Guide to the Papers of Leon Feinberg (1897-1969) 1906-1969 (bulk 1920-1960) RG 601

Processed by Marek Web. Additional processing by Rachel S. Harrison as part of the Leon Levy Archival Processing Initiative, made possible by the Leon Levy Foundation.

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
Email: archives@yivo.cjh.org
URL: http://www.yivo.org

Electronic finding aid was encoded in EAD 2002 by Rachel S. Harrison in December 2011. Description is in English.</h5>

Collection Overview

Title: Guide to the Papers of Leon Feinberg (1897-1969) 1906-1969 (bulk 1920-1960) RG 601

Predominant Dates:bulk 1920-1960

ID: RG 601 FA

Extent: 14.83 Linear Feet

Arrangement: The materials in this collection are arranged topically and by format. The correspondence, Yiddish subject files and some of the written materials are arranged alphabetically according to the Yiddish alphabet. The Russian subject files are arranged according to the Russian alphabet. Personal names of correspondents have been transliterated, journal titles and organization names have been transliterated and translated, and the titles of speeches and writings have been transliterated and translated. Yiddish names have been transliterated according to YIVO standards except when the individual is known in English by another spelling. Additionally, if the name appeared in Latin letters anywhere within the folder, that spelling was used rather than a standard transliteration. The collection is organized in ten series, some of which have been further subdivided into subseries. The original inventory was completed in October 1974 by Marek Web. Additional processing completed in December 2011.

Languages: Yiddish, Russian, English, Hebrew

Abstract

This collection contains the personal and professional papers of Yiddish journalist, poet, novelist, and translator Leon Feinberg. These materials include correspondence with Yiddish literary figures and with organizations, newspaper clippings about writers and about Leon Feinberg and his works, subject files, manuscripts of works by Feinberg and by other writers, and some of Feinberg’s personal documents. These materials relate to Feinberg’s long career with various Russian and Yiddish periodicals and literary organizations.

Scope and Contents of the Materials

The materials in this collection relate to Feinberg’s literary works in Russian and Yiddish, consisting mainly of correspondence with Yiddish literary figures and with organizations, as well as newspaper clippings and subject files. Correspondents include A. Almi, Ephraim Auerbach, Shlomo Bickel, Menahem Boraisha, Ossip Dymow, Jacob Glantz, Aaron Glanz-Leyeles, Jacob Glatstein, Abraham Golomb, Chaim Grade, Peretz Hirschbein, David Ignatoff, Rachel Korn, H. Leivick, Itzik Manger, Mani Leib, Moshe Nadir, Shmuel Niger, Joseph Opatoshu, Abbo Ostrowsky, Melech Ravitch, A.A. Roback, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Abraham Sutzkever, Malka Heifetz Tussman, and Zishe Weinper.

There is also family correspondence, materials relating to the Yiddish P.E.N. Club and the I.L. Peretz Yiddish Writers Union, including correspondence, newspaper clippings, circulars, correspondence about the World Conference of Yiddish Writers in 1964, and lists of Yiddish P.E.N. Club members. Clippings include articles about writers, about Leon Feinberg’s work and his subject files. Among the various topics collected by Feinberg for reference are materials about Yiddish language, Yiddish writers and literature, Jews in the Soviet Union, and Russian Jewish writers. Manuscripts of Feinberg’s works consist of poems, translations, plays, and fragments of novels. There are also manuscripts by other writers, copies of speeches and lectures, and personal documents. The materials in this collection date from 1906-1969, the bulk of which are from 1920-1960.

Historical Note

Yehudah Aryeh Leyb (Leon) Feinberg was born 6 February 1897 in Kodyma, Podolya Province, Russia (now Ukraine), the son of Rabbi Nathan Samuel Feinberg and Sheva Tomashpolsky Feinberg. He attended kheyder until he was 9 years old and then at age 10, the family moved to Odessa, where Feinberg entered the Iglitzky-Rapoport gymnasium and his father was the editor of the Odeser Folksblatt (Odessa People’s Journal). Feinberg’s father was later arrested and then forced to leave Odessa on account of an article in this publication, at which point he traveled to the United States to search for a job. Rabbi Feinberg later taught chemistry at Ohio State University and Hebrew educational practices and wrote several books.

Leon Feinberg had already started writing poetry in Russian by the age of 12 and he published his first volume of Russian poetry in 1914, having been strongly influenced by the Russian Symbolists. Feinberg completed his studies at the Iglitzky-Rapoport Gymnasium in Odessa in 1912 and then traveled to America for the first time, following his father. After returning to Russia with his father, Feinberg started attending Moscow University in 1915. He won first prize in the 1918 All-Russian Poetry Competition for his poem “The Soul of Russia.” He graduated from Moscow University in 1919 with a diploma in literature, languages and philosophy. He published his works in several Russian journals in Moscow, including Neva, Lietopis (Record), which was published by Maxim Gorky, and others, often under the pseudonym Leonid Grebniev. He also published several books of Russian poetry and was involved in the Imaginist Group of poet Sergei Yesenin.

Feinberg served three years as an officer in the Red Army during the Bolshevik Revolution, including spending some time as the adjutant for the important Soviet commissar Jan (Yakov) Gamarnik, who was H.N. Bialik’s brother-in-law. He was captured by the White forces of General Anton Ivanovich Denikin in the violent struggles in Southern Ukraine in autumn 1919 and only escaped to Turkey through the intervention of Bialik in 1920. Also in 1920, and also with Bialik’s help, Feinberg traveled to Palestine and was one of the founders of a new kibbutz, Kiryat Anavim, near Jerusalem. He traveled all over the world as a sailor, to Morocco, Tunis, Algiers, India, and various countries in Europe before immigrating to the United States in 1921.

He continued to write in Russian when he first arrived in the United States, publishing in Russian journals in New York and Chicago, including Novoye Russkoye Slovo (New Russian Word), where he worked as a literary editor. He later began writing in Yiddish and published his poems and other works, including translations into Yiddish of Russian and English literature and articles on public affairs, in many important Yiddish journals in the United States, Poland, Argentina, Israel, and several other countries. His first Yiddish poem was published in the Freie Arbeiter Stimme (Free Voice of Labor) in 1921. He continued to use the name Leonid Grebniev or just L. Grebniev, Leonid Amarant, Alter Eno, L. Gorin, L. Senders, F. Gorny, and other pseudonyms.

From 1926-1929 Feinberg worked as a co-editor and member of the writing staff at the Freiheit (Freedom). He quit over what he felt was the Freiheit’s anti-Jewish response to the Arab pogrom in Hebron, Palestine in 1929. He returned to the newspaper in 1932 but then quit again when he canceled his membership in the Communist Party in 1939 in connection with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. He wrote for the monthly Der Hamer (The Hammer), Di Feder (The Pen), Freie Arbeiter Stimme, Yiddishe Tageblatt (Yiddish Daily News), Morgn Zhurnal (Morning Journal), Amerikaner (The American), Freiheit, Morgn-Yidishe Kultur (Morning Yiddish Culture), Di Naye Prese (The New Press), Jewish Daily Forward, Zukunft (Future), Der Groyser Kundes (The Big Stick), Der Vokh (The Week), Undzer Veg (The Way), Yidisher Kultur (Jewish Culture), Vayter (Further), Yidisher Kemfer (Jewish Fighter), Literarishe Bleter (Literary Pages) in Warsaw, Di Prese (The Press) in Buenos Aires, Di Goldene Keyt (The Golden Chain) in Tel Aviv, and Epokhe (Epoch), which he and I.A. Weissman published and edited from 1943-1947. He was an editor for the leftist journals Funken (Sparks) and Signal from 1933-1934. He became a feature writer, and later city editor, for Der Tog (The Day) starting in 1941, where he spent many years editing the news columns and writing numerous articles speaking out against Communism. He was the president of the Yiddish P.E.N. Club in New York and the vice president of the I.L. Peretz Writers Union. He also worked for the Yiddish Arts Theater, 1923-1926 and the Artef Theater, 1932-1934.

Feinberg wrote 15 books of prose and poetry in Yiddish and four books in Russian as well as numerous unpublished writings. He published an anthology in Russian of the Yiddish poets in America, in which there are over 300 poems from more than 100 poets. He won the Leib Hoffer prize in Buenos Aires for his book Der Farmishpeter Dor (The Doomed Generation) and in 1966 he received the Liza and Willie Schorr Literary Stipend from the Jewish Culture Congress. English translations of his work are to be found in Joseph Leftwich's The Golden Peacock (1940), and J. B. Cooperman's America in Yiddish Poetry (1967).

Leon was married to Florence Weingarten on October 18, 1932. They had 5 children: Gerald, Babette, Rita, Harriet, and Norman. Leon Feinberg passed away January 22, 1969 in New York.

Subject/Index Terms

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions: Permission to use the collection must be obtained from the YIVO Archivist.

Use Restrictions:

Permission to publish part or parts of the collection must be obtained from the YIVO Archives. For more information, contact:

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011

email: archives@yivo.cjh.org

Acquisition Method: The collection was given to the YIVO Archives by Leon Feinberg’s family in 1970.

Separated Materials: There is no information about materials that are associated by provenance to the described materials that have been physically separated or removed.

Related Materials: Feinberg’s correspondence is represented in several other collections within the YIVO Archives. In addition, the YIVO Archives has the Records of Freie Arbeiter Stimme RG 763, Records of Yiddish P.E.N. Club RG 1236 and other materials about the Yiddish P.E.N. Club, Records of the I.L. Peretz Yiddish Writers Union RG 701, Records of the Day-Morning Journal (Tog-Morgn Zhurnal) RG 639, and several of Feinberg’s original works and translations.

Preferred Citation: Published citations should take the following form: Identification of item, date (if known); Papers of Leon Feinberg; RG 601; folder number; YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

Box and Folder Listing

Browse by Series:

Series 1: Series I: Correspondence, 1924-1969,
Series 2: Series II: Yiddish P.E.N. Club and I.L. Peretz Writers Union, 1947-1968,
Series 3: Series III: Newspaper Clippings, 1920-1968,
Series 4: Series IV: Manuscripts of Various Literary Works, 1916-1968,
Series 5: Series V: Manuscripts by Others, 1943-1957,
Series 6: Series VI: Rabbi Nathan Samuel Feinberg Clippings and Manuscripts, 1913-1938, undated,
Series 7: Series VII: Speeches and Lectures, 1937-1968,
Series 8: Series VIII: Materials Gathered by Feinberg (Subject Files), 1917-1968,
Series 9: Series IX: Miscellaneous, 1906-1968, undated,
Series 10: Series X: Supplement, 1948-1964,
All

Series VIII: Materials Gathered by Feinberg (Subject Files) 1917-1968

The materials in this series are divided into two subseries, Yiddish Materials and Russian Materials, although there are some Russian and English materials in the Yiddish subseries as well as Yiddish and English materials in the Russian subseries. The files are mainly made up of newspaper clippings, many of which are undated. Each subseries is arranged according to its respective alphabet.

Folders: 172

Subseries 1: Yiddish Materials 1922-1962

Folders: 86

Folder 510: Yidish Iber der Velt (Yiddish Over the World) 1953-1958
Folder 511: Yidish in Amerike (Yiddish in America) 1943-1957
Folder 512: Yidish in Yisroel (Yiddish in Israel) 1950-1960
Folder 513: Yidish in Soviet-Rusland (Yiddish in Russia) 1943-1961
Folder 514: Yidishe Geshikhte (Jewish History) 1936-1961
Folder 515: Yidish Lider (Yiddish Songs) 1946-1961
Folder 516: Yidishe Literatur-Farsheydns (Yiddish Literature-Miscellaneous) 1948-1959
Folder 517: Yidishe Literatur in Amerike - Yisroel (Yiddish Literature in America - Israel) 1955-1961
Folder 518: Yidishe Muzik in Amerike (Yiddish Music in America) (missing)
Folder 519: Yidisher Komunizm in Amerike (Jewish Communism in America) 1957
Folder 520: Yidishe Shrayber in der Velt-Literatur (Yiddish Writers in World Literature) 1955-1961
Folder 521: Yidishe Shrayber in Amerike (Yiddish Writers in America) 1952-1960
Folder 522: Yidishe Shrayber in Soviet-Rusland (Yiddish Writers in Russia) 1941-1957
Folder 523: Yidn in Sovietnfarband (Jews in the Soviet Union) 1952-1957
Folder 524: Yidn in Rusland (Jews in Russia) 1944-1958
Folder 525: Ahad HaAm 1951-1956
Folder 526: Olgin, Moshe 1932-1962
Folder 527: Astour, Michael Czernichow 1958-1960
Folder 528: Opatoshu, Joseph 1954
Folder 529: Aronson, Grigori 1957
Folder 530: Asch, Sholem 1939-1957
Folder 531: Osherowitch, Mendel 1962
Folder 532: Buchwald, Nathan 1956
Folder 533: Bomze, Nahum 1955
Folder 534: Boraisha, Menahem 1954-1955
Folder 535: Baal Makhshoves (Isidore Israel Eliashev) 1949-1960
Folder 536: Baal Shem Tov, Israel 1961
Folder 537: Bergelson, David 1946-1956
Folder 538: Brandes, George 1954
Folder 539: Bratslaver, Nakhman 1950
Folder 540: Bialik, Hayim Nakhman 1934-1964
Folder 541: Goldberg, Ben-Zion 1941-1950
Folder 542: Gapon, Georgii 1954
Folder 543: Garfinkel, Genia 1942
Folder 544: Glatstein, Jacob 1953-1957
Folder 545: Grade, Chaim 1950-1959
Folder 546: Greenberg, Chaim 1953
Folder 547: Halpern, Moyshe Leib 1956
Folder 548: Halkin, Shmuel 1961
Folder 549: Heine, Heinrich 1956-1957
Folder 550: Halevi, Yehuda 1950-1951
Folder 551: Hebraishe Literatur un Yidish (Hebrew Literature and Yiddish) 1955-1956
Folder 552: Hess, Moses 1950-1962
Folder 553: Waiter, A. 1948-1949
Folder 554: Winchevsky, Morris 1956
Folder 555: Vlasovtzes (Vlasovites, Russian soldiers under Andrey Vlasov who fought on the side of the Germans during WWII) 1951
Folder 556: Vergelis, Aaron 1961
Folder 557: Zohar and Kabbalah 1941-1956
Folder 558: Zhitlowsky, Chaim undated
Folder 559: Lutzky, Aaron 1957
Folder 560: Leivick, H. 1956-1959
Folder 561: Liessin, Abraham 1954-1955
Folder 562: Leyeles, Aaron (Glanz) 1956-1959
Folder 563: Mann, Mendel 1951-1960
Folder 564: Manger, Itzik 1958-1961
Folder 565: Mani Leib 1953-1956
Folder 566: Markish, Peretz 1956-1957
Folder 567: Mendele Mokher Sefarim 1956-1958
Folder 568: Moses (Bible) 1944-1952
Folder 569: Nadir, Moshe 1922-1958
Folder 570: Nomberg, Hersh David 1952
Folder 571: Naidus, Leib 1949
Folder 572: Sutzkever, Abraham 1956-1958
Folder 573: Segalowitch, Zusman 1949
Folder 574: Piade, Moshe 1950
Folder 575: Pinski, David 1952-1959
Folder 576: Plekhanov, Georgii 1954
Folder 577: Peretz, I.L. 1945-1955
Folder 578: Feinberg, Nathan Samuel 1939-1940
Folder 579: Fefer, Itzik 1956
Folder 580: Frug, Semen Grigorievich 1956
Folder 581: Freiheit (Freedom) and Morgn Freiheit (Morning Freedom) 1952
Folder 582: Cahan, Abraham 1951-1960
Folder 583: Kovner, Ari Tzvi 1948-1961
Folder 584: Katzenelson, Itzhak 1949
Folder 585: Korn, Rokhl 1950
Folder 586: Kulbak, Moshe 1954
Folder 587: Rabinovitch, Shimon 1955-1957
Folder 588: Ravitch, Melech 1953-1954
Folder 589: Rosenfeld, Morris 1960-1962
Folder 590: Rosenblatt, Herschel 1956
Folder 591: Reisin, Abraham 1952-1953
Folder 592: Ressler, Benjamin 1952
Folder 593: Shapiro, Lamed 1953
Folder 594: Shatzky, Jacob 1956
Folder 595: Schwartz, Israel Jacob 1961

Subseries 2: Russian Materials 1917-1968

Folders: 86

Folder 596: Agnivtsev, Nikolai Iakovlevich Andreyev, Leonid N. Annensky, Innokentiy Fyodorovich 1944-1951
Folder 597: Azef, Yevno Fishelevich 1961-1962
Folder 598: Aldanov, Mark Aleksandrovich 1954-1961
Folder 599: Antokolski, Mark Matveevich and Pavel 1944-1952
Folder 600: Akhmatova, Anna Andreevna and son, Nikolai Gumilev 1951-1962
Folder 601: Babel, Isaac 1955-1962
Folder 602: Bagritskii, Eduard 1944-1952
Folder 603: Balmont, Konstantin Dmitrievich 1943-1957
Folder 604: Baratinsky, Evgeny Abramovich 1944-1950
Folder 605: Bely, Andrey 1953-1962
Folder 606: Beriia, Lavrentii Pavlovich 1953-1954
Folder 607: Blok, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich 1943-1962
Folder 608: Bryusov, Valery Yakovlevich 1944-1961
Folder 609: Bunin, Ivan Alekseevich 1942-1962
Folder 610: Bukharin, Nikolai Ivanovich 1952
Folder 611: Vereshchagin, Vasily Vasilyevich 1944-1954
Folder 612: Vertinskii, Aleksandr 1957
Folder 613: Gamarnik, Ian Borisovich Garshin, Vsevolod MikhailovichGershenson, Mikhail OsipovichGippius, Zinaida NikolaevnaGladkov, Fyodor VasilyevichGrigoryev, Apollon Aleksandrovich Goncharov, Ivan AlexandrovichGrossman, Vasily Semyonovich 1943-1956, , 1943-1953
Folder 614: Gorky, Maxim 1936-1968
Folder 615: Grozny, Ivan (Ivan the Terrible) 1943-1952
Folder 616: Gumilev, Nikolai 1944-1952
Folder 617: Danilevsky, Nikolai Yakovlevich 1957
Folder 618: Dymow, Ossip 1948-1958
Folder 619: Djilas, Milovan 1957-1967
Folder 620: Yenukidze, Abel Safronovich undated
Folder 621: Yesenin, Sergei Aleksandrovich and Isadora Duncan 1949-1961
Folder 622: Yevtushenko, Evgeny Aleksandrovich 1962
Folder 623: Jabotinsky, Vladimir 1950-1958
Folder 624: Zhdanov, Andrei Aleksandrovich 1948
Folder 625: Ilf, Ilya and Evgenii Petrov 1942-1962
Folder 626: Kaganovich, Lazar Moiseevich 1957-1961
Folder 627: Kazakevich, Emanuel Genrikhovich Kantemir, Prince Antiokh Dmitrievich Klyuev, Nikolai Alekseevich Kataev, Valentin Petrovich Korneychuk, Aleksandr Yevdokimovich Kuzmin, Mikhail Alekseevich Koltsov, Aleksey Vasilievich 1944-1962
Folder 628: Kirov, Sergei Mironovich 1959
Folder 629: Kollontai, Aleksandra 1952-1961
Folder 630: Korolenko, Vladimir Galaktionovich 1944-1961
Folder 631: Levitan, Isaak Ilich 1950-1961
Folder 632: Lenin, Vladimir Ilich 1917, 1947-1962
Folder 633: Litvinov, Maksim Maksimovich 1950-1955
Folder 634: Mandelshtam, Osip 1946-1961
Folder 635: Mikoian, Anastas Ivanovich 1957
Folder 636: Malenkov, Georgii Maksimilianovich 1952-1957
Folder 637: Marmy, Andre 1953
Folder 638: Marshak, Samuil Yakovlevich Merezhkovsky, Dmitry Sergeyevich Minsky, Nikolai Maksimovich Mikhalkov, Sergey Vladimirovich 1946-1960
Folder 639: Makhno, Nestor Ivanovich 1947
Folder 640: Mayakovsky, Vladimir 1943-1962
Folder 641: Meyerhold, Vsevolod Emilevich 1947-1955
Folder 642: Nadson, Semen Iakovlevich 1962
Folder 643: Nekrasov, Nikolai Alekseevich 1946-1952
Folder 644: Nemirovich-Danchenko, Vladimir Ivanovich 1943
Folder 645: Romanov, Nikolay Alexandrovich (Tsar Nicholas II) 1954
Folder 646: Odes (Odessa) 1943-1961
Folder 647: Olesha, Iurii Karlovich 1954-1961
Folder 648: Ordzhonikidze, Sergo 1952
Folder 649: Pasternak, Boris 1944-1962
Folder 650: Paustovsky, Konstantin 1961
Folder 651: Pilnyak, Boris Prutkov, Kozma Petrovich Pilsky, Piotr 1946-1961
Folder 652: folder not used
Folder 653: Pudovkin, Vsevolod Illarionovich 1953
Folder 654: Remizov, Aleksei 1951-1957
Folder 655: R.A.P.P. (Rossiiskaya assotsiatsiya proletarskikh pisatelyei, Russian Association of Proletarian Writers) 1949
Folder 656: Rozanov, Vasily Vasilievich 1953-1956
Folder 657: Rusland (Russia) 1943-1962
Folder 658: Rusishe shprakh (Russian language) 1951-1957
Folder 659: Sovet-Rusland (Soviet Russia) 1942-1965
Folder 660: Sovetishe perzenlekhkaytn (Soviet personalities) 1955-1958
Folder 661: Sovetishe yugnt (Soviet youth) 1958-1963
Folder 662: Sovetishe kompartey (Soviet Communist Party) 1956-1961
Folder 663: Sovetishe armey (Soviet army) 1956-1957
Folder 664: Sovetishe literatur (Soviet literature) 1947-1962
Folder 665: Serapionen (Serapion Brothers writers group) 1944-1949
Folder 666: Simonov, Konstantin Mikhailovich 1943-1957
Folder 667: Solovyov, Vladimir Sergeyevich 1953-1957
Folder 668: Stalin, Joseph Vissarionovich 1948-1961
Folder 669: Stolypin, Petr Arkadevich 1952-1961
Folder 670: Trotsky, Leon 1940-1962
Folder 671: Tukhachevskii, Mikhail Nikolaevich 1953-1962
Folder 672: Utkin, Iosif 1945
Folder 673: Battle of Tsaritsyn (later known as Stalingrad) 1943-1944
Folder 674: Eisenstein, Sergei Mikhailovich 1953
Folder 675: Ehrenburg, Ilya 1944-1962
Folder 676: Erdman, Nikolay Robertovich Solovyov, Vladimir Sergeyevich Yudin, Gennadii Vasilevich Yakubovich, Pyotr Filippovich (L. Melshin) Kobylinsky, Lev (Eliis) 1956-1960
Folder 677: Yudenich, Nikolai Nikolaevich 1952
Folder 678: Yakir, Iona Emmanuilovich 1961-1962
Folder 679: Sholokhov, Mikhail Aleksandrovich 1944-1962
Folder 680: Shestov, Lev Isaakovich 1944-1957
Folder 681: Shevchenko, Taras Hryhorovych 1944-1964