| Abstract [eng] |
The topic of the dissertation “Jewish (e)migration from Lithuania 1918-1940: reconstruction of the process.” The dissertation aims to analyse and reconstruct the (e)migration process of the largest ethnic minority in Lithuania during 1918-1940 -- the Lithuanian Jews. (E)migration has been a central process in the everyday lives of most Eastern Europeans since the second half of the nineteenth century. Even though Lithuania became an established independent country in 1918, shortly after the end of World War I, emigration processes from Lithuania revived. Concerning Lithuania’s Jewish population, in 1923 (according to the Lithuanian census data), the Jewish community accounted for 150,000 (7%) of Lithuania's total population of 2 million people (excluding the Vilnius region). Concurrently, from 1928 to 1938 – Jews accounted for roughly 34% of all Lithuanian emigrants. These figures are considerable when considering the relatively small size of Lithuania’s Jewish community. The research focuses on reconstructing the process of Lithuanian Jewish emigration from macro and micro perspective. The object of the study Lithuanian Jewish community members who made the decision to leave (short, long or permanent) Lithuania and experiences of (e)migration 1918-1940. The dissertation aims to answer questions: what was Lithuanian emigration policy related to Jewish emigration? What was the social portrait of Jewish emigrants from Lithuania? What were the reasons to (not) emigrate? How First World War experiences of expulsion influenced later Jewish emigration from Lithuania? What was and how emigration preparation looked like? Finally, were the any connections related to Jewish emigration / diaspora and Lithuanian government? The main problem of the research is that in Lithuanian historiography, Jewish migration is understood as separate processes related to Zionist emigration to Mandatory Palestine and economic emigration to South Africa. |
