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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Warsaw Book Fair Features Anti-Semitic Titles

Warsaw Book Fair Features Anti-Semitic Titles

Crudely anti-Semitic books promoting Holocaust denial and depicting Jews as usurers have been showcased at a prestigious book fair in Poland which enjoys the backing of the Polish president.

Titles published by the far-right Polish imprint 3DOM–a play on the word freedom–were on display at the Historical Book Fair in Warsaw, an event officially supported by the office of Polish president Andzrej Duda.

Describing itself as a patriotic, Catholic and “the most politically incorrect” publishing house in Poland, 3DOM advertises more than 80 blatantly anti-Semitic works on its website, according to research carried out by the Never Again Association, a Polish NGO.

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Leonard Cohen Yom Kippur War Tour: The TV Mini-Series

Leonard Cohen Yom Kippur War Tour: The TV Mini-Series

Leonard Cohen’s tour of Israel at the height of the 1973 Yom Kippur War is to be made into a TV mini-series by Shtisel creator Yehonatan Indursky, Keshet International and Jill Offman’s Sixty-Six Media.

Israeli network Keshet 12’s “Who By Fire” is based on Matti Friedman’s bestseller “Who By Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai” and will shoot in Israel in 2024 with Indursky writing and former Viacom International Studios UK chief Offman executive-producing along with Keshet’s Atar Dekel and Yuval Horowitz.

Keshet 12 is the local broadcaster and distributor. Keshet International is now seeking to bring international broadcast partners on board.

The show will follow the singer’s trip to the Sinai 50 years ago at the height of the Yom Kippur War. There the late singer picked up a team of local musicians and dived headlong into the global crisis, meeting fighting men and women along the way and performing for people who thought this could be their last concert.

Full text at Microsoft News here.

Lecture on Jewish Press

Lecture on Jewish Press

Eyal Miller, a specialist in the historical press and digital archives for the National Library of Israel, will deliver a lecture on the Jewish press at the Lithuanian National Library at 6:00 P.M. on Tuesday, November 29. Miller is part of the JPress team at the National Library of Israel which collects, conserves and digitizes archives of Jewish newspapers. More information about this evening’s event is available in Lithuanian here.

Condolences

Condolences

Righteous Gentile Janina Vansovičiūtė-Grigaliūnienė has died. We extend our deepest condolences to her friends and family members.

Janina Vansovičiūtė-Grigaliūnienė, then Janina Vansovičiūtė, lived in an apartment in Kuršėnai which her parents had rented with Sofia Vashkevitch, who was using forged documents showing she was Janina’s sister. After the war both girls returned to the Vansovičius home in Raseiniai. Janina and her parents Jonas and Natalija were recognized as Righteous among the Nations by the Yad Vashem Holocaust authority in 2011.

Lithuanian PM Says Plans for Litvak Museum at Sports Palace Bogged Down

Lithuanian PM Says Plans for Litvak Museum at Sports Palace Bogged Down

Lithuanian prime minister Ingrida Šimonytė told Baltic News Service the idea to establish either a museum or a memorial dedicated to the history of the Litvaks at the Vilnius Palace of Sports complex could turn out to be a long and difficult process.

“It’s on-going, but in order to create a truly meaningful and thus memorable site about the Jews of Lithuania, we’ll have to work hard. The commission will select ideas to be adopted by consensus,” she said.

She cautioned decision-making on the concept could become bogged down and generally difficult. She said this commission will include academics, rabbis, historians and others from Lithuania and other countries and is scheduled for formation by the end of 2022. The idea since 2015 when the Lithuanian state privatization bank Turto bankas acquired the property has been to turn the Palace of Sports built in 1971 and now falling into ruin into a conference center. Different Jewish groups have opposed that plan because the Palace of Sports was built inside the old Jewish cemetery in Vilnius.

Happy Birthday to Daumantas Levas Todesas

Happy Birthday to Daumantas Levas Todesas

We wish you with all our hearts the very best, the greatest health, success in your varied endeavors and the joy and warmth of friends and family. You have served us so long in so many capacities it would take a book-length post to list them all here, not least being your work as the chairman of the Vilnius, Jerusalem of Lithuania Jewish Community, as a member of the board of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and as chairman of the Ethnic Communities Council at the Lithuanian Department of Ethnic Minorities. Mazl tov. Bis 120!

Happy Birthday to Boris Gelpern

Happy Birthday to Boris Gelpern

The Lithuanian Jewish Community wish Boris Gelpern a very happy birthday. We wish you fantastic health and happiness. May our wishes for your longevity echo out and repeat forever. Mazl tov. Bis 120!

Israel’s Gift to Vilnius: Colorful Street Art

Israel’s Gift to Vilnius: Colorful Street Art

The Israeli embassy in Vilnius has presented a gift to the city of Vilnius as the Lithuanian capital’s nominal 700th birthday approaches, along with the 30th anniversary of the opening of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

City residents can view the gift at Bazilijonų street no. 6B in the Vilnius Old Town. It’s a work by the Open Gallery, an international urban galley, born as the joint endeavor of Israeli and Lithuanian artists which transports the viewer to the sunny land of Israel. The mural contains allusions to three of Israel’s major cities, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa. The artist is Zoe Sever, born in the Ukraine and living in Israel, executed on the façade of an apartment building by Lithuanian artists Martynas Ivinskas and Viktorija Starygina.

Zoe Sever says her work of art symbolizes the famous phrase uttered by Theodor Herzl, the father of Zionism, as he travelled to the future Jewish state: “If you will it, it is no dream.”

Full story in Lithuanian with photographs available here.

New Yiddish Classes

New Yiddish Classes

The Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Mameloshn Club invite you to attend Yiddish classes taught by Rosa Beliauskienė from 12 noon to 1:30 P.M. on Sundays at the LJC in Vilnius. For more information and to register, write zanas@sc.lzb.lt or call +370 678 81514.

Yiddish Concert in Kaunas

Yiddish Concert in Kaunas

The Kaunas Jewish Community invites you to their concert “Yiddish Heard Again in Kaunas: Inspired by Grandma’s Songs” at 5:00 P.M. on Sunday, November 27 at the Kaunas Artists’ House located at V. Putvinskio street no. 56 in Kaunas.

Alejandra Czarny of Argentina and more recently the United States with firm family roots in Kaunas will sing accompanied by Michel Gonzales on guitar, including Litvak Yiddish from different periods and Yiddish songs from Argentina and South America. Besides singing Yiddish her entire life, she also has her own radio program and is a cantor for synagogues located in South Florida, where she lives.

The concert is free and open to the public, but prior registration is required by filling out the form here:

https://forms.gle/nkT9Ww3oouyf1RyC8

Condolences

Jefim Grafman passed away on November 17. He was born in 1938. He was a member of the Panevėžys Jewish Community for many years and more recently a client of the social department there. He died unexpectedly while visiting his daughters in Germany. Those wishing to bid him farewell may attend the wake from November 26 to 27 at the Grauduva funeral home in Panevėžys. We extend our deepest condolences to his daughters and their families as well as all the other members of the family and the entire Panevėžys Jewish Community.

Condolences

Uogė Ieva Dargienė, a member of the Union of Former Ghetto and Concentration Camp Prisoners, has passed away. She was born in 1931. We extend our deepest condolences to her sister Jadvyga and niece Rima.

Happy Birthday to Yosif User

Happy Birthday to Yosif User

We wish Yosif User, founder and editor-in-chief of the weekly Pensioner and former editor-in-chief of the Obzor Russian-language news site in Lithuania as well as a member of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, a very happy birthday. Dear Joseph, with all our hearts we wish you good health, energy, optimism, joy and warmth! Mazl tov. Bis 120!

Jewish Scouts Hike in Pilaitė Neighborhood of Vilnius

Jewish Scouts Hike in Pilaitė Neighborhood of Vilnius

The hike by Jewish scouts through the woods in the Pilaitė neighborhood of Vilnius took place as planned on Friday evening, November 18. The cold wasn’t able to dampen their spirits. Thank you to everyone who took part and weren’t driven off by the light snowfall, and to the organizers. Stay tuned for more scouting activities in the near future.

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Genocide Center Sets Up Information Signs for Visitors

Genocide Center Sets Up Information Signs for Visitors

The Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania erected three information signs for visitors to Holocaust sites at three locations in Lithuania in later October and early November, according to their website.

The first sign was set up in the small town of Gelvonai in the Širvintos region in late October, followed by a visitors display in the town of Musninkai in the same region also in late October. On November 9 a sign appeared at the old Jewish cemetery in the town of Pušalotas in the Pasvalis region.

More information available in Lithuanian here.

Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

The Sabbath begins at 3:54 P.M. on Friday, November 18, and concludes at 5:13 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region.