Hebrew revivial

[jflevin at MAIL.UCR.EDU]

At 11:29 PM 6/12/2002 +0200, you wrote:
  "Here Jack Fellman wrote "Lithuanian village of Luzhky". This is such an 
unpleasant mistake! I
                 guess that was a surprise to learn this "fact" for any 
reader who comes from Belarus. It is well-known
                 that Luzhki (Ë`óæê³) is a town in northern Belarus, not 
some obscure "Lithuanian village". So this
                 should've been "Belarusian town of Luzhki".

                 The reason for this mistake is quite clear though. Belarus 
and Lithuania share common history, for
                 centuries we lived together in a multiethnical and 
multiconfessional state, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
                 Vilnia (Vilnius) was truly a Belarusian capital. Now, at 
the time of Ben-Yehuda's birth Vilnia region and
                 the rest of Belarus was occupied by the Russian Empire and 
Ben-Yehuda's birth place, the town of
                 Luzhki, according to the Russian administrative division, 
was a part of "Vilenskaja gubernia" (Vilnia
                 region). It is well-known that Vilnia historically has 
been a Belarusian capital, but Joseph Stalin gave it
                 to Lithuanians. Still, the town of Luzhki remained a part 
of Belarus, and never has been a part of modern
                 Lithuanian state. So, whichever way you look at it, saying 
"Lithuanian village" is wrong.

                 Over all, this trend makes me very upset. Simon Peres was 
born and grew up in Belarus (village Vishnia
                 and town of Valozhyn), Ariel Sharon's parents come from 
Belarus, Ben-Yehuda grew up in Belarus (in
                 Luzhki and Polacak), Etgar Keret's parents come from 
Belarus (Baranavichy), the first prime minister of
                 Israel comes from Belarus, Marc Chagall grew up and lived 
in eastern Belarus (Vitebsk), many-many
                 other imminent Jews come from our lands, but somehow this 
is never acknoweledged by the American
                 writers and researchers, who just say "comes from Russia", 
showing their "great knowledge" of Eastern
                 European geography and "deep respect" for other cultures! 
Harvard education does not seem to be of
                 any help either"

It is not clear to me who is the author of this "correction" of Jack 
Fellman, but some explanation is in order.  All of the Jews named above are 
Litvaks--Lithuanian Jews.  Jewish geography does not follow the most recent 
political divisions.  It represents a Jewish cultural map.  Jews are either 
Litvaks, Galitzianers, Pailisher, etc., and this identity does not depend 
on which Gentile country happens to rule over which village at any given 
time--such matters are mutable.  I have never met a Jew who identified 
himself, much less his parents, as being "Belarusian".  So Fellman is 
right.  There may be a town in Northern Belarus called Luzhki, occupying 
the physical space where Ben Eliezar was born, but nevertheless, he--a Jew, 
never considered anything but a Jew when he lived there--was born in a 
metaphysical Jewish Lithuania.  In fact, I can recall a conversation I had 
with a rabbi in Vilnius recently, where I referred to my own ancesters as 
being "real" Litvaks, because they came from Lithuanian-speaking areas, as 
opposed to the Litvaks living in Polish or Belarusian areas.  He looked at 
me and repeated "real Litvaks!?" as though I had committed an ethnic slur 
by questioning the authenticity of Jews from places like Vitebsk or Grodno.
Jules Levin (a real Litvak, grandparents from Shaky and Kovno)

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