YI V O YI V O

YI V OYI V ON E W SNo. 190

Summer 2000

YIVO Institutef o r

J e w i s hR e s e a r c h

CONTENTS:

Chairman’s Message . . . .2 Dina Abramowicz . . . . . . .6Web site launched . . . . . .8New Board members . . .9YIVO books honored . . .10New agreements . . . . . .11Zamler Project . . . . . . . .12Yiddish theater in D.P.camps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

IWO Argentina . . . . . . . .14Annual Mission . . . . . . . .16Max Weinreich Center .18YIVO Events Schedule . .19Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20Cahan Papers . . . . . . . . .22New Accessions . . . . . .24YIVO Donors . . . . . . . . . .28Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

More than 500 people celebrated with YIVO atits 75th Anniversary Benefit Dinner on April

10th. The gala, at New York’s Pierre Hotel, raised$1.5 million and honored Deputy Secretary of theTreasury Stuart E. Eizenstat and the composingteam of Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick.

Presenting the honorees with special 75thAnniversary commemorative medals, YIVOChairman of the Board Bruce Slovin commented,“While saluting three outstanding members of ourJewish community, we also are honoring thepreservation of our people by remembering ourroots and building a new vision of Jewishcontinuity together.”

The commitment to remember EasternEuropean Jewish life and culture [continued on page 4]

YIVO ChairmanBruce Slovin (L)presents award to the Honorable Stuart E.Eizenstat.

Eizenstat, Bock, Harnick Honored

75th Anniversary Gala Raises $1.5 Million

Dina Abramowicz Tribute Date Set A memorial tribute for YIVO’s distinguished librarian Dina Abramowicz,will be held at YIVO, 15 West 16th St., New York, NY, Mon. Sept. 18, 5:30 - 7:30 P.M. The public is invited. RSVP: (212) 294-6128.

New Cultural Series MarksCelebration of 75th Year

This year YIVO inau-gurates a major new

program of culturalevents, including a filmseries (four New Yorkpremieres), lectures,readings and perfor-mances. World-classscholars, researchers,theater performers,musicians and directorswill share their work and

thoughts at the YIVO series in the Center forJewish History (full schedule, page 19 ). Inaddition, the film component will bring filmsnever before screened in New York, such as TheAssistant, directed by Dan Petrie.

Prof. Deborah Lipstadt, Dorot Professor ofModern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at EmoryUniversity, will open the 75th AnniversaryCelebration Series. Lipstadt who successfullydefended her work against libel charges inEngland, will address “Holocaust Denial: A NewForm of Anti-Semitism,” on October 19. Her latestbook, Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assaulton Truth and Memory (Free Press/MacMillan, 1993)is the first full-length study of those who attemptto deny the Holocaust.

Lipstadt will be followed by Prof. YehudaBauer, Visiting Professor of Holocaust Studies atClark University and Director of the InternationalInstitute of Holocaust Research at Yad VashemMartyrs’ and Heroes’ Memorial Authority. He willexplore “The Shoah in Historical Perspective” onNovember 21. His last book, Jews for Sale? NaziNegotiations, 1939-1945, discussed the negotiationsbetween Nazi Germany and the Jews for therelease of Jews in exchange for money, goods orpolitical benefit.

Other events include the Special YIVOColloquium, “Emanuel Ringelblum Remem-bered,” coordinated by Prof. Samuel Kassow ofTrinity College, and Prof. Neil Jacobs, Departmentof Germanic Languages and Literatures of OhioState University, speaking on “Negotiating JewishModernity Verbally: Yiddish, ‘Not-Yiddish,’ andthe Linguistic Roadmap of Ashkenazi Jewry.”

Please join us for this groundbreaking series.

Prof. Deborah Lipstadt

New web site

I want to thank each and every one of you who contributed to the success of our dinnercelebrating YIVO’s distinguished 75 year history.We raised $1.5 million, money crucial to the

success of ongoing programs and of several newinitiatives in the pipeline. The Honorable Stuart E.Eizenstat, and Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick,our eminent honorees, together made a uniqueand memorable statement about the vitality ofEastern European Jews and their descendants.

However, as we look to the future, we also paytribute to Dina Abramowicz, our devoted YIVOlibrarian who passed away on April 3. Hers was alife of courage and commitment to the preser-vation of Jewish libraries and scholarship. Shenurtured several generations of academics,researchers, and librarians. The YIVO Board hascreated the Dina Abramowicz Book Fund (for thelibrary) and the Fellowship Fund, an endowmentto support an emerging scholar pursuing researchat YIVO. Together, the funds perpetuate the valuesshe embodied.

I want to welcome three new persons to theYIVO Board: David Polen, Rosina Abramson, andArthur Rosenblatt (see page 8 for profiles). Eachbrings special skills and knowledge, which add tothe strength and breadth of our board.

As you page through this issue of Yedies, youwill notice all the exciting new activities at YIVO.The broad public programming events include afilm festival featuring four New York premieres,the Zamler Project in Brooklyn, and the terrificredesigned Web site which can be found athttp://www.yivoinstitute.org.

YIVO is building for the future. With thecomprehensive Planned Giving package we are creating with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., webegin to reach out to our supporters to help ensurea bright future for YIVO. And we are forgingpartnerships with the National Yiddish BookCenter, the Sholom Aleichem MemorialFoundation, the Board of Jewish Education ofGreater New York, and New York University’sCenter for Advanced Technology — to enhancethe core mission of YIVO. We hope you will joinus as we grow and blossom.

2

YIVO NewsFounded in 1925 in Vilna, Poland as the YiddishScientific Institute and headquartered in New York since 1940, YIVO is devoted to the history,society and culture of Ashkenazic Jewry and to the influence of that culture as it developed in theAmericas. Today, YIVO stands as the preeminentcenter for East European Jewish Studies; Yiddishlanguage, literature and folklore; and the study ofthe American Jewish immigrant experience.

A founding partner of the Center for Jewish History,YIVO holds the following constituent memberships:

• American Historical Association • Associationfor Jewish Studies • Association of Jewish Libraries • Council of Archives and Research Libraries inJewish Studies • Research Library Group (RLG) • Society of American Archivists and • WorldCongress of Jewish Studies.

Chairman of the Board: Bruce Slovin

Executive Director: Carl J. Rheins

Director of Development and External Affairs: Ella Levine

Director of Finance and Administration:Andrew J. Demers

Chief Archivist: Marek Web

Head Librarian: Aviva Astrinsky

Head of Preservation: Stanley Bergman

Editor: Elise Fischer

Yiddish Editor: Hershl Glasser

Production Editor: Jerry Cheslow

ContributorsNikolai Borodulin, Krysia Fi s h e r, Shaindel Foge l m a n ,M a r i lyn Goldfried, Leo Gre e n b a u m , Batya Kaplan, ChanaMlotek, Fruma Mohrer, Norma Fain Pratt, David Rogow,Yankl Salant, Jessica Singer, Yermiyahu Ahron Taub, BellaHass Weinberg, Bina Weinreich

15 West 16th StreetNew York, NY 10011-6301

Phone: (212) 246-6080, Fax: (212) 292-1892

www.yivoinstitute.orge-mail to Yedies: [email protected]

Message from the Chairman of the Board

Honoring the Past, Building for the Future

Bruce Slovin

YIVO News Summer 2000

Become a Member of YIVO To d a yHelp ensure that our children and our

children’s children will study, enjoy andremember the history, language and culture of our East European ancestors.

\Message from the Executive Director

Optimistic Engagement for the FutureIn the May 11, 2000 Arts Sectionof The New York Times, BernardWeinraub devoted a full-lengtharticle to the renewed interest in Eastern European Jewishculture in the United States. He cited such popular events as the annual day-long Festi-val, “Yiddishkayt Los Angeles,”which draws thousands ofparticipants each year. Alsonoted were burgeoning Yiddish language adult edu-cation programs, film series and Klezmer music festivals

which seem to dominate thecultural life of Jewish New York.

What Weinraub did not ad-dress is the even more dramaticrise of Eastern European JewishStudies at European and U.S.universities. During the Holo-caust, about 750 institutions ofEuropean Jewish learning werelost forever. Many cities thatwere major centers for Jewishstudies before the Second WorldWar were destroyed by theGermans and experienced thenear-total devastation of theirJewish Studies resources. JewishStudies never properly reco-vered from the Holocaust, andthe reconstruction has takenplace on a country-by-countrybasis. The rebuilding of a pan-European field in Jewish studiesand the promotion of Europeancooperation has been particu-larly haphazard and slow.

The position today is one ofoptimistic engagement. At-tempts are underway to recon-struct and consolidate the field.This is partly because of the newspirit of European cooperationfostered by the European Unionand partly because of renewedcontacts with Eastern Europe,where teaching and research inJewish Studies was illegal afterthe Second World War.

According to the EuropeanAssociation for Jewish Studies,reconstruction of the field isproceeding (e.g. Jewish Studieswas officially restarted inSlovakia only in May 1996). The enormous interest is markedby new publications, culturalfestivals, and student demandfor teaching of subjects that untilrecently were taboo.

For example, EasternEuropean Jewish Studies,including courses in Yiddish, are now taught regularly at such distinguished Europeanuniversities as Oxford,Düsseldorf, Vilnius and the

Russian State University of theHumanities (Moscow). ForYIVO, this growth is manifestedin the steady increase in thenumbers of European graduatestudents and faculty who nowregularly visit the YIVOArchives and Library or whoenroll in YIVO’s intensive UrielWeinreich Summer Program inYiddish Language, Literatureand Culture at ColumbiaUniversity.

In North America, the pictureis even more encouraging. Dueto the pioneering efforts ofYIVO’s Max Weinreich Centerand the National Foundation forJewish Culture in the early1970s, an entire new generationof scholars in Eastern EuropeanJewish Studies has been trained.These individuals, many ofwhom loyally count themselvesas YIVO alumni, and who are atthe most productive points intheir careers, now head majorJewish Studies programs atleading universities such asHarvard and Stanford.

Although undergraduateYiddish enrollments haveremained flat during the pastdecade, the number and qualityof doctoral dissertations in EastEuropean Jewish Studies haveincreased steadily, furtherensuring that a second gene-ration of American-bornscholars of Eastern Europeanand Yiddish Studies will soon beprepared to take their places inuniversity classrooms through-out the United States andCanada.

These developments, coupledwith the creation of the Centerfor Jewish History, the UnitedStates Holocaust MemorialMuseum, and other first-rankJewish research institutions,offer promise of a bright, secureand fertile future for the study ofEast European JewishCivilization.

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Dr. Carl J. Rheins

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 1 0 0 11 - 6 3 0 1

I want to help YIVO preserve our Jewish heritage.• $50–Entitles you, as a YIVO member, to the YIVOnewsletter in Yiddish and English.

• $100–The above, and a small poster reproductionfrom YIVO’s collection.

• $180–All of the above and a special packet ofYIVO postcards with historic photographs.

• $360–All of the above, and a choice of Yiddishrecordings.

• $500–All of the above and a book from YIVO.

• $1000 and over–All of the above and a listing in Yedies.

Enclosed is my contribution of $ .Please charge my gift to:

❏ VISA ❏ MasterCard

Card No. Exp. Date

Signature

Please make checks payable to YIVO Institute forJewish Research. Your gift is tax deductible.

Name

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was exemplified by the Honorable Stuart E.Eizenstat, a leader in negotiations for the return of looted Jewish assets. Receiving a LifetimeAchievement Award, he noted that Yiddish wasthe language of his grandparents and “suffused”his early years. “This award means more to mecoming, as it does, from an organization that hasfor so long been preeminent in the preservationand advancement of the legacy of Jewish culture,”he said.

Eizenstat then described his work. “Over thepast five years…we have been trying to bring ameasure of belated justice to the survivors of theHolocaust and to their families. To me, this hasbeen the most challenging and the most satisfyingassignment I have ever had ingovernment.”

Introducing Eizenstat, U.S.Senator Charles Schumer, asupporter of restitution efforts,thanked YIVO for allowing him“to share a platform with StuartEizenstat and Bruce Slovin.”

Slovin acknowledged the deathof Dina Abramowicz, YIVO’sdevoted Research Librarian andmentor to many of today’s topscholars in East European JewishStudies (see page 6). Noting thatAbramowicz was a veteran of thefamous Vilna Ghetto PaperBrigade, which saved YIVO’sdocuments from the Nazis, Slovin said, “Thismarks the end of an era. Dina embodied thevalues and scholarship of Vilna; and, she was alink between the Yerushalayim de Lita, and thepresent. This is a terrible loss. Her memory will befor a blessing.”

Greetings in Yiddish by Board member MotlZelmanowicz demonstrated YIVO’s commitmentto preserving and teaching the language, and to

bringing Yiddish culture to new generations. Thiswas reinforced by Board member Leo Melamed,who read, in Yiddish, “And Thus You Shall Speakto the Orphan.” The powerful poem was com-posed by Abraham Sutzkever, an activist in the“Paper Brigade,” who now lives in Israel.

Composer and lyricist team Jerry Bock andSheldon Harnick, who collaborated on scores forseven Broadway shows,


Anniversary Dinner

Bruce Slovin presents Lifetime Achievement Awards to JerryBock and Sheldon Harnick, winners of the Tony Award forFiddler on the Roof.

Honoree Stuart E. Eizenstat with U.S. Senator CharlesSchumer and Francesca Slovin.

(L-R) Dr. Carl Rheins, National Board members Dr. ChavaLapin, Jacob Morowitz and Solomon Krystal.

Bruce Slovin (L) was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award medal byLeadership Forum Co-Chair Cathy Zises, Leadership Forum Chair Rita Levy andJoseph D. Becker, Chairman of the YIVO Executive Committee.

[continued from page 1]

[continued on page 5]

including the enduring world-wide hit Fiddler onthe Roof, each received the Special Cultural ArtsAward. Before these were presented, there was apoignant musical tribute that included a medley oftheir songs, performed by Broadway stars DebbieGravitt and Leroy Reams.

At the end of the scheduled program Joseph D.Becker, Chairman of the YIVO ExecutiveCommittee, along with Leadership Forum ChairRita Levy and Co-Chair Cathy Zises, called Slovinto the podium to present him with a LifetimeAchievement Award medal. Becker announcedthat the surprise honor was to acknowledge BruceSlovin’s 15 years of outstanding leadership atYIVO, as well as his commitment, wisdom,unstinting generosity and perseverance. “Thanksto your great vision, YIVO is a stronger

organization. We can look to the future, and gofrom strength to strength,” Becker said.

5

Anniversary Dinner

YIVO National Board members (L to R) Leo Melamed, HaroldOstroff and Motl Zelmanowicz.


In this new century, as inthe past, we must find

and restore the meaningand vitality of Jewish life.To do so, we must harnessthe energy and dedicationof our members as wecontinue YIVO’s traditionsof community involvement,teaching and instilling asense of continuity between

past, present and future generations.Strengthening a Jewish community and a cul-

tural organizationdedicated to preservingour heritage allows us to enrich our lives andthose of others. Perhapsthese goals are bestachieved through colla-boration and strategic partnerships with academicinstitutions, investment in our future throughendowments, and working together to share andimplement ideas with new target groups that mayhave been beyond our reach before.

YIVO is designing a new program to createvibrant connections between today’s youngergenerations and our pre-war Jewish East Europeanculture; it will draw on YIVO’s remarkableresources. The EPYC program will help us bringvarious aspects of the life, traditions, languagesand culture to a new audience. This will ensurethat YIVO will continue to grow and flourish.

The success of YIVO’s 75th Anniversary Dinnersignified the great strides made in the pastcentury. The importance of our mission — to teachand preserve — has not changed. The interestshown by the younger generations gives us greathope that people will desire to learn more abouttheir heritage, to pass on our legacy.

YIVO is uniquely positioned and equipped tobring together diverse elements of Jewish life, toshare enhanced resources and rich experiences,and to cement new partnerships andcollaborations.

YIVO's new Planned Giving Program willprovide valuableresources neededto meet YIVO'sgoals. A plannedgift is a specialopportunity, overand above your

annual commitment to YIVO, to achieve yourpersonal, family and philanthropic goals. It is anexpression of the values you hold dear and avehicle to enhance your support for a cause that isimportant to you, to enhance the core mission ofYIVO.

A planned gift to YIVO is an investment in andfor the future. We all have a part in meeting thischallenge, and I believe that, by working together,we will succeed.

This is our challenge — to bring our knowledgeto present and future generations.

Development and External Affairs

Restoring Jewish Vitality by Ella Levine, Development Director

Strengthening a Jewish communityand a cultural organization dedicatedto preserving our heritage allows us to enrich our lives and those of others

6 YIVO News Summer 2000

Irving Howe summed up DinaAbramowicz’s role at YIVO in

a tribute published in his bookThe World of Our Fathers.Thanking YIVO for making hisbook possible he acknowledged“its indefatigable and splendidlibrarian Dina Abramowicz.”

Born in Vilna in 1909, whenthe city was the seat of Eastern

European Jewish scholarshipand culture, Abramowicz livedunder Czarist, Polish, German,Lithuanian and Soviet Russianrule before immigrating to theUnited States in 1946. Thedaughter of teachers, she wasfluent in Yiddish, Russian,Polish, German, French andEnglish. Abramowicz earned amaster’s degree in humanitiesfrom Stefan Batory Universityin Vilna and served as librarianof Vilna’s Jewish Children’sLibrary and then of the VilnaGhetto library.

In that capacity, she was amember of the “Paper Brigade,”intellectuals who risked their

lives to rescue Jewish booksfrom looting and destruction bythe Nazis. Many of those workswere unearthed after the warand are in the YIVO collection.

In September 1943, when theghetto was liquidated, Dinawas put on a train to a laborcamp. The train car door slidopen on the Vilna platform and

Dina walked off and joinedJewish partisans. She served outthe war as a nurse’s assistant.

In 1947, Dina went to work atthe YIVO library. In 1962, afterearning a master’s degree inlibrary science from ColumbiaUniversity, she became YIVO’shead librarian. In 1987, whenshe was 77, Dina stepped downbut remained a YIVO referencelibrarian until her death.

During her 53-year career atYIVO, Dina earned an interna-tional reputation for her ency-clopedic knowledge of YIVO’scollection. Friends and asso-ciates say that her mental “cardcatalog” was as powerful as a

computerized one. One story about her near-

photographic memory involveddiplomat George F. Kennan,who sought information on a19th-century convert toChristianity. Immediately, Dinabrought him an arcane Yiddishbook on Jewish apostates.

Among Dina’s many awardswas the Berl Frimer Prize forCultural Achievement from theCongress for Jewish Culture.

Last year, Dina oversaw theEnglish publication of Profiles ofa Lost World (Wayne StateUniversity Press), written byher father, Hirsz Abramowicz.Originally published in Yid-dish in 1958, Profiles describesLithuanian Jewish culture. Dinacalled the English publication“a dream come true.”

Dina considered YIVO herhome and a YIVO volunteer,Elaine Adamenko, was with herwhen she died. She is survivedby a niece and two nephews.

YIVO’s Board of Directors has established two funds

and scheduled a tribute to long-time YIVO librarian and Yiddishscholar Dina Abramowicz who passed away on April 3 at age 90. The tribute is open to the public. It will be heldon Monday, September 18,

5:30 - 7:30 P.M. at YIVO, in theCenter for Jewish History, 15West 16th St., New York, NY.

The Dina Abramowicz BookFund will help develop andmaintain the YIVO Librarythrough the purchase andrestoration of books. The DinaAbramowicz Fellowship Fund

will be an annual endowment toenable an emerging scholar topursue research through theYIVO Library and Archives.

Contributions to either orboth of these funds should besent to Ella Levine, YIVODirector of Development.

Dina Abramowicz, 1909-2000

Dina (right) as ayoung woman inVilna.

Below: Dina at one of her most triumphantmoments, the bookpublishing partyfor the translationof her father’sProfiles of a LostWorld (right). In its cover photo,Dina is secondfrom left.

Memorial Funds to Help Library and Emerging Scholars

7

Tributes to Dina Abramowicz have come in fromaround the world. Here are excerpts from twoeulogies by people who knew her well.

Zachary M. Baker succeeded Dina as YIVOHead Librarian and is now Reinhard Curator

of Judaica and Hebraica Collections at StanfordUniversity.

“Dina would have disapproved of beingdescribed as a symbol of Eastern European Jewry,though those who came in contact with her oftenregarded her as such. Symbols tend to be static,and there was nothing static about Dina’s probingcuriosity or her desire to learn new things, to be aucourant with current events or the newest books tocross her desk…

“Tenacity, energy, strength, and above alldedication — these are the main characteristicsthat marked Dina Abramowicz’s personality. Shewas dedicated to her work, to the public that sheserved, to the legacy of Vilna, and to the memoryof her father, Hirsz Abramowicz. Dina was alsoblessed with a phenomenal memory, which shewas always able to plumb for elusive facts andhelpful research strategies.”

Sam Kweskin, a Boca Raton, Florida,genealogist, used Dina’s services regularly.

“I am among the many hundreds — and eventhousands — who profited from the kindnesses

and culture and knowledge of Dina Abramowicz.In the years 1978 - 1981, while issuing thequarterly Vilkija, the genealogical newsletter ofrelatives and friends who came from that be-knighted village west of Kovno, that wonderfullibrarian was able to practically take me by thehand to show me where, how and which books to search for information. She was a lighthouseamong librarians, a mistress of her ‘fach’, and she will long be remembered and missed andhonored.”

“Indefatigable and Splendid” Librarian

Dina on Vilna Ghetto, Books

At the June 22, 1998 Association of JewishLibraries Convention in Philadelphia, Dina

Abramowicz gave a stirring lecture on the libraryof the Vilna Ghetto, where she had worked.Entitled “Guardians of a Tragic Heritage: Reminis-cences and Observations of an Eyewitness,” thelecture provided insight into her passion for books.It was later issued as a separate publication by theNational Foundation for Jewish Culture.

Speaking about ghetto conditions, she notedthat “space that was previously occupied by oneresident was now shared by seven people” andthat “each ghetto resident had not quite twosquare meters of space at his disposal.” In themidst of this misery that Dina called a “humancage,” a group of dedicated librarians (includingDina and headed by Herman Kruk) restored theghetto’s Hevrah Mefitse Haskala Library, makingits 45,000-volume collection available to residents.

On November 12, 1942, the library held acelebration when its annual circulation reached100,000 volumes. In her lecture, Dina quoted Krukas saying, “Books were narcotics, a way to getaway, to escape the unbearable reality. Books weretaken out during the most tragic events of ghettolife, immediately after selections and deportations,and read in crowded rooms, where people slept ontheir bundles instead of their beds.”

As residents of the ghetto were deported, thelibrary absorbed their collections. Eventually, theNazis put Kruk in charge of sorting Vilna’s booktreasures so that the most valuable could be sent toGermany and other material could be destroyed.

While not speaking directly about her ownactivities in the “Paper Brigade,” a dedicatedgroup who risked their lives to rescue books fromthe Nazis, Abramowicz noted, “The lucky post-Holocaust generations ought to remember thesecourageous and dedicated individuals whostruggled against incredible odds to save thespiritual riches of their people, accumulatedduring the centuries.”

Left:Dina with anassistant in theYIVO Library, 1984.


You can increase your income, reduce yourtaxes and support Jewish continuity by estab-lishing a YIVO Charitable Gift Annuity. Here are afew of the benefits: • You can receive a guaranteed income for life

with no investment worries or responsibilities.

• You or a loved one can receive an attractive rateof return.

• You can reduce taxes and avoid unnecessaryestate taxes.

• You have the pleasure of making a meaningfulcharitable gift to the preservation of Jewishheritage through YIVO.

• A major portion of your Charitable Gift Annuitymay be tax-deductible.

The annual income YIVO pays depends uponthe beneficiary’s age at the time of the gift. Yourpayments can be made at regular intervals of yourchoosing (i.e. quarterly, semi-annually)throughout the year. Through your participationin YIVO’s Charitable Gift Annuity Program, youhelp endow YIVO’s programs to preserve ourJewish heritage.

To find out more about the many ways YIVOCharitable Gift Annuities can help you achieveyour financial, family and Jewish objectives,please call Ella Levine, Director of Development,at (212) 246-6080.

*Please note that YIVO does not provide legal or professionaltax advice. For that, you will need to discuss the matter withan attorney or other professional.

Increase Your Income While Supporting YIVO

w w w. y i v o i n s t i t u t e . o r g

New Web Site LaunchedYIVO is proud that its new Web site is up and

running at www.yivoinstitute.org. Thanks to a grant from the Fund for Jewish

Cultural Preservation of the National Foundationfor Jewish Culture, the newly designed site linkseasily to a great variety of subjects and importantYIVO collections. Visitors will be able to:• Read YIVO’s history

• Listen to Yiddish audio clips

• Study maps of East European towns and cities

• Register for Yiddish language classes

• Learn about research fellowships

• Explore the inventories of personal papers ofpersonalities such as Chaim Zhitlowsky andAbraham Cahan

• Read some of the 1,900 written testimonies ofHolocaust survivors

• Examine photos and posters, peruse the onlineversion of the YIVO Yedies newsletter

• Contact other YIVO branches, and

• Explore personal family genealogical roots.

The design team, led by Roberta Newman andKeith Mascheroni, aimed for easy accessibility.Newman, YIVO’s Director of New Media, helddetailed discussions with the YIVO staff before thesite structure was built. The staff Web Site Com-mittee also worked closely with Newman toensure that the text, visuals, sound clips andstructure paint the fullest possible picture of whatYIVO has to offer.

Please log on and tour the YIVO Web site; thenemail comments to us at [email protected].

Joseph Mlotek 1918-2000Educator, Editor and Author

Joseph Mlotek died on July 2. He was born in

Proszowice, Poland, in 1918and served as the longtimeEducational Director of theWorkmen’s Circle. Mlotek wasalso an editor of the Forward,Kultur un Lebn and Tsukunft.He was a folklorist, acommunity leader, co-author

of the popular column “Pearls of YiddishPoetry” and author of several collections ofYiddish folksongs.

He is survived by his wife, Chana (YIVO’sMusic Archivist) and sons Moyshe and Zalmen.

May his memory be for a blessing.

9

Since December 1999, threenew members have been

elected to YIVO’s NationalBoard of Directors. They areDavid M. Polen, Rosina K.Abramson, Esq., and ArthurRosenblatt, FAIA.

David M. Polen is Presidentand Chief Executive Officer ofPolen Capital Management ofTampa, Florida. He has been afinancial services executive formore than 30 years. A securitiesanalyst and one of the nation’stop-performing money mana-gers, he is founder and presidentof several companies includingPolen Capital ManagementCorporation, all in the businessof providing investment adviceand counsel.

His firms operated on WallStreet for many years. Polen is afrequently quoted source inBarron’s, The Wall Street Journal,Investor’s Business Daily andother national financial media.He is listed in Marquis Who’sWho in the World, and Who’s Whoin Finance and Industry, and he isamong the first financial execu-tives in the country to haveearned the CFP (Certified Finan-cial Planner) credential. The firmcurrently manages over $650million in investment products.

Polen has served on the boardof the UJA/Federation in

Tampa, Florida, and has beenthe Chair of the Florida Holo-caust Museum, the fourthlargest museum of its kind inthe United States.

Rosina K. Abramson is theprincipal of INSIGHT ProjectManagement Services, a consul-ting firm specializing in strategicplanning, fund development,project implementation anddelivery. She formerly served asthe Executive Director/CEO ofWomen’s American ORT, Inc.Her achievements in projectdevelopment include Presidentof the Queens West Develop-ment Corporation, Vice-President of the Roosevelt IslandOperating Corporation of theState of New York, and GeneralCounsel for the Office of theNew York City CouncilPresident.

Abramson served as Chair ofthe Municipal Affairs Commit-tee, and is a member of the Not-for-Profit Corporations LawCommittee of the Association of the Bar of the City of NewYork. She also is the founder and primary fundraiser for the Kovno Lithuania JewishCommunity Kitchen, a foodpantry for the elderly.

Arthur Rosenblatt has spentmost of his career in the publicsector. A graduate of Cooper

Union and Carnegie MellonUniversities, he designed thenew Auschwitz Jewish Center inOswiecim, Poland. From 1986 to 1988 he was Director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum inWashington, D.C. He is aPresidential appointee to theNational Museum ServicesBoard of the Institute forMuseum Services.

In the New York City area,Rosenblatt was Vice Directorand Vice President of Architec-ture and Planning for theMetropolitan Museum of Art,overseeing the Museum’sComprehensive ArchitecturalPlan, from 1968 to 1986. He also served as First DeputyCommissioner, NYC Dept. ofParks, Recreation and CulturalAffairs under Mayor JohnLindsay.

He received the 1995 AlumniAward of Carnegie MellonUniversity, for “influentialcontributions to the field ofarchitecture and … museumdesign and construction.“ Otherhonors include being a Fellow,The American Institute ofArchitects and receiving theAugustus St. Gaudens Medal of The Cooper Union.

Three New YIVO National Board Members

David M. Polen Rosina K. Abramson Arthur Rosenblatt


Two YIVObooks have

been honored bythe Jewish BookCouncil. First,Poyln: Jewish Life in the Old Country,the unique albumof Alter Kacyzne’sphotographs,edited by YIVO’sChief Archivist

Marek Web, received the 1999 National JewishBook Award in the Yiddish Life and Culturecategory. Sponsored by the Council, the ceremonywas held on March 23, 2000 in New York.

“The real earner of this distinguished award is the martyred Yiddish writer and photographerAlter Kacyzne, who was killed by the pogrommob in the Ukrainian city of Tarnopol on July 7,1941,” Web said.

In addition, Miriam Weiner’s Jewish Roots inUkraine and Moldova: Pages from the Past andArchival Inventories (Routes to Roots Foundationand YIVO Institute) was a finalist in the Council’sreference category.

Jewish Book Council Honors YIVO Books

Yiddish Orthography Published

YIVO’s Marek Web accepting National Jewish Book Award.

Yiddish speakers and writers worldwide nowhave an updated, comprehensive source on

standardized spelling of Yiddish words and theirtransliterations into English. YIVO and the Leaguefor Yiddish this spring published the much-anticipated The Standardized Yiddish Orthography[Der eynheytlekher yidisher oysleyg].

“YIVO’s efforts to standardize Yiddishorthography, while primarily intended to elevatethe status of Yiddish as a modern language ofliterature and scholarship, also had the intention ofbringing together those who spoke and wrote inthe language…unifying the Jewish people throughthe standardization of their mother tongue,” DrewUniversity associate professor of Jewish Studies Dr.Allan L. Nadler writes in his pre f a c e .

The book’s introductory remarks were writtenby Dr. Joshua A. Fishman and Dr. Paul Glasser, aYIVO research associate and a renowned linguist.A comprehensive bibliography and detailed indexare included, as well as photographs and repro-ductions of historical documents.

Included in the volume are the sixth edition ofRules of Yiddish Spelling (Takones fun yidisher oysleyg)and The History of Standardized Yiddish Spelling (Funfolkshprakh tsu kulturshprakh), by Dr. MordkheSchaechter, senior lecturer emeritus in Yiddish atColumbia University.

Dr. Glasser’s introduction traces efforts to com-pose a standard Yiddish orthography. He notes:“The first dated occurrence of written Yiddish thathas survived — a single sentence in a Hebrewprayerbook — dates to 1272; the first longerYiddish text — to 1382.”

The Standardized Yiddish Orthography ($18.00U.S., plus postage and handling) is availablethrough the Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter RingBookstore, 45 East 33rd Street, New York, NY10016 (1-800-922-2558).

Libraries Award for Jewish Roots

In June, 2000, MiriamWeiner’s latest book,

Jewish Roots in Ukraineand Moldava receivedthe Association ofJewish LibrariesResearch and SpecialLibraries DivisionReference Award for1999. Jewish Roots, co-published by theRoutes to Roots Foun-dation and YIVO,records extant archivalholdings in those countries.

In presenting this award, Robert Singermannoted, “(We are) quickly overtaken by theauthor’s …mission of both pilgrimage, and rescueof records long-thought to have been destroyed.”

He added that the book features views of townsin Ukraine and Moldova that were once predomi-nantly Jewish, and today still have functioning(though decreased) Jewish communities, “not justthe destroyed cemeteries that are photographedhere in abundance.”

The award was funded by Dr. Greta Silver.

Miriam Weiner

The treasures of Yiddish children’s literaturewill soon be preserved forever in new reprint

editions, thanks to a partnership between YIVOand the National Yiddish Book Center. YIVOExecutive Director Carl Rheins and Yiddish BookCenter President Aaron Lansky signed an agree-ment that paves the way for the digitization ofYIVO’s children’s book collection, using existingmicrofiche. Once digitized, all of YIVO’s Yiddishchildren’s titles — including long-out-of-printvolumes — will become available on demand, asnew, high-quality reprints.

The Yiddish Book Center will add hundreds ofits own children’s titles to YIVO’s holdings, fromthe 1.5 million Yiddish volumes recovered by theCenter over the past 20 years. Hardcopy, acid-freereprints of all titles in the combined children’sbook collection will be added to the YIVO Library.

Upon signing the agreement, Yiddish BookCenter President Aaron Lansky said, “This effortaddresses the essential mission of both ourorganizations: to preserve and celebrate Yiddish

culture, and to add to our growing understandingof its many treasures.”

Rheins added, “I look forward to morecooperative projects with the Book Center.”

Hundreds of children’s books were producedby Yiddish writers in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Ranging from basic language primers to fantasies and adventure stories, the booksreflect the turbulent times in which they werewritten. Many will be valuable to teachers andstudents of Yiddish, providing a rich supplementto contemporary textbooks. The Yiddish BookCenter will compile an annotated bibliography ofall children’s books in the digitized collection,with plot descriptions and biographies of authors,further enhancing the usefulness of the books tostudents, scholars, schools and study groups.

The spirit of collaboration is also manifest in acooperative agreement inked between Rheins andSidney J. Gluck, President of the Sholom AleichemMemorial Foundation. The two organizations areco-sponsoring three cultural programs this fall atthe Center for Jewish History. They include “AnEvening with (writer) Bel Kaufman,” who willdiscuss her grandfather, Sholom Aleichem. Thetwo other events, “From Russia with Song” and“An Evening with the Co-Directors of theFolksbiene Theater,” will highlight areas of mutualinterest, and celebrate the broad panoply ofYidishkayt, past and present.

“Our new working relationship will provide theNew York area public with free opportunities tosee and hear key members of the Jewish commu-nity,” Rheins commented. “These programsrepresent a commitment to remembering ourhistory, as we enjoy our live Yiddish culture.” (See page 19 for details.)

11

YIVO Reaches Agreements with National Yiddish Book CenterAnd Sholom Aleichem Memorial Foundation

National Yiddish Book Center’s Aaron Lansky (L) and Dr. CarlRheins.

Sidney J. Gluck,President of theSholom AleichemMemorialFoundation

Chicago YIVO is thriving. It has more thandoubled its membership since 1991, bringing

exciting new programming to thousands ofChicago area residents. This year it is planning todevelop more programming in the city andsuburbs, and will work to provide more grants toyoung Yiddish scholars.

With the financial support of YIVO NationalBoard Member Leo Melamed, the Society is alsodeveloping an interactive CD-ROM for teachingYiddish.

Another outreach vehicle is Chicago YIVO’snew web site, which can be viewed at:www.chicagoyivo.org. It offers a history of YIVO,the mission statement of Chicago YIVO, imagesfrom its collections, and links to other web sites,

including the new YIVO New York site.On April 23, 2000, as part of YIVO Chicago’s

regular lecture series, Dr. David Fishman (JTS,New York YIVO) spoke about “Project Judaica:YIVO Ensuring the Future of Yidishkayt in Russia,”which described the pioneering program and hisrole as its director.

The 2000 Summer Festival of Yiddish Culture,an annual series of events co-produced with theChicago Public Library, features free publiclectures and performances. Among the manyofferings are Yiddish art and folk songs, presentedby Sima Miller, and Northwestern University Prof.Irwin Weil’s talk entitled “Developments inYiddish Culture.” For a full schedule of events,call (312) 747-4702 or (312) 744-7616.

Energetic and Innovative Chicago


The Zamler Project, launched infall 1999, signals an exciting

new phase at YIVO. The Archivesreports that a core collection onreligious Jewish life in BoroughPark has been successfullyestablished. It includes about 15 recorded interviews, ten liverecordings of religious andcommunal events, 250 photo-graphs and about 100 wallposters. The materials are rich in research potential and will be useful to historians andgenealogists alike.

A survey of the network of shtiblakh (prayer-houses) in Borough Park reveals that over 250shtiblakh have been established since the eve of theHolocaust by former residents of 150 towns andcities in Poland, Lithuania, Czechoslovakia,Russia, Rumania and Hungary. Project ArchivistAbraham Joshua Heschel, who conducted thesurvey, is following up with an outreach programto meet with representatives of the prayerhouses.Included were the Hasidic congregations ofSlonim, Komarno, Satmar, Kopycznitz, Ribnitz,Munkacs, Rachmastrivka, Bobov, Bishtina, Bistritz,Foltishan, Dej, Biala and Amshinov. People fromall walks of life were contacted: communal andHasidic leaders, businessmen, congregationmembers, cantors, com-puter programmers,scholars, journalistsand yeshiva students. Ameeting was also heldwith the Borough ParkHistorical Society andplans were made forfuture cooperation.

The interviews covera rich range of topicspertaining to Jewishreligious communitiesbefore World War IIand the successfultransplantation ofthose communities on American soil. There arepersonal anecdotes about Hasidic rebbes,narratives about childhood and educationalexperiences, information about everydayeconomic life, recipes for Sabbath meals, nigunim(songs) sung during the Seder, and first-handaccounts of life under the Nazis. The intervieweesinclude a grand rabbi, a professional artist,Holocaust survivors, a housewife and a ‘party

coordinator,’ who or-ganizes the celebrationsheld upon the completionof a new Sefer Torah.

In one interview, an el-derly survivor cries as herecalls the pre-war HighHoliday prayers of hisbeloved rebbe, who waskilled by the Nazis. Inanother, a young Hasidicleader relates the oralhistory of his dynasty,recording family heritagestories passed from gene-ration to generation over the last 150 years.

Key to a full picture of Hasidic life are the wallposter and photographic components of theZamler Project. Printed in Yiddish, Hebrew andEnglish, the wall posters of various sizes andshapes reflect contemporary life. They includeannouncements of school plays, concerts, Torahclasses, charitable events, and special holiday storesales. The photographic collection depicts streetscenes, local synagogues and institutions, andobservance of Jewish holidays. There are also rarehistoric images of Hasidic leaders and followers inpre-war Europe, the United States and Israel, aswell as images of precious Hasidic artifacts. Thephotographs are captioned with biographical and

historical information.We thank all who

responded to the firstYedies article announ-cing the project andthose who providedvaluable information,such as bibliographicreferences on Hasidicand congregationalstudies, and materialabout the history ofBorough Park.

The staff of the ZamlerProject welcomes com-ments, suggestions,

questions or assistance. If you are doinggenealogical research on an Hasidic group, pleasecontact Abraham J. Heschel, Project Archivist, at(212) 246-6080, ext. 6157, or e-mail him at [email protected] or [email protected]. You may also contact FrumaMohrer, Project Director, at (212) 294-6143 or e-mail her at [email protected].

News UpdateZamler Project in Hasidic Communities

Top Left: GrandRabbi AbrahamJoshua Heschel of Kopyczynitz (1888-1967) as a young boy.

Top Right: RivkaReizel (Perlow)Heschel, wife ofGrand RabbiMoshe Mordechaiof Medzibush-Warsaw, mother ofRabbi Dr. AbrahamJ. Heschel.

Center Photo: (L to R) Rabbi Dr.Abraham J.Heschel, RabbiIsrael Heschel and Grand RabbiAbraham JoshuaHeschel ofKopyczynitz.

13

YIVO linguist and renownedYiddish theater actor, David

Rogow, spoke about the revivalof Yiddish theater at the LifeReborn: Jewish Displaced Persons,1945-1951 conference heldJanuary 14-17, 2000 in

Washington, DC. The conference was organizedby the United States Holocaust MemorialMuseum and its Second Generation AdvisoryBoard, in association with The American JewishJoint Distribution Committee. On the “ArtisticCreativity” panel, along with artist Samuel Bakand singer Henny Durmashkin-Gurko, Rogowdiscussed his work in the theater in Poland and inthe Displaced Persons camps. He also describedthe renewal of Yiddish theater in Austria, in theAmerican zone of Germany and in Bergen-Belsenin the British zone. The theaters were constructedout of S. S. barracks, but there was greatenthusiasm and a warm reception everywhere thetheater troupes appeared in the bleak D.P. camps.

Noting how difficult it was to find appro-priate material because the libraries wereJudenrein, he mentioned that in 1946, “I, my wifeNina and two other actors presented, in Szczecin,a Yiddish program of skits and songs which werecalled from before the war because no Yiddishbooks at all were available then.”

Rogow reviewed the founding of the MunichYiddish Theater (MIT) in 1946-47; its first directorwas Israel Beker, and after Beker emigrated toIsrael, the theater was directed by AlexanderBardini. The theater was subsidized by the Jointand the Central Committee of Refugees in theAmerican Zone. Among the plays performed were Sholom Aleichem’s Hard to Be a Jew, Y.Pintshevski’s I am Alive, Aaron Glanz-Leyeles’sShloyme Molkho, Herman Heyermann’s Hope, JacobGordin’s Mirele Efros, and Avrom Goldfaden’s TwoKuni-Lemls.

At the opening of the Kuni-Lemls in Munich, “theSchausspielhaus (Theater) waspacked, standing room only.Many people were turned away.Some young men broke thewindows and tried to sneak in.Policemen on horseback had torestore order,” Rogow recalled.The MIT troupe toured the D.P.camps several times; about400,000 survivors saw the playsperformed by the MIT.

The dozens of amateur theatergroups were also saluted byRogow; there was one in almostevery camp. The detailed re-search for Rogow’s remarks was done at the YIVOInstitute, from which copies of his full paper canbe obtained.

Yiddish Theater Reborn in the D.P. Camps

David Rogow on Artistic Creativity

David Rogowappearing inShlomo Molkho inMunich, 1947

Ruth Rubin, Yiddish FolkMusicologist, Dead at 93

Dr. Ruth Rubin (1906-2000),scholar, collector and perfor-mer of Yiddish folk songs,died on Sunday, June 11, at theage of 93. Rubin was a devoteeof Yiddish folk music whoproduced several books andrecords on the subject. Hermanuscripts, which helpedearn her a YIVO Lifetime

Achievement Award, are part of the YIVOarchives and, hopefully, will soon be published.

In the 1930’s she began collecting Yiddish folksongs, especially those sung by women. Evenbefore the Holocaust, she understood that tradi-tions fade and must be recorded before it is toolate. When she became aware of the extent of theHolocaust, she redoubled her efforts to record asmuch as possible. She dragged a bulky old reel-to-reel tape recorder from house to house torecord songs from Jewish immigrants. As shewrote in the preface to her Voices of a People,“Eastern European Yiddish folk song reflectsvividly the life of a community of many millionsover a period of many generations. In the songswe catch the manner of speech…the wit and hu-mor, the dreams and aspirations, the nonsense,jollity, pathos and struggle of an entire people.”

Born Rifke Rosenblatt in Montreal onSeptember 1, 1906, she was the daughter ofBessarabian immigrants. In the 1920’s, shesettled in New York, where she studied with Dr.Max Weinreich, and collected field recordings ofYiddish songs in Canada and the United States.She not only studied and collected songs, butalso performed them in prestigious concert hallssuch as Carnegie Hall. These recitals were publiclinks in a chain of cultural transmission. Asdescribed by The New York Center for UrbanFolk Culture in 1991, Ruth Rubin in her singing“is at once the native informant and theethnographer of East European Jewish life.”

Her memory will be for a blessing.

Ruth Rubin


Renewed Alliance

YIVO and IWO Strengthen TiesThe renewed alliance between YIVO and its

Argentine counterpart, IWO Instituto Judio deInvestigaciones, has started to bear fruit for bothorganizations. During a January visit to BuenosAires, Yankl Salant, YIVO Director of YiddishLanguage Programs, exchanged publications withIWO. Among the items Salant brought to IWOwere: Embers Plucked From the Fire, Yedies fun YIVO,the Warsaw Poster Exhibition catalog, the BundExhibition catalog and CD, Poyln, Profiles of a LostWorld, College Yiddish, and one volume each ofYIVO-bleter: New Series and the YIVO Annual. Inexchange, he received El Tango: una historia conjudjos; Cuentos y Chistes Judjos; Las Cuarenta; andLos Vientos de la Historia. The organizations willnow exchange publications on a regular basis.

Salant was briefed on IWO activities, includingefforts to restore and preserve its collection ofbooks, periodicals, photographs, posters and otherarchival materials following the 1994 terroristbombing of AMIA, the Buenos Aires Jewishcommunity building in which IWO had beenheadquartered. IWO also sponsors Yiddish classes,lectures, readings, concerts, films and a weeklyradio show on Radio Khai, the only Jewish radiostation in Latin America. In addition, IWOpublishes materials in Spanish, produces exhibitsand makes parts of its collection available to researchers. Among those with whom Salant met wereIWO Foundation President Dr.Saúl Drajer, Executive DirectorAbraham Lichtenbaum and IWO Coordinator Ester Szwarc.

Soon, IWO will face the gar-gantuan task of recataloguing thelibrary’s materials, since its cardcatalog was destroyed in the

bombing. With some of its materials warehousedsince the attack, IWO has been unable to assess itslosses. When IWO moves into the new AMIAbuilding later this year, the assessment willcontinue full speed. By November, IWO’s libraryexpects to publish a list of missing works and tobegin filling gaps with duplicates from YIVO andother sources.

Salant toured IWO’s new AMIA headquarters atPasteur 633, in Buenos Aires. Heavily fortified onthe outside, the building is beautiful inside. IWOwill have one floor for its library and ar-chives and anotherfor an exhibition hall.It will also haveclassrooms andoffices. Some ofIWO’s collections will still need to bewarehoused.

Besides his talks at IWO, Salant was aguest speaker at anadvanced, 30-studentYiddish class taughtin the Scholem-Aleijem Shul.

In 1928, the Asociación Amigosde IWO en Vilna was foundedin Buenos Aires to researchJewish life and culture inArgentina. Three years later, theAsociación became an officialaffiliate of YIVO in Vilna andwas named IWO InstitutoCientificio Judio.

In 1945, IWO “purchased”one and a half stories in theAMIA Jewish communityCenter in Buenos Aires for $1.Until the 1994 bombing of theAMIA building (which killed 86 Jews and wounded 200) IWOpaid no rent or overheadexpenses.

The explosion wiped out 30percent of IWO’s collections,including its catalog. Fortu-nately, the close connectionbetween IWO and theAlveltlekher Idisher Kultur-

Kongres (Association forYiddish Culture) led to amerger of the two institutionsand a new home for the sal-vaged part of the collections.

AMIA has been rebuilt, buthas not offered IWO the sameconditions and privileges itenjoyed in the old building.IWO now must finish, furnish,and maintain its own space.

The Argentine Parliamentand the City Council of BuenosAires gave IWO significantsubsidies. The organization alsosigned an agreement with theProvince of Entre Rios, which issubsidizing research into Jewishcolonization of that region(Jewish gauchos). IWO stillneeds additional financial help.To contact IWO Buenos Aires,write to Abraham Lichtenbaumat [email protected].

IWO Argentina: Past and Present

Saúl Drajer in theentrance hall ofthe interim IWOheadquarters.The poster textreads, “IWO isalive!”

IWO Poster advertising Tevya theDairyman.

15

By Nikolai Borodulin

YIVO is teaming up with IDCPublishers of Holland to

create a microfiche record ofYIVO’s collection on Birobid-zhan, the capital of the formerJewish autonomous regionin Soviet Russia.

The collection includesmore than 30 periodicalspublished from the late1920s through the 1940s inthe former Soviet Union,Poland, Belgium, France, theUnited States, Argentina,Uruguay and South Africa.

The USSR designatedBirobidzhan, near theChinese border, for Jewishcolonization. It sought toestablish a Soviet JewishRepublic with Yiddish as astate language.

Among the more inte-resting publications is themonthly magazine Nailebn (NewLife), the official organ of thepro-Soviet Jewish organizationIcor. It was issued in Yiddishand English from 1928 to 1935under the title Icor, and from1935 to 1950 as Nailebn. Themagazine features articles,photos, literary works and othermaterial on the socio-economicand cultural life of the Jewishautonomous Region. Browsingthe pages of Nailebn, one caneven trace the lives of Americanfamilies who immigrated toBirobidzhan before 1937 andremained. Icor (the organization)had over 10,000 dues-payingmembers in the early 1930s and focused on aiding in thedevelopment of Birobidzhan.

The Birobidzhan collectionalso contains more than 100books and booklets publishedfrom 1927 to 1950 in the SovietUnion and elsewhere. Most arein Yiddish, Russian, English andGerman. Besides the books andpamphlets, which are mainlypropaganda, there are some

serious works that objectivelyanalyze the experiment.

The collection recently got asurprise addition. As YIVO wasmoving to the Center of JewishHistory last winter, staff

members discovered a set ofalmost 100 wall newspapersfrom Birobidzhan. Hand-written or typed, this 1933 set,found in the YIVO Archives,was a supplement to the local

newspaper BirobidzhanerShtern. It is the only one of itskind in the world. Theinformation in thesenewspapers will enableresearchers to learn about thelives of Jewish pioneers inBirobidzhan.

YIVO has worked withIDC Publishers in the past.IDC holds the rights todistribute the YIVO SlavicJudaica microfilm collection(350 books dating from the18th century to the 1940s onJewish history, religion,culture, and literaturewritten in Slavic languages).This collection remains oneof YIVO’s best sellers to

Collection on Jewish Region of Birobidzhan To be Made Available on Microfiche

January 1937 issue of Nailebn features aschool in Waldheim, Birobidzhan.

YIVO Poster Exhibition Opens in ParisKrysia Fisher, YIVO film and photo archivist and curator of theexhibition “Power of Persuasion: Jewish Posters from InterwarPoland” recently traveled to Paris for the opening of that exhi-bition at the Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme. The exhibitionwhich was on display for a year at the Jewish Historical Institute(ZIH) in Warsaw will now be seen in Paris through September.

Approximately 1500 people attended the opening of theexhibition, which was accompanied by a lavish French languagecatalogue. The exhibition is part of a Yiddish cultural series thatwill continue through thesummer at the museum.

On the same trip,Fisher attended theLondon opening of thepermanent Holocaustexhibition at the ImperialWar Museum. Many ofthe materials used in theexhibition came from theYIVO Archives. QueenElizabeth II inauguratedthe proceedings. Fisherhelped to curate theexhibition and to producethe accompanying films.

Krysia Fisher atthe June 8, 2000opening of“Jewish Postersfrom InterwarPoland” in Paris.


With Yiddish conversationand songs echoing

through our van, the visit beganin Vilna (Vilnius), Lithuania,YIVO’s birthplace. We met withrepresentatives of the Jewishcommunity, visited the JewishMuseum, walked the formerghetto’s streets and tried toimagine the Shulhoyf (synagoguecourtyard) where a kindergartennow stands. We visited the onlyfunctioning synagogue, and sawthe site of YIVO’s former home,where the intrepid “PaperBrigade” risked their lives tosave Yiddish books from theNazis. We also visited the monu-ment to the great Vilna Gaon.

In Kovno, my sister and Ifound where our parents hadlived and worked prior to thewar, and where they were hid-den in Ghetto malines. Armedwith a copy of a 1939 phonebook, the ever resourceful Assia,administrator of the JewishKehilla, made the streets come

alive, helping to explain whyour parents and their survivinggezelshaft had such fond memo-ries of the vibrant, bustling, pre-war Jewish Kovno. Others foundmemories of loved ones at gravesites and at the Ninth Fort, thenotorious Nazi execution prison.

In Warsaw, we met our scho-lar-in-residence, Prof. SamuelKassow, of Trinity College. His mesmerizing lectures onWarsaw, Cracow and Auschwitzhelped us to comprehend theincomprehensible, to explainhow more than three millionPolish Jews could be annihilatedby their neighbors, some evenafter having survived the war.

Perhaps Professor Kassow’sgreatest contribution was todemonstrate that, in fact, Jewishtraditions have not been erased.Even in countries where ournumbers are all but gone, ourtraditions, cultures, beliefs,practices and innovations stillinfluence the mainstream.

The trip highlighted YIVO’simportance in chroniclingEastern European Yiddishculture. YIVO documents anaspiring, ambitious and empa-thic community with roots in1925, but with branches in thepost-war Diaspora and Israel.

Building community, helpingthe disadvantaged, encouragingeducation, valuing culture andintelligence, respecting ourhistory, stimulating debate, andd reaming of political alternativesall are still alive. They can befound in the little Eastern

European Kehillas, in the estab-lishment of the State of Israel, inthe varied Jewish communal lifein the U.S. and in the emergingJewish life in St. Petersburg.

A total surprise and brilliantexample of the re-emergence ofa Jewish community awaited usin St. Petersburg, Russia. Aftermeeting with representatives ofthe Joint Distribution Committeeand the St. Petersburg JewishCultural Center, it became clearthat this community of morethan 100,000 Jews, with youthfulleadership, is struggling to de-fine Jewishness to fit theirRussian-Jewish history andlegacy. I hope that YIVO willbuild bridges and partnershipsto help them in their efforts toconnect with the world Jewishcommunity and with theirRussian heritage.

Tracing Heritage on YIVO Mission

Mission participants at Righteous Persons’ Alley, Klaipeda(Memel), Lithuania. Rosina is on the left and Cynthia is on theright.

Rosina (R) and Cynthia outside the Silva Knitting Mill, which their fathermanaged while in the Kovno Ghetto.

Inspired by the outstanding success of our 1999 mission, YIVO sponsored its second Heritage studytrip to Lithuania, Poland and St. Petersburg. A group of people — diverse in age and family history —

retraced their earliest memories. To all the participants: Rosina Abramson and Jeffrey Glenn, Prof.Samuel Kassow, Pearl and Ralph Kier, Max Lubliner, Charles Rose, Dr. Terry and Jonathan Shapiro,Cindy Stone, Dr. Herman and Myra Treitel, and Jacob Waisbord, this mission took on a very personalperspective. Learning about YIVO's role in pre-war Europe, it became clear to them that YIVO continuesto be the main resource center on East European Yiddish culture and history, documenting the richaspects of Jewish communal life — past and present.

Rosina K. Abramson (YIVO Board member) and Cynthia Stone (a member of the Leadership Forum),who are sisters, recorded their experiences and their feelings in journals, which they shared with Yedies.

Rosina K. Abramson, Esq.

17

Idecided to visit Kaunas (Kovno) in honor andrespect to both mayne tate-mame and zeyere tate-

mame (my parents and grandparents). Their spiritremains ignited in me. Going to Lithuania meantre-igniting that spark. Although I had no one tovisit, since all my relatives are long gone, it was soimportant for me to have the opportunity to see aplace they called home. I went on a pilgrimage tosearch for bobe-zeyde who never were able to touchmayne bekelekh (my cheeks) or mayne kinderlekhsbekelekh (my children’s cheeks) or to see ourshining, smiling faces here in America.

When I arrived in Vilna I was filled with rageand felt terribly untrusting of the Lithuanianpeople. I soon realized that I would not get what Iwanted out of this experience if I didn’t let go ofthe rage. I saw nursery school children in theirbaby bonnets, playing in the schoolyard in the sunover what was once the Vilna Ghetto and perhapswas the graves of Jews who had perished there. Iwitnessed two young adolescents roller-bladingover the Ninth Fort, without respect for the floodof blood, which once flowed under the Fort.

I realized that the apparent Lithuanian compla-cency was insignificant in comparison to thelarger, robust and enduring spirit, which the Jewshad before, during and after the war. There are600-700 remaining Jews in Kovno from theoriginal 40,000 before the war. I realized that, inmy family, there was a history of resistance andthat not everyone succumbed to being a victim ofthe Nazis. My uncle, Meishe Gerber, was one of 64prisoners who escaped the Ninth Fort and fulfilledhis role as a partisan. It was the only successfulescape from any camp during the Nazi occupationof the Baltic States.

I found the Silva knitting mill, which my fathermanaged in the Kovno Ghetto. It still manufac-tures Trikotazas ir Kojnes (jerseys and socks), just ashe had done. This factory is a monument to hisefforts to exchange bread for ammunition andeventually to form a brigade of 111 partisans in theAleksot woods. I envisioned the ripples that hisboat cast, sailing down the Neris River into thewoods, as he escaped to freedom.

Although I could not find the exact bathhousein which my mother and grandfather hid duringthe last days of the Kovno Ghetto’s burning, wefound the location of a former a bathhouse thathas since been replaced by a Soviet building. Mymother had referred to the bathhouse in which shehid as the “tombstone for the entire Ghetto,”because it was the only building that withstoodthe fire set by the Nazis before the Russiansliberated the Jews in 1944.

At the Kovno Jewish Community Center mysister, Rosina, introduced me to Frida, an elderlywoman who invited us into her apartment. Thehallway of her building was dusky, with noelectricity, but her apartment was like a littlepalace. She fed us delicacies such as teyglekh andimberlekh (carrot treats). Such delicacies areprobably made by just seven people in the entirecountry, and hers were a labor of love. She sent ushome with all that she had and wished she hadmore to give us. When we said goodbye, sheasked when we’d see her again.

I saw the streets where my mother and fatherlived. My mom’s street was a Baltic version of theChamps Elysees and my dad’s was much like analte shtetl (old village). Somewhat strange andunbelievable (with Ella Levine’s help), I found theVersal night club where my dad had danced onthe night before the Nazis invaded the Kovnoairport. It stood there like a musty old saloon. Thecrystal ball of the dance floor has tarnished butmy parents’ love for their culture and their peoplehas not and never will.

To Lithuania, Poland and St. PetersburgCynthia Stone

Cynthia in front ofGate Memorial tothe Kovno Ghetto.

Below: YIVO Mission 2000 participants with Prof. SamKassow, Trinity College, and Prof. Feliks Tych, Director of theJewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.

Missionparticipants in St. Petersburg.

The followingseven JewishStudies fellow-ships have beenawarded by theMax WeinreichCenter for theyear 2000:• Roni Gechtman, NYU, the

Professor Bernard ChoseedMemorial Fellow, for “Yidishersotsializm: the National Pro-gram of the Bund in Poland.”

• Daniel Katz, Rutgers Univer-sity, the Rose and IsidoreDrench Memorial Fellow, for“Community Visions: TheActivities of the ILGWU.”

• Keith Weiser, ColumbiaUniversity, the Aleksanderand Alicja Hertz MemorialFellow, for “Noah Pryluckiand the Folkspartey in Poland.”

• Marc Caplan, NYU, the VivianLefsky Hort Memorial Fellow,for “Modern Yiddish and Afri-can literature.”

• Barry Trachtenberg, UCLA,the Abraham and Rachela

Melezin Fellow, for “The Useof Old Yiddish Literature byYiddish scholars in InterwarEurope.”

• Beatrice Lang-Caplan,Columbia University, theNatalie and Mendel RacolinMemorial Fellow, for “The Use of Orthodox YiddishLiterature in InterwarPoland.”

• Rebecca Kobrin, University ofPennsylvania, the Maria Salit-Gitelson Tell Memorial Fellow,for “The TransnationalBialystok Jewish ÈmigrèCommunity.”

“These fellowships supporthigh-level Jewish Studiesscholarship,” noted Dr. Carl J.Rheins, YIVO Executive Direc-tor. “The distinguishedresearchers honored by ourawards are leading the way inexploring the history, languageand way of life of the Jewishpeople in Eastern Europe andAmerica.”


Hanna Krall Awarded 1999 Karski-Nirenska Prize

YIVO Awards Seven FellowshipsTo Jewish Studies Scholars

Hanna Krall

Polish journalist and writerHanna Krall has been

awarded the annual Jan Karski-Pola Nirenska Prize for 1999.

Endowed by Professor JanKarski in 1992, the $5,000 prizegoes to authors of publishedworks documenting Polish-Jewish relations and Jewishcontributions to Polish culture.

Krall received the award tohonor her literary works anddocumentary prose, which re-flect on the relationship betweenPoles and Jews in times of sor-row and hope. Her books andstories explore the memories ofJewish Holocaust survivors andtheir post-war experiences, setagainst the backdrop of contem-

porary Polish history. Born Jewish in 1937 Warsaw,

Krall was hidden in privatehomes during the war. Duringthe rise of the Solidarity move-ment she was active in dissidentgroups that opposed Commu-nist rule in Poland.

Krall has authored ten books.Her most famous is Zdazyc przedPanem Bogiem (To Outwit God,1977), which was published inthe U.S. as Shielding the Flame(Henry Holt, 1986) and has gonethrough 26 editions worldwide.It is based on talks with MarekEdelman, the last survivingleader of the Warsaw Ghettouprising. Her books have beentranslated into English, German,French, Czech, Italian, Hebrew,

Swedish and Dutch. Among her many honors are

the Solidarity Award for herautobiographical novel, TheSubtenant, the Pen Club Awardfor the short story collectionHipnosa and the Leipziger BuchPreis (Leipzig Book Award,March 2000) for Inter-EuropeanMutual Understanding.

Professor Jan Karski, whoestablished the prize, served asa World War II envoy of thePolish government-in-exile. Hebrought the West firsthandtestimony about the conditionsin the Warsaw Ghetto and inGerman concentration camps.The prize is also named forProfessor Karski’s late wife,choreographer Pola Nirenska.

Roni Gechtman

The continuing education pro-gram expanded significantly

in the 1999-2000 academic year.In addition to Yiddish languagecourse offerings taught byNikolai Borodulin and Avrom-Yankev Sachs, new courses wereadded in both the fall and springsemesters.

Borodulin, YIVO’s librarybibliographic specialist, exploredAmerican Yiddish poetry in acourse he taught this past fall.The spring semester featuredtwo new courses. The first,“Introduction to Yiddish Linguis-tics,” was taught entirely inYiddish by Dr. Paul (Hershl)Glasser, Max Weinreich CenterResearch Associate. In thesecond, Dr. Jeremy Dauber,Assistant Professor of YiddishStudies at Columbia Universityand former Rhodes Scholar, led aseminar on Yiddish literature intranslation, the first one of itskind in several years.

Continuing EducationProgram Expanded

19

YIVO’s Distinguished Lecture Series willinclude speakers on literature, politics andJewish culture in Eastern Europe fromImperial Russia to post-glasnost.

Oct. 19, 2000 at 8:00 PMDeborah Lipstadt, Dorot Professor ofJewish History, Emory University

Holocaust Denial: A New Form of Anti-Semitism.

Nov. 21, 2000 at 8:00 PMYehuda BauerVisiting Professor of Holocaust Studies atClark University; Director, InternationalInstitute of Holocaust Research Yad Vashem Martyrs’ and Heroes’ MemorialAuthority, Jerusalem

The Shoah in Historical Perspective

Dec. 11, 2000 at 8:00 PMNeil JacobsProfessor of Germanic Languages andLiteratures of Ohio State University

Negotiating Jewish Modernity Verbally:Yiddish, ‘not-Yiddish,’ and the linquisticroadmap of Ashkenazic Jewry

YIVO Colloquium Nov. 29, 2000Emmanuel Ringelblum RememberedDr. Samuel Kassow, Trinity College(Coordinator)

YIVO 75th Anniversary ExhibitNov. 1, 2000–Oct. 14, 2001YIVO Exhibit Space

9:00 AM–5:00 PM Daily

Joint Programs with the SholomAleichem Memorial Foundation. Oct. 23, 2000 at 8:00 PMSurvival with Humor - Memories of SholomAleichem, An Evening with Bel Kaufman

Nov. 15, 2000 at 8:00 PMFrom Russia with SongA performance by vocalists AlexanderZhurbin and Alexander Gounko inRussian, Yiddish and English.

Dec. 12, 2000 at 8:00 PMAn Evening with the Co-Directors of theFolksbiene TheaterZalmen Mlotek and Eleanor ReissaAdmission to the three joint programs isfree and seats will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Eachperformance will be followed by areception sponsored by YIVO and theSholom Aleichem Memorial Foundation.The audience is invited.

75th Anniversary YIVO Lectures, Cultural Events and Films At the Center For Jewish History, Fall 2000

Monday, November 13, 7:30 p.m.New York City 35mm Premiere!

The Assistant, 1998, 105 minutes, 35mm Director/Screenwriter: Daniel M. Petrie

Based on Bernard Melamud’s powerful1957 novel. During the Great Depression,drifters Frank Alpine and Ward Minoguerob a Jewish-owned grocery store. Shakenby the anti-Semitism and violence exhi-bited by his partner, Frank suffersremorse, and, incognito, takes a job withthe grocery. He is drawn to the grocer’sbeautiful daughter, but as a non-Jew, isviewed with suspicion by her mother.

Speaker: Daniel M. Petrie, Director

Wednesday, December 20, 7:30 p.m.New York City Premiere!

The New Klezmorim: Voices Inside theRevival of Yiddish Music, 2000, 70 minutes, Video

Director: David Kaufman

A penetrating look behind the scenes of the klezmer revival that examines the roots of the genre, its modern-dayperformers, and the audiences. Featuringthoughtful interviews with and perfor-mances by leading klezmer performers and bands.

Speakers: David Kaufman, Director Lorin Sklamberg, YIVO Sound Archivistand founding member of the Klezmatics

Thursday, January 11, 7:30 p.m. New York City Premiere!

Too Early to be Quiet, Too Late to Sing, 1995,53 minutes, Video

Director: Nadav Levitan

Singer-songwriter Chava Alberstein’stribute to the small circle of Yiddish poetsin Israel. Bunem Heller, Rokhl Boimviland other poets read their work and areinterviewed. Alberstein draws on theirpoems to create Yiddish songs, several ofwhich she performs in the film.

Speaker: Josh Waletzky, Filmmaker andComposer

Monday, January 29 7:30 p.m.New York City Premiere!

Three films from Israel’s EducationalTelevision

All About People: Hannah Szenes, 2000, 25minutes, Video

Director: Rina Papish

All About People: Haika Grosman, 2000, 25minutes, Video

Director: Rina PapishTransnistria: The Hell, 1996, 41 minutes, Video

Director: Zoltan Terner

Three documentaries produced for Israel’sEducational Television network.

The first two, from the series All AboutPeople, examine the lives of twoextraordinary women. Hannah Szenes(1921-1944), a Hebrew poet whoparachuted into her native Hungary on anAllied mission in 1943, was captured andexecuted. Hannah Szenes focuses on herexploration of her Hungarian-Jewish-Israeli identity in her life and work.

Haika Grosman (1919-1996) was a mem-ber of the Jewish resistance in Bialystok,Poland, who emigrated to Israel andeventually served as a member of Knesset(Parliament). Haika Grosman documentsher heroism during the Holocaust and herlong career of political activism.

Transnistria: The Hell chronicles the tragicfate of 300,000 Jews from Romania,Bessarabia and Bukovina who weredeported to the southern Ukrainian re-gion of Transnistria during WWII.

Speaker: David Engel, Prof of Hebrewand Judaic Studies, New York University.

Lectures

Events

Film and Discussion Series

Admission to all events is free. Seats will be available on a first-come first-served basis.


Cover from thebook Prichinasmrti - rasstrel(The Cause of Death isExecution), aboutthe last days of the Soviet-Jewishwriter, IsaacBabel. Terra,Moscow, 1996.

By Nikolai Borodulin

As Russian Jewish scholar-ship begins to blossom

again and concern grows overpreserving the legacy of centu-ries of Eastern European Jewry,the YIVO library has beenreplenishing its Slavic Judaicacollection.

Since December 1999, theYIVO library has obtained 62books and seven periodicalsfrom Russia and other formerSoviet Republics. The publi-cations exhibit the growinginterest in Jewish scholarship inthe Former Soviet Union.

The books cover a widespectrum of history and cultureof Eastern European Jewry,including the Holocaust.

Here is a sampling of titles: • Fridboim,Khedva, To chto iapomniu (TheThings IRemember)Iaroslavl, 1997, apersonal accountof the persecutionof Jews in Poland.

• Alekseev,Valentin,Varshavskogo getto bol’she nesushchestvuet (There is No MoreWarsaw Ghetto),Moscow, 1998.

• Lazar Litai,Chaim, Vosstanie Varshavskogogetto (Warsaw GhettoUprising), Israel, 1991.

• Zaraev, M., Soshestvie v ad:Varshavskoe getto (Going Downin Hell: Warsaw Ghetto),Hannover, 1999.

• Khentova, S. M., PlamiaBab’ego Iara: trinadtsataiasimfoniia D. D. Shostokovicha(Babi Yar Flame: D.D.Shostakovich ThirteenthSymphony).

Materials of the scientificconference: Bogoslovie posleOsventsima i ego sviaz’ sbogosloviem posle GULAGa(Christian Theology afterAuschwitz and its Relation tothe Theology after Gulag), St.Petersburg, 1998.

Several books that wererecently acquired explore theJewish history of Russia andgovernmental policy towardsJews, including such issues asanti-Semitism and pogroms.These include:• Evreiskie khroniki XVII stoletiia:

epokha “khmel’nichiny” (JewishChronicles of the XVIICentury: Era of Khmelnitski)Moscow, 1997.

• Eliashevich, D. A.,Pravitel’stvennaia politika ievreiskaia pechat’ v Rossii, 1797-1917 (Government Policy andJewish Printing in Russia), St.Petersburg, 1999. This includesan English summary,bibliography and index.

• Dokumenty po istorii I kul’tureevreev v arkhivakh Moskvy(Jewish Documentary Sourcesin Moscow Archives),Moscow, 1997. Includesindexes and table of contentsin English.

• Serhiichuk, V., Pohromy vUkraini 1914-1920 (Pogroms inthe Ukraine 1914-1920), Kiev,1998. This book includesmaterials from the Ukrainearchives about these tragicevents. Index included.

• Blium, A. V., Evreiskii voprospod sovetskoi tsenzuroi 1917-1991 (Jewish Question underthe Soviet Censorship), St.Petersburg, 1996. Deals withthe censorship of Jewishliterature under the Sovietregime and anti-Semitism.Includes summary and tableof contents in English,bibliography and index.

• Petrova, N. K. Antifashistskiekomitety v SSSR 1941-1945,(Anti-Fascist Committees inUSSR 1941-1945).

Another recent acquisition is aprecious gift sent recently fromMr. Sharf of Canada: a Yiddishbook published in Moscow in1945, Dos yidishe folk in kamf kegnfashizm (The Jewish People in theStruggle against Fascism). Itconsists of materials of the thirdanti-Fascist meeting (April 2,1944) and the third plenarysession of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee of the USSR(April 8-11, 1944). The bookgives a detailed account of bothevents and is an importantdocument for researchers.

Among other new acquisi-tions is Iudaika v stranakh SNG iBaltii (Judaica in the Common-wealth of Independent Statesand Baltic States), a directory,with indexes included, of Jewisheducational and cultural insti-tutions published in Moscow in1999. Also, Ievreiski adresy Kyieva(Jewish Addresses in Kiev), Kiev,1998, which acquaints the readerwith places of Jewish interest.

Two publications are devotedto the Soviet Jewish writer IsaakBabel: • Liberman, IA. L., Isaak Babel

glazami evreia (Isaak Babelthrough the Eyes of a Jew),Ekaterinburg, 1996.

• Povartov, Sergei, Prichinasmerti – rasstrel (The Cause ofDeath is Execution), about thelast days of the prominentwriter.

Another important additionto the collection of Slavic Judaicais Ivanov,V.V., Russkie sezony:teatr Gabima (Russian Seasons:“Habima” theater), about thefirst years of the world-famousHebrew-speaking theater.Includes a bibliography andindex.

Preserving the legacy of Eastern European JewryLibrary Rebuilds Slavic Judaica Collection


21

YIVO has received a $200,000 grant from TheWaber Fund of New York City. It will be used

to preserve and digitally catalog the books in thehistoric Strashun Library Collection, permanentlyhoused at YIVO.

Tanya Corbin and Irwin Jacobs, two of thetrustees of The Waber Fund, are direct descen-dants of Mathias Strashun (1819-1885), one ofLithuania’s most prominent intellectuals andTalmudic scholars. Corbin and Jacobs have chosen to fund the preservation of the StrashunCollection, which originated as Mathias Strashun’spersonal library, to honor their famous ancestorand to share the valuable books with the broaderJewish community. The 40,000-item StrashunCollection contains 25,000 volumes of Hebrewrabbinics, 1,000 volumes of Yiddish rabbinics,8,000 volumes of secular Hebrew books and 5,000volumes of secular Yiddish material. A recentsurvey showed that about 15,000 books of theStrashun Collection at YIVO are unavailable atany other library.

“We are very proud and grateful to receive this grant,” Bruce Slovin, Chairman of the YIVOBoard, commented. “The Waber Fund, togetherwith Ms. Corbin and Mr. Jacobs, is working with YIVO to preserve the collection and to

make these historic volumes more accessible to the public.

Tanya Corbin observed that the family has along tradition of love for books, encouraged bytheir Russian grandmother Rebecca StrashunJacobs.

Aviva F. Astrinsky, Head Librarian of YIVO,pointed out that the Strashun Collection started asa private library, which Mathias Strashun thenbequeathed to the Jewish community of Vilna.

“Placing the collection catalogue on the WorldWide Web helps fulfill Mathias Strashun’s goal ofsharing his library and will make it available tothe Jewish community globally,” Astrinsky noted.

YIVO also has acquired manynew periodicals, includingpublications from Jewishscientific centers:• Istoki: vestnik Narodnogo

universiteta evreiskoi kul’tury vVostochnoi Ukraine (Sources:Bulletin of the People’sUniversity of Jewish Culturein Eastern Ukraine), Kharkov1997, 1998. Includes

summaries and table ofcontents in English.

• Korni: vestnik narodnogouniversiteta evreiskoi kul’tury vtsentral’noi Rossii I Povolzh’e(Roots: Bulletin of People’sUniversity of Jewish Culturein Central Russia), Saratov.This is a semi-annual publica-tion begun in 1994. The YIVOlibrary has numbers 2 and 3-4.

Includes summaries and tableof contents in English.

YIVO also has obtained aunique publication for genea-logists: Mishpokha, Vitebsk.Begun in 1995, it deals with theJews of Belarus, their past,present and future. It consists ofnumerous articles about Jewishfamily histories. The YIVOlibrary has numbers 3 and 5.

Habimah Theater:scene from KingDavid’s Crown.From V.V. Ivanov’s,Russian Season ofHabimah Theater,Moscow, 1999.

Slavic Judaica [continued from page 20]

YIVO Receives $200,000 GrantTo Catalog Strashun Library Collection

The reading roomat the StrashunLibrary, Vilna,1939. It wasfounded byMatthias Strashun(1819-1885).


By Norma Fain-Pratt

The papers of Abraham Cahan,editor of the Jewish Daily

Forward (Forverts) for the firsthalf of the 19th century, offer acomplex look at the weakening ofYiddish culture in the UnitedStates, the fracturing of theJewish Socialist movement, and

other aspects of Jewish life during this fascinatingperiod.

YIVO staff recently catalogued a major portionof the papers, which, according to one story, wererescued from the trash by an archivist after theForward moved from its building on EastBroadway in 1974.

Cahan was editor of the paper from 1903 to1951, when the Forwardbecame the largest andmost influential Yiddishdaily in the world. Hesupported the newspa-per’s coverage of theideologies and activitiesof the Jewish, Americanand international socialistand trade union move-ments. Also under hisguidance, the Forwardplayed a dual role in thecultural evolution ofimmigrant EasternEuropean Jewry in theUnited States. Thenewspaper preserved Yiddish language,literature and the arts,while encouraginglinguistic and culturalAmericanization.

Cahan was born inPodbereze, near Vilna, in1860 and died in NewYork City in 1951.

The Abraham CahanPapers are divided intotwo sections because they were acquired by YIVOat different times from different sources. Part I wasformed in 1983 from Cahan materials in the papersof Mendl Osherovitch and Ephim H. Jeshurin. PartII was separated from the Bund Archives in 1990,when those archives became a part of the YIVOcollection. It is believed that these papers wereretrieved from the trash by Bund archivist HillelKempinski.

YIVO staff have divided Part II of the papersinto a series, from I to X, with materials sorted into147 folders. The series includes:

• Forward office correspondence (Series I and II),dated from 1914-1951 (although the majorportion is from the 1930s and 1940s). Theseinclude letters to and from Editor-in ChiefAbraham Cahan in Yiddish and non-Yiddishlanguages as well as letters to and from othermembers of the Forward editorial staff to a widerange of correspondents. Series III is a specialcorrespondence between Cahan and ManagingEditor Hillel Rogoff.

• Typescript and handwritten manuscripts (SeriesIV) submitted to the Forward by Yiddish writerssuch as Isaac Bashevis, Ossip Dimov and

Nathan Meisel. Themanuscripts were eitheredited or rejected.

• Cahan’s own writing(Series V) ranging frompoems he wrote for theArbeter tsaytung as earlyas 1890 to Forwardarticles appearing in1945.

• Articles, essays, andreviews (Series VI)about Cahan writtenduring his lifetimebetween 1910 and 1950,including a scrapbookdedicated to reviews ofhis classic 1917 work,The Rise of DavidLevinsky.

• Personal materials(Series VII) related tohim and his wife Anna’smedical conditions aswell as condolenceletters on the death ofAnna.

•Photographs (SeriesVIII) of Cahan with Anna and with otherjournalists.

• Obituaries (Series IX) and posthumous articlesfrom 1952-1987 (Series X) about Cahan writtenafter his death. Some of these materials werecollected at the Forward and some in the time thecollection resided at the Bund Archives.

Through the Eyes of the Forward EditorCahan Papers Interpret Yiddish-American Culture

Abraham Cahan


Three women withthe special edition of the Forvertsreporting the endof World War I,1918. Donated byMartha Kaplan.

23

Compared to Part I of the Cahan papers, Part IIholds a considerably larger portion of the Forwardoffice letters, particularly from the 1930s and ‘40s,and offers a complex picture of the daily life andinvolvements of the editorial staff, including theeditor-in-chief himself. From this correspondence,one can obtain information on the relationshipsbetween Cahan and his general readers, betweenSocialist and trade union leaders in the UnitedStates and Europe, as well as among aspiringwriters. One especially learns about the influencesunder which Yiddish journalists developed theirpolitical and literary strategies, the way femalejournalists were treated, and the interactionbetween Yiddish journalists in the United Statesand those in Eastern Europe. For instance, in aletter Cahan wrote to Max Winter on November21, 1934, the editor suggests that, “The Forward is aYiddish daily published under peculiar conditions.Journalistic conditions in this country are extreme-ly unique, utterly unlike those dominating thefield of European journalism.”

The strength of the collection resides in itscoverage of Cahan’s ideas and activities in the1930s and ‘40s. The papers shed light on themomentous events that encompassed Cahan’slater life: the weakening of Yiddish culture in theUnited States, the fracturing of the Jewish Socialistmovement under pressures of American anti-radical politics and the Soviet experiment, theDepression, the rise of Nazism, the Second WorldWar, the Holocaust and the establishment of theState of Israel.

Some important correspondents in the collectioninclude R. Abramovitch, J. Adler, M. Osherowich,B. Bellarina, I. Berlin, P. Berniker, A. Brisbane,M.Chagall, C. Darrow, L. Diament, C. Dropkin O.Dymow, M. Feinstone, B. Gebiner, W. Green, H.Hapgood, D. Hoan, D. Ignatov, M. Karpilov, M.Nordau, J. Oneal, J. Panken, J. Rich, C.E. Russell,A.H. Silver, H. Thomashefsky, I. Tunkel, I. Triwaks,Tzivion, B. Vladeck, S. Wise, R. Weprinsky, and B.Wendroff.

The Cahan papers are limited in various ways.They deal only with his last decades, although thepreceeding seven decades were his most creativeones. Also, they primarily document parts of hispublic life and do not include materials related tohis private life such as diaries or personalcorrespondence.

Even taken together, Part I and Part II of theAbraham Cahan Papers are not a completecollection. No doubt, a substantial portion of thematerials disappeared when the Forwarddisbanded its office in the 1970s.

EZEKIEL LIFSCHUTZ (1902-2000)

Ezekiel Lifschutz,former Chief Archivist

of YIVO, died on February16. Lifschutz was born inRadom, Poland, in 1902and settled in the UnitedStates in 1923. Hisassociation with YIVOhere began when it was abranch of the main centerin Europe. He began

working in YIVO as an archivist in 1954 andbecame chief archivist when Riva Tcherikoverleft the position in 1962. Under his leadershipthe amount of materials taken in and cataloguedby the archives increased considerably. Heretired at the end of 1972.

Lifschutz published articles in the YIVO-bleter,Goldene keyt, Zukunft, Freie Arbeiter Stimme andKultur un dertsiung in the United States and inLiterarishe bleter, Radomer vokhnblat and Oyfkumin Poland. He was a historian and taught in theSholem Aleichem Folk Schools and the JewishTeachers’ Seminary in New York.

May his memory be a blessing.

Ezekiel Lifschutz

Lorin Sklamberg, internationally recognizedmusician and composer, has returned to YIVO

as its new Sound Archivist. The Southern California native is best known for

his work as the lead vocalist/accordionist of theNew York band The Klezmatics, with whom hehas toured internationally and recorded since 1986.

Sklamberg worked from 1987 to 1994 as YIVO’sgraphic designer and coordinator of The YiddishFolk Arts Program (also known as KlezKamp). Hethen co-founded Living Traditions, a non-profitorganization for which he continues to operateKlezKamp and promote Ashkenazic culture byproducing recordings such as “Di grine katshke(The Green Duck),” a collection of Yiddish animalsongs for children.

Sklamberg has more than three dozenrecordings to his name, and he has composedmusic for film, theater and circus. He recentlyproduced the debut CD of the all-women’s Yiddishband, Mikveh. He lives in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.

He is also speaking on the Klezmer revival aspart of the YIVO Film and Discussion Series (seepage 19 for details).

Lorin Sklamberg Returns to YIVOAs New Sound Archivist

Lorin Sklamberg

Cahan Papers[continued from page 22]

H I S T O RY• Samuel D. Levine donated

documents and photographsof his father, Pinchas, who wasa Rabbi and ritual slaughtererin Western Canada at the turnof the century and in RamatGan, Palestine, in the 1920’s.

• Prof. Stanley Lebergottdonated a 1907 U.S. govern-ment report on conditions inRussia as they affectedimmigration to America.

• Prof. Samuel Abrahamsendonated his papers, whichinclude extensive documen-tation on the history of theJewish communities inScandinavia. The papers alsocontain a nearly-complete setof Nazi and collaborationistdocuments on the deportationof the Jews from Norway.

• A. Rosen donated a Nazi doc-ument from November, 1940,

on the elimination of Jewsfrom the French economy.

• Ditta Silverman donated an anonymous, 125-page,incomplete testimony on theBuchenwald concentrationcamp in the 1930’s.

• Leonard and Herbert Maletzdonated a list of survivorsfrom the town of Pruzhany,Poland.

• Amira Hagani donated a 1947letter from the leadership ofthe Hashomer Hatzair Zionistyouth movement in Poland in1947.

• Drs. Arnold Richards andLeon Anisfeld donated theirstudy of survivor guilt. It istitled, “The ReplacementChild.”

• Irena Rose Kepfisz donatedmaterials on Mikhl Klepfisz, aBund leader of the WarsawGhetto uprising, as well asmaterials on the AustralianBund activist, and Yiddishwriter, Hershl Bachrach.

• The Australian Bund andSocialist activist, JacobKronhill, donated auto-biographical materials.

• Dr. Lucja Glicksman donatedthe papers of her late husband,Dr. Jerzy Glicksman. He wasan economist and Bundactivist in interwar Polandwho spent WW II in Sovietlabor camps. The BundArchives already has hiscollection of books anddocuments on the lattersubject.

• Dr. Leah Davidson donateddocumentation on her uncle,Shmuel Arthur Zigelbojm, theBund’s representative in thePolish parliament-in-exile. Hetook his life to protest theworld’s indifference to theHolocaust.

• Records of the Bund’sCoordinating Committee weredonated by Dr. BenjaminNadel. Roni Gechtmandonated his study of Bund-sponsored sport activities ininterwar Poland.

• Donations relating to thehistory of prewar and postwarYIVO were made by Dr.Chava Lapin Reich, Beatrice(Bina) Silverman Weinreich aswell as by Esther Kuznitz.

• The papers of YIVO’s belovedlibrarian, Dina Abramowicz,have been donated by KalinaGotman.

• Additional materials toexisting historical collectionswere made by Ann Weisman(to the papers of HermanBernstein), Aaron A. Hafkin(to Waldemar MordechaiHaffkine), Naomi F. Pile (toMorris Moishe Freilicoff),Irena P. Narell (to AbrahamPenzik), Prof. MartinWarmbrand (to his ownpapers) and BettijaneEisenpreis (to the AmericanJewish Public RelationsSociety).

L A N D S M A N S H A F T NAND GENEALOGY • The New York State

Department of Insurancedonated the records of twentylandsmanshaftn and fiftylandsmanshaft seals. Theavailability of these materialswill be announced in futureissues of this publication.Special thanks to PhilipImperiale for preserving andfacilitating this donation.

• Norman Kagan donated, inmemory of his father, Wolf, aset of bulletins of theKremenitzer and Shumskerlandsmanshaft in Israel.


New Accessions to the YIVO Archives

VacationingSoviet workerspose beforeLermontov’sRock, NorthCaucasus, circa1936. MichaelLermontov (1814-1841) was a great RussianRomantic poet.Donated byMartha Kaplan.

25

New Accessions to the YIVO Archives• Martin Leff donated the

records of the First NemeroverBenevolent Society.

• Esther Seidler donated therecords of the AmericanCommittee for the LomzherPinkas.

• Jill A. Zornberg and FredSiegel donated the pinkas(minute book) of burial societyof the Pabianicer ProgressiveYoung Men’s Society.

• Jeanette and David Meyersdonated the records of Branch519, Workmen’s Circle, inChicago.

• Marcia Posner donated thediary of Jennie Pearlman’s tripto Europe in the 1920’s. It wastranslated by Joseph Machlis.

• Marilyn Radoms Satolofdonated family letters, whileBarry D. Saretzky donated thememoirs of Raya WestermanMazin.

L A N G U A G E ,L I T E R ATURE ANDF O L K L O R E• Our devoted zamlers have

been hard at work lately.Hank Bayer, Howard Youngand, especially, Eiran Harrishave provided the Archiveswith both ephemera andsignificant documents. Harrishas donated an 18th-centurymanuscript Passover haggadahfrom North Africa.

• Prof. Jacob Eli Goodmandonated the papers of hisfather, the Yiddish-English essayist and educator, SaulGoodman.

• Frieda Loew donated, viaLennart Kerbel, the papers ofher father, the Soviet Yiddishwriter, Ziskind Lyev. Lyev losthis life during the GreatPurges of 1937; his widowmanaged to hide papers fromthe authorities.

• The National Yiddish BookCenter, via Neil Zagorin, hasdonated the papers of Prof.Nathan Susskind, an editor ofthe Great Dictionary of theYiddish Language.

• Herbert Danska donated thepapers of his father, theAmerican proletarian Yiddishpoet, Lazar Dinsky.

Original artwork by Feiga Blumberg, part of a collection of works donatedby the Jewish Museum.

Rosh Hashana card mailed in 1931 from Bialystok, Poland to Chicago.Donated by Betty Brandes.



• Rabbi Yakov and MiriamJacobs donated the papers ofthe Yiddish writer, IsaacMetzker, who for many yearsedited the “Bintl briv” featurein the Jewish Daily Forward.

• Esther Birenzweig donated the papers of the Yiddishwriter K. Kharmats, whosestories are almost entirelyHolocaust related.

• Natalie Schlosser donated the papers of her husbandZalman, who edited theCalifornia Yiddish magazine,Kheshbn.

• Dr. Paul (Hershl) Glasserdonated a collection ofmanuscripts sent to theYiddish monthly, Tsukunft.

• Peter Lavinger donatedsupplementary materials tothe papers of Yiddish poetMani Leib.

• The Israeli Yiddish writer,Abraham Majerkewiczdonated autobiographicalmaterials.

• Betty Brandes donatedsupplementary materials tothe papers of her mother, theChicago Yiddish activist SoniaRockler.

• Jeanne Feldman donatedmanuscripts of the RhodeIsland Yiddish writer,Solomon Lightman.

• Anna Sophia Johnson donatedbiographic materials on theIllinois English-languagewriter, Martin Litvin.

• Anna Shternshis donated a set of forty-eight interviewswith elderly immigrants about popular Soviet Yiddishculture.

• Fela Glaser donated hercollection of over twothousand American-Jewishjokes.

T H E ATER AND ART• Edward Rosenthal donated

the music to the Yosef-shpil(Joseph play) which has been performed, in Yiddish,

in the Jewish communityof Miskolc, Hungary, formany generations. He also donated photographs of theperformances.

• Dror Abend-David donated aCD-ROM he made of a dozenYiddish translations, all inYIVO’s holdings, ofShakespeare’s Merchant ofVenice.

• The actress, Mina Bern,donated additional materialsto her papers and those of herhusband, Ben Bonus.

• Selma Cherkas donatedadditional materials to thepapers of Molly Picon, theYiddish-English actress.

• Gloria Beth Rubin donated aYiddish play by her father,David Cohen.

• Andrew Marum donatedartworks by his father, HansMarum.

• Special thanks to members ofthe staff of the Jewish Museumfor donating a set of originalartworks, including those byFeiga Blumberg, BenjaminKopman and Jennings Tofel.

• National YIVO Board member,Leo Melamed, donated anantique Yiddish typewriter.

M U S I C• The David Nowakowsky

Foundation, via David and Nancy Novack, hasdonated well over a thou-sand manuscript composi-tions of the Odessa-basedcantor-composer, DavidNowakowsky (1848-1921), one of the leading cantorialcomposers of his time. Duringthe Holocaust years thesemanuscripts were hidden inoccupied France; they havebeen arranged and catalogedby Cantor David Lefkowitz ofThe “Military Trio,” Altenburg, Germany, June 1945. It was donated by the Estate of Leon Freedman, who

is in the center of the photo.

New Accessions [continued from page 25]

27

the Park Avenue Synagogue inNew York.

• Leo Summergrad donated, viaHenry Sapoznik, music manu-scripts which belonged toAaron Hantin, a Yiddishsinger and radio announcer in New York.

• Madelin Simon donated abanner, photographs andmusic manuscripts which sheused as a conductor of theJewish People’s PhilharmonicChorus in New York.

• Mark Cherniavski donatedsupplementary materials tothe papers of the composer-conductor, JosephCherniavski.

• Beatrice Rubin donated 379Jewish music recordings,many of which are new toYIVO’s collections.

• Carol Nussbaum donated fifty78 rpm recordings. Fifteen arenew to YIVO’s collections.

• Lloyd Finkel donated, viaRichard Marcus, forty-four 78rpm recordings. Nineteen arenew to YIVO’s collections.

• Henry Sapoznik donated onehundred 78 rpm recordings,many new to YIVO’scollections.

• Lorin Sklamberg donatedeighty unplayed 78 rpmrecordings, some new toYIVO’s collections.

• Philip Sperber donated his latefather’s collection of fifty-seven 78 rpm recordings.Most are in near mintcondition, and nineteen arenew to YIVO’s collection.

• Barbara Davidson donatedforty-three 78 rpm recordings,several of which are new toYIVO’s collections.

• Isabel Belarsky donatedrecordings and broadcast

tapes of her father, the bassoSidor Belarsky.

• Prof. Bella Hass Weinbergdonated fifty-two LP recor-dings as well as materialsrelating her family.

• Donations were also receivedfrom Aaron Shelden (twenty-one 78 rpm recordings),Stephen Greenbaum (twelve78 rpm recordings, includingrarities), Janet Grey (sixteen 78rpm recordings), MannyHillman (ten LP recordings)and Emily R. Birnbaum.

VISUAL MAT E R I A L S• Faye Itzkowitz donated

photographs of the LaborZionist Hechalutz group inGoniadz, Poland.

• Abe Sloma donated photo-graphs of Bund activities inLublin, Poland.

• Ada Sherer Tuszynski donatedfamily photographs. Herfather, Dr. Emmanuel Sherer,was a Bund leader in prewarPoland.

• Barbara Arion donatedphotographs of the Lovers ofZion group of New Haven,Connecticut, in 1915, as wellas other materials relating tothe Zionist movement.

• Herman Grackin donatedphotographs of the JewishPeople’s Relief of the Bronx, as well as family materials.

• Bernard Gotfryd donated anadditional thirteen photo-graphs, with negatives, for thephotographic collection in hisname already in the YIVO’sholdings.

• Raphael Blumenfeld donatedphotographs of recent Yiddishcultural activities in Ashkelon,Israel.

• Antique Jewish postcards weredonated, separately, by DinahLindauer and Gerson Jerus.

• Martha Kaplan also donatedantique Jewish postcards, aswell as family photographs.

• Nadav Levitan donated ChavaAlberstein’s film, “Too Early toBe Quiet, Too Late to Sing,”about living Yiddish poets.

Teacher Saul Goodman with a Workmen’s Circle School class, Dumont Avenue, Brooklyn, February 1941.Donated by Goodman’s son, Prof. Jacob Eli Goodman,


Donors of $5000 and Above

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research thanks the following donors for helping to preserve ourJewish heritage through their generous support. In the last issue, Yedies acknowledged gifts of

$1000 - $4999. This issue recognizes donors of $5,000 and above from June 1, 1999 - May 31, 2000.Donors of $1,000 - $4,999 will appear in the next edition of Yedies.

Gifts of $50,000 and AboveAtran Foundation, Inc.

Conference on Jewish Material ClaimsAgainst Germany

Tanya and Sol Neil Corbin

Estate of Pearl Heifetz

Estate of Rose and Bernard Luks

Ann and Irwin Jacobs

NYS Department of Education

Nash Family Foundation, Inc. Helen and Jack Nash

National Foundation for Jewish Culture

RSL CommunicationsJo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder

Francesca and Bruce Slovin

Naomi and Motl Zelmanowicz

Gifts of $25,000 and AboveCalifornia Federal BankJerry and Carl B. Webb

Estate of Rose C. Stern

Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society

Fanya Gottesfeld Heller

J. Epstein FoundationJeffrey E. Epstein

Erica Jesselson

Lehman Brothers Inc.Constance and Harvey M. Krueger

Leucadia National CorporationDiane and Joseph S. Steinberg

Slim Fast Nutritional Foods FoundationS. Daniel Abraham

Steinhardt Management LLCJudy and Michael H. Steinhardt

Thomas H. Lee CompanyAnn and Thomas H. Lee

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz Toby and Bernard Nussbaum

Andrea and Samuel D. Waksal

Willis Corroon Corporation of New YorkSally and Anthony DeFelice

Gifts of $10,000 and AboveAccess Industries, Inc.Len Blavatnik

Alice M. and Thomas J. TischFoundationAlice and Thomas J. Tisch

American Stock Transfer & Trust CompanyLeah and Michael Karfunkel

Anonymous

Bank of AmericaMark R. Antweil

Beate and Joseph D. Becker

Phyllis and Martin L. Berman

Beyer Blinder BelleEllen and Richard Blinder

Eva and Josef Blass

Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & HamiltonBetsy and Max Gitter

Cozen and O’ConnorStephen A. Cozen

Each issue of Yedies will feature items from the YIVOcollection. The following photos are from Poland’s Bialystok area in the interwar period.

Outdoor meal time at Yehudia Summer Camp for Orthodox Children.Dlugosiadlo, Poland, circa 1930.

Young men posing amongst trees. Grodno, 1929.

29

Datascope CorporationCarol and Lawrence Saper

Dibner Fund, Inc.David Dibner

Bernice and Donald G. Drapkin

Barbara and Daniel Drench

Ernst & YoungKatherine and Gerald D. Cohen

Estate of Alexander E. Racolin

Estate of Dr. Belle Abramson

FAB Industries, Inc.Halina and Samson Bitensky

Family Management CorporationCathy and Seymour Zises

Forward Association, Inc.

Fred & Sharon Stein FoundationSharon and Fred Stein

Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. Inc.Kindy and Emanuel J. Friedman

Michael Fuchs

Diane and Mark Goldman

Goldman, Sachs & Co., Inc.Suzanne and Thomas S. Murphy

Gotham Partners Management Co., LLCKaren and William A. Ackman

Greystone & Co.Steve Rosenberg

Andrea and Warren Grover

HSBC Bank USADianne LaBasse

Jewish Genealogical Society

Joseph E. Seagram and Sons, Inc.Edgar Bronfman

KPMG LLPRenee and Michael J. Regan

Lancer GroupMichael Lauer

Lehrer McGovern Bovis

Martin and Doris Payson Charitable FoundationDoris and Martin D. Payson

Susanne and Jacob Morowitz

Morris and Alma Schapiro FundLinda S. Collins

Nusach Vilne, Inc.Simon Palevsky

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & GarrisonLaura and Robert C. Fleder

Anne and Martin Peretz

Philip Morris Companies Inc. Joan and Joseph F. Cullman III

Polen Capital Management Corp.Rosa and David M. Polen

Charles J. Rose

Sakura Dellsher, Inc. Betty and Leo Melamed

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom Franklin Gittes

Sol Goldman Charitable TrustAmy P. Goldman

Sonya Staff Foundation Eve Staff Rosahn

Vera Stern

Theodore and Renee WeilerFoundation Inc.Richard I. Kandel

Triarc Companies IncLeni and Peter May

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & KatzRuth and Theodore N. Mirvis

Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP Joann and Robert Todd Lang

Wolf, Block, Schorr, Solis-Cohen LLPMatthew H. Kamens , Esq.

Baker & McKenzie William J. Linklater

From June 1, 1999 – May 31, 2000

Left Photo:MendelGrandzhitski,haberdasheryowner, with histwo children bythe water. Grodno,1920s-1930s.

Right Photo:“With best wishes toSolomon Lifshitz.”Grodno, 1914.[HermanJoblokowcollection]


Gifts of $5000 and Above


Barclays Capital Terrance Bullock

Baruch College/CUNYSidney I. Lirtzman

Ann and Kenneth J. Bialkin

CIBC Oppenheimer Corp.Lotte and Ludwig Bravmann

Chase Securities Inc. Doug Traver

Gail and Gerald L. Chasin

City University of New York Matthew Goldstein

Cravath, Swaine & Moore Allen Finkelson ,Esq.

Credit Suisse/First Boston MaryAnn and Gordon A. Rich

D.H. Blair Investment Bank Corp.Rozi and Morton Davis

E.M. Warburg, Pincus & Co., LLCLionel I. Pincus

Estate of Hannah H. & Charles Kreindler

Estate of Hannah Levin

Gittis Family Foundation Howard Gittis

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Herman Kaiser Foundation Randolph M. Nelson

Joseph H. Reich & Co. Carol and Joseph H. Reich

Sima and Nathan Katz

Kramer, Levin, Naftalis & FrankelThomas E. Constance , Esq.

Linda and Benjamin V. Lambert

William Landberg

Tamar F. Levin

Ruth and David A. Levine

MacKenzie Partners, Inc. Daniel H. Burch

Victor Markowicz

Martin H. Bauman Associates, LLCSherry and Martin H. Bauman

Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & LerachMelvyn I. Weiss Esq.

NYC Department of Cultural AffairsSchuyler G. Chapin, Comissioner

New York Metropolitan Reference and Research

Newmark & Company Real Estate, Inc.Paula and Jeffrey R. Gural

Harold Ostroff

Diane and Robert Pryt

Arlene and Arnold D. Richards

Sandra and William L. Richter

Rebecca E. Rieger

Sanders Morris Mundy Inc. Don A. Sanders

Richard J. and Joan G. Scheuer Family Foundattion Joan and Richard J. Scheuer

Jay Schottenstein

Ida and Bernard S. Schwartz

Sholem Aleichem Folk Shul No. 21, Inc.

Sy Syms Foundation Lynn and Sy Syms

United Refining Company John A. Catsimatidis

Valerie Charles Diker Fund, Inc. Valerie and Charles M. Diker

Irene and Simas Velonskis

Vinson & Elkins L.L.P. Harry M. Reasoner Esq.

Frances Weinstein

Whale Securities Co., L.P.Claudia and William G. Walters

Elizabeth and Joseph Wilf

Zantker Charitable Foundation, Inc.Joseph H. Miller

Left Photo:A group of girls at the YehudiaSummer Camp forOrthodox children.1930.

Right Photo:Woman on theright is actressCelia Kulbotskaya.[HermanJoblokowcollection]


31

Letters to Yedies

We encourage our readers to write (by regular mailor e-mail) with comments and responses to Yedies.

Mourning Dina AbramowiczDear Editor: The Board of Directors and member-ship of the Medem Library in Paris wish to expresstheir sadness at the passing of Dina Abramowicz,who for decades was the loyal and efficient headlibrarian of YIVO.

Dina Abramowicz’s name will always be linkedto the noblest traditions of YIVO, to its Vilna rootsand to Max Weinreich’s leadership in the field ofYiddish. Her devotion to her work is exemplary tous all and an inspiration to everyone with anyconnection to the world of Yiddish books,wherever they may be.

Please convey our sympathies to the family.Yitskhok Niborski

Vice-Chairman, Medem Library (Paris, France)

Dear Editor:We have learned, with sorrow, of thepassing of our friend Dina Abramowicz, YIVOlibrarian. We know the importance of her work,which she performed conscientiously and compe-tently. We remember well the kindness and thehelp she gave to so many of our students andresearchers. The Centre Culturel Vladimir Medemwishes to convey to YIVO our deep sorrow.

Jacqueline Gluckstein, Henri MinczelesCercle Amical - Arbeter Ring

Centre Culturel Vladimir Medem, Paris, France

Thanks to Music ArchivistDear Editor: I wanted to thank Chana Mlotek ofthe YIVO Music Archive for her help with mythesis. She encouraged me to dream and gave methe resources to bring the dream to life. I havefound a great passion in not only performingYiddish songs, but also in examining them as greatsources of Jewish experience.

Amy Lefko,New York, NY

Dear Editor: I would like to thank YIVO’s ChanaMlotek for her advice with regard to Klezmermusic. On my visit to YIVO, she showed mematerials that were very valuable to me. I hadmuch trouble obtaining information aboutKlezmer music in Japan and was glad to havegotten that information from you in New York.Thank you Mrs. Mlotek for your time and thebenefit of your experience.

Hiroko HaranoGraduate student in musicology

Osaka Educational University, Japan

Reactions to New Web SiteTHAT IS ONE GREAT LOOKING WEB SITE! Verynice indeed.

Abigail Yasgur, DirectorJewish Community Library of Los Angeles

I checked out the new YIVO site. Wonderful work,easy to navigate, and filled with great information.Congratulations to all of you!

Arthur Kiron, CuratorJudaica Collections

University of Pennsylvania Library

Research HelpDear Editor: I take this opportunity to thank YIVOfor the very kind help with my dissertationresearch. The YIVO staff prepared for me amicrofilm of twelve manuscripts containingtranslations of The Merchant of Venice into Yiddish.Over the past year, I patiently scanned the micro-film and stored the manuscripts in computer filesthat I later collected on a compact disk. Thismethod renders them accessible and they areeasily reproduced, not only for the benefit of myown project, but also for other researchers. In fact, Ihave already received requests from scholars whowould like to see some of the manuscripts.

I am therefore very pleased to send YIVO acompact disk that contains the twelvemanuscripts. I hope that this collection will be ashelpful to others as it has been for my own work.Of course, the rights to use and reproduce thesematerials belong to the YIVO Institute.

Dror Abend-DavidComparative Literature

New York University

Zamler ProjectDear Editor: I was very impressed by your lastissue of Yedies. Clearly all kinds of good things arehappening at YIVO. I was particularly interested inthe study being done in the Hasidic communities,and I wanted to suggest a fascinating article thatdeals with the subject. It is called “Diabolus Ex-Machina: An Unusual Case of Yuhasin,” byHannah G. Sprecher, who lives in Brooklyn. It waspublished in the Jewish Law Association Studies VIII:The Jerusalem 1994 Conference Volume.

Professor Edward GoldmanHebrew Union College, Cincinnati, OH

Thank you for your suggestion. By the way, theZamler Project is featured on page 11 of this issue.

Editor





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