Religion

Jewish Community of Balbirishok Remembered

Jewish Community of Balbirishok Remembered

A stone stele marking the site of the synagogue which once served the Jewish community in Balbirishok (Balbieriškis) was unveiled in the small Lithuanian town last week.

Attending the unveiling ceremony were Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas, US embassy chief of mission William Kendrick, Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein, educational program coordinator of the International Commission for Assessing the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania Ingrida Vilkienė, representatives of the Prienai regional administration and the Balbieriškis aldermanship and a large contingent of local residents and students from the Balbieriškis primary school’s Tolerance Center.

LJC chairwoman Kukliansky welcomed the audience and said she was impressed and pleased the truly significant role played by Litvaks in the history of the town was being remembered and appreciated.

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European Day of Jewish Culture Events in Vilnius

European Day of Jewish Culture Events in Vilnius

September 3rd is coming. The first Sunday in autumn, the day the Lithuanian Jewish Community will again celebrate the European Day of Jewish Culture, a day the Community has celebrated for a decade now. As in previous years, all events across Europe to celebrate the day are modeled on a general theme. This year it’s memory. This topic is like a bridge leading to the Jewish cultural legacy which remains to a great extent unknown by the wider population. #Atmintis or Memory doesn’t end on the first Sunday in September, of course, and in September and October the Lithuanian Jewish Community will hold and coordinate events throughout Lithuania.

Below you’ll find the events program for September 3, all of which are free and open to everyone.

Register here: https://bit.ly/459c4nZ

#EŽKD2023 #EDJC2023 #Atmintis #AEPJ #LietuvosŽydų(litvakų)Bendruomenė #CviParkas #BeigeliųKrautuvėlė Kultūros Paveldo Departamentas Tautinių mažumų departamentas prie Lietuvos Respublikos Vyriausybės #mūsųbendruomenės #OurCommunities

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Rosh Hashana Reminder

Rosh Hashana Reminder

Rosh Hashana is coming up on September 15 and 16 and we hope you decide to usher in the new year 5784 with us. Stay tuned for more information about events and celebrations.

Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 8:42 P.M. on Friday, August 11, and concludes at 10:03 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.

Seeking Cemetery Keeper

Seeking Cemetery Keeper

The Lithuanian Jewish Community is seeking to hire an administrator for the Jewish section of the cemetery on Sudervės road in Vilnius. The job entails serving visitors, working with burial documents and upkeep, maintenance and supervision of the Jewish cemetery. Applicants must be computer literate and speak Russian, Hebrew and English. Write info@lzb.lt or call +370 652 09915 for more information and to apply.

Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 8:57 P.M. on Friday, August 4, and concludes at 10:21 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.

Rugelakh Now Available at Bagel Shop Café

Rugelakh Now Available at Bagel Shop Café

As the Lithuanian Jewish Community counts down the days to the New Year 5784, the Bagel Shop Café has come up with some new menu items. One of them is rugelakh, the amazing pastry traditionally served during Shavuot and Rosh Hashanah. The name comes from the Yiddish root “rugel” meaning little twist or tie.

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Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 9:10 P.M. on Friday, July 28, and concludes at 10:38 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.

Tisha B’Av

Tisha B’Av

Thursday, July 27 is the ninth day of the month of Av, Tisha b’Av, on the Jewish calendar.

Tisha b’Av commemorates the destruction of the First Temple of Solomon ca. 587 BCE and the Second Temple in 70 CE in Jerusalem and is traditionally a day of fasting and mourning. Observance includes five prohibitions, the main one being a 25-hour fast. The Book of Lamentations is read in the synagogue followed by the recitation of kinos, liturgical dirges for the Temple and Jerusalem. Since the day has become associated with other major Jewish tragedies, some kinos recall other events, including the murder of the Ten Martyrs in ancient Rome, pogroms against medieval Jewish communities and the Holocaust.

According to tradition, the sin of the Ten Spies is the real origin of Tisha b’Av. In the Book of Numbers, 13:1-33 when the Israelites accepted their false report of the Promised Land, they wept, thinking God could not help them. The night the people wept and wailed was the ninth day of Av, which then became a day of weeping and misfortune for all time, according to tradition, following which the Jews were made to wander the desert for 40 years.

New Installations in Anykščiai Mark Jewish Heritage Sites

New Installations in Anykščiai Mark Jewish Heritage Sites

BNS, July 23, 2023

Two new artistic installations now grace the Old Town in Anykščiai, Lithuania, north of Vilnius intended to commemorate the former Jewish population.

The Anykščiai municipality reports a sculptural relief by professor Romualdas Inčirauskas and Zita Inčirauskienė called “Memorial Marker for the Former Synagogues” was installed at the site of the former synagogue at Šaltupio street. It reportedly includes portion of a map of the town from 1925 with the sites of six former synagogues marked.

The same artists installed a bench in front of the building located at Baranauskas Square no. 7. There are seven human figure sculptures on top of the bench back to symbolize the days of the week with the Sabbath represented as a rabbi.

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Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 9:21 P.M. on Friday, July 21, and concludes at 10:54 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.

Jewish Dance Quiz

Jewish Dance Quiz

You’ve watched the discussion, perhaps even attended the live dance lesson component, so now it’s time to test your knowledge of Jewish dance with a quiz.

Participants are to meet at 5:00 P.M. on Friday, July 21, at the Israeli street food kiosk in Petras Cvirka Square across the street from the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius.

Julija Patašnik will lead an Israeli dance presentation after the quiz with quiz participants invited to join.

Sweden Allows Public Torah Burning

Sweden Allows Public Torah Burning

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman and attorney Faina Kukliansky highly condemns a decision by the Swedish courts to allow the burning of the Torah in front of the Israeli embassy in Stockholm. Police stood by earlier as the Bible was burned publicly, and before that the Koran wrapped in pork in front of a mosque.

“The burning of any book, but especially sacred texts, is an act of barbarity which cannot be excused as freedom of speech. Democracy also has certain red lines and in this case they were transgressed. History shows book-burning result in pogroms and mass murder. Unfortunately not everyone remembers these painful lessons, so it is our duty to remind them,” chairwoman Kukliansky said.

The European Jewish Congress also condemned the Swedish legal system’s decision to allow extremists to burn holy books. EJC president Ariel Muzicant said in an official statement: “These kinds of provocative, racist, anti-Semitic and sick actions have no placed in civilized society. Insulting people’s deep religious and cultural feelings is the clearest indicator which could be sent that minorities are not wanted and not respected. These actions are Sweden’s shame and any democratic country should put a stop to this.”

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Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 9:30 P.M. on Friday, July 14, and concludes at 11:09 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.

Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 9:37 P.M. on Friday, July 7, and concludes at 11:21 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.

Israeli Ambassador to Lithuania Commemorates Holocaust Victims in Jurbarkas

Israeli Ambassador to Lithuania Commemorates Holocaust Victims in Jurbarkas

Israel’s ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Wittenberg-Silverstein visited the western Lithuanian town of Jurbarkas, or Yurburg in Yiddish, on July 3, according to the Jurbarkas Regional Administration webpage jurbarkas.lt.

The ambassador began her visit at the V. Grybas Museum where Jurbarkas regional mayor Skirmantas Mockevičius and museum director Rasa Grybaitė received her.

At the Jurbarkas Regional Library the ambassador met with regional administration director Rūta Vančienė, culture and sports department director Aušra Baliukynaitė, senior department specialist Akvilė Sadauskienė and library director Rasida Kalinauskienė. They discussed opportunities for cooperative work.

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Russia Declares Former Chief Rabbi of Moscow Foreign Agent

Russia Declares Former Chief Rabbi of Moscow Foreign Agent

Photo: Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt (photo credit: Eli Itkin/CER)

Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt left Russia at the beginning of the Ukraine war and called for Jews to leave Russia.

Former chief rabbi of Moscow Pinchas Goldschmidt is a “foreign agent,” Russia’s Justice Ministry said, according to a report Friday from Interfax.

“Goldschmidt disseminated false information about the decisions made by public authorities of the Russian Federation and their policies,” the report from the official Russian news outlet said, quoting the Justice Ministry. “He opposed the special military operation in the Ukraine.”

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Holocaust Victims Commemorated in Palanga

Holocaust Victims Commemorated in Palanga

A ceremony to commemorate the Jews murdered in the Holocaust was held in Palanga on June 27 at the monument in Birutė Park. Jews settled in Palanga in the latter half of the 15th century. A Hebra Kadish or Jewish funeral society was established there in 1487. In the 17th century Jews comprised a significant section of society there and contributed heavily to the development of the city. In 1540 King Sigismund I the Elder granted a charter to the Jews to build the first synagogue and other religious structures there. The Jewish cemetery appeared that same year. In 1662 around 40 Jews called Palanga home. In 1693 Palanga’s Jews received the right to purchase and own land, build houses and engage in trade. Jews pioneered the tourist industry there with property and room rentals, hospitals and boarding houses. These economic activities led to the city becoming a summer resort destination. Palanga had a Jewish Bank, Hebrew language schools or heder and the synagogue. When Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Jews were rounded up and killed en masse in Palanga. Hundreds were murdered with more than 300 individuals murdered on June 27 and around that number again on October 12.