Opera tenor Rafailas Karpis performed the Israeli national anthem HaTikvah, The Hope, at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius Wednesday to mark Yom haAtzmaut, Israeli independence day.
Natalja Cheifec’s Internet Discussion Club Continues
Natalja Cheifec continues her internet discussion club this Thursday with an open discussion format. To register and receive zoom credentials, click here.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Thursday, April 23
Place: internet
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 8:26 P.M. on Friday, April 17, and concludes at 9:27 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 8:08 P.M. and completed before sunset at 8:26 P.M. Tuesday is Yom haZikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day, and Wednesday is Yom haAtzmaut, Israeli Independence Day.
Jewish Music: From Liturgical Tradition to Klezmer and Minimalism
The Magic of Music Club [Muzikos magijos klubas] as part of a series of musical evenings to educate and delight is pleased to announce a lecture by ethno-musicologist Eirimas Velička in Lithuanian called “Žydų muzika: nuo liturginės tradicijos iki klezmerio ir minimalizmo” [Jewish Music: From Liturgical Tradition to Klezmer and Minimalism]. The presentation will include recordings of Yemeni Jewish liturgical music, followed by a klezmer performance by Giora Feidmanas on clarinet. Minimalist composer Steve Reich’s Tehlim, or Psalms, is the capstone of this evening of music. The audience will also be invited to learn two Hassidic songs.
Tickets start at 20 euros and are available here.
Time: 4:00 P.M., Sunday, April 19
Place: Magic of Music Club, Šv. Stepono street no. 10, Vilnius
Šiauliai Holds Three Seders
The Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community celebrated Passover with three seders this year. On April 1 and 2 the Chabad Lubavitch Center in Šiauliai invited Community members to two seders. On April 5 the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community held another seder. Community member Vadimas Kamrazeris performed music at the latter.
Holocaust Seminar for Teachers in Palanga
The Lithuanian Jewish Community, Palanga Jewish Community and Claims Conference held a seminar for teachers teaching the Holocaust in Palanga on April 9. Twenty-seven educators and cultural workers attended. The two-year project financed by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany is titled “Education Program for Holocaust Remembrance and Historical Justice in Lithuania, 2025-2027.” It is intended to stimulate formal and informal Holocaust education in Lithuania.
Attendees received a tour of the Lithuanian seaside town including Jewish sites testifying to the once-large local Jewish community there before the Holocaust.
Iran Turns to Stand-Up Comedy to Ward Off Trump
by Geoff Vasil
When president Trump announced an American counter-blockade at the mouth of Hormuz, a wild-eyed Islamic Revolutionary Guard spokesman took to what’s left of Iranian state television to denounce the move as an “illegal act” and “piracy.”
Pretty rich coming from the country that attacked all its neighbors and at least three nominally European countries, then claimed it wasn’t attacking, then claimed it was only attacking US bases. It wasn’t. It was attacking energy and civilian sites in Saudi, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the Emirates, Oman, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Israel and Turkey. Then Iran attacked a Thai-flagged ship at Hormuz, then about 19 more in and around the area, saying it was allowing international shipping, but not for US allies.
The Iranian protection shakedown at Hormuz was a major issue at the pro forma alleged negotiations in Pakistan. Iran demanded the world cede the international waterway to Iran, and even demanded the UN Security Council approve that aggression by the Islamic Republican mafia. “Nice tanker ship. It’d be a shame if something happened to it,” Iran tells the world in its last gasp as some sort of regional power, regional bully. Iran isn’t like its neighbors, it’s more like the psychopathic neighbor whose ire all avoid.
Passover through the Eyes of Children
We had a tremendous response to our children’s drawing contest Passover through the Eyes of Children. Every entry demonstrated talent and attention to detail. Thank you to all participants and to their parents for fostering love of Jewish traditions in their families. Every artist will receive a box of chocolate-covered matzo. See below for a selection of works submitted.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 8:12 P.M. on Friday, April 10, and concludes at 9:12 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 7:54 P.M. and completed before sunset at 8:12 P.M. Sunday is Orthodox, Ethiopian and Coptic Easter. Tuesday is Yom haShoah.
Passover in Panevėžys
The Panevėžys Jewish Community held a second seder in April, the most important part of Passover. Adults, children and guests gathered and learned about Passover traditions. The Haggadah was read. The table was set with all the traditional dishes recalling the bitterness of slavery and the difficult wandering in the desert.
Passover in Kaunas
The Kaunas Jewish Community gathered for their annual Passover seder. There were lots of smiles, fun conversation, intriguing music, delicious food and a Passover quiz which turned heads.
“Greetings to all still celebrating Passover and Easter. May the nice spring breeze take far awa if not all, then as many of our pressing worries as possible, so that together with nature waking up, so too would our flowers of love, fellowship and peace bloom,” Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas wished the gathering.
Happy Birthday
The Lithuanian Jewish Community is pleased to wish Shmuel (Simas) Levinas a very happy birthday. He was the first principal of the Sholem Aleichem School in Vilnius (post Holocaust), actively contributed to the founding of the LJC Social Center and served as its first director, was the first chairman of the Goodwill Foundation and served as the chairman of the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community as well as the Lithuanian Jewish Religious Community.
Dear Simas,
The Lithuanian Jewish Community with great honor and warm gratitude congratulates you today on your birthday. You are a person without whom the history of the rebirth of the Lithuanian Jewish Community would have been written much differently.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 7:59 P.M. on Friday, April 3, and concludes at 8:57 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 7:41 P.M. and completed before sunset at 7:59 P.M. Sunday is Easter. Passover ends on Wednesday in Israel and Thursday elsewhere.
Passover Greetings
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky greets everyone on the occasion of Passover and on this family holiday celebrating the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery wishes you much love and joy.
Gut yontev! Gut Pesach! Hag sameach!
Kupiškis Museum Historian Aušra Jonušytė Recognized
Aušra Jonušytė was recognized for her work on the history of Kupiškis and the former Jewish community there at an awards ceremony at the Panevėžys Regional History Museum on March 30. Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman and the entire Lithuanian Jewish Community congratulate her on receiving the Tarnaukite Lietuvai [Serve Lithuania] prize along with 15 others. The prize was instituted by the Lithuanian parliament 15 years ago and the awards are bestowed annually.
Fayerlakh Performs at Public Library
The Jewish song and dance ensemble Fayerlakh performed at the Adomas Mickevičius Public Library in Vilnius on March 30. They were invited to perform there by the library’s Song Club who wanted to learn more about Jewish song and whose members had bilingual lyric sheets in Lithuanian and Yiddish. Borisas Kizneris began on violin, demonstrating popular Yiddish songs, and invited the audience to join in, which they did. After the music, Fayerlakh director Larisa Vyšiauskienė spoke about Passover. Matzo was distributed to all attendees.
Photos by Mindaugas Masaitis
Passover Greetings
Passover begins tomorrow at sundown, April 1. As our forefathers escaped slavery and freedom from their enemies in the land of Egypt, so may the spirit of liberation warm our hearts and spirits during these dark days of upheaval and uncertainty, even as we pray for the liberation of our Persian brothers and sisters under the yoke of an evil and anti-human regime, and for the Lebanese peoples oppressed by that same evil. Am Israel chai.
Bar and Bat Mitzvah Ceremony
Seventh-graders from the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium gathered to read the Torah in public for the first time, thus becoming adults under Jewish law, as their parents, siblings, teachers and friends looked on last week.
Rabbi Natan Alfred and LJC’s own prayer leader Viljamas Žitkauskas led the ceremony and aided the young adults in their first readings.
A celebration was held afterwards.
Passover Drawing Contest
Children are invited to submit their drawings on any subject connected with the Passover story until April 7. Please write your name on your drawing or have your parents do it, and send a digital copy to info@lzb.lt. Participants will receive a box of special chocolate-covered matzo bread.