JEWISH LIFE IN LITHUANIA: HISTORY OF SEPARATE CO-EXISTENCE

“Jewish Life in Lithuania” is an exhibition that retells the history of Jews in Lithuania from the 14th century to the present day. The exhibition and the catalogue are the results of a joint project of The Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum, Vilnius, The Lithuanian Institute of History, Vilnius, and the Anne Frank House, Amsterdam. As the authors of the catalogue introduction explain, this exhibition was to some extent provoked by an earlier exhibition (1998) organized by the Anne Frank House and Vilna Gaon Museum about the life and death of Anne Frank. The Anne Frank show was exhibited in eight Lithuanian towns and was attended by 12,000 visitors (P. 7). “A disadvantage of the Anne Frank exhibition was that it did not deal with the history of the Holocaust in Lithuania. Too many students did not make any connection with Lithuanian history or with contemporary issues” (Pp. 7-8). The exhibition at stake then addresses this question. Its main objective is to “inform about Lithuanian Jewry and the influence that Jews have had in Lithuanian society – some of these influences still remain” (P. 9). The exhibition and the catalogue are one of several attempts to construct and convey the history of Lithuanian Jews, their relationship with people who surrounded them, and the process and result of the cultural exchange between the Lithuanians and the Jews.^[1]
The exhibition catalogue, which is the subject of this review, consists of nine chapters. Except for the introduction, all others are arranged in chronological order telling the story of Jews living on the Lithuanian Land. Each chapter consists of several separate sections that concentrate on different aspects of the Jews’ life in the given period; for instance, the introduction consists of Jewish Religion and Traditions, Jewish History, and Jewish Family-Photos from Pre-War Jurbarkas. Each section is defined by black pages and white lettering accompanied by at least a few pages of visual material – photographs, maps, copies of documents, etching, and miniatures from manuscripts which, in contrast, are printed on white pages with black lettering. This wealth of the visuals greatly enhances one’s experience of reading. Especially important are photographs of ordinary people, which accompany memoirs and excerpts from letters found in the text. The only criticism concerns the information accompanying these images: some of them lack dates and only a few list the medium. On a positive note, each image is accompanied by a detailed explanation of what it depicts, which helps viewers understand what they are looking for. Given the context of the exhibition, it is safe to conclude that visual material serves here as historic document rather than aesthetic entity; therefore, social function and background are emphasized, but art historical and aesthetic values are usually downplayed. For instance, among the images, one surprisingly does not find three-dimensional decorative arts objects such as menorahs, Chanukiahs, yads (Torah pointers), and spice boxes. Regretfully, perhaps due to the nature of the traveling exhibit, the organizers did not include such objects, either in this catalogue or in the exhibition itself. Such objects would help to present yet another fascinating subject of Jewish culture – its craftsmanship – to the audiences.
In general, the layout of the book is highly successful. Conceptually, it reminds the reader of the exhibition by presenting alternating text (exhibition panels) and clusters of images. Yet the placement of the text also gives one an opportunity to follow the storyline of the exhibition with great ease.
As with any introduction to an exhibit about Jewish life, this one opens up with an overview of Jewish religion, values, and traditions. This is followed by a historical background that mentions Jews living in the land of Israel, their slavery in Egypt, the story of the first and the second Temple, the Roman occupation, and the fate of the Jews during the Middle Ages. Then, the emphasis shifts to the history of Lithuanian Jews and ends up mentioning those Jews who played an important role in Western culture, e.g. Marc Chagall and Albert Einstein. The special weight is on those well-known representatives of Jewish nationality who lived and/or worked in Lithuania. Therefore, an important link between Western, Jewish, and Lithuanian culture is established from the very start. These sections are followed by a very specific introduction of one Lithuanian Jewish family through personal recollections and photographs. This strategy is effective since it reduces the viewer’s/reader’s experience from generalized to personal, leading one to identify and associate with the subject.
The next chapter of the catalogue examines the life of Jews in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania between the 14th and 18th centuries. It covers the emergence of Jewish communities under the Grand Duchy, their status, self-government and religious and daily life, the emergence of Hassidism, and the opposition between Vilna Gaon and Zalman ben Boruch (the ideologist of the Hassidic movement). In the section on intolerance, it is mentioned that the persecutions were mostly of a religious nature: “Most accusations of this kind in Lithuania did not go beyond accusations. They did not turn into bloodbaths, as was common in other countries”(P. 61). The overall tone of this section attempts to downplay the realities of anti-Semitism by painting a positive picture of Jewish life in Lithuania. Another concern is that in this section as well as in others the status of women within Jewish communities is not discussed. Although women were rarely allowed to participate in public life, they were prominent in everyday life and should be given their due for doing their share of work in the Jewish community. While Elmantas Meillus mentions, “Girls did not go to school but were taught to read and carry out various “women’s work” at home” (P. 55), a more critical approach to the role of women and to the expression, “women’s work,” would have been helpful here.
The next chapter is dedicated to the life of Lithuanian Jews in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It recounts the introduction of a Pale (specialized areas where Jews were allowed to live). Since Lithuania was within the territory of the Pale, the number of Jews living there increased. Further, the separate life of many Jewish communities, their isolated lifestyle, and the concentration on their own culture and religion brought on the just reputation of “different” and “other”. By the end of the 19th century, however, the Haskalah movement brought gradual change and caused the opening up of the Jewish community. The Zionist movement, which became fairly popular in Lithuania at that time, increased the awareness of national identity among Jews. The ideas of Haskalah and Zionism movements were opposed by Orthodox Jews. Vilna became the center of new educational and emancipation strivings and the hub of Torah learning for Orthodox Jews.
One of the shortcomings of this chapter is that it looks at Jewish Lithuanian community as one entity. It is hard to believe that the only difference that existed between the way of life, education, occupation and religion was between the Shtetl (small Jewish towns) and large cities like Vilna. As demonstrated in the next section, “Two Jewish Worlds: Vilna and the Shtetl,” the life in the two was very different. While life in the Shtetl was dedicated to trade labor such as tailoring and blacksmithing, life in the city was more varied. It gave more opportunity to acquire secular as well as religious education. By the first few decades of the 20th century, there were many social and cultural organizations for Jews such as the Institute for Jewish Research and the Jewish Conservatory and Ballet School. In the text, the Shtetl and Vilna are presented as a binary opposition. However, when looking at the photographs in this section, one does not recognize such drastic differences because in both cases, trades, sports, religious and secular education are present. Perhaps, rather than drawing on opposing chrematistics, it would be more contractive to underscore the common process of development, and at the same time emphasize the differences among individuals and different Jewish communities in the Shtetls and cities. In the text though, the description of life in the Shtetl of Aukstadvaris and of Vilna stand for numerous other Shtetls and towns. The strategy of having one representative specimen stand for many others is problematic. It is similar to a single museum artifact, for instance, a Native mask, standing, for the whole of Native culture. As Mitchell observes: “Part of the Modernist worldview is to see the world as something that can be represented, making it, therefore, possible to collect parts of it to stand for the whole.”^[2] This representation of one or few instead of (but not as part of) the whole have a dangerous tendency to strip a culture or phenomenon of details, making instead for a flat, simple, almost two-dimensional artifact that can be easily grasped and analyzed by scholars.
The next chapter of the exhibition catalogue is titled “Jews in Independent Lithuania Between the Wars, 1918-1940”. According to the author, Gekiminas Rudis, Jews were involved in the Lithuanian struggle for independence and later in the social and political life of the Republic. “In general, Jews were not of the opinion that ‘Lithuania is not our home, so let the Lithuanians get involved in politics.’ They were more active than Gentiles in the Seimas elections between 1920 and 1926, especially in local council elections” (P. 119). What seems important to the author is not only emphasizing the increasing awareness of Jews of their heritage and autonomous life, but also noting the strengthening of their ties with the country they lived in. The last section of this chapter deals with anti-Semitism. Although anti-Semitism existed among Lithuanians, it was of a milder form than that in Poland, Russia or the Ukraine. Pogroms were discouraged for their barbaric outrage. As the catalogue explains, neither president Smetona nor Voldemaras were anti-Semitic (P. 137), which helped prevent a worsening of the circumstances of Jewish life. It is doubtful the personal beliefs of the presidents really played such an important role in the situation of the Jews in Lithuania. More likely, the historical process developed at a different pace in Lithuania, and by the 1940s, when Lithuania was occupied by the Russian Red Army, certain doctrines had not become prominent yet. The images that accompany this section testify to this. For instance, there is a copy of “an aggressive Ramygala fascist leaflet, 1923. [In this leaflet,] the fascists declared that defacing non-Lithuanian signs on Jewish shops and smashing windows was done out of patriotism, and they threatened to take revenge if any of them were punished. However, the police somehow never managed to catch the culprits and those cases, which were brought to court, were dismissed” (P. 142).
During the first Soviet Period (1940-1941), Jews were among other nationalities whose ability to express their uniqueness was eliminated or significantly curtailed. Schools, some newspapers, and other institutions were closed. Some Jews were deported, becoming part of the large number of Lithuanians inside Russia. However, Jews enjoyed more freedom to pursue political and scientific careers than other Lithuanians since the Soviets considered them, at least theoretically, on an equal grounding.
The chapter on the Nazi occupation and Holocaust (1941-1944) predictably recalls the terrible events related to the Nazi’s systematic killing of Jews. Since most of the details of this chapter of Lithuanian history are well known, I will only mention the section entitled “Miriam’s Story,” which recounts the history of the girl who, with the help of a Lithuanian family, survived the Holocaust. These personal recollections help viewers identify with the otherwise almost unimaginable tragedy of extermination. Another two sections worth mentioning are the Jewish Resistance and the “Lithuanians During the Holocaust: Bystanders, Perpetrators, Rescuers.” The image that introduces the section on resistance is the one of a woman in a military uniform holding a weapon. The use of this image helps to convey a message that women were fighting in the resistance brigades alongside men. Finally, the section on the Lithuanian involvement in the Holocaust addresses the difficult issue of some locals collaborating with Nazis as well as the indifference of some to the treatment of the Jews, in a serious and dignified manner. Since the exhibit was geared towards a Lithuanian audience with the hope of specifically appealing to school-aged children, it is especially important to raise the questions of tolerance and intolerance. The underlying principle of this section is that people have different personalities and different beliefs, and they acted according to those. All responses are human, and while some of these actions may have consequences such as imprisonment, other actions will be praised and valued for generations.
During the second period of Soviet rule between 1944 and 1990, Jews who were able to survive Nazi occupation either immigrated to Israel or the USA or were integrated into the life of Lithuanian Republic. Any attempts to revive Jewish national identity were discouraged. Only after Perestroika were Jews able to turn back to their national culture and practice their beliefs. The current life of the Lithuanian Jews is shown as the one in which all the dreams and hopes of those who stayed in Lithuania after the World War II are realized. Although only 5,000 Jews remain in Lithuania in 1997, numerous Jewish political, social and cultural organizations exist. It seems Jews are again able to participate in the political life of the Lithuanian independent state and, at the same time, maintain an autonomous culture. However, just like in the early 20th century, there is a great degree of anti-Semitism in Lithuania today. Neo-Nazi organizations have been established, and a “small extremist newspaper called Bells of Republic has been published since 1995, and for the last six years it has been regularly printed anti-Semitic articles” (P. 214). The catalogue ends with an appeal: “ Perhaps such outbreaks of anti-Semitism seem minor, but can a Jewish citizen of the Lithuanian Republic feel safe when he hears or sees such things?”
Overall, this is an informative overview of Jewish life in Lithuania, one that gives some understanding of the subject to those with little background on it. However, the accessibility of the information sometimes needs improvement. Readers who are unfamiliar with Lithuanian history might have difficulty understanding such concepts as Ramygala or complex relationships between Soviets and Lithuanians. For those who have a limited background in Jewish culture and history, it would be helpful to explain why Jews adhered so much to their own culture and religion, and what ideology influenced this decision to be an autonomous culture. Since the exhibit is geared towards Lithuanians who have very little knowledge of Jewish culture, it would be beneficial to relate Jewish experience to other groups either within or outside Lithuania. In addition, more emphasis on joint projects between Lithuanians and Jews would help make this exhibition more relevant to audiences’ experiences, especially since one of the goals of both the exhibition and the catalogue is to demonstrate the influence of Jews on Lithuanian society. It seems that the catalogue succeeds more in providing information on Lithuanian Jewry rather than accomplishing its other mission of demonstrating what bearing Jewish culture had on Lithuania. In general, the opposite is emphasized: Jews’ ability to create, nurture and develop their own culture with little involvement and a minimal degree of disturbance from the outside world in Lithuania.
The catalogue and the exhibition deserve praise for recounting the history of Jews up to the present. Unlike many other surveys (see footnote 1), this overview address current issues. Too many times the history of Jewish people is told as the one of an ancient civilization that survived many troubles yet was almost destroyed during the Holocaust. What happened after the horrific events of the Holocaust are, therefore, shown as a happy ending. This catalogue, however, addresses present concerns by raising the specter of anti-Semitism in Lithuania with the great truth and accuracy.