NUMBer 206  sprINg 2010 Mickey Ross Gift Milstein Conference Marks Culmination Yields $4.5 Million Of Jewish Communal Archive Project For YIVO’s Mission Digitized resources will soon go on line YIVO learned in 2009 that it is among sev­ The daylong Milstein Conference on New eral Yiddish institutions that are the prin­ York and the American Jewish Experience cipal benefi ciaries of the estate of Michael took place on November 2, 2009, in the au­ (Mickey) Ross, an award­winning televi­ ditorium of the Center for Jewish History. sion writer who was the fi rst­generation Sponsored by YIVO in cooperation with son of Jewish immigrant parents. The ini­ the 92nd Street Y, The Educational Alli­ tial bequest, YIVO’s share of which may ance, F·E·G·S Health and Human Services reach $4.5 million, is the largest single gift System, NYANA, and Surprise Lake Camp, in YIVO’s history. It will be supplemented the highly successful and well­attended by periodic residual payments from the es­ conference featured more than 25 speakers tate. Sharing the estate with YIVO are the and marked the culmination of the Milstein National Yiddish Book Center and the Los Family Jewish Communal Archive Project, Angeles Jewish Foundation. carried out by YIVO since 2006 under a Jonathan Brent opening the conference “This bequest comes at a critical time for $225,000 grant from the Milstein Family us,” said Jonathan Brent, YIVO’s executive Foundation and the Howard and Abby director and CEO. “It will bolster our endow­ Milstein Foundation. of digitized documents and photographs ment and help ensure that YIVO will contin­ In light of fi nancial and administrative as well as essays, articles, and other educa­ ue its work of preserving the legacy of East challenges that threaten the ability of or­ tional resources. The web site also features European Jewish history and culture.” ganizations to maintain and protect their a special 18­minute doc umentary fi lm with Mickey Ross, born Isidore Rovinsky historic legacy for future generations, the interviews with New York Jewish commu­ in New York City in 1919, was an Emmy Milstein Project was developed in response nal leaders, providing a window into the Award–winning writer and part of the team to this growing concern for the survival history of Jewish New York as a whole. that created hit television shows, including of Jewish communal archives. In 2006 and YIVO Executive Director Jonathan Brent All in the Family (along with Norman Lear), 2007, the Milstein project team surveyed opened the morning session, expressing The Jeffersons, and Three’s Company, during the archives of the fi ve sponsoring agencies his thanks to the Milstein Family Founda­ the 1970s and 1980s. Among the other televi­ and created a website that summa rizes the tion and the Howard and Abby Milstein sion shows he worked on were The Martha results of the survey. For the fi rst time, por­ Foundation for their generous support to Raye Show and The Gary Moore Show, both tions of the historic archives of the larger save and preserve the history of Jewish broadcast in the 1950s. During a 1992 inter­ New York Jewish community will be avai­ life in the New York area. Brent also voiced view with the New York Times, Ross respon­ lable to the public, with about 2,000 pages his appreciation to John Ruskay, CEO and ded to a question about his interest in Jewish executive vice president of the UJA Fe­ culture by saying, “I was born of immigrant deration of New York, for his leadership parents. I loved their attitude, their ways, role in getting the project launched. Brent their morals. I don’t want to see that lost.” Upcoming also recognized the work of the dedicated “This timely gift will enable us to plan Event! Milstein project team, including project ar­ more innovative programs and initiatives in chivists Francesca Pitaro and Donna Lewi, the near future, including scholarly confer­ YIVO to honor who carried out the archival survey and ences on topics ranging from ‘The History created the Milstein website, and project of the Shtetl,’ ‘The Jews and the Left,’ and Stanley Fischer at coordinator Ettie Goldwasser. ‘Eastern European Jewish Emigration to 85th Anniversary Dinner Evan Kingsley, executive director of the America,’ to ‘Sholem Aleichem and Other See page 10 American Jewish Historical Society, and Early Twentieth­Century Jewish Writers’ Hasia Diner, Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg and ‘The History of YIVO,’” Brent noted.  continued on page 6 From the Chairman of the Board

Founded in Vilna, Poland, and headquartered in New The Best Time Is Now York since 1940, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is devoted to the history, society, and culture of Ashkenazic I see an ongoing theme reflected in this issue Jewry and the influence of that culture as it has developed of the YIVO News/Yedies that can be sum­ in the Americas. YIVO is the preeminent center for the med up as a revived sense of purpose. Never study, dissemination, and preservation of the language, in two decades as chairman of this revered literature, and lives of Eastern European Jews and the organization have I seen our staff and sup­ American Jewish immigrant experience. porters so full of new ideas and renewed energy. Chairman of the Board...... Bruce Slovin This fresh energy is embodied in YIVO’s new executive director and CEO, Jonathan Executive Director and CEO...... Jonathan Brent Brent, whose background in publishing at Yale University Press—particularly his work Director of Development on The Annals of Communism series—so Bruce Slovin and External Affairs...... Ella Levine closely matches YIVO’s own focus on our Eastern European roots and how they continue to touch our lives today. Jo­ Director of Finance nathan brings a wealth of ideas for innovative projects and programming, and Administration...... Antonio R. Megino new contacts, and unique opportunities to forge partnerships with other Chief Archivist...... Fruma Mohrer scholarly institutions. As you read this issue you will see on every page evidence of enthu­ Head Librarian...... Aviva Astrinsky siasm and engagement throughout the organization. It has been a good year. First, we are proud that YIVO received a major bequest from the late Yedies /YIVO News Michael “Mickey” Ross, a pivotal television writer and producer who loved Editor in Chief and Yiddish (see article, front page). Such a tremendous gift—the largest sin­ Director of Publications...... Jeffrey P. Edelstein gle gift in the history of YIVO—will stabilize our endowment and help us jump-start our plans for the future. With this firm foundation to support Yiddish Editor and Associate Dean, our work, we are again able to dream big. Max Weinreich Center...... Paul (Hershl) Glasser Our work—that of preserving and teaching about our history and culture—was highlighted during the all-day public conference “New York Editor and Senior Writer ...... Elise L. F. Fischer and the American Jewish Experience” (November 2, 2009) funded by the Contributors ­Milstein Family Foundation and the Howard and Abby Milstein Founda­ Naomi Gates-Monasch tion. The conference marked the completion of the intensive three-year Ettie Goldwasser Milstein Family Jewish Communal Archive Project and featured papers by Leo Greenbaum scholars on a wide variety of political, social, and cultural issues. YIVO led Lorri M. Greif the project, in collaboration with the 92nd Street Y, the Educational Alli­ Nadia Kahn ance, F·E·G·S Health and Human Service System, NYANA, and Surprise Lyudmila Sholokhova Lake Camp. Harold Steinblatt Under Jonathan Brent’s leadership, YIVO held the first Sidney Krum Young Artists Concert on January 31, 2010, featuring brilliant, classical Guest Contributors musicians from the Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music Miriam-Khaye Seigal who played a variety of works from the YIVO Sound and Music Archives. Gosia Zaremba The passion for perfection shown by these young performers is also shown in YIVO’s daily work. Very soon you will be able to peruse the en­ tire online edition of The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe on your computer. This website augments the already rich content of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research printed work with sound and film clips. Additional images and digitized documents will make the site a portal to the vast and unparalleled collec­ 15 West 16th Street tions of the YIVO Archives. New York, NY 10011-6301 Phone : 212.246.6080 • Fax : 212.292.1892 These are good days at YIVO, and you can be proud of everything we www.yivo.org do. Thank you all for helping to support this great institution, and for mak­ [email protected] ing it possible for YIVO to begin its 86th year in excellent health.

2 YIVO News From the Executive Director Continuing YIVO’s Noble Mission in the U.S. and in Eastern Europe I am pleased to be able to point to ernment in Ukraine, the emergence of Ukrainian ultranationalist many positive developments since and Nazi sympathizer Stepan Bandera as a popular hero, and the I became YIVO’s executive director encroachment of proto-fascistic groups in the ruling coalitions in last July—some of them from good several countries of Eastern Europe all point to the fragility of the luck and some from hard work. We values we often take for granted in the post–cold war world. have received two major bequests, Some years ago, Polish writer Adam Michnik said that in Po­ the first from the estate of Mickey land everybody loves democracy but nobody cares about freedom. Ross, which may total some $5 mil­ Freedom, democracy, and social justice are values intrinsic to lion when it is completely accounted, Jewish civilization. The Russian diplomat and democrat Alexan­ and the second from the estate of der N. Yakovlev once said that the clearest sign that a Western Leon Bloom, for $250,000. These be­ government is turning toward antidemocratic autocracy is to be quests betoken the loyalty so many found in its policies toward Jews. YIVO cannot change the world, Jonathan Brent people feel toward YIVO. It is deeply but it can help inform the great debates that now drive critical gratifying to know of this loyalty and continuing strong support social and historical issues for the Jewish people. despite the difficult economy of the past year. Our seminar and What is YIVO’s role? To hold conferences, sponsor publications lecture series remain vital to our research and teaching mission; and research, and create teaching programs that address essential our summer Yiddish program continues to flourish; and our first problems of our time and ensure wide public recognition of the Sidney Krum Young Artists Concert was a great success. connection between democratic ideals and the continuity of Jewish Much work remains in the areas of teaching, research, public traditions, specifically the traditions that emanated from Eastern education, preservation, and cataloging of our archives and li­ and Central European Ashkenazi culture. Max Weinreich wrote brary, as well as in the time-honored YIVO activity of collection. that the mission of YIVO was to study the “position of the Jew in We remain committed to this core mission. the modern world.” This position is as weighted with historical I recently returned from Moscow and Vilnius, where I met with significance today as it was when YIVO was founded, and it is my leaders of the Jewish communities of both cities and investigated hope to continue the noble mission of YIVO to comprehend it. ways by which YIVO might extend its activity abroad. In Moscow, I urge you to help support our efforts at engaging in this impor­ I met with many individuals and heads of Jewish organizations, as tant and timely work. well as with representatives of non-Jewish Russian governmental agencies and archives. In Vilnius, I met with members of the Lith­ uanian government, Jewish leaders, and scholars. I returned home with a sense that much work remains for YIVO in Europe. Two items require immediate attention: the growing need throughout the former Soviet world for teaching materials about Jewish cul­ture, history, language, and religion; and the need to ini­ tiate a collection process to ensure that precious archives of Jews from the 75 years of Soviet rule are not lost forever. Much of this material has no place to go, largely because people do not have the means to preserve it or ship it to safe locations in Israel or the West. YIVO must help develop structures by which these mate­ rials can be collected and preserved for future generations. Another part of this work is something that I believe should concern all friends of YIVO, all friends of the Jewish people, and all friends of liberal democracy throughout the world—namely, that the political life in Eastern and Central Europe and Russia seems once again to turning toward authoritarianism and nation­ alism. These political currents have never been good for the Jewish people or freedom. The menace of totalitarianism did not disappear with the ­Soviet YIVO Executive Director Jonathan Brent (right) with Deputy Chief of Union. The present volatility of the euro, the instability of the gov­ Mission Eric S. Rubin at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow

3 Spring 2010 Donors to the yivo Institute for Jewish Research

In addition to the $4.5 million Mickey Ross bequest reported in this issue, the gifts and foundation grants acknowledged below were received from July 1, 2008, through December 31, 2009. We are grateful to these donors and the thousands of others who support our work.

$250,000+ Lazard Frères & Co. LLC Martin L. Berman Dalia and Laurence Leeds Ruth and David Levine Kenneth Jacobs Blanche and Emanuel Binder Kenneth A. Lefkowitz Lucius N. Littauer Foundation, Inc. Eve and Anthony Bonner Eileen and Peter Lehrer $150,000+ William Lee Frost Marilyn and Marshall Butler Carol Lee and Jerry Levin Nash Family Foundation Richard J. Mack Citigroup Private Bank Richard S. Lindzen Helen and Jack Nash, z”l Betty and Leo Melamed Carmen Monks Carol and Earle Mack $100,000+ Ann Oster Abby Joseph Cohen and David Vladka Meed Atran Foundation Dottie and Martin Payson Cohen Sandra and Edward Meyer Estate of Luba and Rubin Feryszka Fanya Portnoy Alice Ginott Cohn and Theodore Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club Ruth Gay Family Arlene and Arnold Richards Cohn Adela Reeve Joseph S. and Diane H. Steinberg Daniel Rosenblum Jane and John Colman Mirowski Family Foundation Charitable Trust Dorothy and David Rothbart James T. Conroy Ariella Rosengard Caren and Arturo Constantiner Diane and Joseph Steinberg Lily Safra Mutual Benevolent Society, Salo W. and Jeannette M. Baron Cozen O’Connor Estate of Maurice Neuman Inc. #1865 Foundation, Inc. Steven Winters Martin Peretz Warren Lewis Carol and Lawrence Saper CUNY: Brooklyn College Francesca and Bruce Slovin Irving Lichtenfeld Emilia and Alexander Sedlis David E. R. Dangoor Smart Family Foundation Nathan and Helen Kohler State of New York—Department of Helen Darion Cindy and David Stone Foundation Education Lauren and Jeffrey Eisenberg Deborah Ugoretz Norich and $50,000+ Michael Steinhardt Lillian and Elliot Eisman Karen and William Ackman Vera Stern Eli and Edythe L. Broad Foundation Samuel Norich Blavatnik Charitable Foundation Estate of I. Bernard Weinstein Edythe and Eli Broad Nancy and Morris Offit Emily and Len Blavatnik Rosalyn and Irwin Engelman Ray Palevsky $5,000+ Conference on Jewish Material Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, Inc. Susan and Alan Patricof Marion Achtentuch Claims Against Germany, Inc. Bambi and Roger Felberbaum Elaine and Charles Petschek Jack Bendheim Estate of Sidney Krum Barbara Jurist and Joseph Feldschuh Irene E. Pipes Benyumen Shekhter Foundation Estate of Abraham Melezin Fink Foundation Jennifer J. Raab for Advancement of Standard Paul and Irma Milstein Foundation Romie Shapiro Lewis J. Rabinowitz Yiddish Howard P. Milstein Shain and Larry Fishman William L. Richter Lotte and Ludwig Bravmann Jonathan Mishkin Linda and Robert Friedman Phyllis and Jack Rosen John A. Catsimatidis Righteous Persons Foundation Miriam and Richard Friedman Nanette Rosenberg Valerie and Charles Diker Beatrice Schreter and Charles J. Rose Phil Garoon Amy and Howard Rubenstein Russell Galbut Estate of Adele Rothenberg David Gildin Sherry and Barry Schwartz Arlene and Arnold Goldstein Anonymous Elisabeth and Max Gitter Melissa and Steven Sedlis Estate of Rose Greenspan Franklin Gittes $25,000+ George A. Hambrecht Sholem Aleichem Folk Shul Eugene and Jean Gluck Susan and Roger Hertog Eugene Herscher No. 21, Inc. Margaret and Perry Goldberg Susanne and Jacob Morowitz Jesselson Foundation Stella Skura Harriet and David Goldman David M. Polen Michael Jesselson Judith and Edward Steinberg Yvette and Larry Gralla Nina Rogow Linda and Ilan Kaufthal Sherry and Fred Sztul Dahlia and Andrew Haas Taube Foundation for Jewish Life Randy Kohana Nicki and Harold Tanner Edward R. Haiken and Culture Louis Williams Foundation, Inc. Lottie and Robert Tartell Harvey M. and Lyn P. Meyerhoff Tad Taube Mark and Anla Cheng Kingdon Marilyn and Henry Taub Fund, Inc. Foundation Adele and Ronald Tauber $10,000+ Brian Hecht Anla Cheng and Mark Kingdon Colette N. Thaw Rosina K. Abramson and Jeffrey Herman Kaiser Foundation Max and Anna Levinson Foundation Sara and Benjamin Torchinsky Glen Bernice and Jack Hoffinger Julie and Kenneth Moelis Gladys and Allen Waller Beate and Joseph Becker Feygele Jacobs and Michael Kate and Joseph Naggar Deborah Waroff Ann and Kenneth Bialkin Cholden-Brown Nelco Foundation, Inc. Lois and Martin Whitman Cahnman Foundation, Inc. Boris Kaganov Leon Jolson Ira H. Jolles David I. Karabell Cynthia and Jeff Wiesenfeld Nancy and Bernard Nussbaum City University of New York Emile Karafiol Belle and Victor Winston Don. A. Sanders City University of New York TV Patricia Kenner Charles Wolf Larry B. Scheinfeld Gerald J. Ford Roman R. Kent Eli Zborowski Jeffrey T. Slovin Estate of Melvin H. Friedman Murray Koppelman Motl Zelmanowicz Frances Weinstein Laly and George Gallantz Sarah and Victor Kovner Irina Zhabinskaya and Mattias Henry Wrobel Paula Hanover Deborah and Herbert Krasnow Zhabinskiy Zantker Charitable Foundation, Inc. Fanya Gottesfeld Heller Andrea S. Kremen Sarah A. Becker and Robert M. Roy Katzovicz $1,000+ Michael Labadorf Zimmerman Carol and Gershon Kekst Helen V. Atlas Ruth and Sidney Lapidus Frieda & George Zinberg Ruth Kremen Aimee and Jonathan Baron Leona and Meyer Laskin Foundation, Inc. Estate of David Kerner Donna and Stanley Batkin Marta Jo Lawrence Seymour W. Zises

4 YIVO News Event Celebrates Broad Foundation Gallery’s Dedication, Exhibition of Hebrew Actors’ Union Archive Treasures A special evening celebration on March 10, 2009, marked the Burstein and Lillian Lux, performed a number of musical selec­ opening and dedication of the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation tions including an excerpt from the “Megile Lider” by Itsik Man­ Gallery in Honor of Leon and Rebecca Broad. The gallery’s first ger; “Papirosn,” composed by HAU president Herman Yablokoff; exhibition, Stars, Strikes, and the Yiddish Stage: The Story of the and “Rumenye, Rumenye” by Aaron Lebedeff. The program also Hebrew Actors’ Union, signaled the completion of this YIVO pro­ included performances by Zalmen Mlotek, artistic director of the ject under a $186,000 grant awarded by the Eli Broad Foundation. National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene, and two members of that Guests at the event included members of the theater and per­ theater company, actress Daniella Rabbani and clarinetist Dmitri forming arts community as well as members of the Hebrew Ac­ Slepovitch, who played and sang selections from the HAU musi­ tors’ Union, including renowned international artist Mike Burstyn; cal archive as well as from the general YIVO collection, including actresses Mina Bern, Shira Lehrer, and Mary Soreanu; actor and “Lebn Zol Columbus,” “Vatch Yur Step,” “Zol Lebn di Payday!” director Hy Wolfe; and others. Also in attendance were Barbara and “Amerike.” Kirshenblatt-Gimblett of New York University, Michael Leavitt of the American Society for Jewish Music, Sam Norich of the Forward Association, and Nahma Sandrow, author of Vagabond Stars. The deteriorating condition of the Hebrew Actors’ Union ar­ chive had drawn the interest of Eli Broad in 2006, when he read an article in the New York Times article inspires Times. That story, “Where an archive’s preservation Have You Gone, Molly Pi­ con?,” brought public atten­ tion to the archival treasures housed in the old Hebrew Actors’ Union building at 31 East 7th Street. Broad contacted YIVO—de­ signated by the HAU Executive Committee to receive the famous archive—and offered to fund the transfer of the collection as well as its preservation. At the opening of the exhibition, Broad expressed both his and his wife Edythe’s delight at being there that evening, noting that they owed a great deal of thanks to those at YIVO who had ­worked on the project. Remarking that the New York Times article brought back a lot of memories, Broad spoke about his parents, Edythe and Eli Broad at the dedication of the Eli and Edythe Broad Leon and Rebecca Broad, immigrants from Lithuania who loved Foundation Gallery in Honor of Leon and Rebecca Broad the Jewish theater. It was in their honor that he and his wife funded the preservation of the Hebrew Actors Union’ archive. Fruma Mohrer, chief archivist and project director, noted that the preservation and arrangement of the collection will open it up to re­ search and scholarship. The work done on the HAU archive, which was carried out by a team of dedicated archivists—Ettie Goldwas­ ser, Fern Kant, and Chana Mlotek—was impressive given the mas­ sive size of the collection and its poor condition, and the exhibition represented the culmination of the archivists’ efforts to decipher the story of the Hebrew Actors’ Union. Thanking exhibition curator Krysia Fisher, designer Natalia Indrimi, and photo archivist Jesse Cohen, Mohrer also noted the publication of the exhibit catalog, ­edited by Krysia Fisher, which includes a full-length essay by Edna Nahshon, “The Hebrew Actors’ Union: Labor and the Yiddish Stage in America, 1899–2005,” that covers the history of the HAU from its founding to the modern period. The evening featured a performance by Mike Burstyn, who spoke about his role in facilitating the transfer of the archive to Zalmen Mlotek, Cyona Burstyn, and Mike Burstyn at the YIVO. Burstyn, son of the well-known Yiddish actors Pesakhe Hebrew Actors’ Union exhibition opening

5 Spring 2010 Milstein Conference continued from page 1 Professor of American Jewish History at vision for future generations,” he said. “We The academic component of the confe­ New York University, also greeted the at­ need to invest in the Jewish future in multiple rence, “Exploring Cultural, Social, and Poli­ tendees. Howard Milstein, who was intro­ ways, and that what this project is about.” tical Themes in the New York Jewish Expe­ duced by YIVO board chair Bruce Slovin, The morning program concluded with rience,” featured nine papers given at three then ad­dressed the audience, applauding a roundtable discussion, moderated by different sessions. The first, “Overcoming “this milestone in the three-year Milstein Rebecca Kobrin of Columbia University, Barriers: Integrating into American Life,” Family Jewish Communal Archive Project” featuring CEOs and former CEOs of the was moderated by Hasia Diner. The second, and noting that he and his wife, Abby, were five agencies participating in the Milstein “Displaced Persons, Social Welfare, and deeply moved to be attending the conference. Project. Roundtable participants inclu­ the Role of New York Communal Agencies He mentioned that the Milstein family had a ded Sol Adler of the 92nd Street Y, Robin at Home and Abroad,” was moderated by “special passion for local history” and that he ­Bern­stein of The Educational Alliance, Beth Wenger (University of Pennsylvania). was honored to be sponsoring the ­project. ­Celia Baczkowski of Surprise Lake Camp The last session, “Media, the Arts, and the Fruma Mohrer, project director, re­ported (representing Jordan Dale, the camp’s exec­ Jewish Communal Agenda,” was moderated on the project’s accomplishments, unveiled utive director), Gail Magaliff and Al Miller by Hadassah Kosak (Yeshiva University). the new website, and gave an illustrated of F·E·G·S Health and Human Health Ser­ Six of the papers were given by Milstein presentation on the treasures of the YIVO vices, and Joe Lazar and Mark Handelman Family Research Fellows: Rebecca Cutler Archives pertaining to Jewish communal of NYANA. The discussion focused on the (University of Pennsylvania), Marsha Du­ history in both Europe and New York. historic achievements of these communal brow (CUNY Graduate Center), Kirsten Fer­ UJA’s John Ruskay then delivered some agencies and on the significance of the maglich (Michigan State University), Miyu­ remarks. “This project is about long-term Milstein Project and its future. ki Kita (University of Kitakyushu, Japan), Rebecca Kobrin (Columbia University), and Shira Kohn (New York University). In addition, David Strug (Yeshiva University) and Heidi Heft-Laporte (Lehman College, CUNY) delivered a joint paper on the his­ tory of the Cuban Jewish children’s refugee program in 1962, and Roberta Newman, in­ dependent scholar and writer, spoke about the radio programs of the United Service for New Americans, which were aired by USNA as part of its advocacy work on be­ half of displaced persons in Europe. The evening session, “Preserving the Treasures of New York Jewish Archives: A Howard Milstein delivering remarks at the John Ruskay addressing the audience Roundtable Discussion,” was moderated by conference Steve Siegel, archivist of the 92nd Street Y. Presenters included Charlotte Bonelli (Amer­ican Jewish Committee Archives), Susan Woodland (Hadassah Archives), ­Valery Bazarov (Location and Family Loca­ tion Service, HIAS Archives), Linda Levi (JDC Archives), Shulamit Berger (Yeshiva University Archives), and Fruma Mohrer. A discussion followed regarding the pro­ fessional needs of New York Jewish ar­ chives, their future preservation, and some of the challenges facing archives today. All the conference sessions will be ­posted online on YIVO’s website. The Mil­ stein ­Family Jewish Communal Archive Project web­site is now in its final stages Participants at the roundtable discussion of CEOs: (l. to r.) Rebecca Kobrin (moderator), Jonathan Brent, Sol Adler, Robin Bernstein, Celia Baczkowski, Gail Magaliff, Al Miller, Mark of completion and will be available by the Handelman, Joe Lazar summer of 2010.

6 YIVO News YIVO Hosts U.S. Premiere of Kasztner Documentary by Harold Steinblatt

“It occurred to me that the best place to introduce the film was old when he rode the Kasztner train; and George Bishop, an American YIVO,” said Gaylen Ross about the October 20, 2009, U.S. ­premiere businessman and former Israeli paratrooper who was 17 when he of her much-lauded documentary, Killing Kasztner: The Man was saved. Professor Ronald Zweig of New York University, an emi­ Who Negotiated with Nazis. “With its own incredible history, its nent Holocaust scholar, introduced the film and served as moderator. special connection to the Holocaust and the East European Jewry The panelists noted that Kasztner’s name and story remain experience in Europe as a whole, it just seems right.” unfamiliar, even though, for example, he saved more lives than Ross’s film, which enjoyed a successful run in Israel and created Oskar Schindler and, as a Jew, put himself at greater personal risk. a buzz at several international film festivals before its showing at There was also general agreement on the crucial lesson, expressed YIVO, examines the controversial life and brutal murder of ­Rezso˝ by Zsuzsi Kasztner, that her father’s achievement offers contem­ Kasztner, a Zionist operative in Nazi-occupied Hungary during porary Israel: “Negotiations do not have to come at the end of a World War II. As a result of negotiations with Adolf Eichmann barrel of a gun.” and other Nazi officials, Kasztner secured the safe passage by rail But Ross, who worked on the film for nearly eight years and of almost 1,700 Jews from Budapest to Switzerland on what be­ clearly has given much thought to every aspect of the Kasztner came known as “the Kasztner train.” story, said, “The question isn’t whether Israel will learn the les­ In 1954 Kasztner, by then a functionary of Israel’s ruling Mapai son, but will the world?” Löb suggested that the “real point is that Party, was accused in a newsletter of having made a deal with ­saving lives is, after all, better than not saving lives.” Eichmann in order to save his own family as well as a number of wealthy, prominent Jews, selling out the rest of Hungarian Jewry in the process. The Israeli government, Kasztner’s employ­er, brought a libel suit on his behalf, but the sen­ Kasztner saved sational trial that ensued conclud­ed with the presiding judge declaring­ more Jews than that Kasztner had “sold his soul to Oskar Schindler the ­devil.” Kasztner became a marked man: in late 1957, he was assassinated in front of his Tel Aviv home by Ze’ev Eckstein, a young right- wing activist. In 1958, however, he was posthumously exonerated by the Israeli Supreme Court. Ross’s film tells the story not only of Kasztner’s trial and murder but also of the official Israeli policy of not acknowledging his achieve­ment and the decades-long efforts to accord him recognition Zsuzsi Kasztner and her daughter Merav Michaeli. for his heroism by his daughter, Zsuzsi (who was nine years old (Photo by Eric Weiss) when he was murdered), her children, and the ever-diminishing number of Kasztner-train survivors. In time, Jewish historians have come to agree that Kasztner was shortchanged by history, with many concluding that he was a pawn in the Israeli political wars of the early 1950s, an obedient follower of his superiors’ orders, or even possibly the victim of the very government he served. In the film, Ross interviews everyone from Zsuzsi Kasztner and her daughters to the still-living assassin, Ze’ev Eckstein; impassioned survivors of the Kasztner train; and even the now-adult children of the central legal players in the trial. A triumphant moment in the film comes when a group including Kasztner’s family and many of those he saved converge upon Yad Vashem, the Israeli national Holocaust memorial and education center, to finally mount an (albeit small) exhi­ bit dedicated to Kasztner and his activities. A panel discussion that followed the screening featured Gaylen Ross; Zsuzsi Kasztner; her daughter Merav Michaeli, a prominent Israeli journalist; Ladislas Löb, a German studies professor at the University of Sussex and author of Rezso˝ Kasztner: The Daring Director Gaylen Ross (r.) with Joseph Eden, a member of the Young Rescue of Hungarian Jews—A Personal Account, who was 11 years Zionist movement who worked with Kasztner. (Photo by Eric Weiss)

7 Spring 2010 Exhibit Examines Red Star Line’s Role In Jewish Immigration to America Representatives of the City of Antwerp, Belgium, as well as of the “Shtetl on the High Seas: The Steamship Companies and Jewish Red Star Line Museum Project, the Eugeen Van Mieghem Foun­ Emigration from Eastern Europe.” Panelists Gur Alroey of the Uni­ dation, and the Antwerp World Diamond Center were all on hand versity of Haifa and Frank Caestecker of the University of Ghent at YIVO on September 10, 2009, to open the exhibit One Foot in examined the pivotal role played by Belgium’s Red Star Line and America. other steamship companies in the migration, from the 1870s to the On loan from Antwerp’s Red Star Line/People on the Move 1930s, of millions of Eastern European Jews to the United States. Museum, the exhibit tells the story of the Red Star shipping line, New York University professor Hasia Diner served as moderator. focusing on the lives of Eastern European Jewish emigrants—the Alroey, whose most recent book is The Quiet Revolution: The reasons they fled, their arrival in Antwerp and their experience Jewish Emigration from the Russian Empire in the Early Twentieth with the city’s Jewish community, their living conditions onboard Century (2008), has written extensively about the mass emigration the Red Star Line’s ships, and their hopes and dreams for their of Jews from Eastern Europe to the United States and else­where future lives in America. in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Caestecker is author The opening reception also celebrated the publication of the of Alien Policy in Belgium, 1840–1940: The Creation of Guest book One Foot in America: The Jewish Emigrants of the Red Star ­Workers, Refugees, and Illegal Aliens (2001). He is also coeditor of Line and Eugeen Van Mieghem. The book features paintings and the newly published Refugees from Nazi Germany and the Liberal drawings by Flemish artist and Antwerp native Eugeen Van Mie­ European States (2010). ghem (1875–1930), who often depicted the emigrants and the life Now under construction in the company’s original port ware­ of the port. Erwin Joos, director of the Van Mieghem Foundation house buildings, the Red Star Line/People on the Move Museum and one of the book’s authors, was on hand to sign copies. will open in Antwerp in Spring 2012. The book One Foot in The following week, YIVO, the Red Star Line Museum, and the ­America can be ordered through the American Friends of the Red Van Mieghem Foundation cosponsored a panel discussion entitled Star Line, www.redstarlinefriends.org/11.html.

Clockwise from upper left: Van Mieghem Foundation Director Erwin Joos beside a panel from the exhibit featuring artwork by Eugeen Van Mieghem; Steerage passengers aboard the Red Star liner SS Belgenland (ca. 1925); poster for the Red Star line by Henri Cassiers (1899).

8 YIVO News YIVO Archives Receives Hoover Institute Microfilms In 2009, YIVO received almost 500 reels of Karski collection. Jan Karski, a professor communist movement worldwide and pro­ microfilm from the Hoover Institution at at Georgetown University, was liaison offi­ vided fuel for the ministry’s propaganda Stanford University as part of a program cer and courier of the Polish government- campaigns. Most of the material is in to enhance YIVO’s archival holdings in the in-exile to the Polish underground from ­German. Closely associated with these area of modern Jewish history in Eastern 1939 to 1943. Karski was also the author ­papers is the collection of the Institut zum Europe (see Yedies no. 204 [Winter 2008], of Story of a Secret State (1944), a book Stud­ium der Judenfrage (1936–1939), p. 1). The project was initiated by the San about his missions to occupied Poland and which contains German antisemitic prop­ Francisco–based Taube Foundation for his efforts to reveal the truth about the aganda materials—clippings, leaflets, and Jewish Life and Culture, which provided annihilation of the Polish Jews under the posters. a $38,000 grant to support this effort. The Nazis. This collection (1939–2000) contains YIVO also received several smaller collec­ new materials include a number of collec­ both written and recorded material relating tions of microfilms, including the papers tions of great interest to YIVO: to events and conditions in Poland during of Mark Vishniak (1910–1995), a writer, World War II, the German and Soviet oc­ Anders papers. The papers of General political activist, and Time magazine cupations of Poland, treatment of the Jews Wladyslaw Anders, commander in chief specialist on Soviet affairs; and those of in Poland during the German occupation, of the Polish Armed Forces organized in Kurt Grossman (1913–1973), a recognized and operations of the Polish underground the Soviet Union following the Sikorski- spokesman on Jewish refugee issues. The movement during World War II. Maiskii pact (July 30, 1941), are of great papers of Ona Šimaite (1941–1970) contain importance for the history of Polish Jewish German anticommunist and antisemitic material relating to underground aid to the refugees in the USSR during World War materials. A vast collection (255 microfilm Jewish ghetto inhabitants of Vilnius dur­ II. The collection, which covers the period reels) of writings, reports, and clippings ing the German occupation of 1941–1944. 1939–1944, is primarily the archives of from 1891 to 1945 relating to the internation­ Finally, although the Hoover Institute’s the Documents Bureau of the 2nd Polish al communist movement and to Jews was collection of Pasternak family papers, dat­ Corps, which Anders established in April assembled by the Gesamtverband Deutscher ing from 1878 to 2007, is extensive, YIVO 1943 to collect documentation of the 1939– Antikommunistischer Vereinigungen (Gen­ selected only the papers of artist Leonid 1941 Soviet occupation of eastern Poland eral Union of German Anti­communist Pasternak, including drafts of his memoirs and the fate of the hundreds of thousands ­Associations),­ a German gov­ernmental anti­ prepared by his daughter Josephine. of Polish prisoners of war, labor camp in­ ­communist and antisemitic propaganda Finding aids to the above and other mates, and deportees, as well as to prepare agency affiliated with the Reichsminister­ ­Hoover Institute collections are available at materials in support of the Polish cause for ium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda. the Online Archive of California (www.oac. the future peace conference. It was used as an intelligence source on the cdlib.org/institutions/Hoover+Institution).

Masterworks from the YIVO Archives Annual Krum Concert Spotlights Young Artists On January 31, 2010, YIVO presented its annual Sidney Krum concert, a Sunday afternoon event featuring eight student per­ formers from the Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard School. Violinist, conductor, and educator Yuval Waldman served as music director. The concert was the first in a new Young Artists Series devoted to rarely heard masterworks from the Sidney Krum Jewish Music and Yiddish Theater Memorial Collections at YIVO. The program featured works by Sergei Prokofiev (Overture on Hebrew Themes), Ernest Bloch (“Nigun” from his Baal Shem Suite), Joachim Stutchewsky (Kinah), Leo Zeitlin (Reb Nakhman’s Nigun), and Joel Engel (The Dibbuk Suite for solo piano). Music archivist Chana Mlotek and Caeli Smith (violin I), Brianna Fischler (violin II), Christopher Pell (clarinet), Gabriella Fischler (viola), and Jennie Brent (cello) performing the program’s sound archivist Lorin Sklamberg of YIVO and Mark Slo­ final piece, Sergei Prokofiev’sOverture on Hebrew Themes; not pictured: bin of Wesleyan University coordinated the program. Robert Buxton (piano). Oliver Kot (violin) performed earlier in the program

9 Spring 2010 2009 Annual Benefit Dinner YIVO Bestows Lifetime Achievement Awards On CUNY’s Goldstein and Harvard’s Dershowitz An excited crowd of almost 200 guests ga­ thered on May 26, 2009, for the 84th Annual YIVO Benefit Dinner, which began with a cocktail reception followed by an award ­ceremony and dinner. It was an especially festive occasion. Each of the two distin­ guished honorees has dedicated his life to educating new generations of students ­while also working hard for justice and fair­ ness in the broader world community. Matthew Goldstein, chancellor of The City University of New York (CUNY) ­since 1999 and the first CUNY graduate (City ­College, Class of 1963) to lead this most prominent urban public university, and Alan M. Dershowitz, the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School Benefit Dinner speakers and honorees (l. to r.): Jonathan Brent, Charles Rose, and world renowned as a staunch defend­er of Matthew Goldstein, Alan Dershowitz, Martin Peretz, and Bruce Slovin individual rights, each received a personal­ ized YIVO Lifetime Achievement Award. high school educational opportunities for The evening was a great success. “Mem­ Martin Peretz, a member of the YIVO all New York City residents. A framed ory, a primary trope in the Jewish commu­ Board of Directors, welcomed everyone photograph from the YIVO archives of nity, is a key to our survival,” YIVO Board and thanked them for taking part in cele­ the ceremony for the opening of Hebrew chairman Bruce Slovin reflected. “Our brating YIVO’s 84th year. Jonathan Brent, University in Jerusalem on April 1, 1925, Jewish heritage is in danger of being forgot­ the newly appointed executive director of was presented to Goldstein as his Lifetime ten, but after tonight’s gala, I feel great hope YIVO, was introduced for the first time. Achievement Award. for the future.” Brent explained his passion for YIVO’s his­ tory and explored a few of his many ideas for the institution’s future. Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer Accepting his Lifetime Achievement Award, Dershowitz reviewed his early years To Be Honored at 85th Anniversary Dinner in Brooklyn, his school days at Brooklyn College and Harvard Law School, the in­ YIVO is proud to announce that Stanley Fischer, governor of the Bank of Israel, will fluence of Catskills Yiddish culture on his be honored at its 85th-anniversary gala, to be held later this year. Born in Zambia (then successful work as an advocate for Israel, Northern Rhodesia) to parents who had emigrated from Eastern Europe, Fischer stud­ his appellate court work, and his opposition ied at the London School of Economics and MIT, where he later became a professor of to censorship in the arts. From the YIVO economics. archives, Dershowitz received a framed pre- Before joining the Bank of Israel in 2005, Fischer served as vice chairman of Citigroup statehood Jewish National Fund poster pro­ and as first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund. Noted for his moting agriculture. expertise in macroeconomic policy, he was an editor of the 1994 volume Securing Peace YIVO board member Charles J. Rose in the Middle East: Project on Economic Transition. introduced Chancellor Goldstein, who is re­ Fischer joins a distinguished roster of recent honorees, including Matthew Goldstein lated to the Vilner community through his and Alan Dershowitz in 2009 (see article above); former treasury secretary (and now wife, Maggi Sedlis Goldstein. Rose cited ­White House economic adviser) Lawrence Summers; diplomat Richard C. Holbrooke and Goldstein’s dedication to raising academic journalist and human rights advocate Kati Marton; and Richard Axel and Eric Kandel, standards for students entering CUNY- both winners of the Nobel Prize in Medicine. ­system schools and praised Goldstein’s “As we celebrate our 85th year, I am especially excited to honor such a notable and overarching vision of accessible post– respected­ member of the world Jewish community,” commented YIVO Chair Bruce Slovin.

10 YIVO News 2010 Event to Honor Hendler, Wagners, and Stones 2009 YIVO Heritage Luncheon Strikes a Special Family Chord “YIVO is a place of reunion,” noted Anna Bat by their sons, Steven (who continues the Chai Wrobel, daughter of the late Eta Wro­ family medical tradition) and Daniel. In bel, at the Eighth Annual Heritage Luncheon their introduction they noted, “In prewar at YIVO, on May 6, 2009, where her mother, Vilna, the only ones who cared for the im­ the founding chair of YIVO’s International poverished Jews were their fellow Jews.” Women’s Committee, was honored in memo­ Alexander and Emilia accepted the riam. YIVO also honored Saul Kagan, execu­ award in honor and memory of the entire tive vice­president emeritus of the Conference Sedlis family, whose deep roots in Vilna on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and in medicine extend back to Alexander’s (Claims Conference), and the physicians Emi­ father, Elias Sedlis, a renowned obstetri­ Claims Conference Executive Vice President Gideon Taylor presenting the Lifetime lia and Alexander Sedlis. cian­gynecologist in prewar Vilna. The Achievement Award to Saul Kagan Event emcee and YIVO Board member Kagan­Sedlis connection extends back to Ruth Levine welcomed all the guests and this previous generation as well: Elias then announced that future Heritage Lun­ Sedlis was a close friend of Saul Kagan’s cheons will honor the memory of Eta Wro­ father, who was the managing director of bel, a Holocaust survivor who was a parti­ the Jewish hospital where Elias served as san fi ghter in Poland. Accepting a Special chairman. Elias Sedlis also served as chair­ Recognition Award on her behalf, daughters man of the Union of Jewish Physicians, Anna Bat Chai Wrobel and Shain Fishman which held its fi rst congress in 1937 at the expressed gratitude to YIVO for providing YIVO building in Vilna. their mother “a place to come home.” The Sedlis family also remembered It was a day of fond remembrance and Alexander’s late brother, Gabriel, who was Alexander Sedlis accepting the Vilna Award on behalf of the entire Sedlis family of connections remade. Saul Kagan, pre­ one of the youngest Jewish partisans fi ghting sented with a YIVO Lifetime Achievement with the Abba Kovner Brigade in the Rud­ Award, stressed that his work was driven nicki Forest, and who later became a suc­ by concern for the greater Jewish commu­ cessful architect in New York. nity. Kagan noted that the Claims Confer­ The Ninth Annual Heritage Dinner, ence was unique: “It was the fi rst time Jews chaired by YIVO Board member Fanya Got­ confronted directly the perpetrators of a tesfeld Heller, will be held on April 26, 2010. crime. There was no Claims Conference in Betty Trock Hendler, a supporter of music 1492! There was no Claims Conference for and Jewish causes in Nassau County, will tsarist pogroms! There is an account that receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. has to be settled, an account to a people for The Vilna Award will be presented to Harry Anna Bat Chai Wrobel and Shain Fishman the elimination of a culture.” and Leon Wagner in memory of their par­ receiving the Special Recognition Award in The 2009 luncheon was also the occa­ ents, Sima and Ruby Wagner, Holocaust memory of their mother, Eta Wrobel sion for a very special reunion. By chance, survivors whose devotion to yidishkayt and honorees Saul Kagan and Drs. Emilia and Vilna was expressed in their organizing of Alexander Sedlis, all of whom had been the annual Vilna Dinner, now in its twentie­ childhood friends in Vilna, were reunited th year, and in their creation and publication, after 70 years. Despite having lived in New with several Vilna friends and cousins, of Save York since the war, they had never commun­ the book Vilna in Pictures. (See p. 18 for the Date! icated. Rubin Wagner’s obit uary.) Longtime YIVO Alexander Sedlis, professor emeritus of friend Cindy Stone, who has served as co­ Nusakh Vilne obstetrics and gynecology at SUNY Downs­ chair of YIVO’s Leadership Forum, helped Annual Yizker and tate Medical Center, and his wife, Emilia organize the “Food as Roots” series, and Memorial Lecture Sedlis, a retired clinical professor in pedia­ volun teers in the archives, and her husband September 12, 2010 trics at New York University Medical Cen­ David and their two sons will be honored ter, were presented with the Vilna Award with the Special YIVO Recognition Award.

11 sprINg 2010 Keeping It All in the Family Bequests Help YIVO Thrive by Ella Levine, Director of Development and External Affairs

Vulnerable as Jews have been throughout the life’s work did. Ultimately, his immigrant Jewish ­heritage—and past, we all recognize the need to secure our the memory of his parents’ lives—were what was most impor­ history, not only for coming generations but tant to him. His gift helps ensure that his parents’ values will not also as a way for us to savor this rich heritage be lost. and ensure that the treasures of yidishkayt will not disappear. Maurice Neuman, a professor of physics at the University of YIVO plays a unique role as the world’s larg­ California–Berkeley, lived his early years in a Polish shtetl. His est repository of artifacts, documents, books, parents, Leyzer and Tova Neuman, did not survive the war, but music, and other materials that help tell the story of Jewish life in because of their courage the teenaged Neuman was able to es­ Eastern Europe over many centuries, as well as our experiences cape the Nazis. Though he never saw his mother or father again, today. The worldwide financial downturn, which has caused justi­ he cherished their memory and treasured their letters, which he fiable anxiety, has been tough. But as so often in our history, YIVO preserved at YIVO so that his American family and generations has persevered. Our story has lost none of its relevance and imme­ to come will know what happened. Neuman truly understood the diacy. During this crisis the obligation to remember—to safeguard need for Jews to have a permanent historical record, one that rea­ our legacy—sustains us. ches toward the future as well as looking back at the past. Our history and culture are priceless; preserving them is expen­ A bequest’s effect will last longer than you ever thought possible sive. Today, as memories begin to fade, our ability to perpetuate and will touch many people. The generosity of donors like Mickey our legacy by contributing generously is both a privilege and a Ross and Maurice Neuman helps ensure that our work continues duty. Recently, we received bequests from two very different men for future generations, offers an opportunity to build a permanent whose love of Yiddish culture bound them to YIVO: legacy, and links the past and present to the future. Mickey Ross, who wrote and produced All in the Family, was Jews of all ages and family histories love their Yiddish roots. a first-generation American child of immigrant Jewish parents, We know that you do, too. This is why we ask you to please re­ Harry and Bessie Rovinsky. Born Isidore Rovinsky, Ross grew member YIVO in your will. It’s a gift to YIVO that only you can up in Manhattan in a home filled with the yidishkayt that had make. Every gift makes a difference! traveled to the United States with his parents. Ross treasured his As guardians of our legacy, we ask you to join us on this jour­ upbringing and the values taught to him as a child. His ex­tremely ney of continuity. We can never thank all our donors enough for generous bequest to YIVO will touch millions of lives, just as his their vision and tzedakah. A greysn dank.

In Memory Esther Hautzig The board and staff of YIVO mourn the passing of author Esther Rudomin Hautzig, our longtime friend, on November 1, 2009. A brave and determined woman, Esther was a founding member of Nusakh Vilne and a teller of tales that must be told, including her experiences as a World War II detainee in Siberia. In her memoir of survival, The Endless Steppe, Esther recounted how the Soviets took her, her parents, and her gran­ dparents from her native Vilna in 1941, when she was only ten years old. “After six weeks in cattle cars, we were deposited in Rubtsovsk, a tiny village in Sibe­

ria,” Esther wrote. During the nearly six years in exile they spent there, she adapted to Esther Hautzig, with her daughter and privation, hunger, and loss while going to school and trying to help her family. Despite granddaughter, lights the memorial candles the terrible conditions and forced labor, all but her grandfather survived the war. After at the 2007 Nusakh Vilne Yizker the war, her family resettled in Łódz´, Poland, where they discovered that their forced exile had probably saved their lives. She immigrated to the United States on her own in 1947; here, she began a new life, marrying Walter Hautzig, a concert pianist whom she met on the crossing to America. At the September 2007 Nusakh Vilne Yizker and Memorial Lecture, Esther lit the candles with her daughter Debby and granddaughter Molly, celebrating her long and lasting love for YIVO and yidishkayt. A true eishes chayil, Esther Hautzig loved her Vilna roots, treasured Jewish history and culture, and reached out to younger people through the books she wrote.

12 YIVO News YIVO’s Legacy Circle Profiles in Philanthropy: Mickey Ross and Maurice Neuman Mickey Ross and Maurice Neuman’s love dren. Although an American-born televi­ of yidishkayt lives on through their gen­ sion icon, his yerushe, his legacy, will truly erous bequests, and YIVO could not be be yidishkayt. more appreciative. One day, future gen­ Maurice Neuman (19??–2008) erations will understand the importance of Maurice Neuman grew up in a Polish these gifts and feel the same gratitude. shtetl. During the war, his parents worked Michael (Mickey) Ross (Isidore Rovin­ feverishly to save his life by getting him to sky, 1919–2009) Leyzer’s brother, who lived in the United News of the bequest from the estate of States. They themselves perished in the Ho­ Mickey Ross (see article, page 1) has sent locaust, and Maurice—who was a teenager Members of the Neiman (Neuman) family, waves of excitement through all of YIVO. when they parted—never saw his mother relatives of Maurice Neuman, at the Ross grew up in a Yiddish- or father again. He lived in dedication of the plaque hung to honor his speaking home in New York Ohio with his uncle, aunt, and parents’ memory at YIVO City, and, like so many of his cousins, and grew up to be­ to memorialize his parents. Relatives generation, he served in the come a professor of physics at came from California, Israel, Long ­Island, U.S. Army during World War the University of California– and New Jersey, most of them born gene­ II, married, and became suc­ Berkeley rations after Leyzer and Tova Neuman cessful far beyond his parents’ Neuman always ­treasured perished. dreams for him. the letters his parents had Ross went on to make huge written while working to If you, too, treasure yidishkayt and Jewish Mickey Ross contributions to American cul­ arrange his escape—those culture as Mickey Ross and Maurice Neu­ ture through his television scripts. Viewers last tangible vestiges of their parental man did, and would like to learn how you may not have known him personally, but love. He eventually brought these letters to can preserve our heritage and true history his work touched millions of lives over YIVO, where he knew they would be cared for ongoing generations, please contact many decades. But in his heart, he was nev­ for and preserved for his family. Ella Levine, Director of Development er far from his roots. When we hung a plaque as part our and ­External Relations, at 212-295-6128 Ross’s bequest to YIVO will help to ful­ fulfillment of the wishes he expressed in or [email protected]. A description of fill his desire to keep our culture and true his bequest to YIVO, Neuman’s cousins, planned giving options with examples is history alive for future generations of their children, and grandchildren gather­ available under the tab “Ways of Giving” scholars, teachers, researchers, and chil­ ed to honor his name and generosity and at www.yivo.org/support.

Rosina Abramson Vicki Gold Louis Osofsky Marilyn Apelson Nathan Goldstein Martin Peretz Sylvia Antonier-Scher William Goldstein Bathsheba Phillips Harold Baron Linda Grossman Ethel Roberts William Begell Warren Grover Enid Sandri Roger Berkowitz Edwin Hantman Abraham Sherman Rhoda Berkowitz Laura Hapke Bruce Slovin The Gaon Society was named for the renowned 18th-century rabbi Eliyahu Sylvia Brody Axelrad George Hecht Carole Stein ben Shelomoh Zalman (Elijah ben Solomon Zalman)—the Vilna Gaon. A Eliane Bukantz Felice Itzkoff Richard Stein highly respected man of great insight, intellect, and tzedakah, he is the Hyman Cohen Louisa Johnston Jonathan Sternberg perfect namesake for our honor society. Shirley Cohen Henry Kellen Leora Klaymer The Gaon Society recognizes the farsighted philanthropy of our support- Eva Eckert David Levine Stewart ers who leave a bequest to YIVO in their will or trust or make another type Betty Eldman Ruth Levine Robert Tartell of planned gift. These gifts are a part of the future resources YIVO will need Sol Eldman Isaac Levine Lottie Tartell to continue our mission and preserve our history and heritage for our child­ Stanley Engelstein Liora Levine Franklin Toker ren and grandchildren, as well as scholars, teachers, and others interested in Gene Forrell Ella Lidsky Milton Weiner the true history of Eastern European Jews and yidishkayt. Mildred Forrell Leo Melamed Edith Weiss Members receive recognition in YIVO’s publications and on our website Shulamis Levin Herbert J. Maletz Chava Weissler (though requests for anonymity are always respected), a special certificate Friedman Ahrona Ohring Joan Wertheim of membership, invitations to exclusive events, and our everlasting gratitude. Max Gitter Milton Ohring Anonymous (9)

13 Spring 2010 Portal to the World That Was Encyclopedia Website Set to Launch in June Work to create the online edition of The YIVO Encyclopedia of audience. The vast number of images on the site, many of which Jews in Eastern Europe is in its fi nal stages in preparation for pu­ will now be shown in color, bring the East European Jewish expe­ blic launch this June. The two­year project will make the entire rience to life with remarkable vividness.” contents of the print edition, published by Yale University Press in 2008, available to the public free of charge. Taking advantage of the medium, the online version will include musical examples, fi lm clips, and additional still images, all drawn from YIVO’s own archival collections. The project got under way as a result of an early challenge grant from the Joseph S. and Diane H. Steinberg Charitable Trust, which will be listed as the site’s principal sponsor, with the grant made in memory of YIVO board member Joseph Steinberg’s parents, Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg. As intended, this generous act attracted other grants and donations, many of which came from among the origi­ nal supporters of the print edition, including the Righteous Persons Foundation, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Ger­ many, the Cahnman Foundation, and the Koret Foundation. A signifi cant new element of the project is the inclusion of approximately 200 documents—chiefl y letters and manuscripts— from the YIVO archive. Roberta Newman, who has continued in her role as the project’s archival researcher, has selected items in Yiddish, Russian, and German that shed further light on the 2009 Harold Ostroff Awards daily lives of the correspondents. They also serve to introduce to the general public the nature and variety of YIVO’s archival hol­ Berg, Megino Recognized dings. Visitors to the site will encounter not only the famous (a for Professional Service letter from Leon Trotsky, a manuscript by Sholem Aleichem) but also the mundane (a handwritten description of a children’s game, and Leadership postcards sent to family members). This fi rst group of documen­ At a ceremony and reception on January 29, 2010, two highly respec­ tary examples is particularly strong in the area of literary culture. ted members of the YIVO staff were awarded the third set of Harold Many, if not most, of the items are manuscripts of stories and Ostroff Awards. Archivist Gunnar Berg was particularly recognized poems or correspondence between well­known writers. for the quality of service he provides to the public, while Director The archival materials, which total more than 600 pages, have of Finance and Administration Antonio Megino was lauded for his been digitally photographed and will be accompanied by detai­ calm and effective leadership in the wake of the fi nancial downturn. led summaries in English of their content. Full transcription and Previous winners include librarians Lyudmila Sholokhova, Oleg Vi­ translation of selected examples is a hoped­for second phase of nogradev, and Yeshaya Metal and archivist Leo Greenbaum. post­launch work. Another new feature of the site allows users, especially those who may not already be familiar with East European Jewish history and culture, to explore by subject rather than doing a specifi c search or browsing alphabetically. The encyclopedia’s contents have been organized into six broad topics—the Arts, Daily Life, Places, His­ tory and Politics, Language and Literature, and Religion. Each topic has its own page on the site, introducing users to the encyclopedia’s coverage with brief introductory essays on subjects within that top­ ic area (for example, an article on painters on the Arts page), slide­ shows, timelines, and maps. A list of the principal survey articles within that topic provides direct links to the text. Project Director and YIVO Director of Publications Jeffrey Edelstein said, “This site will help move YIVO forward with a greater online presence to reach a younger and more international 2009 Ostroff Award recipients Gunnar Berg and Antonio Megino

14 YIVO News New Library and Archival Accessions Wolf Younin Collection Refl ects a Yiddishist Life Among the signifi cant donations of material to the YIVO Archives published his fi rst book of poems,Seven Songs, in 1928. and Library in 2009 were the papers and library of poet, newspaper Younin arrived in New York as a sailor on a merchant ship. columnist, and book collec­ Having received vocational training in Bialystok, he worked at va­ tor Wolf Younin (1908–1984). rious blue­collar jobs. He also started contributing poems to New This vast and impressive col­ York–based Yiddish journals and published a second book of lection includes 64 linear feet poems in 1936. He hosted a Yiddish radio program during World of archival documents alone. War II and in 1943 became a regular columnist—as well as city The donation was made by editor—for the Day–Morning Journal. Called “Language Corner,” his widow, Sulvia Guberman his column dealt with folklore and the Yiddish language. After Younin, a Yiddish author in her that paper closed in 1971, Younin continued writing the column for own right, and by one of their the Forward. One series of columns was a dictionary of Hebrew two daughters, Deena Mann. words and phrases used in Yiddish; the series is still considered a The Chernowitz Confer­ highly reliable reference. ence of 1908, which declared Younin trained singers and actors—including Mandy Patin­ Yiddish a Jewish national kin—to perform in Yiddish. He also wrote lyrics to Yiddish songs language, gave birth to large and oratorios, and taught Yiddish at Berlitz language centers and a cadre of men and women at Rutgers and Columbia universities. Wolf Younin who devoted their lives to the Younin was a discriminating collector of Yiddish­related books preservation and development of a secular Yiddish­based cul ture. and documents, several of which date from the mid­16th century. Wolf Younin (born Wolf Hochman) was a perfect embodiment The collection is particularly strong in Yiddish Sovietica, includ­ of this cohort. He was born in Irkutsk in 1908, but grew up in ing illustrations by Suprematist/Constructivist artists. Bialystok and Bielsk. Educated in part in a Yiddish folk school, A complete list of accessions in 2009 is available on the YIVO he established contact with members of the Young Vilna literary website as a supplement to this issue of Yedies. We are grateful to movement, including Abraham Sutzkever and Chaim Grade. He the donors of these materials.

Items from the collection include (l. to r.): Cover of 1919, by the well-known Soviet Yiddish writer Leyb Kvitko. Published in Berlin in 1923, the book describes the pogroms in Ukraine during the Russian Civil War Cover of Af Basaraber erd (On Bessarabian Soil; Chicago, 1935), by Yoysef Traktnberg Cover of Chaim Grade’s poetry collection Farvoksene vegn (The Overgrown Path; Paris, 1947)

15 sprINg 2010 2009 Ruth Gay Seminars in Jewish Studies Panel Focuses on Postwar Hungarian Jewry On Sunday, June 22, 2009, Alice Freifeld, associate professor of Freifeld then spoke about the conditions facing Hungarian history at the University of Florida, was the featured speaker at Jewish survivors in the aftermath of the Holocaust; the war crimes a seminar entitled “The Hungarian Jewish Remnant, 1945–48.” trials conducted in Hungary, especially the thousands of “small- ­István Deák, Seth Low Professor Emeritus of International His­ fry” trials; and, in the wake of new anti-Semitism, the efforts by tory at ­Columbia University, chaired the event. The respondent Hungarian Jews to flee to displaced persons camps in Austria and was László Karsai, professor of history at the University of Germany. In 1948–1949 Hungary’s borders were shut, except for a ­Szeged, Hungary, as well as the director of the Holocaust Center last wave of illegal departures after the founding of Israel. Perhaps of the Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archives in Budapest and 120,000 Jews remained in Hungary during the communist era; 10 the head of the Yad Vashem research group in Hungary. YIVO percent of these fled the country at the time of the 1956 uprising. Chief Archivist Fruma Mohrer delivered opening remarks. Freifeld’s presentation. which focused on her research for a cur­ The many attendees at the seminar included Hungarian Jewish rent book project on Hungarian Jewry from 1945 to 1949, included Holocaust survivors as well as children of survivors, members of references to the records of the Paris office of the Hebrew Immigrant the Hungarian Jewish community living in the New York area, and Aid Society (HIAS), which are held in the YIVO Archives. Freifeld scholars from colleges, universities, and libraries in the tristate area. is the author of Nationalism and the Crowd in Liberal Hungary, Leslie Blau, author of Bonyhád: A Destroyed Community (1994), and 1848–1914 (2000; Hungarian version forthcoming, 2011) and the Zehava Stessel, author of Wine and Thorns in Tokay Valley: Jewish recipient of the Barbara Jelavich Book Prize in Slavic Studies. She Life in Hungary: The History of Abaújszántó (1995), both of whom is the current president of the Hungarian Studies Association and have used the YIVO Archives in their research, also attended. has been awarded several fellowships for advanced study. Deák, coauthor and coeditor (with Jan. T. Gross and Tony Judt) In his remarks, respondent Karsai focused on the more than 26,000 of The Politics of Retribution in Europe: World War II and Its war-crimes trials conducted in Hungary in the immediate aftermath Aftermath (2000), introduced the speakers and offered an analysis of the war, noting that the number of trials held there was propor­ of the situation in Hungary in the immediate postwar period. tionately comparable to war-crimes tribunals in ­France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and other European countries. He also discussed the great Hungarian political trials, the first of which was that of Prime Minister László Bárdossy in 1946. The Yad ­Vashem research group headed by Karsai has studied and microfilmed thousands of war-crimes trials in which Jews or gypsies are mentioned. Karsai is currently working on a political biography of Ferenc Szálasi (1897– 1946), the leader of the National Socialist Arrow Cross Party who was tried and executed in 1946 by the People’s Court. In his closing remarks, Deák summarized the session, compar­ ing the trials of Bárdossy and Szlálasi, whose proceedings he wit­ Alice Freifeld and István Deák László Karsai answering a nessed in Budapest. He also discussed the antisemitic backlash of question at the seminar 1946. A lively question-and-answer period followed. YIVO Documents Reveal Diversity of Life In Salonika’s Interwar Jewish Community Addressing a full house at the Center for Jewish History audito­ also acknowledged the American Sefardi Federation, which co­ rium, Devin Naar, a doctoral candidate at Stanford University, sponsored the seminar; the Academic Advisory Committee of the delivered the third Ruth Gay Seminar in Jewish Studies on July Salonika Project at YIVO; writer and translator Trudy Balch; and 12, 2009. Titled “Uncommon Voices, Everyday Lives: Jewish Ex­ YIVO staff who had worked on the project. Speaking to the assem­ periences in Salonika through the YIVO Archives,” the seminar bled guests, many of whom were descendants of the Greek Jewish was opened by YIVO Director Jonathan Brent, who noted that this community, Mohrer remarked that the project had been a labor was a historic moment and offered his warm greetings to the presi­ of love and that the dedicated project team, with Devin Naar at dent and vice president of the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, its head, had deciphered the interwar archival collection page by Greece, who were both in attendance. page, much of it written in the Ladino cursive handwriting called Chief Archivist Fruma Mohrer recognized the family of histo­ solitreo. This achievement, Mohrer noted, was all the more signifi­ rian Ruth Gay (1922–2006), noting that the seminar series is na­ cant in view of the destruction of Salonika’s Jewish community, 95 med in her honor thanks to a major gift from her family. ­Mohrer percent of whose members were deported to Auschwitz in 1944.

16 YIVO News As the Thessaloniki Jewish community’s representative, moder­ ator Isaac Benmayor accepted the newly microfilmed and digitized reproduction of the archival records; in the late 1990s, Benmayor had been the first scholar to work on the collection. Organized, microfilmed, and digitized under a grant from the Maurice Amado Foundation in Los Angeles and with the support of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., the ar­ chival collection at YIVO holds rare communal records, including birth registers and three volumes of the Jewish communal census established after the 1917 fire in Salonika. Benmayor, a Thessaloniki native who studied at the University of Thessaloniki, Oxford University, and the Hebrew University of The panelists at the seminar (l. to r.): Devin Naar, Steven Bowman, Jerusalem and who is working on the Greek edition of his book Isaac Benmayor Jewish Resistance in Wartime Greece, said that these documents represent a small remnant of a community that, after flourishing audience—Jane Gerber, CUNY Graduate Center; Marcia Haddad for 500 years, was utterly destroyed. No physical traces of the Ikonomopoulos, president of the Association of Friends of Greek community’s existence now remain in Thessaloniki; its more than Jewry; and Benmayor. The other members are Aron Rodrigue, 50 synagogues and several Jewish cemeteries are gone. But the Stanford University; Rena Molho, Panteion University, Athens; and archives, these intellectual remnants, are, in Benmayor’s words, “a ­David Bunis,­ Hebrew University of Jerusalem. very special gift to the community.” Devin Naar gave a richly illustrated pre­ Commenting on the experiences of those The Ruth Gay Seminar sentation based on the Salonika Archive. A who, like himself, were Jewish children in was established in honor of young scholar who has worked in Greece, postwar Greece, Benmayor noted, “We grew historian and scholar Ruth ­Israel, and the United States on his­tor­ical up in a vacuum and knew next to nothing of Gay (1922–2006) through a doc­uments relating to Salonika, Naar is the that illustrious community. Having this type major gift from her family. only person known to have read through the of material from which to draw part of our original handwritten and printed Ladino, history, part of our morals and customs, is very important.” He ex­ ­Hebrew, and Greek documents­ in the collection. pressed his hope that scholars would come to the Jewish Museum In his introduction, Naar spoke about the Einsatzstab Rosen­ that has been established in Thessaloniki to pursue their research berg, the Nazi unit that had pillaged documents and libraries in at the Jewish studies center there. Salonika. Noting that the “uprooting of Jewish books and libra­ In his remarks, Steven Bowman, chair of YIVO’s Academic Ad­ ries paralleled the liquidation of its inhabitants,” Naar referred to visory Committee for the Salonika Project, underscored the impor­ ­Joseph Nehama, historian, banker, and teacher in Salonika, who tance of the archive in the wake of the Nazis’ destruction of the wrote a memorial book in honor of the community in 1948 in which community: “Without documentary memory there is no history,” he bemoaned the “shroud of forgetfulness” that had enveloped the he said. “Folktales do not substitute for hard evidence.”’ Bowman, history of the 500-year-old community in the aftermath of World historian of Greek Jewry and professor of Judaic Studies at the Uni­ War II. Inspired by Nehama, Naar said, “If there are no records versity of Cincinnati and the author of The Agony of Greek Jewry, left, how can we ever know anything about Salonika’s past?” recalled his excitement upon first seeing the Salonika Archive at Naar recounted how he had discovered the collection at YIVO YIVO, the “most moving” of all the Salonika collections he has stud­ at the age of 19. He had wanted to find out more about his grand­ ied. Bowman recognized members of the advisory committee in the father and his family and their lives. Naar told the audience that the materials at YIVO, in contrast to official government docu­ ments, reflect everyday lives and voices. The fire of 1917, which left 50,000 Jews homeless, had destroyed all of the community’s ­Ottoman-era archives. After the fire, 24 census books were drawn up by the community. These books, which recorded the residences, occupations, and addresses of about 75,000 people, were updated throughout the interwar period. To Naar’s knowledge, only three volumes survived World War II; these books, corresponding to the letters nun (n), shin (sh), and kuf (k), are at YIVO. Naar demonstrated that the census volumes provide the possi­ bility of reconstructing a demographic profile of the community of Salonika. The records reflect a wide diversity of occupations: ferrymen, porters, fishermen, rabbis, sextons, doctors, lawyers, bu­ Devin Naar delivering his lecture sinessmen, tobacco workers, greengrocers, and ice cream vendors.

17 Spring 2010 In Memory Rubin Wagner YIVO lost a good friend when Rubin (Ruby) Wagner died in 2009 at the age of 89. He was the embodiment of the values he cherished, which he had learned as a young man in his hometown of Vilna. Born Ruvke Wajner (pronounced “Viner”), Ruby was the oldest son of Aron and Sore Chana, both of whom perished in the Holocaust, and brother of Mendel, who disappeared into the Ponary Forest. He and his late wife, Sima Benosher, married in 1940, when he was twenty years old. Ruby and Sima survived the ghetto and concentration camps, but their daughter Sheyna did not. After liberation in 1945, Ruby was reunited with Sima and they lived for a time in Heidenheim, Germany, where their fi rst son Aron (Harry) was born. In May 1949 they left for America, beginning life anew in a railroad fl at on Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn. Sima and Rubin Wagner The hard­working Ruby became a successful real estate developer and home builder, founding Ripley Associates and Forest Green. Ruby engaged in civic matters when he moved to Florida, always maintaining his Rubin and Sima Wagner’s Vilner love of yidishkayt, good deeds, and family. His sons Harry and Leon, his grand­ sons Leon and Harry will be children, and his many friends and associates remember his warm humor, his love of honored at the Heritage Dinner Judaism and Israel, and his lifelong concern for the welfare of others. As his New York Times obituary states, “Ruby deeply loved the country that gave to be held on April 26, 2010. him and his extended family the opportunity to rebuild their lives and fl ourish, after the Ruby and Sima, z”l, will be horrors they had survived.” Following in his footsteps, the Wagner family’s dedication to honored in memoriam. “klal Yisroel” is unparalleled. Rubin Wagner will be sorely missed.

First Phase of Ambitious Project to Digitize Hebrew Books Focuses on Early Rabbinic Texts in Strashun Collection A major digitization project focused on Hebrew books in the nition (OCR) technology that enables scholars to search for single YIVO Library began in August 2009 as part of a large and ambi­ words or names and to see how many times a name or word occurs tious effort by the Society for the Preservation of Hebrew Books in a text. Anyone with a computer—or a Kindle—can now down­ (www.hebrewbooks.org). The society, under the direction of Chaim load, read, and perform a sophisticated textual study of one of the Rosenberg, plans to digitize all rabbinic books, in all the Jewish scanned books without having to travel to the library. languages, that are no longer covered by copyright protection (that “It is hard to exaggerate the importance of this enterprise,” com­ is, books printed prior to 1923). mented Aviva Astrinsky, YIVO’s head librarian. “Throughout history, Here at YIVO, the fi rst phase of digitization has focused on books Hebrew books—meaning all books written in Hebrew characters, in the Strashun Collection that were printed before 1750, which are such as Yiddish, Ladino, and Judeo­Arabic—have suffered the same kept in the Rare Book Room. The books are being digitized in situ, vicissitudes and traumas as their Jewish owners. In various periods using the latest­model Zeutschel black­and­white scanner. By early they were subject to taxation, confi scation, censorship, and numerous December the scanning of approximately 500 books had been com­ burnings, by the Inquisition as well as by the Nazis and others.” pleted. Since January 2010, these books have gradually been made It is for this reason that early Hebrew books and manuscripts available on line, at www.yivolibrarybooks.org. The project will are especially scarce. Many books from the 15th and 16th cent uries continue until all of YIVO’s rabbinic works are scanned, without survive in only one or two copies. These books, called unicum, are duplicating previously scanned books from other libraries. dispersed among libraries in Europe, the United States, and Israel. Funded by private donors, the Society for the Preservation of In addition, many books that were printed just before the outbreak Hebrew Books initiated the project with the scanning of about of World War II almost entirely disappeared. The YIVO Library 30,000 books in the Chabad Library in Brooklyn. YIVO is the second has in its collection several unique copies of such works that sur­ library whose works are being scanned, and plans are being made to vived the Holocaust. By digitizing the written legacy of the Jewish include other Jewish libraries with large Hebraica collections. people and making it available on line, free of charge, the Society In addition to the sheer number of scanned books, the project for the Preservation of Hebrew Books is preserving and dissem­ is notable for its pioneering use of a new optical character recog­ inating the legacy of Jewish civilization.

18 YIVO News Groshn-bibliotek Reveals Literary Taste Of Polish Jewry during Interwar Period by Lyudmila Sholokhova In the course of the ongoing computerization of the YIVO library’s card catalog, I came across a collection of small, yellowing paper­ back booklets called Groshn-bibliotek (Penny Library). The series includes 275 pamphlets published in Yiddish in Warsaw during the years 1930–1936. Most of the pamphlets contain short biographies of Jewish and non- Jewish personalities. There are also accounts of major events in world history, with special attention to famous Jewish individuals, and stories about the recent Russian Revolution and its protagonists. Moyshe Finkelstein, the son of Noah Finkelstein, who was the founding editor of the popular Yiddish newspaper Haynt, began the series with Alexander Grinberg. The younger Finkelstein and Grinberg were Bundists on a mission to educate the A biography of Leo Tolstoy Dershon bam antleyfn (Shot while Fleeing), by V. Shenshtedt Yiddish reading masses about Jewish and world history. Most secular Jews in pre– Baruch Spinoza, Theodor Herzl, Sigmund pseudo­nyms, a person who just might be World War II Poland did not have a formal Freud, Albert Einstein, and Karl Marx. Non- a portatsh (bungler). Indeed, the main con­ high school education, but many were self- Jews ran the gamut from Bogdan Khmel­ tributor to the series was Yakov-Kopl Dua educated through avid reading. nitsky, the Ukranian Cossack rebel leader (1898–1942), a talented writer with wide- Groshn-bibliotek began as a biweekly whose forces massacred thousands of Jews ranging knowledge.­ A tragic but fascina­ publication but soon became a weekly, in 1648, to Tsar Peter I (The Great), Józef ting person­ality, he also was a dedicated with a standard format of 64 pages per Piłsudski, Abraham Lincoln, and Mohandas Yiddishist. Born into a very poor family, issue and costing 30 groschen each. In a Gandi. I found separate issues about major Dua managed to get an elementary Jewish short critical review of the first 40 issues historical topics (for example, the history of and general education but never finished that appeared in the April 24, 1931, issue China, the Habsburg monarchy, revolution­ his formal studies­ because he had to leave of Vokhnshrift (Weekly Magazine), Yoshue aries in England, and German National So­ school after sixth grade when World War I Rapoport wrote, “This is a first successful cialism), about places (Birobidzhan), and broke out. Though Dua was paralyzed at a attempt to make a Yiddish book less expen­ about events including the Treaty of Ver­ young age, his poor health did not prevent sive, to break through an endless circle of sailles, the 1896 Battle of Adwa (in which him from being active in Polish literary and high price—small sale; small sale—high Ethiopia defeated Italian colonial forces), the leftist political circles. He wrote frequently price.” Rapoport notes that although the 1905 Russo-Japanese War, pogroms in the for major Yiddish newspapers, but Groshn- first five issues of the series were not im­ Russian Empire, and the Paris Commune. bibliotek appears to be his most important pressive, with pale print and a cheap look, Many of the writers of the series were contribution to Yiddish literature: he was the content and general design began to im­ well-known journalists and historians with the author of no less than 170 issues. Dur­ prove starting with issue no. 6. The review serious intellectual interests and a broad out­ ing World War II, Dua was confined in the concludes with Rapoport stating, “Should look. Among them were Nakhmen Maizel, Warsaw ghetto, but despite this he contin­ Groshn-bibliotek continue to strengthen ad­ Osher Perelman, Samuel Wulman, Shrage ued to write until he was shot by a Nazi offi­ vantages and eliminate failures, it will defi­ ­Shnitser, and Shmuel Bergman. Authors cer in September 1942. nitely become an important cultural agent whose works appeared in translation includ­ Groshn-bibliotek fulfilled its mission by on our book market.” ed Ilya Ehrenburg, Mikhail Zoshchenko, and becoming a popular source of educational Groshn-bibliotek devoted pamphlets to Guy de Maupassant. reading material for Jewish working people both Jewish and non-Jewish historical fig­ In his 1931 review, Rapoport expressed in the interwar period. The pamphlets are ures. Famous Jewish persons covered ­include concern that the series was written by one well written and offer a window on the liter­ Josephus Flavius (Yosef Ben Matityahu), anonymous person hiding behind various ary tastes of prewar Polish Jewry.

19 Spring 2010 YIVO Plans New Edition of College Yiddish Answer Key to Current Edition Goes On Line

YIVO is happy to announce that Yale University will include audiovisual materials in either a Press has agreed to publish a new, completely re­ Web­based or DVD format. vised edition of College Yiddish, its world­renow­ Relatedly, YIVO recently published an onli­ ned elementary Yiddish­language textbook. ne answer key to the current edition of College Initially published in 1949 and written by Yiddish. The key is now available as a pdf on the Uriel Weinreich, College Yiddish was the fi rst YIVO website at yivo.org/publications, under book in English for formal, college­level study “Online Publications.” The answers were pre­ of Yiddish. Although it remains the most com­ pared based on the second printing of the sixth monly used Yiddish textbook in U.S. college revised edition of the book, published in 2006, courses, it is in need of major revision. by Naomi Prawer­Kadar and Bina Weinreich; at After conducting a survey of the most an earlier stage, Sonia Pinkusowicz­Dratwa and prom inent Yiddish teachers in the United Chava Lapin also participated in the work. The States and around the world, YIVO has identi­ manuscript was typed by Shaindel Fogelman, fi ed what today’s instructors and students edited by Gosia Zaremba, and reviewed by Paul want and need. These elements include a more Glasser. YIVO’s thanks also go to the students modern, communicative method of language and teachers who pointed out the need for an teaching; completely updated reading texts; expanded gramma­ answer key; we hope that it will prove useful both to teachers tical explanations; and a somewhat less formal approach, more and their classes and to students learning Yiddish on their own. compatible with the demands of present­day university students. If the user fi nds errors or has questions, please contact the Wein­ Publication is slated for the summer of 2013. The new edition reich Center’s Paul Glasser ([email protected]).

YIVO Publishes Online Gazetteer of Yiddish Place-Names Yiddishland: Countries, Cities, Towns, Rivers is the newest publi­ too often, people either don’t know or pretend not to know cation of YIVO’s Online Reference Library. This is the fi rst attempt that these places have their own Yiddish names, and refer to collect and publish all Yiddish place­names of Central and Eas­ to them by their offi cial names. tern Europe in one source. The listings also include the offi cial It’s strange: one rarely fi nds such disdain for one’s own names of each town by time period. The bulk of the material is language in general and for one’s own place­names in par­ drawn from the card fi les of the late Mordkhe Schaechter. ticular. Foreign cities that have English names are always The project defi nesYiddishland to include present­day Austria, called by their English names, not with their offi cial na­ Belarus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, mes: Cologne, Munich, Vienna, Naples (not Köln, Mün­ Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine, as well as the chen, Wien, Napoli). Why is that? Don’t English speakers European regions of Russia. The Yiddish names refl ect the pro­ know the “correct” names? Of course, but they use the nunciation of the natives of the respective location rather than the correct names in their language. spellings that are most widespread in published sources. To orient What is the Yiddish name of a place? The name used the reader to the approach of this work, the introduction inclu­ in normal speech by the Yiddish speakers native to the des excerpts in English translation from a chapter of Schaechter’s place. Laytish mame-loshn ( Authentic Yiddish, 1986) on Yiddish geogra­ As to the question of how and why Yiddish place­names came phical names: into being, Edward Stankiewicz has written, “If the Yiddish place­ The capital of Poland will always be known in Yiddish not names are in the end result so different from their Slavic equiva­ as “Warszawa” or as “Warschau,” but as Varshe. And the lents, it is because, strictly speaking, they were not borrowed but “Jerusalem of Lithuania” can be part of Russia, Lithuania adopted, reinterpreted and fused with the other components of or Poland, but we will never call it by its Lithuanian name, Yiddish.” Perhaps the best example is Zhetl (in western Belarus), “Vilnius,” or by its Russian or Polish names, but only by which appears to be a compromise between Polish (Zdzie˛cioł ) and its Yiddish name, Vilne. Likewise Kroke, Ger, Brisk, Brod, Belarusian (Dyatlava). etc., are, as far as we can tell, the undisputed Yiddish na­ Yiddishland is available under “Online Publications” at yivo. mes of the respective towns. org/publications. To date, the sections on Lithuania and Poland Unfortunately, some cities and towns, especially sma­ have been completed and posted to the site. Plans call for Belarus ller or lesser­known ones, have suffered a worse fate. All and Romania to follow by June 2010.

20 YIVO News Coming Up YIVO Conference to Celebrate Simon Dubnow On October 24, 2010, YIVO will hold a daylong con­ Theological Seminary, Jack Jacobs of the City ference to commemorate the 150th anniversary of University of New York, Gershon Hundert of the birth of the great Jewish historian and YIVO McGill University, Cecile Kuznitz of Bard Col­ founding spirit Simon Dubnow (1860–1941). lege, Benjamin Nathans of the University of Noted Dubnow expert Robert Seltzer of Hun­ Pennsylvania, Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern of ter College is serving as academic adviser to the Northwestern University, and Antony Polonsky conference. Among the other scholars who have of Brandeis University. agreed to participate are Elissa Bemporad of Further details will be announced in the coming Simon Dubnow, Odessa, 1913 Queens College, David Fishman of the Jewish months.

YIVO Faculty and Graduate Student Fellowships Max Weinreich Center Announces Recipients For Current and Upcoming Academic Years The Max Weinreich Center is pleased to announce its fellows for 2009–2010 (listed first under each award) and 2010–2011 (listed second). Audio recordings of the fellows’ lectures are available in the Program Archives section of the YIVO website (www.yivo.org).

Dina Abramowicz Emerging Scholar Fellowship Daniel Heller, Doctoral Candidate in History, Natalie and Mendel Racolin Memorial Fellowship Rebekka Voss, Harry Starr Fellow in Judaica, Stanford University, “The Betar Movement in Raz Segal, Doctoral Candidate in Holocaust Harvard University, “Di royte yidlekh: From Poland” Studies, Clark University, “‘Ethnic Cleansing’ Heroic Muscle Jews to Little Redheads” and Genocide in Subcarpathian Rus’: The Vivian Lefsky Hort Memorial Fellowship Aleksander Senderovich, Doctoral Candidate Destruction of Jewish Life in a Multiethnic Riki Ophir, Doctoral Candidate in Jewish Studies, in Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard Region during World War II” University of California, Berkeley, “Fun mayn University, “The Red Promised Land: Atlas of Joshua Karlip, Assistant Professor of Jewish Soviet Jewish Culture, 1917–1937” royzeles togbukh: Moyshe-Leyb Halpern’s History, Yeshiva University, “Under the Committed Love Poems” Hammer of History: Diaspora Nationalism and Bernard Choseed Memorial Fellowship Eitan Kensky, Doctoral Candidate in Jewish Yiddishism between Hope and Despair” Natan Meir, Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies, Portland [Oregon] State University, “Marginal Studies, Harvard University, “Abraham Cahan, Maria Salit-Gitelson Tell Memorial Fellowship and Marginalized: Tales of the Destitute, Joseph Opatoshu, and the Multiples of Jewish Darius Staliu¯nas, Deputy Director, Lithuanian Orphaned, and Disabled in Jewish Eastern Realism” Institute of History, “A Lesser Evil: Jewish- Europe” Lithuanian Political Cooperation at the Joseph Kremen Memorial Fellowship Beginning of the 20th Century” Joanna Nalewajko-Kulikov, Polish Academy Zehavit Stern, Doctoral Candidate in Jewish of Sciences, Warsaw, “Haynt: The Voice of Maria Ciesla, Doctoral Candidate in History, Polish Studies, University of California, Berkeley, Eastern European Jewry, 1908–1939” Academy of Sciences, “The Jews in the Grand “From Jester to Gesture: Modernist Duchy of Lithuania, 1632–1764: Demography, Rose and Isidore Drench Memorial Fellowship Appropriation of Folk Performance in the Legal Position, and Professional Structure” Keith (Kalman) Weiser, Associate Professor Work of Itzik Manger and Moyshe Broderzon” of Modern Jewish Studies, York University, Dora and Mayer Tendler Fellowship Alyssa Quint, Lecturer in Yiddish Studies, Toronto, “Coming to America? Max Weinreich Agnieszka Oleszak, Doctoral Candidate in Hebrew Columbia University, “Shulamis, Daughter of and the Making of the YIVO in New York, and Jewish Studies, University College London, 1939–1941” Israel” “Establishing Beys Ya’akov: Legitimizing Girls’ Religious Education” Shira Kohn, Doctoral Candidate in Hebrew Abraham and Rachela Melezin Fellowship Anna Rutkowski, Doctoral Candidate in History, and Judaic Studies and in History, New York Evita Wiecki, Doctoral Candidate in Yiddish, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, “Early Modern University, “A Gentlewoman’s Agreement: University of Düsseldorf, “The History of the Jewish Historical Writing in Yiddish as Reflected Jewish Sororities in Postwar America, Yiddish Schoolbook: An Insight into the Secular 1947–1968” in Jewish Collective Memory before the Education of Ashkenazi Jewry” Haskalah, 1500–1800” Vladimir and Pearl Heifetz Memorial Fellowship Jordana de Bloeme, Doctoral Candidate in Jewish 2009–2010: No award Samuel and Flora Weiss Research Fellowship Studies, York University, Toronto, “Yiddishist Hannah Kliger, Professor of Communication Shayn Smulyan, Doctoral Candidate in Youth and the Generational Divide” and Jewish Studies, The Pennsylvania Ethnolomusicology, Brown University, State University, The Abington College, “Communicative Techniques of Yiddish Singers Workmen’s Circle/Emanuel Patt Visiting ­Professorship “Lessons and Legacies in Holocaust Survivor Joanna Lisek, Lecturer in Jewish Studies, and Multilingual Performances of Yiddish Families: Innovations in the Investigation of University of Wrocław, “Feminist Discourse in Song” Intergenerational Responses” Women’s Yiddish Press” Aleksander and Alicja Hertz Memorial Fellowship Svenja Bethke, Doctoral Candidate in Eastern Alicja Kusiak-Brownstein, Doctoral Candidate Glenn Dynner, Associate Professor of Religion, European History, Hamburg University, in History, University of Michigan, “Jewish Sarah Lawrence College, “Working Hasidim in “Criminality in the Jewish Ghetto in Eastern Polishness at the Turn of the Century” the Nineteenth-Century Kingdom of Poland” Europe in World War II”

21 Spring 2010 Memorial Event Marks Passing Of Yiddish Poet Avrom Sutzkever The renowned Yiddish poet Avrom Sutzkever died in Tel Aviv on January 20, 2010, at the age of 96. A month later, on February 22, YIVO held an event in Sutzkever’s memory, cosponsored by the Workmen’s Circle, the Forward, the Congress for Jewish Culture, the Central Yiddish Cultural Organization (CYCO), and the League for Yiddish. For the occasion, YIVO Curator Krysia Fisher prepared a fascinating exhibit of the Sutzkever’s books and manuscripts from YIVO’s archival and library collections. A survivor of the Vilna Ghetto, Sutzkever was known for his Holocaust poetry, written both during the war and years later, as well as for his poems about nature. The literary scholar Dan Miron has called him a “nightingale,” saying that no matter how terrible the subject of a poem might have Self-portrait been, Sutzkever could only “sing sweetly.” by Sutzkever, Sutzkever was born in Smargon, near Vilna, on featured in his Lider fun July 15, 1913. He spent most of World War I in Sibe­ togbukh (Poems ria, about which he later wrote poetry, and then set­ from My Diary, tled in Vilna with his family after the war. He came of 1977) age poetically in the early 1930s, when he became the youngest member of the literary group Yung­Vilne (Young Vilna). What was a relatively normal life came to an end with the German inva­ sion and occupation of Vilna in June 1941. In the wartime ghetto, Sutzkever was Yiddish Poet drafted by the Nazis to work on a team sort­ A fi ne Yiddish poet ing books plundered from Jewish libraries, with a unique style including YIVO’s. The most valuable of the suddenly appeared to me in the most godly incarnation. Avrom Sutzkever, Amsterdam, 1947 books were to be shipped to an institute in Germany devoted to “Jewish studies without I’ve already written my epitaph, thank God, Jews”; the rest were supposed to be destroyed. The members of this team, nick­ here, in fact, in Tel­Aviv. named the “Paper Brigade,” risked their lives by removing rare books from the And after a hundred years selection and burying them. After the war, Sutzkever and others returned to Vilna I want them to carve it patiently to dig up their cache and send much of it to YIVO in New York. on my tombstone. Sutzkever survived the liquidation of the ghetto by fl eeing to the forests near But a notary says to me: the city, where he joined the partisans. In 1946, he testifi ed at the Nuremberg No! trials; shortly afterward, he immigrated to Israel. In 1949 Sutzkever founded the If you want to die peacefully, literary quarterly Di goldene keyt, the most important Yiddish publication in the not nervously, postwar period, and he continued to serve as its editor in chief until it ceased you must play your Stradivarius publication in 1995. in Hebrew. Sutzkever is best known for his Holocaust poetry. One of his most famous Help! works is “A Wagon of Shoes,” in which the poet sees shoes passing by and won­ But I’ll curse my life when I am dead! ders why there are no feet in them. A Jew will come from America At YIVO’s memorial event in February, David Fishman of the Jewish Theolo­ and he’ll lay fl owers gical Seminary spoke fi rst, recounting Sutzkever’s role in saving YIVO books and on someone else’s grave; documents in the Vilna ghetto. Benjamin Harshav of Yale University spoke about to me he will not come. Sutzkever’s poetry. He was then joined by his wife, Barbara, and Barnett Zumoff, Give me some advice—my head is splitting. both of whom are noted Sutzkever translators, along with Yiddish performer and director Hy Wolfe, to recite examples of Sutzkever’s poems in Yiddish and English. And I answered him clearly: Audio and video recordings of Sutzkever reading his own work were also played. It’s long past time for you to remember Avrom Sutzkever (1913–2010): A Memorial Exhibit remains open to the pub­ that a Yiddish poet must not die. lic in the mezzanine gallery at the Center for Jewish History. A 1960 recording of Sutzkever reading his poems remains available from Folkways Records and is down­ (1958; translated by Barnett Zumoff) loadable from iTunes.

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