In the first decades of the twentieth century, comprehensive encyclopedias written for Jewish audiences appeared in a variety of languages, including Hebrew, English, Rus- sian, and German. My research examines the first and only attempt to generate such a project in , Di algemeyne entsiklopedye [The General Encyclopedia] (, Paris, and The Yiddish New York, 1932-1966), which, at its outset, was Encyclopedia Project concerned with providing readers with the latest discoveries from the social and hard sci- and ences. Conceived in Berlin in 1930 to celebrate the seventieth birthday of the Russian-Jewish historian Simon Dubnow, the first six volumes Barry Trachtenberg were published in Paris and the final six in New York City. Di algemeyne entsiklopedye was intend- ed to foster the inclusion of in Western society, yet its three phases (1930-33, 1933-40, 1940-66) were governed by the Jews’ margin- alization and elimination from European life. The original vision of providing universal, objective knowledge in the name of cultivat- ing a broadly educated and informed Yiddish- speaking populace gave way to the distinctly particularistic tasks of memorializing and commemorating the readership that it hoped to assist. Rather than cease publication once it became clear that the original mission could no longer be fulfilled without a mass audience of Yiddish-speaking Jews to educate, the Entsik- lopedye re-focused its efforts on describing the world that had been destroyed, the destruction process itself, and the potential of continuing Jewish life in new centers. The chief editor of Di algemeyne en- tsiklopedye was the Menshevik leader Raphael Abramovitch (1880–1963). Along with his politi- cal work, Abramovitch was a correspondent for the New York Yiddish press and the editor of the Russian-language Socialist Courier. Di algemeyne entsiklopedye was dominated by a

38 generation of scholars who, like Abramovitch, Eastern European Jewish intellectuals, such as had come of age with the failed 1905 Russian the Yiddish Scientific Institute’s (YIVO) Max Revolution. For several of them, the encyclo- Weinreich, the demographer Jacob Lestschin- pedia was among the final scholarly efforts of sky, and even Simon Dubnow himself. Despite their careers. In many respects, Di algemeyne its concern with general knowledge, the vol- entsiklopedye was to serve as a monument to ume was targeted towards a specifically Jewish his generation’s success at creating a Yiddish audience in ways other than linguistic. Read- language and culture sophisticated enough to ers were supplied with descriptions of Jewish convey knowledge of the entire world. personalities and institutions and important In what was likely one of the last moments in Jewish . The release of the expressions of Jewish optimism over the future first volume met with great fanfare in the Yid- of European Jewry, the editors proposed a dish press, which hailed it as a cultural mile- wide range of practical and pedagogical uses stone for the Jewish people. However, because for their new publication. Envisioning their of funding problems, subsequent volumes, audience as industrious Jews who desired to which followed the same format as the first learn about and participate in the political, volume, were published at a rate of only one social, and cultural debates of the time, they per year for the years 1935-1937. announced a ten-volume scientific encyclo- The German invasion of Poland in pedia that would provide practical answers to 1939 not only prompted the editors to re- the everyday questions faced by the modern lease the long-promised Yidn section ahead Yiddish-speaker, plus an additional volume, of schedule but to expand it to two volumes Yidn, which was also to be sent to subscribers. (published in 1939 and 1940). Just as the sec- Soon after the release of a sample edi- ond Yidn volume was being sent to subscrib- tion in 1932, however, the project confronted a ers, however, Germany invaded France and series of difficulties. Most challenging was the forced the Entsiklopedye’s editors to flee once Nazi takeover in January 1933, which caused again, this time to the United States. With the editors, contributors, and funders to flee European Jewry in jeopardy and much of the just as the first volume was getting underway. Entsiklopedye’s readership now under German In Paris, where they regrouped, they reorga- or Soviet occupation, its mission again had nized the project. Departing from the origi- to be refocused. Once imagined by its editors nal plan of releasing ten volumes of general as a resource that would “serve practical and information, the committee decided to issue scientific ends,” the project now set its goal as twenty smaller ones in the hope of keeping the creating a “literary monument of the material cost more manageable. At the projected rate of and spiritual development of the Jewish folk.” three volumes a year, the series was due to be From their new base in America, the editors completed in the spring of 1941. hoped to preserve the past in preparation for The first volume, with 1100 entries, postwar Jewish life. begins with the Hebrew letter alef and ends At the end of the war, as the enormity with Atlantic City. In between was a rich as- of the Nazi Holocaust became known, the sortment of entries as well as full-color maps, editors decided to continue with the project, black and white photographs, sketches, graphs, albeit now for a radically smaller readership, tables, and biographies of famous figures. Con- located almost exclusively in the Americas. tributors included many of the most important Its task now would be to write the history of

39 the world that had recently been destroyed. As they wrote, “it is worthwhile to continue spinning the historical threads, so that the new age should benefit from the experience of the previous era, and it is necessary first of all for everyone to know what the past created and which elements of it can be worthwhile building-stones for the future.” Six more volumes of the Entsiklopedye appeared sporadically (for a total of twelve), along with a four-volume English-language version, Jewish People Past and Present. They contained descriptive essays on Jewish life on the eve of the Holocaust and a study of Jewish life in the Americas. The last two volumes (1964 and 1966) were historical overviews of the Holocaust. Di algemeyne entsiklopedye was con- ceived at a time of great hope and optimism for the future of Yiddish-speaking Jewry. With a potential readership in the millions, it was to have been an instrument to educate and uplift the Jewish masses of Eastern Europe. One of the many consequences of the Holocaust was the nearly total destruction of this vision, as persecution and then annihilation overtook the Entsiklopedye, destroying both its readers and the world in which they hoped to par- ticipate. At one time filled with aspirations of participating in a universal culture, it could do little more than turn the tools of scholarship on itself and archive its own demise.

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