The annual winter camp for kids and adolescents aged 7 to 17 is scheduled for December 24-30. Make sure to register early at the Lithuanian Jewish Community from 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.
For more information call +37068542463 or +37069920212 during working hours.
by Arkadijus Vinokuras
It’s at least 13. ISIS, the Islamic State. In 2003 it was a small, insignificant cult, but today it occupies a territory larger than the United Kingdom, rules over six million people and has an army of about 100,000 soldiers. What is ISIS’s religion? Islam. And what is the religion of the other terrorist organizations Hezbollah, Hamas, al Qaeda, the Taliban, Boko Haram and Shehab? Again, Islam.
All of these organizations taken as a whole have another 100,000 armed soldiers. Hamas rules about two million residents of Gaza. Hezbollah has become part of Lebanese society, a state within a state. Iran, a theocracy with sixty-six million residents and about one million soldiers, is the primary supporter of terrorism in the Near East. What is Iran’s religion? Islam. Not to mention the other Arab states.
Panevėžys city mayor Rytis Račkauskas attended a conference to unveil a memorial plaque to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of public figure and doctor Shakhnel Avrahom Meir. The project was financed by the Goodwill Fund and was supported by the Panevėžys Jewish Community and the municipality.
“The great contribution made by Dr. Meir to the life of the city is undisputed among residents. The doctor set up a hospital, clinics for children and adults and a tuberculosis dispensary. It is difficult to list all his accomplishments. But one must be mentioned: his concern for people. Meir dedicated himself to children from poor families and never discriminated against patients based on wealth or ethnicity. To him they were all the same, they were all important to him. The 150th anniversary of his birth compels us to remember and commemorate this notable person. I sincerely thank the organizers of this event for this initiative,” mayor Račkauskas told the audience.
PARIS (JTA)—Some 200 people gathered under heavy guard at a Paris synagogue to remember the victims of the terrorist attacks in the French capital on Friday night.
Led by chief rabbi of France Haim Korsia, leaders of French Jewry and Israel’s ambassador to France were among those who assembled at the Synagogue de la Victoire Sunday evening.
“Our people, who have been tested more than others, know the healing power of solidarity and unity in the face of the pain of families torn apart, broken couples and orphaned children,” Michel Gugenheim, chief rabbi of Paris, said about the132 fatalities and more than 350 wounded in multiple coordinated attacks.
Presidential hopeful says threat to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv is identical to threat to Paris, London and US cities
Republican presidential candidate senator Marco Rubio of Florida spoke during a community rally called “Never Again” to bring attention to what the organizers say is a rise in worldwide anti-Semitism and the campaign against Israel’s right to exist on November 15, 2015 in Miami Beach, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP)
Rubio said Israel’s fight against terrorism is the same one being fought by the United States and Europe.
He spoke in Miami Beach during a large rally in support of Israel and against anti-Semitism and said the threat to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv is the same as the threat to Paris, London and US cities. Rubio warned against “casting out one of our own”—meaning Israel—in hopes of appeasing jihadis.
Grande Synagogue de la Victoire, Paris
French Jews are calling for a “war without mercy” on jihadists. The Jewish communities security council has issued instructions for safeguarding synagogues following the Paris attacks. The French Jewish security council distributed specific directives to community leaders for the latter to warn their members about the cancelation of synagogue services if circumstances dictate. The attacks have made many French Jews cautious about their physical safety.
Roger Cukierman, president of the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France, the union of all Jewish institutions in France, issued a statement saying the war of the democratic state upon the jihadists must take the highest priority. He expressed condolences in the name of the CRIF to all the families of victims from Friday’s attacks.
Roger Cukierman, president of the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France, the council representing all Jewish institutions in France, reported following the attacks in the capital city Friday night he had no information on Jewish casualties or fatalities. The French Jewish communities have gone on highest alert following the event.
BBC reported Rench president François Hollande blamed Islamic State for the terrorist attacks, and AFP reported the organization had claimed responsibility. French police also reported they found a Syrian passport on the remains of one of the suicide bombers near the Stade de France sports arena, according to the Guardian newspaper. The number of dead was revised to 127.
More information available at the Forward.
On November 12 a memorial plaque was unveiled on the eastern wall, facing Jerusalem, of the former Jewish synagogue, now the Salantai Cultural Center. The plaque bears the inscription “To the memory of the Jews of Salantai from the 17th to the 20th century. The synagogue was in this building, in which a ghetto operated from June to July, 1941.”
Full story in Lithuanian here.
Screening of the film “Sudie, Lietuvos Jeruzale” [“Farewell, Jerusalem of Lithuania”] and meeting with the director, Saulius Beržinis.
12 noon, November 15
Netanyahu sends condolences to families of those killed in Paris, and wishes speedy recovery to the wounded.
The Prime Minister’s Office has called for bolstered security at Israel’s embassy in Paris along with Jewish institutions after a string of attacks late Friday left over a hundred dead in the French capital.
According to the report by Channel 2, the PMO instructed the Foreign Ministry to contact security authorities in France in order to carry out the measures.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was following the events developing in Paris and was receiving updates from the Foreign Ministry and security agencies, the report cited the PMO as stating.
“The attacks mean the necessity of an even deeper revision of the European policy towards the migrant crisis,” Konrad Szymanski said at a Saturday briefing.
Poland cannot accept migrants relocated under a European Union quota system after the attacks in Paris without security guarantees, its incoming European affairs minister said on Saturday, in a sign that the attacks may seriously undermine EU refugee policy.
Konrad Szymanski will take up his post on Monday in the government formed by the winners of last month’s election, the conservative and euro-skeptic Law and Justice (PiS) party.
“The attacks mean the necessity of an even deeper revision of the European policy towards the migrant crisis,” he said at a Saturday briefing.
“In Israel, as in France, terrorism is terrorism and standing behind it is radical Islam and its desire to destroy its victims,” Netanyahu said before the start of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday.
“The time has come for the world to wake up and unite in order to defeat terrorism. The time has come for countries to condemn terrorism against us to the same degree that they condemn terrorism everywhere else in the world,” he said.
Picture: The Grand Synagogue of Paris
Embassy of Israel
Vilnius
The Embassy of the State of Israel is very saddened to hear about the passing of Abram Lešč. We would like to express our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Abram Lešč.
Yehuda Gidron
Deputy Chief of Mission
Abramas Leščius, son of Chaim, always emphasizes he’s from Raseiniai.
In profoundest sorrow and with our deepest condolences to his survivors, we regret to announce that Abramas Leščius passed away on November 12. The Lithuanian Jewish Community as a whole feels the painful loss of this sincere, honest and intelligent man who served as gabbai of the Vilnius Choral Synagogue minyan for many years.
He was born on April 18, 1932. He will be buried according to Jewish tradition. The burial ceremony is to take place at 11:00 A.M. on November 13 at the Vilnius Jewish Cemetery, located at Sudervės road No. 28. A bus will transport those who want to bid him farewell from the Lithuanian Jewish Community at Pylimo street No. 4 at 10:30 A.M.
Abramas Leščius agreed to share passages from his life on the lzb.lt webpage just six months ago.
This year marks 150 years since the birth and 85 years since the death of Dr. Meir.
A ceremony to honor the memory of Dr. Shakhnel Avrahom Meir will be held in Panevėžys, Lithuania on November 13, the famous Lithuania doctor’s hometown.
He studied medicine at Moscow University and began his medical practice in Chernigov guberniya in the Ukraine before returning to Lithuania in 1891, where he first set up practice in Pasvalys and then moved back to Panevėžys in 1914. He had a reputation for selflessness and devoted all his time and energy to healing everyone who needed help. He improved his skills by working in clinics abroad and kept up with the latest advances in medicine, applying them at home. The Jewish Hospital was built and opened in Panevėžys in 1919 on his initiative. It served people of all ethnicities.
Vilnius, November 12, BNS–The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said the country won’t participate in several planned meetings with EU officials after the European Commission announced Wednesday a decision to label products imported from Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. The ministry announced Israel had suspended dialogue with the EU at several venues where meetings had been scheduled for the coming weeks in response to the EU decision. Israel earlier strongly condemned the EU measure as politically motivated, but the suspension of talks represents the first concrete step taken in response to product labeling.
The European Union reported earlier the decision to adopt special labeling rules for products from Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories was made for legal reasons regarding product country of origin requirements. “This is a technical issue, not a political position,” European Commission deputy chairman Valdis Dombrovskis told reporters earlier, when the highest executive body of the EU initially approved the labeling scheme. “The EU does not support any boycott of or sanctions against Israel,” he said then, adding the new measures were connected with consumer policy in the Union. “The Commission is presenting recommendations to EU members and economic operators in order to ensure the uniform application of labeling rules for products from the Israeli settlements,” Dombrovskis said. He said the EU decision “is not a new legal act or a new policy” and that it elucidated certain issues connected with the interpretation and effective implementation of existing EU laws.
BNS
AP Photo/Jim Hollander
As you will be aware, and after much fanfare, the EU published its guidelines on labelling of products in the West Bank and Golan Heights.
Here at EIPA we think that in the midst of a continuing wave of indiscriminate terror attacks against Israel’s civilian population, the decision to publish these guidelines makes zero political sense from a set of EU institutions that want to be seen as an honest broker in the Peace Process.
The EU’s Foreign Policy Chief can try and dress this move up as consumer protection, a technical trade detail or as a non-binding set of guidelines, but to the vast majority of Israelis it will be viewed very simply: as a slap in the face and an overt political move to punish Israel.
After long deliberation, the European Commission has adopted rules requiring products from Israel’s occupied territories be labeled as such on EU store shelves.
Proponents of the measure argued it was needed for harmonization of the EU’s non-recognition of Israel’s right to occupy the territories and that it was a compromise to avoid a complete boycott of Israeli goods and preserve preferential treatment of Israeli products in EU markets under an agreement signed in 1995. They said it would also give EU consumers more freedom of choice in their purchasing decisions.
Opponents have called it an anti-Israel initiative veiled as a pro-consumer initiative, an attack on Israeli statehood which comes at a critical time, as Israel faces renewed Palestinian violence. Some have compared the singling out of Israeli goods to laws requiring Jews to wear yellow Stars of David during the Holocaust.
The Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum, the Germany Embassy and the Goethe Institut in Lithuania warmly invite you to celebrate International Tolerance Day this November 16 by attending a screening of Hanna’s Journey (2013), a film by Julia von Heinz, at 5:30 P.M., Monday, November 16 at the Tolerance Center at Naugarduko street no. 10/2 in Vilnius.
The film runs for 100 minutes. The film is in English, German and Hebrew, to be shown with Lithuanian subtitles. Entry is free to the general public.
from IMDB: “A German girl travels to Israel to help people with disabilities, where she learns about the role of her grandparents in WWII and meets a man who wants to move to Berlin.”