Religion

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

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.

Kaunas Ushers in the New Year

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.

Rosh Hashanah in Šiauliai

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!”

Sabbath Times

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.

Rosh Hashanah Greetings from LJC Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky

Rosh Hashanah Greetings from LJC Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky

Dear reader,

Today Jews around the world celebrate Rosh Hashana, the New Year 5785. At this difficult time it is more important than ever to take pride in our identity and to celebrate our traditions. So I wish you to sit down with your families and friends at the table laden with challa and sweets, to share your joy and smiles, but not to forget our brothers and sisters target by rockets in our homeland, nor the 101 hostages still held by Hamas. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.

A peaceful and sweet new year. Shana tova u’metuka.

Knife-Wielding Masked Teenagers Take Over Palace of Sports in Old Jewish Cemetery

Knife-Wielding Masked Teenagers Take Over Palace of Sports in Old Jewish Cemetery

Photo: Police at Palace of Sports by Paulius Skučas

A group of 50 masked, knife-wielding teenage boys has turned the crumbling Palace of Sports complex built on top of the old Jewish cemetery in Vilnius into their gang clubhouse and have threatened pedestrians in the area, including children, with their weapons, as well as attacking a lone security guard in charge of the site, according to Paulius Skučas, an LNK television reporter who posted on Instagram as well as did a Lithuanian state radio interview about the situation.

Skučas posted photos of the incident on Instagram with textual explanations:

This is how the Palace of Sports looked after the massive attack by teenagers this evening. Police and security stood guard for several hours. It seems the gang of teenagers are so uncontrollable and undetainable that all the residents of the surround neighborhoods and buildings have become hostages.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year

Dear Community members, readers and friends,

May the new year 5785 bring you and your loved ones good fortune and health, happiness and a willingness to share your love with others. May all past and future errors and ill-chosen words be forgiven. May the New Year generously bestow upon all of us good news and good deeds, peace, prosperity and abundance.

Shana tova!

Shofar Procession through Vilnius

Shofar Procession through Vilnius

Dear Community members,

In celebration of Rosh Hashanah a shofar procession will make its way from the inner courtyard of the Old Arsenal next to the Tower of Gediminas, in honor of grand duke Gediminas who invited Jewish merchants, artisans and craftsmen from European cities to come settle in Lithuania, and wind through Cathedral Square to end up at the Vilnius Old Town Hall on Wednesday, October 2.

Shofar horns and shofar blowers from the Baltic states, the Ukraine, Israel and Great Britain will take part in the procession and sound the ancient ram horn instrument, dispelling evil and announcing the new year 5785.

The Lithuanian Jewish Community will hold a reception at the Old Town Hall following the procession.

Schedule (approximate):

October 2

4:00 P.M. Ceremony to kick off the march, inner courtyard, Old Arsenal, Arsenalo street no. 3

4:30 P.M. Procession along Arsenalo and Vrublevskio streets

4:40 P.M. Procession through Cathedral Square and along Pilies and Didžiosios streets

5:05 P.M. LJC reception for participants at Old Town Hall with sampling of holiday dishes

5:45 P.M. End of event

Superpower Israel Goes It Alone in Proxy Wars with Iran

Superpower Israel Goes It Alone in Proxy Wars with Iran

Following an operation coup against Hezbollah, Israel targeted and killed almost all of the terrorist organization’s top leaders including the supreme leader on Friday, despite calls from the United States, France, Great Britain, Canada and Australia to Israel to work out a ceasefire with the Iranian-backed proxy army in Lebanon. Israel also says it has destroyed all but one battalion of Hamas, also an Iranian proxy, again despite international calls to Israel to make peace with the terrorists attacking the country. Israel also bombed Houthi positions in Yemen over the weekend, another proxy army funded and armed by Iran. News reports Sunday and Monday claimed the new president of Iran and/or the supreme leader the Ayatollah were taken to allegedly safe locations in case Israel decided to bring the war back to Tehran.

Rosh Hashanah Event Program

Rosh Hashanah Event Program

Rosh Hashanah is almost here. When the sun sets Wednesday, the celebration begins.

Program of LJC Rosh Hashanah events:

Choral Synagogue:

October 2

6:00 P.M. Mincha and Maariv prayer service

October 3

10:00 A.M. Shacharis
12:00 noon Blowing of the shofar
12:15 P.M. Torah reading and Musaf
2:30 P.M. Mincha
6:00 P.M. BLowing of the shofar
7:42 P.M. Maariv

Bnei Maskilim Progressive Judaism Community Invites You to Celebrate Rosh Hashanah

Bnei Maskilim Progressive Judaism Community Invites You to Celebrate Rosh Hashanah

Dear reader,

As Rosh Hashanah draws near, the Jewish new year 5785, with its accompanying holiday, we invite you to join in with our community’s holiday prayers and events.

This year one of our guests will be former US Army chaplain Rabbi Hanoch M. Fields.

During the celebration we will pray, sing and sample sweet symbolic foods, for example, apples with honey, so that the New Year would be sweet and filled with delight.

May this New Year bring everyone health, peace and happiness!

Shana tova u’metukah!

The cost is 20 euros per person. For more information and to register, send an email to viljamas@lzb.lt.

Time: 6:30 P.M., October 3
Place: Third floor, Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius