Editing Trakai (section)

==Karaim community==
[[File:Trakai Kenesa.JPG|left|thumb|The Karaim [[kenesa]]]]
[[Crimean Karaites|Karaim]] (or Karaites) are a small [[Karaim language|Turkic-speaking]] religious and [[Jewish]] ethnic group resettled to Trakai by Grand Duke [[Vytautas]] in 1397 and 1398 from [[Crimea]], after one of his successful military campaigns against the [[Golden Horde]]. Both Christian and Karaim communities were granted separate self-government in accordance with the [[Magdeburg rights]]. Despite ever-increasing [[Polonisation]], Trakai remained a notable center of Karaim cultural and religious life. Scholars who were active in Trakai in the 16th and 17th centuries include [[Isaac of Troki]] (c. 1533 – c. 1594), Joseph ben Mordechai Malinowski, Zera ben Nathan of Trakai, Salomon ben Aharon of Trakai, Ezra ben Nissan (died in 1666) and Josiah ben Judah (died after 1658). Some of the Karaims became wealthy and noble.

The local Karaim community, which was the backbone of the town's economy, suffered severely during the [[Khmelnytsky Uprising]] and the massacres of 1648. By 1680, only 30 Karaim families were left in the town. Their traditions, including not accepting [[wikt:neophyte|neophyte]]s, prevented the community from regaining its strength. Early in the 18th century war, famine, and [[Bubonic plague|plague]] reduced the Karaims to three families. By 1765 Karaim community increased to 300{{Clarification needed|reason=People? Families? What is meant by the number?|date=August 2023}}. [[Trakai kenessa|Trakai's Karaim kenesa]] is a rare example of a surviving [[wooden synagogue]] with an interior dome.<ref>Preserved Wooden Synagogues in Lithuania, documented by the Center for Jewish Art at Hebrew University in 1996 and 2004
{{cite web |url=http://cja.huji.ac.il/Architecture/Wooden-synagogues-Lithuania.htm |title=Wooden Synagogues in Lithuania |access-date=17 December 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070805112653/http://cja.huji.ac.il/Architecture/Wooden-synagogues-Lithuania.htm |archive-date=5 August 2007}}</ref> [[Kibinai]], which is the traditional Karaim pastry, became a local speciality and are mentioned in tourist guides.<ref>Lonely Planet Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania, 2012, p. 25.</ref>