Ar Abiejų Tautų Respublikos žydų teisinė padėtis buvo vienoda? Žydų teisinio statuso Lietuvos Didžiojoje Kunigaikštystėje ištakos ir klostymosi tendencijos

Santrauka

The problems assessed in this article were not raised in historiography because of objective reasons which explain the development of historiography itself as well. We aim to reveal the circumstances, crucial moments, and most powerful interpretations which led to the situation when the history of the Jews in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (further – GDL), especially after the Lublin Union (1569), ceased to be a separate research object by analyzing the historiography that appeared in different historical contexts and periods. The article assesses the following questions: first, is the history of the Jews in the GDL different from that of the Polish? Second, when these differences appeared, what was the legal basis for them to develop, and what led to the distinction of legal and social status of the Jews in two parts of the Commonwealth? An additional problem revealed in this article is the identification of the first privilege granted to the Jews of the GDL. To answer these questions, the general privileges (Pol. przywilej generalny) and articles of Lithuanian Statutes are analyzed. It can be concluded that the unification of the status of the Jews in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth could have been successful only if the reforms of Jewish status, suggested by the Four Year Diet (1788–1792), were applied in practice. But the suggested reforms were directed to the attempts to include Jews into society by reducing their isolation rather than to unify the status of the Jews in both parts of the Commonwealth. The creation of Jewish legal status in the GDL, starting already from the first general privileges, was turning the same direction – at the same time the privileges were granted and the statements of Lithuanian Statutes were adapted to the Jewish community. Such practice shows that the development of the Jewish legal status was directed towards the integration of the Jewish community into society rather than to the unification of their legal status in both parts of the Commonwealth. This tendency was dominant and motivated the uniqueness of Jewish legal status in the GDL.