Hebrew revivial

[Uladzimir Katkouski]

Hello Jules,

1. It's not really a correction, but a comment.
2. Belarus is one of the modern-day descendants of the Grand Duchy of
Lituania (in fact some nationalists argue, the dominant descendant of
the Grand Duchy). We still call ourselves "Litviny", and the Jews of our
lands still carry the name "Litviaki".
3. Thus it is not a "recent political division" and the commentary
should make sense for you, I presume.

Thanks for your email,
Uladzimir

jflevin at MAIL.UCR.EDU wrote:


> 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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