Religion

Seniors Club Passover

Seniors Club Passover

Taking care of our elderly is a Jewish tradition. Our Seniors Club which operates throughout the year with concerts, lectures and lots of fun, attended a special Passover celebration and seder at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius last week.

LJC programs coordinator Žana Skudovičienė came up with a special program for our seniors this year with music and prayer by cantor Shmuel Yaatom and a speaking event by Natalja Cheifec on Jewish history.

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky was on hand to deliver holiday greetings from the entire Community.

Reportedly every member of the Seniors Club attended.

Read more
Passover in Ponevezh

Passover in Ponevezh

Passover is one of the most important holy days. The name of the holiday in Hebrew means “to pass over.” This refers to an event recorded in the Torah when the final curse of ten was visited upon the Land of Egypt. When the pharaoh refused to release the Jewish people from slavery, Egypt was visited by ten plagues. In the last plague, the Angel of Death passed over the homes of Jews but took the firstborn of the families of the Egyptians. That’s where the name of the holiday comes from.

On the first night of Passover in 2025 the members of the Panevėžys (Ponevezh) Jewish Community and friends gathered at the holiday table to celebrate together with the traditional seder, the ceremonial holiday meal. The ceremony began with the traditional Hebrew prayer Kadesh intoned by Community board member Katerina Krasnočiarova. There were readings from the Haggadah, the story of the Jewish exodus from Egyptian slavery.

Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman greeted the assembly with the start of the holiday. The traditional four cups of wine were consumed, four being the number of promises God has given to the Jewish nation. The fifth cup remained untouched, intended for the prophet Elijah. Candles were also lit and prayers uttered and sung, the holiday spirit complemented with song and dance.

Read more
Seder with Israeli Embassy at LJC

Seder with Israeli Embassy at LJC

For the third year now the Lithuanian Jewish Community has hosted a small seder at the Community building in Vilnius with friends from the Israeli embassy in Vilnius and Sholem Aleichem Gymnasium.

Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein, chargé d’affaires Erez Golan, Israeli consul in Vilnius Vladas Bumelis and staff and students from the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium made this seder special and Sholem students provided a highly entertaining musical performance.

Some snapshots follow..

Read more
Easter Greetings

Easter Greetings

The Lithuanian Jewish Community greets all our friends who are Catholic and Orthodox with the holiday of Easter. Not only do all the Christian churches agree on the date today, but it also coincides with the last day of Passover this year.

A happy and blessed Easter.

Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 8:28 P.M. on Friday, April 18, and concludes at 9:30 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 8:10 P.M. and completed before sunset at 8:28 P.M. Passover ends Sunday at sunset. Sunday is also Easter on the Catholic, Western Christian, Russian Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox and Coptic Church calendars. Most government offices and some grocery stores will be closed Monday.

Happy Passover

Happy Passover

Dear Community members, friends, supporters and dear reader,

Greetings to all Jews on the great holiday Passover. This holiday crows the liberation of the Jews from the oppression of the Egyptian pharaoh and our becoming one people and a free people.

Passover isn’t a time of noisy gatherings. It is a traditional family holiday when the home is cleansed of leavening agents, children seek out the hidden pieces of matzo, when the whole family sits down at the seder table and reads the Haggadah.

We are so very happy that this year the majority of Litvak families are celebrating Passover in line with all traditions and rules, celebrating at home with their families. Our staff and homecare workers are also visiting our members who live alone that they might also feel cared for and share in the holiday spirit of warmth and joy.

I wish everyone a happy family Passover. Let’s always remain free and let’s always be happy.

Happy Passover! Hag Pesach sameach!

Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community

Temporary Closure of Choral Synagogue

Temporary Closure of Choral Synagogue

The Vilnius Jewish religious community extends its greetings to all on one of the most significant Jewish holidays—Passover—and informs that, due to Mr. Krinsky’s (who is neither the rabbi of the Vilnius Choral synagogue nor of the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community) refusal to sign a liability agreement for an event he intended to organize, the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community as the sole owner and administrator of the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius has made the decision to temporarily close the synagogue.

On February 7, 2025, while celebrating his wife Dina Krinsky’s birthday, Mr. Krinsky gathered a group of guests at the Choral Synagogue. Some of the guests became ill after the banquet and several were hospitalized with salmonella.

Contrary to the requirements of the laws of Lithuania and the internal regulations of the Choral Synagogue, Mr. Krinsky did not report this incident in the prescribed manner and as a result, this information remained unknown to the institutions responsible for sanitation and hygiene.

The Vilnius Jewish Religious Community refuses to take any responsibility for Mr. Krinsky’s actions and therefore demanded that all events organized by his community in the Choral synagogue take place only upon the signing of a liability agreement. This agreement, in addition to Halachic laws, would include commitments to comply with hygiene, fire safety and occupational safety standards. Unfortunately, Mr. Krinsky refused to sign the liability agreement.

Read more
Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 8:16 P.M. on Friday, April 11, and concludes at 9:15 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 7:57 P.M. and completed before sunset at 8:16 P.M. Passover begins at sunset on Saturday..

Lithuanian National Library Presents New Book of Grigoriy Kanovitch’s Interviews and Speeches

Lithuanian National Library Presents New Book of Grigoriy Kanovitch’s Interviews and Speeches

The Martynas Mažvydas Lithuanian National Library in Vilnius will host the launch of a new collection of talks and interviews by the late Litvak novelist Griogiry Kanovitch at 6:00 P.M. on Wednesday, April 16.

The book is called “Tiesa gydo. Vieši žodžiai ir interviu, 1988–1993–2022” [Truth Heals: Public Speeches and Interviews, 1988-1993-2022] and was edited by Virginijus Gasiliūnas.

Virginijus Gasiliūnas, Kanovitch’s son and writer Sergejus,and literature researcher Rima Kasperionytė will engage in a panel discussion moderated by Dainius Vaitiekūnas. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky is to deliver an introductory speech.

The event is expected to last two hours and is free and open to everyone.

How Yiddish Writer Chaim Grade’s Last Novel Was Rescued and Wrestled into Print

How Yiddish Writer Chaim Grade’s Last Novel Was Rescued and Wrestled into Print

Photo: Chaim Grade’s Sons and Daughters was originally serialized in the 1960s and ’70s in New York-based Yiddish newspapers (from YIVO and Alfred. A. Knopf via JTA).

The editors discuss how a previously-lost decades-old manuscript was found and pieced together. It’s being called “probably the last great Yiddish novel”

by Andrew Silow-Carroll, April 7, 2025

JTA–Sixty years after he first began serializing it in the Yiddish press and 42 years after publisher Alfred A. Knopf acquired the book, Sons and Daughters–the last novel by the late, great Yiddish novelist Chaim Grade–lands in bookstores this week. To call it long-awaited is an understatement.

How the novel came to be published in English translation is a story of family intrigue, literary detective work and dogged creativity on the part of its translator and editors.

The result, a sprawling 600-plus-page book about a rabbi in 1930s Lithuania and the different paths taken by his children, is “quite probably the last great Yiddish novel,” the critic Adam Kirsch writes in the introduction. Dwight Garner in a New York Times review calls it “a melancholy book that also happens to be hopelessly, miraculously, unremittingly funny.”

Full story here.

Natalja Cheifec on Passover

Natalja Cheifec on Passover

Natalja Cheifec will provide a special lecture on Passover traditions Wednesday via internet. She’ll discuss Egyptian slavery, liberation, Moses, unleavened bread and meaning of being passed over and chosen in the context of the Jewish people.

To receive zoom credentials, click here.

Time: 5:30 P.M., Wednesday, April 9
Place: internet

Second Civil Society Forum on Combating Anti-Semitism

Second Civil Society Forum on Combating Anti-Semitism

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky represented Lithuania at the second Civil Society Forum on Combating Anti-Semitism and Fostering Jewish Life held in Brussels on April 1 and 2.

The forum was set up by the European Commission.

More than 250 EU and international organizations, specialist and activists attended this year’s forum. Participants discussed strengthening social dialogue and new initiatives to increase mutual understanding. Katharina von Schnurbein was an organizer of the forum and is the EC’s coordinator for combating anti-Semitism, and is a friend of the LJC.

Read more
Passover Seder

Passover Seder

Dear reader,

The Bnei Maskilim progressive Jewish community invites you to Passover seder. Rabbinical students Emma Aaronson, Dani Pattiz and Viljamas Žitkauskas will lead ceremonies. Join us and celebrate the spirit of freedom and fellowship.

On this evening like no other we will remember the story of Exodus, read the Haggadah, sing the traditional prayers together and sample the holiday foods according to Passover tradition.

Registration is required. Confirm your participation by sending an email to viljamas@lzb.lt.

Time: 7:00 P.M., April 12
Place: Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius

Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 8:06 P.M. on Friday, April 4, and concludes at 8:59 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 7:43 P.M. and completed before sunset at 8:06 P.M. Tuesday is also International Romani Day.

Matzo Available

Matzo Available

Matzo is available at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius during working hours in packages of 450 grams and 1 kilogram.

Natalja Cheifec Lecture Series: Pearls of Wisdom from the Vilna Gaon

Natalja Cheifec Lecture Series: Pearls of Wisdom from the Vilna Gaon

Natalja Cheifec will present a new lecture Thursday featuring Sefer Even Shlema, a collection of commentaries by the Vilna Gaon.

Lecture to include:

-negative features (midot) and how to correct them;
-the ability to be satisfied with little;
-trust in the Almighty and how to serve Him;
-the war against innate sin;
-fear and love of the Most High and following His law;
-raising and teaching children;
-vain speech;
-prayer;
-reward and punishment;
-hell, paradise and final judgment.

To receive zoom credentials to participate via internet, click here.

Time: 5:30 P.M., Thursday, April 3
Place: internet

Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium Holds 7th Bar/Bat Mitzvah at LJC

Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium Holds 7th Bar/Bat Mitzvah at LJC

For the seventh year now the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium in Vilnius has held a bar and bat mitzvah ceremony for young Jews coming of age.

Sholem has held the ceremony at both the Choral Synagogue and the Lithuanian Jewish Community in past years, and the LJC was proud to host it yet again last Thursday.

We are grateful to Viljamas Žitkauskas and the Bnei Maskilim association he directs for their sincere and moving concern and care, and for the help they provided the young people, and to Rabbi Nathan Alfred who came from Israel for the fourth year now to guide our young people in their extremely important journey moving into adulthood.

A big thank-you as well goes to our special guests including LJC friend, cantor of the Pestalozzistraße Synagogue and director of the Geiger Cantor Collegium in Berlin, Isidor Abramowicz, and to collegium student and rebbetzin Alla Mitelman.

May all our new adults experience the fullness of life. Mazl tov!

Read more
Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 6:48 P.M. on Friday, March 28, and concludes at 7:44 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit and prayers begun at 6:30 P.M., and completed before sunset at 6:48 P.M.

The Rabbi on Shortwave

The Rabbi on Shortwave

by Borukh Gorin, lechaim.ru

It was the early 1980s. On the coffee table stood a VEF-202–heavy, solid, with the smell of plastic and Soviet electronics. Its long antenna, like a taut nerve, caught the voices of a distant world. On the dial–London, Paris, Monte Carlo, and between them the frequencies that carried what was absent from Soviet news: the BBC, Voice of America, Radio Liberty.

There was a whole world on shortwave. On Kol Israel, I listened to Jewish music–old songs that seemed somehow familiar and distant at the same time. On the BBC, Seva Novgorodtsev talked about Western music, which we only knew about from rare records copied onto reels. And Svoboda talked about things that our newspapers were silent about. About Jews in the USSR, who “don’t exist.” About refuseniks, who are not allowed to leave. About synagogues that are still standing, but people are afraid to come to them.

And there was also a religious program.

I listened to Rabbi Haskelevich. I always listened alone.

Read more
Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 6:34 P.M. on Friday, March 21, and concludes at 7:30 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 6:16 P.M. and completed before sunset at 6:34 P.M. Nowruz, Persian New Year, falls on the vernal equinox in 2025, Thursday, March 20, and is celebrated on multiple dates in multiple countries for several days following.