Jonas Karbutas has died. He was born in 1940. He was a member of the Kaunas Jewish Community and a client of the Saul Kagan Welfare Center. Our deepest condolences to his family and friends.
The Kaunas Jewish Community always celebrate the holidays in an exceptional manner, the members are the dictionary definition of holiday spirit and there is never a lack of music and a avariety of delicious foods to sample, for many years now made by the wonderful Višta Puode or Chicken in the Pot restaurant in Kaunas.
This year was not the exception which proves the rule. In high spirits and with the warmest of wishes, the Kaunas Jewish Community celebrated Passover in the manner to which they are accustomed. Some snapshots, pale reflections of course of the real celebration, follow below.
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.
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.
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..
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.
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.
Faivel Kuras has died. He was a singer for the Fayerlakh Jewish song and dance ensemble. The Lithuanian Jewish Community and Fayerlakh extend our deepest condolences to his widow Irina, children, grandchildren and many friends.
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
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.
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..
Happy birthday to Palanga Jewish Community chairman Vilnius Gutmanas. The entire Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes you good health, happiness and success in all your efforts. May the coming year bring new opportunities and many moments of happiness.
Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community
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.
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.
The Panevėžys Jewish Community received a report April 2 a sign marking the boundary of the Old Jewish Cemetery in the city of Panevėžys had been removed and left nearby. Local residents called the police regarding the incident and the municipal administration was informed.
On April 4 members of the Panevėžys Jewish Community and Loreta Paškevičienė from the city’s architectural department surveyed the state of the Old Jewish Cemetery and made a number of determinations regarding upkeep and renovation.
The sign was set back up.
One of the recommendations was to remove some dead trees and replace them with sapling pines. On April 5 a group of volunteers from the Panevėžys Jewish Community did that and generally cleaned up the area. They also reset and braced some older pines blown down in the storm late last year.
Despite the bad weather, the Panevėžys Jewish Community reported the volunteers planted about 40 saplings that day with help from local arborist Algimantas Kirkilas.
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
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.
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
Borisas Liberčukas has died. He was born in 1936. He was a member of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and a client of the Saul Kagan Welfare Center. Our deepest condolences to his widow, children and friends left behind.
Photo: Marker commemorating Juozas Krikštaponis. Though the city was ordered to remove the bas-relief and inscription, they didn’t do so. Photo by Gediminas Nemunaitis
Ukmergės žinios, April 5, 2025
The Lithuanian administrative court for regions handed down a decision in the case of commemorative markers honoring Juozas Krikštaponis in Ukmergė (Vilkomir).
The cort found partially in favor of the plaintiffs and annulled a decision issued by the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania (Genocide Center) on August 23, 2023, calling for the removal from the marker stone of the image of the Lithuanian partisan and accompanying inscriptions.
Relatives of Krikštaponis, the Lithuanian Union of Freedom Fighters and the Lithuanian Association of Political Prisoners and Deportees opposed the decision by the director of the Genocide Center and took their complaint to the administrative courts.
The administrative court for regions found the Genocide Center’s decision to remove the bas-relief of Krikštaponis was made without adhering to the law, and that the Center failed to provide clear, specific and reliable evidence that Krikštaponis was complicit in crimes of genocide against Jews.
