Religion – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Jewish Scouting Season Opens

Weekly meetings of Jewish scouts are taking place again starting at 3:00 P.M. this Sunday at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius. The gathering should last around one hour. Jewish scouting teaches scouts Jewish culture, civic-mindedness, responsibility, independence and a number of other skills and values, and includes a lot of fun and games as well. This group is intended for scouts and potential scouts aged 6 to 18. FOr more information contact Michail Kofman by telephone at 860645o94 or send an email to skautai@lzb.lt.

2024-10-222024-10-22

Sukkot in Šiauliai

The Šiauliai Jewish Community gathered Friday to celebrate the Sabbath and Sukkot. Everyone had the opportunity to spend time in the Community’s sukka. On Wednesday the Community plans to mark the final day of Sukkot and on Thursday Simchat Torah, with guests expected from Vilnius.

Hag Sukot sameakh!

2024-10-22

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 5:54 P.M. on Friday, October 18, and concludes at 7:09 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Friday and Saturday are also days two and three of Sukkot and special Sabbath rules apply.

2024-10-172024-10-18

Sukkot Begins Today

Sukkot or Sukkos beings today, Wednesday, October 16, 2024, at sunset, or 5:59 P.M.

The festival of Sukkot–literally meaning booths, tents, tabernacles–is celebrated for seven days in Israel and eight days in the Diaspora, starting on the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei. It is one of the three festivals during which Jewish men were required to make pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the times of the Holy Temple.

2024-10-16

Simchat Torah Event at the Bagel Shop Café

The weekly portions of Torah readings ends and begins again. To mark the end of the cycle and the beginning of the new, you’re invited to a Simchat Torah celebration with the musical duet of Borisas Kizneris and Michailas Bolshunas, and a performance by Michailas Javichius on saxophone, at the Bagel Shop Café.

The cost is 15 euros. Registration required. Send an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt or call (+370) 678 81514 before noon Thursday.

Time: 7:00 P.M., Friday, October 25
Place: Bagel Shop Café

2024-10-16

Women’s Club Meeting Friday

Dear reader,

The Women’s Club will be expecting you again this Friday, and this meeting will be especially fun and delicious as we make quiches and pastries.

This time of year is special, the High Holy Days, and we cannot avoid the holiday spirit. THis Friday we celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, Sukkot, when we sit down at the table together with our families and also treat those who come by. So, dear homemakers, we will learn to make the Israeli dish pashtida, sometimes called a kugel, which resembles a quiche, and layered apple pastries.

A good time is guaranteed.

Please register before noon on Thursday by sending an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt or by calling (+370) 678 81514. Space is limited.

Time: 6:30 P.M., Friday, October 18
Place: Bagel Shop Café, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius

2024-10-15

Šiauliai Jewish Community Celebrates Rosh Hashanah

Members of the Šiauliai District Jewish Community gathered to celebrate the Jewish new year on October 4 at the Žemaitis restaurant in Šiauliai. The evening began with a blowing of the shofar horn. Chairman Naumas Gleizeris welcomed everyone and wished them a good, healthy and sweet new year. Community member Vadimas Kamrazeris provided music throughout the evening which included dancing. The youngest members of the Community, Sofija Kamrazerytė and Karina Šer, also sang.

2024-10-14

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 6:11 P.M. on Friday, October 11, and concludes at 7:20 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Yom Kippur begins at sundown at 6:11 P.M. on Friday. Fasting begins then and extends until sundown on Saturday at 7:20 P.M. Saturday, October 12, is also Columbus Day in the United States and Monday, October 13, is Thanksgiving Day in Canada.

2024-10-10

Greetings from Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky

Dear reader,

This year we mark Yom Kippur in difficult times when many of our brothers and sisters are suffering from the ongoing, awful war and hatred. Today, on the eve of Yom Kippur, when we will all stand and reflect on the past, I wish everyone, first of all, to find peace, tranquility and courage within.

G’mar chatima tova.

2024-10-102024-10-11

May Your Name Be Entered in the Book of Life

Dear friends,

On Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement and Repentance, we put aside mundane concerns and reflect on what has happened in our lives.

May our thoughts be heard this day, may our thoughts become pure and our hearts kinder. Good health and strength to everyone, may our mistakes be corrected and our weaknesses overcome. May all continue life’s journey with dignity, sincerity and integrity. Peace and love.

G’mar chatima tova.

2024-10-102024-10-11

Rosh Hashanah at the LJC

Members of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Bnei Maskilim progressive Judaism community were pleased to have US Army chaplain Rabbi Hanoch Fields lead celebrations of the High Holy Days Rosh Hashanah and presently Yom Kippur.

2024-10-102024-10-10

Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement and remission from sin, the most important holiday on the Jewish calendar, will be observed Saturday. No matter how religious or not, no Jew risks travelling, bathing or eating during Yom Kippur. The holiday must be observed correctly, so the Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Bnei Maskilim progressive Judaism community invite you to observe the holy day together with us and Rabbi Hanoch Fields from the United States.

Program of events at the LJC in Vilnius:

October 11

6:30 P.M. Kol nidrei

October 12

10:00 A.M. Torah reading
5:00 P.M. Yizkor
5:15 P.M. Neila
6:30 P.M. Blowing of the shofar
7:00 P.M. End of fast, shared feast

Registration required. To register, contact viljamas@lzb.lt

2024-10-102024-10-10

Somber Tone as Seniors Citizens Celebrate Rosh Hashanah on Eve of October 7

Senior citizens and elderly members of the Lithuanian Jewish Community gathered for a different kind of Rosh Hashanah celebration at the LJC in Vilnius on the weekend.

With the anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 invasion and mass murder of Israelis last year, there was less of the usual music and fun and more prayers in Yiddish and Hebrew performed by Choral Synagogue cantor Shmuel Yaatom. The cantor’s wife Natalja Cheifec spoke about the history and traditions of Rosh Hashanah and the role of the woman in the Jewish family.

2024-10-09

Panevėžys Celebrates the New Year

The Panevėžys Jewish Community celebrated Rosh Hashanah last week with music and food, including apples and honey. The prayer was performed before blowing the shofar. Yekaterna Radionova performed Jewish melodies on violin and members of the Community wished one another well in the coming year.

2024-10-09

Natalja Cheifec’s Lecture Series Continues with Discussion of High Holy Days

Natalja Cheifec’s #EDUKACIJOS discussion club invites you to join the zoom call at 5:30 P.M. this Thursday, October 10. She’ll discuss Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and what these holidays mean to Jews, traditions for observance and what to avoid to protect yourself from misfortune.

Zoom credentials available here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfRZKhoOgl_UbN-IxT4SO7m4uerwQONUveXaWQvFMKDghE-1A/viewform

Everyone is welcome.

2024-10-09

2024-10-07

Kaunas Ushers in the New Year

The Kaunas Jewish Community celebrated Rosh Hashanah with gusto and flair, and with a large number of Community members, friends and musicians.

Participants ate and chatted, and listened to Jewish melodies, which led to dancing. There was a quiz to test knowledge of the holiday, well-wishes for the coming year and prayers for more peace, love and human warmth in the world.

2024-10-07

Rosh Hashanah in Šiauliai

The Šiauliai Jewish Community came together to celebrate Rosh Hashanah Thursday evening. It began with a prayer and blowing the shofar horn, followed by breaking of challa and apples with honey, other dishes, well-wishes for the coming year 5785 and a glass of wine with a hearty “lechaim!”

2024-10-07

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 6:28 P.M. on Friday, October 4, and concludes at 7:37 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.

Sunday is also Tzom Gedaliah, a minor fast day falling after the end of Rosh Hashanah. It is observed with dawn-to-dusk fasting on the third day of Tishrei starting at dawn. This day laments the assassination of the Babylonian-appointed official named Gedalia who was appointed to administer the Jewish population after the destruction of the First Temple and the resulting exile of the Jews in 586 B.C. Also known as the Fast of Gedalia, this fast day’s history can be traced back over 2,600 years to immediately after the death of Gedalia.

Monday is World Architecture Day. Observed annually on the first Monday in October. World Architecture Day is a holiday celebrating the world’s ancient, classical, mediaeval and modern architectural structures. It us also a day to celebrate the architects who designed these works of art. It dates from 1985 and was instituted by the International Union of Architects.

2024-10-042024-10-04

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