Kaunas, Lithuania
A Brief History
Lithuania is a country in northeastern Europe, and is the southernmost and largest of the three Baltic states. Lithuanians are the only branch within the group that managed to create a state entity in premodern times.
On August 14, 1385, the ruling family in Lithuania agreed to join their realm with Poland, and Roman Christianity was introduced to the Lithuanian subjects. The union of Lithuania and Poland remained a loose alliance by virtue of a common ruler until 1569. On July 1 of that year, a common Polish-Lithuanian parliament meeting transformed the relationship. Poland and Lithuania agreed to elect a joint sovereign and to have a common parliament, but each continued to be administered separately and had its own law codes and armed forces.
During the 18th century, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth declined as a political power. Attempts at reform triggered foreign intervention. Following three partitions in the late 1700s, the old state ceased to exist. The bulk of the partitions went to Russia. However, lands southwest of the Nemunas River were annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia.
After a revolt in 1863, the policy of Russification was extended to all areas of public life in Lithuania. Russian became the only language sanctioned for public use. Such cultural imperialism triggered an indigenous reaction that fueled a national renaissance. An informal system of Lithuanian “schools of the hearth” in the villages was organized and Lithuanian publications in the Latin script, printed mostly across the German border in neighboring East Prussia, were smuggled into the country in large numbers.
Judaism in Lithuania
Jews have lived in the area now known as Lithuania since the fourteenth century, when they were brought forcibly as prisoners of war by the Grand Duke Vytautas. In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Lithuanian Jews remained a distinct group known as Litvaks. The vast territory where they lived included areas of northeastern Poland and areas of Belarus, Latvia, and Prussia. Many of the Jews were later active as traders between Kovno (Kaunas) and Danzig (today's Gdansk, Poland).
In the nineteenth century, much of the region was under Russian control. Antisemitism and official anti-Jewish policies often interrupted the growth of the Jewish community. The Russian government blamed the Jews for the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, and as a result, three years of anti-Jewish riots—known as pogroms—ensued. These and other antisemitic outbursts in the Russian Empire dealt a massive blow to Jewish communities in the region. Many Jews were killed and their homes were plundered; in response, thousands of Jews fled Lithuania, and emigrated to South Africa and the United States. Their goal was freedom and economic security.
A street in Old Town, Kaunas.