Guide to the Collection of Yiddish Literature and Language, 1829-1941, 1955, RG 3

Processed by Ezekiel Lipschutz, ca. 1950. Translated from the Yiddish by Chava Lapin and Rivka Schiller. English finding aid compiled by Rivka Schiller in 2007 with the assistance of a grant from the Gruss Lipper Family Foundation. Additionally processed and encoded by Sarah Ponichtera as part of the CJH Holocaust Resource Initiative. Prepared for digitization by Jessica Podhorcer in 2016.

Processing, conservation, preparation for digitization and digitization of this collection was done as part of the Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Collections Project, with the assistance of grants from the Edward Blank Family Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, the Righteous Persons Foundation, the Conference for Jewish Material Claims against Germany, the Kronhill Pletka Foundation and the Ruth and David Levine Charitable Fund, and anonymous supporters.

Note to researchers: This collection is currently closed in preparation for the Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Collections Project.

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 Sarah Ponichtera in May 2012. EAD finding aid customized in ARCHON in 2013. Description is in English.

Collection Overview

Title: Guide to the Collection of Yiddish Literature and Language, 1829-1941, 1955, RG 3

ID: RG 3 FA

Extent: 29.08 Linear Feet

Arrangement:

These series and subseries are arranged primarily by subject.

This collection was re-assembled in the 1950s, mainly along the lines of a reference collection wherein documents from various individual collections which refer to Yiddish writers had been assembled in folders according to the writer’s name. In re-processing this collection in 2012, the goal has been to enhance description and shed light on the origins of the materials, while preserving the current physical arrangement.

Abstract

This collection consists of the correspondence of Zalman Reyzin, and correspondence to the Union of Yiddish Writers and Journalists in Vilna. In addition, it contains fragments of literary collections which were part of the YIVO Archives in Vilna before 1941 and of materials which originated in Jewish institutions of higher learning in the Soviet Union, specifically the Institut Far Yidisher Proletarisher Kultur (Institute for Jewish Proletarian Culture) in Kiev and Invayskult in Minsk. The collection was formed in the YIVO Archives in New York ca. 1950. The bulk of the collection comprises files on about 600 Yiddish writers from Eastern Europe consisting of autobiographical notes and letters, biographies, bibliographies, manuscripts and typewritten copies, newspaper clippings, commemorative materials, announcements about lectures.

Scope and Contents of the Materials

This collection contains materials gathered in Europe relating to Yiddish literature in Europe and America during the 1920s and 1930s, including manuscripts, correspondence, and autobiographies from approximately 600 individual Yiddish writers. The materials originate from a variety of sources, including Zalman Reisen’s research to revise and extend his Leksikon, the Union of Yiddish Writers and Journalists in Vilna, authors’ personal papers, and Yiddish academic institutions in the Soviet Union. This collection was arranged by YIVO archivists in New York in the 1950s. Most authors contributed only a few materials, usually a letter to Zalman Reisen or the Writer’s Union, and a 1-2 page autobiography in the case of authors writing to Rezyin. Occasionally they would contribute a manuscript of one of their works as well. In the cases of authors’ personal papers, there are more diverse materials, sometimes including personal correspondence, journal entries, additional manuscripts or research notes in addition to professional correspondence and manuscripts. In the materials from the Soviet Union in Series III and IV, there are more articles, institutional records such as minutes and library records, and less personal correspondence. These series are not organized by author, but by subject. Detailed descriptions of the materials in the two primary groups of materials can be found below.

Historical Note

Zalmen Reyzin's Leksikon fun der yidisher literatur, prese, un filologye

Zalman Reisen, editor of the Leksikon fun der yidisher literatur, prese, un filologye , published in Vilna between 1926 and 1929, was the foremost literary biographer of his generation. This key reference work collected biographies and bibliographies of almost all the Yiddish writers of this important period, and served as a predecessor for the current standard in the field, the Leksikon fun der nayer yidisher literatur (Eds. Shmuel Niger, Itsik Shatski, and Moyshe Shtarkman, Alveltlekhn yidishn kultur-kongres, 1956-1981). Almost as important as the sheer amount of information collected in these volumes (which filled four volumes of material collected entirely through Reisen’s own bibliographic research and personal correspondence with authors) was Reisen’s methodology, which strove for accuracy and objectivity in a contentious era marked by unreliable communication and political instability. In the forward to the first volume, Reisen apologizes for being unable to include information from those writers who sent their biographies after the work had gone to the printer, as well as those he never heard from. He calls upon his readers to send him information about the Yiddish writers they know, particularly the lesser-known ones, to contribute corrections or additions to what appears in his Lekiskon. Reisen’s dialogue with his readers created a work that represents the collective knowledge of his generation.

Reisen’s plans for the Leksikon continually evolved throughout the project. Indeed, the Leksikon fun der yidisher literatur, prese, un filologye was itself a continuation of a previous single volume reference work published in 1914. At first, the plan was for the Leksikon to comprise two volumes, the first spanning the first half of the alphabet, and the second to complete it. 1 However, the amount of information gathered quickly required an expansion of the project, which culminated in the four-volume set that was published. In the introduction to the fourth and final published volume, Reisen outlines his plan for a fifth volume, that will contain updated and expanded information on the writers who he was unable to include in the four main volumes, as well as a sixth volume, that would be dedicated to Old Yiddish literature. 2 Scholars (notably the Yiddish scholar Elias Shulman) have surmised that this collection contains the notes for the proposed fifth volume, which was never completed.

Union of Yiddish Writers and Journalists in Vilna

The fareyn fun yidishe literatn un zhurnalistn in vilne – Union of Yiddish Writers and Journalists in Vilna, was a professional association, active in Vilna from 1916 until the outbreak of the second world war. Its membership comprised newspaper editors and writers employed in Yiddish-language publishing enterprises, and other Yiddish authors residing in Vilna. The union was founded in 1916 in wartime Vilna, but remained inactive until the end of the war. The union was revived in 1919 by S. Ansky who wrote by-laws of the new association. Ansky became its honorary chairman, and A. Waiter its secretary. In April 1919 Waiter was killed during a pogrom perpetrated by the Polish military. The leadership of the union was passed on to S. Niger and, after his departure to the U.S., to Zalman Reisen. In the subsequent years the post of the chairman was occupied by Reisen, S.L. Zitron, Moishe Zilburg, Falk Halpern, Dan Kaplanovich, and Moishe Shalit. A.I. Grodzenski served as the union’s secretary for most of the time.

Among its activities, the union arranged for publication of books by its members, established a loan fund ( “kassa”), introduced pensions for retired writers, organized strikes, conducted negotiations with publishers and newspaper owners, and arbitrated disputes between its members. The union maintained contacts with Poland’s Union of Yiddish Writers and Journalists in Warsaw as well as with regional unions. It was also instrumental in establishing a Yiddish Pen Club Center in Vilna and organizing a national conference of the Yiddish press in June of 1927. Finally, it maintained a well-stacked reading room for its membership.

The Union of Yiddish Writers and Journalist in Vilna was dissolved ca. 1940.

Soviet Yiddish Institutions

Invayskult, later known as the Jewish Division of the Belorussian Academy of Sciences, located in Minsk, and the Institute for Proletarian Culture, located at the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in Kiev, were founded in 1924 and 1929 respectively, and were funded by the government, as part of the Soviet Union’s policy of supporting minority ethnic groups. The Institute for Yiddish Proletarian Culture in Kiev (Rus., Institut Evreiskoi Proletarskoi Kul’tury; IEPK), was directed by Nokhum Shtif, and focused its research on philology. It was shut down in 1936. Both institutions had connections with YIVO. In the early years, Invayskult frequently corresponded with YIVO, and oriented their research toward Eastern European, and especially Lithuanian Jews, who were considered "Lithuanian-Belorussian." Nokhum Shtif, the director of the Institute for Proletarian Culture, was also a co-founder of YIVO.

Footnotes

1 Leksikon vol. 1, Hakdome.

2 Leksikon vol. 4, Hakdome.

References

Zalmen Reyzin. Leksikon fun der yidisher literatur, prese, un filologye. 4 vols. Vilna: Vilna Farlag fun B. Kletzkin, 1927-1929.

Alfred A. Greenbaum. Jewish Historiography in Soviet Russia. Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research, Vol. 28 (1959): 57-76. Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3622447

Vladimir Bilovitsky, "Institute of Jewish Proletarian Culture," YIVO Encyclopedia .

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions:

Note to researchers: This collection is currently closed in preparation for the YIVO Vilna Collections Project and will reopen by December 2016

Permission to use the collection must be obtained from the YIVO Archivist at archives@yivo.cjh.org.

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: This collection consists of fragments of many literary collections which were part of the YIVO Archives in Vilna before 1941, and of materials which originated in Jewish institutions of higher learning in the Soviet Union, notably in the Institut Far Yidisher Proletarisher Kultur (Institute for Jewish Proletarian Culture) in Kiev. These fragments were among the materials belonging predominantly to theYIVO in Vilna, which were ransacked in 1942-1943 by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR), a Nazi unit charged with the looting and disposition of Jewish cultural property in the occupied countries. The YIVO in New York recovered its Vilna archives and library in 1947. Record Group 3 is a segment of a larger block of the Vilna YIVO records within which all folders are numbered consecutively from #1 to the end. Record Group 3 begins at #1701 and continues through #3402.

Separated Materials: The papers of Eliyahu Guttmacher , originally folders 1957-1965, can now be found in RG 27. The papers of Nokhem Shtif , originally folders 3022-3080a of this collection, were removed to constitute an independent record group, RG 57. Finally, the papers of Khaykl Lunski , folders 2311 to 2350a have been physically removed from RG 3 and are now located in Record Group 58.

Preferred Citation: Published citations should take the following form:Identification of item, date (if known); Collection of Yiddish Literature and language; RG 3; box number; folder number; YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

Box and Folder Listing

Browse by Series:

Series 1: Series I: Correspondence and Manuscripts, 1829-1941,
Series 2: Series II: Literary Papers, 1916-1936,
Series 3: Series III: Soviet Yiddish Materials, 1918-1944,
Series 4: Series IV: Dictionaries and Linguistic Materials, 1929-1939,
All

Series III: Soviet Yiddish Materials 1918-1944

Series III consists of institutional records from Invayskult and the Institute of Jewish Proletarian Culture, and manuscripts of research produced there. The Invayskult materials focus primarily on Yiddish publishing in the Soviet Union, while the Proletarian Culture materials range more widely, including notes on their graduate training program (the Aspirantur), bibliographies, minutes of the different sections, including the philological, literary, and historical, and manuscripts of articles and research papers on linguistics. Kalman Marmor is a possible source for the Institute for Proletarian Culture materials, since he was a visiting scholar at the Institute from 1933-1936, and the materials at times seem to reflect his research interests, such as the Dovid Edelstadt materials, described above. Nokhum Shtif, whose papers were removed from the collection, was a co-founder of YIVO and director of the Institute for Jewish Proletarian Culture in Kiev from 1926 until his death in 1933. He is another possible source for these materials.

Folders: 3223-3226, 3227-3259, and 3388-3394 (44 folders total)

Languages of material: In Yiddish, Russian and Hebrew

Sub-Series 1: Invayskult 1925-1933

This subseries contains an inventory, correspondence, informational bulletins about printing, and a publishing plan, all from Invayskult.

Folders: 3223-3226

Languages of material: In Yiddish and Russian

Box 54

Folder 3223: Inventory of Yidopteil (Yiddish (Jewish) Section) undated
Folder 3224: Correspondence undated: 2 letters Z. Reisin, 1928 and a letter to the YIVO, Vilna, 1933.
Folder 3225: Bulletins undated: 10 daily informational bulletins of the Yiddish printing industry in U.S.S.R. The Lenin Government Library and Bibliographical Institute of the Byelorussian S. S. R. 1932-1933. Hectographed.
Folder 3226: Publishing plan undated: Yiddish literature for the year 1929-1930.

Sub-Series 2: Institute for Yiddish Proletarian Culture (Kiev) 1918-1944

This subseries contains minutes of meetings of the different sections of the Institute, bibliographies and research materials, materials related to the press and printing industry, manuscripts and articles.

Folders: 3227-3259

Languages of material: In Yiddish and Russian

Box 54

Folder 3227: Report undated: J. Reznik. The work of the Aspirantur (graduate training) of the Institute for Yiddish Proletarian Culture.
Folder 3228: Notes undated: A folder by an aspirant (candidate) with notation, commentaries and notes, 1932-1934, in connection with letures about literature, history and philosophy.
Folder 3229: Bibliography undated: Bibliographical lists of the Yiddish press in the Soviet Union and other countries. Bibliographical lists of books; older editions received in 1931. Receipts for editions received. Permission to J. Kvitny to make use of foreign press. Addresses of co-workers at the Ofn Shprakh front. List of persons to whom are being sent to the Yiddishe Shprakh. A letter about publishing Rosenzweig's (Rozentsvayg's) book, Peretz un di Yomtov bletlekh, plan (program) of the Yiddish Section for the year 1927-1928 (in Russian). Orders. Questionnaire. Response (results) of a book read and an open response. Corrected proofs.
Folder 3230: Press Union Materials undated: All union press archive, proclamations, pamphlets and copies of orders and letters of thanks; list of Warsaw Jewish publishers (end of 1920s and beginning of 1930s).
Folder 3231: Notes, confirmations undated
Folder 3232: Registration of the printing industry undated
Folder 3233: Article about the cultural work of the Jewish Commissariat undated: Dimentshteyn. Culture and educational work of the Jewish Commissariat
Folder 3234: Article about Yiddish literature in the Soviet Union undated: Concernng Yiddish Literature in the Soviet Union.
Folder 3235: Article about Birobidjan undated: J. Liberberg about Birobidjan.
Folder 3236: Minutes of the Litsektsye (Literary Section) undated: Ukrainian Academy.

Box 55

Folder 3237: Minutes of the sessions of the Philological Section, undated
Folder 3238: Materials of the All-Ukrainian Language council undated: Resolutions, negotiations, minutes.
Folder 3239: Correspondence of the Philological Section undated: Copies of letters of 16 May 1933, after Shtif's death to Gitlitz, Leningrad; Holmstock in Minsk and Zaretzky in Moscow, about organizing the work. Zaretzky: Derlernt di sotsyale diferentsyatsyie (Study of social differentiation). Fragments about the work in the Shprakhfront. Notes ("the domination of bureaucracy"); fragment of a paper about Shevchenko.
Folder 3240: Work plan for the phlological section undated
Folder 3241: Kharkov press archive. undated: Letter to the Vilna Tog. Reply about non-receipt of the Literarishe bleter, Warsaw,
Folder 3242: Russian Notes undated: The Second Communist Congress about Yidsektsye.
Folder 3243: Correspondence of the Institute for Yiddish Culture at the Ukrainian Scientific Academy undated: Letter from the press archive. Forms, invitations to the festive opening of the Chair (Department), 5 February 1928, to Z. Reisin and to the YIVO, Berlin.
Folder 3244: Inventories of Foreign Language Materials undated: Catalog of Hebrew sacred and secular books; inventory book of Hebrew magazines. Inventory book of foreign language journals.
Folder 3245: Correspondence, notes, and institutional materials undated: Work program of the Historical Section for the year 1932. A letter to the editors by M. Levitan, Kiev, 1935. An unfinished letter to Levitan (from Shtif), 1929. Fragment of a paper about Edelstadt. Shtif's notes about M. Viner's attack on him, about the work at the Institute and the opinions of others. K. Marmor's Addendum to his article on Morris Rosenfeld in the magazine, Vishnshaft un Revolutsye.
Folder 3246: Notes undated: Recommendations on social-economic and art literature
Folder 3247: parts of a manuscript about the Haskalah. undated
Folder 3248: parts of a manuscript about Shevtshenko. undated
Folder 3249: manuscripts and notes undated: The attitude of the Party to literature. Notes about Bergelson concerning school texts. Election announcements addressed to Jews; about the archive of S. Briansky. Questionnaire about a book. A critique on Yuditzki, Heilikman. Library cards. Excerpts from a lecture by Dr. Chaim Weitzman
Folder 3250: Part of a manuscript about children's education and obstacles, e.g. poor vision. undated
Folder 3251: Publication proofs undated: Visnshaft un Revolutsye. Proofs of the January-March issue
Folder 3252: Article undated: S. Briansky: Critique about Itsik Feffer's output in the recess developmental period.

Box 56

Folder 3253: Manuscripts undated: Part of paper on Feffer and proofs of a book of Poetry.
Folder 3254: Shevchenko research materials undated: Comments about Shevtshenko's autographs. Shevtshenko: Tsu toyte tsu lebedike (To the Dead, to the Living), and to as yet unborn country - men of mine. Ye. S. Shablovsky: The great Poet of peasant poverty, In Batrakntum
Folder 3255: Manuscripts about Shevtshenko. undated
Folder 3256: Manuscript undated: S. Borovoy, introduction, re: Axenfeld.
Folder 3257: manuscripts. undated: On the front of the historic scholarship and ... in the "central committee" of Soviet Program. The program politics of the Central (Council) and the Jewish petty-bourgeois "socialist" parties; in the section for literature and critique; survey of industry.
Folder 3258: Manuscript undated: The Bourgeoisie can no longer influence the Jewish workers (about Yiddish schools).
Folder 3259: Publication proofs undated: Manuscript with notes, proofsheets and notations of Visnshaft un Revolutsye

Sub-Series 3: Materials on Yiddish Culture in the Soviet Union 1921-1935

This subseries contains materials relating to Yiddish culture in Kiev, and likely originate from the Institute for Proletarian Yiddish Culture in that city.

Folders: 3388-3394

Languages of material: In Yiddish and Russian

Box 69

Folder 3388: Minutes: Minutes of the sessions of the Association of Proletarian music in the Ukraine
Folder 3389: Correspondence and institutional reports: All-Ukrainian council of Yiddish Proletarian writers, Kharkov, 1929; full report, 1929, Greetings, telegra
Folder 3390: Employee list: Registration of co-workers (of the Institute for Yiddish Culture, Kiev), 1935. Names of those registered as well as their signatures. Two lists (one of them 30 and on the other list 31 names).
Folder 3391: Minutes: Minutes of sessions of the liteary section, Kiev, 1921. Letters of the Literary section of the Culture League. A letter from Shmuel Matsotski to Peretz Markish. A list of books published and of others which are ready for printing. Minutes and resolutions of the sessions of the presidium of the Literary Section of the Culture League, 1921. Notes on the Yiddish publishing field.
Folder 3392: Questionnaire: Reader's qustionnaire about Soviet literature for the forthcoming Writers conference; the questionnaire mentions works by Soviet-Yiddish writers and foreign pro-Soviet writers.
Folder 3393: Soviet Central Publishing House.: Plan of Yidsektek of the All-Ukrainian central publishing house for the 4th quarter of 1930.
Folder 3394: Album of newspaper clippings of the Soviet-Yiddish press: Title: Dos yidishe bukh (The Yiddish (Jewish) Book) Library-publishing work and newspaper materials