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Litauens Judentum:
THE LITVAKS
Although
Lithuania's Jewish community comprised a relatively smallportion of world
Jewry on the eve of the Holocaust, it has always held aunique place in Jewish
history and been an important cultural centercarrying a weight far greater than
its relative size. Lithuania had beenfamous for centuries as the cultural center
for Jewish scholarship andrenowned as great center of Torah learning.
Its many important yeshivot made it
stand out in comparison to neighborinq Jewish communities inEastern and
Central Europe. The Lithuanian Jews, nicknamed Litvaks, have been
characterized by their rational, intellectual approach tolearning and
spiritual matters as well as to day-to-day affairs.
During the Holocaust, the Lithuanian
Jewish community sustained some ofthe highest losses among the Jewish
communities in Europe (approximately95% destroyed), as a result of the
enthusiastic cooperation of theLithuanians with the Germans. And yet, when
faced with these challengingcircumstances, the Lithuanian Jews demonstrated
an unusually strongspiritual and moral stance as well as an extraordinary
level of community organization.
It is no wonder that many Jews all over
the world, descendants ofLithuanian emigrants, are extremely interested in
their Litvakheritage, and are making tremendous efforts to reinforce this
connectionthrough their search for roots. Numerous travelers are journeying
to thetowns and villages that had been home to their ancestors, tracing
thefootsteps of their loved ones who lived there, to their final
restingplace - the local Jewish cemetery or a mass grave.
For all of the above and for many
others, Dov's new book may serve as a kindof textbook, and will explain many
facts about Lithuanian Jews and theircharacteristic phenomena. The author,
Prof. Dov Levin of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem'sInstitute of
Contemporary Jewry, is a well known historian and researcher. Prof. Levinis
an expert in the field of Eastern European Jewry, and particularlythe
history of the Jews of Lithuania. Yad Vashem has published severalof his
books.
The theme and contents of this book
serve as a short history of the Jews of Lithuania from the earliest
settlements in the country until the destruction of the community in the
Holocaust of the Second World War.
The book's four main chronological sections describe the history ofLithuania
and its Jewish residents:
- Lithuania from the Late Thirteenth
to the Late Twentieth Centuries
- The Jews of Lithuania from the
Middle Ages until the end of the FirstWorld War
- The Jews in Independent Lithuania
During the InterWar Period
- W.W. 11 and the Holocaust: The
Jewish Survivors
Some of the most important historical
topics covered are:
- Awarding of the certificates of
civil privileges as early as thefourteenth century
- The Lithuanian Jewish Council that
existed for 138 years (1623-1761)that was, in effect, Jewish self-government
- The flourishing of Jewish culture
and religious studies, and theimportance of the ViIna Jewish community from
the mid-eighteenth centuryonwards
- The Gaon of ViIna, his life work,
and its implications for the social-religious sphere
- establishment of the great centers
of Jewish learning ~ large yeshivot- in the nineteenth century, and the
Jewish nationalistic movements suchas Hovevei Zion, Bund, the Mizrachi, and
others
- The establishment of a modern Hebrew
Zionist Educational system withinthe framework of cultural autonomy in the
period between the two worldwars
- From glory to ruin: 1940-1945
Special features included in THE
LITVAKS are: 300 pages in Hardcover - 60 plates and 3 Maps - Bibliography in
seven languages - lexicon of place names in both official modern description
and the traditional spelling used by Jewish residents - statistical tables -
Facsimiles of documents and unique photographs many of which appear in print
for first time - special pre-publication price ( till April 2000).
TO: Rubin Mass Ltd., PO Box 990,
Jerusalem 91009, Israel
or TO: Yad Vashem Publications P.O.Box 3477 Jerusalem 91034 Israel
dovlevin@cc.huji.ac.il /
http://www.jewishgen.org/litvak
[BESTELLEN]
haGalil 04-02-2000