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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Netanyahu: We’ll Defy the World If Needed to Defeat Hamas, PA Can’t Run Gaza after War

Netanyahu: We’ll Defy the World If Needed to Defeat Hamas, PA Can’t Run Gaza after War

Photo: Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks about the Israel-Hamas war during a press conference on November 11, 2023. (Marc Israel Sellem/POOL)

Defiant PM rejects international criticism, blasts Macron for accusing Jerusalem of bombing civilians; says PA can’t rule Gaza after war; Gallant rejects world’s “moral preaching”

The leaders in charge of directing Israel’s war in Gaza vowed Saturday to soldier on with the grinding military offensive aimed at vanquishing the Hamas terror group, pushing back at international pressure to slow down or halt it, and pledging to “stand firm against the world if necessary.”

In a joint press conference prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, defense minister Yoav Gallant and minister Benny Gantz rejected mounting international criticism over the civilian costs of the war, urging Western leaders to throw their support behind the Jewish state since its victory would mean victory for the entire free world as well.

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Challa Workshop

Challa Workshop

You’re invited to come to another challa-making workshop. This time we’ll make buns in the form of the star of David, and the workshop is dedicated to paying honor to the courageous soldiers defending our historical homeland, Israel, and to all the people of Israel caught up in the storm of war.

Time: 6:30 P.M., Friday, November 17
Place: Bagel Shop Café, Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius

Registration is required by writing zanas@sc.lzb.lt or calling +370 678 81514.

Am Yisrael khai.

Ilan Club for Children 7-12

Ilan Club for Children 7-12

They’re not yet teenagers but they have their own firm opinion on almost everything, and freely interject them when others speak, although they often go unheard, even by their older brothers and sisters. They tend to loose their heads for reasons wholly misunderstood by many. No less important than air and mobile telephones, they need to spend time with people their own age. So the Ilan Club is there for that, and offers young people from the age of 7 to 12 the opportunity to spend time together and do fun and meaningful activities. Ilan meets every Sunday at noon on the second floor of the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius.

Seniors Club Prays for Israel

Seniors Club Prays for Israel

The Abi Men Zet Zich Seniors Club meets regularly on Wednesdays and last Wednesday fell on the one-month anniversary of Hamas’s attack on Israel. Many club members have family in Israel and some serve in the military. Our seniors, many of them Holocaust survivors, lit candles and said kaddish for the Israeli soldiers who have died and for the hostages.

Am Yisrael khai.

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Register Now for Makabi Tennis Tourney

Register Now for Makabi Tennis Tourney

The Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club invites you to take part in our tennis tournament from 10:00 A.M. till 1:00 P.M. on Sunday, November 16, at the SEB Arena, Ąžuolyno street no. 7, Vilnius. The format will depend on the number and level of participants. Registration is required by November 16 by writing manovilnius99@gmail.com or calling 8612 81088. See you there!

German Chancellor, President Mark Kristallnacht at Berlin Synagogue Firebombed Last Month

German Chancellor, President Mark Kristallnacht at Berlin Synagogue Firebombed Last Month

Photo: German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier and chancellor Olaf Sholz attended a ceremony to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogroms at the synagogue of the Kahal Adass Jisroel Jewish complex attacked by Molotov cocktails last month.

BERLIN (AP)–Across Germany, in schools, city halls, synagogues, churches and parliament, people came together Thursday to commemorate the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass in 1938 in which the Nazis terrorized Jews throughout Germany and Austria.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Germany’s main Jewish leader Josef Schuster spoke at an anniversary ceremony at a Berlin synagogue that was attacked with firebombs last month.

“Jews have been particularly affected by exclusion for centuries,” Scholz said in his speech.

“Still and again here in our democratic Germany, and that after the breach of civilization committed by Germans in the Shoah,” they are being discriminated against, the chancellor added.

“That is a disgrace. It outrages and shames me deeply,” Scholz said. “Any form of anti-Semitism poisons our society. We do not tolerate it.”

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One Hundred and Two Holocaust Survivors Ask Australians to Denounce Anti-Semitism and Hatred

One Hundred and Two Holocaust Survivors Ask Australians to Denounce Anti-Semitism and Hatred

Photo: Members of the Australian Jewish community participate in a rally in Sydney in late October. Photograph: David Gray/AFP/Getty Images

by Daisy Dumas, November 9, 2023

The broader Jewish community in Australia this week marked 30 days since the October 7 Hamas attacks with vigils and candle-lighting ceremonies

More than 100 Australian Holocaust survivors have united to denounce a wave of “senseless and virulent” anti-Semitism that they fear is growing in the country.

The “last witnesses to the unspeakable horrors of the Nazi regime,” many in their 90s, have penned a letter against abusive incidents that have targeted the Jewish community as Israeli retaliations continue after the brutal Hamas attacks and kidnappings of October 7.

“We are witnesses to the anti-Semitic propaganda that turned our friends, neighbors and the general public against us in Europe. We remember the six million Jewish lives lost because of this hatred,” the 102 Australian survivors wrote in the letter published in the Australian on Thursday.

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Condolences

We are sad to report Galina Knyš passed away November 8. She was a member of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and a client of the Saul Kagan Social Services Center. We extend our deepest condolences to her daughters Nina and Marina, and to her many friends and family members.

Darna Festival to Celebrate International Day of Tolerance

Darna Festival to Celebrate International Day of Tolerance

The Lithuanian Jewish Community in concert with the Cvi Park enterprise again invite you to the Darna Festival of live music, poetry and photographic exhibits to celebrate UNESCO’s International Day of Tolerance.

The program includes an exhibit of photographs by Antanas Sutkus, Bartosz Frątczak and Andrey Kezzyn, snacks and drinks with live music at the Cvi Parkas kiosk in Petras Cvirka Square across the street from the LJC, a performance by students from the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium, a performance by Australian vocalist and musician Skye Magnus, Algis Davidavičius speaking on the topic of tolerance, poetry by Indrė Valantinaitė, piano music by Darius Mažintas and Duettissimo with Glebas Pyšniakas playing cello and Dalia Dedinskaitė on violin.

Cvi Parkas will serve vegetable dishes and desserts, natural wine and craft beer for customers. The event itself is free and open to the public. It starts around 6:00 P.M. on Thursday, November 16, on the third floor of the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius.

Hebrew Lessons Are Back

Hebrew Lessons Are Back

After a brief hiatus, Ruth Reches’s Hebrew classes for the general public are back. Classes will be held for beginner, intermediate and advanced levels at the Sholem Aleichem school in Vilnius starting Sunday, December 3. For more information and to register, write ruthreches@gmail.com

Anti-Semitic Attacks across the English-Speaking World

Anti-Semitic Attacks across the English-Speaking World

by Geoff Vasil

While Europeans have been looking on as their streets are taken over by belligerent mobs of pro-Palestinian and/or pro-Hamas protestors, with concomitant protests and violence against Israel supporters in the United Kingdom, there has also been a rising wave of anti-Jewish protests, attacks and violence across the Anglosphere beyond the UK, the rest of the English-speaking world.

In the extreme leftist stronghold of Seattle, Washington, in the United States, where the evening news carries openly sympathetic explanations of Hamas’s violent attacks against civilians in southern Israel on October 7, massive pro-Palestinian protests were followed by a series of mailings to four synagogues of white powder with threatening notes. Seattle police, fire and now the FBI are investigating this as an act of terrorism. The mailings were followed by white powder and threats mailed to four county election offices still engaged in counting the November 7 ballot results. An accompanying note said “End the election now.” Traces of fentanyl were found in two samples from the Seattle and Spokane areas mixed with baking soda.

In nearby Tacoma pro-Hamas activists blocked the loading of a military cargo at the port there for 10 hours, in solidarity with a similar blockade at the Port of Oakland in California which lasted 17 hours, organized by the same pro-Palestinian NGO. JTA reported a Jewish man was killed in Los Angeles when a pro-Palestinian activist hit him in the head with a metal megaphone on November 5.

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House of Representatives Censures Tlaib over Anti-Israel Comments

House of Representatives Censures Tlaib over Anti-Israel Comments

The United States House of Representatives voted in favor Tuesday of a resolution censuring Palestinian-American representative Rashida Tlaib (Democrat from Michigan) for comments she made on youtube, calling US president Joe Biden’s (Democrat) support for Israel genocide and including footage of demonstrators chanting “from the river to the sea,” an old Palestinian slogan calling for genocide, for driving the Jews out of Palestine from the Jordan River and into the Mediterranean. Calling for the commission of genocide is part of the crime of genocide under the UN Convention for the Prevention of Genocide and international jurisprudence. The motion to censure was brought by Republicans in the House and didn’t enjoy Democrat support, with 212 Republicans voting in favor, just 22 Democrats in favor, 4 Republicans against and 184 Democrats against. One Republican and 3 Democrats voted “present,” in effect abstaining, and 7 representatives from both parties didn’t vote.

The failure of House Democrats to come out in favor of fellow party-member Biden’s Israel policy during multiple rounds of “shuttle diplomacy” by Democrat secretary of state Antony Blinken comes as Biden sinks below Trump in polls by even the most left-leaning pollsters for the upcoming 2024 presidential election.

Tlaib is one of four extreme leftist activist representatives known as the Squad and sometimes as the Gang of Four in reference to Communist China’s Cultural Revolution.

Full story here.

Attendees Sing Israeli Anthem at Art Exhibit Opening

Attendees Sing Israeli Anthem at Art Exhibit Opening

Visitors had the chance to delve into the world of renowned Litvak artist Simon Karczmar and his artist son Natan last Tuesday evening in Vilnius where a new exhibit of works opened at the Old Town Hall.

The artwork features a romanticized take on daily life in the Dievenishok (Dieveniškės) shtetl and the Bohemian life in Paris.

Attendees were unable to escape the present, however–the brutal war and hostages taken–and sang the Israeli national anthem, HaTikva, “The Hope,” in solidarity with all our friends and family in the Jewish homeland.

Am Yisrael khai.

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Ąžuoliukas Choir at Concert Celebrating 100th Birthday of Herman Perelstein

Ąžuoliukas Choir at Concert Celebrating 100th Birthday of Herman Perelstein

The Ąžuoliukas choir performed at an event held by the Kaunas Jewish Community, the Kaunas city municipality and the Kaunas State Philharmonic to celebrate the 100th birthday of the late Herman Perelstein, the founder of the choir, at the Kaunas State Philharmonic on the evening of November 6, 2023. A short video filmed by a member of the audience has been posted to youtube, viewable below of the choir’s performance with Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas’s introductory address.

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Israel Arrests Palestinian Activist Ahed Tamimi in West Bank

Israel Arrests Palestinian Activist Ahed Tamimi in West Bank

The 22-year-old Palestinian icon is arrested on another night of Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli forces have arrested Ahed Tamimi, a prominent 22-year-old Palestinian activist, for “inciting terrorism.”

They announced the arrest on Monday following another round of overnight raids and fighting in the occupied West Bank. Violence has been spilling over into the territory since the start of the Israel-Hamas war last month.

The activist “was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence and terrorist activities”, an army spokesperson said. “Tamimi was transferred to Israeli security forces for further questioning.”

Israeli media reported that Ahed Tamimi had called for the murder of settlers in the West Bank in an Instagram post. An Israeli security source shared the alleged Instagram post with AFP when questioned about the reason for her arrest.

Full story here.

Shavl Kinder Aktion Remembered

Shavl Kinder Aktion Remembered

On November 6, 1943, around 725 Jewish children were abducted from the Šiauliai (Shavl) ghetto and sent to their deaths in Auschwitz.

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, chairmen from the Šiauliai, Kaunas, Palanga, Panevėžys and Švenčionys Jewish Communities, Israeli ambassador Hadas Wittenberg-Silverstein, German ambassador Cornelius Zimmermann, Lithuanian MPs and members of the Jewish Community and general public and students and teachers came together to mark the 80th anniversary of this atrocity in Šiauliai November 6.

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Kaunas Jewish Community Holding Concert to Commemorate Herman Perelstein

Kaunas Jewish Community Holding Concert to Commemorate Herman Perelstein

The Kaunas Jewish Community is holding a concert to celebrate the 100th birthday of Herman Perelstein, the renowned choir director and professor. The concert and birthday party is being called Šefas, Lithuanian for boss. It happens at 7:00 P.M. Monday, November 6, at the Kaunas State Philharmonic, Ožeškienės street no. 12, Kaunas. It will include a performance by the Ąžuoliukas boys choir Perelstein founded, other performances and recollections from students about the man. It is free and open to the public. The Kaunas Jewish Community thanks the Kaunas city municipality and Goodwill Foundation for making this event possible.

Grosse Aktion Marked in Kaunas

Grosse Aktion Marked in Kaunas

Members of the Kaunas Jewish Community and the general public turned out on the last weekend in October to mark the anniversary of the Grossaktion, the mass murder operation during which around 10,000 Jews were taken from the Kaunas ghetto and murdered at the Ninth Fort in a 25-hour period on October 28 and 29, 1941.

The entire population of the Kaunas ghetto was assembled on Democrat Square inside the ghetto where Gestapo officer Helmut Rauca personally selected many of the victims. Rauca later found refuge in Canada, where he opened a holiday resort on a lake in Ontario. He was never tried.

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