Hebrew revivial
jflevin at MAIL.UCR.EDU
jflevin at MAIL.UCR.EDU
Thu Jun 13 02:44:37 UTC 2002
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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