History of the Jews in Lithuania
The history of the Jews in Lithuania spans the period from the 14th century to the present day. There is still a small community in the country, as well as an extensive Lithuanian Jewish diaspora in Israel, the United States, South Africa, and other countries.
Early history
The origin of the Jews of Lithuania has been a subject of much speculation. The first reliable document attesting the presence of Jews in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is the charter of 1388 granting privileges to the Jews in Trakai. The gathering together of the scattered Jewish settlers in sufficient numbers and with enough power to form communities and to obtain privileges from their Lithuanian rulers implies the lapse of considerable time from the first migrations. Therefore, various historians attempted to claim that Jews migrated to Lithuania earlier. For example, Abraham Harkavy claimed that the first Jews migrated in the 10th century from the Khazar Khaganate. Other historians claim that Jews migrated from Germany in the 12th century. German Jews were persecuted during the era of the crusades. The traditional language of the vast majority of Jews of Lithuania, Yiddish, is based largely upon the Medieval German spoken by the western Germanic Jewish immigrants. Another theory is that Jews migrated during the reign of Grand Duke Gediminas attracted by his invitation of merchants and craftspeople in 1323–1324 and economic opportunities – at the time, Lithuania had no cities in the western sense of the word, no Magdeburg Rights or closed guilds. In the 14th century, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania expanded into Galicia–Volhynia and the Principality of Kiev, territories already inhabited by Jews.The Charter of 1388
Duke Vytautas granted privileges to the Jews of Trakai on June 24, 1388. Later, similar privileges were granted to the Jews of Brest, Grodno, Lutsk, Vladimir, and other large towns. The charter was modeled upon similar documents granted by Casimir III, and earlier by Bolesław of Kalisz, to the Jews in Poland in 1264. Therefore, it seems more than likely that influential Polish Jews cooperated with the leading Lithuanian communities in securing the charters from Vytautas.Under the charter, the Lithuanian Jews formed a class of freemen subject in all criminal cases directly to the jurisdiction of the grand duke and his official representatives, and in petty suits to the jurisdiction of local officials on an equal footing with the lesser nobles, boyars, and other free citizens. The official representatives of the Polish king and the grand duke were the voivode in Poland and the elder in Lithuania, who were known as the "judge of the Jews", and their deputies. The judge of the Jews decided all cases between Christians and Jews and all criminal suits in which Jews were concerned; in civil suits, however, he acted only on the application of the interested parties. Either party that failed to obey the judge's summons had to pay him a fine. To him also belonged all fines collected from Jews for minor offenses. His duties included the guardianship of the persons, property, and freedom of worship of the Jews. He had no right to summon anyone to his court except upon the complaint of an interested party. In matters of religion, the Jews were given extensive autonomy.
Under these equitable laws the Jews of Lithuania reached a degree of prosperity unknown to their Polish and German co-religionists at that time. The communities of Brest, Grodno, Trakai, Lutsk, and Minsk rapidly grew in wealth and influence. Every community had at its head a Jewish elder. These elders represented the communities in all external relations, in securing new privileges, and in the regulation of taxes. Such officials are not, however, referred to by the title "elder" before the end of the 16th century. Up to that time the documents merely state, for instance, that the "Jews of Brest humbly apply," etc. On assuming office the elders declared under oath that they would discharge the duties of the position faithfully, and would relinquish the office at the expiration of the appointed term. The elder acted in conjunction with the rabbi, whose jurisdiction included all Jewish affairs with the exception of judicial cases assigned to the court of the deputy, and by the latter to the king. In religious affairs, however, an appeal from the decision of the rabbi and the elder was permitted only to a council consisting of the chief rabbis of the king's cities. The cantor, sexton, and shochet were subject to the orders of the rabbi and elder.
Vytautas The Great (1392–1430)
The goodwill and tolerance of Vytautas endeared him to his Jewish subjects, and for a long time traditions concerning his generosity and nobility of character were current among them. His cousin, the king of Poland Jogaila, did not interfere with his administration during Vytautas's lifetime.Vytautas sought to create a middle class of traders and merchants during his reign and for this purpose he preferred Jews over Germans or Poles because he viewed them as more loyal. To help the Jewish community he intervened on their behalf several times so that Jewish traders could travel to places where they were otherwise banned such as Danzig. Vytautas's Tolerance led to a golden age of Judaism in Lithuania with many Jews from Italy, France, Spain, Bohemia, and the Holy Roman Empire migrating to Lithuania in search of tolerance and or trade opportunities.
The reign of Vytautas saw the beginnings of the Karaite community in Lithuania. According to Karaite oral histories the first Karaites in Lithuania were several Tatar families captured as prisoners of war by Vytautas and resettled in Lithuania. The Karaite vernacular was Tatar but used Hebrew as a liturgical language and was differentiated from the rest of Jewish community by their distinctive religious practices and culture.
Vytautas referred to the Karaites as "Jews of Trakai" and they were considered Jews, but the Karaites themselves insisted they were not Jewish and fought for separate legal autonomy and rights from the Jews. Despite this, the Jewish and Karaite communities of Lithuania had good relation and were very connected physically, legally, and institutionally. They shared religious facilities, several religious texts, and yeshivot. As such the history of the Lithuanian Karaites is inseparable from the history of the Lithuanian Jews.
Jagiellon rule
In 1569, Poland and Lithuania were united. It was generally a time of prosperity and relative safety for the Jews of both countries. However, a few events, such as the expulsion of the Jews from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania between 1495 and 1503 occurred just within Lithuania.Casimir IV (1440–1492)
By the time of Casimir IV's reign the two Jewish population centers in Lithuania were Trakai and Lutsk, while the primary intellectual and religious center was Kiev, and the Jews primarily spoke the Yiddish, Ruthenian, and Tatar languages. The community was primarily Ashkenazi with a Sephardi minority though the two communities appeared to have gotten along well.Casimir IV was religiously mentored by the antisemitic Cardinal Zbigniew Oleśnick, despite this in 1453 he confirmed the 1388 charter and promised them continued liberty and safety but this move was heavily opposed by the Catholic Church and Cardinal Oleśnick. The Polish Church's opposition was mostly caused by the presence of John of Capistrano who blamed the Jews for the epidemic of 1464 as well as several military defeats of Polish and Lithuanian forces against the Muscovites. Due to this pressure Casimir issued the Statute of Nieszawa which nullified the Jews' extra privileges. Despite this statute the rights of Jews stayed the same as before.
Casimir's reign also saw Jews begin to ascend socially in Lithuania. Casimir fired Jews as financiers, allowed them to become farmers, appointed them as customs inspectors, allowed them to trade freely, and allowed them to collect tolls. This saw a small percentage of the Jews transform into a rich and elitist group which imitated the rich's lifestyle most importantly by sending their children abroad for study. Though these Jews were disliked by the clergy, burghers, and petty nobility. As well as this social climb there was a population increase as Casimir expanded his lands and thus acquired new Jewish subjects within his new lands the old laws were generally unchanged and things became more politically centralized.
Some Lithuanian Jews individually also rose to become quite important even compared to the other noble Jews including: Rabbi Moishe Hagoleh, Daniel and Ze'ev of Trakai who were important farms, and Moishe of Trakai who was an important businessman.
After his death Casimir was greatly mourned by the Jews of Poland and Lithuania.
Alexander Jagiellon (1492-1506)
Casimir was succeeded as king of Poland by his son John Albert, and on the Lithuanian throne by his younger son, Alexander Jagiellon. The latter confirmed the charter of privileges granted to the Jews by his predecessors, and even gave them additional rights. His father's Jewish creditors received part of the sums due to them, the rest being withheld under various pretexts. The favorable attitude toward the Jews which had characterized the Lithuanian rulers for generations was unexpectedly and radically changed by a decree promulgated by Alexander in April 1495. By this decree all Jews and Karaites living in Lithuania proper and the adjacent territories were summarily ordered to leave the country.Historian Simon Dubnow states there were 3 main reasons for the expulsion:
- Catholic pressure, which was extra strong due to the expulsion of the Jews of Spain in 1492 and the expulsion of the Portuguese Jews in 1495.
- The influence of Alexander Jagiellon's wife, Helena of Moscow.
- The desire of the nobility to rid themselves of their debts by getting rid of the Jews they owed those debts to.
The expulsion was evidently not accompanied by the usual cruelties; for there was no popular animosity toward the Lithuanian Jews, and the decree was regarded as an act of mere willfulness on the part of an absolute ruler. Some of the nobility, however, approved Alexander's decree, expecting to profit by the departure of their Jewish creditors, as is indicated by numerous lawsuits on the return of the exiles to Lithuania in 1503. It is known from the Hebrew sources that some of the exiles migrated to Crimea, and that by far the greater number settled in Poland, where, by permission of King John I Albert, they established themselves in towns situated near the Lithuanian boundary. This permission, given at first for a period of two years, was extended "because of the extreme poverty of the Jews on account of the great losses sustained by them." The extension, which applied to all the towns of the kingdom, accorded the enjoyment of all the liberties that had been granted to their Polish brethren. The expelled Karaites settled in the Polish town of Ratne, now in Ukraine.
Alexander Jagiellon after much delay incorporated the previously annulled Charter of 1388 into law on October 25, 1500; as by 1500 the nobility and monarchy had accepted that they had to allow the Jews to return and were drafting legislation to do so. They needed to allowed the Jews to return because the Lithuania was not financially stable enough to not need the Jews, especially because the state exchequer and the nobility were monetarily drained from wars with Muscovy and the Ottoman Empire.
Soon after in 1503, Alexander permitted the Jewish exiles to return to Lithuania. Beginning in March 1503, as is shown by documents still extant, their houses, lands, synagogues, and cemeteries were returned to them, and permission was granted them to collect their old debts. The new charter of privileges permitted them to live throughout Lithuania as before. The return of the Jews and their attempt to regain their old possessions led to many difficulties and lawsuits. Alexander found it necessary to issue an additional decree, directing his vice-regent to enforce the law. In spite of this some of the property was not recovered by the Jews for years.
After their return the Jews resumed their previous position as tax farmers, toll collectors, money lenders, and landlords. With many also moving to riverside areas due to the better business there.