Wooden Synagogue in Alanta Renovated
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LJC, International Comminission and Olga Lengyel Institute Holding Holocaust Seminars for Teachers
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LJC Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky Speaks at Commemoration of Grosse
Aktion in Kaunas
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Šiauliai Opens Righteous Gentile Square at the Intersection of Vilniaus and Ežero Streets at Former Ghetto Gates
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"Symphony from Jerusalem of the North” Mark Day of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide in Presidential Courtyard
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The renovated synagogue in Žiežmariai will become a new cultural center. The first synagogue in appeared sometime between 1690 and 1696. In the 19th century there three synagogues. Not surprising, since the majority of the population were Jewish. This synagogue which has survived and has now been renovated stands in the southern part of town between Vilniaus and Žalgirio streets, with the Strėva river flowing from southeastward from there.
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The Lithuanian Post Office has issued a stamp commemorating 300 years since the birth of the Vilna Gaon
The Lithuanian Post Office has issued a stamp commemorating 300 years since the birth of the Vilna Gaon
with a face value of 0.81 euros, enough to mail letters abroad.
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Lithuania Marks 300th Anniversary of Birth of Vilna Gaon, 2020 Named Year of the Gaon and Litvak History.
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Most important events at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in 2018
Most important events at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in 2018
Revival of Jewish Scouting in Lithuania: The first new Litvak scouting camping trip with children from Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Panevėžys and Molėtai took place August 24 to 26.
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Jewish newspapers and advertisements from Vilnius in the period between the two world wars. Jews and other minorities were given equal rights in the reconstituted Lithuanian state. Yiddish thrived with many newspapers and books published in the language.
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Conference to Mark the 130th Birthday of Anna Akhmatova at the LJC

Conference to Mark the 130th Birthday of Anna Akhmatova at the LJC

Osip Mandelshtam and Anna Akhmatova

The Lithuanian Jewish Community held a conference on Jewish influences in the life and work of Russian poetess Anna Akhmatova on June 5. The conference was initiated by poetess Elena Suodienė, a doctor of the liberal arts and recipient of the Golden Quill award from the European Academy of Art and Literature.

Dr. Suodienė presented at the conference her new and newly-published poem in Russian about Akhmatova. She wrote a special article exclusively for www.lzb.lt about the Akhmatova the great poetess and the extraordinary person.

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Shavuot on Sunday

Shavuot on Sunday

Shavuot or Shavuos is the holiday marking the giving of the Torah. The Vilnius Jewish Religious Community and Chabad Lithuania invite you to come celebrate together at 11:30 A.M. on Sunday, June 9, at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius. We will read the Ten Commandments and everyone will have the opportunity to sample delicious traditional Shavuot milk-product dishes. Children will receive small gifts. Because Shavuot is a time when studying the Torah is especially apt, traditional and successful, you are invited to an extended Sabbath dinner at Bokšto street no. 9 in Vilnius at 8:30 on June 8 where we will learn more about the Shavuot holiday.

Amehaye Children’s Summer Day Camp

Amehaye Children’s Summer Day Camp

Children aged 6 to 12 are invited to attend the 2019 Amehaye children’s summer day camp. Parents with younger children aged at least 4 can also contact the organizers for their children to attend. This year the camp will be held at the scenic Karvys mansion estate next to Lake Karvys in the Vilnius region from July 1 to 12. Please contact Sofja at sofja@lzb.lt or by telephone at +370 601 46656 for more information on how to register before June 14. An electronic registration form is available in Lithuanian here.

Makabi Members Invited to Sporting Tournament

Makabi Members Invited to Sporting Tournament

Dear Makabi members,

The Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club will host a mini-Maccabiah Games event from 12 noon to 4:00 P.M. on June 16 at the Lithuanian Educology University, Studentų street no. 39, Vilnius. Badminton competitions will be held at the A. Puškinas School at Gabijos street no. 8 in Vilnius. Your local teams are invited to compete in:

Indoor soccer (7 players plus coach)
Three-on-three basketball (5 players plus coach)
Volleyball (9 players plus coach)
Table tennis (men’s and women’s)
Chess (men’s, women’s)
Badminton (men’s, women’s)

Rules for the competition will be set following determination of exact numbers of teams and players in different sports.

Please send an application by e-mail to makabilita.duskes@gmail.com by June 14.
For more information, call 8 698 19999

Michailas Duškesas, executive director

Jewish Influences in the Life of Russian Poetess Anna Akhmatova

Jewish Influences in the Life of Russian Poetess Anna Akhmatova

The Lithuanian Jewish Community will host an event dedicated to celebrating the 130th birthday of the Russian poetess Anna Akhmatova and discussing Jewish influences in her life. The event will take place at the LJC beginning at 1:00 P.M. on June 5. At least five speakers will present various topics. A screening of a film about Isaiah Berlin will punctuate the program of speakers, with a discussion with the audience following the last speaker. The event is expected to be held mainly in Russian.

Jewish Community Remembered in Kalvarija

Jewish Community Remembered in Kalvarija

In the period between the two world wars, the Jewish population was the majority population in Kalvarija, Lithuania. The architecture of the old town, a unique synagogue complex (with a winter and summer synagogue and the Talmud school) and the only surviving Jew, Moishe Segalis–all of this stands as a testimony to that time. For four Saturdays in a row now, as spring blossoms forth, there have been readings from Icchokas Meras’s novel “Lygiosios trunka akimirką” held near the synagogues in Kalvarija and in their courtyards. Lithuanian Jewish Community executive director Renaldas Vaisbrodas attended the final reading on May 24.

Students and soloists from the Sonantem choir in Kalvarija read from the work about the life of the Vilnius ghetto and about life which can be decided by the movement of a single piece on the game board.

A youth initiative invited the local community to an informal meeting with the relatives of those who once lived in Kalvarija, with our ancestors and neighbors.

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Latvian President-Elect Has Jewish Roots

Latvian President-Elect Has Jewish Roots

President-elect of Lativa Egils Levits, 63, has Jewish roots. His father Jonass was Jewish but his mother was not, he said in an interview last month for the Delfi news channel. He and his parents were allowed to move away from the USSR to West Germany in 1972. His father Jonass was a Jewish engineer and his mother Ingeborga Levita (née Barga, nom-de-plume Aija Zemzare) a Latvian poetess. Egils earned degrees in political science and law before returning to Latvia in 1990 to help draft the Latvian declaration of independence from the Soviet Union. In 1993 he was elected to the Latvian parliament and went on to serve as Latvia’s justice minister and ambassador to Switzerland, Austria and Hungary. Levits was appointed Latvia’s representative at the European Court of Human Rights in 1995 and is currently the Latvian representative at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. He was elected president of Latvia by the parliament on May 29.

Speaking on Latvia’s Radio 1, Levits said he spends all his free time in Latvia with his family. “I like to walk around and meet ordinary people. I will get to know Latvia that way more profoundly and more personally than many of the politicians resident in Riga.”

Many Levits in Riga and Latvia hail from Panevėžys and Pabradė in Lithuania. Egils Levits, who likely has distant Litvak roots, has said Latvia should follow Lithuania’s example in supporting Jewish culture and history issues.

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Lithuanian Jewish Community Annual Reporting and Elections Conference

Lithuanian Jewish Community Annual Reporting and Elections Conference

The Lithuanian Jewish Community held its annual reporting and election conference May 28.

The conference is the highest governing body of the LJC. Delegates from the member organizations considered the conclusions from an independent audit and approved the financial report for the 2018 financial year. They also approved of the activities in the 2018 reporting period and discussed plans for 2019 and 2020, including conceptual directions for celebrating the upcoming Year of the Vilna Gaon and Jewish History.

Photographs by Milda Rūkaitė

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Israeli Ambassador to Lithuania Awarded Lithuanian Military Medal

Israeli Ambassador to Lithuania Awarded Lithuanian Military Medal

Commander of the Lithuanian military lieutenant general Jonas Vytautas Žukas awarded a Lithuanian military honor to Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Amir Maimon. The high honor was given on the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Lithuanian military in recognition of the Israeli diplomat’s efforts to strengthen cooperation between Israel and Lithuania in the military sphere.

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Merkel: German Synagogues, Jewish Schools Require Police Protection

Merkel: German Synagogues, Jewish Schools Require Police Protection

German chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday her country should remain vigilant regarding growing nationalist tendencies in Europe because of Germany’s Nazi past. “It’s clear we have to view these [nationalist movements] in a specific context, the context of our past,” she said in an interview with Christiane Amanpour on CNN. “That means we must be more vigilant than others.” Merkel condemned growing anti-Semitism in Germany and remarked: “unfortunately we have always had a certain amount of anti-Semites.”

Full description of interview in Lithuanian here.

Thank You

The Kaunas Jewish Community thanks Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky for a fun and wonderfully-organized Lag B’Omer celebration.

Lag B’Omer Celebration in Vilnius Region a Big Success

Lag B’Omer Celebration in Vilnius Region a Big Success

This holiday occurs on the 33rd day of the Counting of the Omer, which occurs on the 18th day of the Hebrew month of Iyar. Families usually celebrate with picnics and sometimes archery practice is held for the children. Lag B’Omer is a festive holiday with bonfires, barbecues and fun activities. It also marks the beginning of the wedding season for many.

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Condolences

With sadness and regret we report the death of Sonia Kozlova on May 26. She was born in 1941.

Creative Activity

Creative Activity

The Ilan and Dubi Clubs of the Lithuanian Jewish Community are holding a creative activity at the Artistic Village traditional arts and crafts center in the Bebrusai village in the Molėtai region from 10:45 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. on Sunday, May 26. Registration is open till May 24. Transportation from the Community to the village and back will be provided. Call Sofja at +370 601 46656 or send an email to sofja@lzb.lt

Vilnius: Jerusalem of the North, Jerusalem of Lithuania

Vilnius: Jerusalem of the North, Jerusalem of Lithuania

15min.lt

A New, Free Tourist Route: Why Vilnius Was Called the Jerusalem of the North

With those who fled coming back and traditional Jewish holidays again becoming part of city life, Jewish culture is experiencing a renaissance in Vilnius. Now there will be another opportunity to discover why Vilnius was called the Jerusalem of the North. A free new tourist route called “Discover Jewish Heritage in Vilnius” will help tell the stories of the Jews who lived and worked in Vilnius, according to a press release from the Vilnius municipal tourism and business growth agency Go Vilnius, which has compiled this guidebook as a way to learn about the world-famous Litvaks whose humble origins were in Vilnius, to discover what traces of them remain and to learn about the history of the Jewish community of Vilnius, including the best of times and the most tragic of times.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Small but Significant Features of Jewish History in Vilnius

Small but Significant Features of Jewish History in Vilnius


bernardinai.lt

Before World War II a large Jewish community lived in Vilnius whose cultural, religious and social traces are only recalled today in statues and commemorative plaques. It’s a rare resident of the city who knows why Vilnius was called the Jerusalem of Lithuania, who knows what an active community life bustled on the narrow streets of the Old Town and how the tragic events of World War II changed forever the face of the Lithuanian capital.

For many years Vilnius was a Jewish spiritual and academic center. Besides some faded inscriptions in Hebrew characters on buildings which were part of the Vilnius ghetto, there are more surviving traces of the history of this people. Before World War II Jews accounted for more than a third of all city residents.

Today we invite you to discover with us some small details of this history, small but important to our city.

Full text in Lithuanian here.