DOCSLIB.ORG

YIVO and the Making of Modern Jewish Culture Cecile Esther Kuznitz Frontmatter More Information

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
YIVO and the Making of Modern Jewish Culture Cecile Esther Kuznitz Frontmatter More Information Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01420-6 — YIVO and the Making of Modern Jewish Culture Cecile Esther Kuznitz Frontmatter More Information YIVO and the Making of Modern Jewish Culture This book is the i rst history of YIVO, the original center for Yiddish scholarship. Founded by a group of Eastern European intellectuals after World War I, YIVO became both the apex of secular Yiddish culture and the premier institution of Diaspora Nationalism, which fought for Jewish rights throughout the world. From its headquarters in Vilna (then Poland and now Lithuania), YIVO tried to balance schol- arly objectivity with its commitment to the Jewish masses. Using newly recovered documents that were believed destroyed by Hitler and Stalin, Cecile Esther Kuznitz tells for the i rst time the compelling story of how these scholars built a world-renowned institution despite dire pov- erty and antisemitism. She raises new questions about the relationship between Jewish cultural and political work and analyzes how national- ism arises outside of state power. Cecile Esther Kuznitz is an associate professor of history and the direc- tor of Jewish Studies at Bard College. A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard University, she received her Ph.D. from Stanford University. Her articles have been published in The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe (2008), The Encyclopaedia Judaica (2007), The Worlds of S. An-sky (2006), The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies (2002), and Yiddish Language and Culture: Then and Now (1998). She previously taught at Georgetown University and has held fellowships at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, and the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01420-6 — YIVO and the Making of Modern Jewish Culture Cecile Esther Kuznitz Frontmatter More Information YIVO and the Making of Modern Jewish Culture Scholarship for the Yiddish Nation CECILE ESTHER KUZNITZ Bard College © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01420-6 — YIVO and the Making of Modern Jewish Culture Cecile Esther Kuznitz Frontmatter More Information 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013-2473, USA Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107014206 © Cecile Esther Kuznitz 2014 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2014 Printed in the United States of America A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data Kuznitz, Cecile Esther. YIVO and the making of modern Jewish culture : scholarship for the Yiddish nation / Cecile Esther Kuznitz. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-107-01420-6 (hardback) 1. YIVO Institute for Jewish Research – History. 2. Jews – Lithuania – Vilnius – Intellectual life. I. Title. AS267.V55K89 2014 025.1′97924–dc23 2013038171 ISBN 978-1-107-01420-6 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01420-6 — YIVO and the Making of Modern Jewish Culture Cecile Esther Kuznitz Frontmatter More Information זכרונו ל רכה In memory of my father, Isidore Kuznitz and איר צו ל נגע י רן In honor of my mother, Betty Kuznitz © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01420-6 — YIVO and the Making of Modern Jewish Culture Cecile Esther Kuznitz Frontmatter More Information מיר ז מלען לץ ס אונדז איז טײַער We collect all that is dear to us אין אונדזער ל נגן עג ביז איצט; ;On our long path until now בל ט ון ד ן, בוך ון הײַי ר, – – ,A page from then, a book from today ז ל לץ מיט ליבע ז ײַן געשיצט. .Let us guard it all with love ( א רהם רזען, ״מיר ז מלען״ ) (”Abraham Reisen, “We Collect) ס׳ק ײַקלען זיך ר ן, רף נ ך רף, ,Hoops are rolling, one after the other די נעכטנס, די ה ײַנטס און די מ רגנס The yesterdays, todays, and tomorrows צו ילנע, צום י יִ , צום ציגלנעם סף, ,To Vilna, to YIVO, to the brick safe וּ ס׳ערט אונדזער לקסגוטס רב רגן. .Where the treasure of our people lies hidden (דניאל טש רני, ״ס׳ק ײַקלען זיך ר ן״) (”Daniel Charney, “Hoops Are Rolling) שטרעק אינעם ש ײַטער די רעמס I thrust my hands in the pyre און ר זיך׃ דער עיקר איז ד ! !And rejoice: the essential remains מ ײַנס איז נ ך מסטערד ם, רעמס, ,I still possess Amsterdam, Worms לי רנע, מ דריד און י יִ . .Livorno, Madrid, and YIVO ( א רהם סוצקעער, ״קערנדלעך ץ״ ) (”Abraham Sutzkever, “Kernels of Wheat) © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01420-6 — YIVO and the Making of Modern Jewish Culture Cecile Esther Kuznitz Frontmatter More Information Contents List of Figures page ix Acknowledgments xi Note on Spelling, Transliteration, and Translation xv Introduction 1 Language and Nation 3 Folk and Elite 5 Past and Present 8 Objectivity and Engagement 10 Diaspora and State 11 Sources and Organization 13 1. “Language Raised to the Level of a Political Factor”: Yiddish Scholarship before YIVO 17 Introduction: Setting the Stage 17 Precursors: Collection, Publishing, and Teaching 18 World War I and Its Aftermath 24 Wandering Scholars 30 Nokhem Shtif and the Dilemmas of Yiddish Scholarship 38 Conclusion 42 2. “The Idea of the Institute Is Already Ripe”: The Founding and First Stages of YIVO, 1924–1925 44 Introduction: Rising Interest in a Yiddish Institute 44 The Initial Plan and Reactions 45 The Mission of the Institute 55 The Start of Scholarly Work 62 Conclusion 69 vii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01420-6 — YIVO and the Making of Modern Jewish Culture Cecile Esther Kuznitz Frontmatter More Information viii Contents 3. “From the Folk, For the Folk, With the Folk”: Academic Work, 1925–1932 71 Introduction: To Serve the Folk 71 Dos zamlen 72 Balancing Past and Present 80 Scholarship for the People 90 The Dilemmas of Political Engagement 99 Conclusion 110 4. “The Capital of Yiddishland”: The Geography of Jewish Culture, 1925–1933 112 Introduction: The Mystique of Vilna 112 Yiddish Scholarship between East and West 113 The Geography of Funding 118 YIVO at a Watershed 125 “The Temple of Yiddish Scholarship” 131 Conclusion 139 5. “To Forge Intellectual Weapons for Our People!”: Scholarship in Times of Crisis, 1931–1939 141 Introduction: “Jewish Reality Has Changed” 141 Recovering Finances and the World Convention 143 New Directions in Scholarship 149 Engaging the Jewish Public 154 Publications and Language Planning 163 Scholarship in Times of Crisis 172 Conclusion 178 Epilogue: From Vilna to New York 181 World War II and Its Aftermath 181 YIVO in the United States 184 Conclusion 190 The Reality of Interwar Yiddish Culture Versus the YIVO Myth 190 Academic Achievements and Symbolic Signii cance 192 The Economy of Yiddish Culture 195 Notes 199 Bibliography 277 Index 295 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01420-6 — YIVO and the Making of Modern Jewish Culture Cecile Esther Kuznitz Frontmatter More Information Figures 1. Yiddish activists at the Sholem Aleichem Club in Berlin, early 1920s page 36 2. Memorandum by Nokhem Shtif on his lecture in Berlin describing plans for a Yiddish academic institute, May 1925 49 3. The Press Archive and workroom of the Psychological- Pedagogical Section in a montage by Moshe Vorobeichic (Raviv), early 1930s 75 4. Members of the Terminological Commission at work in a montage by Moshe Vorobeichic (Raviv), early 1930s 83 5. Members of the Historical Section at the World Convention, 1935 88 6. “The Mother’s Curse,” folktale told by Yehoshua Estrin and collected for the Ethnographic Commission by Leyb Tsimmer, i fth-grade student in the Jewish elementary school in Szarkowszczyzna, Poland, 1929 98 7. Announcement of a “Grandiose Exhibit of the Treasures of the Yiddish Scientii c Institute” at the Vilna Real-gimnazye, Passover 1928 109 8. Cover of receipt booklet for donations to the Building Fund designed by Uma Olkenicki, c. 1930 127 9. Receipt for donations to the Building Fund designed by Uma Olkenicki, c. 1930 128 10. “Our Garden in Wilno,” painting of the headquarters by Bencion Cukierman in Heftn far yidisher kunst [Notebooks for Jewish Art], 1936 133 11. Cover of the brochure Der yivo nokh draytsn yor arbet [YIVO after Thirteen Years’ Work], 1938, showing the vestibule of the headquarters with a map of the world on the landing 138 ix © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01420-6 — YIVO and the Making of Modern Jewish Culture Cecile Esther Kuznitz Frontmatter More Information x Figures 12. Staff, students, and supporters in the Esther-Rachel Kaminska Theater Museum, 1935 145 13. Max Weinreich (standing, right) with students at a seminar on psychoanalysis, 1936 151 14.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Global Form and Fantasy in Yiddish Literary Culture: Visions from Mexico City and Buenos Aires
    Global Form and Fantasy in Yiddish Literary Culture: Visions from Mexico City and Buenos Aires by William Gertz Runyan A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Comparative Literature) in the University of Michigan 2019 Doctoral Committee: Professor Mikhail Krutikov, Chair Professor Tomoko Masuzawa Professor Anita Norich Professor Mauricio Tenorio Trillo, University of Chicago William Gertz Runyan [email protected] ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3955-1574 © William Gertz Runyan 2019 Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to my dissertation committee members Tomoko Masuzawa, Anita Norich, Mauricio Tenorio and foremost Misha Krutikov. I also wish to thank: The Department of Comparative Literature, the Jean and Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies and the Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan for providing the frameworks and the resources to complete this research. The Social Science Research Council for the International Dissertation Research Fellowship that enabled my work in Mexico City and Buenos Aires. Tamara Gleason Freidberg for our readings and exchanges in Coyoacán and beyond. Margo and Susana Glantz for speaking with me about their father. Michael Pifer for the writing sessions and always illuminating observations. Jason Wagner for the vegetables and the conversations about Yiddish poetry. Carrie Wood for her expert note taking and friendship. Suphak Chawla, Amr Kamal, Başak Çandar, Chris Meade, Olga Greco, Shira Schwartz and Sara Garibova for providing a sense of community. Leyenkrayz regulars past and present for the lively readings over the years. This dissertation would not have come to fruition without the support of my family, not least my mother who assisted with formatting.
    [Show full text]
  • Zalman Wendroff: the Forverts Man in Moscow
    לקט ייִ דישע שטודיעס הנט Jiddistik heute Yiddish Studies Today לקט Der vorliegende Sammelband eröffnet eine neue Reihe wissenschaftli- cher Studien zur Jiddistik sowie philolo- gischer Editionen und Studienausgaben jiddischer Literatur. Jiddisch, Englisch und Deutsch stehen als Publikationsspra- chen gleichberechtigt nebeneinander. Leket erscheint anlässlich des xv. Sym posiums für Jiddische Studien in Deutschland, ein im Jahre 1998 von Erika Timm und Marion Aptroot als für das in Deutschland noch junge Fach Jiddistik und dessen interdisziplinären אָ רשונג אויסגאַבעס און ייִדיש אויסגאַבעס און אָ רשונג Umfeld ins Leben gerufenes Forum. Die im Band versammelten 32 Essays zur jiddischen Literatur-, Sprach- und Kul- turwissenschaft von Autoren aus Europa, den usa, Kanada und Israel vermitteln ein Bild von der Lebendigkeit und Viel- falt jiddistischer Forschung heute. Yiddish & Research Editions ISBN 978-3-943460-09-4 Jiddistik Jiddistik & Forschung Edition 9 783943 460094 ִיידיש ַאויסגאבעס און ָ ארשונג Jiddistik Edition & Forschung Yiddish Editions & Research Herausgegeben von Marion Aptroot, Efrat Gal-Ed, Roland Gruschka und Simon Neuberg Band 1 לקט ִיידישע שטודיעס ַהנט Jiddistik heute Yiddish Studies Today Herausgegeben von Marion Aptroot, Efrat Gal-Ed, Roland Gruschka und Simon Neuberg Yidish : oysgabes un forshung Jiddistik : Edition & Forschung Yiddish : Editions & Research Herausgegeben von Marion Aptroot, Efrat Gal-Ed, Roland Gruschka und Simon Neuberg Band 1 Leket : yidishe shtudyes haynt Leket : Jiddistik heute Leket : Yiddish Studies Today Bibliografijische Information Der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deut- schen Nationalbibliografijie ; detaillierte bibliografijische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar. © düsseldorf university press, Düsseldorf 2012 Alle Rechte vorbehalten. Das Werk einschließlich aller seiner Teile ist urhe- berrechtlich geschützt.
    [Show full text]
  • By Gennady Estraikh in August 1935, a Group of Intellectuals Who
    QUEST N. 17 – FOCUS A Quest for Yiddishland: The 1937 World Yiddish Cultural Congress by Gennady Estraikh Abstract In August 1935, a group of intellectuals who gathered in Vilna at a jubilee conference of the Jewish Scientific Institute, YIVO, announced the founding of a movement called the Yiddish Culture Front (YCF), whose aim would be to ensure the preservation of Yiddish culture. The article focuses on the congress convened by the YCF in Paris. The congress, a landmark in the history of Yiddishism, opened on September 17, 1937, before a crowd of some 4,000 attendees. 104 delegates represented organizations and institutions from 23 countries. Radically anti-Soviet groups boycotted the convention, considering it a communist ploy. Ironically, the Kremlin cancelled the participation of a Soviet delegation at the last moment. From the vantage point of the delegates, Paris was the only logical center for its World Yiddish Cultural Association (IKUF or YIKUF) created after the congress. However, the French capital was not destined to become the world capital of Yiddish intellectual life. Influential circles of Yiddish literati, still torn by ideological strife rather than united in any common cultural “Yiddishland,” remained concentrated in America, Poland, and the Soviet Union. From Berlin to Paris Preludes to the Congress The Boycott A Phantasm of Yiddishland ___________________ 96 Gennady Estraikh “Where are you coming from?” “From Yiddishland.” “Where are you headed?” “To Yiddishland.” “What kind of journey is this?” “A journey like any other journey.”1 From Berlin to Paris In the years following World War I and the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, Berlin emerged as the European capital of Eastern European Jewish, including Yiddish- speaking and -writing, intellectual émigré life.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Catalogue
    F i n e J u d a i C a . printed booKs, manusCripts, Ceremonial obJeCts & GraphiC art K e s t e n b au m & C om pa n y thursday, nov ember 19th, 2015 K est e n bau m & C o m pa ny . Auctioneers of Rare Books, Manuscripts and Fine Art A Lot 61 Catalogue of F i n e J u d a i C a . BOOK S, MANUSCRIPTS, GR APHIC & CEREMONIAL A RT INCLUDING A SINGULAR COLLECTION OF EARLY PRINTED HEBREW BOOK S, BIBLICAL & R AbbINIC M ANUSCRIPTS (PART II) Sold by order of the Execution Office, District High Court, Tel Aviv ——— To be Offered for Sale by Auction, Thursday, 19th November, 2015 at 3:00 pm precisely ——— Viewing Beforehand: Sunday, 15th November - 12:00 pm - 6:00 pm Monday, 16th November - 10:00 am - 6:00 pm Tuesday, 17th November - 10:00 am - 6:00 pm Wednesday, 18th November - 10:00 am - 6:00 pm No Viewing on the Day of Sale This Sale may be referred to as: “Sempo” Sale Number Sixty Six Illustrated Catalogues: $38 (US) * $45 (Overseas) KestenbauM & CoMpAny Auctioneers of Rare Books, Manuscripts and Fine Art . 242 West 30th street, 12th Floor, new york, NY 10001 • tel: 212 366-1197 • Fax: 212 366-1368 e-mail: [email protected] • World Wide Web site: www.Kestenbaum.net K est e n bau m & C o m pa ny . Chairman: Daniel E. Kestenbaum Operations Manager: Jackie S. Insel Client Relations: Sandra E. Rapoport, Esq. Printed Books & Manuscripts: Rabbi Eliezer Katzman Rabbi Dovid Kamenetsky (Consultant) Ceremonial & Graphic Art: Abigail H.
    [Show full text]
  • Master's Thesis Masé January 2012 All Inclusive
    Student Migration of Jews from Tsarist Russia to the Universities of Bern and Zürich, 1865-1914. “These student colonies were an interesting and characteristic feature of Western Europe in the days of czarist Russia. In Berlin, Berne, Zurich, Geneva, Munich, Paris, Montpellier, Nancy, Heidelberg, young Russian Jews, driven from the land of their birth by persecution, by discrimination and by intellectual starvation, constituted special and identifiable groups.” (Chaim Weizmann, 1949: 50.) „Dos is di berner “koloni” mit tswontsik jor tsurik. Hunderter yunge layt, di grester mehrhayt yiden; selten ven m’treft an emes rusishen ponim. Un dos ruv seynen dos meydlakh. Meydlakh, wos hobn ge‘endikt a gymnasie un vil’n weyter shtudir’n, - gevehnlekh oyf a doktor, - in rusland is nito far sey keyn ort, for’n sey in der shvayts […].“ [Such was the Bern „colony“ of twenty years ago. Rarely did one encounter a genuine Russian face among the hundreds of young persons, the overwhelming majority of whom were Jews. There was a preponderance of girls, girls who had finished the gymnasium and wished to continue their studies – generally medicine – who came to Switzerland because there was no place for them in Russia.] (Vladimir Medem, 1923: 278 – English translation according to Portnoy 1979.) Master’s Thesis January 4, 2012 Aline Masé Utrecht University Untere Eienstrasse 50 Faculty of Humanities 4417 Ziefen Research Institute for History and Culture Switzerland Research Master Programme [email protected] “History: Cities, States and Citizenship” Student ID 3477215 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Ido de Haan THANKS TO… Composing a Master’s Thesis is no walk in the park, but many people have made sure that I would not lose track (and my mind).
    [Show full text]
  • Marc Chagall and the Jewish Theater
    Marc Chagall and the Je>vish Theater GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM Digitized by the Internet Arciiive in 2012 witii funding from IVIetropolitan New York Library Council - METRO http://archive.org/details/chagalljOOchag Marc Chagall and the Jevs^ish Theater Marc Chagall and the JevN^ish Theater GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM ©The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Marc Chagall and the Je>vish Theater New York, 1992 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum All rights reserved September 23, 1992-January 17, 1993 Reproductions of cat. nos. 1-7 The Art Institute of Chicago © State Tret'iakov Gallery, Moscow January 30-May 7, 1993 ISBN: 0-89207-099-4 This exhibition has been sponsored, in part, by Published by the Guggenheim Museum Lufthansa German Airlines. 1071 Fifth Avenue New York, New York 10128 Lufthansa Prmted m the United States by Thorner Press Additional support has been provided by Front cover: The Helena Rubinstein Foundation. Marc Chagall, M/isk, 1920 Tempera and gouache on canvas 212.4 ^ I03-5 cm (83 V« X 40 V4 inches) State Tret'iakov Gallery, Moscow Back cover: Marc Chagall, Loi'e on the Stage. 1920 Tempera and gouache on canvas 284.2 X 249.6 cm (in 7s x 98 'A inches) State Tret'iakov Gallery, Moscow Frontispiece: Emblem of the Jewish Chamber Theater, taken from a 1919 poster printed in Petrograd. Color photography: Cat. nos. 1-7, from State Tret'iakov Gallery, Moscow; nos. I, 2 photo H. Preisig; no. 3 courtesy Fondation Pierre Gianadda; nos. 4-7 photographed by Lee Ewing. Cat. nos. 8, 9, 11, 14, from Musee national d'art moderne.
    [Show full text]
  • Fine Lines: Hebrew and Yiddish Translations of Alexander Pushkin's
    Fine Lines: Hebrew and Yiddish Translations of Alexander Pushkin’s Verse Novel Eugene Onegin, 1899–1937 by Sara Miriam Feldman A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Near Eastern Studies) in the University of Michigan Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Shachar Pinsker, Chair Assistant Professor Maya Barzilai Assistant Professor Sofya Khagi Associate Professor Mikhail Krutikov Copyright © by Sara Miriam Feldman All rights reserved On Defending the Dissertation Hello to all and thanks for coming. Today is not as I imagined and to be totally forthcoming I must admit to being saddened. I’d long anticipated Omry Ronen would sit before me across this table, to confer with us, and though I might prefer not doing any more revisions, I’d heed corrections of mistakes, protected by the care he takes— or took—for scholarly precision. To him, then, I compose this note: “is dissertation I devote...” ii Acknowledgements Beginning a graduate education and completing a dissertation are rare privileges that I do not take for granted. At various times I thought that my good luck had run out with the former and that the latter was out of reach for me. It is thanks to the guidance and kindness of so many other people that I was able to do it. While they have le fingerprints on this dissertation, the errors and shortcomings are all mine. My chair, Shachar Pinsker, gave me that first chance. He built a graduate program that offers new perspectives on Jewish identity, modernity, exile, ethnicity, Zionism, and Israel, and has provided a safe space for discussion of how this all relates to other fields in the humanities.
    [Show full text]
  • Jb SDI 2016 477 Kuzn
    SDI_2016_00_Titelei / Seite 1 / 27.6.2017 Sonderdruck aus JAHRBUCH DES SIMON-DUBNOW-INSTITUTS (JBDI) SIMON DUBNOW INSTITUTE YEARBOOK (DIYB) 2016 SDI_2016_00_Titelei / Seite 2 / 27.6.2017 Herausgeber Editor Raphael Gross Redaktion Manuscript Editor Petra Klara Gamke-Breitschopf Redaktionsbeirat Editorial Advisory Board Marion Aptroot, Düsseldorf · Aleida Assmann, Konstanz · Jacob Barnai, Haifa · Israel Bartal, Jerusalem · Omer Bartov, Providence, N.J. · Esther Benbassa, Paris · Dominique Bourel, Paris · Michael Brenner, München/Washington, D.C. · Matti Bunzl, Urbana-Cham- paign · Lois Dubin, Northampton, Mass. · Todd Endelman, Ann Arbor, Mich. · David Engel, New York · Shmuel Feiner, Ramat Gan · Norbert Frei, Jena · Sander L. Gilman, Atlanta, Ga. · Frank Golczewski, Hamburg · Michael Graetz, Heidelberg · Heiko Haumann, Basel · Susannah Heschel, Hanover, N.H. · Yosef Kaplan, Jerusalem · Cilly Kugelmann, Berlin · Mark Levene, Southampton · Leonid Luks, Eichstätt · Ezra Mendelsohn (1940– 2015), Jerusalem · Paul Mendes-Flohr, Jerusalem/Chicago, Ill. · Gabriel Motzkin, Jerusalem · David N. Myers, Los Angeles, Calif. · Jacques Picard, Basel · Gertrud Pickhan, Berlin · Anthony Polonsky, Waltham, Mass. · Renée Poznanski, Beer Sheva · Peter Pulzer, Oxford · Monika Richarz, Berlin · Manfred Rudersdorf, Leipzig · Rachel Salamander, München · Winfried Schulze, München · Hannes Siegrist, Leipzig · Gerald Stourzh, Wien · Stefan Troebst, Leipzig · Feliks Tych (1929–2015), Warschau · Yfaat Weiss, Jerusalem · Monika Wohlrab-Sahr, Leipzig · Moshe Zimmermann,
    [Show full text]
  • Baranovich the Trilogy
    Baranovich The Trilogy Part II Baranovich In Martyrdom & Resistance Memoirs, Documents, and Eye-Witness Accounts, Dedicated to the Sacred Memory of Our Martyrs & Heroes, from Baranovich and its Environs, Who Perished During the Period of the Holocaust Gathered, Compiled and Edited by Joseph Foxman Volume I Published by The Baranovich Society in America New York, 5724 – 1964 Price 2.00 Dollars Table of Contents Table of Contents ............................................................. i Foreword ........................................... By Mordechai V. Bernstein 1 The Heroic Partisan Shlomo’leh Itzkowitz of Baranovich ............... By: Sh. Gerling 3 We Flee the Koldichevo Camp to the Partisans ................ By Pinchas Mordkowsky 5 The Uprising in the Koldichevo Camp ........................ By Shimon Berkowsky 7 The Frightful Tragedy of the Baranovich Jews ...................... By Herman Kruk 8 Remarks ............................................................. 15 Escape from Camps ........................................... By A. Srogowicz 15 We Escape from the Baranovich Camp ..................................... 15 We Escape from the Koldichevo Camp ..................................... 16 Ash.. ...................................................... By Z. Segalovich 16 Uprising in the Old-Wilejka Camp .......................... By Baruch Kudewicky 17 Holocaust Murderers and War Criminals in Baranovich ........ By Yaakov Shereshevsky 20 Poems ...................................................... By Itzik Manger
    [Show full text]
  • Thinking Europe in Yiddish Edited by Marion Aptroot
    Thinking Europe in Yiddish edited by Marion Aptroot Issue n. 17, September 2020 QUEST. Issues in Contemporary Jewish History Journal of the Fondazione CDEC QUEST N. 17 Editors Guri Schwarz (Università degli Studi di Genova, Italy – Editor in Chief), Elissa Bemporad (Queens College of the City University of New York, USA), Laura Brazzo (Fondazione CDEC, Italy), Tullia Catalan (Università degli Studi di Trieste, Italy), Cristiana Facchini (Alma Mater Studiorum, Università di Bologna, Italy), Gadi Luzzatto Voghera (Fondazione CDEC, Italy), Dario Miccoli (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italy), Michele Sarfatti (Fondazione CDEC, Italy), Marcella Simoni (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italy), Ulrich Wyrwa (Universität Potsdam and Zentrum für Antisemitismusforschung der TU Berlin, Germany). Editorial Assistants Matteo Perissinotto (Univerza v Ljubljani, Slovenia – Managing Editor), Chiara Renzo (Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, Italy), Piera Rossetto (Universität Graz, Austria). Book Review Editor Miriam Benfatto (Alma Mater Studiorum, Università di Bologna, Italy) English Language Editor Elen Rochlin Editorial Advisory Board Ruth Ben Ghiat (New York University, USA), Paolo Luca Bernardini (Università degli Studi dell’Insubria, Italy), Dominique Bourel (Université Paris-Sorbonne, France), Michael Brenner (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität and American University Washington D.C., Germany and USA), Enzo Campelli (La Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy), Francesco Cassata (Università degli Studi di Genova, Italy), Marco Cuzzi (Università degli Studi
    [Show full text]
  • Deciphering the Hieroglyphics of the Metropolis: Literary Topographies of Berlin in Hebrew and Yiddish Modernism Shachar Pinsker
    CHAPTER 1 v Deciphering the Hieroglyphics of the Metropolis: Literary Topographies of Berlin in Hebrew and Yiddish Modernism Shachar Pinsker The knowledge of cities is a decoding of their images, ones uttered thought­ lessly, as if in a dream [...]. Spatial images are the dreams of society. Wherever the hieroglyphics of any spatial image are deciphered, there the basis of social reality presents itself. Siegfried Kracauer Other cities are often mere ghosts of a better past; the hollow Berlin is possibly — there is no other choice — the ghost of a better future. Ernst Bloch 1 Berlin is a compelling city to explore in the context of Hebrew and Yiddish modernism. From the beginning of the twentieth century, Berlin has been a small but important enclave of Hebrew and Yiddish culture. In the Weimar period (1919–33), especially in the 1920s, it was a major hub of literary activity, when a large and very distinguished group of eastern European Hebrew and Yiddish writers lived, wrote, and published in the city. This activity caught the attention of many scholars, but they considered Berlin, for the most part, as a ‘temporary asylum’ for Jewish writers from eastern Europe; a mere ‘station’ on their way to the more established centres of Jewish creativity (Mandatory Palestine, North America, or the Soviet Union).1 More recently, scholars have studied the encounter with the Hebrew and Yiddish writers in Weimar Berlin, and its role in the development of a distinctive German­Jewish culture searching for ‘authenticity’.2 I want to shift the direction of enquiry by examining more closely the nature of the charged but productive encounter with Berlin and to uncover the city’s role in the development of modernist literature in the two Jewish languages.
    [Show full text]
  • Arcadian Dreams of David Bergelson and His Berlin Circle
    STUDIA ROSENTHALIANAARCADIAN 41 (2009), DEAMS 141-171 OF DAVID BERGELSON AND H doi:IS B ERLIN10.2143/SR.41.0.2033470 CIRCLE 141 Arcadian Dreams of David Bergelson and His Berlin Circle G E N N A D Y E S T R A I K H Territorialism Yiddishism is a widely employed term, though its definition remains as a rule rather vague, meaning cultural, political, or simply sentimental attachment to the vernacular of the Ashkenazim. Despite the fact that many people could not distinguish a coherent Yiddishist program,1 the movement found an intense following in the late Russian Empire and, to a lesser degree, in other countries of the East and Central European Jewish diaspora. Yiddishists rejected assimilation and sought a national route to modernization, but either completely dismissed Zionist projects or regarded them as a partial or later-stage solution to vital problems of Jewish civilization. In 1907-14, Yiddishist ranks became particularly strong. During this period of political repression in Russia, Jewish so- cialist parties were deserted by the vast majority of their members, and many of the “deserters” became activists in social, cultural, and educa- tional fields.2 Yiddishists were usually occupied with the conceit that non-ritual, non-covenantal culture could substitute for religion as the new cement I want to thank Dr. Joachim Schlör (Moses Mendelssohn Zentrum, Potsdam), Dr Marion Neiss (Zentrum für Antisemitismusforschung, Berlin), and Ms Ingedore Rüdlin (Solomon Birnbaum Yiddish Society, Hamburg) whose generous help enabled my access to many of the sources consulted. 1. E. Frenkel, ‘Oyfn rand fun Ben-Adirs tsavoe-briv,’ in Ben-Adir, An ofener briv tsu undzer yidishistisher inteligents (Bucharest 1947), p.
    [Show full text]