Vilnius, Lituania

“In Vilnius the JCC is the centre of Jewish life. I used to go there every Sunday when I was a kid because my uncle and aunt used to work there. The community centre offers pluralistic content, conservative. We celebrate “hagim” in JCC and synagogue. We have two rabbis in Vilnius - one of the Jewish community, and one rabbi from Chabad. While the rabbi of the community will offer services for everyone, the Chabad rabbi will only offer services for a person that is “halachically” Jew, meaning his mother must be Jewish. It’s like we have two countries here. I don’t like it, we are all Jews. We shouldn’t fight each other. I have relatives in Israel that couldn’t get married in Israel due to this reason, even though they both married Jewish women, and had a Jewish wedding. They had to go to Prague and get married there.”

Rachmil Garberis