Participate in our Latvian community!
New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are home to a vibrant Latvian-American
community with many ongoing activities. We invite you to join us. Click on
the following list or page down and read about all activities.
Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church of New York:
This calendar does not list all of the church services held by the Latvian
Evangelical Lutheran Church of New York but this information may be found at
www.nydraudze.org. Church services
and other events take place in Yonkers NY, Melville (Long Island) NY, Brooklyn
NY, Summit NJ, East Orange NJ, Jamaica NY and at the Church Camp "Nometne"
in Elka Park NY in the Catskill Mountains.
Latvian Schools are open from September to May
or June:
The Bronx School meets at the Yonkers Church
on Saturdays from 09:15 to 13:45.For further information write: Laura Zamurs
or call (516) 922-8338
The Long Island School meets at the
Long Island Church on Sundays from 09:00 to
13:30.For further information write: Zaiga Dūdare-Candela
or call (631) 294-7299.
The New Jersey School meets on Saturdays from 09:45 to
14:00 at the Christ Church, 66 Highland Avenue in Short Hills, NJ. A new play group is being
formed for children ages 2-4. For further information please visit www.njskola.org
or write: Ilze Kancāne, or Linda Zālīte.
The Brooklyn School meets twice a month on Saturdays at the Brooklyn Parsonage.
For further information please visit: www.centrelv.com/skola.aspx
or write Ilona Vilciņa
or call :
(718)-332-7510.
  Latvian Boy Scouts & Girl Guides:
The New York Rīga 90th Latvian Boy Scouts and Zilais kalns 4th
Girl Guides have two active groups. One usually meets about twice a month on Saturdays
from 14:00 to 15:30 after Latvian school in
Summit NJ (see above). The other meets a little less often on Saturdays after
Latvian School at the
Long Island Church (see above). For further information
about the Latvian Boy Scouts write Inta Sķiņķis
and for information about the Latvian Girl Guides write: Kristīna Putenis. See the calendar (below) for dates of other
events, weekend and summer camps.
 The New York Latvian Concert Choir
The New York Latvian Concert Choir invites singers to join the choir in
spirit and in person. Most of the rehearsals take place at the
Yonkers Church, at 11:15 am, immediately
after the Sunday church service. For more information, please contact the
conductors Andrejs Jansons (201) 201-944-1273 or Laura
Zamurs (516) 628-1465. Please also visit:
www.nylatvianconcertchoir.org.
The choir has resumed intensive practice sessions for 2007. to prepare for
several concert programs. The concert calendar for 2008 promises to be just as
interesting as the one for 2007. For more detailed information please write the Choir's
President Aija Pelše or call
(516) 935-0967.
 Latvian folk dance group Jumis rehearsals:
The New York Latvian folk dance group Jumis rehearses
regularly from fall through spring. Rehearsals usually
take place Thursday evenings. All are invited to
participate, whether or not you have previous experience with Latvian folk
dancing. To find out where rehearsals take place and for other information
write: deja@jumis.org or call
Kristine Varik (917) 951-4767 or Andris Krumkalns (212) 744-2970 and visit www.jumis.org
.
 Paintings
For Sale at the DV house.
Click here to read more.
 ALA
Ethnographic & Cultural Collection at Priedaine,
NJ.
Click here to read more.
  Support Baltic interests by contacting your
elected representatives!
Pressure from Latvian-Americans is still
needed to defend the interests of Latvia and Latvian-Americans before US
government bodies. This includes US aid for the Baltic
militaries. Please visit www.alausa.org
, www.jbanc.org and www.bafl.com
Support the Victims of Communism
memorial in Washington DC.
Please visit: www.victimsofcommunism.org
A.L.A. Infogram:
Please visit www.alausa.org .
An invitation to help Mārcis Braunfelds and his
family
For three
generations, and counting, the Braunfelds family has been an important part of
the New York Latvian community. As many of you may have heard Mārcis Braunfelds
is suffering from a recurrence of a brain tumor. As he was self-employed and the
only provider for his family but is now unable to work, those who can afford to,
are asked to help his family cover Marcis' medical and other expenses. A fund
has been set up for this purpose:
Braunfelds Medical Fund
c/o Taupa Lithuanian Federal Credit Union
P.O. Box 95
South Boston, MA 02127
Tel. (617) 269-1450
You may also write to Mārcis and his family to show your support and read the
latest news on how he is doing, by visiting www.carepages.com
To access Marcis' page you will have to set up profile which takes less than
five minutes, so please don't let this deter you.
Let's urge our local PBS television stations to broadcast The Soviet Story
On October 11, 2009, PBS (public broadcasting) television
stations throughout the United States will have access to The Soviet
Story, the award-winning and highly acclaimed documentary film by Edvīns
Šnore.
The film's distributor Daris Delins notes: "We have
reached another important milestone in the distribution of the film. Via PBS
distributor NETA (National Educational Telecomunications Association www.netaonline.org
) the film will now be accessible to NETA's 172 licensees that comprise 340
public broadcasting television stations across the United States. Each of these
PBS stations will now be able to screen the film. Even before NETA approached us
we had received very positive feedback from PBS member stations who had viewed
the film. Given PBS stations are very selective about what they screen, NETA's
acceptance of the film is an important acknowledgement of the film and its
potential audience reach. Many Americans will be now be able to learn about this
important period of history and how it still resonates today."
The first PBS station in the U.S. scheduled to air the film
will be WDSC 15 Daytona Beach, Florida, on October 15 at 9:00 pm. WHYY
12 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and WLRN 17 in Miami, Florida, will
screen the film on November 20, and KVIE 2 in Sacramento, Callifornia on
January 23, 2010. Other PBS member stations that have also already expressed
their interest to screen the film include: KAET 8, Phoenix, Arizona;
KPBS 15, San Diego, California; WEDU 13, Tampa, Florida; WTIU
30 Bloomington, Indiana; IPTV, Iowa Public TV, Iowa; MPT
(Maryland Public TV), Maryland; NHPTV (New Hampshire Public TV), New
Hampshire, and WNED, Buffalo, New York. Following the NETA release, more
stations are expected to follow, particularly as viewers get news that the film
is accessible by their local station.
Overseas, in the coming months the film will be screened on
national TV in Greece (ERT), Italy (Fox), Poland (TVP) and Spain (History
Channel). In Sweden the national network SVT will screen the film on December 5.
The film has already aired on national TV in Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia,
Lithuania, Slovenia and Ukraine.
At the end of 2009 a 2nd edition DVD of the film will be
released. This new DVD will include additional subtitled languages including: Belarussian,
Bulgarian, Danish, Dutch, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Norwegian, Portguese,
Romanian, Serbian, Slovenian, Turkish, and Vietnamese. This will bring the
total number of foreign language translations for the film to 28.
To learn more about the film, to see the trailer, or to
purchase the DVD, please visit www.sovietstory.com.
For screening enquiries and distribution opportunities, please email: films@perrystreetadvisors.com
or call +1-917-402-2853.
New York area Latvian-Americans and their friends are
urged to write letters or call Channel 13 WNET and Channel 21 WLIW to urge these
stations to show The Soviet Story. If you are member supporters of
these stations or even if you just a regular viewer please make mention of that
fact. The appropriate officers to contact at Channel 13 are Mr. Neal
Shapiro, President and Chief
Executive Officer and Mr. John Sefakis, Programming Scheduling &
Acquisitions. The address for both is WNET Channel 13, 450
West 33rd Street, New York, NY 10001-2605, tel. (212) 560-1313. More
convenient but perhaps less effective is using the "Contact" web page http://www.wnet.org/about/contact/
. The appropriate officers to contact at Channel 21 are
Mr. John Servidio, Acting General Manager, and Mr. David Rubinsohn, Director of
Programming. The address for both is WLIW Channel 21, 450 West 33rd Street, New
York, NY 10001, tel. (212) 560-8021. More convenient but perhaps less
effective is using the "Contact" web page: www.wliw.org
.
Would you like to play chess?
The Chess section of the New York chapter of the Daugavas Vanagi would like
to renew its activities. Practice sessions under the direction of experts as
well as friendly games will be held at
the DV House. Meeting times will be set
by mutual consent. Parking is available for your car in the enclosed DV House
lot. If you are interested please contact the chess section coordinator Dr.
Vilnis Vīksne - tel. (718) 220-8191, or e-mail vilnisv@verizon.net
.
Latvian handicrafts now available at the United Nations Gift Centre
 
The representatives of the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia in the
USA have organized displays of the products of two Latvian makers of handicrafts
- A&L Mestardarbnīca "Cepļi" and "V.I. Straupe" at the
United Nations Gift Centre at UN. Headquarters in New York. Enter through the
visitors' entrance at First Avenue and 46th Street. Open 7 days a week from 9 am
to 5 pm (closed weekends in January and February).
Survey of Latvians, Livs and citizens of Latvia
currently living abroad
Greetings!
The aim of this survey is to inquire Latvians / Livs and citizens of Latvia, who
currently live abroad, about the possibility of returning to Latvia for
permanent residence. The research is being conducted by consulting company
Aksedo under the authority of The Secretariat of the Special Assignments
Minister for Social Integration Affairs. The study will be based on views and
information provided by members of Latvian / Livs communities in the USA,
Canada, Germany, Russia, the UK, and Ireland.
We would be grateful if you could share your experience about maintaining
relations with Latvia and express your opinion about possibility of repatriation
/ remigration as well as the factors that influence this opinion (including
existing obstacles and suggestions how to overcome them).
Thank you in advance for your participation and time. Please click on the
following link: http://aksedo.e-formas.lv/forms/381
.
The Ball in honor of Latvia's 90th Anniversary was a great success!
The ball took place Friday,
Nov. 21, 2008 at 19:00 at the 3 West Club, 3 West 51st Street (at Fifth
Avenue just north of Rockefeller Center), New York NY. It was hosted by the Permanent Mission of
Latvia to the United Nations, the Honorary Consulate of Latvia in New York and
the Council of American-Latvian Organizations in New York. Here are few photos.
You can order Latvian Books from the "Saulaine Book Barn"
(in
Latvian "Saulaines grāmatu klētiņa"). The "Saulaines grāmatu
klētiņa" is a part of the St. John's Church congregation in Toronto camp
Saulaine (see www.campsaulaine.com)
All books have been donated, all work is done by volunteers and all donations
and proceeds benefit the maintaining of Camp Saulaine. We can ship orders
anywhere! Please send us your book and author want lists. we have thousands of
books! Please conatct Kristīne Stivriņa stivrins@hotmail.com,
tel. (705) 424-6226.
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