Žydų verslai Palangoje tarpukario laikotarpiu

LTPirmosios Lietuvos Respublikos laikotarpiu žydai dominavo Palangos versluose. Jie apėmė įvairias verslo sritis, tačiau didžiausias miesto ekonominis potencialas telkėsi poilsio paslaugų ir gintaro pramonės srityse. Todėl nemažos dalies miesto pagrindinėsžydųpajamos priklausė nuoto,arsėkmingas bus kurortinis sezonas. Viešbučiuose ir pensionatuose apsistodavo poilsiautojai iš visos Lietuvos bei užsienio. Žydai jiems teikdavo prekes (gintaro dirbinius, maisto produktus) ir paslaugas (žydai buvo kavinių ir restoranų savininkai, siuvėjai, kirpėjai, kurpiai, vežikai, gydytojai). Ne visi Palangos žydai, vertęsi gintaro prekyba, gaudavo iš šio verslo stabilias pajamas, be to, gintaro apdirbimas nebuvo tokios aukštos kokybės, kaip iki Pirmojo pasaulinio karo. Neatsižvelgiant į tai, Palangos meistrų gintaro produkcija pelnė tarptautinių apdovanojimų ir išlaikė konkurencingas pozicijas pasaulinėje gintaro rinkoje. Nuo 4-ojo dešimtmečio vidurio mieste palaipsniui pradėjo mažėti žydų. Tai lėmė vis didėjanti Lietuvių verslininkų sąjungos įtaka, žydams tapo vis sunkiau konkuruoti su lietuviais, pastariesiems sparčiai užplūdus ekonomines sritis, kuriose anksčiau dominavo žydai, be to, Palangos gaisras iš esmės sunaikino žydų pramoninį rajoną. Nemaža dalis žydų paliko miestą, kai Lietuvą okupavusi Sovietų Sąjunga pradėjo įgyvendinti "nacionalizacinę" turto politiką.Tarp Palangos lietuvių ir žydų mezgėsi darnūs santykiai, nors pasitaikydavo atvejų, kai lietuviai pašiepdavo žydus. Spaudoje, kurioje rašoma apie įvykius Palangoje, buvo kurstomas priešiškumas žydams. Žydai buvo kaltinami, kad pardavinėja supuvusią žuvį lietuviams, "stokoja higienos", piktintasi žydų gausa paplūdimiuose. Tarpukario Palangoje neretai būdavo dirbtinai išpučiama įtampa tarp lietuvių ir žydų dėl LVS veiklos, skatinusios šių tautų žmones varžytis prekybos ir amatų srityse. Spaudoje skelbti raginimai lietuviams užimti žydų verslo sritis neretai įgydavo antisemitinį toną. Tai palaikė žydų, kaip "svetimų" lietuviams, įvaizdį. Kita vertus, neaptikta duomenų, kad įtampa tarp lietuvių ir žydų būtų peraugusi į smurtinius veiksmus [p. 126-127].

ENThe history of Lithuanian Jews is given considerable attention in scientific research, and priority is given to the topic of the Holocaust. For this reason, the situation arises where the Jewish history is viewed only through a prism of genocide carried out by Nazi and their Collaborators, and in the abundance of studies little attention is paid to the issues concerning the dynamics of interaction between Jews and Lithuanians in Lithuanian provinces (shtetls) during the interwar period. The novelty of this study relies on the fact that the significance of businesses characteristic for a specific Lithuanian shtetl in terms of formation of specific relations between Lithuanians and Jews has not been considered so far in scientific works. The purpose posed in the work: to reveal Jewish businesses in the interwar Palanga on the basis of archive documents, memories and periodic sources and to discuss the cases of tension between Lithuanians and Jews resulting from a conflict of trade relations. [...] The industrial fish processing business in Palanga was dominated by the local Jews. They used to buy up fresh fish from Palanga, Šventoji and Klaipėda fishermen, and used to hire the local women to process the fish before placing it on the market. There were three fish smoking plants in the resort. The local Jewish businessmen (resellers) used to buy the products from these smoking plants. Jews used to take raw, salted, dried, smoked fish to the markets of the nearest cities, i.e. Kretinga, Salantai or Skuodas. For this reason, they performed the role of salesmen-brokers. However, only few Jewish families could make a living from such brokerage because fishing was not intense. Activity of Jewish businessmen used to become more intense during the summer season when holidaymakers used to arrive from all over Lithuania and foreign countries.During the entire period of the First Republic of Lithuania the residence of Palanga were mainly dependant on provision of accommodation and catering services to holidaymakers. Back in those days, during the summer season every resident of Palanga used to rent or sell to holidaymakers all objects that could be rented, thus hoping to earn enough money for the rest of the year. The locals often used to move to barns or other farm buildings. The influence of Lithuanians and Jews in this business of the resort was more or less equal. The local Jews rented hotels, guest houses or rooms in their own homes. Thus, the main income of the significant part of the local Jews depended on the success of the holiday season that used to attract holidaymakers from all over Lithuania and abroad both to the resort and its hotels and guest houses. The local Jews were supplying various goods (handcrafts, food products) to the guests of the resort and providing them with various services (cafe and restaurant owners, tailors, hairdressers, shoemakers, cabmen, physicians). [...] Amber processing and trade was the second largest business in Palanga. It was dominated by Jews. Thanks to Jewish initiative and intelligence Palanga became the center of amber industry in Lithuania, and amber products were widely known abroad. 12-13 amber manufacturing and trading companies operated in Palanga during the period from 1919 to 1931. They employed about 200 workers, a significant proportion of whom were Lithuanians. Amber products were exported to USA, Beirut, Damascus, Egypt, Baghdad and other countries of the world. Compared to the contemporary standards of amber products, the equipment used by the local Jews engaged in amber processing and trade activities was not sophisticated and working conditions were pretty poor. [...].Daily relations between Lithuanians and Jews in Palanga were unavoidable and close enough. However, economic partnership and pursuit to make enough money for living was the main goal that united Jews and Lithuanians. Merely a successful development of the amber industry dominated by Jews meant that everyone, from Jewish shopkeepers, butchers and tailors of Palanga to Lithuanian cabmen or jointers, could make money. Since the local Jews and Lithuanians lived in close proximity with each other, as a consequence they used to develop close relations with each other which were not limited to trading exchanges. The local Jews and Lithuanians were classmates, colleagues, sometimes spouses. But relations between Jews and Lithuanian never became friendly, but remained somewhat passive, fairly normal. Fluid relations were developing between the local Lithuanians and Jews. However, both ethnic groups repeatedly challenged over cases involving conflicts of trade interests when Lithuanians used to express their derisive attitude towards the Jews. The Jews were accused of selling the rotten fish to Lithuanians, "lack of hygiene"or a large number of the Jews in the beaches. Such hostility lies in the lack of mutual knowledge, because the Lithuanians "identified" the Jews as "outsiders" as the representatives of unidentified national group with a distinct, "incomprehensible" religion. On the other hand, there are no evidences that tension between Lithuanians and Jews was followed by brutal and violent actions.