Eastern and Central Europe (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

JEWISH CULTURE 31

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
The everyday language of North Eastern European Jewry was Yiddish. By
the early 19th century, Vilnius had emerged as a centre of Jewish learn-
ing. The religious customs of the Litvaks, as Lithuanian Jews are known
in Yiddish, were marked by a rigid analysis of the Talmud, the Jewish
laws and traditions. However, any proliferation of Yiddish litera ture was
cut short by the devas tation of Jewish com munities in World War II.

The Sarajevo Haggadah,

illustrating the Jewish

Passover, is a beautifully

illuminated manus cript

written by Sephardic

Jews in 1350.

Franz Kafka (1883–1924), renowned

for his surreal stories written in

German, was part of a German-

Jewish literary circle in Prague, where

he spent most of his life.

Mark Rothko

(1903–70), a

pioneer of

brooding, medi ta-

tive abstract art,

was born in the

Latvian city of

Daugavpils. He

later moved to

New York.

Sigmund Freud (1856–

1939), the father of

modern psycho analysis,

spent much of his life in

Vienna until Hitler’s inva-

sion of Austria drove him

to London.

The Jewish Museum

in Prague is spread

between four his toric

synagogues. The

museum’s collections

provide a fasci nating

insight into all aspects

of Jewish culture.

The Jewish Culture

Festival in Cracow,

held in June each

year, fea tures films,

theatre, choral

performances and

tradi tional klezmer

music, and is one of

the biggest festivals

of Jewish culture in

the world.

Vilnius was regarded

as the European

Jewry’s most vibrant

cultural centre. It

was famous as a

centre of study

as well as of art

and literature.

EMINENT JEWS
Banned from taking up
most professions until the
late 19th century, Jews lived
largely as traders. However,
over time many gained rec-
ognition in the fields of art
and literature.