The Sabbath begins at 6:15 P.M. on Friday, October 17, and concludes at 7:07 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 5:57 P.M. and completed before sunset at 6:15 P.M. Saturday is World Menopause Day, created in 2009 by the International Menopause Society to encourage menopausal women to seek support and medical treatment available but perhaps unknown to them to ease this difficult period in the human life cycle.
In spite of poor weather, members of the Panevėžys Jewish Community celebrated Sukkot in the traditional way with a booth set up in the Community’s courtyard.
The holiday brought together members new and old who discussed current events and shared family stories.
Today is Simchat Torah.
The first Sunday in October is the traditional date for remembering Holocaust victims from the Švenčionys region at the Menorah monument in the city park in Švenčionys.
The Menorah monument marks the border of the ghetto where local Jews were held before being murdered at Platumai village.
Švenčionys Jewish Community chairman Moshe Shapiro, Choral Synagogue cantor Shmuel Yaatom, members of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and local officials took part in the ceremony.
Last Thursday members of the Šiauliai District Jewish Community celebrated Sykkot with a sukka in the courtyard where members dwelt, handled the four species, prayed, shared blessings and ate. The sukka is open for the entirety of Sukkot which ends on Tuesday (or Wednesday, depending on your tradition and inclination). Members and friends are invited to come and dwell.
The Sabbath begins at 6:32 P.M. on Friday, October 10, and concludes at 7:23 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 6:14 P.M. and completed before sunset at 6:32 P.M. October 12 is Columbus Day.
Dear members,
We invite members of the Dubi and Ilan Clubs and their parents to come celebrate Sukkot together in the courtyard of the Lithuanian Jewish Community with kiddush blessings inside the booth, aka sukka, erected there. Cantor Daniel Zakhry from Sao Paulo will ;ead the ceremony.
Time: 1:00 P.M., Saturday, October 11
Place: LJC, Vilnius
Natalja Cheifec continues her internet lecture and discussion club with a lesson on Sukkot this Thursday.
Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles is one of the happier holidays on the Jewish calendar amd a great opportunity to spend time with family, visit others, share food and enjoy life. Natalja will talk about the origin and traditions of Sukkot. She’ll discuss the meaning of “dwelling” in the sukka or makeshift booth during the week of Sukkot and the four species.
To receive zoom credentials and participate, click here.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Thursday, October 9
Place: internet
Sujjot (Ashkenazic Sukkos) begins at 5:13 P.M. at sunset today, Monday, October 6, and ends at sunset 7, 8 or 9 days later, depending on your location and disposition.
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 Temple times.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community is shocked by the events in Manchester and expresses our deepest condolences to the families of the victims and to the entire British Jewish community.
“This brital attack again reminds us of the danger which is posed by the ever-deepening hate and anti-Semitism which is taking root in society/ Eighty years ago European Jews experienced how that ends” more than 96% of Lithuanian Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. Evil often begins from lesser things which might seem insignificant at the time–apatjy, averted glamces–so we must be especially vigilant right now to insure history doesn’t repeat itself,” Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said.
We pray for the victims and wish strength and resolution to everyone battling hate.
The Sabbath begins at 6:59 P.M. on Friday, September 26, and concludes at 7:58 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 6:41 P.M. and completed before sunset at 6:59 P.M. Yom Kippur begins at 6:36 P.M. on Wednesday, October 1, and ends at 7:45 P.M. Thursday, October 2. Sukkot begins at 6:24 P.M. on Monday, October 6.
We extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the two people killed and to the four wounded and still in hospital, killed and wounded at the hand of an Islamic terrorist on Yom Kippur. in Manchester, England. Our deepest condolences to the entire congregation and the Manchester Jewish community. May their memory be a blessing.
Dear friends,
The Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes you peace, strength and an inscription in the Book of Life this Yom Kippur. Gmar chatima tova.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Bnei Maskilim progressive Judaism association invite you to come mark Yom Kippur together at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius. Cantor Daniel Zekhry from the rabbinical studies program of the Abraham Geiger College will lead the services. Everyone is welcome but registration is required by sending an email to viljamas@lzb.lt.
Schedule:
October 1
6:30 P.M. Kol Nidre
October 2
10:00 A.M. Torah reading
5:00 P.M. Yizkor
5:15 P.M. Neila
6:30 P.M. Shofar
This Wednesday the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius begins observing Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
Prayer services:
October 1
6:30 P.M. Kol Nidre
7:00 P.M. Maariv
October 2
10:00 A.M. Shacharit
12:00 noon Yizkor
12:30 P.M. Musaf
5:45 P.M. Mincha
6:30 P.M. Neila
7:45 P.M. Maariv
While the café is undergoing reconstruction and will change its name to its address, Pylimo 4, when it reopens, the kitchen is still operating and many have enjoyed its special Sabbath menu. Now the café is offering challa to order for pickup on Fridays. The regular price is 7 euros per loaf, and if you want to donate to the operation, then 10 euros. Your donation will insure an earlier opening of the venue. Orders should be placed by 8:00 P.M. on Thursday each week. Payment and pickups can be done at the café from 4:00 P.M. till 7:00 P.M. on Fridays. To place your order, send an email to gut.shabbos.vilnius@gmail.com. A gut shabes!
As part of the on-going Joseph Achron music festival, the piano duet of Justas Sherveniko ir Johan Randvere will perform a musical homage to the composers Mikalojus Čiurlionis and Maurice Ravel on the 150th anniversary of their births at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius starting at 4:00 P.M. on Sundaym October 5. The program includes works by Čiurlionis, Ravel, Schubert and Mendelssohn.
For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.
Members and staff of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, representatives from the Lithuanian parliament and government and foreign diplomats observed the Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish of Victims of Genocide at Ponar on Thursday, September 25. German Bundeswehr rabbi Elisch Mendel Portnoy joined Choral Synagogue cantor Shmuel Yaatom in saying prayers for the dead.
LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky read the contents of an open letter she co-autyhored with Jewish Lithuanian MP Emanuelis Zingeris addressed to president Gitanas Nausėda cautioning against the latter’s decision to allow a member of an anti-Semitic party to occupy the post of Lithuanian minister of culture.
KJC chairwoman Kukliansky quoted a facebook post she received that day calling for the murder of Jews.
“If we don’t stop it, this will happen. So I ask all of you gathered here not just to honor those who were murdered and lie buried here–we are standing on blood-soaked soil–but also to think about the future of our country, and what we must do to insure this never happens again,” Kukliansky said.
The Sabbath begins at 7:07 P.M. on Friday, September 26, and concludes at 7:58 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 6:49 P.M. and completed before sunset at 7:07 P.M. Thursday, September 25, is Tzom Gedaliah, the day of fasting. Yom Kippur begins at 6:36 P.M. on Wednesday, October 1, and ends at 7:45 P.M. Thursday, October 2.
A group of protestors gather at the Office of the President in Vilnius Thursday to protest the formation of a new government with a candidate from the Nemuno Aušra party proposed for minister of culture.
Ignotas Adomavičius has been put forward by Remigijus Žemaitaitis’s Nemuno Aušra party as a new government coalesces following real estate scandal which enveloped Gintautas Paluckas’s ruling coalition earlier this year. Žemaitaitis rose to prominence in early 2023 by making a series of facebook and other posts questioning the Holocaust in Lithuania and criticizing Jews and Israel. Lithuania’s Constitutional Court found his statements were a violation of his oath to uphold the Lithuanian constitution as a member of parliament. The comments have been widely recognized as anti-Semitic.
Adomavičius has been described as a pasta maker, whether that’s a hobby or a profession, and a graduate of an art school in Vilnius. In Lithuanian pasta is called macaroni, a synonym for nonsense He told Lithuanian state radio and television one of his priorities as culture minister will be to rebuild the “Old Synagogue,” presumably meaning the Great Synagogue in Vilnius, whose reconstruction no Jewish or Lithuanian heritage group is seeking currently. There was talk of this in the early 2000s by Lithuanian government officials, but the idea was rejected by the various Lithuanian Jewish communities at the time as a boondoggle without a congregation to serve. Jewish reporter and newspaper editor Milan Cheronskis called the proposal one for a Jewish Disneyland in Vilnius. Lithuanian state radio and television interview in Lithuanian here.