Litvaks: Difference between revisions
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* [[L.L. Zamenhof]], founder of the [[Esperanto language]] |
* [[L.L. Zamenhof]], founder of the [[Esperanto language]] |
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* [[Paul Zukofsky]], violinist and conductor from New York. |
* [[Paul Zukofsky]], violinist and conductor from New York. |
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* [[Melvyn Douglas]] (Melvyn Hesselberg), American actor. |
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* [http://www.seligman.org.il/kraslava_jews.html Naum Aronson], sculptor. Born in Kreslavka, worked in Paris. Moved to USA. |
* [http://www.seligman.org.il/kraslava_jews.html Naum Aronson], sculptor. Born in Kreslavka, worked in Paris. Moved to USA. |
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Revision as of 13:04, 7 September 2010
Lithuanian Jews are Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews with roots in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: (present-day Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine, and the northeastern Suwałki region of Poland).
Lithuania was historically home to a large and influential Jewish community that was almost entirely eliminated during the Holocaust: see Holocaust in Lithuania. Before World War II there were over 110 synagogues and 10 yeshivas in Vilnius.[1] Before World War II, the Lithuanian Jewish population was some 160,000, about 7% of the total population.[2] Vilnius (then Wilno in the Second Polish Republic) had a Jewish community of nearly 100,000, about 45% of the city's total.[3] About 4,000 Jews were counted in Lithuania during the 2005 census.[4] There are still strong communities of Jews of Lithuanian descent around the world, especially in Israel, the United States, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Australia.
Etymology
The adjective Litvish means "Lithuanian" (Latvian Jews were known as Lettish): the noun for a Lithuanian Jew is Litvak. Of the main Yiddish dialects in Europe, the Litvishe Yiddish (Lithuanian Yiddish) dialect was spoken by Jews in Lithuania, Belarus, and in the Suwałki region of northeastern Poland.
Ethnicity, religious customs and heritage
The characteristically "Lithuanian" approach to Judaism was marked by a concentration on highly intellectual Talmud study. Lithuania became the heartland of the traditionalist opposition to Hasidism, to the extent that in popular perception "Lithuanian" and "mitnagged" became virtually interchangeable terms. However, a sizable minority of Lithuanian Jews belong(ed) to Hasidic groups, including Chabad, Slonim, Karlin (Pinsk) and Koidanov. With the spread of the Enlightenment, many Lithuanian Jews became devotees of the Haskala (Jewish Enlightenment) movement in Eastern Europe pressing for better integration into European society, and today many leading academics, scientists and philosophers are of Lithuanian Jewish descent.
The most famous Lithuanian institution of Jewish learning was Volozhin yeshiva, which was the model for most later yeshivas. "Lithuanian" yeshivas in existence today include Ponevezh, Telshe, Mir, Kelm, and Slabodka. In theoretical Talmud study, the leading Lithuanian authorities were Chaim Soloveitchik and the Brisker school; rival approaches were those of the Mir and Telshe yeshivas. In practical halakha the Lithuanians traditionally followed the Aruch HaShulchan, though today the "Lithuanian" yeshivas prefer the Mishnah Berurah, which is regarded as both more analytic and more accessible.
In the nineteenth century, the Orthodox Ashkenazi residents of the Holy Land were broadly speaking divided into Hasidim and Perushim, who were Lithuanian Jews influenced by the Vilna Gaon. For this reason, in modern day Israeli Haredi parlance the terms Litvak (noun) or Litvisher (adjective), or in Hebrew Litaim, are often used loosely to include any non-Hasidic Ashkenazi Haredi individual or institution. Another reason for this broadening of the term is the fact that many of the leading Israeli Haredi yeshivas (outside the Hasidic camp) are successor bodies to the famous yeshivot of Lithuania, though their present-day members may or may not be descended from Lithuanian Jewry. In reality, both the ethnic makeup and the religious traditions of the mitnagged communities are much more diverse.
History
Jews began living in Lithuania as early as the 8th century. In 1388 they were granted a charter by Vytautas, under which they formed a class of freemen subject in all criminal cases directly to the jurisdiction of the grand duke and his official representatives, and in petty suits to the jurisdiction of local officials on an equal footing with the lesser nobles (szlachta), boyars, and other free citizens. As a result, the community prospered.
In 1495 they were expelled by Alexander Jagiellon, but allowed to return in 1503. The Lithuanian statute of 1566 placed a number of restrictions on the Jews, and imposed sumptuary laws, including the requirement that they wear distinctive clothing, including yellow caps for men and yellow kerchiefs for women.
The Khmelnytsky Uprising destroyed the existing Lithuanian Jewish institutions. Still, the Jewish population of Lithuania grew from an estimated 120,000 in 1569 to approximately 250,000 in 1792. After the Second Partition of Poland in 1793 Lithuanian Jews became subjects of the Russian Empire.
Lithuanian Jews on Second World War
The Jewish Lithuanian population before World War II numbered around 220,000. During the German invasion of June 1941, 206,800 Jews were murdered by the Nazis and Lithuanian collaborants .
Most of the Jews were taken into the woods to be shot in graves they were forced to dig themselves. The main execution locations were in the Ponar woods Ponary massacre and the Ninth Fort .
Culture
Litvaks have an identifiable mode of pronouncing Hebrew and Yiddish which is often used to determine the boundaries of Lita. Its most characteristic feature is the pronunciation of the vowel holam as [ej] (as against Sephardic [oː], Germanic [au] and Polish [oj]).
In the popular perception, Litvaks were considered to be more intellectual and stoic than their rivals, the Galitzianers, who thought of them as cold fish. They, in turn, disdained Galitzianers as irrational and uneducated. Ira Steingroot's "Yiddish Knowledge Cards" devote a card to this "Ashkenazi version of the Hatfields and McCoys."[5] This difference is of course connected with the Hasidic/mitnagged debate, Hasidism being considered the more emotional and spontaneous form of religious expression.
The two groups differed not only in their attitudes and their pronunciation, but also in their cuisine. The Galitzianers were known for rich, heavily sweetened dishes in contrast to the plainer, more savory Litvisher versions, with the boundary known as the "Gefilte Fish Line."[6]
Jews in Lithuania today
Interest among descendants of Lithuanian Jews has spurred tourism and a renewal in research and preservation of the community's historic resources and possessions. Increasing numbers of Lithuanian Jews are interested in learning and practising the use of Yiddish.[7]
The beginning of the 21st century was marked by conflicts between members of Chabad-Lubavitch and secular leaders. In 2005, Chief Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky was physically removed from the Synagogue by two men hired by the community's secular leader Mr. Alperovich, who then declared a new Chief Rabbi.[8] For more detail, see Chabad-Lubavitch related controversies: Lithuania.
Among notable contemporary Lithuanian Jews are the brothers Emanuelis Zingeris (a member of the Lithuanian Seimas) and Markas Zingeris (writer), Arkadijus Vinokuras (actor, publicist), Gercas Žakas (football referee), Gidonas Šapiro-Bilas (pop-singer from ŽAS), Dovydas Bluvšteinas (music producer), Leonidas Donskis (philosopher, essayist), Icchokas Meras (writer), Grigorijus Kanovičius (writer), Aleksas Lemanas (singer), Rafailas Karpis (opera singer (tenor)), Šabtajus Kalmanovičius (businessman and alleged criminal mastermind), Boris Dekanidze (former head of the Vilnius Brigade criminal network, executed), David Geringas (world-renowned cellist and conductor), Liora Grodnikaitė (opera singer (mezzo-soprano)).
Current leaders of the Haredi "Lithuanian" community
The following rabbinical leaders are of Lithuanian ancestry or are associated with Lithuanian-style yeshivas:
- Rabbi Yosef Sholom Eliashiv
- Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman
- Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetzky
- Rabbi Nissim Karelitz
- Rabbi Aharon Schechter
- Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg
- Rabbi Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz
- Rabbi Malkiel Kotler
Famous Jews with Lithuanian origin or parentage
- Roman Abramovich, Oligarch and owner of Chelsea F.C.
- Moshe Arens, former Israeli defence minister and foreign minister
- Aharon Barak, President of the Supreme Court of Israel from 1995-2006
- Ehud Barak, Israeli Chief of Staff, foreign minister, prime minister, defence minister and Labour leader
- Erran Baron Cohen, English-born trumpeter and composer
- Sacha Baron Cohen, English-born entertainer
- Isidore Barron, South African businessman
- Jillian Becker, South African writer
- Menachem Begin, Israeli Prime Minister from Brest-Litovsk
- Dan Bern, American folk singer, poet, painter
- Sydney Brenner, biochemist, Nobel laureate 2002
- Eli Broad, American philanthropist and investor; founder of KB Home
- Marc Chagall, Russian-born French painter
- Leonard Cohen, Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist
- Aaron Copland, U.S. composer, original family name was Kaplan
- Irwin Cotler, Canadian Minister of Justice and Attorney General from 2003-2006, and international human rights lawyer
- Bob Dylan, U.S. singer-songwriter, author, musician and poet (original name was Robert Allen Zimmerman)
- Yaffa Eliach, Author (wrote Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust)
- Bernard Friedman, South African politician
- Brian Epstein, The Beatles Manager
- Massimiliano Fuksas, Italian architect
- Romain Gary, French writer
- Philip Glass, U.S. minimalist composer
- Leopold Godowsky, composer and pianist
- Emma Goldman, anarchist
- Itamar Golan, pianist
- Nadine Gordimer, 1991 Nobel Prize for literature
- Bernard Gordon, South African businessman and philanthropist, Rand pioneer, founder of Kibbutz Mayan Baruch in Israel
- Lauren Grant, modern dancer, Mark Morris Dance Group. Maternal grandfather from Lithuania, circa 1900.
- Aron Gurwitsch, philosopher in the field of phenomenology
- Laurence Harvey, British actor
- Esther Hautzig, award-winning writer
- Jascha Heifetz, acclaimed 20th century violinist born in Vilnius
- Seymour Hersh, American journalist
- Moe Howard (born Harry Moses Horwitz), Shemp Howard (born Samuel Horwitz) and Curly Howard (born Jerome Lester Horwitz) of the Three Stooges, a U.S. comedy trio
- Jay M. Ipson, founder and president of the Virginia Holocaust Museum in Richmond
- Al Jolson, singer-songwriter, dancer, entertainer
- Ronnie Kasrils, South African communist leader, minister of Intelligence Services
- Joseph Klausner, scholar of modern Hebrew literature and former Israeli presidential candidate
- Aaron Klug, biophysicist, Nobel laureate 1982.
- Hillel Kook, Revisionist Zionist activist, politician, and prominent member of the Irgun
- Tony Leon, South African former opposition leader
- Emmanuel Levinas, philosopher
- Peggy Lipton, U.S. actress
- Jacques Lipchitz, sculptor
- Emmanuel Lubezki, 3 time Academy Award nominee, cinematographer
- Sergio Lubezky, Latin American photographer
- Alexander Ziskind Maimon, author and scholar
- Benoit Mandelbrot, mathematician, regarded as the founded of fractal geometry
- Michael Marks, founder of retail network Marks and Spencer
- George Marcus, anthropologist
- Gideon Mer, Israeli scientist who worked on malaria research
- Hermann Minkowski, mathematician (born in Kaunas)
- Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister, original family name was Milikowsky
- Amos Oz, Israeli writer, novelist and journalist
- Fanny Mikey, Colombian theatre impresario, daughter of a Lithuanian immigrant to Argentina
- Pink (Alecia Moore), U.S. musician, mother is of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry
- Maury Povich, U.S. talk-show host
- Shloyme Zanvl Rappoport, author and Jewish folklorist who under the pseudonym, S. Ansky wrote the play, The Dybbuk
- Willy Ronis, photographer
- Milton Shapp (b. Milton Jerrold Shapiro), cable TV pioneer and governor of Pennsylvania; parents were Lithuanian Jews
- Ariel Sharon, former Israeli Prime Minister, from a family of Georgian Jews of Lithuanian descent
- Joe Slovo, South African Communist and MK leader, minister of construction in Nelson Mandela's government
- Chaïm Soutine, painter
- Clara Nathanson, sculptor. Lithuanian (Vilnius, b.1887)
- David Suchet, famous English actor
- Helen Suzman, South-African anti-apartheid activist
- Moshe/Michael Tchaban, Lithuanian born singer-songwriter
- Vilna Gaon, preeminent religious leader and Talmudist
- Meir Vilner, Israeli communist leader, the last of the signatories of Israel's declaration of independence to pass away
- Mary Louise Weller, U.S. actress and model
- Harry Dexter White, ecconomist
- Lewis Wolpert, South African born geneticist
- L.L. Zamenhof, founder of the Esperanto language
- Paul Zukofsky, violinist and conductor from New York.
- Melvyn Douglas (Melvyn Hesselberg), American actor.
- Naum Aronson, sculptor. Born in Kreslavka, worked in Paris. Moved to USA.
The following people have roots in Latvia:
- Isaiah Berlin, philosopher
- Chaim Bermant, novelist and journalist
- Sergei Eisenstein, Soviet film director
- Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, musicologist
- Abraham Isaac Kook, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Mandate Palestine
- Gidon Kremer, Violinist and conductor
- Ruth Vinn Hendler Lack, Holocaust survivor, community activist, Fmr Dir of Houston Holocaust Museum
- Bernard Levin, journalist
- Max Weinreich, Yiddishist
Footnotes
See also
- History of the Jews in Lithuania
- History of the Jews in Poland
- List of Lithuanian Jews
- Israel–Lithuania relations
External links
- Official website of Jewish Community of Lithuania Template:En icon
- Website of Jewish Chabad-Lubavitch Community Template:En icon
- Website about Jews in Vilnius
- Collection of photos of Litvaks made in first half of 20th century
Further reading
- Dov Levin, Adam Teller, The Litvaks: A Short History of the Jews of Lithuania, Berghahn Books, 2001, ISBN 9653080849
- Alvydas Nikžentaitis, Stefan Schreiner, Darius Staliūnas, Leonidas Donskis, The Vanished World of Lithuanian Jews, Rodopi, 2004, ISBN 9042008504