Jewish Religious Life in Lithuania in the 18th-20th Centuries - (Studies in Jewish History and Culture) (Hardcover)

About the Book

This volume is a pioneering attempt to deal with the topic of Jewish religious life in Lithuania in the 18th-20th centuries, comprising articles by significant researchers in the field.

Book Synopsis

This volume attempts to address the complicated issue of distinctive characteristics of Jewish religious life in Lithuania. Its authors and editors deal with the range of religious expressions, with the religious life of different sectors of the Jewish community of Lithuania and with the dynamics of change in religious life in Lithuania over time. In this volume, Lithuania is more a historical and social concept than a geographical territory with clearly delineated borders and political identity. The authors deliberate how "Lithuanian" are the religious phenomena they discuss and what the historical agents understood as Lithuania in their given period, area, and historical circumstances.

About the Author

Marcin Wodziński is a professor of Jewish history and literature at the Taube Department of Jewish Studies, University of Wroclaw. His research focuses on the social and religious history of East European Jews in modern times, especially the Haskalah and Hasidism.

Shaul Stampfer, PhD, Hebrew University. He has written on various themes, including the rise of Lithuanian yeshiva, the historicity of the story of the Khazar conversion to Judaism, the demography of Eastern European Jewry, and more.

Lara Lempertiene, PhD, Vilnius University, is Head of the Judaica Research Center at the National Library of Lithuania. She has edited and co-edited several scholarly monographs and collections and published articles on the cultural history of European Jewry.