I am Ieva – the producer of the project
“Phenomenon of Civilization: Jews, Litvakes, Lithuanian Jews”.

Letter from Ieva Sabaliauskaite, United Kingdom

Only with the awaken memory the nation can preserve its history. Our Lithuanian history has deep imprints of Jews, who made this country flourish through their sincere spirit and unique approach to religion, culture, education and economics. Now they are undeservedly out of our memories… Our project aims to enlighten today’s society about great achievements and unique culture of Jews’ in our country and in the whole world.

Since the Middle Ages the Grand Duchy of Lithuania had been a safe place for Jews from wild anti-Semitism that was burning in neighbouring countries. With granted special rights, the Litvakes – Jews of Grand Duchy of Lithuania - were allowed to reach a degree of prosperity unknown to their Polish and German co-religionists at that time. Litvakes were settled in Stetls – towns there Jews made up a significant proportion of the population. Majority of cities’ businesses and factories belonged to them. Those cities had particular coloration of Jews’ spirit, but now it’s impossible to find a single living sign of Jews apart of signs to genocides places.

Litvakes had massively emigrated from Lithuania, and from those who stayed, only a few thousands have left. But there were over the million of them scattered throughout the world and most of them never forgot their roots. Their unique approach to life is being passed through generations, giving births to new talents and achievements. In fact, Litvakes are distinguished in the whole world in various fields. There are many Nobel Prize winners, art, music, politics, cinema and literary stars, such as Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Michael Douglas and numerous other Litvakes. The name of Vilna Gaon is known to all, even to little educated Jews, as well as to other nations’ people. Litvakes are considered as the elite of Jews. What is the reason of this phenomenon? To discover that, we must take a look at a picture of Jews in general.

Astonishing facts prove their greater brilliance comparing to other nations: although Jews constitute only about 0.2% of the world’s population, they won 29% of the Nobel Prizes in literature, medicine, physics and chemistry in the second half of the 20th century. So far this century, the figure is 32%. The extraordinarily high proportion of Jews in such fields as medicine, law, finance, literature, science, creative arts and the media is as obvious as it is devastating.

Maybe Jews really are “God’s Chosen People”? Or does a distinction of Jews lie in their religious roots? Maybe Jews’ traditionally responsible approach to progeny and education is a cornerstone of their huge talent? Or could it be that those prosecutions and genocides caused exclusive development of Jews’ intellect? Or is there rather freedom and granted special rights that is a reason of Jew's great intellectual and cultural development?

Our project seeks to reveal the superiority of Jews and to bring back to our memories the forgotten Litvakes’ contribution. Our website http://litvaks-lithuanian-jewish.com . Litvakes. Lithuanian Jews.is created to collect any kind of information about Jew’s lives in Lithuania. With collected information we intent to shoot a TV documentary scrutinizing Litvakes issue in the context of all Jewish community, while capturing interpretations of various fields’ experts, as well as interviewing famous Litvakes and illustrating that with documentary material about them: their mores, religious and cultural traditions, their lives in Stetls, etc.

We are strongly motivated to awake this sleeping history realm of Jews in Lithuania, so that the memory of us becomes alive and universal, but not selective, not judging, not stereotyped. Your comprehensive contribution is invaluable to us: your ideological support, any kind of historical material you could share. We would be thankful for anything that could support this project. Please join us on http://litvaks-lithuanian-jewish.com/forum/  and on our Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/Jews.Litvakes.LithuanianJews

Phenomenon of Civilization: Jews, Litvakes, Lithuanian Jews. Be part of us! We are waiting for your suggestions and comments!