state of anti-Semitism and the danger of stigmatization and isolation through teaching about the Holocaust.

The coordinator is the Polish organization Ośrodka Karta. Partners include Fundacja Centrum Edukacji Obywatelskiej, Ośrodek Brama Grodzka — Teatr NN, Fundacja Pogranicze, Fundacja Otwarta Edukacja and the Lithuanian Jewish Community. The project is dunded by the EU but is editorially independent.

Congratulations to Rafael Gimelštein

Congratulations to Rafael Gimelštein

Photo: Rafael Gimelštein, right

Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club member Rafael Gimelštein and his Kilvatai team from Vilnius have won in the second league of the Lithuanian table tennis championship, beating Vilnius Tech, Tamsta from Vilnius and Kaunas’s Red and Black teams.

The final match against a team from Šiauliai will determine the distribution of medals. If Klivatai loses that match, they take 5th place, and if they win, 1st. \\

Rafael Gimelštein coaches the after-school tennis club for young people at the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium in Vilnius.

Congratulations, Rafael!

Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 8:55 P.M. on Friday, May 2, and concludes at 10:03 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 8:37 P.M. and completed before sunset at 8:55 P.M. May 1 is Labor Day in Lithuania, a state holiday. May 3 is Constitution Day in Poland, also a national holiday.

Israeli Film Week, Everything Free

Israeli Film Week, Everything Free

The Israeli embassy presents the fifth annual Israeli film retrospective from May 6 to 9 at the Skalvija cinema in Vilnius. All films are free and open to the public. All films are in Hebrew with Lithuanian subtitles.

Seven Blessings, 2023: 6:00 P.M., May 6

Here We Are, 2020: 6:00 P.M., May 7

Art of Waiting, 2019: 6:00 P.M., May 8

Shorts Average Story, 2016; Boy, 2023; Black Slide, 2021: 6:00 P.M., May 9

Moishele, Mayn Fraynd

Moishele, Mayn Fraynd

An evening of music dedicated to the memory of Mikhail Filyopov-Jablonskis

Fayerlakh invites you to a special event dedicated to remembering and honoring the late Mikhail Filyopov, one of the most outstanding performers of Jewish music in Lithuania, a man who dedicated his life to music, the stage and culture.

Tickets are available starting from €20.00 here.

Time: 5:00 P.M., Sunday, June 8
Place: House of Polish Culture, Naugarduko street no. 76, Vilnius

Integration and Inclusion Forum

Integration and Inclusion Forum

The Ethnic Minorities Department and the British Council are holding a two-day conference and discussion on integration and inclusion on May 22 and 23 at Novotel Hotel in Vilnius. Those wishing to attend should register by May 15 at www.inforum.lt.

The conference will host experts on minority integration and human rights, media representatives, politicians, members of Lithuania’s ethnic minority communities, foreign speakers and more.

The Integration and Inclusion Forum is part of events to celebrate Lithuania’s Ethnic Minorities Day May 21, which kicks off with an awards event at St. Catherine’s Church in Vilnius at 3:00 P.M. The awards will be given to those who have distinguished themselves through their work with Lithuania’s ethnic minorities.