VILNA, WILNO, VILNIUS: LA JÉRUSALEM DE LITUANIE

Paris; La Découverte, 1993. Hardcover. Publishers cloth. 8vo. 485 pages. 24 cm. First edition. In French. ‘Vilna, Jerusalem of Lithuania'. "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. " (Description; French Publishers Agency) Subjects: Jews - Lithuania - Vilnius - History. Joden. Vilnius (Lithuania) - History. Vilnius (Lithuania) - Intellectual life. Vilnius (Lithuania) - Ethnic relations. Wilna. Juden. Light wear to outer edges, light wear to spine, otherwise fresh and clean. Good condition. (EE-4-53) Xx.