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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Kill Jews, Get Your Own State

Kill Jews, Get Your Own State

Wall Street Journal, August 7, 2025

A Hamas leader says new global recognition for Palestinian statehood is a reward for the October 7 massacre.

The leaders of France, Canada and the United Kingdom think they’re doing a good deed by saying they’ll soon recognize a state of Palestine at the United Nations. Maybe they should listen to the response from Hamas, which thinks this recognition is a reward for slaughtering Jews.

That’s the only way to interpret comments Saturday by Hamas Politburo member Ghazi Hamad on Al Jazeera. “The powerful blow that was delivered to Israel on October 7 has yielded three very important historic achievements. First of all, it brought the Palestinian cause back. Why are all these countries recognizing Palestine now?” he asked. Good question. “The overall outcome of October 7,” Mr. Hamad continued, “forced the world to open its eyes to the Palestinian cause, and to act forcefully in this respect.” Massacre as a political strategy has long been Hamas practice, but it’s still remarkable to hear it stated with such unvarnished aplomb.

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The Enemy Within: The Treacherous “As a Jew” Jews

The Enemy Within: The Treacherous “As a Jew” Jews

by Grant Gochin, August 11, 2025

For three decades, my soul has roared with an unquenchable fire, forged in the crucible of my family’s slaughter in Lithuania. No polished diploma adorns my walls–my education was ripped from the smoldering ruins of personal tragedy and honed in the blood-soaked trenches of diplomacy across Africa’s most perilous corners. This is no academic sermon; it’s a primal scream, carved from scars, seething rage and an ironclad vow to never let genocide’s shadow fall on my people again. The ancient blood libel–that vile lie blaming all Jews for the crimes of none, or sometimes, possibly, a few, a grotesque slander conjured from thin air to vilify our people without a shred of truth–has been resurrected by traitors who wield their Jewish identity like a blade to disembowel our nation. These are the “As a Jew” Jews, a festering betrayal we must rip out root and branch.

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Israeli President and Wife Visit Lithuanian Jewish Community

Israeli President and Wife Visit Lithuanian Jewish Community

“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.

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Launch of Davidas Geringas’s Book “Just Don’t Tell Anyone”

Launch of Davidas Geringas’s Book “Just Don’t Tell Anyone”

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

Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

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 on the Promised Land

Natalja Cheifec on the Promised Land

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

Neoklezmer from Israel: Gefilte Drive Concert

Neoklezmer from Israel: Gefilte Drive Concert

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

Zimbabwe and Gaza

Zimbabwe and Gaza

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.

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Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

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.

Reflections of Vilnius in Buenos Aires: The YIVO Institute in Argentina

Reflections of Vilnius in Buenos Aires: The YIVO Institute in Argentina

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

Kiryat Ono Youth Orchestra Plays Tolerance Center

Kiryat Ono Youth Orchestra Plays Tolerance Center

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.

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Remembering Žilvinas Bieliauskas

Remembering Žilvinas Bieliauskas

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

Sabbath Times

Sabbath Times

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.

LJC on Government Plan to Change Old Šnipiškės Jewish Cemetery Memorial

LJC on Government Plan to Change Old Šnipiškės Jewish Cemetery Memorial

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

Embattled PM Has Big Plans for Old Jewish Cemetery

Embattled PM Has Big Plans for Old Jewish Cemetery

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.

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North Americans Visit Ukmergė

North Americans Visit Ukmergė

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.

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Tisha b’Av and the Ongoing Struggle against Lithuanian Holocaust Revisionism

Tisha b’Av and the Ongoing Struggle against Lithuanian Holocaust Revisionism

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.

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Happy Birthday, Emanuelchik

Happy Birthday, Emanuelchik

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!