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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Programme announcement for the festival “Tel Aviv beach in Riga – music, dance, fashion, sports, tourism, business, culinary arts”

Programme announcement for the festival “Tel Aviv beach in Riga – music, dance, fashion, sports, tourism, business, culinary arts”

Press release

23 July 2014

As time draws nearer for the ambitious festival “Tel-Aviv beach in Riga – music, dance, fashion, sports, tourism, business, culinary arts” that will be held in Riga, Ķīpsala beach near the Vanšu bridge, from Friday 1 August to Sunday 3 August, the festival program is announced (see below). The activities included in the festival programme at Ķīpsala beach are free.

The programme is subject to possible additions, adjustments and changes until the beginning of the festival. Follow the latest news and most recent information at the festival’s official web site www.telaviv2014riga.lv, as well as – www.facebook.com/Telaviv.Riga.

We invite everyone to get to know, explore and enjoy the diverse cultural programme of Israel, many world-class music bands and DJ performances, dances till dawn, fashion shows, special culinary programmes and tastings, as well as children and sports programmes, dance master classes, business and tourism programmes, exhibitions, lectures, seminars, presentations, etc. There will also be an opportunity to participate in competitions, lotteries and many other family-friendly activities. Tel Aviv is a non-stop city.

>>FULL PROGRAMME

 Each day of the festival and its programme is dedicated to a specific theme.

1 August, Friday – tourism and business day;

2 August, Saturday – fashion and culinary art day;

3 August, Sunday – family and sports day.

On Friday and Saturday from 18:00 till midnight, there will be a performance by such popular groups and performers from Israel as the world’s beloved folk band “The Shuk” whose repertoire includes not only ethnic and folk, but also modern, soul and jazz music / the musician, experimenter and famous video artist Kutiman with the band / musician and traveller Tal Kravitz who plays a variety of folk and modern musical instruments / progressive metal band “Orphaned Land”/ a trance-dance group “Tribal Dance”,as well as Latvian musicians – percussionist Nils Īle together with African percussionists / “Youth Carnival” band and others. Night dance music programme with DJ Sapiens and DJ Mango from Israel and DJ Monsta and other DJs from Latvia.

 “Tel Aviv beach” festival is a part of a broad cultural programme in Riga – the European Capital of Culture 2014. The project is implemented by the Embassy of Israel to Latvia and Lithuania, as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism of Israel, Tel Aviv City Council and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, Riga City Council, Riga Tourism Development Bureau “Live Riga”, and Riga 2014 Foundation. The event is produced by the cultural society “Make Art” in collaboration with “Herman Braun Foundation”, “Ramtai riti”, “Randala”.

The festival is sponsored by: Alfa Property Group, Rietumu Bank Charity Fund, Belam-Rīga, Mītavas alus, airBaltic, Lattelecom, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Dzintars, Rejwan Travel service, Teva Pharmaceuticals, IDW Esperanza resort, METROCLUB Tours & Vacations, RD Electronics, Latvian Traders Association, ORT, Zilā lagūna, Café “Pludmale”, SANO, TechHub Riga, Novatours and others. Information support: EuroAwk, MarketMedia, TVNET, Rīga Radio, ZL.lv, TV24, The Baltic Times, Radisson Blu. 

The program partners: Art Academy of Latvia and Kristīne Rudzinska, Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art and Ira Popova, Biruta Magele International School of Stylists, Paul Mitchell cosmetics, public charity organization “Dr.Klauns”, charitable organization “Dream Doctors”, Children’s Clinical University Hospital, “K.Suns” cinema gallery,3 chef restaurant “Tam labam būs augt”, “Alberts”hotel, Riga Sports Veterans Club, “Vides deja”, “I-Dejas māja”, international festival of positive music “Labadaba” and “NabaKlab”, “Maagal” dance band, “Eilat” dance band, Jewish Agency “Sohnut”, Council of the Jewish Communities of Latvia, S. Dubnov Riga Jewish Secondary School, Baltic International Academy, “Turība” University, Tech Hub Riga, RiGame, Rejwan Travel Service, METROCLUB Tours & Vacations.

 Additional information:

Embassy of Israel to Latvia and Lithuania

Tel.: +371 67635509, e-mail: press@riga.mfa.gov.il

Reinis Druvietis

Cultural society “Make Art”, producer, communication and publicity

Tel.: +371 29293938, e-mail: art@makeart.lv

Jewish community leader: Jews feel well in Lithuania

Jewish community leader: Jews feel well in Lithuania

Jews of Lithuania do not feel discriminated and therefore will make no complaints to the visiting US Special Envoy of the Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, Ira Forman, says Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman of the Jewish Community of Lithuania.

“Look at it from the positive point of view – an official of the (US President Barack) Obama administration is coming, and we have no major things to complain or moan about,” Kukliansky said in an interview published in Kauno Diena daily on Thursday.”If anti-Semitism does exist in Lithuania, we do not have to deal with it in government institutions or on the streets. This is not something we face on a daily basis. We cannot complain, quite on the contrary – we can be happy that we feel very comfortable in Lithuania, as compared to other European countries,” she added.In Kukliansky’s words, anti-Semitism in Lithuania exists on the level of stereotypes, which can be overcome by way of education and mutual communication.BNS

http://en.delfi.lt/lithuania/society/jewish-community-leader-jews-feel-well-in-lithuania.d?id=65373896#ixzz38SfVrkFA

More at  delfi.lt

Gaza reporters’ tweets: Hamas using human shields

Gaza reporters’ tweets: Hamas using human shields

Foreign journalists receive death threats for ‘fabricating information for Israel,’ accused of informing on terrorists.

Several journalists from around the world reported seeing rockets fired from civilian areas in Gaza in recent days, and received threatening tweets in return accusing them of “informing” the IDF.

On Wednesday, Peter Stefanovic of Australia’s Channel Nine News tweeted: “Hamas rockets just launched over our hotel from a site about two hundred metres away. So a missile launch site is basically next door.”

An account called @ThisIsGaza said this was Stefanovic’s fourth time “passing and fabricating information to Israel… from GAZA” and threatened to sue him.

More at jpost.com

Jihadi cleric calls for Muslim fighters to join the fighting in Gaza

Jihadi cleric calls for Muslim fighters to join the fighting in Gaza

“Our heart yearns to arrive and fight the sons and brothers of the apes and pigs,” says rebel fighter.

A new jihadi media outlet called Al-Fawaris released a video calling on Gazans to endure the military operation, saying that victory looms and that Muslims all over the world support them.

According to a report published on Monday by the MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute) Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor, the video also features jihadi cleric Abu hareth Al-Maqdisi threatening Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, saying his demise is coming soon.

More at jpost.com

Farshmak and Bio-Toilets at the Graveside in Dorbyan

Farshmak and Bio-Toilets at the Graveside in Dorbyan

by Geoff Vasil

 First let me tell about the story, because it is positive, and there isn’t enough of that to go around in the larger story of Lithuanian responses and non-responses to the Holocaust.

The webpage of Vakarų Ekspresas, or Evening Express, has a story entitled “Caring for Jewish Graves, Healing the Wounds of Nations,” which is on-line here in Lithuanian at www.ve.lt

“This week over 30 volunteers from an organization of Jewish-Christian cooperation (Christlich-Jüdische Zusammenarbeit ) of the Lippische Landeskirche church in  Germany have been traipsing through the Jewish cemetery of Darbėnai, cutting back bushes growing along the fence and polishing grave monuments. ‘It falls to our generation to correct the mistakes of our forefathers and to teach young people tolerance, so that expressions of extreme nationalism disappear from Europe,’ the head of the organization, Miroslav Danys, said.”

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Prof. Olegas Poliakovas, Longtime Member of Vilnius University’s Senate, Speaks Out on New Yiddish Positions in Vilnius

Prof. Olegas Poliakovas, Longtime Member of Vilnius University’s Senate, Speaks Out on New Yiddish Positions in Vilnius

22 July 2014

VILNIUS—The office of Vilnius University’s Professor Olegas Poliakovas, a leading philologist and member of the Senate of Vilnius University (from 2001 to 2014), issued this statement today concerning possible new Yiddish studies positions in Vilnius.

For background to recent developments, please see the earlier reporton the World Jewish Congress initiative; the statement issued byDaniel Galay, director of Leyvik House, the center of Yiddish cultural activities in Israel; and a Facebook comment by Dr. Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel office.

More at defendinghistory.com

Congress For Jewish Culture Leaves Its Office, But Not Its Mission

On July 17, the New York Times reported that the Congress for Jewish Culture, one of the few remaining Yiddish organizations in New York, would close their Manhattan office at the end of the month.

The Congress’s office space, on Broadway just off 26th street, was perhaps one of the last heymish places for Yiddish culture in New York. The walls were covered with bookshelves, and old pictures and posters hung on the wall. The Congress had only been there since 2009, but the room was previously occupied by Itche Goldberg, the longtime editor of the journal “Yiddish Culture,” who passed away in 2006 at the age of 102.

More blogs.forward.com

European Jewish Congress Calls for European Governments to Get Tough Over Anti-Semitic Demonstration which Incites Hatred and Descends into Violence

European Jewish Congress Calls for European Governments to Get Tough Over Anti-Semitic Demonstration which Incites Hatred and Descends into Violence

After days of anti-Israel and pro-Hamas demonstrations in European cities across the continents, many of which have descended into violence and have incited hatred against Jews, the European Jewish Congress (EJC) is calling for European governments to use stronger measures against those who break the law.

The EJC leadership has sent a letter to all European Ministers of the Interior calling on them “to ensure that public authorities guarantee the absolute security of our communities, to ban all forms of anti-Semitic and racist incitement, to legally prevent all potentially violent demonstrations taking place in proximity to community institutions and that police resources are prioritised to combat, investigate, prosecute and punish offenders.”

More eurojewcong.org

Israel opens second int’l airport in response to flight cancellations

Transportation minister orders that Uvda airport near Eilat be utilized to replace Ben-Gurion Airport beginning noon local time.

Transportation Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday instructed the relevant agencies to immediately open the Uvda airport, the country’s second terminus for air traffic which lies just north of Eilat, in the wake of the spate of flight cancellations announced by major foreign airlines.

Katz convened a meeting of senior civilian aviation officials who recommended that the Uvda airport be utilized to replace Ben-Gurion Airport.

More at jpost.com

Lithuanian Jewish community leader: I don’t feel that much anti-Semitism around

Recent research carried out by the Anti-Defamation League shows that 36 percent of Lithuanian adults hold anti-Semitic views. The results are worse than in Latvia or Estonia. Chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish community Faina Kukliansky claims she was very surprised by these results.

“The survey results surprised us the most. It was unexpected, and I, for one, don’t really feel much anti-Semitism around. At first, I thought that maybe people did not understand what they were asked, but the questions (of the survey) seem to be very clear, and they were answered by people all around the world. According to those results, a third of my friends should hate or be suspicious of me just because I am a Jew,” Kukliansky told Žinių Radijas radio station.

More at lithuaniatribune.com

Olameinu Summer Camp for Kids

Olameinu Summer Camp for Kids

The first session of the Olameinu summer camp for kids at the Dubingiai-Litorina recreational area in Dubingiai, Lithuania, took place from June 30 to July 9, under the direction of camp director Dorin Rosenkov and a creative and active team.

One-hundred and seventy children from the Jewish communities of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia aged 7 to 13 gathered for the summer camp. There were 11 groups of children under the supervision of madrichs, or camp counselors and teachers, from the three Baltic states. The camp lasted for 10 days. The coordinators were Simona Psonikaitė, Yuliana Kravets and Veda Kucko. The camp counselors organized the entire program for the kids.

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Edminas Bagdonas appointed Lithuania’s ambassador to Israel

ELTA EN

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė has appointed Edminas Bagdonas as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Lithuania to Israel.

On Monday, the president signed the decree on the appointment of the ambassador.

Bagdonas, who now serves as Director of the Eastern Neighbourhood Policy Department at the Ministry Of Foreign Affairs, will represent Lithuania in Tel Aviv starting on 8 September.

Bagdonas’ diplomatic career began in 1994 when he was the consul of Lithuanian Embassy in Ukraine, later he headed the State and Diplomatic Protocol Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, served as ambassador to Italy and Belarus, chief of the Foreign Policy Group and advisor to President Valdas Adamkus.

By Delfi.lt

In video message to Jewish group, Pope Francis urges justice for victims of 1994 AMIA bombing

20th anniversary of terrorist attack on Buenos Aires Jewish community center

BUENOS AIRES/NEW YORK – In an unprecedented video message to the World Jewish Congress’ Latin American branch on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack against the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires, Pope Francis has expressed his solidarity with the Jewish community of Argentina and made an impassioned call for justice. The video message was recorded by Claudio Epelman of the Latin American Jewish Congress and will be screened at the commemoration in the Argentine capital today.

“Terrorism is lunacy. Terrorism’s only purpose is to kill. It does not build anything, it only destroys,” the pope said in the message in Spanish. “For this reason, I stand side-by-side with all those who have seen lives cut short, hopes destroyed, and ruin. I have said that Buenos Aires is a city that needs to cry, that still hasn’t cried enough. Even if it is commonplace, I repeat: We need to cry,” Francis says, adding: “May justice be done!”

Watch the video by clicking on this link 

Bagel shop

Bagel shop

LESS HATE, MORE TOLERANCE

 

In the activities it carries out, the Lithuanian Jewish Community constantly emphasizes the importance of human respect. In its various programs, initiatives and projects the Lithuanian Jewish Community strives not only to preserve and pass on historical memory, but also to foster relationships based upon tolerance and mutual understanding between people of different cultures.

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Faina Kukliansky: “It is the Duty of Every Jew to Help Their Country”

by Nerijus Povilaitis

July 15, 2014

The fighting in Israel doesn’t end. Fighters of the terrorist organization Hamas based in the Gaza Strip are attacking the Jewish state with rockets more fervently than ever. Israeli aviation is responding with attacks on terrorist targets, with civilian casualties unavoidable.

Hamas attacks on Israel haven’t caused any great damage yet, with Israel’s Iron Dome defense system knocking most of them out of the sky before they reach the ground, but Israelis are living under continuous stress.Tuesday a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip fatally wounded an Israeli civilian.The 38-year-old man was providing food for soldiers serving in that zone. He is the first Jew to die in eight years of daily violence from both sides of the border. The rocket killed the man near the border crossing point at Erez into Gaza.

The continual whine of the air-raid sirens in the country’s larger cities and running for the bomb shelters have become a dismal part of daily life for Israelis and visitors to Israel.

Lithuanian Jewish Community chair Faina Kuklianksy, who has visited the war zone that Israel has become and will soon be going back at the invitation of the president of the World Jewish Congress, told Lietuvos Rytas [newspaper] that Israelis are standing firm like never before in the face of the danger posed by rockets flying out of the Gaza.

 What impressions have you brought back from Israel at war?

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Bagel Shop invites to VOLUNTEER!

Bagel Shop invites to VOLUNTEER!

Are you an active personality looking for a new experience?

Do you want to eliminate at least one stereotype about ethnic minorities in Lithuania?

Do you believe that human equality and variety make life more beautiful?

“Bagel Shop” IS WAITING FOR YOU!

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Jewish journalists gather in Jerusalem for the first Jewish Media Summit

jms

Over 25 countries are represented at the gathering which was organized by the Government Press Office; Netanyahu, Peres to address confab.

More than 100 correspondents, editors, bureau chiefs and publishers of many of the top Jewish media outlets in the world will gather in Jerusalem for the first Jewish Media Summit (JMS) beginning Sunday.

Over 25 countries are represented at the gathering which was organized by the Government Press Office, the Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs Ministry and the Foreign Affairs Ministry in cooperation with the Tourism Ministry, JNFKKL and the Jewish Agency.

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France’s Jewish community elects new grand rabbi

 

00624

France’s Jewish community on Sunday elected the Jewish chaplain of the French army as its new grand rabbi, as it grapples with rising anti-Semitism.

Haim Korsia, 51, was elected to a seven-year term by members of the Central Consistory, the top Jewish religious authority in France, defeating Olivier Kaufmann, the head of a rabbinical school, by a vote of 131 to 97.

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