Natalja Cheifec continues her discussion club on the internet at 6:00 P.M. Thursday. To participate, get zoom credentials here.
Sabbath Celebration with Vegetarian Dishes Inspired by Lewando
The team of the fotmer Bagel Shop Café, now called Pylimo 4 (the street address) is pleased to announce a Sabbath celebration featuring vegetarian dishes inspired by Fania Lewando from Vilnius, the author of a vegetarian cookbook published in Yiddish in 1938.
It happens this Friday, November 14. The menu pays tribute to Lewando’s cuisine which reflects Litvak traditions. Participants are asked to donate €22 per diner, but smaller donations are also very acceptable. The point is to celebrate the Sabbath together. To suggest dishes, for more information amd to register, send an email to gut.shabbos.vilnius@gmail.com.
Continuing Education Students Visit Panevėžys Jewish Community
Continuing education university students visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community on November 9 where they were received by chairman Gennady Kofman. Jifman presented members of the group his book on the Holocaust and two of the visitors spoke about the Holocaust experience of their families. They spoke for an hour and a half.
The Panevėžys Jewish Community and the older students planmed three lecture series starting in December on Krystallnacht, hate and the roots of the Holocaust, and to commemorate victims of the Holocaust together on January 27.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 4:30 P.M. on Friday, November 7, and concludes at 5:26 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 4:12 P.M. and completed before sunset at 4:30 P.M. Saturday is Night of Broken Glass Remembrance Day in Germany. Sunday is Remembrance Sunday in the United Kingdom and Tuesday is Veterans Day in the United States.
Concert of Jewish and Other Composers
Lithuanian saxophone prodigy Petras Vyšniauskas and pianist Aleksandra Žvirblytė will perform a program of works by Jewish, Litvak and other composers called Dialogue on Thursday, November 13, at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius.
Prior registration is required by filling out the internet form here.
Time: 6:00 P.M., November 13
Place: LJC, Vilnius
Memory Written in Stone
On October 18 Švenčionys Jewish Community chairman Moshe Shapiro, MP Emanuelis Zingeris and a number of local officials and residents as well as educators from Lithuania and abroad attended an event in Pabradė called Memory Written in Stone. The event was held by the Paribio Pažinimo Centras as part of a borader project to memorialize locations where synagogues once stood.
During this event two stone markers were erected at the site of two former synagogues. The Pabradė Fanfare Orchestra provided musical accompaniment.
Congratulations to Jokūbas Šiuipys
Congratulations to Šiauliai Jewish Community member Jokūbas Šiuipys who was recently accepted into a six-week course in Israel for training young diplomats and leaders called Masa Diplomats. The training course is held by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Seasoned career diplomats teach about the country’s history, foreign policy and international relations during the course held in Israel.
Natalja Cheifec on the Messiah, Part 2
Natalja Cheifec continues her lecture topic from last week, the Messiah, this Thursday at 6:00 P.M.
Register to participate here.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Thursday, November 6
Place: internet
WJC Welcomes Pope’s Strong Condemnation of Anti-Semitism
NEW YORK —The World Jewish Congress has welcomed the remarks of Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday unequivocally condemned anti-Semitism during his general audience at the Vatican.
Addressing thousands of faithful the Pope said: “All my predecessors have condemned anti-Semitism with clear words,” adding, “I too confirm that the Church does not tolerate anti-Semitism and fights against it, on the basis of the Gospel itself.”
WJC president Ronald S. Lauder praised the Pope’s message calling it “an extraordinarily positive and deeply meaningful gesture.”
“At a time when Jews are facing the greatest persecution since the Second World War, the Pope’s message carries profound fraternal meaning,” Lauder said. “Gestures like this inspire us to strengthen the bonds between Jews and Catholics, and to work together for a world of greater co-existence among religions, in the pursuit of peace.”
The Pope’s statement comes as the Catholic Church marks the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the landmark declaration of the Second Vatican Council which transformed Jewish-Catholic relations and established a foundation of mutual respect and dialogue.
Full statement here.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 4:44 P.M. on Friday, October 31, and concludes at 5:38 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 4:26 P.M. and completed before sunset at 4:44 P.M. November 1 is All Saints’ Day.
Condolences
Rima Rapoport has died. She was born in 1944. Our deepest condolences go to her daughter Natalija, son Ilja and her many, many friends and family.
Kaunas Jewish Community Attends YIVO Birthday in Brussels
A contingent of members of the Kaunas Jewish Community travelled to Brussels to attend a celebration of 100 years since the founding of the YIVO held at a Lithuanian government representative office there in late September. Member of the European Parliament Liudas Mažylis extended the invitation for the Kaunas legation o attend the event.
Jewish Grandmother Inspires Concert Program
Pianist Gintaras Januševičius has inspired Lithuanian audiences with his concert programs in recent years. Now he’s taking inspiration from his own family.
“My grandmother was Jewish and lived in Novosibirsk, Tashkent and near the end of her life in Haifa,” Januševičius said.
Januševičius is calling this new concert program Freylakh, literally “happy” in Yiddish, but usually denoting a happy song, plural freylakhs.
“This program is a reflection of her smile, optimism and strength,” Januševičius said.
The program includes works by Mendelssohn, Gerschwin, Schulhoff and others.
Lazar Kagan Exhibit in Palanga
he Palanga Jewish Community invites you to attend an exhibit of works by Lazar Kagan at the Jonas Šliūpas Museum opening this Thursday. Kagan was a Jewish cartoonist and illustrator from Palanga in interwar Lithuania.
Time: 5:30 P/M/. Thursday, Octobver 30
Place: Jonas Šliūpas Museum, Vytauto street no. 23A, Palanga
Natalja Cheifec on the Messiah
Natalja Cheifec continues her lecture and discussions series withe topic of Messiah, including:
The Messiah in Judaism;
Exile and liberation from suffering;
The agony of Creation;
Darkness before dawn;
Conciliation and resurrection.
She will also discuss the appearance of the Messiah on an ass, what happens when he appears, the disposition of Israel following the rebuilding of the Temple, the Final Judgment and the resurrection of the dead. To receive zoom credentials, click here.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Thursday, October 30
Place: internet
Child’s Bracelet Marks Site of Righteous Gentiles’ Maternity Clinic
by Skirmantė Javaitytė
On Friday the Kaunas Jewish Community and Liudas Mažylis unveiled a plaque commemorating the site of the birthing clinic formerly run by the Righteous Gentiles Pranas Mažylis, Liudas’s grandfather, Pranas’s wife Antanina and their daughter Liūda.
The plaque features a child’s bracelet inlaid with the inscription: “In Pranas Mažylis’s ,maternity clinic in this building from 1936 to 2025 thousands of babies entered the world. During World War II the Pranas and Antanina Mažylis family saved Jews here.” The family rescued a number of Jews.
Grandson Liudas Mažylis said at the ceremony he hadn’t been a part of it because he was born in 1954. He said his grandparents saved Liliana Levintoff, Isaac Yudelavitch, Grigory Teper and Bela Gurvitch.
Fayerlakh Performs in Simnas
The Jewish song and dance ensemble Fayerlakh performed Sunday in Simnas as the final act in the celebration of the 120th birthday of the synagogue there and of the former Jewish community in the small town.
Members of the audience had the chance to sample traditional Jewish foods and learn more about the shtetl.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 5:59 P.M. on Friday, October 24, and concludes at 6:52 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 5:41 P.M. and completed before sunset at 5:59 P.M.
Panevėžys Jewish Community and City Officials Visit Lost Shtetl Museum
Members of the Panevėžys Jewish Community and Panevėžys municipal officials visited the Lost Shtetl Museum in Šeduva October 17.
Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofmanas.presented a new Jewish calendar to museum staff.
Moyshe Kulbak Lecture
The Judaica Research Center at the Lithuanian National Library presents a lecture by Center director Lara Lempertienė at 6:00 P.M. Tuesday, October 28, on Yiddish poet and novelist Moyshe Kulbak called “I Am This City: Moyshe Kulnak’s Vilnius” in :Lithuanian.
Lempertienė for many years has worked with Jewish texts from Lithuania and Europe and has research manuscripts in the National Library’s Judaica collection. She was graduated from Vilnius University as a philologist, studied at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and was a visiting scholar at Oxford University’s Hebrew and Judaica Studies Center. She earned a doctorate for her thesis “Rabbinical Exegesis in the Context of Traditional Jewish Education in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.”
The lecture will take place at the Vytautas Kasiulis Art Museum in Vilnius where an accompanying exhibit of art by Tania Mourad is on display touching on the Holocaust experience and Litvak poetry, with street graffiti transcribed into the Yiddish alphabet. For more information, call +370 5 261 6764 or send an emial to the museum at kasiulio.muziejus@lndm.lt.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Tuesday, October 28
Place: Vytautas Kasiulis Art Museum, Goštauto street no. 1, Vilnius