Dovid Katz
Encyclopedia
Dovid Katz (born 1956) is an American
-born, Vilnius
-based Judaic studies professor, Yiddish specialist, and political activist, currently living in Lithuania
.
borough of Brooklyn
into the Lithuanian-Jewish (Litvak
) family of the award-winning Yiddish poet Menke Katz, Dovid Katz graduated from Columbia University
in 1978, completing a doctorate on the origins of the Yiddish language at the University of London
. A founding instructor of the Yiddish studies program at Oxford University, Katz began publishing Yiddish fiction while in the United Kingdom
under the nom de plume Heershadovid Menkes in 1992, following the passing of his father. He co-founded the Oxford Institute for Yiddish Studies in 1994, serving as research director for the institute until 1997.
Katz relocated to Vilnius
in the late 1990s in order to establish a Yiddish program at Vilnius University
, where he was hired by Mendy Cahan, after a brief period of work at Yale University
. Professor Katz is the author of Words on Fire: The Unfinished Story of Yiddish (2007), whose trajectory traces the evolution of the Yiddish language over a millennium as well as three books of fiction in Yiddish and numerous scholarly works on aspects of the Yiddish language and Lithunian Jewish culture.
history in the national historical narratives of the Baltic states
, condemning them as aiming at both mitigating the extent of local involvement in the tragedy and trivializing and obfuscating the Holocaust.
Katz has defined a phenomenon he refers to as "Holocaust obfuscation", associated not with a popular anti-semitism
among the Lithuanian people but with an "anti-Semitic establishment that is based not among everyday people, but among the elites of government and some of its agencies and some quasi-academic institutions." Observing the treatment of the Holocaust history in the Baltic states
, Katz has spoken of an organized campaign oriented around various strategems
Registering his dissent against the United Kingdom's Conservative Party
's efforts to align itself with the controversial eastern European right in 2009, Katz has suggested that the party must not get "off the hook for their dalliances with some of the worst racists and Holocaust perverters in eastern Europe, who have turned obfuscation and distortion of history into foreign policy and for whom the watering down of the notion of genocide is a prime principle," dismissing support for such a bloc from British politicians as an ethically "untenable" stance.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
-born, Vilnius
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
-based Judaic studies professor, Yiddish specialist, and political activist, currently living in Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
.
Biography
Born in the New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
borough of Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
into the Lithuanian-Jewish (Litvak
Litvak
Litvak may refer to:* Lithuanian Jews* Lithuanian Yiddish dialectPeople:* Anatole Litvak* Lydia Litvak...
) family of the award-winning Yiddish poet Menke Katz, Dovid Katz graduated from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in 1978, completing a doctorate on the origins of the Yiddish language at the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
. A founding instructor of the Yiddish studies program at Oxford University, Katz began publishing Yiddish fiction while in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
under the nom de plume Heershadovid Menkes in 1992, following the passing of his father. He co-founded the Oxford Institute for Yiddish Studies in 1994, serving as research director for the institute until 1997.
Katz relocated to Vilnius
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
in the late 1990s in order to establish a Yiddish program at Vilnius University
Vilnius University
Vilnius University is the oldest university in the Baltic states and one of the oldest in Eastern Europe. It is also the largest university in Lithuania....
, where he was hired by Mendy Cahan, after a brief period of work at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. Professor Katz is the author of Words on Fire: The Unfinished Story of Yiddish (2007), whose trajectory traces the evolution of the Yiddish language over a millennium as well as three books of fiction in Yiddish and numerous scholarly works on aspects of the Yiddish language and Lithunian Jewish culture.
Holocaust-related work
Katz has been an outspoken critic of the presentation of HolocaustThe Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
history in the national historical narratives of the Baltic states
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
, condemning them as aiming at both mitigating the extent of local involvement in the tragedy and trivializing and obfuscating the Holocaust.
Katz has defined a phenomenon he refers to as "Holocaust obfuscation", associated not with a popular anti-semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
among the Lithuanian people but with an "anti-Semitic establishment that is based not among everyday people, but among the elites of government and some of its agencies and some quasi-academic institutions." Observing the treatment of the Holocaust history in the Baltic states
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
, Katz has spoken of an organized campaign oriented around various strategems
"including delegitimization of the anti-Nazi resistance (resulting most recently in prosecutorial campaigns against Holocaust survivors who resisted); delegitimization of the Wiesenthal Center and efforts to bring Nazi war criminals to justice; extreme embellishment of Jewish participation in Soviet rule; redefinition by law of the word 'genocide'; provocation of anti-Semitic moods centered on local Jews and Holocaust survivors; marginalization of valiant local non-Jewish champions of truth-telling, and their replacement by lavishly sponsored 'double genocide' commissions, research centers and museums. Discussion of successes to date in the European Parliament."
Registering his dissent against the United Kingdom's Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
's efforts to align itself with the controversial eastern European right in 2009, Katz has suggested that the party must not get "off the hook for their dalliances with some of the worst racists and Holocaust perverters in eastern Europe, who have turned obfuscation and distortion of history into foreign policy and for whom the watering down of the notion of genocide is a prime principle," dismissing support for such a bloc from British politicians as an ethically "untenable" stance.
External links
- Dovidkatz.netDovid Katz's official site
- The Holocaust in the BalticsDovid Katz's research site on the Holocaust in the Baltic republics