Etymology
{{further, Lithuanian Yiddish, Ostjuden TheEthnicity, religious customs and heritage
{{further, Timeline of Jewish history in Lithuania and BelarusHistory
{{main, History of the Jews in Lithuania Jews began living in Lithuania as early as the 13th century.{{citation needed, date=December 2012 In 1388, they were granted a charter byLitvaks in the Second World War
{{More citations needed section, date=April 2014 The Jewish Lithuanian population beforeCulture
Litvaks have an identifiable mode of pronouncing Hebrew and Yiddish; this is often used to determine the boundaries of Lita (area of settlement of Litvaks). Its most characteristic feature is the pronunciation of the vowel holam as {{IPA, j} (as against Sephardic {{IPA, ː}, Germanic {{IPA, u} and Polish {{IPA, j}). In the popular perception,{{by whom, date=November 2013 Litvaks were considered to be more intellectual and stoic than their rivals, the Galitzianers, who thought of them as cold fish. They, in turn, disdained Galitzianers as irrational and uneducated. Ira Steingroot's "Yiddish Knowledge Cards" devote a card to this "Ashkenazi version of the Hatfields and McCoys". This difference is of course connected with the Hasidic/ misnaged debate, Hasidism being considered the more emotional and spontaneous form of religious expression. The two groups differed not only in their attitudes and their pronunciation, but also in theirGenetics
{{further, Genetic studies on Jews The Lithuanian Jewish population may exhibit a geneticNotable people
Among notable contemporary Lithuanian Jews are: * Mendele Mocher Sforim, was a Jewish author and one of the founders of modern Yiddish and Hebrew literature *Brothers Emanuelis Zingeris (a member of the LithuanianSee also
* :People of Lithuanian-Jewish descent *Notes
{{Reflist, 2References
* ''Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, and Culture. Themes and Phenomena of the Jewish Diaspora, Volume 1''. Avrum M. Ehrlich, ABC-CLIO, 2009. {{ISBN, 978-1-85109-873-6.Further reading
* Dov Levin, ''The Litvaks: A Short History of the Jews of Lithuania''; translated from the Hebrew by Adam Teller. New York: Berghahn Books, 2001, {{ISBN, 965-308-084-9 * Alvydas Nikžentaitis, Stefan Schreiner, Darius Staliūnas, Leonidas Donskis, ''The Vanished World of Lithuanian Jews'', Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2004, {{ISBN, 90-420-0850-4 * Dovid Katz, ''Lithuanian Jewish Culture''. Vilnius: Baltos lankos and Budapest: Central European University Press, 2010, {{ISBN, 978-9639776517 * Dovid Katz,External links