The Sabbath begins at 9:56 P.M. on Friday, June 13, and concludes at 11:29 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 9:38 P.M. and completed before sunset at 9:56 P.M. Saturday is Flag Day un the United States.
From Lithuania to Israel via Siberia
The Vilnius Jewish Public Library is pleased to announce a presentation of a translation of Shmaryahu Pustopetsky’s book From Lithuania to Israel via Siberia on Monday, June 16.
Translators Regina Kopilevich, an accomplished genealogist and tourist guide for Jewish Vilna, and historian and author Dalia Epšteinaitė will discuss the book with sociologist and historian Violeta Davoliūtė who specializes in family studies as moderator.
Pustopetsjy was a military officer in pre-World War II independent Lithuania, and was deported to Siberia, He was an active member of the Beitar movement before the Holocaust. In the book, he discusses both world wars, Litvak culture in the 1930s, the story of the so-called prisoners of Zion and the brutal prison camps under Stalin.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Monday, June 16
Place: Vilnius Jewish Public Library, Gedimino prospect no. 24, Vilnius
Natalja Cheifec Discussion Club Meets Thursday
Natalja Cheifec’s internet discussion club will meet via the zoom platform this Thursday, June 12, at 5:30 P.M. To receive zoom credentials, click here.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 9:50 P.M. on Friday, June 6, and concludes at 11:20 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 9:32 P.M. and completed before sunset at 9:50 P.M. Friday is D-Day in the United States. Catholic, Russian and Greek Orthodox and other Christian churches celebrate the Feast of Pentecost Sunday.
Terrorist Lights 12 Jews on Fire in Colorado
Mohamed Soliman, an illegal alien resident in El Paso, Texas, and originally from Egyot, used a home-made flamethrower and Molotov cocktails to set 12 Jews on fire Sunday afternoon in Boulder, Colorado.
One victim was a Holocaust survivor.
Soliman targeted the weekly Sunday silent march by members of the Jewish community in Boulder held to remember the hostages still kidnapped in Gaza.
Soliman yelled “free Palestine” and claimed the Coloradan Jews were “burning my people.”
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 9:42 P.M. on Friday, May 23, and concludes at 11:08 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 9:24 P.M. and completed before sunset at 9:42 P.M. Shavuot or Shavuos begins at sundown on Sunday, June 1, and ends at sundown on Tuesday, June 3 (or in Israel at sundown on Monday, June 2).
Shavuot
Shavuot is the holiday which celebrates the receiving of the Torah. This marks the day the Jewish people received the Law. It is celebrated on the 6th day of Sivan on the Jewish calendar. This is a state holiday in Israel.
Shavuot means “weeks” in Hebrew. It is the seventh week from the second day of Passover. It marks the day when Moses received the Ten Commandments of G_d on Mount Sinai. They were written on two stone slabs. These are known in Hebrew as Aseret haDvarim and in Greek as the Decalogue.
Natalja Cheifec on Shavuot
Natalja Cheifec will deliver a lecture and host questions and discussion on the Jewish holiday Shavuot on the internet at 5:30 P.M. on Thursday, May 29.
To register and receive zoom credentials, click here.
Local High School Tolerance Center Visits Panevėžys Jewish Community
Ninth-graders and teacher Jekaterina Ledneva from the Velžys Pro-Gymnasium in the Panevėžys set up a Tolerance Center at their school and visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community as part of that initiative. They wanted to know more about the pre-Holocaust local Jewish population, Jewish customs and traditions, holidays and what happened in the Holocaust. The students visited the ghetto territory in the northern Lithuanian city and laid floral wreaths at the monument marking the former ghetto gate.
Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman spoke to the young people as part of the Community’s ongoing educational outreach program and spoke about how Jews and Lithuanians lived together before the Holocaust, often enough as co-owners of businesses, sharing their expertise. They celebrated holidays together and shared in their joys and misfortunes, sometimes sacrificing their last bit of bread for one another, Kofman said. Russian and Jewish children attended the same high schools both in Tsarist Russia and independent Lithuania, Kofman recalled.
The ninth-graders also learned about Jewish holidays including Passover, Purim, Rosh Hashanna and others, and the stories behind these holidays. Kofman spoke about kosher food and why healthy food and cleanliness is so important in Jewish tradition. The students had the chance to sample matzo bread and heard the story of unleavened bread during the Exodus from Egypt. The students posed many questions and had a chance to tour the Community building as well.
Lecture on Hebrew Evolution, Revival
The Fascinating and Multifaceted 3,300-year Evolution and Regenesis of Hebrew
The Vilnius Jewish Public Library invites you to a lecture by professor Ghilad Zuckerman called “The Fascinating and Multifaceted 3,300-year Evolution and Regenesis of Hebrew” in English with simultaneous Lithuanian translation.
After centuries as a liturgical and literary medium, Hebrew underwent a dramatic transformation in the modern era. The lecture will shed light on its unprecedented revival in the early 20th century driven by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and others who saw language as central to cultural and national identity.
Professor Zuckermann will lead us on a journey through the history of Hebrew from its emergence after the conquest of Canaan, through its prominence during the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel and Judah, to its decline and [alleged] eventual disappearance as a spoken language by AD 100 (2nd century CE).
Jewish Communities across Africa
Photo: Delegates from around the world attended the Jewish Africa Conference
The third Jewish Africa Conference, an event spearheaded by the American Jewish Committee (AJC), Mimouna Association (Morocco) and the American Sephardi Federation (ASF), took place during April in Cape Town.
The conference was supported by the Cape SA Jewish Board of Deputies, with a welcome address by chair of the board Adrienne Jacobson. Predecessor conferences were held in New York in 2019 and in Rabat, Morocco, in 2022. The event took place at the Old Shul, the SA Jewish Museum and the Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Cape Town.
According to Wayne Sussman, director of the AJC Africa Institute who oversaw conference proceedings, “We all know that the South African Jewish community has made a rich contribution to Jewish life around the world. This is also true with other African Jewish communities. They have strong traditions and customs. Many made a huge impact on their respective countries. This conference allowed Jews from across Africa and scholars interested in Jewish African life today to come together and make sense of how we carry on building our respective communities and ensure we preserve our past properly.”
While we in South Africa tend to think of Jewish life from an Eastern European bias–because the bulk of our community is of Ashkenazi origin–Jewish life in fact traces a great deal back to Africa. With roots in ancient Egypt, Jewish religious and cultural practice are certainly a significant feature of the African continent.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 9:32 P.M. on Friday, May 23, and concludes at 10:53 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 9:14 P.M. and completed before sunset at 9:32 P.M. Sunday is Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day. Monday is Memorial Day in the United States.
Holocaust Historian, Litvak Wife Visit Panevėžys Jewish Community
Noah and Frances Schoen (Milinsky) visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community May 12. The family lives in Pittsburgh. Noah is an historian and teacher who reseraches the Holocaust. His lectures discuss forms of anti-Semitism from prejudice to genocide. He was an eye-witness at the Tree of Life synagogue in 2012 when a gunman opened fire on the congregation.
His wife teaches children aged 11 to 14 and leads summer youthg camps. Her father’s family comes from Panevėžys and immigrated to America early on, preserving their Litvak heritage.
Chairman Gennady Kofman spoke to them about the Community’s current activities and showed them around the archive collection, and they talked about anti-Semitism in Europe and America. Kofman gave them a tour of the northern Lithuanian city focusing on Jewish heritage sites.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 9:21 P.M. on Friday, May 16, and concludes at 10:37 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 9:03 P.M. and completed before sunset at 9:21 P.M. Lag b’Omer begins at sunset on Thursday and ends at sundown on Friday. Parts of Canada celebrate Victoria Day Monday.
Judaism and Paganism: Not Totally Polar Opposites
Michael Strmiska, Phd., will deliver a talk about the points of contact between Temple and Rabbinical Judaism and Classical Paganism at the Vilnius Jewish Public Library next Wednesday.
He plans to present striking parallels shared by the two religious traditions which haven’t been considered related since Justin the Apologist, later Justin the Martyr’s times, commonly called pre-Christian Paganism and simply Judaism. He will present common aspects of both which overcome the popular perception Paganism is polytheism and Judaism is mono, and never the trwain shall meet.
His talk will include discussion on the marginalization and also the survival of both traditions through the course of history, the view both traditions take regarding Nature, conceptions of the feminine divine and the traditions both schools share at their mystical extremities.
This perhaps provocative lecture could serve to foster greater understanding of how these two religions are able to intercommunicate in surprising ways. Both Paganism and Temple Judaism together form the context in which the fathers of the Early Church operated.
Lecture on Early Jewish Photography in Lithuania
The Vilnius Picture Gallery and the Lithuanian Museum of National Art will host a lecture by Dainius Junevičius called “Early Lithuanian Photography: Jews on Both Sides of the Lens” at the picture gallery at 5:30 P.M., Tuesday, May 20. The event is free and open to the public.
Junevičius is an expert on the history of photography. He will speak on the role Jewish photographers played in early Lithuanian photography from the Jewish owners and photographers of first photo studios in Vilnius to the work of talented photographer Miron Butkovski (1865-1938) who earned the Vatican’s gratitude fir his photos of Vilnius’s churches in the late 19th century, and will also speak about the evolution of photography in Lithuania and in general and the pioneers in other locations in Lithuania.
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His lecture will include demonstrations of the earliest photographs of Jews starting with those from a Russian ethnographic exhibit in 1867 and extending through the Jewish ethnographic field surveys led by An-sky from 1912 ro 1914.
The lecture and slideshow is part of the exhibit “You Shall Not Make an Images” the Vilnius Picture Gallery and YIVO opened March 5 and which will run till September 14. Registration is not required for the lecture and there is no fee for admission..
Time: 5:30 P.M., Tuesday, May 20
Place: Vilnius Picture Gallery, Didžioji street no. 4, Vilnius
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 9:08 P.M. on Friday, May 9, and concludes at 10:20 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 8:50 P.M. and completed before sunset at 9:08 P.M. Thursday, May 8th is the day 80 years ago Nazi Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies Great Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union (Nazi capitulation was on May 9 Moscow time and Victory Day is always celebrated on May 9 in Russia, Belarus and most other former Soviet republics).
Natalja Cheifec on Lag b’Omer
Lag b’Omer falls on May 16th this year. The holiday lies midway between Passover and Shavuot on the 33rd day of the Counting of Omer. It is mainly celebrated with bonfires lit in the morning but has a number of deeper traditions and practices.
Natalja Cheifec invites the general public to a discussion of the holiday on the zoom platform at 5:30 P.M. on Thursday, May 8.
To receive zoom credentials, click here.
Sabbath Times
The Sabbath begins at 8:55 P.M. on Friday, May 2, and concludes at 10:03 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 8:37 P.M. and completed before sunset at 8:55 P.M. May 1 is Labor Day in Lithuania, a state holiday. May 3 is Constitution Day in Poland, also a national holiday.
Natalja Cheifec’s Discussion Club Meets Wednesday
Natalja Cheifec’s discussion club will meet at 5:30 P.M. on Wednesday, April 30, on the zoom platform. To gain zoom credentials to participate, register here.