A shipment of matzo has reached the Lithuanian Jewish Community. This year as the country labors under health quarantine we will be delivering matzo to members in a safe manner, which we will announce soon. Stay tuned for more information.
Waiting for Passover to begin…
The Choral Synagogue in Vilnius will be closed for at least two weeks as of now. Follow this page for more information in the coming days. Vilnius Religious Jewish Community chairman Shmuel (Simas) Levinas reported a majority of minyan members, many of whom are elderly and thus fall into the main risk category for catching the corona virus, agreed it was best to halt temporarily religious activities at the synagogue, in line with recommendations issued by the Lithuanian Government. The synagogue will remain closed for the rest of March, the chairman reported.
Dear Community members,
Following the announcement of a state of emergency in Lithuania, the daily operations of the Lithuanian Jewish Community has changed as well. We must postpone all planned events and restrict admission of visitors, and some employees are now working from home.
We thank you for your understanding and patience. We are always ready to help you and to answer any questions, and we hope you will take into consideration this unusual situation and that we will overcome these difficult challenges together.
Please note:
• ALL Community events have been canceled, both at the Community building and elsewhere;
• we strongly request that visits to the Community building at Pylimo street no. 4 only be made if there is a serious need to do so;
• if you want to meet a specific LJC employee, please agree on the meeting with that person by telephone beforehand;
• for permission for burials, please call secretary Liuba Šerienė at +37068506900.
IMPORTANT: prepare copies beforehand of death certificates and documents showing family ties, and digital documents are preferred.
Continue to follow the LJC web page where we will announce all changes in the operations of the LJC administration and LJC Social Center.
Purim is the happiest Jewish holiday. It’s unfortunate the fun is so brief and gives way to everyday reality which isn’t always as happy. Nonetheless I wish everyone as many good, happy days as possible.
Let’s live like Queen Esther, the symbol of the beauty, intelligence and cleverness of Jewish women who gave us victory against our hapless enemies who wanted to destroy the Jewish community and who so shamefully failed in that.
It’s not in vain we read the Book of Esther believing women are in no way weaker than men!
The web page of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania now features in Lithuanian and English texts about the Vilna Gaon, famous Litvaks and visual materials for celebrating 2020 as the Year of the Vilna Gaon and Litvak History.
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Most Prominent Jewish Personalities in Lithuania
Lithuania has been home to many Jews, who were born in this country, lived and created here leaving an indelible mark in the scholarly and cultural heritage of Lithuania as well as of the world.
Writers
Icchokas Meras (1934-2014). The author of books on the Holocaust (Geltonas lopas (The Yellow Patch), Ant ko laikosi pasaulis (What the World Rests on), Lygiosios trunka akimirką (A Stalemate), and a film script writer for well-known Lithuanian films Kai aš mažas buvau (When I Was a Child), Birželis, vasaros pradžia (June, the Beginning of Summer) and Maža išpažintis (Small Confession).
Chaim Grade (1910-1982). Vilna-born writer, a member of Yung Vilne (Young Vilnius), a group of avant-garde writers and artists. Chaim Grade is considered to be one of the leading Yiddish writers in post-Holocaust period. Nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
A paradox of Jewish fragility and heroism.
by Meir Soloveichik
Mr. Soloveichik is the rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel and director of Yeshiva University’s Straus Center.
A perplexing paradox lies at the heart of Purim, the holiday celebrated this week by Jews around the world. No day is more associated with Jewish joy; yet, rightly understood, the scriptural source of our celebration, the biblical book of Esther, proclaims a terrifying teaching.
Let us briefly review the plot.
Continue reading here.
2:00 P.M., March 8, 2020
The Panevėžys Jewish Community will mark International Women’s Day and celebrate Purim at Community headquarters.
The happy holiday of spring and carnival, Purim, represents Jews being rescued from death.
We look forward to your holiday cheer and carnival costumes. There will be a table of treats and women will receive flowers and children will receive small gifts.
Please report your intention to attend by calling 861120882 or 869846653.
An American-style Purim party (American food) with the reading of the Book of Esther and a program for children including mini-golf will be held at the Vilnius Grand Resort Hotel formerly known as the Villon Hotel at 6:00 P.M. on Monday, March 9. There will be a bar for adults. Gifts will be given to everyone and of course there will be an impressive show for all. The cost is 10 euros in advance or 15 at the door. Students, adolescents and seniors get in for 5 euros. Children under 12 attend free. Tickets are available at the Choral Synagogue, Chabad House or by sending payment by bank transfer to “Jewish religious community Chabad” via the account no. LT3570440600013701339 (SEB Bankas). A bus will depart from the synagogue at 5:00 P.M. To register or to find out more, write rabbi@jewishlita.com or call 868508550.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community, the Sababa Jewish youth club and the song and dance group Fayerlakh invite children to the “Party of Ahasuerus” Purim carnival. The program includes Purim plays, a costume parade, traditional foods and shalahmones, or Purim baskets. Queen Esther requests children come dressed in costume or at least wearing a mask. Registration is required before March 6 by calling Sofja at 8 601 46656 or sending an email to sofja@lzb.lt The event will begin at 3:00 P.M. on March 8 on the third floor of the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius.
Around noon on Wednesday I went to take a look at the progress of the electrical wiring being installed in the prayer hall of the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius. I noticed a man who was looking over the synagogue carefully. I greeted him in Hebrew and he immediately began asking me questions about synagogue operations, Lithuanian Jewish life and in general “how are you living in Lithuania?” A usual Jewish question.
As a Jew I of course responded to his questions with questions: where are you from, why are you interested in the synagogue, are you perhaps in need of tefillin? … Then the visitor humbly introduced himself, explaining he was attending an academic conference at Vilnius University and had given himself an extra day especially for going to the synagogue, hoping to meet a Jew and get a chance to talk, maybe even in Yiddish, and then walk around the Vilnius Old Town a bit.
His family came from Poland and Vilnius looks a lot like where they came from. Then he said almost in passing, “I was invited to Vilnius University because I’m a Nobel prize winner…” I thought it was quite a good joke! In Yiddish I asked him to tell me the story of his life and how he had come to be the recipient of this most prestigious prize in the world.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Gesher Club invite you to a special Sabbath just before the Purim holiday on Friday, March 6, where violin virtuoso Ana Agre will perform. The event starts at 7:00 P.M. in the Heifetz Hall of the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius. For information and to reserve a table, call 867881514 or write zanas@sc.lzb.lt
The Ilan Club of the Lithuanian Jewish Community invites children to attend a creative workshop to celebrate the holiday of Purim. The children will listen to and themselves tell the miraculous Purim story and make colorful masks for the Purim carnival. The workshop will begin at 2:00 P.M. on Sunday, March 1, at the Ilan Club at Pylimo street no. 4 in Vilnius. Please call 860246656 or write sofja@lzb.lt for more information.
by Vytautas Bruveris, www.lrytas.lt
“You little Jewess, there is no place for you here.” This sort of statement, even made publicly to a woman of Jewish ethnicity, is nothing more than the impolite, unethical implementation of the constitutional right to self expression and freedom of belief.
This phrase in no way means the person who uttered it is predisposed against people of Jewish ethnicity, wants to sow discord against them or wants to discriminate against them. This is the firm belief of no less than the Lithuanian police. It turns out the police in such cases see no basis not only for punishing the author of such statements, but not even for launching an investigation.
Insult Made at Parliamentary Ceremony
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said she was called “žydelka” [little Jew-girl] and told “there is no place” for Jews in Lithuania at the Lithuanian parliament on January 13 this year when she attended events there to mark the day when protestors were murdered at the Vilnius Television Town back in 1990, a national day of mourning. Kukliansky said an older man came up to her dressed in a uniform and made the statements. She didn’t recognize what sort of uniform it was, but thought it was most likely from the Lithuanian Union of Riflemen.
Students, staff and teachers of the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium in Vilnius marked Lithuanian Independence Day February 16 with a full day of events.
The program included song and dance in the late morning and afternoon Friday to celebrate the day in 1918 102 years ago when the modern state of Lithuania was born. Pupils performed Lithuanian folk dancing and sang the national anthem.
Acting principal Ruth Reches said: “Children of different nationalities attend our gymnasium and one of our aims is to teach them citizenship, and to teach both the children and young people dates and holidays important to both Jewish and Lithuanian families. The day of the restoration of Lithuanian statehood celebrated on February 16 is very important to all of us, to our freedom and self-expression, and we, the entire school community, celebrated this independence day enthusiastically and ethnically.”
Photo: Antokolskio street, 1940/Mečys Brazaitis
The spacious square by Žydų (Jewish) Street in central Vilnius now contains little else than a children’s playground, parking lots and a derelict kindergarten, but it was densely packed with houses before World War Two. Most of the houses were occupied by Jews and the area was the center of the city’s Jewish quarter.
Lithuania has dedicated the year 2020 to the Vilna Gaon and the History of the Jews of Lithuania. LRT English together with Vilnius University and Jewish Heritage Lithuania bring you a series of stories exploring Litvak history.
The official beginnings of the Jewish quarter of Vilnius date back to the 17th century when king of Poland and grand duke of Lithuania Wladyslaw Vasa granted a privilege [charter] to the Jews to reside in this quarter. Jewish Street had this name even before that, so it is likely Jewish residents already lived there.
Full story here.
by Mindaugas Klusas, LRT.lt
The Vilna Gaon, the 18th-century sage from the Jerusalem of the North, has left behind a significant legacy of Jewish scholarship as well as many legends about his erudition and idiosyncratic devotion to the study of religious texts.
Lithuania designated 2020 the Year of the History of Jews of Lithuania, and 2020 is also the 300th anniversary of the Vilna Gaon. Lara Lempertienė, an historian and the head of the Judaica Department at the Lithuanian National Library, spoke with LRT.lt about the 18th-century sage from Vilnius.
While other nations are proud of battles and glorious buildings, Jewish history is about writing and books, Lempertienė quoted a modern rabbi. The Vilna Gaon and his town Vilnius, often dubbed the Jerusalem of the North, played a crucial role in this history.
Full text here.
Karolis Šimas, director of the Agrokoncerno grūdai company, says they have been preparing the sale of wheat to Israel from early in the summer of 2019. Certain procedures had to be follow to insure the wheat was certified kosher. Winter wheat can be found kosher but according to the requirements it cannot have contact with other kinds of grain. Israel’s special Office of Rabbi Landa service has to and did certify this. Even before the start of the winter wheat harvest, the grain elevators for the winter wheat were sealed under the supervision of a rabbi and a representative from Agrokoncerno grūdai. Several months later, before being loaded on a ship, the rabbi opened the storehouses and supervised the transport of the grain by automobile and railroad to the port.
At the port as the grain was being loaded onto the ship it was again checked thoroughly. Thirteen rabbis supervised and a total of 11 grain elevators and the storage facility at the port were sealed and unsealed, as was every train car and automobile carrying the grain. The elevators and the storehouse at the port had to be made extremely clean and so did the machinery for loading it, in order to receive the kosher seal.
Kosher grain cannot have contact with other grains, so all the storage spaces were cleaned to make sure not a single grain from earlier remained.
Full article in Lithuanian here.
Press release, lrytas.lt
Representatives and technical coordinators from Lithuania’s Turto Bankas, which administers and maintains real estate belonging to the state, the Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe have arrived at joint solutions for renovating Vilnius’s Palace of Sports as a conference and cultural venue and preserving the territory of the old Šnipiškės Jewish cemetery which surrounds the building.
The reached basic agreement on solutions for reconstruction and maintaining the cemetery territory.
The decisions made regarding the technical project are based on a protocol signed by Lithuanian Government and the Lithuanian Jewish Community in 2009 on heritage protection for the site and a buffer zone and on reconstructing the former sports arena for conferences and other cultural events. The Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe approved the protocol in 2016.
Dear reader,
I was going to tell you about the importance of being #JewishandProud in the face of rising anti-Semitism.
I was going to try to string together some eloquent words about our responsibilities to our fellow Jews.
I was going to tell you that #JewishandProud is already being used around the world in 28 countries and counting; that it has attracted support and pledges of participation from Hollywood stars, to members of Congress, to British lords.
Find out how you can participate at AJC.org/JewishandProud.
We wish you a merry Christmas as the Jewish community celebrates the festival of lights, Hanukkah. May the spirit of the holidays carry on and underpin the New Year. Both holidays, Christian and Jewish, are a time for the tranquility of the home hearth and for reflecting on what has passed and what is yet to come.
Merry Christmas! We wish all health, happiness and that we all find a way to respect one another, now and in the future.