The Tradition of the Use of the Yiddish Dialect of Lithuanian Jews (Litvaks) in Lithuania

Lithuanian Yiddish, called Litvish or Litvishe Yiddish, together with its main spreaders - Ashkenazi Jews who emigrated from Western and Central Europe - established itself in almost the entire territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania around the 15th century. After the catastrophe of the Holocaust, the number of users of the Litvish dialect and the intensity of the cultural expression of the dialect decreased significantly but did not disappear. Currently, the dialect is used as a native and/or domestic, cultural language in Lithuania by several Jewish and mixed families, a small group of the religious community, dialect researchers, and spreaders of Litvish folklore and literature, as well as enthusiasts of this dialect who have learned the language in special courses.

Litvish - a dialect of non-Hebrew Jewish languages - is extremely rich in terms of vocabulary and grammatical forms, and culturally influential in the global Jewish diaspora. Due to its rich and significant cultural, religious, and literary heritage, and the activities of the YIVO Institute for scientific research of Jewish culture, which operated in Vilnius in the 3rd decade of the 20th century, the Lithuanian Yiddish dialect became the grammatical and literary standard of modern literary Yiddish. Strong Jewish self-awareness and respect for one’s language and culture helped preserve the features of a particular dialect: traces of multilingualism in the standardized Yiddish language (Hebrew, Aramaic and Slavic vocabulary, phonetics, pronunciation), and a linguistic imprint of Litvaks’ living environment on the Lithuanian Yiddish dialect. The Litvak language is receptive, so it easily absorbed the peculiarities of the surrounding languages and applied them in its own dialect.

Litvish is the main language expressing the ethnic-and cultural identity of the Litvaks - Lithuanian Jews - and conveying the historical experience of the community. The revival and development of this language is an existential task of the current Jewish community in Lithuania. Preservation of the disappearing dialect, with the help of various means of community promotion, formal and unformal cultural education, as well as research, measures related to the historic memory, helps to nurture the identity of the Jewish diaspora and strengthen social ties, and contributes to the well-being of society.

Submission by the Lithuanian Jewish Community

Tradition bearers – Brancovskis and Gurevičius families in Vilnius, about 10 families in Vilnius, Kaunas, Šiauliai, Klaipėda, members of the Lithuanian Jewish community, researchers of the Yiddish dialect, teachers, translators, etc.