Tarp tradicijos ir modernumo: litvakų tautinio tapatumo paieškos ir kaita
Betwen Tradition and Modernity: Search for National Identity of Litvakes Community

Summary/Abstract: Up to the middle of 18th century Lite territory was populated by an integral Orthodox Jews community, which was later named Litvakes, and who had (and still have) themselves for the only and true followers of the Rabbi or Talmud Judaism. Over time, Lite Jews created their own North-Eastern Yiddish language dialect, noted for colourful, broad and emotional accent, also a cheerful and poignant style of speech. The Jewish community of Lite, both by way of living, traditions and mentality, was different from those of other Jewish communities, populating the neighbouring territories. Yiddish folklore created a typical image of a Litvak, known for reasoned thinking, love for scientific studies and equable character. The names of the Jewish communities – Galitzianer, Poylish, Litwaky, Litwacy – indicate rather obviously that they identified themselves and were identified by other Jewish communities with a particular territory. Eastern European national communities – Lithuanians, Poles, Latvians, Belorussians, Russians and Ukrainians – did not see Litvakes apart from the Jewish ethnic group. Historical sources and various legal documents, all refer to them by a single name – žydas, żyd, eврей, эвреï, jüd.. By the middle of the 18th century the habits and beliefs of the Orthodox- Litvaks began changing. Ideologies and ideals that were propagated by various movements and reformers during the last two hundred years changed the traditional Litvak community beyond the recognition. It should be noted that most of those destructive factors – Hasidism, Haskalah and Zionism – were not of the external, but of the internal nature, and were fathered by the Jewish community itself. The branch of Hasidism – Habad, which linked regular studies, characteristic of the Orthodox Jews and spiritual Hasidic prayer exercise, made Hasidism desirable for reasonably thinking Orthodox Judaism protagonists and thus shattered the integral Litvakes’ religious consciousness. In 1860 – 1870 the Haskalah movement reached Lite. Haskalah emancipated and integrated Jews into the surrounding environment and governmental infrastructures, gave an impact to the processes of secularization, while emergence of the reformed Judaism gradually was causing the split of Lite Jewish community into Orthodox-Litvak and Hasid. In the eight decade of the 19th century the national Jewish movement, Zionism, began its formation in Lite. It instigated abandoning the traditional life in shtetls and immigrating to Erec Israel lands. This national Jewish movement, to a certain extent, erased the outright delimitation between a religious Litvak-O rthodox and a secularized Jew. Ever increasing number of all types of politically active Zionistic groups also contributed to splitting of the Jewish community’s integrity...

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