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Report From Lithuania
Publication Date: November 1999
Publisher(s): Hadassah International Research Institute on Jewish Women
Author(s): Basia Nikiforova
Series: Working Paper Series no. 6, November 1999. pp. 117-121
Special Collection: Berman Jewish Policy Archive
Topic: Culture and religion (Religion and religious groups)
Population and demographics (Ethnic and racial groups)
Social conditions (History)
Keywords: Assimilation; Culture; Intermarriage; History
Type: Brief
Coverage: Lithuania
Abstract:
The author explains the situation of the Lithuanian Jewish community, situating it in its historical and geopolitical context. The tiny remaining community (5,500) constitutes 0.2% of the population of Lithuania, has a 41% rate of intermarriage, and 56% of their children are born into families of mixed-origin. Only 42% of them identify themselves as Jewish. To what extent Jews might disappear in Lithuania and how quickly that could occur depends on the current and future Jewish identity of children from mixed marriages, and the focus of the authorÂ’s research is the role of Jewish women in the promotion of childrenÂ’s Jewish identity in the mixed family.