and Jewish Life
Inside
Notice Boards
Source: kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/ziezmariai/Home.html
LRT TV News Service LRT.lt When Lithuania joined the European Route of Jewish Cultural Heritage, the synagogue in Ziezmariai was chosen as the symbolic first site.
Siauliai with Sania Kerbilis & Antonina Gainulina
Panevezys with Gennady Kofman
Master Yuter Family Tree
Panevezys Telephone Directory
Visitors Book
With Gennady Kofman & a scout group
Josvainiai with Laima Ardaviciene and Harry Gorfine (Australia)
Ukmerge with Vida Pulkaunkiene & Arturas Taicos
Litvak Land – Plateliai, Lithuania
Dear friends, Jakovas Bunka Charity and Sponsorship fund has bought a piece of land about 1 km north from Plateliai. Close to the main road we created a
Source: jbfund.lt/our-plans/
Moze being restored
Before restoration!
Kazys Striaupa wood carving – Žemaitijos nacionaliniame parke gausu lankytinų objektų, gamtos paminklų, ir pėsčiųjų takų, ekskursijų ir edukacinių užsiėmimų.
Source: zemaitijosnp.lt/en/veikla/products-of-trademark/medzio-meistro-k-striaupos-darbai/
Žemaitijos nacionalinis parkas – tai gausybė lankytinų objektų, išsidėsčiusių aplink Platelių ežerą, gamtos paminklai, kultūriniai draustiniai ir vertybės.
Source: zemaitijosnp.lt/en/
Kuliai – images from Eugenijus Bunkas’ collection
Holocaust sites near the town
The town
Kuliai (Polish: Kule) is a town in Telšiai County, Lithuania. According to the 2011 census, the town has a population of 625 people.[1]
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuliai
Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman (1886–1969), יוסף שלמה כהנמן, was an Orthodox rabbi and rosh yeshiva of the Ponevezh Yeshiva. He was a renowned Torah and Talmudic scholar, a distinguished member of the Council of Torah Sages of Agudath Israel.
Nosson Meir Wachtfogel (Hebrew: נתן מאיר וכטפוגל) (18 February 1910 in Kuliai, Lithuania – 21 November 1998 in Lakewood, New Jersey, USA), known as the Lakewood Mashgiach, was an Orthodox rabbi and long-time mashgiach ruchani (spiritual supervisor) of Beth Medrash Govoha (the Lakewood Yeshiva) in Lakewood, New Jersey. He was one of the primary builders of that yeshiva into a world-class institution,[1] enacting the goals and direction set forth by its founding rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Aharon Kotler. He also helped establish “branches” of the Lakewood Yeshiva in dozens of cities, and pioneered the community kollel concept with the opening of combination Torah learning/outreach centers in the United States and other countries. A revered mentor and guide to thousands of students over a career that spanned more than 50 years, he was a strong advocate and prime example of musar study and working on one’s spiritual self-development.
Warsaw to Vilnius
I usually take the Lux bus. What a pleasure travelling this way, by plane. An hour fifteen minutes!
Klaipeda Jewish Community Centre
The Centre
Klaipėda (Lithuanian pronunciation: [ˈkɫɐɪˑpʲeːdɐ], listen (help·info); Samogitian name: Klaipieda, Polish name: Kłajpeda, German name: Memel), is a city in Lithuania on the Baltic Sea coast. It is the third largest city in Lithuania and the capital of Klaipėda County.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaipeda
Contact Feliks Pozemskij, KlaipÄda Jewish Community chairperson, tel. 8-650-21335 email felix.bonasta@yahoo.com
Source: www.lzb.lt/en/2012/02/27/jewish-community-of-klaipeda/
Jews were first mentioned as living in the city in 1567, although much the same as with the remarkably similar city of GdaÅsk, the Jews never made an enormous impact on KlaipÄda as they did in the rest of the region. By the time the Germans re-occupied the city in March 1939 some 8,000 Jews had al
Source: www.inyourpocket.com/klaipeda/sightseeing/jewishklaipeda
After the IAJGS conference at the Hilton Hotel, my big walk included the Nozyk, the Old Town, The Bristol Hotel, Polin Museum, Centralna Station area, and back to the Nozyk later in the day.
Around the city
Back to the Nozyk Synagogue
Hotel Bristol
The Old Town
On the way to Polin Museum
Polin Museum
On the way to Centralna Train Station
Nozyk Synagogue before Shabbat
Around Centralna at nightime
Goodbye – back home to Australia
With our hosts.
Day 1 – Sunday 5 August 2018
Day 2. Monday 6 August 2018
Emil Majuk – Shtetl Routes
Milda Jakulyte-Vasil – Lost Shtetl of Seduva
Pamela Weisenberger Memorial lecture by Babara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
The Hilton lobby
Day 3. Tuesday 7 August 2018
Ralph Salinger & Ruth Leiserowitz
My Partisans’ talk
Glenn Kurtz – 3 Minutes In Poland
Day 4. Wednesday 8 August 2018
JewishGen Annual GM 2018
Day 5. Thursday 8 August 2018
Sharon Rennert – Bielskis
Danute Chosinska – Wagrowiec – Small Town History
My Second Talk
Gala Banquet
Last Day 6. Friday 8 August 2018
At Polin Museum
Good night & Goodbye!
The people I photographed or met in Lithuania, from 29 July to 4 August 2018
Vilnius
Trakai
Klaipeda
Plateliai with Eugenijus Bunka
Siauliai with Sania Kerbelis and Antonina Gainulina
Panevezys – at the Jewish Community Centre with Gennady Kofman
Josvainiai with Laima Ardaviciene and Harry Gorfine
Ukmerge
Samantonys -Farm Stay with Arunas
Kaunas
Getting there via Dubai on Emirates – two flights – 19 hours
Lots of time to prepare for my Maftir and Haftorah Nachamu on Saturday
Maftir and Haftorah at the Nozyk Synagogue and related stories Back From the Polish and Litvak Diaspora I am pleased to advise that for those of you arriving early in Warsaw for the IAJGS Conf…
Source: elirab.me/shabbat-nachamu
The Metro to Nozyk Synagogue with my host, Michael Leiserowitz
Jacob Lichterman was the last cantor at the Nozyk Synagogue before the Holocaust:
On Joel Lichterman’s request, I said Kaddish for his dad in the Nozyk Synagogue this Shabbat.
Just before singing the Haftorah, I announced that this was dedicated to Jacob Lichterman, my Polish ancestors, including my Zaida Nachum Mendel Rabinowitz. Both were from Poland and cantors at the Vredehoek Shul in Cape Town, South Africa.
Source: kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/capetown/Vredehoek.html
The Nozyk was well attended by locals and many visitors, including Rabbi Henoch Dov Hoffman of Denver togther with his students from the USA, Sydney and Colombia.
I sent regards back with Rabbi Hoffman to Joel Lichterman and Brian Kopinsky, my Bramley Primary School (Johannesburg) friend who connected with me last year after over 50 years. Brian alerted me to this interesting information about my Haftorah Nachamu:
“You doing the Haftarah on Shabbat Nachamu at Nozyk is amazing!!!
BTW: A trivia question for you. Which famous oratorio opens with “Nachamu nachamu” (translated)? ……….
…………….The most famous of all oratorios! Handel’s Messiah. Handel probably used that because we believe that Moshiach will be born on Tisha b’Av. Handel was very knowledgeable about Judaism and Tanach, in particular. Primary evidence is that almost all his oratorios are based on Jewish beliefs. Israel in Egypt; Joshua; Saul; Esther; Judas Maccabeus, etc”
More info by Larry Kaufman
This Shabbat is known as Shabbat Nachamu, the Sabbath of comfort. On the first Shabbat after Tisha B’Av, we begin our reading of the Seven Haftarot of Consolation. Were our haftarah read from the King James translation of the Bible, or even its near-clone, old JPS, we would have heard Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God. And all the music lovers in our midst would have mentally transposed the words into the trope made familiar by Georg Friedrich Handel. Much of the text of Handel’s Messiah is drawn from Chapter 40 and onwards in the Book of Isaiah, which as you probably know was not written by Isaiah at all, but by his cousin Deutero.
I am pleased to advise that for those of you arriving early in Warsaw for the IAJGS Conference, I will be reciting / singing my barmitzvah Maftir and Haftorah at the Nozyk Synagogue on 28 July 2018 – Shabbat Nachamu.
My barmitzvah was held on 14 August 1965 – 16 Av 5725 at the Waverley Shul, Bramley in Johannesburg, South Africa.
My good friend Phillip Levy’s barmitzvah book – our barmitzvahs were on the same day on 14 August 1965. We didn’t know each other yet!
Books as gifts
This is a significant milestone for our family both historically and genealogically speaking. My zaida, Rev Nachum Mendel Rabinowitz, left Poland in 1905 for Jerusalem, and then in 1911 for South Africa. I have sung in shul choirs in South Africa and Australia since 1960, but this will be the first time since 1905 that the voice of one of our Rabinowitz family will be heard in a shul in Poland! My zaida, my father and my uncle were all cantors.
In 2011 in Orla, I played a recording of my zaida from Johannesburg made in 1961
Video
Nachum Mendel sings in Orla Synagogue, Poland
Source: youtu.be/vvXPavvJPNo
Now in 2018, I return not to play a recording, but to sing in the only synagogue in Warsaw that survived the Holocaust – a return to my roots!
My lecture at IAJGS: Back From the Polish and Litvak Diaspora: Virtual Journeys That Connect Us To Our Roots, is on Thursday 9 August at 4-5pm.
A repeat of my barmitzvah was held in Perth in 1992 – the invitation
Send-off from Noranda CHABAD Thursday 26 July 2018
The last cantor at the Nozyk before the Holocaust
The visit of the Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, the Ponevezh’s Rav to Cape Town in 1953. My zaida – Rev Nachum Mendel Rabinowitz – seated third from the left. Cantor Jakub Lichterman 2nd from the bottom right.
Video
8 August 1993 Cape Town South Africa – edited speech
Source: youtu.be/RGsYvLVsSpc
Full video here (1 hour 19 mins)
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of his barmitzvah at Camps Bay Shul, Cape Town
28 July 2018
 Richard Shavei-Tzion |
Thanks so much Eli for posting the Sefer story. Here’s the continuation: 70 Years after its consecration and 20 years after I first came across and read from it, with HH’s permission I hope to borrow it for a Shabbat. Cheryl and I and our 3 daughters will be spending Shabbat Nachamu, 27-28/7/18 at the Camps Bay Shul, celebrating the 50th anniversary of my Barmitzvah. once again a special connection- the Sefer was installed just weeks after the founding of the State of Israel, now to be used by Jerusalem family with all the significance attached to the number 70 in Jewish tradition. All Blochs-Saevitzons-Sloans-Wienburgs invited to the Brocha after Shabbat morning service. Richard Shavei-Tzion |
Audio
More about Aphraim and Chava and the Bloch & Cynkin Families: Source: kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/mir/Bloch_Cynkin.html The visit to Cape Town from Israel by Beverly Jacobson and her children on …
Source: elirab.me/bloch-torah/
The Cape Town Holocaust Centre
Video
Every year on Yom Hashoah â the Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and Heroism, Holocaust survivors and Jewish communities sing the song Zog Nit Keynmol (âW…
Source: youtu.be/tnaCtuqVBgg
