Religion – Page 2 – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Culinary Evening

You’re invited to attend an evening of discussion, demonstration and sampling of the recipes of interwar vegetarian restaurant owner and cook Fania Lewando. Lewando operated a restaurant in Vilnius with a cult following in the period between the two world wars. Artists and the city elite frequented her establishment. Chef Alessia di Donato originally from Rome will provide samples of dishes made according to the recipes Lewando left us in her cook book. Cultural anthropologist Magdalena Maślak from Poland will also tell stories about Lewando.

Registration is required by sending an email to info@lzb.lt. Everyone is invited to attend.

Time: 5:00 P.M., Thursday, April 11
Place: Bagel Shop Café, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius

2024-04-112024-04-15

Women’s Club to Meet Friday

Women are invited to the Women’s Club meeting this Friday where we’ll prepare for Passover which is coming soon. We’ll talk about traditions from over the millennia and from more recent times and we’ll learn how to make Litvak matzo kneydlakh and a huge matzo cake.

Time: 6:30 P.M., Friday, April 12
Place: Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius

Registration required. Send an email to zanas@lzb.lt or call (+370) 678 81514.

We hope to see you there.

2024-04-092024-04-09

Jewish Australians Lodge Vilification Complaints against Anti-Semitic Islamic Preachers

Two Islamic clerics who described Jewish Australians as “vile,” “vermin,” “monsters,” “rats” and “bloodthirsty” have had vilification complaints lodged against them. One appeared to be calling openly upon Muslims to murder Jews.

The largest body of Jewish Australians has launched a vilification complaint against Abu Ousayd, also known as Wissam Haddad, over a sermon delivered last year.

In complaints to the Australian Human Rights Commission, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry says the two “anti-Semitic sermons” delivered by western Sydney clerics Wissam Haddad and Sheikh Ahmed Zoud included “derogatory generalisations about Jewish people”.

The complaint also names Haddad’s Al Madina Dawah Centre and the trading company of Zoud’s mosque.

2024-04-08

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 7:46 P.M. on Friday, April 5, and concludes at 9:02 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.

2024-04-05

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 6:32 P.M. on Friday, March 29, and concludes at 7:47 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Daylight saving time begins at 2:00 A.M. Sunday morning, so set your clock ahead one hour to 3:00 A.M. Sunday is Easter with many businesses closed, and Monday is part of the official holiday in Lithuania with government agencies closed and some businesses and grocery stores open.

2024-03-28

Purim in Panevėžys

Members of the Panevėžys Jewish Community gathered to celebrate Purim, a happy holiday in the first month of spring.

“The holiday of Purim is full of fun, a sense of community and the belief in the Jewish people as a strong nation able to withstand all misfortunes,” Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman said. A letter from Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky and holiday greetings from friends of the local and national Community were also read.

There were the traditional Purim skits, carnival costumes and masks. Passages from the Book of Esther were dramatized, with Aleksandras Narevič playing Persian king Ahasuerus, Katrin Krasnačarova as Esther, Rolandas Paltinas as Mordechai and Timuras Jarovskis playing the evil Haman.

2024-03-27

Purim at the LJC

There are many holidays throughout the year we celebrate at home with close family members, but Purim isn’t one of them. The point is to go out, celebrate, enjoy life and have fun. On Sunday the Lithuanian Jewish Community and Bnei Maskilim held a public Purim celebration in Vilnius with costume play, a reading from the Book of Esther, holiday treats and much sincere conversation.

2024-03-252024-03-25

LJC and Sholem Aleichem School Celebrate Purim

An audience of more than 400 from the Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium celebrated Purim at the Legendos music club in Vilnius Friday. The selection of costumes was fantastic and there was a program entertaining to young and old alike with song and dance by the students, a drumming concert which involved all assembled, imaginative tricks by master-of-ceremonies Michailas Frišmanas and delicious food.

Thank you to the entire student body and staff of Sholem, LJC executive director Michailas Segalas and everyone who sang, danced, beat drums, laughed and took part in this unforgettable evening of celebration.

2024-03-25

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 6:19 P.M. on Friday, March 22, and concludes at 7:33 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Purim begins at sundown on Saturday and Sunday is the Christian holiday Palm Sunday marking the beginning of the week leading up to Easter.

2024-03-21

Purim Celebrations for Young and Old Sunday

The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites you to come and celebrate Purim this Sunday with event programs for young and old.

The Dubi Club for children aged 3 to 7 will stage a great program with skits, games, songs and other fun activities.

At the same time Bnei Maskilim invites you to a reading of the Book of Esther, tzedakah and mishloach manot, and the traditional potluck feast.

Everyone is welcome.

Time: 12:00 noon, Sunday, March 24
Place: Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius

Don’t forget your masks and costumes!

Please note: registration is required for the Bnei Maskilim event. Please send an email to viljamas@lzb.lt.

2024-03-212024-03-21

Kupiškis’s Righteous Gentiles Remembered

The Kupiškis regional government staged an event to remember local Righteous Gentiles on March 14, the day before the official Lithuanian day of remembrance, called “Remembering the Rescuers of Jews from the Kupiškis Region.” Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman and Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein attended.

Also attending were Virginija Bunevičiūtė, assistant for cultural projects at the Israeli embassy, and the Lithuanian prime minister’s advisor on cultural affairs Gabrielė Žaidytė, grandson of Righteous Gentiles Vidmantas Markevičius and others.

Participants visited the graves of Markevičius’s grandparents Elena and Juozapas and he spoke about their lives there. On October 10, 1991, they met Sholom Sherenzon, whom they had rescued from the Holocaust, in Israel.

2024-03-20

Purim in Panevėžys

Dear members of the Panevėžys Jewish Community,

Greetings on the up-coming holiday of Purim. We kindly invite you to come celebrate it together with us at the Panevėžys Jewish Community starting at 2:00 P.M. on March 24. Please indicate your intention to attend (because we need to know how much of what kinds of food to purchase) by sending an email or by calling.

Chairman: +370 61120882, genakofman@yahoo.com
Administrator: +370 61017608

2024-03-20

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 6:05 P.M. on Friday, March 15, and concludes at 7:19 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.

2024-03-14

Choral Synagogue Attacked

Early on the morning of Sunday, March 10, a group of young people threw a stone at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius. Police were alerted, but police officers said there was no damage done, despite several broken tiles. Security cameras recorded the rock throwing incident.

Damage doesn’t have to be physical. Whether you’re a Catholic or Jew, every house of prayer is sacred. We have as much right to ask for respect towards the synagogue as Catholic and Orthodox believers do for respect to their churches and to any location where rituals are being conducted.

All material was turned over to the police. We expect the perpetrators to be identified and their actions judged.

2024-03-13

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 5:52 P.M. on Friday, March 8, and concludes at 7:05 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sunday the 11th of March is Restoration of Lithuanian Independence Day with government and municipal offices and many businesses closed as well. On March 11, 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic voted to declare Lithuania independent of the Soviet Union, annulling Lithuania’s annexation by the USSR during World War II. March 8 is also International Women’s Day.

2024-03-082024-03-08

Purim Carnival

The Lithuanian Jewish Community, the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium and the Vilnius Religious Jewish Community invite you to a celebration of Purim, the happiest holiday on the Jewish calendar.

The program includes the traditional Purimshpil, an appearance by the Shmeikhl choir, the debut of a musical group made up of students, African drumming, a quiz, the costume carnival contest, DJs and other fun stuff, with the indefatigable Michaelas Frišmanas as master-of-ceremonies.

Time: 6:00 P.M., Friday, March 22
Place: Legendos Klubas, Kalvarijų street no. 85, Vilnius

The costume theme is legends of film. Cost for adults is 30 euros. Cost for children aged 7-18 is 20 euros.

Tickets available here: https://topticket.lt/lt/event/PURIM-2024

2024-03-082024-03-14

Condolences

We are deeply saddened to report the death of Rimas Timunas. He was born in 1952. A renowned theater director, he staged Grigoriy Kanovitch’s “Nusišypsok mums, Viešpatie” and popularized Litvak culture on the Lithuanian and world stage. He passed away in Italy from lung cancer.

2024-03-072024-03-08

Judaica Research Institute: Yiddish from Georgia

The Judaica Research Institute at the Martynas Mažvydas Lithuanian National Library invites the public to a concert called “Yiddish from Georgia” to be held on the third-floor atrium starting at 6:00 P.M. on Monday, March 18.

The Yiddish quartet was form by Georgian actress Ana Sanaia in 2022. Receiving great acclaim, Sanaia made the quartet part of her mono-drama Martokina in 2023. That same year, with several other talented musicians including Tamar Rtveliashvili, Ioana Navadze and Aleksandra Lortkipanidze, the quartet became part of the Yiddish Theater in Tblisi, also resurrected by Sanaia after more than a century of absence.

The quartet is vocalist Salome Bakuradze, musician Maria Elene Bezhashvili, actress Sofia Akhuashvili and actress and director Ekaterine Kato Sharikadze, and are well known to radio and television audiences in Georgia. While none of them are Jewish, they all feel a deep and abiding respect for the Georgian Jewish heritage and share an understanding of the contribution the Ashkenazi who spoke Yiddish made in bringing Georgia into Europe.

The program includes songs in Yiddish and Georgian. Lasha Shakulashvili, a lecturer in Yiddish language and culture at Tblisi State University, will also speak on Yiddish culture in Georgia and its connections to Litvak culture.

2024-03-062024-03-07

Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman

Photo: Deborah Feldman by D. Umbrasas/LRT

Lithuanian State Radio and Television has featured another Jewish author who appeared at the Vilnius Book Fair last month, Deborah Feldman, author of “Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots,” under the headline “Author of Bestseller ‘Unorthodox’ with Litvak Roots: My Grandmother Is the Only Reason I’m Not Crazy” [Lietuviškų šaknų turinti bestselerio „Neortodoksiška“ autorė: močiutė – vienintelė priežastis, kodėl neišprotėjau].

Feldman recounts trying to sell her book to a publisher, and their response that it was a Jewish story, and why would it be interesting to non-Jews?

The American-born German author grew up in the close-knit Hassidic community of Satmar in Brooklyn, New York. She travelled to Lithuania to launch the Lithuanian translation of “Exodus, Revisisted,” the sequel to “Unorthodox,” at the Vilnius Book Fair. The Lithuanian translation was published by the Baltas Publishing House.

The New York Times bestseller “Unorthodox” tells the story of a young Jewish woman who extracts herself from an ultra-conservative community and has attracted readers around the world. It was made into a Netflix mini-series of the same name and was nominated for 8 Emmy awards.

Full article in Lithuanian here.

2024-03-062024-03-06