A Pragmatic Alliance: Jewish-Lithuanian political cooperation at the beginning of the 20th century

Lithuania? But Which? The Changing Political Attitude of the Jewish Political Elite in East Central Europe toward Emerging Lithuania, 1915–1919

LITHUANIA? BUT WHICH? The Changing Political Attitude of the Jewish Political Elite in East Central Europe toward Emerging Lithuania, 1915–1919 MARCOS SILBER A Jewish folktale tells of a meeting between Dr. Shimshon Rosenboim (1859–1934), head of the delegation of the newly born Lithuanian Republic to negotiations with the Soviets, and Adolph Joffe (1883–1927), head of the Soviet delegation: As the two delegates took their seats, the two Jews [Rosenboim and Joffe] faced one another. The first point of the agenda was determining the border between the two countries. “Dr. Rosenboim,” said Commissar Joffe, “how far do you propose the borders of your great Lithuania should extend?” His voice dripped with sarcasm, for after all, the representative of the great Union of Socialist Republics was addressing representatives of a tiny fledgling state. “As far as the Jews pray nusach Lite,” replied Dr. Rosenboim, tongue in cheek… [The two] Jews burst into laughter. Joffe turned to the Russian [members of the delegation] saying, “Comrades, if this is to be the basis of our negotiations, Lithuania could incorporate not only Minsk but even Moscow!”1 This tale, which joins fiction to history, presents the diverse geographical perceptions of the scope of Lithuanian territory. It highlights the difference between formal states and ethno-cultural minorities, attesting to a time when new political norms had not yet been formalized. By relating the outburst of laughter it signifies mainly the Jewish interpretation of the Lithuanian borders relating to the internal Jewish cultural divisions ostensibly irrelevant to the international relations. The story reveals the contested meaning of “Lithuania” from various angles, the tensions over the geopolitical extent of the Lithuanian state, but also the need to accommodate the interpretations to a certain political reality—namely Lithuania’s borders in the earliest formative period. There seem to be three orders: Soviet, Lithuanian and Jewish. From the point of view of the international system the first two seem acknowledged and legitimized, but their dele- 120 A Pragmatic Alliance gates surprisingly are not “authentic Russians” or “authentic Lithuanians.” Rather, they are Jews. However, it turns out, that the Jews have their own autonomous geography independent of the formal political system. This chapter presents the changing meaning of such questions among the Jewish elite, which saw itself included in one or another type of “Lithuanian” project (whatever this concept meant) according to the fluctuating circumstances in such a turbulent time. What should the geographical borders of the new Lithuanian state be? What kind of relations should it have with neighboring states, as well as within, among its various populations and societies? How should they be governed? In short, what kind of country are we talking about when we speak of Lithuania, in terms of its ethnic Jewish component? This chapter examines these questions from the sociohistorical standpoint , especially in regards to the Vilnius Jewry in a period of liminality. This pertains to the interval between two stages and two distinct situations : the Russian imperial order and the Lithuanian national state, and takes place from 1915 to 1919, when the territory was disputed among different states and nations and its fate was far from clear. On the Eve of the German Occupation Regarding folktale, Jews had their own centuries-old history of Lithuania as a sociohistorical concept. Its literature is vast, embracing mainly the territory inhabited by the Litvaks, Lithuanian Jews, which roughly overlapped the historical Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and was much larger than Ethnic Lithuania, where the Litviner (Yiddish for gentile ethnic Lithuanians ) lived compactly. The scope of Lite, “Jewish” Lithuania, is similar to the areas under the authority of the Lithuanian Jewish Council (Waad medinat Lita) from the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries until the eighteenth century. This includes large parts of the northwestern region of imperial Russia (the Vilnius and Kaunas Russian Gubernia [governorate ], the Grodno, Minsk, Vitebsk region), as well as parts of Kurland, northeastern parts of Prussia, and part of northeastern Congress Poland (Suwałki region). Like the vast majority of Jews in Congress Poland and the Pale of settlement in imperial Russia, the Litvaks (Jews born in Lite and their descendents ) at the end of the nineteenth century were in great measure an urban population. According to the official statistics of the 1897 census, 615,691 out of 1,414,157 Jews in the northwestern provinces resided in SILBER: Lithuania? But Which? 121 the cities (43% in a region with...