The current article aims to discuss the loyalty of the Lithuanian Jewish community as one of the most important aspects of its collective behavior. Loyalty characterizes its relation with the outside (in this case the titular majority – Lithuanians). The insights of sociological research seem to recognize that competition between groups increases their perceptible differences, while close cooperation decreases though does not eliminate them completely. However, even in the case of cooperation the final result of intergroup relations may depend on the success or failure of a particular activity. With the aim of confirming the functioning of the above mentioned preconditions in interwar Lithuania, unpublished sources – reports of state security institutions, military commandants, etc. – have been used. These sources testify to certain variations in the Jewish attitudes towards the outside, especially with a view to the fact that the Lithuanian government and society also employed different forms of activity.
The models of behavior of Lithuanian Jews and their dominants varied. This was probably caused by the circumstances and changes of the intergroup relations as well as situational events. The implemented research shows that loyalty demonstrated by Jewish community was not always accepted adequately by the dominant majority, whose expectations with regard to other groups including the Jews were too high. Such misunderstanding did not encourage harmony in the perception and demonstration of loyalty. Loyalty which appeared as a result of cognition was complicated – different contexts of circumstances determined a different quality of loyalty.
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