Lithuanians and jews in 1914-1918: motives for political cooperation

EN[...] Any political cooperation between the ethnic Lithuanians and the Jews of Lithuania was not based on tolerance on the part of the Lithuanians or patriotism on the part of the Jews. Rather, it was the circumstances of the situation that forced politicians from the two national camps to enter into compromises with each other. The mutually exclusive ideological positions of the two sides, as well as their independently formulated and distinct political programmes, remained deeply entrenched. This contradiction is well illustrated by what happened with the "Lithuania of Nations" concept, which was promoted by Lithuania’s Zionists but which never received any expression of support, let alone any practical suggestions for its implementation, from either the Lithuanian Council or any other Lithuanian institution. Yet even today, among Jewish historians, the myth remains alive that the history of interwar Lithuania began with this project and was only later re-routed towards the model of Lithuania as a nation-state. Fortunately, although both Lithuanians and Jews, as shown in this paper, had started out being deaf to one another, a long-lasting period of dialogue and institutional cooperation subsequently developed. This not only helped the Lithuanian Council to survive but also supported Zionist politics. The interwar period in East Central Europe is generally considered to have been a time when nationalists from majority populations were in the ascendancy. Although the ethnic Lithuanian nationalists also thrived during this period in the Republic of Lithuania, so, incidentally, did the Jewish nationalists (Zionists) within Lithuania’s Jewish community.