READERS IN LITHUANIA

All welcome at Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky’s annual Grand Chanukah Menorah Lighting on Wednesday evening 28 December 2016 at 5 PM (17:00) in central Vilnius on Gedimino Boulevard on Kudirka Square (opposite the Novotel). An annual highlight of Jewish life and also for Lithuanian-Jewish and Christian-Jewish friendship for nearly a quarter century. Also in Klaipėda (26 Dec), Kaunas (27 Dec) and Šiauliai (29 Dec).

Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky, resident in Vilnius for 22 years, is joined by the city’s current mayor, Remigijus Šimašius, for the 2015 menorah on Gedimino Blvd. in the city center. The “Grand Gedimino Menorah Lighting” has come to be a universally beloved event in the annual calendar of Lithuania’s capital.

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But this year, a local academic may have been “manipulated and weaponized” to create Jewish divisions where there have been none (not for the first time). Followed by an unsigned Jewish Community website statement, itself followed by a mainstream media antisemitic article rehashing the Czarist government’s odious charges of the 1790s (!) against Chabad’s founder (the author is an “accomplished antisemite” who also translates antisemitic blogs from Russian into Lithuanian).

Background here. Rabbi Krinsky responds in his blog.

See also: Editor’s take on Vilnius Chanukah one year ago in the Lithuania Tribune and the 2015 15min.lt report, which notes the unanimity of the event underscored in the community head’s speech last year.

The event in Vilnius will be followed on 28 Dec. by the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s annual festive Chanukah celebration in the Choral Synagogue (Pylimo Street 39) from 6 PM (18:00) onwards.

WE RECOMMEND OUR VILNIUS READERS ATTEND BOTH EVENTS AND CONTINUE TO PROMOTE INCLUSIVENESS AND HARMONY. COME TO THE MENORAH ON GEDIMINO AT 5, AND ENJOY THE WALK TO THE SYNAGOGUE’S EVENT THAT FOLLOWS FROM 6 PM ONWARD. IT WILL INCLUDE AN 8 PM TALK ON TALMUDIC THOUGHT ABOUT CHANUKAH CANDLE LIGHTING BY RABBI KALEV KRELIN.