Baltics Itinerary

Kaunas, Lithuania photo by ezioman — Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

Lithuania and Latvia — the Baltics: August 1-10, 2010

Naomi Ragen; photo by Alex Ragen

Enter our Baltics Living History contest now.

Read about why renown writer Naomi Ragen is going on the Baltics trip with Deluxe Kosher Tours.

Read Stuart Katz’s blog post “Traveling to the Baltics: Experience Shtetl Life”

Listen to scholar/tour guide Jeffrey Woolf talk about this Baltics tour that he’s leading.

Jews first came to the Lithuania and Latvia, in the time of Charlemagne. For over a thousand years they flourished and created a rich and varied culture that can still be felt today. Rabbis and Mystics, Merchants and Communal Leaders, Hassidim and Misnagdim, Zionists and Secular scholars all left an abiding mark on Jewish life today.

DELUXE KOSHER Tours’ trip to Lithuania and Latvia is the chance of a lifetime to explore the incredible sights and sounds of life in “Jewish Lita,” to bask in the beauty of the Baltics and to see some of the hidden jewels of Europe, where West and East touch.

Let Deluxe Kosher Tours take you to this stunningly beautiful, deeply moving and fabled Jewish center. The inclusive price of $6,495 includes airfare from any of the following cities: New York, Washington, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Miami. (Add $150 for travel from Los Angeles or San Francisco.) LAND ONLY (no air fare included) – $4,995

Rates are based on double occupancy (two to a room). Add $995 for single room occupancy. All taxes and fuel surcharges included (based on May 1, 2010, rates)

SIGN UP NOW

SERVICE … From airport arrival to airport departure — no worries
ACCOMMODATIONS … Only deluxe, 5-star hotels
FOOD … Exquisite and plentiful kosher food with the highest standards of kashrut and quality
PROGRAMMING … The most interesting spots including places no one else visits
JEWISH ENRICHMENT … We will show you the Jewish sites everywhere (when most other tours don’t even know about these sites)
TOUR LEADERS … Extremely knowledgeable
FUN … Evening programs, recreation

You will be led by internationally renowned scholar and veteran tour leader Jeffrey Woolf.

Scholar/tour guide Jeffrey Woolf

Read about scholar/tour guide Jeffrey Woolf.

Sunday, August 1 In Transit
Depart from the US to Vilna, Lithuania

Read Stuart Katz’s blog post “Jewish Life and Culture in Vilna, Lithuania”

Monday, August 2 Vilna
Your carefully selected DELUXE KOSHER TOURS escort will welcome you at the airport, and escort you to the deluxe Radisson SAS Astoria Hotel in Vilnius (Vilna). Spend the remainder of the day exploring the vibrant and exciting city.

Vilna is studded with architectural gems, and exotic side streets are a joy to explore. In the evening, rejoin the group for a welcome dinner.

Read Stuart Katz’s additional blog post “Jewish Memorials in Vilna, Lithuania”

Tuesday, August 3 Vilna
After breakfast, visit the Vilna Yiddish Institute at its location on the Old Campus of Vilnius University. Learn about Lithuanian Jewish history and culture through an encounter with Sarunas Liekis and Dovid Katz. Take in Eastern European Jewish art by one of the local leading artists.

After a delicious kosher lunch, you will embark on a walk through the Jewish Quarter of Vilna, guided by Ms. Roza Bieliauskiene, the former collection curator of the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum.

Spend your evening visiting the beautiful Choral Synagogue of Vilna, and come face to face with history in a moving visit with Vilna’s local Jewish community. Dinner will follow.

Wednesday, August 4 Vilna-Yoneshik-Zhager-Riga
After breakfast, depart for Latvia. On the way, DELUXE KOSHER TOURS will offer you a rare opportunity to experience authentic shtetl life by visiting the shtetls of Zhager and Yoneshik.

Upon arrival in Riga, you will have the opportunity to savor local color and cuisine at one of Riga’s charming kosher restaurants.

Read Stuart Katz’s blog post “Visiting Riga, Latvia Is to Experience Living History”

Thursday, August 5 Riga
Visit with Riga’s Jewish community for a chance to share and learn about the Jewish experience in Latvia. Afterward, learn more at the Jewish Museum and Documentation Center, tracing the history and contributions of Latvia’s Jews to the present day.

After lunch, you will take an excursion outside the city limits to the Jewish cemetery there, followed by a pilgrimage to the Holocaust Memorial. Here, Nazis along with their Latvian henchmen executed thousands of innocent Jews, whose identities are shrouded in mystery to this day. The impressive monument to their memory was only erected in 2001.

We will return to the city and the former Jewish ghetto, which retains traces of its pre-war existence. Along the way we will invoke the lives of many great (and near great) who made Riga a vibrant center of Jewish Life and culture, including the remains of the Chorale Synagogue —a monument to the power of Jewish faith.

Later in the afternoon, spend time in the elegant and beautiful “Art Nouveau” district, once home to many of Latvia’s most famous artists, writers, and scholars.

Riga’s collection of buildings in this nineteenth-century style are among the finest and best-preserved in the world. One of these was the world-famous Jewish philosopher, and Zionist leader, Sir Isaiah Berlin. We will hear about how his family fortune led to an unlikely encounter between three of the greatest rabbinic minds of the day.

At the end of the day, we will dine with members of Latvia’s Jewish community.

Friday, August 6 Riga-Daugavpils (Dvinsk)-Vilna
After breakfast, DELUXE KOSHER TOURS will take you on a new adventure as you head to Daugavpils — the immortal city of Dvinsk, famous for its tradition of Litvak and Chabad cooperation, and for the residence of the giants of pre-war Europe: R. Joseph Rosen (Rogachover) and R. Meir Simcha Ha-Kohen (the Or Sameach). You will meet local Jews and learn the power and tragedy of their experiences under German and Soviet oppression.

After a local lunch in Daugapils, you will return to Vilna, checking in once more at the Radisson SAS Astorija in Vilna. After services, we will be treated to a Shabbat dinner at the Lubavitch Center.

Saturday, August 7 Vilna
Spend Shabbat with members of the Vilna Jewish community. Tefillot and meals will be enjoyed with the community. An enriching Shabbat program (including a walking tour) is planned for the day.

Sunday, August 8 Vilna
After breakfast, DELUXE KOSHER Tours offers you the chance to take a tour through the Holocaust Museum (also known as the Green House) guided by the Deputy Director of the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum himself. Afterward, you will be treated to a walking tour of the winding streets of Vilna’s wartime ghetto.

After lunch you will be given the opportunity to go to the Vilnius Yiddish Institute to participate in a discussion about various topics in twentieth-century Jewish history. You will speak not only with prominent Lithuanian and Jewish intellectuals, but also with government officials, all of whom will be open to questions.

Learn more, too, about the friendship and cooperation between both groups, and spend part of the evening in the Jewish Museum’s Tolerance Center — once a Jewish theater — to listen to Vilna Ghetto songs performed by Dr. Maria Krupoves-Berg before a delicious dinner.

Monday, August 9 Vilna-Kaunas-Vilna
Leave Vilna in the morning to visit Kaunas — the legendary Jewish community of Kovno — after whose immortal rabbi the R. Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary was named. Kovno was Lithuania’s provisional inter-war capitol and is its second-largest city.

You will spend the morning visiting notable sites of Jewish interest, including the site of the immortal Mussar Yeshiva, Slobodka. After a post-lunch visit to the Kaunas Synagogue, you will be given the chance to spend time with members of its Jewish community. We will then pay our respects to the infamous Ninth Fort, where so many lost their lives. In the evening, return to Vilna.

Tuesday, August 10 In Transit
Say goodbye to your fellow travelers and companions in this moving experience as you return to the airport for your flight home, enriched by all you have discovered.

Please note that some of the individuals listed in the itinerary that we will meet with or will lead parts of the tour are subject to change without notice.

COST PER PERSON
$6,495 based on double occupancy (two to a room)

SIGN UP NOW

Includes air fare from: New York
LAND ONLY (no air fare included – even domestics) – $4,995

ADDITIONAL COSTS
• Visa fees for non-US citizens (if applicable)
• Snacks or items of a personal nature

HOTELS
Vilna Radisson SAS Astoria
Ruga Radisson SAS

ITINERARY & HOTELS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE
RATES MAY BE ADJUSTED IF THERE’S A FLUCTUATION IN CURRENCY OF MORE THAN 4% FROM JANUARY 1, 2010

RATES MAY BE ADJUSTED IN THE EVENT OF AN INCREASE IN AIRLINE FUEL CHARGES

Reserve a place now on this extraordinary trip.

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