Liekis, Šarūnas : A State within a State? Jewish Autonomy in Lithuania, 1918-1925

This Book is a principal milestone in the revival of serious Judaic studies in Eastern Europe. Sarunas Liekis, a young Lithuanian scholar, was the first student in post-Soviet Lithuania to take the field seriously and to achieve international standards. He was inspired to Jewish studies by Professor Meir Shub at Vilnius University and went on to complete his doctorate at Brandeis University, with stints at Oxford, Jerusalem and Washington. By gaining the ability to master texts in Yiddish and Hebrew, in addition to Polish, Russian and his native, Lithuanian, he is able to synthesize sources from the diverse communities (and tendencies) of interbellum Lithuania. His thoroughness as a historian is graced by a rare sense of balance and fairness, and an openness that leads to wherever the evidence takes him. Hi is the first among a new generation of fine Judaic studies specialists in Eastern Europe.