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Seven Kingdoms of the Litvaks by Dovid Katz
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Introductory Resources

The Yivo Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. Editor in Chief: Gershon David Hundert. 2 vols. Yale University Press: New Haven & London 2008.

The Jewish People Past and Present. 4 vols. Jewish Encyclopedic Handbooks: New York 1946-1955.

Lithuanian Jewish Culture

David E. Fishman, The Rise of Modern Yiddish Culture. University of Pittsburgh Press: Pittsburgh 2005 [see esp chapters 3, 4, 8-10; pp 48-61, 91-93, 114-137, 142-152 et al]. Order here; 2010 Paperback edition here.

Dovid Katz, Lithuanian Jewish Culture. Baltos Lankos, Vilnius 2010 [in cooperation with Central European University Press]. Order here.

Dovid Katz, “Jewish Cultural Correlates of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania” in Alfredas Bumblauskas, Sarunas Liekis, Grigorijus Potasenko (eds), Lietuvos Didziosios Kunigaikstijos tradicija ir paveldo “dalybos”, Vilniaus universiteto leidykla: Vilnius 2008, pp 169-204. Available here.

Dovid Katz, Seven Kingdoms of the Litvaks. International Cultural Program Center, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania: Vilnius 2009. Read here.

Dovid Katz, Words on Fire. The Unfinished Story of Yiddish. Revised & updated edition. Basic Books: New York 2007 [re Litvak Studies see pp 134-136, 141, 145-154, 149, 151, 153, 166, 164-172, 193, 200, 230, 261, 284, 286-288, 306, 323, 327, 331, 352, 356, 384-386]. Order here.

Izraelis Lempertas and Larisa Lempertiene (eds), The Gaon of Vilnius and the Annals of Jewish Culture. Vilnius University Publishing House: Vilnius 1998.

Mark N. Ozer, The Litvak Legacy. (self published): 2009.

Lithuanian Jewish History

Shmuel A. Arthur Cygielman, The Jews of Poland and Lithuania up to the Middle of the 17th Century: in Paint, Stone and Parchment.Feldheim 2006. Order here.

Masha Greenbaum, The Jews of Lithuania. A History of a Remarkable Community 1316-1945. Gefen Publishing House: Jerusalem & Hewlett, NY 1995. Order here.

Gershon David Hundert, Jews in Poland-Lithuania in the Eighteenth Century. A Genealogy of Modernity. University of California Press: Berkeley 2006. Order here.

Dov Levin, The Litvaks. A Short History of the Jews in Lithuania. Yad Vashem: Jerusalem 2000. Order here.

Ezra Mendelsohn, The Jews of East Central Europe between the World Wars. Indiana University Press: Bloomington 1987. Order here.

Antony Polonsky, The Jews in Russia and Poland. Vol 1: 1350 to 1881. Vol II: 1881 to 1914. Vol III: 1914 to the Present Day. Littman Library of Jewish Civilization: London 2010 etc. Order vols I & II here and here. Vol III in press.

Vilna Studies

Laimonas Briedis, Vilnius. City of Strangers. Central European University Press: Budapest 2009. Order here.

Israel Cohen, Vilna. Introduction by Esther Hautzig. Jewish Publication Society: Philadelphia & Jerusalem 1992 [image reprint of Philadelphia 1943 edition]. Order here.

Lucy S. Dawidowicz, From That Time and Place. A Memoir, 1938-1947.Bantam Books: New York 1991. Order here.

Dovid Katz, Windows to a Lost Jewish Past. Vilna Book Stamps. Versus Aureus: Vilnius 2008. Order here.

Rachel Kostanian-Danzig, Spiritual Resistance in the Vilna Ghetto. Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum: Vilnius 2002. Order here.

Joanna Lisek, Jung Wilne. Żydowska grupa artystyczna. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego: Wrocław 2005.

Czeslaw Milosz, Beginning with my Streets: Essays and Recollections.Farrar, Straus & Giroux: New York 1992. Order here.

Leyzer Ran, Jerusalem of Lithuania. Illustrated and Documented. 3 vols [text in Yiddish, English, Hebrew and Russian]. Vilno Album Committee: New York 1974.

N. N. Shneidman, Jerusalem of Lithuania. The Rise and Fall of Jewish Vilnius. A Personal Perspective. Mosaic Press: Oakville, Ontario & Buffalo, NY 1998. Order here.

Tomas Venclova, Vilnius. A Personal History. Sheep Meadow 2009. Order here.

Language

Yudl Mark, ‘Undzer Litvisher Yidish’ ['Our Lithuanian Yiddish'] in Mendel Sudarsky, Uriah Katzenelenbogen, J. Kissin (eds), Lite (Lithuania). Vol 1, Kultur-gezelshaft fun Litvishe yidn: New York 1951, pp 429-472.

Max Weinreich, History of the Yiddish Language. Edited by Paul Glasser. Translated [from the Yiddish] with the assistance of Joshua A. Fishman. 2 vols. Yale University Press: New Haven & London. In cooperation with YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

Uriel Weinreich, ‘Sabesdiker losn in Yiddish: A Problem of Linguistic Affinity’ in Word 8: 360-377. Linguistic Circle of New York: New York 1952.

Dovid Katz, Litvish: An Atlas of Northeastern Yiddish. A Work in Progress. Available here.

Dovid Katz, Tikney takones: fragn fun yidisher stilistik ['Amended Amendments: Issues in Yiddish Stylistics']. Oxford Yiddish Press: Oxford 1993. Available here.

Dovid Katz, ‘The Phonology of Ashkenazic’ in Lewis Glinert (ed),Hebrew in Ashkenaz. A Language in Exile, Oxford University Press: New York & Oxford 1993, pp 46-87. Available here.

Dovid Katz, ‘Naye gilgulim fun alte makhloykesn: di Litvishe norme un di sikhsukhim vos arum ir’ ['New Incarnations of Old Debates: the Lithuanian Yiddish Standard and the Relevant Debates'] in David E. Fishman (ed), Yivo bleter 2 (new series), Yivo: New York 1994, pp 205-257. Available here.

Religion

Immanuel Etkes, The Gaon of Vilna. The Man and his Image. Translated [from Hebrew] by Jeffrey M. Green. University of California Press: Berkeley 2002. Order here. Review by Dovid Katz.

Immanuel Etkes, Rabbi Israel Salanter and the Mussar Movement.Jewish Publication Society: Philadelphia & Jerusalem 1993. Order here.

Rabbi Yitzchak Kasnett, The World that was Lithuania. A Study of the Life and Torah Consciousness of Jews in the Towns and Villages of Lithuania and Northeastern Poland. Published by The Living Memorial at the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland. Distributed by Menorah Publications: New York 1997.

Alan Nadler, The Faith of the Mithnagdim. Rabbinic Responses to Hasidic Rapture. Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore & London 1997. Order here.

Wolf Zeev Rabinowitsch, Lithuanian Hasidism from its Beginnings to the Present Day. With a forward by Simon Dubnow. Translated from the Hebrew by B. Dagut. Vallentine Mitchell: London 1970.

Shaul Stampfer, Lithuanian Yeshivas of the Nineteenth Century: Creating a Tradition of Learning. Littman Library of Jewish Civilization: London 2010. Order here.

Politics

Jack Jacobs, Bundist Counterculture in Interwar Poland. Syracuse University Press 2009. Order here.

Nora Levin, While Messiah Tarried. Jewish Socialist Movements 1871-1917. Schocken Books: New York 1977. Order here.

Ezra Mendelsohn, On Modern Jewish Politics. Oxford University Press: Oxford 1993. Order here.

Henry J. Tobias, The Jewish Bund in Russia. From its Origins to 1905.Stanford University Press: Stanford 1972. Order here.