Dita Sperling has passed away at the age of 102. She was born in Kaunas in 1922. She survived the Kaunas ghetto and Stutthof and went on to be a prolific writer and Holocaust educator. Our deepest condolences to her surviving family and friends around the world.
The Šiauliai District Jewish Community invites you to an event to mark Lithuania’s Righteous Gentiles Remembrance Day called “Witnesses to the Miracles of Life” on March 16.
Program:
1:00 P.M. Commemoration ceremony at Righteous Gentiles Square including words and wreath-laying with MP Paulė Kuzmickienė and the architect Tauras Budzys who began marking the graves of Righteous Gentiles in Lithuania with a special symbol back in 2018;
2:00 P.M. Exhibit of Righteous Gentiles called “Unafraid to Die, They Became Immortal” at the Šiauliai District Jewish Community, Višinskio street no. 24, and a musical performance by Dalia Dėdinskaitė on violin and Gleb Pyšniak on cello.
Time: 1:00 P.M., Sunday, March 16
Place: Righteous Gentiles Square and Šiauliai District Jewish Community, Šiauliai
The Sabbath begins at 5:53 P.M. on Friday, February 28, and concludes at 6:49 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 5:35 P.M. and completed before sunset at 5:53 P.M. Friday is also Losar, Tibetan New Year 2152, and Saturday is the related Mongolian New Year, Tsagaan Sar.
Eulogy by Yarden Bibas, husband of Shiri and father of Ariel and Kfir.
I remember the first time I said “mi amor” to you. It was at the very beginning of our relationship. You told me to only call you that if I was certain I loved you, not to say it carelessly. I didn’t say it then because I didn’t want you to think I was rushing to say “I love you.” Shiri, I’ll confess to you now that I already loved you back then when I said “mi amor.”
Shiri, I love you and will always love you!
Shiri, you are everything to me!
Samuel Bak himself and a panel of experts will launch a Bak catalog in Lithuanian on the first day of the Vilnius Book Fair. The catalog of his artwork is called “Gydantys simboliai.”
Joining via video link from the USA, Litvak painter from Vilnius Samuel Bak will speak with Bak Museum senior curator Ieva Šadzevičienė, illustrator Jokūbas Jacovskis and others with synchronous translations in Lithuanian and English.
Time: 2:00 P.M., February 27
Place: conference hall 5.5, Litexpo building, Laisvės prospect no. 5, Vilnius
The Sholem Aleichem kindergarten in Vilnius is accepting applications until March 1. For more information, call +370 672 35592 or write rastine@ort.lt.
by Grant Gochin
All I sought was information about the murder of my Lithuanian family during the Holocaust. This was my entanglement with the government of Lithuania.
Most barbarians shout about their hideous torture and murder of innocents as a matter of pride. Palestinian terrorists murder Jews and boast about it. They have parades with slain bodies. They hand out candy, and dance with joy, thinking they have done something wonderful. They haven’t.
During the Holocaust, Lithuanians murdered Jews with an even greater level of ferocity and depravity than Hamas currently displays. Their conduct was reprehensible and not even close to human. The Lithuanian slaughter was almost complete. They murdered 96.4% of all Jews they could reach. The current dream of Gaza is the replication of the Lithuanian Holocaust.
A very happy birthday to Artūras Taicas, chairman of the Ukmergė Jewish Community. The Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes you strength and endless energy and enthusiasm, health and happiness and the love of friends and family. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
The Sabbath begins at 5:39 P.M. on Friday, February 21, and concludes at 6:35 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 5:21 P.M. and completed before sunset at 5:39 P.M. Sunday is also the Emperor’s Birthday in Japan, observed on Monday, and National Day in the Sultante of Brunei. Monday is Independence Day in Estonia.
The first defense attaché from the State of Israel to Lithuania David Israely was accredited at a ceremony at the Lithuanian Ministry of National Defense Tuesday.
David Israely previously served in Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Peru, Panama, Guatemala and El Salvador. He is currently posted in the Czech Republic representing Israel there and in Slovakia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Internationally-acclaimed violinist Evgenia Epshtein makes her debut appearance in Lithuania with pianist Donaldas Račys at 7:00 P.M. on Friday, February 28 at the Organum hall in Vilnius then at 5:00 P.M. on Sunday, March 2, at the Kaunas State Philharmonic in Kaunas.
Epshtein was born in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) in the Soviet Union and now lives in Split, Croatia. She began her musical career at the Buchmann-Mehta school of music in Tel Aviv and has performed in Azerbaijan, Mexico, Czechoslovakia, Great Britain and Croatia.
Račys is a professor of music at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas. He received his musical training at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow and has also performed around the world.
The program includes Nimrod Borenstein’s Quasi Una Cadenza solo work for violin, works by Brahms, Moritz Moszkowski and Edvard Grieg.
The Vilnius concert has tickets available starting at 12 euros. More information on the Vilnius concert available by clicking here or by calling +370 686 87510. Tickets for the Kaunas appearance cost 15 euros with discounts for seniors and students if purchased at the box office, and are also available here. More information is available here.
Marian Turski died February 14. He was born in Druskininkai in 1926. A survivor of the Łódź ghetto, Theresienstadt, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Buchenwald and was liberated by the Soviet Red Army in 1945. He resettled in Poland where he advocated for the Communist regime and served as editor of the newspaper Sztandar Młodych and then as chief of the history department of the weekly Polytika, and authored at least seven books about the Holocaust and Communist politics in Poland. Our deepest condolences to his surviving daughter Joanna.
Garij Rudštein passed away February 15. He was born in 1943. He was a member of the Klaipėda Jewish Community and a client of the Saul Kagan Welfare Center. Our deepest condolences go to his friends and surviving family members.
Antanas Segalis died February 16. He was born in 1940 and came from Kalvarija, Lithuania. He was a member of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and a client of the Saul Kagan Welfare Center. We extend our sincere condolences to his son and family.
Adolfas Rudzianskis passed away February 16. He was born in 1937. He was a member of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and a client of the Saul Kagan Welfare Center. Our deepest condolences to his friends and family.
Natalja CHeifec’s #ŠALOM discussion club continues this Thursday, February 20, at 5:30 P.M. on the zoom platform. This week she’ll lead a discussion on Jewish tradition in general. To register and acquire zoom credentials, fill out the form here.
The International Jascha Heifetz Competition for Violinists held once every four years opened its 7th week-long contest at the Old Town Hall in Vilnius, the traditional location, last Friday.
More than 50 younger leading violinists from around the world are competing for combined prizes worth €30,000.Presented by the Center for International Cultural Projects, the competition runs from February 14 to 22 this year. According to the contest’s webpage, no more than 18 musicians will enter the second round, and a maximum of six competitors will qualify for the final. The first and second rounds will take place at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater.
Participants in the final round will perform with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra and its chief conductor Modestas Pitrėnas at the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society. Chaired by violinist Gidon Kremer, the competition will offer a prize fund of €30,000, alongside other awards, according to the webpage. The first place winner takes €12,000, second €8,000 and third-place winner €5,000. Second-round finalists will perform at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater this week.
In the name of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, chairwoman Faina Kukliansky sends greetings to everyone on the Day of the Restoration of Lithuanian Statehood. May unity and respect become our guideposts. Happy February 16!
The Sabbath begins at 5:24 P.M. on Friday, February 14, and concludes at 6:22 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 5:06 P.M. and completed before sunset at 5:24 P.M. Friday is also Valentine’s Day and Sunday, February 16, is Restoration of Lithuanian Statehood Day celebrated now and during the first Lithuanian republic between the two world wars.
Today is the Jewish holiday of Tu b’Shvat, the 15th day of the month of Shvat, the New Year for trees also known as Israeli Arbor Day. It is traditional to eat of the shvat ha’minim (seven species endemic to the Land of Israel): wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates. Hag sameakh!
