Full Description
This volume of Polin, based on scholarship that has emerged since the fall of communism, is a wide-ranging contribution to the complex history of the Jews in Lithuania. Focusing on the specific character of Lithuanian Jewry, the volume opens by examining how their relationship with the surrounding society developed after 1772, both under tsarist rule and then in independent Lithuania. Moving to more recent times, the devastating impact on the Jewish community of the Soviet and Nazi occupations during the Second World War is discussed, as are the further negative consequences on Jewish life of the reoccupation of the country by the Soviets between 1944 and 1990. The volume concludes with material on the slow revival of Jewish life since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the re-emergence of an independent Lithuania, which was accompanied by the revival of many disciplines, such as the study of Jewish history, repressed by Soviet censorship.
This revived interest in the country's Jewish past is now playing a key role in the broader transformation of historical memory of the post-Soviet era and the problem of coming to terms with the widespread local collaboration in Lithuania during the Holocaust - a process which has led to important scholarly advances but also to bitter controversy. Collectively, the studies in this volume contribute to a better understanding of the complex history of the Jews in Lithuania and of Lithuanian - Jewish relations and constitute a part of the necessary process of creating a more rounded and inclusive history of the country.
CONTRIBUTORS Aelita Ambruleviciute, Marta Aleksandra Balinska, Egle Bendikaite, Michael Casper, Ellen Cassedy, Immanuel Etkes, David E. Fishman, Jack Jacobs, Grigory Kanovich, Saulius Suziedelis, Andrey Krotau, Larisa Lempertiene, Aearunas Liekis, Miriam Offer, Avi Ohry, Karin Ohry-Kossoy, Ausra Pazeraite, Antony Polonsky, Anna P. Ronell, Vladas Sirutavicius, Darius Staliunas, Saulius SuA iedelis, Vytautas Toleikis, Anna Verschik, Theodore R. Weeks, Mordechai Zalkin.
Contents
Note on Place Names
Note on Transliteration
PART I: JEWS IN THE FORMER GRAND DUCHY OF LITHUANIA SINCE 1772
Introduction
ŠARŪNAS LIEKIS AND ANTONY POLONSKY
Lithuanian Jewry and the Concept of 'East European Jewry'
MORDECHAI ZALKIN
Economic Relations between Jewish Traders and Christian Farmers in the Nineteenth-Century Lithuanian Provinces
AELITA AMBRULEVIČIŪTĖ
The War of Lyady Succession: R. Aaron Halevi versus R. Dov Baer
IMMANUEL ETKES
Lithuanian Antisemitism in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
DARIUS STALIŪNAS
'I Have Chosen the Belarusian Word . . .': On the Life and Creative Career of Zmitrok Byadulya
ANDREY KROTAU
Authentic and National: Some Lithuanian-Jewish Correlations in the Search for 'Folk Culture' in the First Half of the Twentieth Century
LARISA LEMPERTIENĖ
Jewish Prayer Halls and Synagogues in Vilna, 1914-1920
AUŠRA PAŽĖRAITĖ
Walking a Thin Line: The Successes and Failures of Socialist Zionism in Lithuania
EGLĖ BENDIKAITĖ
Jewish Converts in Independent Lithuania, 1918-1940: An Attempt at a Case Analysis
SAULIUS KAUBRYS
'A Close, but Very Suspicious and Dangerous Neighbour': Outbreaks of Antisemitism in Inter-War Lithuania
VLADAS SIRUTAVIČIUS
The Bund in Vilna, 1918-1939
JACK JACOBS
The Lithuanian-Language Jewish Periodicals Mūsų garsas (1924-1925) and Apžvalga (1935-1940): A Sociolinguistic Evolution
ANNA VERSCHIK
'Listen, the Jews are Ruling Us Now': Antisemitism and National Conflict during the First Soviet Occupation of Lithuania, 1940-1941
SAULIUS SUŽIEDĖLIS
Soviet Resistance and Jewish Partisans in Lithuania
ŠARŪNAS LIEKIS
The Vilnius and Kaunas Ghettos and the Fate of Lithuanian Jewry, 1941-1945
THEODORE R. WEEKS
'To Transform Ourselves': Lithuania Looks at the Holocaust
ELLEN CASSEDY
The Problem of Jewish National Symbols in Vilnius
DAVID E. FISHMAN
Some Remarks on the History of the New Lithuanian Jewish Community: The Road Travelled in Establishing a Litvak Identity
VYTAUTAS TOLEIKIS
The Recent Works of Grigory Kanovich
ANNA P. RONELL
The Dream of a Vanished Jerusalem
GRIGORY KANOVICH
REVIEWS
Aušra Paulauskienė, Lost and Found: The Discovery of Lithuania in American Fiction
MICHAEL CASPER
Tomas Venclova, Vilnius: A Personal History
MICHAEL CASPER
PART II
JEWS IN POLISH MEDICINE
Dr Gershon Lewin (1868-1940): Pioneer of Public Health and Promoter of Jewish Culture in Poland
KARIN OHRY-KOSSOY AND AVI OHRY
Dedicated Physicians in the Face of Adversity: The Association of Jewish Physicians (ZLRP) and the Jewish Health Organization (TOZ) in Poland, 1921-1942
KARIN OHRY-KOSSOY AND AVI OHRY
The Medical School in the Warsaw Ghetto, 1941-1942
MARTA ALEKSANDRA BALINSKA
Ethical Dilemmas in the Work of Doctors and Nurses in the Warsaw Ghetto
MIRIAM OFFER
Notes on the Contributors
Index
