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The Running of the Jews

Jill

jewcostume.jpg
A parade participant in the Vilnius Uzgavenes holiday celebration.

Not really sure what to say about this one, other than Sweet Jesus, I didn’t realize Borat was a documentary.

During Carnival – or Uzgavenes, as it is known in Lithuania – Catholics from around the world congregate for a feast of foods prohibited during Lent. The festival usually involves a parade or circus, with attendees in masks and costumes. But in Vilnius – commonly known to Jews as Vilna – participants traditionally dress and act “as Jews,” a feat that generally calls for masks with grotesque features, beards and visible ear locks and that is often accompanied by peddling and by stereotypically Jewish speech.

Perhaps even more shockingly, the “festivities” extend beyond the parade itself and into a Halloween-style trick-or-treating. When Simonas Gurevicius, the 26-year-old executive director of the Jewish Community of Lithuania, opened the door to his house during last year’s Uzgavenes, he was greeted by two children dressed in horns and tails, reciting a song that translates as, “We’re the little Lithuanian Jews/We want blintzes and coffee/If you don’t have blintzes/Give us some of your money.” (It rhymes in Lithuanian.)

Not content to stick only to anti-Semitism, religious bigots in Vilnius also target the Roma population. Roma, also known as “gypsies,” are favorite punching bags all over Europe; Vilnius is apparently no exception to the disturbingly popular anti-Roma sentiments.

The Roma do not fare better. Participants who masquerade as “Gypsies” wear gaudy makeup, hold babies and ask bystanders for money.

Last Friday, Vilnius’s Center of Ethnic Activity hosted an exhibition of Uzgavenes masks and screened archival footage of past celebrations. Masks of Jews were displayed between those of witches and animals, and shown with no apparent compunction to cultural delegates from Latvia and Denmark. In a video shot in Vilnius last year, a man dressed as a Jew carrying a briefcase full of toilet paper haggled with cab drivers as he led a group of people made up as beasts through the streets.

“From my point of view,” said Svetlana Novopolskaja, director of the Roma Community Centre of Vilnius, “Lithuanians like to dress as Roma, like their music and habits, but don’t like Roma as people. They accept them as personages from fairy tales – as hobbits, for example – and are surprised and afraid when they meet real Roma.”

Ethnologist Inga Krisciuniene, who works at the Centre of Ethnic Activity, led the event, explained how she believed that in earlier times, Jews and Gypsies dressed alike. Revelers wore the same mask on Uzgavenes to depict them, so that the characters were distinguishable only by performers’ actions. When asked whether it could be seen as offensive to mock these minorities, Krisciuniene replied, “No one has ever complained.” The intent, she said, is humorous.

“Besides,” she added, “it’s true that Gypsies steal.”

In other words, “It’s just a joke! Except it’s true.” Charming.

Thanks to Nicholas for pointing me to this story.

47 thoughts on The Running of the Jews

  1. Can’t Sascha Baron-Cohen sue for copyright infringement?

    In any case, 100 years ago, this would have been a pogrom. At least we’ve moved forward from there…sigh.

  3. Considering some of the anti-semitic crap I still hear from many Eastern Europeans/Russians along with some “more educated/progressive” Americans of all races in Boston and NYC, I’m sorry to say I am not surprised.

    The latter group can be very insidious as calling them out on their anti-semitic stereotyping will often result in counter-accusations of being supportive of Israeli government policies when most of those who call them out are nothing of the kind. Another example of how going through higher education does not necessarily result in one becoming educated/enlightened.

  4. When asked whether it could be seen as offensive to mock these minorities, Krisciuniene replied, “No one has ever complained.” The intent, she said, is humorous.

    “Besides,” she added, “it’s true that Gypsies steal.”

    That’s what passes for an “ethnologist” at the “Centre of Ethnic Activity.”? I really don’t know what to say.

  6. Roma face all kinds of crap all over Europe as the continent’s single largest ethnic minority. In places like Slovakia, Greece and Bulgaria the situation isn’t just offensive, it’s violent. An activist once told me “To be Roma in Eastern Europe today can be compared to being black in the Jim Crow South.”

    Treatment of Roma differs country to country, but there is, from what I’ve seen and read, some truth to that statement.

  7. Well, at least I had ten seconds of, “Hey, Lithuanian Jews! That’s me! Cool!” before the painful crash into the expected anti-Semitism and anti-Roma racism. Sigh. You make so tired, world.

  8. Well, I can tell a few things about this, as I’m lithuanian. First, even most lithuanians call themselves catholics, only some 10 percent care about religion at all, and uzgavenes is just a mask and trick-or-treating festival for children. Second- people’s opinion about jews is neutral, as few jews live here, and stereotypes do not exist in real life- they come from mid-war period, if not from centuries before. Just as uzgavenes tradition, which also existed for centuries, and never offended large population of jews living here at the time- before WW2 our country never had any ethnical problems, for centuries it was really one of the most tolerant, friendly countries for all ethnicities and cultures, and uzgavenes festival is about cultures living together, rather than halloween-type scare.
    Third thing i’d like to point out, is that constant escalation of jewish anti-lithuanian retoric doesn’t help lithuanians to keep condolence and sympathy they feel to jewish people because of nazi genocide. At the same time, Israel hiding jewish communist criminals who participated in genocide against lithuanians also doesn’t help. Anyway to live tolerantly together, if offended by uzgavenes, lithuanian jewish people- for exampe respected politician E.Zingeris- could have used lithuanian press, and polite discussion could easily lead to altering of uzgavenes tradition. It’s no big deal, and a festival is a minor one. However- some foreign foreign journalist comes and intentionally or unintentionally tries to make enemies..
    And fourth thing- about lithuanian roma people. Only few thousand of them live in Lithuania, but they make good image for themselves. Noone has ever seen a roma people working. Vilnius tabor is absolutely famous for heroin- hundreds of addicts go there for a “hit” every day, and police cannot do anything. Police tried to put their outpost there, but it got burned. These peple don’t send their children to schools, live in antisanitary conditions, don’t even pay utility bills, just live their life of drug money and are protected by minority rights. There was hope, that after EU expancion roma people will leave for richer countries, but it was vain hope- they make enough drug money here. Now, you can ask, are they really that bad? A cruel real life example from real-eastate business: bussinesman has one flat in a house, and wants to buy all other flats, but people don’t sell. So he rents the flat to roma familly. Soon enough, neighbours notwithstanding life there anymore sell the flats.
    Hope, you see, that problem is not with children’s roma masks. Lithuanian roma have every posibillity to earn respect in our country, but do not seem to want to be any respectable. Help them- it’ll be appreciated.

  9. In Lithuania they dress as jews, gypsies, hungarians, and various animals.

    Also in this celebration, the Cannabis Man has a yearly fight with the Bacon Man, who is soundly defeated and run out of town.

    Anti-semitic? Not on your life. Religious bigots? Definitely not. The representations are based on centuries-old stereotypes here in Lithuania. This celebration tradition predates the arrival of christianity in Lithuania.

    Lithuanians have lived side-by-side with jews AND muslims for about 800 years, long before the land even accepted christianity.

    When the Lithuanians fought and defeated the teutonic order at Grunwald, the muslims fought along with Lithuanians. They were granted noble titles, and lands. The jews in Lithuania have historically “hedged their bets”, hoping for Magdeburg-type rights from the germans. Lithuanians DON’T make fun of semitic muslims.

    Any anti-semitism in Lithuania seems to have come through Poland, or from Russia

    When the USSR invaded Lithuania, jews quickly sided with the soviets, as they spoke mainly russian, and they took government jobs under the soviets, which had been forbidden previously. Furthermore, the officers of the NKVD were primarily jewish. When the germans pushed the soviets out, the wholesale reprisals were due more to the backstabbing of jews, than anti-semitism on the part of Lithuanians, who had until then lived in peace alongside their neighbors, who developed many towns and cities.

    I don’t know about outside of Vilnius, but here in the city, gypsies certainly do operate as “above the law”.

    Please, check the history, you’ll find out about the truth, rather than the rhetoric, of Lithuania.

  10. Lithuania is a long way (geographically and culturally) from Kazakhstan. Perhaps not so far from the “Kazakhstan” of Borat’s fiction.

    But yes, antisemitism and antiziganism flourish in Europe. Please don’t imagine that these offensive sentiments are confined to the “backward” nations of Eastern Europe and central Asia which Sasha Baron Cohen parodies. Antisemitic attacks on Jewish people and synagogues have been on the rise in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Europe for the last few years. Tension between Jewish and Muslim groups is particularly strained.

    As for antiziganism, the theme was “gypsies” at the Firle bonfire night celebrations in Sussex, England, just five years ago. And I agree with Miss Sarajevo that discrimination against the Roma is exceptionally widespread and nasty. I see antiziganist feeling expressed on at least a weekly basis in the European press.

  11. Anti-Roma slurs are uttered at the drop of a hat throughout Eastern and Central Europe. It’s astounding and terrifying to see such bigotry up close: blasé and unfiltered.*

    Anti Semitism is also alive and well, as the Lithuanian carnival tradition illustrates. Ironically, it is very strong in places which are the most completely ethnically cleansed of Jews: the region of The Pale of Settlement, or what I fondly call Jidistan: Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, former Austria Hungary, Moldova and other nearby regions where Ashkenazi culture was prevalent.

    In Poland** one can buy genre paintings made for tourists along the usual themes: Important Old Buildings, Happy Peasants, Flowers, and of course an old Jewish guy counting his money. I sometimes make a comment to the artist to the effect of, “OHMIGOD! That’s a portrait of my Grand-Dad! HOWINTHEWORLD did YOU get it?” Of course the artist is confused, doesn’t understand my little performance, and never gets why these paintings are offensive to me, even after a longer conversation. These images are iconic- part of the culture and tradition of Poland.

    In all of Poland there are barely 100,000 Jews, yet “Jews” are everywhere: running the media, controlling the government, and of course, the banks. But no-one seems to really KNOW who they are. And no-one really knows any individual Jews, anyhow. Children play tag, but it’s called “Jew.” The “Jew” is “it.”

    Though I am recognized by my tribe because of my appearance in the US, I walk through Poland without remark. I pass. NOONE REMEMBERS WHAT POLISH JEWS LOOKED LIKE.*** But the culture still remembers how to hate them, in abstentia.

    As an aside: Borat opens his news reports with a Kazhak Greeting. He’s actually greeting us in Polish: “How are you?” His sign off is also in Polish: “Thank you.”

    * I have much more to say about AntiZiganism I have seen, but as my comments center around the Balkans, I’ll save them for another essay. An interesting book on the challenges Roma face in post 1989 Eastern Europe is “Bury Me Standing” by Isabella Fonseca.

    **Relevant to this discussion is the fact that Lithuania was part of Greater Poland for many centuries: not surprisingly, there have been periods of time where there there was significant overlap of these two distinctive cultures–three if one adds the tremendous pre-war Jewish cultural influence on the region.

    ***Of course I may ‘pass’ as Polish also because I no doubt carry some Northern European blood due to “intermarriage” (read: rape, invasion, and yes, probable actual intermarriage over the past 800 or so years.)

  12. Anti-semitic? Not on your life. Religious bigots? Definitely not. The representations are based on centuries-old stereotypes here in Lithuania. This celebration tradition predates the arrival of christianity in Lithuania.

    Um… so? How does something pre-dating Christianity or resting on centuries-old stereotypes mean that it can’t possibly be anti-Semitic?

    Lithuanians have lived side-by-side with jews AND muslims for about 800 years, long before the land even accepted christianity.

    Again, so what? Other Europeans technically lived side-by-side with Jews for a long time too; it certainly didn’t stop anti-Semitism elsewhere.

  13. Second- people’s opinion about jews is neutral, as few jews live here, and stereotypes do not exist in real life- they come from mid-war period, if not from centuries before.

    Again: Just because a stereotype is old doesn’t mean that it isn’t bigoted.

    And your descriptions of Roma people are only illustrating the my point.

    bussinesman has one flat in a house, and wants to buy all other flats, but people don’t sell. So he rents the flat to roma familly. Soon enough, neighbours notwithstanding life there anymore sell the flats.

    Kind of like in the U.S. when someone rents to a black family in a white neighborhood, right? All the neighbors move out because the neighborhood is “going downhill”? And white flight was certainly never about racism, it’s simply about not being able to tolerate “these people,”

  14. The jews in Lithuania have historically “hedged their bets”, hoping for Magdeburg-type rights from the germans.

    Oh no! Those perfidious Jews considered whether or not they could hope for rights guaranteeing them community autonomy, live according to Jewish (rather than Christian) law, sell meat to Christians, and employ Christian servants! And they refused to automatically side with the people who didn’t provide them with those guarantees! Even though those people were totally not anti-semitic you guys, really.

    When the USSR invaded Lithuania, jews quickly sided with the soviets, as they spoke mainly russian, and they took government jobs under the soviets, which had been forbidden previously. Furthermore, the officers of the NKVD were primarily jewish. When the germans pushed the soviets out, the wholesale reprisals were due more to the backstabbing of jews, than anti-semitism on the part of Lithuanians, who had until then lived in peace alongside their neighbors, who developed many towns and cities.

    This may be my favorite part. When the USSR took over, they allowed Jews rights they had been previously denied because of anti-semitism! And then those treacherous disloyal Jews somehow, for some reason sided with the Soviets! I can’t imagine how that could have happened. Those unreasonable, wily, wicked Jews.

    In Lithuania they dress as jews, gypsies, hungarians, and various animals.

    Right. I can’t imagine how anybody could see that as anti-semitic. Everybody knows that Jews and Roma are just like animals, so it makes perfect sense to put them all in the same category.

  16. To Aunti Disestablishmentarian: well, your understanding of history is typically greater-polish and offensive, and this thinking led to polish occupation of large part of Lithuania in 1920ies. Lithuania was never part of Poland- there was only Republic of Two Nations, consisting of Krona Polska and Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
    to Jill: my example is not about rasism- its about single family’s ability to terrorize other families in the house to unlivable condition.

  17. Without being too blunt, it is commonly accepted by historians of the Holocaust – and in this context I include the Nazi slaughter of Roma and other minorities – that Eastern European peoples were often active participants in the process. I would refer you to this website for a quick overview.

    Eastern Europe has had a long tradition of anti-Semitic violence. That is not to say that there were not many Poles, Lithuanians, Estonians, and so forth who risked their freedom and lives to protect their Jewish neighbors, but on the whole the population was at best indifferent and at worst complicit with the Nazi atrocities. That is not to exonerate Western Europe – the Vichy French government actively collaborated with the Nazis in the roundup of French Jews. Remarkably, however, where the local population rejected anti-Semitism the Nazis made little progress. I refer you to the Danish rescue of their Jewish minority – in that case the Nazi occupation authorities hesitated to implement the “Final Solution” in the face of local resistance and when the SS finally attempted to round up the Jewish minority the Danish people smuggled the vast majority of their Jewish neighbors across the straits to Sweden and safety.

    This is not designed to condemn the entirety of the Lithuanian people for being unrepentant participants in the Holocaust. However, it must be recognized that many did collaborate with the Nazi authorities in the pursuit of the genocide of the Jews and Roma. Most importantly, it cannot be overstressed that the “violence against Jews was because of Soviet oppression led by Jews” excuse is a gross falsification of long-standing anti-Semitic trends in Lithuanian history.

  18. Noone has ever seen a roma people working.

    Gee, where have I heard this stereotype before? Replace “roma” with “Mexican” and it’d fit right in with the US. And is an offensive and untrue stereotype in either case.

    Incidently, I think you wanted the word “person” rather than “people”: singular rather than plural would have made more grammatical sense. I’m only saying because you indicated you are from Lithuania so I assume English is not your first language and so constructive criticism might be helpful.

  20. Second- people’s opinion about jews is neutral

    That people don’t come straight out and say “we hate Jewish people” doens’t mean that their opinions are neutral. As the cliche says: Actions speak louder than words.

    as few jews live here, and stereotypes do not exist in real life- they come from mid-war period, if not from centuries before. Just as uzgavenes tradition, which also existed for centuries, and never offended large population of jews living here at the time- before WW2 our country never had any ethnical problems, for centuries it was really one of the most tolerant, friendly countries for all ethnicities and cultures, and uzgavenes festival is about cultures living together, rather than halloween-type scare.

    And just because people didn’t complain doesn’t mean that they weren’t offended. Or, really, that they didn’t complain. History has a way of a making the complaints that fell on deaf ears vanish. Next thing you know, people are saying “Well, nobody complained” when what they really mean was “people complained but we devalued them, and didn’t care, so we didn’t listen.”

    Now, you can ask, are they really that bad?

    No. What I’m thinking is “how can someone type out all of that and still not see the bigotry of their words?”

  21. people’s opinion about jews is neutral, as few jews live here

    Gee, why do you think that is?

    *coughHolocaustcough*

  23. Re: Mike’s comments. EG gave the response I would have given, albeit better than I could have. Except one additional thing. What Lithuanian Jews spoke Russian? My ancestors from the Pale only spoke Russian with, um, Russians (which they only would have had to have learned when the Russians took over the place) … otherwise, they spoke Yiddish.

    Interestingly, we have some pictures of the Lithuanian branch of my family whilst they were still in Lithuania … they were wearing Lithuanian dress, etc. even though they were Jewish.

  24. If you’ve ever encountered gypsies, especially in Italy, you wouldn’t sympathize so much. I had to tackle a gypsy kid to keep him from taking my Latin teacher’s purse the last time I went to rome.

    They cut limbs of their children and themselves so that they can garner more sympathy.

    You can’t use public transportation without one of them trying to reach into your pocket.

    Shut the fuck up about gypsies until you’ve had to deal with them.

  25. Neblogai is obviously racist, and not particularly bright.

    Working in human rights and minority issues in Europe, I’ve come across LOTS of anti-Roma bigotry. What galls me most are the people who say “Why don’t the gypsies work? I never see them work! All they do is beg and have babies.” You see, people who say things like that are exactly the same people who would NEVER EVER hire a Roma person to work in their shop, or even stand for working alongside Roma, or having their children attend a school where Roma children also go. I’ve seen Roma adults told they cannot eat in restaurants, and I’ve seen shopkeepers chase Roma children out of their shops.

    Life is HARSH for Roma. In the countries of the former Yugoslavia many are effectively stateless, having lost personal documents during the conflicts, or having been born during one and never registered at birth. This makes accessing any kind of social service virtually impossible in many places. So, Roma can’t get health care, can’t go to school, and usually find owning or renting property extremely difficult. During the Yugoslav era, Roma were much better off, because the state provided and guaranteed housing, health care, and education for all. In the post-war era, these are scarce, expensive resources that are available first and foremost to those with money and political power. Roma have neither, and have ended up living in conditions you can’t imagine. Their life expectancy is about half that of the “white” population.

    In Greece and elsewhere, Roma are evicted from their informal (squatter) settlements with alarming frequency and usually without due process. In other parts of Eastern Europe, Roma are subject to frequent hate crimes –crimes the police often ignore. However, when Roma commit even petty crimes out of sheer desperation, it’s all over the news, and the police respond immediately and often out of all proportion to the offense. There have been many instances of Roma falling ill or getting injured and ambulance drivers refusing to enter Roma neighborhoods, resulting in the would-be patient’s death. Roma children have been forced to attend racially segregated schools in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Greece, Bulgaria, and other countries. Thankfully, a recent European Court of Human Rights case has brought much-needed attention to this awful policy.

    Remind you of a particular era in American history?

  26. Shut the fuck up about gypsies until you’ve had to deal with them.

    What makes you think that no one here has ever had to “deal with them”?

    I’ve lived in Italy and Greece and traveled pretty extensively through Europe (including much of Eastern Europe). I’ve “had to deal” with a fair share of Roma people. I’ve also “had to deal” with Italians and Greeks and people of every ethnic group who were beggars and pick-pockets. At the end of the day, most Roma — like most Italians and Greeks and Slavs and whoever else — were perfectly fine and mostly ignored me.

  27. Yarr, I have “had to deal with them” –and you’re a fucking racist.

    The things you write are gross stereotypes. Some Roma beg, yes, and some even pick pockets (It’s happened to me, BTW, and it was hardly a huge trauma. Grow the fuck up.) What would you do if you had no other options whatsoever? What if you had been denied education, decent housing, and health care from day one? What if you had been told, all your life, that you were worthless, the lowest of the low, lucky simply for not having died in childhood?

    If the way Roma live appalls you and your countrymen you should petition your government to do what it has been obligated to all along –protect and fulfill the rights of its Roma citizens.

  28. Furthermore, it isn’t like there are no Roma working hard as advocates for their communities –there are plenty, but they are up against, for lack of a better way to put it, the entire “system” of discrimination, enforced poverty, lack of education, and opposition/lack of support from governments that long ago should have gotten their acts together on this.

    The EU also needs to be more involved in helping Roma lift themselves out of poverty, and fighting discrimination.

  29. The Roma face the classic cycle of discrimination – segregation from the mainstream of society (re the Jewish Ghettos) and denial of equality of opportunity, which forces them into subcultural employment practices which the mainstream finds questionable, thus reinforcing the stereotype of the minority group as being “shifty, thieving, and untrustworthy.” There was a reason the Nazis filmed the Polish ghettos for their anti-Semitic propaganda movies – they could show the Jews as subhuman because they lived in awful conditions, thus contributing to the perception that they were less than human.

  30. Miss Sarajevo, you cannot be more wrong about me, your accusations of rasism are funny. I have no problem working or communicating in any way with any ethnicity or culture. Your thinking is the same stereotypical bitogry you accuse me of. Roma being oppressed in some countries is enough for your stereotype that all other countries oppress them, and you choose not to see the see the other side of the truth because then you will not be able to shout your slogans. And even if you see, you will not stand corrected, as this would be agains your global fight agains these super enemies arounf the world. Thats just the reason why activists dont have a good name- because often they are not objective.

  31. and never offended large population of jews living here at the time- before WW2 our country never had any ethnical problems, for centuries it was really one of the most tolerant, friendly countries for all ethnicities and cultures, and uzgavenes festival is about cultures living together, rather than halloween-type scare.

    And just because people didn’t complain doesn’t mean that they weren’t offended. Or, really, that they didn’t complain. History has a way of a making the complaints that fell on deaf ears vanish. Next thing you know, people are saying “Well, nobody complained” when what they really mean was “people complained but we devalued them, and didn’t care, so we didn’t listen.”

    Yes, or they didn’t complain because they had good reason to be afraid to do so.

  32. Yes, or they didn’t complain because they had good reason to be afraid to do so

    And because jews were hated, in Lithuania they were given and for centuries- till Russian occupation in 1795- had better status than most lithuanians?

    In 1388 Vytautas the Great granted the privilege to the Jews in Brest, later extended on other communities. The Jews were proclaimed to be free people, not serves, and like all noblemen were subjects to the Grand Duke. Both rights and responsibilities, in essence similar to those of other free people, testify the high social status of Jews. They were granted the protection of their lives and property, the right of unrestricted mobility, trade, financial activities etc. The exceptional tolerance was shown toward the religion. Jews were not only given the right to practice their faith and celebrate religious holidays. Synagogues and graveyards were also declared under protection. The accusations of Jews using the blood of Christians for ritual purposes were forbidden, since such accusations contradicted with Jewish religious laws. Severe punishment awaited those who violated Jewish religious rights.
    The privilege was later accepted by other Grand Dukes, its main points were included in the First Statute of Lithuania (1529).

  33. In 1388 Vytautas the Great granted the privilege to the Jews in Brest, later extended on other communities. The Jews were proclaimed to be free people, not serves, and like all noblemen were subjects to the Grand Duke. – Neblogai

    Well, see here’s how the anti-Semitism gets started … Jews get special privaleges (i.e. the same sorts of freedoms we in this country take for granted) which the serfs don’t get. So then, everybody gets jealous of the Jews for being given those privaleges.

    But don’t you see something wrong here? Why are basic human rights and responsibilities “privaleges”? Am I just being paranoid and nitpicky here (as a Jew) or is there really in this paragraph a bias of “those Jews oughta be greatful we treated them as humans … especially considering we didn’t even treat our own ethnic kin as humans”. Somehow, I think if I were living in a society which deemd allowing me to worship as I pleased to be a special “privalege” and “exceptional tolerance” and in which the masses were envious of me because I had basic human rights, I would be afraid too.

  34. Ordinarily I stick to the facts as much as possible, but let me be clear. The historical context of traditional Lithuanian treatment of Jews is, in this case, not as significant as the Lithuanian participation in the atrocities of the Einsatzgruppen and other Nazi death apparatuses after the onset of Operation Barbarossa. Within that context such “folk practices” as the one described in the original post are, at the least, in extremely poor taste, if not overtly racist.

    Let me use a parallel. The 13th Amendment ended slavery in the United States after the Civil War, and the 14th and 15th Amendments further reinforced the rights of non-white citizens. However, despite the statutory presentation of equal rights, it took a further century before the issues of civil rights were in any way seriously and practically addressed – ex-slaves had pro forma rights but numerous local statues (literacy tests, etc.) prevented actual exercise of those rights. Therefore merely saying that “a law preventing discrimination was passed on this date” does not mean that discrimination ended as of that point in time.

    Furthermore, while I can understand defending Lithuania in the context of other racist societies (such as Imperial Russia) the fact is that the above-referenced practice is, in the historical context of Antisemitism, in its essence indefensible. Again, using a parallel, one will note that “black-face” minstrel shows and other overtly racist cultural practices considered harmless up until the middle of the 20th Century are now recognized to be unacceptable. I will refer you to the approbation that Michael Richards faced when he used racist terms to refer to audience hecklers, while if you look at the popular media of the 1940s or 1950s in America (re the Song of the South or Warner Brothers cartoons, to pull a couple of random examples) such stereotypes were culturally accepted at that time. Therefore the defense that “it’s harmless, we’ve always done it, we don’t mean it THAT way” is not acceptable.

  35. I have no problem working or communicating in any way with any ethnicity or culture.

    And some of my best friends are…

  36. Jews often came to Eastern European countries because some King promised them rights in order to encourage trade. Then once the Jews were inside, the doors would slam shut and the persecution would begin. It’s a fairly typical story. The “rights” would generally place the Jews under the direct control of the King, which initially sounded good, but in practice meant a lot of money for the King and would result in expulsions and confiscations.

    Lithuania was one of the more anti-semitic eastern european countries, which is saying something. Most of eastern europe has a shortage of Jews but they’ve still got clumps of resentment and bits of jewish and anti-jewish culture floating around, like this.

    Noblogai points out that the Jews received rights in 1388. He fails to point out that Jews were expelled from Lithuania in 1495.

    Tie that into various eastern european nationalists blaming the Jews for Communism and you’ve got a triple score. Marginalizing Jews and Roma has in the end been its own punishment for Lithuania, depriving itself of their skills and abilities. The bouts of anti-semitic and anti-roma posturing by Lithuanian and Slavic commenters here are quite pathetic. Jews and Roma aren’t Lithuania’s problem and their bigotry only prevents them from taking responsibility for their real problems.

  37. I’m pretty sure any ‘rights’ that might have been granted in 1388 do not make up for or explain how jews are treated today over 600 years later. Nice try though.

  38. Well, like I said, I believe uzgavenes tradition can be easily altered, just polite discussion in Lithuanian media is needed. However, while it is probably politicaly correct thing to do, it also deletes understanding about jews as part of our history.
    As for a post of AMOS- yes, jews were expelled-don’t know why- for 8 years in 1495, but you should check your other history facts better. Also, don’t know what is “Most of eastern europe has a shortage of Jews”- but it sounds disrespectful to jews.

  39. while it is probably politicaly correct thing to do, it also deletes understanding about jews as part of our history.

    Oh, I wouldn’t fret about that if I were you. The fact that anti-semitic mockery is a vital part of your history and culture won’t be forgotten any time soon.

    jews were expelled-don’t know why- for 8 years in 1495

    I like “don’t know why.” I mean, there might be any number of perfectly legitimate reasons to forcibly expel citizens living in your country. Nonetheless, based on my knowledge of Jewish history and how and why expulsions happened in other countries I’m going to hazard a guess–anti-semitism?

    Also, don’t know what is “Most of eastern europe has a shortage of Jews”

    It means that until the Holocaust, almost all Eastern European countries had thriving Jewish populations with living cultural traditions and economies and all that good stuff. And that those people were murdered by Nazis and home-grown collaborating anti-semites, so that where only some decades ago Jews were a significant proportion of the population, there is now only a miniscule number.

  40. Well, there certainly seems to be unhealthy anger in any response I get. You should be advocating tolerance, but what i see is only HATE. And hate only gives hate in return. I can also give answers like jews were expelled in 1495 because they hated lithuanians too much. Is it true? No. Lithuanians and jews had good history- till 1940ies, when some lithuanians ****ed it up. Now haters like you are ****ing it up.

  41. Yeah, right. Hundreds upon hundreds of years of persecution and pogroms culminating in the Holocaust, but the real problem is those hateful Jews who have too much “unhealthy” anger. Tell me, what’s the appropriate amount or kind of anger to have at seeing the continued vilification of one’s people in the same old ways that have led to their suffering and death for hundreds of years? What’s the “healthy” response?

    I can also give answers like jews were expelled in 1495 because they hated lithuanians too much. Is it true? No. Lithuanians and jews had good history

    You can, but such an answer has no basis in any history whatsoever, whereas if you look at the history of Eastern Europe and its nations relationship to its Jews, “anti-semitism” is a pretty likely guess. And…”Lithuanians and Jews had good history”? Right. Except for the part where Lithuania expelled the Jews. Note also how you distinguish between “Lithuanian” and “Jew” as two separate categories–for you, Jews can’t be and haven’t been “true” Lithuanians?

    Lithuanians and jews had good history- till 1940ies, when some lithuanians ****ed it up. Now haters like you are ****ing it up.

    Right. Because expressions of anger about anti-semitic mockeries of Jews is exactly the same thing as helping to send one’s neighbors off to death camps. Good analogy, there. But yes, I am a hater of anti-semites. I feel OK about that.

    Hate only gives hate in return? Then you’re reaping what gentiles have sown from centuries and centuries of violent, hateful anti-semitism. You’re reaping what you’ve sown from defending vicious hateful mockeries of Jews. What goes around comes around.

  42. Neblogai, thank you for pointing out our “hate” to us. Truly it’s a privilege to learn how hateful we are from the fellow who wrote such charming comments here as

    “Noone has ever seen a roma people working… There was hope, that after EU expancion roma people will leave for richer countries, but it was vain hope- they make enough drug money here. Now, you can ask, are they really that bad? A cruel real life example from real-eastate business: bussinesman has one flat in a house, and wants to buy all other flats, but people don’t sell. So he rents the flat to roma familly. Soon enough, neighbours notwithstanding life there anymore sell the flats.”

    Please be our guru and teach us the error of our hateful ways. Because somehow criticizing the hatefulness on display in Lithuania, makes us haters. You really picked the wrong place to try out that rhetorical trick.

    The fact is Lithuania doesn’t have a Jewish problem because it really doesn’t have much in the way of Jews. Lithuanians have a problem with their own obsession with Jews and Jewish conspiracies. My own family originates from Lithuania and Poland and the handful that survived WW2 and the aftermath of WW2 when they returned home only to be attacked by their own neighbors who had helped themselves to their houses and possessions (all the while calling Roma thieves), never want to return. Ditto here. Every now and then I get an offer for some Living History or memory tour to Poland or Lithuania and I tear it up and throw it in the trash.

    I have the option of living in my own country. Sadly the Roma don’t. I do hope that they find someplace more hospitable than Lithuania because theirs has been a sad and ugly history

  44. You should be advocating tolerance, but what i see is only HATE.

    Ah, yes- the old “you’re intolerant of intolerance!” cry. You’re barking up the wrong tree, friend- I don’t think that most of us feel particularly compelled to play nice with bigots, and I don’t take it as a personality flaw that I’m intolerant of racial/ethnic/religious/sexual intolerance. So, yes. I hate bigotry.

    I’ll wear that proudly.

    I can also give answers like jews were expelled in 1495 because they hated lithuanians too much. Is it true? No. Lithuanians and jews had good history- till 1940ies, when some lithuanians ****ed it up. Now haters like you are ****ing it up.

    No, refusing to acknowlege “Wow, maybe they’re right, and fucked up, racist costumes maybe aren’t so cool. Maybe it’s not cool to make insulting costumes of ‘Jews’ and parade around mocking them and their cultural/religious beliefs! Maybe it’s, in fact, bad to perpetuate racist beliefs about the Roma, too!” is what is fucking things up.

    Hating racism doesn’t fuck anything up.

  45. All I can say about this is it’s ridiculous to make the claim that Lithuania is “anti-semitic”.

    We have happily and honorably lived side-by-side with arab-tatars, and Karaim, who are devout followers of old hebrew traditions.

    Just the idea of “anti-semitism” in Lithuania is ridiculous. Of all the victims of the holocaust in Lithuania, how many were hebrew, and how many were NON-SEMITIC ashkenazis?

  46. Of all the victims of the holocaust in Lithuania, how many were hebrew, and how many were NON-SEMITIC ashkenazis?

    Excuse me? Are you actually making the claim that Lithuanians helped kill only Ashkenazi Jews, so that’s OK then?

  47. I haven’t finished reading all comments but I just want to say – I am Lithuanian and people like ‘neblogai’ and ‘Mike’ constitute 98% of population in Lithuania. Moreso, Lithuanians are not only anti-semitic, they are also racist, homophobic, misogynistic. Racism, homophobia, misogyny is tolerated in everyday life, work place, media.
    Dressing up like Jews or Roma during Uzgavenes is encouraged even in kindergardens.
    I’m sorry for any grammar/spelling mistakes, obviously, English is not my first language.

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