Natalja Cheifec continues her internet discussion group on the topic of the Holy Land and its people. THis will be the second part of that discussion. To receive zoom credentials, click here.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Thursday, August 14
Place: internet
“I am a proud Litvak,” Israeli president Isaac Herzog told an audience of LJC members and students from the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius Monday last week.
He and wife Michal watched a performance by younger students from the school and the president fielded questions from students afterwards.
“Jews have been living in Lithuania 600 years now. This is our home, our gomeland, while Israel is our historical homeland which we support and always weill,” Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky told the assembly.
A book of interviews with Lithuanian cellist Davidas Geringas written by musical journalist Jan Brachmann is now abailable in Lithuanian and will be presented Monday, August 11. The book is called “Tik Niekam Nesakyk” [Just Don’t Tell Anyone] and tells the story of Geringas’s persecution by Soviet security structures and his family’s experience as Jews in Soviet Lithuania, along with Geringas’s meetings with remarkable people and his support for Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenytsin. The book was previously translated into German and Italian.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Monday, August 11
Place: Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius
The Sabbath begins at 9:06 P.M. on Friday, August 8, and concludes at 10:09 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 8:48 P.M. and completed before sunset at 9:06 P.M.
Natalja Cheifec continues her internet discussion club, this time discussing the Promised Land and its people. To receive zoom credentials to listen to and contribute to the discussion, click here.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Thursday, August 7
Place: internet
The neoklzmer group Gefilte Drive from Israel will perform a concert in Vilnius next week. Cost of tickets starts at €35. Tickets are available here.
Description from the ticket vendor:
A neoklezmer band blending East and West, kosher rock’n’roll and Odessa-style romance. Songs in Yiddish, Russian, English and even backyard Odessa hits translated into Hebrew. It’s the music of our grandparents, reimagined through the lens of modern sound and heartfelt expression.
Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@GefilteDrive
Time: 7:00 P.M., Friday, August 15
Place: Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius
by Grant Gochin, July 31, 2025
As a 16-year-old South African in 1980, I watched Zimbabwe’s “liberation” unfold on television–a moment seared into my memory. The Rhodesian flag fell, the Zimbabwean flag rose, and the haunting strains of “Auld Lang Syne” marked the end of colonial rule. Those notes still pull me back to that fleeting hope for a better future. But let’s be brutally honest–hope was a cruel illusion.
The world cheered as Rhodesia’s white regime fell under global pressure. The cause was righteous: equality was non-negotiable. But the world ignored the *day after.* Independence’s euphoria drowned out any thought of governance or stability. Rhodesia’s economy, though prosperous for a few, had thrived on systemic inequality. Yet post-independence Zimbabwe became a husk of poverty, starvation and tyranny. Equal rights? No: equal suffering for all.
Zimbabwe’s collapse is a glaring warning for any conflict where ideals outpace pragmatism, especially in the Israeli-Palestinian quagmire. Critics, including feeble Western governments, hound Israeli prime minister Netanyahu for not presenting a tidy post-war plan for Gaza while rockets rain down. Meanwhile, activists chant “from the river to the sea,” a call for Israel’s annihilation which ignores the consequences. Sound familiar? It’s Zimbabwe 2.0–glory in the cause, deliberate obfuscation for the ignorant masses.
The Sabbath begins at 9:20 P.M. on Friday, August 1, and concludes at 10:27 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 9:02 P.M. and completed before sunset at 9:20 P.M. Sunday is Tisha b’Av with the 24-hour fast beginning at sundown on Saturday and ending when stars appear Sunday evening. Friday is also the Christian harvest festival Lammas.
The Lithuanian National Martynas Mažvydas Library continues celebrations the 10tth anniversary of teh founding of the YIVO Jewish research institute in Vilnius with a lecture by Silvia Hansman titled “Reflections of Vilnius in Buenos Aires: The YIVO Institute in Argentina” next week,
Silvia Hansman is director of the lesser-known YIVO chapter in Buenos Aires. She’s an historian, translator of Yiddish manuscrupts and archivist with 30 years experience leading archival research projects in the USA and Argentina.
The YIVO chapter was founded in Buenos Aires at the same time the headquarters in Vilnius and chapters in Berlin and New York were founded, back in 1925.
The lecture is free and open to the public, and will be in English. For more information in Lithuanian, click here.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Thursday, August 7
Place: Second floor, National Library, Gedimino prospect no. 51 Vilnius
The Kiryat Ono Youth Orchestra from Israel capped off their concert tour in Lithuania with a performance last week at the Tolerance Center of the Vilna Gaon Jewish Historical Museum in Vilnius.
Earlier they played Palanga, Kaunas and other venues in Vilnius. The Kaunas concert celebrated the 135th birthday of the birth of Volf Kagan, Lithuanian volunteer soldier in the battles for independence in the early 20th century and chronicler of Jewish life and the Holocaust in Lithuania.
In Vilnius the LJC’s Viljamas Žitkauskas who is also a qualified tour guide showed the young musicians around the city and the remains of Jewish Vilna. They then sampled menu items from the soon-to-open Kosher Kesher restaurant before the concert at the Tolerance Center.
he Vilnius Jewish Public Library will hold a memorial for the death of library founder director Žilvinas Bieliauskas who passed away one year ago. The memorial ceremony will include the unveling of a plaque in the library and a screening of a documentary film about Žilvinas Bieliauskas’s life.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Monday, July 28
Place: Vilnius Jewish Public Library, Gedimino prospect no. 24, Vilnius
The Sabbath begins at 9:32 P.M. on Friday, July 25, and concludes at 10:44 P.M. on Saturday in the Vilnius region. Sabbath candles should be lit at 9:14 P.M. and completed before sunset at 9:32 P.M.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community, uniting 32 organizations across Lithuania and abroad, is deeply surprised by the unilateral decision made by the Government under the leadership of Gintautas Paluckas to disregard a project previously approved back in 2024 for the memorialization of the old Šnipiškės (Shnipishok, formerly Piromont neighborhood) Jewish cemetery and the existing commemorative site at the Palace of Sports. This project has been under development for several years and was carefully coordinated by a working group composed of representatives from the Lithuanian Jewish Community, the European Jewish Cemetery Preservation Committee, the American Jewish Committee’s Department of International Affairs and other organizations dedicated to preserving Jewish heritage.
The solutions proposed so far have ensured appropriate respect for the Jews buried in the cemetery as well as historical events related to Lithuania’s struggle for independence and the victims of the tragic events of January 13, 1991, at the Vilnius television tower.
We emphasize the decision to alter the intentand content of the memorial was made without prior consultation with the Lithuanian Jewish Community or any other Jewish organizations anywhere. We were not informed of any changes to the original plans.
The Lithuanian Jewish Community will refrain from further commenting on this decision for now because we have not received confirmed information regarding the content of this new plan nor the reasons behind this change in course.
Nevertheless, we wish to note that such actions undermine trust in our state and damage Lithuania’s reputation in the eyes of strategic partners.
Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community
The Lithuanian and Russian news portals madeinvilnius.lt and ru.delfi.lt are reporting Lithuanian prime minister Gintautas Paluckas (Social Democratic Party) has renewed government plans to refurbish the former Palace of Sports complex in central Vilnius and to renovate the Jewish cemetery where it was built and which surrounds the building.
Paluckas is facing calls to stand a confidence vote in parliament following revelations of sweet-heart loan deals and large discounts for real estate purchases.
According to both news sites, Paluckas wants to renovate the large but decrepit building for use as a conference center, the same plan floated by earlier governments. This iteration of the on-going talk of renovation now includes plans by the PM to install a museum within that space for commemorating the first meeting of Sąjūdis there, and victims of the January 13, 1991, Vilnius television tower massacre. Sąjūdis officially became a political party there and went on to contest elections to the Lithuanian Supreme Soviet against the Lithuanian Communist Party led by Algirdas Brazauskas. Original member of Sąjūdis and later Brazauskas supporter Arvydas Juozaitis is currently completing a boom on the history of the early Lithuanian independence movement which includes a detailed description of that founding meeting, according to pre-publiicty from the author himself.
Natania Ramba visited Ukmergė this week with her film crew. She’s filming a documentary about Jews from Ukmergė, or Vilkomir in Yiddish.
Her grandfather also came from Vilkomir.
Ukmergė Jewish Community chairman Artūras Taicas was interviewed for the film.
The Jewish population was almost entirely murdered during the Holocaust.
Taicas showed Ramba around the city just a short drive north of Vilnius, including Jewish heritage sites.
They plan to show the film to descendants of Jews from Vilkomir and to Litvals in general in Mexico and the United States.
by Grant Gochin, July 18, 2025
Tisha b’Av, observed annually on the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av, is a solemn day of mourning in Judaism, commemorating a series of tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people, most notably the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem. Over time, this day has also become a time to reflect on other catastrophic events in Jewish history, including the Holocaust, which saw the systematic murder of approximately six million Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1941 and 1945. For many Jewish communities, Tisha b’Av serves as a moment to mourn the six million victims of the Holocaust, often through the recitation of kinnot, liturgical dirges that lament historical persecutions, including those of the 20th century. As we commemorate these profound losses, however, a troubling issue persists in Lithuania: the government’s ongoing efforts to revise and deny its historical role in the Holocaust, a matter I have confronted through extensive legal action. This article explores the intersection of Tisha b’Av’s remembrance, Lithuania’s Holocaust revisionism and my legal battles to expose this distortion, drawing on insights from my work and the broader discourse on antisemitism.
Tisha b’Av: A Day of Collective Mourning
Tisha b’Av is marked by a 25-hour fast and the recitation of the Book of Lamentations, which mourns the destruction of Jerusalem. Over centuries the day has evolved to encompass additional tragedies, such as the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492 and the Holocaust. Religious communities often incorporate special kinnot composed after the Holocaust, such as those by Rabbi Shimon Schwab in 1959 and Rabbi Solomon Halberstam in 1984, to honor the six million Jewish victims. This practice underscores the day’s role as a time to reflect on the enduring impact of antisemitism and the importance of historical truth. The Holocaust as a pinnacle of antisemitic violence is a focal point of this commemoration, making Lithuania’s revisionist policies particularly jarring in the context of Tisha b’Av.
A very happy birthday to Lithuania’s only Jewish MP, signatory to the 1990 Restoration of Lithuanian Independence Act, philologist, the first chairman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community aka the Jewish Culture Club founded in 1988 and all-around good person Emanuelis Zingeris.
The entire Lithuanian Jewish Community wishes you good health, endless energy and the highest continued success in your life and work. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
from the newspaper Šiaulių kraštas
The Chaim Frenkl Villa of the Aušra Museum in Šiauliai hosted a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Leiba Lipshitz on July 16. Lipshitz chronicled Jewish life in Šiauliai, researched regional history and was a well-known publix figure. People called him a walking encyclopedia. He survived the Stuthoff and Dachau concentration camps but lost his entire family in the Holocaust. He went back to his hometown and dedicated the rest of his life to documenting Jewish history and life in Šiauliai.
Historian Jonas Kiriliauskas delivered a presentation of Lipshitz and his views on life at the ceremony.
The Kiryat Ono Youth Orchestra from Kiryat Ono in Israel will perform a concert in Vilnius Thursday. The concert is free and open to the public.
Time: 6:00 P.M., Thursday, July 24
Place: Tolerance Center of the Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum, Naugarduko street no. 10, Vilnius
