Lithuanian Jews (known in
Yiddish and
Yeshivish as
Litvish (adjective) or
Litvaks (noun)) are
Ashkenazi Jews with roots in the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania (present-day
Belarus,
Lithuania and the northeastern
Suwalki region of
Poland).
Lithuania was historically home to a large and influential Jewish community that was almost entirely eliminated during the Holocaust see Holocaust in Lithuania. Before World War II there were over 110 synagogues and 10 yeshivas in Vilnius.[1] Before World War II, the Lithuanian Jewish population was some 160,000, about 7% of the total population.[2] Vilnius (then Wilno in Second Polish Republic) had a Jewish community of nearly 100,000, about 45% of the city's total.[3] About 4,000 Jews were counted in Lithuania during the 2005 census.[4] There are still strong communities of Jews of Lithuanian descent around the world, especially in Israel, the United States, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Australia.
The word Litvish means "Lithuanian" in Yiddish. (Latvian Jews were known as Lettishe). Of main Yiddish dialects in Europe, the Litvishe Yiddish (Lithuanian Yiddish) dialect was spoken by Jews in Lithuania, Belarus, and in the northeastern Suwalki region of Poland.
The characteristically "Lithuanian" approach to Judaism was marked by a concentration on highly intellectual Talmud study. Lithuania became the heartland of the traditionalist opposition to Hasidism, to the extent that in popular perception "Lithuanian" and "mitnagged" became virtually interchangeable terms. In fact, however, a sizable minority of Lithuanian Jews belong(ed) to Hasidic groups, including Chabad, Slonim, Karlin (Pinsk) and Koidanov. With the spread of the Enlightenment, many Lithuanian Jews became devotees of the Haskala (Jewish Enlightenment) movement in Eastern Europe pressing for better integration into European society, and today many leading academics, scientists and philosophers are of Lithuanian Jewish descent.
