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Title: The Jews of Lithuania: A History of a Remarkable Community 1316-1945 by Masha Greenbaum ISBN: 9-6522913-2-3 Publisher: Gefen Books Pub. Date: January, 1997 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.6 (5 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Interesting but Not Compelling
Comment: THE JEWS OF LITHUANIA serves well as a general introduction to one of the most diverse, vibrant Jewish communities to have flourished anywhere at any time.
Unfortunately, the book is superficial, giving only a summary view of the 700 year history of Lithuanian Jewry. It fails to provide much in the way of depth or "color" in regard to the Jews who were such a vital part of Lithuanian history from it's beginnings.
Of particular note are the facts that Lithuanian Jewry had its roots in the slow dispersion of the Sephardim during the Reconquista of Iberia. It is instructive that in only two countries---Spain and Lithuania---were Jews permitted to be titled landholders. The author, Masha Greenbaum, fails to analyze these fascinating facts, or draw historical conclusions, of these, and many other elements, (though they are reported in passing), and thus fails to make an account of the earliest underpinnings of the community, or speak on its shared values as they developed.
There are better books on Lithuanian Jewish history, though this one is generally available, and is certainly readable. There are some historical errors which detract from the book's value as source material, but as a "starting point" for the investigation of Lithuanian Jewry, the book most definitely suffices.
For Jews tracing their families in Lithuania, the large number of localities named will be helpful, as will the discussion of the liquidation of those communities.
Given the vast scope of the subject, it is to be hoped that a better, more in-depth, and sensitive and sympathetic volume is in preparation somewhere.
Rating: 1
Summary: This is a general History with a lot of errors.
Comment: This is a poorly written general History. The title of the book is misleading. The book concentrates on the modern era. There is alot of imformation on the old Kehilla era of Jewish History. This is a period from 1400 - 1700 at least. This book gives only the minimal description of this era. The authors idea of Jewish History in that pre-modern era, which in Lithuania extended until the mid 1800's was to tell about the relationship that the ruler of that area had with the Jews. The reason that I gave this book such a low rating is that it is full of Historical errors. For example she writes that the Decembrist revolution happened in 1827, it really happened in 1825. While many of her Historical errors are minor, like saying that the infamous, 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion', was written in 1928. When it comes to the History of the Orthodox and the Yeshivot, the book is full of gross errors and misunderstandings. As an exampe, her attempts to explain the reason why there was a rebellion in Slobodka against the 'Alter' and his form of Mussar is so wrong that it is comical. The 'Alter' had no official position in his own Yeshiva. A part of his form of Musar was allowing each student to develop on his own. Tight control was not part of this system. Saul Liberman, who later became the head of JTS - the Conservitive Seminary in the USA, learnt in Slobodka. Even though it was already known at that time that he had some liberal ideas. One of the Alter's most promenant students, R. Avrohom Elya Kaplen, later became head of the Rabbinical School in Berlin and was one the Rabbinical leaders of the Mizrachi movement. Another one of the Alter's students was R. Aharon Kotler who founded the most promenant 'Torah' only Yeshiva in the USA in Lakewood NJ. This is not the only gross error in the book. Another example is that she only gives the last un-official chief Rabbi of Vilna, Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky only one comment, and it isn't a positive one. R. Chiam Ozer was once offered the official title, but turned it down. He was one of the leaders of Lithuanian Jewry for over 40 years, and a fascinating and brilliant man. You would think that he deserves more than one negitive comment.
Rating: 5
Summary: A good introduction into the history of the Jews in Lithuani
Comment: I found this book to be a very good introduction into the history of the Jews in Lithuania. I would recommend it to anybody who is interested in the subject.
In addition to that this book represents a good example of the History of Lithuania through the Jewish eyes. I believe that the Jews have the same rights on Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Russia and some other countries to name a few, as the non-Jews do. Therefore, the books like this one have to be written about each and every country where the Jews used to live for any extended period of time, regardless of the fact if they are still living there today. That would allow the next generations of the Jews to clearly see that some of the local 'heroes', whose statures are still standing tall in the main squares of some of the European cities and who themselves are considered to be the liberators of the local peoples, were in fact thugs and anti-Semitic pigs who slaughtered thousands of Jews during their reins in power (Bogdan Hmelnitskij -- the hero of the Ukrainian people whose name was mentioned by Masha Greenbaum in her book was one of them). That would clearly show to the Jews that some of the events in local history of those countries, that are considered to be good and progressive for the countries and the people that they affected, in fact adversely affected the Jewish population of those countries. The most recent example of them all would be "The Perestroika" and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Although considered to be a very positive development by a lot of people, both Jews and non-Jews alike, it brought to the surface a rapid activation of the anti-Semitism all over the former Soviet Union that made the lives of the hundreds of thousands of the Jews there completely unbearable.
The conventionally written (mostly by the non-Jews) history books at best either do not usually pay much attention to the lives of the Jews in those countries, or at worst they paint the Jews of those countries in an untruthful and negative way. From my point of view, that not only represents an incorrect and incomplete approach to history, but also denies the Jews of a big part of their cultural and historical heritage. The books like The Jews of Lithuania: a history of a remarkable community, 1316-1945, if written about other countries, would highlight the truth about the Jews and their contribution to the countries they were living in.
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