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15357 12/17/03 7:35 AM Page 1 YYIVOIVOYIVO Institute for Jewish ResearchNNEWEWSS No. 197 / Winter / 2003 Gathering and Exhibition for Greatest Living Yiddish Poet Sutzkever’s 90th Birthday Celebrated at YIVO he YIVO Institute has joined archivist Lorin Sklamberg, based acknowledging Tother individuals, societies, on verse by Sutzkever. Former YIVO’s wishes communal organizations and YIVO staff member and Vilna for his birth- academic institutions around the native, David Rogow, a near- day, in which world in celebrating the 90th contemporary of Sutzkever, re- he describes his birthday of distinguished Yid- cited the moving poem Dos grezl 90 years as dish poet Abraham Sutzkever. fun Ponar in the original Yiddish. [continued on page 6] This anniversary in the calendar In it, the poet strikingly rhymed of Yiddish letters was marked goyses (moribund) with oysyes Abraham publicly by YIVO at a commem- (letters of the alphabet) and Har Sutzkever orative gathering and through (God) with Ponar (the place an exhibition documenting his where Vilna Jewry was slaugh- life and works to date. tered during the Holocaust). The On October 21 a scholarly and evening was chaired by Dr. Paul Ruth Wisse, Martin Peretz Professor of artistic program in Sutzkever’s Glasser, Associate Dean of the Yiddish Literature and Comparative honor was presented to a Max Weinreich Center, who read Literature at Harvard, pays tribute to packed auditorium of listeners, a recent letter from Sutzkever Sutzkever. readers and students of Yiddish literature and poetry. The main Yale University Press address was delivered by Pro- fessor Ruth Wisse, Martin Peretz to Publish Encyclopedia Professor of Yiddish Literature and Comparative Literature ale University Press has formally Hold the Date at Harvard University, who Yagreed to publish The YIVO has written extensively about Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. 79th Annual Benefit Sutzkever and the Yiddish YIVO Executive Director Dr. Carl Rheins May 17, 2004 literary circle at Vilna. In her was notified at the end of July that Yale Pierre Hotel, NY tribute, Wisse described the University Press’s faculty acquisitions * * * poet’s literary development panel had accepted the project. This Honorees: before, during and after the means that the encyclopedia will be Brochure on the coming Daniel Libeskind war and the Holocaust. published by one of the premier academic publication of the YIVO & Chava Alberstein Afterwards, a musical program presses in North America, confirming the Encyclopedia. was presented by YIVO sound work’s status as a significant contribution to scholarship. Jonathan Brent, editorial director of Yale University Press, said that everyone CONTENTS: at the press considers the encyclopedia “a major project.” The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe will be the Chairman’s Message . .2 Library . .15 definitive reference work on all aspects of the history and culture of Executive Director . .3 Max Weinreich Center .18 Jews in Eastern Europe from the beginning of their settlement in the YIVO Donors . .4 YIVO in History . .21 region to the present. Such a scholarly endeavor is unprecedented. Development . .5 Collections . .22 The published volumes will comprise approximately two million EPYC . .7 Archives . .24 words, over 1,000 illustrations, and more than 100 maps. It will Lecture Series . .8 New Accessions . .25 draw on the most current scholarship in all relevant fields. YIVO Bleter . .9 Letters . .29 Although contract negotiations have yet to be finalized, publication Publications . .10 Yiddish Section . .30-36 of the multivolume print edition as well as an online electronic YIVO News . .12 edition is scheduled for 2008. (See related article on page 11.) 15357 12/17/03 7:35 AM Page 2 From the Chairman of the Board YIVO News A Time for Rededication Founded in 1925 in Vilna, Poland, as the Yiddish Scientific Institute and headquartered to Working Together in New York since 1940, YIVO is devoted to t is not enough to simply re- I cannot help the history, society and culture of Ashkenazic Imind people to “remember but feel the Jewry and to the influence of that culture as it their roots.” Rather, we must excitement developed in the Americas. Today, YIVO stands open our doors at YIVO and when I am at as the preeminent center for East European reach out to those who are YIVO. Whether Bruce Slovin Jewish Studies; Yiddish language, literature seeking answers by engaging we are sched- and folklore; and the study of the American them in this process of discov- uling events Jewish immigrant experience. ering, honoring and celebrating for 2004, planning major publi- their heritage. cations, awarding Afounding partner of the Center for Jewish fellowships, History, YIVO holds the following constituent Especially at assisting memberships: Hanukkah — “We are here to help • American Historical Association • a time for our youth understand researchers and Association for Jewish Studies • Association rededication — scholars, pre- of Jewish Libraries • Council of Archives we think of the world of their serving and and Research Libraries in Jewish Studies • our history, of parents and their cataloguing rare Museums Council of New York City • Society resistance to grandparents.” books and archival of American Archivists and • World Congress tyranny, of light collections, or of Jewish Studies. in the darkness. raising funds to For almost 80 years YIVO has support our panoply of Chairman of the Board: Bruce Slovin been key to preserving Jewish programs and services — YIVO Executive Director: Carl J. Rheins history by collecting and is alive with new energy and preserving the rarest of books, new ideas! Director of Development photos and community records, As I light the Hanukkah and External Affairs: Ella Levine as well as the documentation of candles with my family, I will Director of Finance and everyday Jewish life in Eastern take this time to rededicate Administration: Andrew J. Demers and Central Europe, and in the myself to the new YIVO and Dean of the Library and United States. Today, YIVO is to the Jewish community it both Senior Research Librarian: Brad Sabin Hill the central repository of all these embodies and creates. Although treasures, and we are working to some of those who knew YIVO Chief Archivist: Fruma Mohrer improve access and to showcase in Eastern Europe are no longer Head Librarian: Aviva Astrinsky the YIVO Archives and Library. with us, YIVO remains true to Associate Dean of the Max Weinreich Those of you who have been the founders’ original vision and Center/Yiddish Editor: Hershl Glasser with us over the years know mission. Editor: Elise Fischer the great changes happening at We are here to help our youth YIVO. We welcome you to come understand the world of their Production Editors: and visit us. The new YIVO parents and their grandparents. Jerry Cheslow, Michele Alperin offers a great variety of Public We have so much to share and, Contributors Programs (such as our Distin- with your help, YIVO will Adina Cimet, Jesse Aaron Cohen, Julie Draskoczy, guished Lecture Series, which continue and grow, reaching out Krysia Fisher, Shaindel Fogelman, Michael Glickman, this Fall featured such eminent to our children and to their Leo Greenbaum, Erica Kaplan, Yeshaya Metal, Chana Mlotek, Allan Nadler, Alyssa Quint, Yankl Salant, intellectuals as Israeli writer children. Miriam-khaye Seigel, Lyudmila Sholokhova, Ellen Amos Oz and Lithuanian poet B. Siegel and Lorin Sklamberg Tomas Venclova, films, exhibi- tions and colloquia), the Edu- 15 West 16th Street Remember YIVO New York, NY 10011-6301 cational Program on Yiddish Phone: (212) 246-6080, Culture (EPYC), research in Your Will. Fax: (212) 292-1892 fellowships, adult education For information on YIVO and language classes. We take planned giving options, www.yivo.org pride in our scholarly endeav- e-mail to Yedies: [email protected] please visit the YIVO ors, such as The YIVO Ency- web site at www.yivo.org, clopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, and in the YIVO web or call Ellen Siegel at site www.yivo.org. (212) 294-8293. 2 YIVO News Winter 2003 15357 12/17/03 7:35 AM Page 3 From the Executive Director European Paradox: New Anti-Semitism Amid Fascination With Things Jewish n the Fall 2003 issue of Perspectives, the official Although we have witnessed in the last two Iorgan of Paideia, the European Institute for years the creation of two new endowed chairs in Jewish Studies in Sweden, Barbara Lerner-Spectre, Yiddish Studies in the United States (Indiana the Institute’s Director, points to the intriguing University and the Jewish Theological Seminary Dr. Carl J. Rheins paradox taking place in Europe. As many partici- of America), the ultimate irony is that it is in pants at YIVO’s recent international conference Germany where there is the greatest fervor for on anti-Semitism, “Old Demons, New Debates: the academic study of Yiddish. Anti-Semitism in the West” argued, there is an From September 22 through 24, 2003, for emergence of a “new,” virulent example, the University of Trier hosted the Sixth anti-Semitism in Europe “that Symposium for Yiddish would deny to the Jews as a “The ultimate irony is that Studies in Germany. This people the right of statehood annual interdisciplinary to which other peoples are it is in Germany where there Yiddish symposium is entitled.”1 is the greatest fervor for the organized alternately by the At the same time, another academic study of Yiddish.” Yiddish programs at the phenomenon is taking place Universities of Trier and across Europe. As she notes, Dusseldorf and is intended “there is a palpable interest in things Jewish… to offer students and scholars from all over the so profound that some have labeled it ‘Philo- world the opportunity to present their research, Semitism.’”2 Several examples serve to illustrate exchange ideas and put forward questions for this point: the establishment of new Jewish discussion.