Lithuanian Jewish Community

Yiddish Reading Circle Returns

On March 12, 2015 the Yiddish Reading Circle conducted by world-renowned Yiddishist Dovid Katz returned to the large hall on the second floor of the Lithuanian Jewish Community building in Vilnius.

Dovid Katz, who was a professor of Yiddish at Vilnius University for 11 years, has been conducting the informal circle off and on for lovers and native speakers of Yiddish for several years now, as his schedule allows.

The first class in the current round of readings began in the traditional manner with those in attendance giving their names and place of origin in Yiddish to the best of their ability.

This was followed by the also-traditional reading of a short text in Yiddish by volunteers around the table. Dr. Katz offered help when needed and punctuated the reading with explanations of general and more obscure aspects of the language.

2015-03-14

Vilnius Neo-Nazi March 2015

About 1,500 people assembled and marched at 4:00 P.M., March 11, 2015–Lithuania’s second independence day–from the central Cathedral Square to the square next to parliament down Vilnius’s main street Gedimino prospektas.

As in previous years, marchers carried a black-and-white flag with a swastika and the inscription “Skinhead Lietuva” (Skinhead Lithuania) employing the lightning-bolt SS symbol, a flag which featured prominently as the marchers spoke at length and sang next to the parliament building.

Witnesses including native Lithuanian speakers reported the marchers again used the offensive slogan “Lithuania for Lithuanians” as the marched up the main street.

The turnout was somewhat smaller than in previous “peak” years but was nonetheless impressive, since the march was rescheduled at the last moment when the Vilnius municipal authorities again caved in to fascist youth demands for a permit to sanction their public spectacle. It had originally been scheduled for 3 P.M. March organizers claimed they would go forward with it without a permit. The neo-Nazis had to squeeze in between other regularly scheduled events, and actually ended up pooling their forces behind the sound-stage on Cathedral Square where the combined martial orchestras of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were performing a concert for the public.

2015-03-14

Jews in Lithuania Do What They Do Best

Dalius Simėnas

The Israeli-capital companies operating in Lithuania work in sectors well known to Jews: they control real estate, develop the IT business and, as an example, make cash registers. The heads of Israeli companies in Lithuania welcome the first Israeli ambassador to Vilnius but say that opening an embassy isn’t enough, hard work awaits for Israeli business to discover Lithuania as a country in which to invest and expand.

Direct Israeli investments in Lithuania, according to the Lithuanian Department of Statistics, are not especially great this year, comprising 12.71 million euros. The main sector, worth 10.5 million euros, is real estate, with the remainder going to refining and refinishing industry, IT and other spheres. This doesn’t compare to the much more significant investments made by EU partners in Sweden, Denmark and other Nordic countries, nor to US investments.

2015-03-14

JDC greetings

Dear friends,

At JDC, we know that celebrating women isn’t just about honoring heroines of the past. And it’s not just about acknowledging the remarkable women and girls who are catalysts for change today, from Sarajevo to Sderot.

We’re excited to introduce you to some of the dynamic women continuing JDC’s legacy of service to women and girls globally – from our Board leadership to the next generation of talent transforming the way we serve Jewish communities in need around the world.

2015-03-12

Dailyslave.com | Jews In Baltics Afraid Of An Increasing Amount Of People Who Dislike Them

Look at what this Yiddish fool said. A Jew named Dovid Katz is apparently upset that people are realizing that much of what we’ve been told about Adolf Hitler have been Jewish lies. He is also mad that there are more people in the Baltics who are coming to the realization that they don’t like Jews.

He even claims that looking at Hitler favorably is not a Western value. This is a total lie as it is absolutely a Western value to look at Hitler favorably. He was the last White European leader who stood up for Western civilization and against the Jewish Marxism that has turned this world into a cesspool of war and degenerate filth.

From Fox News:

“We have to say that the support of Hitler and rewriting history to turn Hitler into a liberator of this area is not a western value,” Yiddish scholar Dovid Katz, founder of the DefendingHistory.com website, told FoxNews.com. “If you’re repatriating Nazi war criminals to be re-buried and honored as part of national history, that is not behavior compatible with western ethics and values.”

2015-03-12

Chair of the Lithuanian Jewish-Litvak Community Statement

Faina Kukliansky, chair of the Lithuanian Jewish-Litvak Community, has issued the following statement on the eve of the March 11th Lithuanian Independence Day holiday, following reports in the media that a march through the heart of the Lithuanian capital by ultranationalists would go forward as planned:
Faina Kukliansky, chair of the Lithuanian Jewish-Litvak Community, says the March 11th holiday is to very important and dear to Lithuanian Jews, and therefore should not be an occasion for insulting citizens of other ethnicities through means unacceptable in a democratic society.

The Lithuanian Jewish Community strongly condemns the Nazi chants often heard on this day of great import to the Lithuanian state, and we are very encouraged by the words of Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius
uttered on the eve of the holiday at the Sholem Aleichem Jewish school in Vilnius that he will not allow the sowing of ethnic discord through various slogans and chants on the occasion of the birthday of the state.

He said that the head of the Government and other government officials want to stress that anti-Semitism and intolerance will not be tolerated in Lithuania.

2015-03-12

LJC Statement

The Lithuanian Jewish Community does not approve of the march by the Union of Lithuanian Nationalist Youth held on March 11, Lithuanian Independence Day, in Vilnius, because we believe the values publicly espoused by the marchers do not correspond to the principles of the modern democratic state which has been the basis for the creation of Lithuania for the last 25 years.

The Community is surprised by the lack of political will and action by Lithuanian government institutions in putting a stop to the spread of dangerous ultranationalist and Nazi tendencies in Lithuania. The decision to permit the march by this organization which is opposed to tolerance and ethnic concord in the Lithuanian state is unjustifiable if only for the constant refrain of the fascist slogan in marches by nationalists of “Lithuania for Lithuanians.” The marchers also carried a flag bearing black-and-white symbol of the White Pride World-Wide movement, and a black-and-white flag extolling skinheads with the stylized emblem of the SS and a Nazi swastika.

The LJC notes the ever diminishing turnout of followers of Julius Panka and other nationalist youth organization leaders, but we maintain efforts are still sorely needed to bring home to the public how unacceptable the ideas they declare publicly are in a tolerant civil society.

2015-03-12

On Eve of Planned Neo-Nazi March, Statements by Head of Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Simon Wiesenthal Center

VILNIUS—On the eve of the planned neo-Nazi march in central Vilnius, slated for 3 PM on March 11th, Lithuania’s independence day, the chairperson of the Jewish Community of Lithuania, Faina Kukliansky, issued a statement on the community’s website, which was followed within minutes by a statement from the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Director of East European Affairs, Dr. Efraim Zuroff. The full text of both statements follows:

2015-03-11

Untraditional Integrated Lesson called “How Much do We Know about Jewish Culture?”

by Editor, Feb 17, 2015, Jurgis Pabrėža Preparatory Gymnasium of Kretinga

In February of this year the seniors of the Jurgis Pabrėža Preparatory Gymnasium of Kretinga had two open non-traditional integrated Lithuanian-language, history and English-language lessons about Jewish culture. During studies on the topic of Jewish literature, it was noted the students had little knowledge of this, so the decision was made to expand their horizons with supplementary material including facts from the religion, history and life of the Jewish people and a characterization of Jewish identity. Izaak Kutzi, a citizen of Israel who has lived in Lithuania for some time but speaks English, was invited to help with the lesson. The lesson was prepared beforehand: tasks were assigned students, the course of the lesson and the role of its leaders were discussed, a test was prepared to assess the acquisition of information, and Kutzi even made traditional Jewish food-dishes. Further participants in the lesson included teachers from the gymnasium and the local district, members of the Kretinga Jewish Community and students from Klaipėda University.

2015-03-09

Contest „Signs of the Lithuanian Jewish Culture“ is open for submissions

Tolerance campaign “The Bagel Shop” is glad to announce that the photo contest “Signs of the Lithuanian Jewish Culture” is now open for submissions.

You are kindly invited to send us photos or their compositions, capturing traces of the Lithuanian Jewish cultural and historical heritage as well as signs of the Jewish Community’s presence in Lithuania nowadays.

The deadline for submissions is 30 April, 2015. The winners will be rewarded!

Please find more information in the Regulations listed below.

2015-03-09

Rare Footage of the Chofetz Chaim Surfaces—From Fox News(reel)

If you are not part of the closed world of ultra-Orthodox, or haredi, Jewry, or within the Orthodox rabbinic fraternity, you are more than likely completely oblivious to the release last week of an obscure newsreel from 1923, which for nearly a century has remained unseen, languishing on some dusty shelf in an obscure storage location in the United States. However, for the Orthodox community, the release of this footage is without exaggeration one of the most sensational media events to have occurred in the history of modern media, right up there with how secular audiences perceive movie footage of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon or of the Titanic’s discovery deep in the Atlantic Ocean.

2015-03-08

Lithuanian Jewish Child Survivor Tells of the Shoah

In Marking the 25th Anniversary of Lithuanian Independence
The Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum Presents a New Exhibition

Lithuanian Jewish Child Survivor Tells of the Shoah

is a travelling exhibition and was prepared based on a permanent exhibit opened in 2009. The mobile exhibit presents exceptional stories of Lithuanian Jewish children and their family members saved from the Holocaust, illustrated with authentic photographs and supplemented by testimonies from eye-witnesses and contemporaries. The main focus is upon the resolution of righteous gentiles to save the damned at risk of their own lives as well as those of their loved ones. The authors of the exhibit hope this information will contribute to the formation of values and the inculcation of civic-mindedness among young people.

2015-03-07

PM on Purim to BBC’s Persian service: Iranian regime carrying on in Haman’s tradition

PM says his speech to Congress “hit home” and that it succeeded in getting people to understand there “is a problem” with the emerging deal.

The current Iranian regime is perpetuating the tradition of Haman from 2,500 years ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday – Purim – in an interview with the BBC’s Persian-language television news channel.

During the interview, conducted in English, Netanyahu said that Israel has always had great respect for the people of Iran, “from the days of King Cyrus, who was a great friend of the Jewish people.

“But unfortunately, there was another tradition in Persia, and that was the tradition of Haman, who 2,500 years ago sought to destroy the Jewish people in the way that Hitler sought to destroy,” said Netanyahu, who later in the day attended a reading of the Book of Esther to mark Shushan Purim in Jerusalem.

2015-03-06

Election Day is here — for Israelis serving abroad

Israel’s ambassador to New Zealand is first of nearly 5,000 officials overseas voting Thursday; polls close at 8 p.m. in San Francisco

The elections for the 20th Knesset have officially begun for thousands of Israeli diplomats across the globe.

While most Israeli citizens have to wait for March 17, nearly 5,000 Israeli representatives in 96 embassies and consulates from Amman to El Salvador on Thursday had the chance to cast their ballot in time for it to be sent via diplomatic mail to Jerusalem to be counted for Election Day.

The first Israeli to vote was Israel’s ambassador in Wellington Yosef Livne, at 9 a.m. New Zealand time. The last voting station was set to close at 8 p.m. in San Francisco. For the first time, elections also took place in Israel’s new embassy in Vilnius, Lithuania, which opened only about a month ago.

2015-03-06

Purim 2015 reflects political struggles in Israel

This year’s Purim falls against a background of no little political drama, internationally and domestically.

The holiday, which celebrates the biblical story of Esther and the survival of the Jewish people during the Persian exile falls this year on Wednesday night and Thursday, except in Jerusalem where it takes place on Thursday night and Friday.

But while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is away in Washington battling Israel’s ancient Persian foe, various religious and political struggles back home continue apace.

2015-03-05

First poll since Netanyahu’s speech still shows Zionist Union leading Read more: First poll since Netanyahu’s speech still shows Zionist Union leading

Even after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Tuesday speech at the US Congress, rival Isaac Herzog’s Zionist Union party would still be the largest Knesset faction following the March 17 elections, according to a Channel 2 poll published Wednesday, the first since the Israeli leader returned from Washington.

Based on the survey — conducted among 790 respondents with a 3.5% margin of error — the Zionist Union would receive 24 seats, while the Likud would gain 23.

The Joint (Arab) List places third with 13 seats, Yesh Atid and Jewish Home follow with 12 each, and Kulanu with 8. Yisrael Beytenu and Meretz, as well as ultra-Orthodox parties Shas and United Torah Judaism, would all gain 6 seats, while Eli Yishai’s new Yachad party manages to just cross the electoral threshold with 4 Knesset seats.

JCL Purim

You are invited to the Vilnius Choral Synagogue for Purim, including
readings from the Book of Esther.

Wednesday, March 4: Fast of Esther from the morning till 6:44 P.M.

Evening prayer and reading from the Book of Esther: 6:44 P.M.

Thursday, March 5: Morning prayer and reading from Book of Esther at 8:30 A.M.

2015-03-02

YIDDISH LANGUAGE PROGRAM RESUMING AT THE JEWISH COMMUNITY!

THURSDAYS 3 PM (1500), STARTING 12 MARCH 2015

The 16th annual cycle of the Vilna Yiddish Reading Circle (which doubles as an intermediate-level class) starts next Thursday March 12th 3 PM sharp (1500) at the Jewish Community of Lithuania, Pylimo 4, Vilnius, upstairs seminar room.

Everyone welcome, admission free. Only Yiddish is spoken, but non-speakers are always invited to come and listen (hearing Yiddish is good for your health!). The project is carried forward in memory of three of its stalwarts of the first decade and a half: Dr. Sheine Sideraite, Dr. Izraelis Lempertas (Yisroel Lempert) and Mr. Meilach Stalevich.

The program is led by Dr. Dovid Katz, who founded it at the Jewish Community in September 1999, and was professor at Vilnius University from 1999 to 2010, after many years of teaching at Oxford and a stint at Yale (information on his works in Yiddish studies at: www.dovidkatz.net).
Additional classes and seminars may be added in due course.
EVERYBODY WELCOME!

2015-03-02

Limmud 2015 gallery

2015-02-28

Opening of exhibition “ORT in Lithuania: Prepared for Life”

February 10, 2015, M. and K. Petrauskas Museum of Lithuanian Music

The Kaunas branch of the M. and K. Petrauskas Museum of Lithuanian Music (K. Petrausko street no. 31) invites the public to attend the opening of an exhibit called “Prepared for Life: the ORT in Lithuania” at 4:00 P.M. on March 3. The exhibit illustrates the activities of the ORT organization in Kaunas including arts and crafts courses, daily school life, student-teacher activities, snapshots from school life, reminiscences of classmates and teachers, the importance of having a profession in the ghettos during the Holocaust and ORT activities around the world and in Lithuania today. The exhibit will run until April 4. Admission to the opening ceremony is free.

The mobile exhibition in Lithuanian and English was prepared by the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum and the World ORT with the cooperation of the Lithuanian Central State Archive and is dedicated to the history of the ORT as it operated in Lithuania between the world wars. The ORT is a Jewish educational and training organization which continues to operate today around the world.

2015-02-27

Israeli President Isaac Herzog Visits Lithuania

On the War in Israel and the Situation in Lithuania