The Litvaks

Lithuania was home to the great yeshivot of Jewish learning, as well as nationalistic movements such as Hovevei Zion, the Bund, and the Mizrachi. The 20th century saw the establishment of a modern Hebrew Zionist educational system in the period between the two world wars.This volume includes special features such as a bibliography in seven languages, a lexicon of place names in both official modern transcription and the traditional spelling used by Jewish residents; statistical tables; facsimiles of documents, and unique photographs many of which appear in print for the first time.

Discusses some aspects of antisemitism in Lithuania, especially in socioeconomic terms, in the Middle Ages and under the Russian tsars. The 20th-century interwar period saw the introduction of anti-Jewish laws that negatively impacted on Jewish political involvement, economic activity, and physical security, and the situation worsened with a right-wing coup, at which time Nazi influence grew among the German minority. The peak of antisemitism is treated in pt. 4 (pp. 187-247), "World War II, the Holocaust, and the Jewish Survivors". Although Soviet rule in 1940-41 ended many restrictions, it harmed Jews culturally and economically; many were arrested or exiled. The Nazi occupation which followed led to the destruction of Lithuanian Jewry. Even before the arrival of the German army, ca. 10,000 Jews were murdered by Lithuanians. German troops brought the Final Solution, in which Lithuanian collaboration was massive. Discusses ghettos, forced labor, and concentration camps, as well as Jewish partisan resistance. 96% of Lithuanian Jews were killed. Popular antisemitism was revived in postwar Lithuania. The issues of Lithuanian-Nazi collaboration and the Lithuanian association of Jews with communists to justify the massacre of Jews during World War II remained problems in the postwar and even post-communist periods.

Located on the Dnieper River at the crossroads of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine, the town of Rechitsa had one of the oldest Jewish communities in Belarus, dating back to medieval times. By the late nineteenth century, Jews constituted more than half of the town’s population. Rich in tradition, Jewish Rechitsa was part of a distinctive Lithuanian-Belorussian culture full of stories, vibrant personalities, achievement, and epic struggle that was gradually lost through migration, pogroms, and the Holocaust. Now, in Albert Kaganovitch’s meticulously researched history, this forgotten Jewish world is brought to life. Based on extensive use of Soviet and Israeli archives, interviews, memoirs, and secondary sources, Kaganovitch’s acclaimed work, originally published in Russian, is presented here in a significantly revised English translation by the author. Details of demographic, social, economic, and cultural changes in Rechitsa’s evolution, presented over the sweep of centuries, reveal a microcosm of daily Jewish life in Rechitsa and similar communities. Kaganovitch looks closely at such critical developments as the spread of Chabad Hasidism, the impact of multiple political transformations and global changes, and the mass murder of Rechitsa’s remaining Jews by the German army in November to December 1941. Kaganovitch also documents the evolving status of Jews in the postwar era, starting with the reconstitution of a Jewish community in Rechitsa not long after liberation in 1943 and continuing with economic, social, and political trends under Stalin, Khrushchev, and Brezhnev, and finally emigration from post-Soviet Belarus. The Long Life and Swift Death of Jewish Rechitsa is a major achievement. Winner, Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Award for Scholarship, Koffler Centre of the Arts

This book is about the life of Irena Veisaitė, a Lithuanian theatre scholar, human rights activist, and Holocaust survivor; whose life is a resumé of XXth century East-European history.

Between the 1880s and the 1920s a million Litvak' Jews migrated throughout the world from Lita,' their home in the western edge of the Russian Empire. This book is the story of the legacy of that migration. The questions answered are: Where did they come from? How did they get to where they are? What are some of the lasting values they(we) share the world over? In what way do we differ depending on the countries in which various members of my family have lived? One common response in a course based on this material was "I now know why my family was the way it was." The book will enable you to better know why you are the way you are and enable your children and grandchildren to understand their background. It is my thesis that there is a distinctive Litvak cultural heritage that can be traced through the maintenance of that culture through the several generations and the significant impact it has had on the countries in which the immigrants settled. The Jewish inhabitants of Lita were called Litvaks' (Litvakes in Yiddish), to distinguish them from non-Jewish Lithuanians as well as from other Jews. In their home, they formed a distinct culture that differed in its variant of their language of Yiddish as well as the character of their religion. As followers of the Vilna Gaon in the late 18th century, in opposition to the spread of Hassidism,' Litvaks' maintained a unique commitment to rabbinical Judaism and intellectual study. They were also unusual in the degree to which arduous and sharp-witted' Talmudic study was widespread. The religious tradition continued to evolve in Lita. In response to the challenges of both Hassidism and the Haskalah (Enlightenment), the ethically oriented musar' movement became widespread within the Lithuanian yeshivot. Orthodox Judaism' evolved out of traditional Judaism. However, relatively few of the traditionally religious chose to emigrate. In the late 19th century, particularly centered in Vilna, Lita was a major source of the Jewish responses to modernity such as socialism and the recognition of the Yiddish language as well as modern Hebrew and Zionism. Lita was the greenhouse' of secularism. The literary and political responses to the breakdown of the Jewish social structure retained the traditional spirit of intensity and sharp-wittedness.' The quest for bringing about a better world via socialism and Zionism partook of the religious impulse while denying it. The language battles between Yiddish and Hebrew were joined to these ideologies. The characteristic Litvak intellectual strand was expressed in the flowering of secular literary and historical studies that partook of the intensity previously devoted to the sacred writings. As the Russian Empire containing Lita was broken up following World War I, its inhabitants found themselves living either in Latvia, Poland, the Russian and Belorussian Republics of the Soviet Union, or in the newly independent Lithuania. The entire area, now divided, had a common cultural entity e that can be called Litvakia.' When the new boundaries were drawn, many of the inhabitants stayed in place and were subject to the Holocaust. The Great Migration from Lita occurred in the period of the latter third of the 19th century and in the 20th century prior to the First World War, but extended through World War II. Even beyond the Holocaust/Shoah, the few survivors continued to bear witness to its memory. Section One deals with the evolution of the core in Lita from 1840 to its destruction during the Shoah. Focus is on the relationship between the developments following 1880 and the ideas carried by the emigrants to the Diaspora from Lita mainly ending in the 1920s. Section Two deals with those ideas carried to the English speaking world and their subsequent evolution mainly in the United States but also in comparison with the United Kingdom, Canada and South

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In the author’s own words: “When you live in Israel, it’s plain to see that food holds a special place in Jewish life. From early morning until dawn the next day, Israelis are always noshing on something and enjoying one another’s company. On any given holiday, the festive table groans under the weight of a multitude of dishes and goodies. A Taste of Israel opens a door into the kitchens of the ordinary Israeli home. It is an invitation to explore the country’s diverse street food and get a glimpse behind the scenes at some of its gourmet restaurants. You’ll find recipes for dishes that do much more than just satisfy hunger. Here are memories and stories shared with me over the course of five years by Litvaks from Israel and South Africa, by my Israeli friends, their mothers and their grandmothers. The recipes reflect the traditions, history and customs passed from generation to generation and they are an attempt at returning a piece of Jewish heritage to the small but vibrant community in Lithuania.” Available for the first time in English, A Taste of Israel describes the food through the eyes of a foreigner, and non-Jew, who was lucky enough to become part of the Israeli Jewish community. Chapters are divided into the usual arrangements for appetisers, starters, mains and desserts, but there are also sections on the different Jewish religious festivals, as well as information on what constitutes ‘kosher’. Well-known classics include dishes such as Gefilte Fish, Knaidlach, Latkes and Challah.

Most Polish Jews who survived the Second World War did not go to concentration camps, but were banished by Stalin to the remote prison settlements and Gulags of the Soviet Union. Less than ten percent of Polish Jews came out of the war alive—the largest population of Jews who endured—for whom Soviet exile was the main chance for survival. Ellen G. Friedman’s The Seven, A Family Holocaust Story is an account of this displacement. Friedman always knew that she was born to Polish-Jewish parents on the run from Hitler, but her family did not describe themselves as Holocaust survivors since that label seemed only to apply only to those who came out of the concentration camps with numbers tattooed on their arms. The title of the book comes from the closeness that set seven individuals apart from the hundreds of thousands of other refugees in the Gulags of the USSR. The Seven—a name given to them by their fellow refugees—were Polish Jews from Warsaw, most of them related. The Seven, A Family Holocaust Story brings together the very different perspectives of the survivors and others who came to be linked to them, providing a glimpse into the repercussions of the Holocaust in one extended family who survived because they were loyal to one another, lucky, and endlessly enterprising. Interwoven into the survivors’ accounts of their experiences before, during, and after the war are their own and the author’s reflections on the themes of exile, memory, love, and resentment. Based on primary interviews and told in a blending of past and present experiences, Friedman gives a new voice to Holocaust memory—one that is sure to resonate with today’s exiles and refugees. Those with an interest in World War II memoir and genocide studies will welcome this unique perspective.