Nechama Lifschitz was born in 1927 in Kaunas, Lithuania and passed away in 2017 in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Nechama, the nightingale of Soviet Jewry, an opera star, defied the authorities and performed concerts in Yiddish throughout the former Soviet Union. Crowds adored her beautiful voice and strong character.
Nechama arrived in Israel in March 1969 and very soon thereafter performed her first concert in Hichal Hatarbut Auditorium, Tel Aviv.
We have received permission from Roza Litay to share the Partisan song recording of her late mother.
Our thanks to Roza, and to Carol Hoffman who arranged this.
Beloved Singer Nechama Lifshitz Has Died
Beloved Singer Nechama Lifshitz Has Died
Performing Yiddish and Hebrew songs in the Soviet Union despite the ban against it, Nechama became a symbol of hope for the silenced Jews.
The Saulėtekis School has presented a number of plays on Litvak culture and the Holocaust. The school has a strong Holocaust education component. In addition, student choirs often perform songs in Yiddish and Hebrew, most recently at the Holocaust commemoration at Ponar at the end of September where they performed the Vilnius ghetto anthem, Zog Nit Keynmol.
This was recorded at the school
Tolerance Education Centre – Vilnius “Saulėtekis” Secondary School
Tolerancijos ugdymo centras – Vilniaus “Saulėtekio” vidurinė mokykla
As the 23rd of September commemorates the victims of the Lithuanian Genocide victims, Lithuanian general education schools, Tolerance training centres and all educational institutions are invited to participate in the “Memory path” civic initiative. The initiative seeks to visit the mass graves of the Jews, walking through the path to which innocent people were driven to death…….
Please encourage your students to recite or sing the Partisan Song on the UN Holocaust Remembrance Day on or around 27 January 2018.
Don’t Give Up Hope
Don’t Give Up Hope
Activities for your school, choir or community group for Holocaust Memorial Day – 27 January 2018 A short video explaining the project The Power of Words: learn about the meaning, context and sign…
With Mickey ShakedRabbi Shalom White lighting the first candle
The lighting of the first candle was watched by students at the Atzalynas High School in Kedainiai, Lithuania. I used skype and my iPhone to stream this back live to Laima Ardaviciene and her class. This is the second year in a row we have engaged Laima and her class on Chanukah.
Viewing it all from the classroom in Kedainiai, Lithuania
I introduced my friend Heiny Ellert to the class. Heiny, 95, is a Holocaust survivor from Neishtot-Tavrig, today Žemaičių Naumiestis, in Lithuania.
With Heiny Ellert earlier this year
See Heiny Ellert’s Testimony
Heiny Ellert’s Testimony
Heiny Ellert, a Lithuanian Holocaust survivor, tells his story to Eli Rabinowitz. Accompanying him is his wife Toby, also from Lithuania, but who escaped to …
Žemaičių Naumiestis Town in Lithuania Žemaičių Naumiestis is a town in Klaipėda county, Šilutė district municipality. It is located in western Lithuania between Klaipėda and Kaliningrad Oblast. The…
The miracle of Chanukah and the miracle of survival for Heinry Ellert!
This is a second year in a row that:
Maoz Tzur Sung in Perth Heard in Keidan
Maoz Tzur Sung in Perth Heard in Keidan
Just think of this – when was the last time Maoz Tzur was heard in Keidan, Lithuania, sung by a Jewish kid? Maybe 75 years ago! When Laima Ardaviciene, the English teacher at Atzalyno Gymnazi…
A ceremony was held on Wednesday to thank those in Kedainiai, Lithuania who organised the recent cleaning of the Jewish cemetery and the matsevot.
Tzvi Friedl, Natan Katzel, Jill Rabinowitz and I joined those at the meeting at the Atzalynas School in Kedainiai just after 8pm Perth time. We joined online from CHABAD Perth, Australia. We thanked those involved in undertaking this huge mitzvah. There are no Jews living in Kedainiai today.
Here is the report from teacher Laima Ardaviciene in Kedainiai – translated from the Lithuanian below:
Valentinas Tamulis, governor of the town of Kėdainiai and Rimantas Žirgulis, director of the Kedainiai Regional Museum, visited Kėdainiai Atzalynas gymnasium. During the meeting the members of the gymnasium community thanked them for their cooperation in carrying out project TILTAI-BRIDGES-בריקן activities related to the Jewish community in Kedainiai. The students shared a recent presentation about the old Kedainiai Jewish Cemetery. Eli Rabinowitz (Australia), rooted in Kedainiai, and Rabbi Natan Katzel joined the meeting virtually and thanked the headman of Kėdainiai for his contribution to the old Kedainiai Jewish cemetery in honor of the Kedainiai Jewish people, Jewish music was played by Tzvi Friedl. Further cooperation activities were discussed during the meeting. The guests were presented with the Kedainiai drawings.
Atžalyno gimnazijoje lankėsi Kėdainių miesto seniūnas Valentinas Tamulis ir Kėdainių krašto muziejaus direktorius Rimantas Žirgulis. Susitikimo metu gimnazijos bendruomenės nariai padėkojo už bendradarbiavimą vykdant projektą TILTAI-BRIDGES-בריקן apie Kėdainiuose buvusią žydų bendruomenę. Gimnazistai pasidalino pastaruoju metu sukurtu pristatymu apie senąsias Kėdainių žydų kapines. Susitikimo metu prisijungė Eli Rabinowitz (Australija), kuris kėdainiečių žydų vardu padėkojo miesto seniūnui už jo indėlį tvarkant senąsias Kėdainių žydų kapines, padėkos žodį tarė ir rabinas Natan Katzel, o muzikiniu kūriniu pasidalino Tzvi Friedl. Susitikimo metu buvo aptarta tolimesnė bendradarbiavimo veikla. Svečiams buvo padovanoti gimnazijos mokinių piešti Kėdainių miestą vaizduojantys piešiniai.
We made three videos:
Participants in Kedainiai:
Valentinas Tamulis, the headman of Kėdainiai
Rimantas Žirgulis, the director of the Kėdainiai Regional History Museum Gintaras Petrulis, the director of Kėdainiai Atžalynas gymnasium Rasa Cicėnienė, the assistant of Kėdainiai Atžalynas gymnasium Lina Blinstrubienė, the assistant of Kėdainiai Atžalynas gymnasium Giedrius Galvanauskas, a student Aistė Vosilytė, a student Šarūnė Makaraitytė, a student
More about the project – Building Bridges In Kedainiai
Building Bridges In Kedainiai
Kedainiai Atžalynas gymnasium students continue the Project: TILTAI-BRIDGES-בריקן . We thank Valentinas Tamulis, the mayor of Kedainiai, and Rimantas Žirgulis for organising cleaning activities in the old Jewish cemetery. Not a single tombstone is covered by a growing tree or a bush now. All the matsevot remind us about the Jewish community that lived in Keidan. We are presenting the recent view of the Old Jewish Cemetery of Keidan.
Drawings by Julija Chomenko featured in the video below.
Julio completed her schooling at Atzalyno High School last year.
From Laima Ardaviciene, teacher:
Kedainiai Atžalynas gymnasium students continue the Project: TILTAI-BRIDGES-בריקן . From the bottom of our heart we thank Valentinas Tamulis, the headman of Kedainiai, and Rimantas Žirgulis for organising cleaning activities in the old Jewish cemetery. Not a single tombstone is covered by a growing tree or a bush now. All the headstones remind us about the Jewish community that lived in Keidan. We are presenting the recent view of the Old Jewish Cemetery of Keidan.
The Keidaner Family tree on Laima’s classroom wall – an unique work of art! The complex of two synagogues and the tree featuring the names of Keidaners, including my 3rd great grandfat…
Teaching The Holocaust Through Poetry Lesson Plan Grades 9-12 Subjects: History, Language/Arts, Media, Social Studies. This website is translatable into 103 languages…..
A memorial sign to all the Jewish children from Novogrudok who perished during the Holocaust was unveiled at the Jewish Resistance Museum in Novogrudok on September 26, 2017. The monument was sponsored by Sergei Koval, a local Jew, who according to his own words ‘fulfilled the wish of the girl’.
Michle Sosnowski whose picture is in the exhibition of the Museum served as a prototype for the monument. The picture was provided by Jeannette Josse from London who visited Novogrudok in 2005 searching for her roots. Two years later Jeannette sent a book to the Museum in which she incorporated old pictures into the new ones made during her trip.
Michle happened to be in her family album because she was her mother’s friend. Together with Sheindel Sukharski they tried to escape from the labour camp in Novogrudok but were recognized in the street, denounced, arrested and taken to prison from which they never came out.
It’s a monument to the child whose greatest wish was to live. Dressed up for Purim she will dance forever next to the Tree of Life which incorporates the Star of David from the Novogrudok synagogue.
The ceremony was followed by a panel discussion on Remembrance and Commemoration dedicated to the blessed memory of Jack Kagan, a survivor from Novogrudok and a Bielski partisan, whose efforts to preserve the history of Novogrudok Jews and their unprecedented resistance to the Nazis were recognized by awarding him a title of the Honorary Citizen of Novogrudok in 2011.
Tamara Vershitskaya, the Director of the History Museum in Novogrudok and I leave early at 7:30am for Grodno, a couple of hours by car from Novogrudok. This is the countryside. A well known glass f…
In 2016 I travelled with my friend, Laima Ardaviciene, the English teacher at Kedainiai High School, to Jonava
Jonava
Quick facts
Jonava is the ninth largest city in Lithuania with a population of ca 30,000. It is located in Kaunas County in central Lithuania, 30 km north east of Kaunas, the second-largest city in Lithuania. It is served by Kaunas International Airport.Wikipedia
Municipality:
Jonava District Municipality
Area:
13.67 km²
Jewish buildings, including the former synagogue.
Information posters on the buildings.
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Former synagogue Former synagogue
The Jewish Cemetery
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The amphitheatre and holiday entertainment
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More about Grigory Kanovich’s book – Shtetl Love Song
From Amazon:
Winner the Liudo Dovydeno Prize awarded by the Lithuanian Writers’ Union In Shtetl Love Song Grigory Kanovich writes about his mother and in doing so peels back the surface of the rich community that lived in pre-war Lithuania. It is a requiem for the pre-war Jewish shtetl, for a people and a way of life that was destroyed. Shtetl Love Song won the Liudas Dovydenas Prize awarded by the Lithuanian Writers’ Union. About the author Grigory Kanovich is one of the most prominent Lithuanian writers and winner of the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts for 2014. Kanovich was born into a traditional Jewish family in the Lithuanian town of Jonava in 1929. Since 1993 the writer has lived in Israel. He is a member of the PEN club in both Israel and Russia. He is also a renowned playwright. About the translator Yisrael Elliot Cohen, B.A. Harvard College, Ph.D. Yale University, taught Russian literature and humanities at the University of Illinois. He settled in Israel in 1979, working as a professional translator from Russian into English and as an English-language editor. At Hebrew University he was co-editor of Jews in Russia and Eastern Europe' and worked on a bibliography project for the Centre for the Study of Anti-Semitism. Currently at Yad Vashem, he is working onTh e Untold Stories: Holocaust Murder Sites in the Soviet Union’. Dr. Cohen has translated several books. His non-academic interests are his grandchildren and attempting to apply the teachings of the Biblical prophets to the contemporary social and political situation. Praise for the novel Set in the rural Lithuanian landscape on the eve of World War II,Shtetl Love Song’ is full of tender affection, soft irony, and sharp observations. Guided by the memory of his beloved mother, the masterful narrator takes us into the very midst of his enchanted family world, recreating the past that is irrevocably destroyed and yet fully alive in his memory. Kanovich, himself a child of a Lithuanian shtetl who survived the Holocaust almost by a miracle, made it his mission to serve, against all odds, as a custodian of the collective memory of generations of Litvaks, Lithuanian Jews.’ – Mikhail Krutikov, Professor of Slavic and Judaic Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
The International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania
Extract from the newsletter
Kėdainiai “Atžalynas” gymnasium Tolerance education Centre administrates an international project on Jewish festivals
Since 2012 Kėdainiai “Atžalynas” gymnasium Tolerance Education Centre has been administrating a project aimed at educating students about the Jewish community history in Kėdainiai region. A special guest from Australia Eli Rabinowitz visits the gymnasium every year to share his knowledge and insights. The project is conducted in English, thus the students not only broaden their outlook, but use the foreign language and develop their English skills.
This year the project focused on Jewish festivals. In winter Eli Rabinowitz held a virtual conference to introduce a festival for the students and in summer, during the visit to Lithuania, the guest continued with stories about other traditional Jewish celebrations.
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Atzalynas Gimnazija Kedainiai Visit 2017
Atzalynas Gimnazija Kedainiai Visit 2017
The Keidaner Family tree on Laima’s classroom wall – an unique work of art! The complex of two synagogues and the tree featuring the names of Keidaners, including my 3rd great grandfat…
