Jewish Life in Lithuania: History of Separate Co-Existence

667 Ab Imperio, 4/2003 делений собственной Его Импера- торского Величества канцелярии. Точно так же Н. Н. Янушкевич не был верховным главнокомандую- щим русской армии (с. 549). Лишь короткое время он занимал долж- ность начальника Генштаба. Гене- рал Н. Н. Обручев не мог быть, по определению, близок к “Народной воле” (с. 320). Автор спутал эту организацию с первой “Землей и волей”, к которой действительно в молодые годы принадлежал Об- ручев. Ограниченность объема рецензии не позволяет дать весь перечень ошибок и неточностей работы. Тем не менее, Петровский- Штерн написал яркую и талантли- вую книгу, без которой уже трудно представить себе современную историографию российского ев- рейства. Alla MYZELEV Jewish Life in Lithuania. Exhibition catalogue (The Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum; The Lithuanian Institute of History; The Center for Civic Initiatives; The Textbook Research and Information Centre for Baltic Countries; The Verein Gedenkdienst, Vienna/Vilnius; The Anna Frank House, Amsterdam) / Compiled: Rыta Puišytė, Darius Staliūnas. Kaunas, 2001. 222 p. Photographs; in English, Lithuanian. ISBN: 9986-34-090-X. Jewish Life in Lithuania: History of Separate Co-Existence “Jewish Life in Lithuania” is an exhibition that retells the history of Jews in Lithuania from the 14th century to the present day. The exhibition and the catalogue are the results of a joint project of The Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum, Vilnius, The Lithuanian Institute of History, Vilnius, and the Anne Frank House, Amsterdam. As the authors of the catalogue introduction explain, this exhibition was to some extent provoked by an earlier exhibition (1998) organized by the Anne Frank House and Vilna Gaon Museum about the life and death of Anne Frank. The Anne Frank show was exhibited in eight Lithuanian towns and was attended by 12,000 visitors (P. 7). “A disadvantage of the Anne Frank exhibition was that 668 Рецензии/Reviews it did not deal with the history of the Holocaust in Lithuania. Too many students did not make any connection with Lithuanian history or with contemporary issues” (Pp. 7-8). The exhibition at stake then addresses this question. Its main objective is to “inform about Lithuanian Jewry and the influence that Jews have had in Lithuanian society – some of these influences still remain” (P. 9). The exhibition and the catalogue are one of several attempts to construct and convey the history of Lithuanian Jews, their relationship with people who surrounded them, and the process and result of the cultural exchange between the Lithuanians and the Jews.1 The exhibition catalogue, which is the subject of this review, consists of nine chapters. Except for the introduction , all others are arranged in chronological order telling the story of Jews living on the Lithuanian Land. Each chapter consists of several separate sections that concentrate on different aspects of the Jews’ life in the given period; for instance, the introduction consists of Jewish Religion and Traditions, Jewish History, and Jewish Family-Photos from Pre-War Jurbarkas. Each section is defined by black pages and white lettering accompanied by at least a few pages of visual material – photographs, maps, copies of documents , etching, and miniatures from manuscripts which, in contrast, are printed on white pages with black lettering. This wealth of the visuals greatly enhances one’s experience of reading. Especially important are photographs of ordinary people, which accompany memoirs and excerpts from letters found in the text. The only criticism concerns the information accompanying these images: some of them lack dates and only a few list the medium. On a positive note, each image is accompanied by a detailed explanation of what it depicts, which helps viewers understand what they are looking for. Given the context of the exhibition, it is safe to conclude that visual material serves here as historic document rather than aesthetic entity; therefore, social function and background are emphasized, but art historical and aesthetic values are usually downplayed. For instance, among the images, one surprisingly does not find three-dimensional decorative arts objects such as menorahs , Chanukiahs, yads (Torah 1 For more on history of Jews in Lithuania see: Dov Levin. The Litvaks: a Short History of the Jews of Lithuania. New York, 2001; SimonasAlperavicius. Jewish Community of Lithuania. Vilnius, 2001; Yaffa Elicah. There Once Was a World: a Nine-Hundred-Year Chronicle of the Shtetl of Eishyshok. Boston, 1998; Masha Greenbaum. The Jews of Lithuania: a History of a Remarkable Community, 1316-1945. Jerusalem, 1995; Nancy Schoenburg. Lithuanian Jewish Communities. New York, 1991. 669 Ab Imperio, 4/2003 pointers), and spice boxes. Regretfully , perhaps due to the nature of the traveling exhibit, the organizers did not include such objects, either in this catalogue or in the exhibition itself. Such objects would help to present yet another fascinating subject of Jewish culture – its craftsmanship – to the audiences. In general, the layout of the book is highly successful...