Litvak

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Yiddish ליטוואַק (litvak).

Noun

Litvak (plural Litvaks)

1. A Lithuanian Jew, or an Ashkenazi Jew from the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
   • 1950, Isaac Bashevis Singer, chapter 4, in A. H. Gross et al., transl., The Family Moskat, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, page 60:

     A small man, sunburned as a gypsy, in a torn blouse, with a jet-black beard and enormous flashing eyes, was expostulating in a hoarse voice with a peppery Litvak accent, gesticulating violently and flinging his head from side to side.

   • 1971, Bernard Malamud, The Tenants:

     The rabbi under the silk wedding canopy, held up by split triangular poles of quartered eucalyptus exuding an aromatic sap, is ill at ease but ready for business. He’s a middle-aged Litvak, a stocky man in mud-spotted trousers that drip over dried muddy heels.

   • 2013 April 16, Jonathan Cummings, “Digging Deep Into the Collective Kitchens of Israel”, in The Forward:

     Kibbutz Kinneret’s famed teigelach, the honey-drenched cookies beloved by Litvaks, were parceled up in a Red Cross package, intended to reach one of its members who had fallen into Syrian captivity during the 1973 Yom Kippur war. What better way to guarantee that he would know the food came from home?