CONFERENCES

Conferences or Round Table discussions - mandatory part of the project. Participants are discussing and sharing information about Jewish heritage in Akmene region, Jewish history, traditions, lives and destinies of famous jews. Participants are both local enthusiasts and invited guest speakers. Locations for the conferences are provided by Akmene Regional Museum and Akmene Culture Center.
2019 - "Šimaitė Invites to Talk"
2020 - "Shtetl Memories in our Hearts"
​2021 - "Litvak Heritage and Traditions"
2022 - "What Have We Gained from Jewish Music?"
​2023 - "Big Hearts of Small People" (in memoriam of G. Kanovich)

BIG HEARTS OF SMALL PEOPLE (2023)

Round table discussion about Grigory Kanovich, his life and heritage took place on Jul7 17th, 2023 in Akmene Culture Center. Particpants: Rūta Oginskaitė (Noreikaitė), cinema critic , Žilvinas Beliauskas, head of  Vilnius Jewish Public Library , moderated by Donatas Puslys - journalist, political reviewer, Head of Media and Democracy programme of Vinlius Institute of Politics Analysis.
Grigorijus Kanovičius – prozininkas, kino ir teatro dramaturgas, poetas, vertėjas. Gimė 1929 06 18 Jonavoje. Mirė 2023 01 20 Tel Avive (Izraelis). G. Kanovičiaus kūryba išversta į lietuvių, lenkų, vokiečių, anglų, prancūzų, čekų, bulgarų, vengrų, hebrajų ir kitas kalbas.
1988 m. LTSR Literatūros premijos laureatas.
1997 m. knyga „Žydų parkas“ pripažinta geriausiu metų romanu rusų kalba Izraelyje.
2014 m. Nacionalinė kultūros ir meno premija.
2014 m. Liudo Dovydėno literatūrinė premija už romaną „Miestelio romansas“.​

WHAT HAVE WE GAINED FROM JEWISH MUSIC? (2022)

Round table discussion moderated by violinist Boris Kirzner. Participants of discussion - professor Audronė Eitmanavičiūtė from Music Academy of Vytautas Magnus University, and Rafailas Karpis, well known opera singer. Right before the start of discussion, project participants from Vilnius Sholom Aleihem ORT gymnasium Edvardas and Saulius shared their insights about places related to Jewish history and heritage in Akmenė region. All participants were greeted by Laima Nagienė, Lithuanian MP. Discussion was recorded and participants interviewed by Lithuanian national TV ("Menora").

LITVAK HERITAGE AND TRADITIONS (2021)

As invited speakers Samuel Levin and Daumantas Todesas were not able to come to the event, information about project's three-year experience was shared by Marijus Lopaitis, project lead and Arūnas Ostrauskis, founder and director of Akmenė Historical Museum. Zhaneta Sher from Šiauliai region Jewish Community shared the recipes of Purim holiday.

SHTETL MEMORIES IN OUR HEARTS (2020)

The conference was part of the 2020 project "Sholom, Akmene!". As usual, we talked about Jewish culture, traditions and customs. During the conference, members of the Šiauliai region's Jewish community Frida Šteinienė (remotely) and Josifas Buršteinas shared their childhood memories, the young participants of the project spoke about the digitization of the Akmenė region's Jewish cemetery, and Daumantas Todesas revealed the secrets of making Shabbat sweets with his daughter (education "Shabbat sweets"). Also excerpts from Augustina Rušinaitė's (1922-2007) memoirs about the Jews of Akmenė, collected by Indrė Daščioraitė in 2001, were read by Rita Ringienė.  Arūnas Ostrauskis, director of the Akmenė History Museum, spoke about the Jewish heritage in the Akmenė region.

Video of the conference

Conference moments

ŠIMAITĖ INVITES TO TALK (2019)

The first day of the Akmenė city festival "All roads lead to Akmenė" has passed. It started with the conference "Šimaitė invites to talk". The initiators of this project are Diana and Marijus Lopaičiai, the project is implemented by the Public Library of the Akmenė district municipality together with the Akmenė City Public Library. Presentations were presented at the Akmenė regional museum: Marijus Lopaitis - "Jewish communities in Akmenė region", Arūnas Ostrauskis - "Organization and perpetuation of the search sites of the Vegeriai synagogue", Aleksandras Vitkus showed the film "Holocaust. The fading past", Rita Ringienė - "Ona Šimaitė: The history of the righteous people of the world", Zita Sinkevičienė - presented the literary heritage of Litvaks and Ona Šimaitė's letters, Eugenijus Bunka - the exhibition of his father Jakov Bunka's works and the photo exhibition "Kaddish for wooden synagogues", which were presented to the project by Jakov Bunka Charity and Support Foundation.

​The participants of the conference took part in the symbolic ceremony of naming the Akmenė Library after Ona Šimaitė. Ona Šimaitė's relative Rytė Šimaitė with her children also participated in the event. It was a beautiful coincidence that her daughter Smiltė had already visited Akmenė before and performed with the Vilnius choir "Ugnelė" in the Akmenė regional museum.

Moments from the conference