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 IV: Dictionaries and Linguistic Materials 1929-1939

This series includes the manuscripts of individual dictionaries, and articles on linguistic subjects.

Folders: 3293-3323, 3324-3329, 3380, and 3341-3379 (77 folders total)

Languages of material: In Yiddish, Russian and Ukrainian

Sub-Series 1: Ukrainian Yiddish Dictionary undated

Folders: 3293-3323

Languages of material: In Yiddish and Ukrainian

Box 60

Folder 3293: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.
Folder 3294: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.
Folder 3295: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.
Folder 3296: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.
Folder 3297: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.
Folder 3298: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.
Folder 3299: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.
Folder 3300: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.

Box 61

Folder 3301: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.
Folder 3302: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.
Folder 3303: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.
Folder 3304: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.
Folder 3305: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.
Folder 3306: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.
Folder 3307: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.
Folder 3308: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.

Box 62

Folder 3309: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.
Folder 3310: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.
Folder 3311: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.
Folder 3312: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.
Folder 3313: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.

Box 63

Folder 3314: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.
Folder 3315: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.
Folder 3316: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.
Folder 3317: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.
Folder 3318: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.
Folder 3319: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.
Folder 3320: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.
Folder 3321: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.
Folder 3322: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.
Folder 3323: Ukrainian-Yiddish Dictionary: (Ukrainian alphabetical order). Very fragile.

Sub-Series 2: Russian-Yiddish Mathematical Dictionary undated

Folders: 3324-3329

Languages of material: In Yiddish and Russian

Box 64

Folder 3324: Mathematical Dictionary: Russian-Yiddish.
Folder 3325: Mathematical Dictionary: Russian-Yiddish.

Box 65

Folder 3326: Mathematical Dictionary: Russian-Yiddish.
Folder 3327: Mathematical Dictionary: Russian-Yiddish.
Folder 3328: Mathematical Dictionary: Russian-Yiddish.
Folder 3329: Mathematical Dictionary: Supplementary materials for this dictionary: A. Zaretzky: Yiddish-Russian-Yiddish dictionary in general: Pages of a Yiddish-Russian and a Polish-Russian dictionary; a notebook of Russian-Yiddish word translations or glosses (English grammar exercises), Yiddish-Yiddish vocabulary consisting of 19 written pages.

Sub-Series 3: Soviet Yiddish Dictionary (incomplete) undated

Folder: 3380

Languages of material: In Yiddish and Russian

Box 68

Folder 3380: Yiddish Dictionary.: Parts of the Soviet Yiddish dictionary: the lettters mid. A-Ts. (Pages 6-369).

Sub-Series 4: Linguistic Materials 1829-1939

This subseries consists of notes, research papers, bibliographies, minutes, inventories, and manuscripts relating to the linguistics of Yiddish, particularly in the Soviet Union. Includes correspondence to and materials relating to Nokhum Shtif; these papers likely originate from the Institute for Proletarian Culture, which he directed.

Folders: 3341-3379

Languages of materials: In Yiddish and Russian

Box 65

Folder 3341: Tcherniak, Shmuel.: Reply to questionnaire on Yiddish in Plock (Plunsk).
Folder 3342: YIVO: YIVO correspondence about Yiddish matters.
Folder 3343: Locker, Leon.: Concerning Rumanian Yiddish.
Folder 3344: Luzker (Loytsker), Kh.: My teaching mission in Moscow, at Niyaz, on the project: New Yiddish punctuation (preliminary remarks). (A Language Institute).
Folder 3345: Leibl, Daniel.: Etymological notes.
Folder 3346: Lerner, R.: Zalman Reisen's review of Nokhem Shtif's paper, YIVO bleter, B. 3-5
Folder 3347: Mashevitzki, R.: Quotations from the Vinchfingerl (The Wishing Ring). MM"s.
Folder 3348: Perkurovski.: Zaretzky's review of Perkurovski's grammar; Farb-Yampolski, Libe:
Folder 3349: Picker, S.: Etymological remarks to Z. Reisen's: From Mendelssohn to Mendele.
Folder 3350: Program of Yiddish in the 7th grade school year: project elaborated by G. Pludermakher; fragments of programs for the 4th and 6th grades.
Folder 3351: Grammar exercises: From Prilutzki's archive: English grammar exrcises.

Box 66

Folder 3352: Furst, Dr. A: Folkloristic-linguistic notes of Magyar Zsido Szemle (in German).
Folder 3353: Dr. Felix Falk.: Die Talmudische Salomo-Sage von Aschmodaj und dem Schamir in zwei aljiddischen Bearbeitungen zum erstn Male nach Handschriften herausgegeben und eingeleitet. (The Talmudic Solomon fable of Ashmodai and the Shamir in two old-Yiddish versions, published and introduced for the first time from the manuscripts). Letters to YIVO, 1936, 1939 with remarks about Old-Yiddish literature.
Folder 3354: Zweig, A. R.: Materials for a system of Yiddish orthography, incomplete.
Folder 3355: Reisen, Zalmen.: Notes about Germanisms in Yiddish, and sample newspapers.
Folder 3356: Reznik, J. and Rabinowitch, M.: Study of grammar in the 3rd and 4th grades at school.
Folder 3357: Schulman, A.: Plurals of Slavisms in Yiddish.
Folder 3358: Unattributed article: A review of R. Kahan's Shprakhkentenish (Grammar and Linguistics) (Syllabus for the 2nd Kontsenter, Minsk, 1930) .
Folder 3359: Shmeler, B.: Phonetics in the teaching of foreign languages in technical institutes.
Folder 3360: Language texts: Soviet language texts: Haynttsaytiker shprakh (The Language of Today); Limud fun gramatik (The study of grammar) in the Soviet Union.
Folder 3361: Language exercises: Language exercises for school-children in the Soviet Union (Ukraine) with the children's signatures.
Folder 3362: Kuperstein, S.: The teaching of Yiddish. Fragments of a larger work about the study of Yiddish in the Soviet-Yiddish school; folder, page 1 missing; 6 pages of a paper about Sholem Aleichem.
Folder 3363: Unattributed article: Method of diagnosing the causes of the bad results in reading (according to Gates).

Box 67

Folder 3364: Unattributed article: Reviews of readers, literature texts and an ABC book.
Folder 3365: Inventory folder: June-July 1937, Nay-(Novy) Zlotopol region, about the work of the folklore expedition from the department of Yiddish-Soviet culture at the Scientific Academy of U.S.S.R. (Ukrainian) in the Novo Zlotopol region.
Folder 3366: Vocabulary list: Terminologies for turning, weaving, coach-driving; livery; music.
Folder 3367: Bible translation: 26 pages translations of the Pentateuch terms and 40 pages of Derekh Hakoydesh (interpretation) of Isaiah.
Folder 3368: YIVO Correspondence: To the YIVO: Annotation by S.Glickson (Suwalki), 1937. A letter from Tomazsow-Maz. (signature unclear), 1937, about a filled-in (completed) questionnaire. Three listss from Borukh Katz (Wasilkow) about diseases, proverbs and holidays. Wplyw glosek gardlowych na poprzedzajace samogloski. Notes on the second volume of philological writings. Khaverte Faygele: Store payments (memo from credit). Reckonings about the income of several stores over the course of a number of days. A letter in Latin transcription. A letter to Z. R. from the newspaper Batog, Riga. Etkin, H. Word meanings (glosses) and notes. Parts of a (paper) work on Yiddish. Remarks about prefixes (written on the stationery of the Institute for Yiddish Proletarian Culture, Kiev).
Folder 3369: Unattributed article: Phonetics of Yiddish sounds. Fragments of a study.
Folder 3370: Unattributed article: Excerpts from Old-Yiddish and Polish texts, with notes.
Folder 3371: Unattributed article: Munshtr-Minwlta-Munshtr-Minshtr. Fragments of a study on the etymology of "Minster" (Munster).
Folder 3372: Unattributed article: Spuren der Yiddish bei den kroatischen Juden (Traces of Yiddish among Croatian Jews). A page from a study.
Folder 3373: Unattributed article: Various disconnected notes on Yiddish.
Folder 3373a: Noyekh Prilutzki and Zalman Reisen: Yiddish far ale (Yiddish for all). Mss. and notes, printed in Yidish far ale.
Folder 3374: Minutes: Minutes of the sessions of the Language Department at the KIFUM
Folder 3375: Addresses: Addresses at the All-Ukrainian Language Council, May 1934. Speeches by Feldman, Zaytanski, Kaminstein, A. Zaretzky, descriptive Yiddish syntax.
Folder 3376: Correspondence in connection with the Language Council: R. Holmstock, E. Falkovitsh, E. Spivak, M. Marlevitsh, M. Gitlitz, B. Chirge, M. Kaminstein and Gurevitch.
Folder 3377: All-Ukrainian Language Council: Resolutions, statements: participating towns.
Folder 3378: Bibliography: Bibliography of the Language Council.
Folder 3379: N. Shtif and J. Kvitny: Materials of the dialectological expedition to White Russia (Byelorussia)