Apr, 29 2014 — (All Things Considered) —
There was a time in Eastern Europe when the landscape was dotted with wooden synagogues, some dating to the 1600s. Inside, the walls and ceilings were covered with intricate painted designs. Almost all of these structures were destroyed during the Holocaust, and with them, a folk art. But in Burlington, Vt., a synagogue mural has been uncovered where it lay hidden for a quarter century.

Aaron Goldberg grew up in Burlington. His family was among the Jewish immigrants, most of them from Lithuania, who settled in a section of the city known as Little Jerusalem in the late 1800s. Goldberg first saw the mural in the 1970s when he was in middle school and accompanied his mother to a carpet store.

More at northcountry

5 November 2014

The Situation in Jerusalem:

One Israeli man was killed and 14 injured, some seriously, in Jerusalem today (Wednesday, 5 November) when a Palestinian deliberately rammed his commercial van into two separate crowds of Israelis near a light-rail train station and then attacked passers-by with a metal pole.

A nearly identical attack took place exactly two weeks ago (Wednesday, 22 October) when a Palestinian steered his car into a light-rail station killing an Israeli-American baby and a woman originally from Ecuador and injuring eight.

On Wednesday, 29 October, a Palestinian terrorist attacked Yehuda Glick, an American-born Israeli, as he was departing from a conference in central Jerusalem. The terrorist shot Rabbi Glick multiple times and he remains in critical condition.

Today’s Rioting on the Temple Mount: 

(Brussels, Thursday, October 30, 2014) – The European Jewish Congress has called the Swedish Government’s decision to officially recognize a Palestinian state a display of poorly timed judgment.

“Only last night an Israeli was gunned down in an attempt at cold blooded murder, following on from the intentional murder by ploughing into a crowd of people in Jerusalem, killing two, including a three month old baby, all of which follows Palestinian leaders calling on their people to do anything possible to ‘protect’ Jerusalem,” EJC President Dr. Moshe Kantor said. “And rather than condemn the incitement to murder and seek ways to calm the situation, Sweden is merely adding fuel to an already enflamed Middle East and taking unilateral actions which the European Union committed its member states not to undertake.”

“This recognition also means recognizing a state which is at least in part controlled by the terrorist group Hamas, which is dedicated to the destruction of the State of Israel. Furthermore, with the current chaos and mass murder in places like Syria and Iraq, it appears bizarre that a foreign government would take such significant action completely unrelated to seeking ways to protect the tens if not hundreds of thousands of civilians whose lives are at immediate risk.”

“Today the government takes the decision to recognize the state of Palestine,” Swedish foreign minister Margot Wallstrom said in a statement on Thursday. “It is an important step that confirms the Palestinians’ right to self-determination,” she said, adding that “we hope that this will show the way for others.”

“This move is also illegitimate because it stands in opposition to commitments made by the European Union that neither side should take unilateral steps, and here is a member state doing exactly that,” Kantor continued. “For over 20 years the international community has consistently used the stick against Israel with all manner of threats and the carrot for the Palestinians, giving them prizes even while they continue to refuse to negotiate, telling them that recalcitrance is a strategy worth pursuing.”

“Perhaps there should be a major reassessment by the international community to assist the two sides get back to the negotiating table rather than taking actions which just pull the sides further apart.”

 European Jewish Congress (EJC)

Tel : +3225408159

Fax : +3225408169

Web : www.eurojewcong.org

As the sun dips below the horizon on October 24, an estimated one million people worldwide will be participating in this extraordinary initiative.

Paula Abdul and The Big Bang Theory’s Mayim Bialik have joined Nobel Prize laureates, international sports stars, a US vice-presidential candidate and Jews of every nationality, ethnicity and level of observance who, in less than a week, will be uniting in 340 cities across the globe for what might just be the most extraordinary Shabbat in Jewish history…

In Melbourne, a sociology professor from Monash University has undertaken an in-depth study of the city’s Jewish community to focus efforts, while scores of committees and subcommittees are ensuring the initiative reaches every last Jew in the state of Victoria. An estimated 50% of the 60,000-strong community are expected to take part.

More at aish.com

Aut. Geoff Vasil

For a number of years now the Lithuanian Jewish Community (LJC) and the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) have produced Jewish calendars distributed free to community members and friends during the Jewish New Year season. Each edition of the calendar features a central theme. This year, 5775, the theme chosen was Lithuanian Jewish contributions to medicine. The choice was not random.

Over the past five or ten years a number of Lithuanian cultural figures have rediscovered the fact that a beloved literary character was based on a real Jewish man who lived and worked in Vilna. Korney Chukovsky’s stories centered around the figure of Dr. Aibolit (Russian, pronounced áy-balít for ‘Ay, it hurts!’), called Daktaras Aiskauda in Lithuanian (Aiskauda also means ‘Ay, it hurts!’ in Lithuanian), and were roughly modeled on the character of his friend Tsemakh Shabad (1864-1935), the renowned Vilna children’s doctor and all-around humanitarian and cultural leader.

Is some sort of cataclysm on its way? Should we even bother putting up sukkahs?

John Hagee, the San Antonio pastor who wrote the book “Four Blood Moons: Something is About to Change,” would have us believe so.

Hagee predicts that because of a cycle of four lunar eclipses called a tetrad — two this year and next on Passover and Sukkot — that something big is about to happen, like the Rapture.

The eclipse will be seen throughout much of the world on Oct. 7 and 8 — the latter the eve of Sukkot. It will be visible throughout much of the United States on Oct. 8, but only in New Zealand on the actual holiday.

During a lunar eclipse, the moon moves directly behind the earth and into its shadow.

Read more

October 8, 2014

bernardinai.lt

 Sculptor, metal fabricator, painter and professor at the Telšiai (Telz) branch of the Vilnius Art Academy Romualdas Inčirauskas could truly be called a guardian of memory and tolerance activist. Radvilė Rimgailaitė, a volunteer from the Bagel Shop project to encourage tolerance, spoke with the artist about his work, traces of the history of Jews and Žemaitijans in Telšiai and the importance of communication between individuals.

How did it happen that you work mainly in Telšiai and that your work focuses so much on the history of Jews and Žemaitijans?

 I was born in Anykščiai in 1950 and fnished high school there. I came to Telšiai to study art. Later after studes in Tallinn I returned to Telšiai. And permanently. I work as a teacher at the Telšiai branch of the Vilnius Art Academy. So I have been in this city for all of my conscious life. The field of my art coincides with study of the living environment. The tribute to the history of Žemaitija [historical Samogitia] is completely understandable. Only later did I learn that Telšiai was so important to Jewish culture as a religious and cultural center. Recently, especially for the 600-year anniversary of the adoption of Christianity by the Žemaitijans, many new works and symbols of historical memory have been created in Telšiai. This includes my contribution as well. I think this background has served to demonstrate the lack of sufficient attention to the fate of the Jewish legacy and heritage. Therefore I as an artist feel the pangs of conscience and the duty to celebrate the Jewish cultural and religious heritage, undeservedly forgotten but very significant for the future.