Roots & resentment · Lithuania · Grand Duchy–1930s
Centuries of Jewish local life did not prevent nationalism from declaring it foreign.
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Grand Duchy–1930s
Roots & resentment · A scholarly world lives beside an accusation
Centuries of Jewish local life did not prevent nationalism from declaring it foreign.
A community with old roots
Jewish communities developed under privileges granted in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Religious scholarship and later secular cultural movements made the region a major centre of Jewish life. These people were embedded in local towns, not simply passing through an otherwise homogeneous national landscape.
Neighbours become economic rivals
Religious prejudice and resentment toward Jewish traders helped feed antisemitism. In the 1930s, business campaigns called for favouring ethnic Lithuanian enterprises and portrayed Jewish participation as domination. The claim reduced varied people to an economic enemy while ignoring their poverty, differences and local relationships.
Vilna’s many loyalties
YIVO was founded in Vilna in 1925, when the city was under Polish rule. Its scholarship helped develop modern Jewish cultural life. The city is now Vilnius in Lithuania. Changing borders and multiple languages matter here: later national categories cannot fully describe the people who built its intellectual world.