Litvaks in South Africa: How to Photograph Nelson Mandela?

Abstract

Lithuanian Jews in South Africa have maintained strong ties with their historical homeland and consciously preserved their cultural identity. They are actively interested in their origins and roots. In this article, I will present part of my PhD research, which focuses on Litvak photographers in South Africa. First, I will briefly introduce the Jewish community and its role in the antiapartheid struggle. I will then define social documentary pho tography, as well as present a short biography of one of the Litvak photographers, Eli Weinberg from Libau. Last, I will discuss my case study of a Nelson Mandela photograph taken by Eli Weinberg, and discuss how this artwork was constructed. Also, I will raise a few other more personal concerns of research method, such as how to avoid the “danger of a single story” (Adichie 2009). Quick Note on the Term Litvak Litvaks are Jews from the territories of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania—present-day Lithuania; parts of Belarus, Ukraine, and Latvia; and the northeastern Suwalki region of Poland. Litvaks, as a territorial and linguistic subgroup of Ashkenazi Jews, are carriers of the northeastern, or Lithuanian, dialect of Yiddish. The Yiddish adjective Litvish means “Lithuanian,” and the noun for “Lithuanian Jew” is Litvak. The term Litvak comes from Litwak, the Polish word for “a man from Lithuania”; however, this usage was discontinued in the nineteenth century, and was revived in 1880 in the narrower sense of “a Lithuanian Jew.” The term is sometimes used to refer to all Orthodox Jews who follow a “Lithuanian” (Ashkenazic and non-Hasidic, following the teaching of the Vilna Gaon) style of life and learning, regardless of their location and community of origin. The area where Lithuanian Jews live is often called Lita. I would like to stress that the geography of Jewish origin plays a key role in my research and is not a question of religion.