Vilna, Wilno, Vilnius: The Jerusalem of Lithuania
Publisher
:
La Découverte
Parution date
:
1999
EAN
:
9782707132017
Description
Though Vilnius is known today as the capital of Lithuania, at different times in its complex history it was also German, Polish and Russian, known as Wilna, Wilno and Vilna. A vital religious and political crossroads, it was considered the center of Judaism in Europe, giving birth to a group of renowned artists and intellectuals. In this enlightening work, Henri Minczeles exposes the city’s remarkable history, which has been long misunderstood. Known to the Jews as Vilnè, the city was the heart of a culture and region which straddled several countries: Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus and Northern Ukraine. Both a cradle of Jewish socialism and a stronghold of Zionism, Vilnius experienced a veritable cultural golden age. It saw a boom in artistic, scholarly and literary activity, and the Yiddish language flourished.
On the darker side, anti-Semitism, pogroms and ghettos also pervade Vilnius’ history. The Shoah brought an end to prosperity, massacring an entire population and its culture and extinguishing the foremost center of rabbinical learning in Europe. The result of years of research, Henri Minczeles’ work illuminates the history of this legendary city known as the Jerusalem of Lithuania.
Author
Henri Minczeles : Henri Minczeles, journalist and historian, is a specialist in Eastern European history. He is the author of several books, among them two references works: Vilna, Wilno, Vilnius. La Jérusalem de Lithuanie (La Découverte, 1993) and Histoire générale du Bund, un mouvement révolutionnaire (Denoël, 1993.)
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