Natalja Cheifec continues her internet lecture series with a fourth installment on raising children according to the Torah. To receive zoom credentials and participate, click here.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Thursday, February 5
Place: internet
Condolences
Josifas Useris has died. He was born in 1937. He was a client of the Saul Kagan Welfare Center. Our deepest condolences to his family and friends.
International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust in Panevėžys
The Panevėžys Jewish Community, deputy mayor Deividas Labanavičius, continuing-education students and visitors from Kupiškis as well as local residents marked the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust on January 27.
“The Holocaust reminds us to the depths to which hate, apathy and ignoring human dignity can lead. As we remember the victims, we take responsibility for preserving human respect, for strengthening tolerance and for passing on historical memory to the future generations. This is a duty, leading to a mature and responsible society,” deputy mayor Deividas Labanavičius said.
Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman spoke about the incredible mass murder of almost all Lithuanian Jews and noted more than 600,000 Jews had fought against Nazi Germany, many of them falling on the battle field or returning home disabled. “We also remember those who at risk to themselves and the lives of their families rescued Jews from certain death,” he said.
Remembering Holocaust Victims in Šiauliai
International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust was marked in Šiauliai January 27. People gathered at the location of the ghetto gates at the intersection of Ežero and Trakų streets. Members of the Šiauliai Jewish Community, local officials and local residents attended. Candles were lit at the monument marking the former ghetto gates. The attendees then moved on to Righteous Gentile Square.
Remembering the Holocaust in Ariogala
Lithuanian Tolerance Center representatives held a national art conference called “The History of the Lithuanian Jewish Community Lost and Discovered” for the 11th time in Ariogala, Lithuania, on January 27, the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust declared by the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization in 2005. January 27 is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
Vocalists from the Ariogala high school performed. Israeli embassy hargé d’affaires Shimon Pesach, Raseiniai regional municipality mayor Arvydas Nekrošius, Department of Ethnic Minorities director Dainius Babilas and Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas were among those attending.
Photos from the International Commission to Asses the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania.
Palanga Jewish Cemeteries: Inscriptions, Records, Territories
Information from Mindaugas Surblys, Palanga Jewish Community
When fire ran rampant in Palanga in 1830, old burial pinkhas were destroyed, dating back to 1487. Beginning in 1831 burial records were kept for the new Jewish cemetery at the edge of town. For a time two Jewish cemeteries operated in tandem in Palanga, the old one since 1487 till 1892, located inside Birutė Park. The new cemetery was instituted near Naglys Hill.
There are ten remaining headstones (matsevot) of different sizes made from granite and cement with inscriptions in Hebrew letters. Three headstones are broken in their upper sections. One is splintered with fragments lying on the ground. Many of the surviving monuments are difficult to read.
Several inscriptions are legible and correspond to the burial records of the Palanga Jewish community. The inscriptions match the information in the pinkhas, for example, “Here lies our dear and honored father who was famous for his charity work and high moral character, Natan Frank, son of Hirsh (Tzvi), deceased on Rosh Hashanah, 1935” (partial translation).
UN Holocaust Day at the Šiauliai District Jewish Community
The Šiauliai District Jewish Community marked the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust on January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, with an evening of tea celebrating Vulf Visotiski, a tea expert whose family began dealing in tea in Žagarė back in 1849.
The Šiauliai District Jewish Community invited experts and cultural anthropologists from Žagarė and around Lithuania as well as the general public and served Visotski tea imported from Israel. The fifth generation of the family is still blending tea in Israel now. High school student singers from the area and from Klaipėda provided the highlight of the evening. Speakers also provided historical insights into the Volpert family and the history and current state of Žagarė.
Tu b’Shvat
Today is the Jewish holiday of Tu b’Shvat, the 15th day of the month of Shvat, the New Year for trees also known as Israeli Arbor Day. It is traditional to eat of the shvat ha’minim (seven species endemic to the Land of Israel): wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates. Hag sameakh!
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 4:53 P.M. on Friday, January 30, and concludes at 5:53 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 4:35 P.M. and completed before sunset at 4:53 P.M. Monday is Tu b’Shvat, Jewish Arbor Day. Monday is also Candlemas for Christians and Groundhog Day in the US and Canada.
Driver Rams Car into Chabad HQ in New York City
Photo: Chabad Lubavitch headquarters in Brooklyn on January 28. Photo by Louis Keene
by Louis Keene and Jacob Kornbluh, Forward, January 29, 2026
The incident occurred on a day of celebration in the Chabad community. No one was hurt.
CROWN HEIGHTS–A driver crashed a car into an entrance of the Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters in Brooklyn Wednesday night, damaging the building on a night thousands were gathered there to celebrate.
Video circulating online and verified by eyewitnesses shows a vehicle repeatedly driving into the building’s doors at 770 Eastern Parkway in the Crown Heights neighborhood, the main synagogue of the Chabad movement and one of the most recognized Jewish institutions in the world. One witness said the driver had yelled at bystanders to move out of the way before he drove down a ramp leading to the doors.
Palanga Jewish Community Marks UN Holocaust Day
Members of the Palanga Jewish Community, representatives of the municipality and local high school students marked the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust Tuesday by visiting a marker commemorating victims at a cemetery there.
“The Holocaust isn’t a past tragedy, it’s a warning of what happens when apathy becomes the norm and hate becomes acceptable. Our duty is not just to remember the victims, but also to protect the truth, which is uncomfortable to some. Remembering isn’t a ceremony, it’s a daily choice,” Palanga Jewish Community chairman Vilius Gutmanas remarked on the occasion.
The seaside resort town has several Holocaust memorial sites with commemorative markers and plaques. The local cemetery has a stele marking where 106 Jews and 5 Lithuanians murdered in 1941 were reburied. Jewish sites including the Great and Lesser Synagogues and a site connected with Dr. Lazar Gutman are also marked now, as are two pre-Holocaust Jewish cemeteries.
Natalja Cheifec on Raising Children according to the Torah, Part 3
Natalja Cheifec continues her internet lecture and discussion on child-rearing according to the Torah this Thursday at 6:00 P.M.
To participate, click here.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Thursday, January 29
Place: internet
Šiauliai District Jewish Community to Mark UN Holocaust Day
The Šiauliai District Jewish Community invites you to mark International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust together with the community on January 27. At 12 noon there will be a candle-lighting ceremony at the Shavl ghetto gate located at the corner of Ežero and Trakų streets. At 6:00 P.M. the Community will hold an evening to celebrate Vulf Visotski and tea called “Memory, Faith, Hope” at the Community at Višinskio street no. 24 in Šiauliai. Participants are to include the student theater from the Ąžuolynas Gymnasium in Klaipėda, vocalists from the Juventa Pre-gymnasium in Šiauliai District and guests from Pakruojis and Žagarė.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 4:39 P.M. on Friday, January 23, and concludes at 5:41 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 4:21 P.M. before sunset at 4:39 P.M. on Friday. Sunday is Burns Night, in honor of the Scottish poet Robert Burns. Monday is Australia Day.
Kabalat Shabat with Rabbi Natan Alfred
The Bnai Maskilim association invites members and friends to ring in the new year with a special evening and an old friend. Progressive Rabbi Natan Alfred, a co-founder of the Bnai Maskilim association and currently serving in Geneva and as acting chairman of the European Rabbis Association, will preside over the ritual and discuss current events.
Registration required by sending an email to bneimaskilim@gmail.com.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Friday, January 23
Place: Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius
History on Trial: Lithuania’s Unanswered Record
by Grant Gochin, January 5, 2026
History is not preserved by monuments or institutions. It is preserved by accuracy, accountability, and the willingness to confront what is difficult. Nowhere is that obligation more binding than in nations whose soil carries the memory of mass murder. When a state chooses to defend dishonest institutional narratives instead of historical truth, the cost becomes permanent: the leadership that made those choices becomes inseparable from the legacy of distortion.
Lithuania refuses to confront that legacy.
The Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania
The Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania (LGGRTC) is a state institution charged with researching and memorializing the crimes of totalitarian regimes. Over the past decades, its conduct has drawn sustained criticism for minimizing Lithuanian participation in the Holocaust while promoting dishonest national narratives.
International Jewish organizations and independent observers have warned that the Centre’s activities approach Holocaust distortion and contradict established historical scholarship. https://www.timesofisrael.com/lithuanias-genocide-studies-center-accused-of-holocaust-denial/
Does Greenland Dispute Spell the End for NATO?
by Geoff Vasil
Not necessarily. What most people don’t realize is that numerous NATO member-states have standing territorial disputes with other NATO member-states and sometimes even attack one another militarily.
Cyprus is a prime example, the divided island split by the so-called Green Line between Turkey and the Greek population, reflecting a larger conflict going back to the Ottoman takeover of Greek territory in Anatolia and spilling over into bombing sorties into one another’s territories at times while both countries remained in NATO.
Denmark and Canada have a dispute over an Arctic island close to the Greenlandic shore. They’ve ritualized the conflict into an annual “occupation” where one side buries a whiskey bottle for the other “occupying army” to find.
Israel Recognizes Somaliland
by Danielle Greyman-Kennard, December 26, 2025
Israel becomes first UN member state to recognize Somaliland, Netanyahu declares
Netanyahu congratulated Somaliland president H.E. Abdirahman Mohamed Abdillahi and praised his leadership and commitment to security, stability and peace.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu officially recognized Somaliland as an independent and sovereign state, the Prime Minister’s Office announced Friday, making Israel the first UN member state to recognize the nation as a sovereign state.
Together with foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar and the Somaliland president, Netanyahu signed a joint and mutual declaration on Friday.
Natalja Cheifec on Raising Children according to the Torah, Part 2
Natalja Cheifec continues her internet lecture/discussion on raising children according to the Torah this Thursday. Topics include praise, showing love, controlling anger and appropriate discipline.
To receive zoom credentials and participate, click here.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Thursday, January 22
Place: internet
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 4:26 P.M. on Friday, January 16, and concludes at 5:29 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 4:08 P.M. and completed before sunset at 4:26 P.M. Friday is National Religious Freedom Day in the United States.