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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Eightieth Anniversary of the Liquidation of and Uprising in the Vilnius Ghetto: Loïc Salfati’s Documentary Secrets of the Great Synagogue

Eightieth Anniversary of the Liquidation of and Uprising in the Vilnius Ghetto: Loïc Salfati’s Documentary Secrets of the Great Synagogue

Loïc Salfati’s documentary film “Secrets of the Great Synagogue of Vilnius” will be screened at 6:00 P.M. on September 20 at the Tolerance Center of the Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum at Naugarduko street no. 10 in Vilnius. The film uses archival documents, testimonies and interviews with archaeologists from Israel, Lithuania and the USA to reveal hitherto little-known facts about the Great Synagogue which stood more or less intact for centuries, was heavily bombed during World War II and razed by the Soviet government in 1950. The director will talk about his film before the screening. The film is in Lithuanian and English with Lithuanian subtitles for the English-language segments.

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Eightieth Anniversary of Liquidation and Uprising of the Vilnius Ghetto: The Holocaust, Anti-Semitism and Remembering for the Future

Eightieth Anniversary of Liquidation and Uprising of the Vilnius Ghetto: The Holocaust, Anti-Semitism and Remembering for the Future

Historian Christoph Diekmann, film-maker Saulius Beržinis, independent Holocaust archive founder and director Darius Staliūnas and Lithuanian History Institute historian Tomas Balkelis will hold a panel discussion moderated by Dina Porat from Yad Vashem about the Holocaust, anti-Semitism and commemorative policies at the National Martynas Mažvydas Library at 5:00 P.M. on September 20. Before the discussion begins, Beit Vilna director Mickey Kantor, Israeli ambassador Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein and National Martynas Mažvydas Library director Renaldas Gudauskas will deliver brief addresses. The panel discussion will be followed by brief speeches by Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky and representatives from Lithuania’s International Commission to Assess the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania.

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Eightieth Anniversary of Liquidation and Uprising of the Vilnius Ghetto: Readings and Activity for Children

Eightieth Anniversary of Liquidation and Uprising of the Vilnius Ghetto: Readings and Activity for Children

Vilnius’s Adomas Mickevičius Public Library will host a reading from 3rd and 4th grade students in Lithuanian from the book “Akmenėlis” [Little Stone] by Marius Mickevičius by professional actors telling the story of friendship, hope and fear experienced by children imprisoned in the ghetto, with a talk about the stone as a symbol for remembering and commemorating history, followed by an activity where every child will be invited to paint a stone. It happens at 11:00 A.M. on September 19, and then again at the same time on September 21, at the Adomas Mickevičius Public Library at Trakų street no. 10 in Vilnius.

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Eightieth Anniversary of Liquidation and Uprising of Vilnius Ghetto: Walking Tour

Eightieth Anniversary of Liquidation and Uprising of Vilnius Ghetto: Walking Tour

When the Nazis and local Lithuanian collaborators instituted a ghetto for Jews in Vilnius, it was in two parts: a smaller ghetto for the aged and infirm, and a larger ghetto for able-bodied younger Jews to be used as slave labor. The smaller ghetto was liquidated almost immediately, meaning those imprisoned there were slaughtered. This event is a walking tour of the large ghetto which endured for several years. Walking tour participants will gather at the historic address Žemaitijos street no. 4 at 5:00 P.M. on Tuesday, September 19. Formerly known as Strashun street before and during the Holocaust, this street was located inside the ghetto and was the address of the Jewish Educational Library headed by Herman Kruk during the life of the Vilnius ghetto. It is also next to the balcony where Jewish partisans fired on Estonian Nazi troops during the liquidation of the Vilnius ghetto.

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Eightieth Anniversary of Liquidation and Uprising of Vilnius Ghetto: Walking Tour of Vilnius Ghetto through Eyes of Children

Eightieth Anniversary of Liquidation and Uprising of Vilnius Ghetto: Walking Tour of Vilnius Ghetto through Eyes of Children

Guide Gina Justina Raibužytė will lead walking tours of the Vilnius ghetto focusing on how it appeared to the children trapped inside, starting from the Adomas Mickevičius Public Library at Trakų street no. 10 in Vilnius, at 11:00 A.M. on September 18, 11:00 A.M. on September 20 and 12:00 noon on September 22. Registration via internet is required by filling out the form here: https://forms.gle/ZrosR3TYVB3wF6bc7

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Eightieth Anniversary of Liquidation and Uprising of Vilnius Ghetto: City of the Living, City of the Dead Photo Exhibit

Eightieth Anniversary of Liquidation and Uprising of Vilnius Ghetto: City of the Living, City of the Dead Photo Exhibit

This is a photography project authored by Robert Wilczyñski where archival photos of the Warsaw ghetto are superimposed on the current, rebuilt Polish capital, accompanied by texts taken from diaries, testimonies and other sources documenting daily life, suffering and death in the Warsaw ghetto as well as the Warsaw Uprising. Pawel Freus is curator of the exhibition. The exhibit went on display September 12 at the Tolerance Center of the Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum located at Naugarduko street no. 10 in Vilnius and will run till December 15 of 2023.

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Eightieth Anniversary of Liquidation and Uprising of Vilnius Ghetto: Exhibit “Children of the Ghetto Tell Their Stories to Children of Today”

Eightieth Anniversary of Liquidation and Uprising of Vilnius Ghetto: Exhibit “Children of the Ghetto Tell Their Stories to Children of Today”

This September Lithuania and the world marks the 80th anniversary of the liquidation and uprising of the Vilnius ghetto back in 1943 when several thousand Jews imprisoned and still suriving there were sent to concentration camps and murdered. At the same time, Jewish underground paramilitary forces attempted to stage a defense, and several hundred left to join the Soviet partisans battling the Nazis and their local collaborators in Lithuania and elsewhere.

The Lithuanian Jewish Community is proud of the courage and unbreakable will of the prisoners of the Vilnius ghetto and invites you to celebrate their memory in a series of events to be held throughout September into mid-November this year.

The exhibit “Children of the Ghetto Tell Their Stories to Children of Today” is one such on-going event which began September 4 at the Adomas Mickevičius Public Library at Trakų street no. 4 in Vilnius and which will run till September 30. It consists of brief sketches of the life of children in the Vilnius ghetto with guidance and access to books by children about the Holocaust for those interested in learning more.

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Lithuanian PM Offers Rosh Hashana Greetings

Lithuanian PM Offers Rosh Hashana Greetings

Lithuanian prime minister Ingrida Šimonytė presented the following greeting on the occasion of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year:

“Today when the Jewish communities in Lithuania, Israel and the whole world celebrate the birth of the world, in the name of our entire Government I greet you with the New Year, on the occasion of Rosh Hashana. The New Year with the call of the Shofar horn and the sweetness of apples dipped in honey begins a sacred time of reflection, repentance and renewal. It is a time to stop and look inward. It is a time to ask what sort of people we want to be and how we achieved that over the foregoing year, what we can still do for tranquility and peace in our countries and the world. I wish everyone a happy and peaceful year. May Rosh Hashana bring happiness, health and success to your families and peace to your homes. Shanah tovah u’metuka! A good and sweet year!”

European Days of Jewish Culture in Prienai

European Days of Jewish Culture in Prienai

The Lithuanian Jewish Community and Bagel Shop Café were invited to participate at the European Days of Jewish Culture in Prienai, Lithuania, on the eve of Rosh Hashana, where around 40% of the population was Jewish before the Holocaust. The local organizers of the event there demonstrated a keen interest in the Jewish past of their town and in what was until now exotic Jewish cuisine.

The event kicked off at the synagogue, one of two and the only one left standing, in the early afternoon with a planting of crocus bulbs outside the synagogue. Participants walked from there to the Vėlyvė café which used to house a famous restaurant belonging to the Milstein family. Litvak snacks, challa bread and humous were served with fresh bagels. Local genealogist Janina Paplauskaitė-Leonavičienė then told the story of the synagogue and the restaurant which belonged to the Milstein family.

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Eightieth Anniversary of Liquidation and Uprising of Vilnius Ghetto: Ponar Escape Tunnel

Eightieth Anniversary of Liquidation and Uprising of Vilnius Ghetto: Ponar Escape Tunnel

This event is a tour featuring the escape tunnel dug by prisoners held underground at the Ponar mass murder site whose gruesome job was to exhume, burn and crush into dust the 70,000-150,000 corpses of Jews murdered there by Lithuanians and Nazis over the course of three years. After their task was completed, the enslaved members of the so-called burners team–Jews and Soviet POWs–would also be murdered and disposed of there. Some members of the team escaped on April 15, 1944, through the tunnel they excavated more than 30 meters long using spoons and sticks. The tour begins at 12:00 noon on September 16 at the Ponar Memorial Complex outside Vilnius.

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Rosh Hashana Fast Approaching

Rosh Hashana Fast Approaching

The Jewish New Year 5784, Rosh Hashana, is coming up quickly this Friday, September 15 on the Gregorian calendar, at sundown at 7:18 P.M. According to Jewish tradition, the first man Adam was created on the first day of the Jewish month of Tishrei, and, according to tradition, he was exiled from the Garden of Eden on the same day for disobeying God. Since then God has held court on humans every year on this day. The Creator makes decisions on this day about who is included in the Book of Life and who is not, and how the coming year will bring success for every person, so religious Jews spend the day praying for God’s favor and mercy.

The Vilnius Jewish Religious Community and the Lithuanian Jewish Community invite you to celebrate Rosh Hashana at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius with us.

Program:

Friday, September 15

7:00 P.M. Rosh Hashana at the Choral Synagogue

Saturday, September 16

10:00 A.M. Shacharit
7:00 P.M. Mincha
8:30 P.M. Evening prayer service

Sunday, September 17

10:00 A.M. Shacharit
7:00 P.M. Mincha.

Invitation to Kabalat Shabat

Invitation to Kabalat Shabat

The Lithuanian Jewish Community and Bnei Maskilim followers of Progresive Judaism invite you to a Kabalat Shabat ceremony and celebration of the eve of the Jewish New Year, 5784.

This warm, comfortable and moving gathering is a great entree to Rosh Hashana.

We will meet at 8:00 P.M. on Friday, September 15, in the hall on third floor of the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius.

Let’s Celebrate Rosh Hashana Together

Let’s Celebrate Rosh Hashana Together

The Lithuanian Jewish Community greets you on the occasion of the upcoming Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana, 5784, and invites you and your entire family to come celebrate with us starting at 4:00 P.M. on Saturday, September 16, at the newly renovated Hotel Conti located at Raugyklos no. 7 in Vilnius.

The program includes greetings, a performance by the Fayerlakh Jewish song and dance ensemble, holiday meal (you can choose a meat or fish dish during registration, another concert called Zingen Mir a Lidele in Yiddish with the sololists Rita Alterman, Mariya Dushkina, Michailas Jablonsky and Leonardas Zenkevičius, plus much more.

Tickets are 25 euros for adults and 10 euros for children aged 13 and under. To register or receive more information, send an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt or call (+370) 678 81514 between 10:00 A.M. and 6:00 P.M. on weekdays.

European Days of Jewish Culture in Palanga

European Days of Jewish Culture in Palanga

On Thursday last week the Palanga Jewish Community invited the public and visitors to Lithuania’s main seaside resort town to a tour of Jewish sites there and a discussion of memory. The streets of the quaint town hold many stories and the old town synagogue there was a popular place for couples to get married, with brides and grooms arriving from all over Europe.

The walking tour demonstrated material heritage, and afterwards participants were treated to the Litvak culinary heritage in the form of the dish floimen tzimmes.

Pictures tell the full story.

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