How Jews Were Seen by the Society of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

How Jews were Seen by the Society of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Jurgita Šiaučiūnaitė-Verbickienė

1 The Context of the Spread of Anti-Judaism in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

The consolidation of intolerance of Jews and the growth of anti-Judaism in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a society whose own Christianisation was a late and lengthy process, was marked by the absorption of common local Christian views of Jews. The attitude to Jews in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which had adapted to Christian Europe, was shaped by the Christian outlook and inter- pretations of behaviour, while local modifications were brought about by the acceptance and understanding of universal stereotypes and myths. It is common to analyse anti-Judaism as the natural result of the religious world-view and thinking of the society of the Medieval and Early Modern periods, which determined a particular view of Jews and Judaism by the society around them. There is no consensus in historiography so far as to which features in the evolution of the society of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania consolidated anti- Judaism, and which events or shifts in society’s development should be linked to its emergence. Closer ties, mainly cultural, with European countries, the wide-ranging activities of the Jesuits, and the religious fanaticism and economic competition that took root in the ever more Christian society and had a strong impact on the attitude of the burghers, and the growing numbers of Jews, are all mentioned as factors behind the spread of intolerance. In reconstructing the attitude of society in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania towards the Jews, the main issue is not the emergence of anti-Judaism as such, but the adaptation and modifications of the Christian anti-Jewish bias in society. To fully understand society’s attitude towards the Jews, it is necessary to dis- tinguish two levels in its relationship with the Jewish community: the official declarations of tolerance, and actual social relations. From the end of the 16th century, the state declared that it would ensure tolerance of its Jewish subjects, defend them against violence, protect Jewish religious buildings and cemeter- ies from desecration, and prevent and control the spread of anti-Jewish myths by tightening the impeachment procedure.1 At least officially, the negation of

1 These provisions were incorporated into the privilege that Vytautas the Great granted to the Brest Jewish community. Procedures in blood libel cases were tightened by Sigismund

90 PArt 1 anti-Jewish myths was to be the position of the Catholic Church. However, relations in daily life were far from the public declarations of tolerance. Society’s self-awareness, mentality, and the shifts in its values were crucial to the development of the image of the Jew, and especially to changes in it. A recurring pat- tern has been observed: the image of the Jew frequently emerged as a contrast to society’s main values, and thus crystallised the vices condemned by society. In general, a trend towards the formation of mutual attitudes is characteristic of the relationship between followers of the dominant religion and those who do not belong to it.2 The anti-Jewishness in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania differed slightly from that in other Central Eastern European countries. This difference was brought about by the fact that in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, contact with Jews as economic subjects had preceded the state’s Christianisation: Jews established themselves in the economy more rapidly than the Christianisation of the burghers, and even more so of the peasantry. This is why it is hard to discern characteristics of a classic conflict between Christianity and Judaism in the earliest anti-Jewish declarations in the first half of the 16th century: more re- sentment is targeted at Jews as economic rivals, and their ostensible detriment to society.

2 The Attitude towards the Jews

An attempt was made in historiography to identify the earliest manifestations of anti-Judaism at the turn of the 20th century, which was dominated by a number of points of departure: the banishment of the Jews by Grand Duke Alexander in the late 15th century, the burghers’ first testimonies against their Jewish rivals, the Union of Lublin, which brought about more Polish cultural influence, and the strengthening of the Jesuits, which took place at approxi- mately the same time. Bearing in mind how dynamic and significant the 16th century was to the social development of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, differ- ences in dating the first manifestations of anti-Judaism are not so important, especially when features of anti-Judaism were gradually emerging in different

Augustus and Stephen Bathory; for more on the what they introduced, see: Jurgita Šiaučiūnaitė-Verbickienė, Žydai Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės visuomenėje: sambūvio aspektai (Vilnius: Žara, 2009), 90–91. 2 Janusz Tazbir, “Stosunek protestantów do Żydów”, in Świat panów Pasków. Eseje i studia (Łódż: Wydawnictwo Łódzkie, 1986), 241.