Jewish kahals in 18th century Lithuania

ENThe West renounced the services of the Jews in the 13th-15th century, and chased them out, while the East had not accepted them in the first place. The Republic-State of Poland and Lithuania became a Jewish homeland. It granted the Jews rights of immigration and of extensive self-government. In Poland the Jews received autonomy during the 14th century, and the first privileges for Jews in Lithuania were granted by Vytautas in 1388. During the 15th-16th century, the main concentration of Jews took place within the residential territories of the Poles-Lithuanians, and the Russians (Ukrainians and Belorussians). According to an 1865 Jewish census, recently published by Prof. Litak of the University of Lublin, there were 1.2 million Jews living in the 9 western provinces of the Russian Empire, whose territory nearly equated that of the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 16th century (the provinces of Vilnius, Kaunas, Grodno, Minsk, Vitebsk, Mogilev, Kiev, Volyne, and Podolia). There were 10.5 million inhabitants in this region; the Jews made up 11.5 % of the population, Lithuanians - 10 %, Poles - 9.5 %, Ukrainians - 40 %, and Belorussians - 25 %. There were barely 1.9 % Russians in this territory. Most of the Jews lived in the provinces of Kiev, Volyne, Podolia, and Mogilev, with Kaunas and Grodno in 5th and 6th place; the provinces of Minsk, Vilnius, and Vitebsk were the least populated by Jews [p. 313].