yi v o · pdf filen e w s claims conference ... holocaust-era looted assets held october 3-5,...

The Conference on Jewish Material ClaimsAgainst Germany has approved an allocation

of $250,000 toward the cost of research for TheYIVO Encyclopedia of the History and Culture of Jews

in Eastern Europe. Conceptualized by Dr. GershonHundert, Montreal Community Professor ofJewish Studies at McGill University, this two-volume work is to be the definitive documentationof the history and culture of East European Jewrybefore, during and after the Holocaust.

"I want to thank the Claims Conference for thisgrant," Executive Director Dr. Carl Rheins, noted."Their support of The YIVO Encyclopedia is atremendous step forward for the project. We areproud to have them as partners in the hard workahead. The time is right to collect the fruits of thisnew era into a comprehensive information sourceto be used by both academics and the lay public."

YIVO's first exhibition at itsnew home —“YIVO at 75:

Milestones and Treasures”—opened in October at the Center for Jewish History. The exhi-bition celebrates the breadth ofYIVO’s history. It also chroniclesthe role YIVO played in Jewishscholarship and communal lifein Europe and the United States.

“This is our inaugural exhi-bition and I want everyone tocome and see these treasuresfrom the YIVO Library and

Archives,” Board ChairmanBruce Slovin commented. “Inthis show there are manyamazing items — originalmanuscripts by the Yiddishwriters Isaac Bashevis Singerand Sholem Aleichem; a letterfrom Leo Frank to AbrahamCahan of the Forward, written in 1914 from a jail cell in Georgiabefore he was lynched by a mob; and an illustrated ketubah(marriage contract) fromSingapore, from 1889.”

Curated byYIVO archivistFruma Mohrerand designedby Paul Hunterof Artel Exhibi-tions, the showtraces YIVO’shistory from itsfounding inVilna, Lithua-nia in 1925,through theHolocaust andthe post-1940

period in the United States. Thestory of Eastern EuropeanYiddish language, literature andculture is told as an integral partof YIVO’s story.

“Visitors will see original itemsthat should not be missed!”Mohrer noted. “Included are an1848 copy of the Tsena U’rena(Yiddish Biblical commentaryand stories, primarily used bywomen), Lemberg, Latvia; ahandmade Hanukkah menorahfrom Poland, 1872; and a 1929letter from Albert Einstein tohistorian Simon Dubnow,indicating his support for thefledgling YIVO Institute.”

The exhibition catalog, editedby Fruma Mohrer and RobertaNewman (English), and Dr.Hershl Glasser and DavidRogow (Yiddish), is availablefrom the bookstore of the Centerfor Jewish History. “YIVO at 75:Milestones and Treasures” runsuntil April 27, 2001, Mondaythrough Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

No. 191Winter

2000-2001

YIVO Institutef o r

J e w i s hR e s e a rc h

Chairman’s Message . . . .2 YIVO’s Stolen Art . . . . . . .3Retirement Planning . . . .4Academic Advisory

Council . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5Autobiographies Project .6Leadership Forum . . . . . .7Zamler Project . . . . . . . .10Project Judaica . . . . . . .10

Summer Program . . . . . .12Lecture Series . . . . . . . .14YIVO Events Schedule . .16Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18Preservation Efforts . . . .20Music Archive . . . . . . . .21New Accessions . . . . . .22YIVO Donors . . . . . . . . . .26Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

[continued on page 5]

Visitors to YIVO’sinaugural exhibit.

Hold theD a t e

Yivo’s AnnualBenefit Dinner

TuesdayApril 17, 2001

Pierre HotelNew York City

Exhibit Opens

“YIVO at 75: Milestones and Treasures”

YI V OYI V ON E W S

Claims Conference Awards $250,000 for YIVO Encyclopedia

For YIVO ’s Spring Public Programs Schedule, See Pages 16-17

CONTENTS:

This has been a busy year at YIVO. We areproud to welcome Charles J. Rose to the YIVO

Board. He is a General Partner of Bentley CapitalManagement, Inc., an investment management

firm, and a Yiddish enthusiast who also has joinedthe YIVO Leadership Forum committee. We areproud to have his experience and enthusiasm.

Congratulations are in order for Dr. ArnoldRichards, our devoted YIVO Board member and former Chair, on his receiving the Mary S.Sigourney Award in December in recognition ofhis distinguished contributions to the field ofpsychoanalysis. Mazel tov also to YIVO Boardmember Dorothy Payson and her husband Martin on their 40th wedding anniversary. Each is a good friend to YIVO and to the Jewish com-munity, and we are grateful to have them with us.

Let me also say that I am pleased to have Dr.Adina Cimet on board to begin work on theEducational Program on Yiddish Culture (EPYC),a pre-college curriculum that the LeadershipForum committee has initiated and championed.Thanks to the committee members for their hardwork and enthusiastic farsightedness. The Leader-ship Forum is holding its first event, “Find YourHeritage at YIVO” on January 18, 2001 (see p. 5).

Outreach has been the focus of this importantyear — with the new Cultural Events Series andrenowned lecturers such as Deborah Lipstadt andYehuda Bauer, the film premieres, the musicalprograms, and our inaugural “YIVO at 75:Milestones and Treasures” exhibition in the Centerfor Jewish History. As an organization, at 75 yearsold YIVO is vigorous and looking forward.

YIVO is a living and vital entity. Please join us. Our Jewish tradition of involvement beginswith you.

2

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

A founding partner of the Center for Jewish History,YIVO holds the following constituent memberships: • American Historical Association • Associationfor Jewish Studies • Association of Jewish Libraries • Council of Archives and Research Libraries inJewish Studies • Research Library Group (RLG) • Society of American Archivists and • WorldCongress of Jewish Studies.

Chairman of the Board: Bruce Slovin

Executive Director: Carl J. Rheins

Director of Development and External Affairs: Ella Levine

Director of Finance and Administration:Andrew J. Demers

Chief Archivist: Marek Web

Head Librarian: Aviva Astrinsky

Head of Preservation: Stanley Bergman

Editor: Elise Fischer

Yiddish Editor: Hershl Glasser

Production Editor: Jerry Cheslow

ContributorsErica Blankstein, Nikolai Borodulin, Krysia Fi s h e r,Shaindel Fogelman, Marilyn Goldfried, Leo Gre e n b a u m ,Yeshaya Metal, Esther Mishkin, Chana Mlotek, FrumaMohrer, Roberta Newman, Cori Robinson, David Rogow,Yankl Salant, Daniel Soyer, Yermiyahu Ahron Taub, StevenWander

15 West 16th StreetNew York, NY 10011-6301

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

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

Message from the Chairman of the Board

A Busy Year at YIVO

Bruce Slovin

YIVO News Winter 2000-2001

“At 75 years old YIVO is vigorousand looking forward.”

YIVO Board member Dr. Arnold Richards speaking afterreceiving the Mary S. Sigourney Award in recognition of hisdistinguished contributions to the field of psychoanalysis.

In the recent Swiss Banking Settlement, SpecialMaster Judah Gribetz’s plan to distribute

$1.25 billion in payments from Swiss banks andcorporations is a significant step for thousands ofindividual Holocaust survivors who have foughtfor decades to recover their pre-war savings. TheGribetz distribution plan accepted by FederalJudge Edward Korman onNovember 22, 2000, alsohas significance for YIVO.

Between 1935 and 1938,the Institute developed animpressive art collectionin Vilna under the direc-tion of Dr. Otto Schneid. It contained more than 100 original artworks bysuch artists as Marc Chagall, Mane Katz, I.Ryback, Mark Antokolski, Yankl Adler, MaurycyGottleib, B. Kratko, and Chaim Nisn Tyber. Thisart collection and the works in it together reflectedthe Jewish community’s support for YIVO’smuseum. Each work in the collection was eitherdonated by the artist (Chagall, Katz, Cuckierman),by a distinguished citizen (Dr. T. Symchowicz,Sofia and Joseph Weitzman, Mieczyslaw Zagajski),or a community group active in supporting YIVO(YIVO Friends from Lodz, Ida Kaminska 20thAnniversary Committee).

The collection itself was a valuable assemblageof work by contemporary artists, but it alsoincorporated religious art and Jewish ritualobjects. Taken altogether, the YIVO art museumcollection was a snapshot of the nature and vitalityof the living YIVO community, one interested inpreserving and studying all aspects of Jewish lifeand culture — political movements, personalhistories, rabbinical activities, communityinstitutions, creative writings and artistic output.

As in the case of important Jewish art collectionsconfiscated by the Nazis in Paris and Amsterdam,YIVO’s collection was seized by the Einsatzstab desReichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg and appears to havebeen shipped to Germany. Similarly the proc e e d sf rom the sale of these works are likely to havepassed through Swiss banks. Certainly none ofthese artworks was returned to YIVO after the war.

Coupled with the looting of thousands of rarebooks from YIVO’s pre-war library, these lossesform the basis of YIVO’s claim in the SwissBanking Case. Gribetz recognized the merits ofsuch institutional claims. In his plan, Gribetzrecommended to the Federal Court that it may bepossible to allocate a portion of the remaining

Settlement Fund, after payments are made tosurviving Nazi victims, to some of the educa-tional projects that have been submitted to theSpecial Master.

YIVO's interest in seeking restitution also led me and Professor David Fishman to accept aninvitation from Walter Schwimmer, Secretary

General of the Council of Europe, and AndriusKubilius, Prime Ministerof the Republic ofLithuania, to go as anofficial delegation to theInternational Forum onHolocaust-Era LootedAssets held October 3-5, 2000, in Vilna. The

Forum was attended by 37 countries and by 17non-governmental organizations.

The meeting was convened 1) To provide aforum to discuss the possibility of compiling aninventory of looted cultural assets, including thoserestored to their rightful owners; and 2) Toestablish international legislative guidelines forthe implementation of such a process.

During the Forum, YIVO met with U.S. DeputySecretary of Treasury Stuart Eizenstat, head of theAmerican delegation, and with Monica Dugot,Deputy Director of the Holocaust ClaimsProcessing Office (Art Claims) of the New YorkState Banking Department, to present YIVO’scultural properties restitution claims.

Although no solid evidence on the whereaboutsof YIVO’s stolen art collection has appeared, tworesolutions adopted at the Vilna Forum providesome hope for the future restitution of thecollection. First, the 37 signatories to the VilnaDeclaration have asked all “governments,museums, the art trade and other relevantagencies to provide all information necessary” forthe restitution of cultural assets looted during theHolocaust. These entities are asked to post suchinformation on accessible web sites, and tocooperate in the creation of a centralized web sitein Strasbourg, France, in association with theCouncil of Europe.

Second, they also agreed to recognize theprinciple of “previous Jewish ownership of suchcultural assets,” and pledged to achieve a justsolution for the restitution of properties.Reclamation of an important part of our Yiddishcultural heritage seems closer and more possiblenow that this new legal groundwork has beenestablished.

Message from the Executive Dire c t o r

Recovering YIVO’s Stolen Art Collection

3

Dr. Carl J. Rheins

“Reclamation of an importantpart of our Yiddish culturalheritage seems closer nowthat this new legal groundworkhas been established.”

As I was looking through my family photo albums,

I found a picture, taken inJerusalem: I was passing theshamash to my four-year-olddaughter, who was lighting thesixth Hanukkah candle. It mademe think of the passing of thetorch, how its light shines on ourpeople and our children, and

how strong the need is to continue this process.Exploring, preserving, teaching and spreading

awareness of Jewish life in pre-war EasternEurope — this is so vitally important not only forour children, but for all the generations that fol-low. Consequently, it is with great hope that webegin YIVO’s new EPYC program on Yiddishculture in Eastern Europe. We will create a link,bringing the rich Jewish culture and history of Eastern Europe — in the full complexity of thatlife and times — to today’s generations and tothose in the future.

Our future is based on both the past and thepresent. To know your heritage is to be in contactwith both your family’s and your community’shistory. A community’s history grounds each of itsmembers, by forming a common base ofunderstanding.

Whether we come from Poland, Lithuania,Russia, Hungary, Romania or elsewhere, our tra-ditions define us and also link us with peopleacross the world.

Sharing this knowledge, linking with those whomight not have had the opportunity to learn abouttheir heritage, will not only change them, but willalso broaden our community. In effect, it willpreserve our future. At YIVO we strive to help youand the Jewish community to honor the wisdomof traditions and to share them with others.

I look at the photo of my child lighting the sixthcandle and I know this work is a key to ourpermanence, toward our future — one full of life,remembrance, and continuity.

Development and External Aff a i r s

Passing the Torch by Ella Levine, Director of Development and External Affairs


by Neal P. Myerberg, Vice President,Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.

United States tax laws encou-rage charitable giving as a

way of accomplishing valuableestate and financial planningwhile providing for charity in-stead of paying significant taxes.This concept is called PlannedGiving and is widely applied byestate and financial planners fortheir clients who are philanthro p i c .

Through certain Life IncomePlans, such as CharitableRemainder Trusts, CharitableReverse Mortgages, and Chari-table Gift Annuities, individualscan maximize the productivityof their investments by conver-ting them into fixed annuities,while eliminating or deferringestate taxes or taxes on capitalgains.

Planning for retirement is oneof the major applications of

Charitable Life Income Plans.Using appreciated securities orother property, an individualcan often obtain a greater re-turn on the value of the assetsthrough a Charitable RemainderTrust than if the property weresold, the taxes paid, and theproceeds reinvested. This isparticularly apparent with realestate that has appreciated invalue but which does not pro-duce enough income. A transferof the real estate to a CharitableRemainder Trust can providemajor economic benefits throughincreased income and taxsavings.

The application of PlannedGiving techniques is often com-plex. However, Planned Givingprofessionals can provide infor-mation to help one analyze whe-ther a Planned Giving vehicle isright for that individual. Taking

into consideration income pay-able for life, tax savings and thetransfer of wealth to the nextfamily generation, individualsand their planners often findthat a Planned Gift providesmore economic benefits thanmany other forms of planning.Thus, a Planned Gift partnersthe individual with a favoritecharity and not with the InternalRevenue Service.

YIVO’s Planned Giving pro-fessionals can help its suppor-ters and friends determine if aPlanned Gift is beneficial. Pleaseinquire, in confidence, at no ob-ligation, by calling Ella Levine,Director of Development, at(212) 294-6128. She will bepleased to assist you. As anadded benefit, you will helpYIVO to carry on its importantwork while providing well foryourself and your family.

Planned GivingCharitable Giving as a Retirement Planning Tool

5

The YIVO Executive Com-mittee, on behalf of the full

Board, established the Institute’sfirst International AcademicAdvisory Council on May 17,2000. The Council, composed often distinguished scholars fromthe United States and Canada,will both advocate for scholarswho utilize YIVO’s archival andlibrary holdings and will helpredirect YIVO‘s role as a majorresearch institution for the studyof Eastern European Jewishcivilization.

“This Advisory Council re-news a tradition of directinvolvement by scholars inacademic strategic planning at YIVO,” Dr. Carl J. Rheinscommented. “The AcademicAdvisory Council will helpYIVO enhance its strengths and

chart future paths. We lookforward to the positive input.”

To guide the YIVO Board andstaff in developing and modi-fying YIVO’s curriculum, pub-lications, and other academicprograms, the Council willadvise on the latest professionaldevelopments and trends inEastern European Jewish Studiesas well as the expectations of itsscholars and graduate students.

The International AcademicAdvisory Council, which willmeet quarterly, held its firstsession on November 17, 2000 in New York City.

Current members are (in al-phabetical order): Dr. DavidFishman , Professor and Chair,Department of Jewish History,Jewish Theological Seminary ofAmerica; Dr. Gershon Hundert ,Montreal Jewish CommunityProfessor of Jewish Studies,Department of Jewish Studies,McGill University; Dr. GregoryS. Hunter , Associate Professor,Palmer School of Library andInformation Science, LongIsland University, C.W. PostCampus; Dr. Samuel Kassow ,Dana Research Professor ofHistory, Trinity College; Dr. Allan Nadler , Wallenstein

Associate Professor, JewishStudies Department, DrewUniversity; Dr. Anita Norich ,Associate Professor, Departmentof English Language and Lite-rature, University of Michigan;Dr. Mark Slobin , Professor,Music Department, WesleyanUniversity; Dr. Michael F.Stanislawski , Nathan J. MillerProfessor of Jewish History and Associate Director, Centerfor Israel and Jewish Studies,Columbia University; Dr. RuthRoskies Wisse , Professor ofYiddish and ComparativeLiterature, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, HarvardUniversity; and Dr. Steven J.Zipperstein , Daniel E. KoshlandProfessor in Jewish Culture andHistory, Stanford University.

In the immediate future, theCouncil will develop a strategyfor the Max Weinreich Centerand recommend new directionsfor the YIVO Archives and theLibrary, incorporating moderntechnologies and managementpractices. The Council will alsohelp identify new fundingsources for the Institute’s aca-demic programs.

The newly appointed YIVO International Advisory Council at its first meeting on November 16, 2000 (L-R):Anita Norich, Ruth Wisse, Gershon Hundert, Mark Slobin, Michael Stanislawski, Gregory Hunter, AllanNadler and David Fishman. Not pictured: Samuel Kassow and Steven J. Zipperstein.

YIVO Establishes New Academic Advisory Council

Claims Conference

The YIVO Encyclopedia willreflect current scholarship in allfields, and will draw upon thenewly accessible records andarchives in countries of theformer Soviet Union. Hundert,working in collaboration withstaff of the Max Weinreich Centerand a team of other scholars,intends that by "describing theway of life of the lostcommunities and people, thecompendium will serve todocument the distinguishedindividuals who labored onbehalf of the greater Jewishcommunity, as well as those whoparticipated in political andreligious movements, thescholars, artists, musicians,actors, writers and others of note.Nothing Jewish will beconsidered foreign."

This reference work, targeted touniversity, synagogue and homelibraries, is one of the mostsignificant publishing endeavorsin YIVO history. It is anticipatedthat it will be released in 2004.

[continued from page 1]

6 YIVO News Winter 2000-2001

More than half a centuryafter they were written, the

autobiographies of Jewish immi-grants to the United States arebeing translated into Englishand published. With the help ofa grant from the National Foun-dation for Jewish Culture, YIVOresearchers are sifting through220 autobiographies that weresubmitted to YIVO as contestentries in 1942.

“The most interestingworks will be published asan anthology and summa-ries of the others will bestored in a database to make them more accessibleto researchers,” said DanielSoyer, one of the projecteditors.

Soyer (Assistant Professorof History at FordhamUniversity) and co-editorJocelyn Cohen (who re-cently completed her Ph.D. in U.S. History at theUniversity of Minnesota),have begun reading throughthe collection. The writersdiscuss their family back-grounds, education, work andhome lives, reasons for emigra-ting and adjustment to their

new country. Many include first-hand information on ma-jor Jewish social and politicalmovements and on Jewishgeographic mobility in theUnited States. A first draft of the anthology, under the work-ing title of To Unburden MyHeart, is anticipated by thesummer of 2001. Its publicationwill posthumously fulfill anambition of then-YIVO Research

Director Max Weinreich. Project advisors include

Professors Arthur Goren ofColumbia University, an author-ity on American Jewish history;Anita Norich of the Universityof Michigan, an expert onYiddish literature; and DavidFishman of the Jewish Theo-logical Seminary, a specialist in the history of East EuropeanJewry.

aybele and Her Demon’ and OtherSelections from Yiddish Literature,” a

new two-CD or cassetteset of Yiddish readingsand klezmer selections, isnow available. Performedby David Rogow, YIVOlinguist and managingeditor of the YIVO-bleter,this recording includesboth serious and humor-ous works of SholemAleichem, Aaron Zeitlin,Chaim Grade, DerTunkeler, Moyshe-LeybHalpern and others.

Produced by Donna Gallers, the 90-minuteCD/cassette intersperses the texts with excerptsof music by today’s finest klezmer groups. Theaccompanying booklet offers a short biographyof Rogow, synopses of each work by PaulGlasser, Associate Dean of the Max WeinreichCenter, and introductions by Professors DavidRoskies and Nahma Sandrow. The new CD/cassette is accessible to both native Yiddishspeakers and Yiddish students.

Both the new offering and Rogow’s firstcollection, “‘Bontshe Shvayg’ and OtherSelections from Yiddish Literature,” are on sale atthe gift shop in the Center for Jewish History(917-606-8220) and at the Workmen’s CircleJewish Book Center (800-922-2558, ext. 285).

“‘T

American Immigrant Autobiographies Project Under Way

Clara Schacter (top, second from left), a participant in YIVO’s 1942 autobiographycontest, with other members of the executive committee of the East New YorkWorkmen’s Circle School No. 2. The Workmen’s Circle eagerly endorsed thecontest, and many members contributed their stories. Donor: Clara Schacter.

New YIVO Yiddish CD “Taybele and Her Demon” Released

7

Under theable direc-

tion of CathyZises and Rita K. Levy, Chair,the YIVO Lea-dership Forumcommittee willhost a cocktailfundraiser,“Your HeritageJourney Begins at YIVO,” on Thursday, January18, 2001. The event will introduce a newgeneration to the breadth of YIVO’s archivalresources by focusing on aspects of five EasternEuropean cities and towns. “We want to attractour contemporaries to this pioneering event,”Levy said, “and to help them understand thetremendous resources available at YIVO.” Byopening up YIVO to a wider audience andteaching people more about their heritage, theLeadership Forum hopes to increase support forYIVO in the coming years.

“If you want to understand the breadth ofYIVO’s holdings, ‘Your Heritage Journey’ willteach you how archival searches are done—YIVOwill highlight five cities and towns to show theimmense possibilities when you seek your roots,’Zises elaborated. Guests in the Great Hall at theCenter for Jewish History will experience aplethora of materials and sounds about families,Jewish institutions, music, street scenes, andfamous personalities from Kovno, Shavl, Warsaw,Przemysl, Margareten and Bialystok. “We hope tohave a good crowd of people willing to makeYIVO a long-term commitment,” continues Zises. “This is our heritage and our children’s future.”

Sponsored by Cathy and Seymour Zises, the“Your Heritage Journey” fundraiser will benefitthe new Educational Program in Yiddish Culture(EPYC) curriculum project.

This pilot curriculum on East European Jewishculture is being developed for both Jewish andsecular high schools. Giving levels begin at $180(Fraynd/ Friend), to $360 (Shtitser/ Supporter),$720 (Bal-toyve/ Benefactor) and $1,000 (Boyer/Builder). Those who give $10,000 or more tosupport EPYC will join the Vilna Gaon Society/Chairman’s Circle.

Levy is chairing the “Your Heritage Journey”fundraiser with Charlie Rose and new LeadershipForum member Jonathan Mishkin. “We hope toraise people’s consciousness about what YIVO hasstored in its vast repository, and show YIVO’srelevance today to us as Jews,” Levy noted. “The

development of a creative and accurate EPYCcurriculum is an end product of this new Jewishawareness and commitment.

Leadership Forum: Your Heritage Journey Begins at YIVO

Charles J. Rose has been elected to YIVO’sNational Board. He is a General Partner in

Bentley Capital Management, Inc., a New YorkCity-based firm with nearly $350 million undermanagement. Rose is an equity analyst/portfoliomanager. Prior to 1998, Rose was an institutionalportfolio manager at Lynch & Mayer, Inc. and,1992-1996, he was a partner at the large hedgefund Omega Advisors. Rose began his investmentcareer at Oppenheimer & Co., Inc., where he wasone of the top-rated chemical industry equityanalysts and was consistently ranked as anInstitutional Investor All-American. Rose holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from ColumbiaUniversity as well as an M.B.A. from HarvardBusiness School.

Rose is active in a range of Jewish organizations.At YIVO, he is a member of the Leadership Forumand is Chair of the 2001 YIVO Mission to Germany,the Czech Republic and Lithuania. He has partici-pated in the 1999 YIVO mission to Lithuania,Poland and Russia.

He is very involved in the Sutton Place Syna-gogue, the Wall Street Division of UJA-Federationand the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rithand is a member of the Board of Jewish Educationand the Folksbiene Yiddish Theatre. Rose is agraduate of Workmen Circle/Arbeter Ring Schulein New York.

Charles Rose Joins YIVO Board

Charles J. Rose

Rita K. Levy Cathy Zises

Women's Committee toHost Inaugural Luncheon

Save the DateOn Monday, May 21, 2001, the YIVO Women's

Committee will hold it's first luncheon, "AHeritage - Me'dor Le'dor" at the Center forJewish History, to honor committee membersFanya Gottesfeld Heller and Sima Katz. Specialtributes will be paid to Esther Ancoli-Barbaschand Esther Mishkin.

Professor Yaffa Eliach, author of There OnceWas a World: A 900-Year Chronicle of the Shtetl of Eishyshok, will be the guest speaker.

Event Chair Etta Wrobel noted, "This will be a celebration—to honor members of ourcommittee, and to tell their stories. It will be afirst step, and a proud tribute to a Jewish future."

Since its launch on June 1,2000, YIVO’s web site hasreceived over 10,000 “hits”(online visits). Most of the hitsare coming from Internet surfersin the United States, but thenumber of visitors from Israel,Australia, Canada, Germany,and other European countries isalso on the rise.

“We get an average of 35visitors a day,” reports RobertaNewman, YIVO’s Director ofNew Media. “The number isincreasing as more and more

search engines updatetheir listings with thecorrect address of thenew YIVO web site.”

Newman also notedthat a growing numberof Jewish Studies,Holocaust Studies,Yiddish, Jewishgenealogy, and libraryweb sites are addingYIVO to their featuredset of links.

Visit the web site atwww.yivoinstitute.org.


w w w. y i v o i n s t i t u t e . o rgYIVO Web Site Attracting Thousands of Visitors

Poyln: Jewish Life in the Old Country was honoredat the Frankfurt Book Fair, the world’s largest

annual trade fair for publications and media, heldin Frankfurt, Germany, from October 18-23, 2000.At the fair 6,643 exhibitors from 105 countriespresented 380,000 books, magazines, multimediaproducts and art works.

Each year, a countryis chosen as the fair’sguest of honor, andthe country’s intel-lectual achievements,shown in its publica-tions, is the centraltheme of the fair.Poland was selectedthis year, along withPoyln. Marek Web,YIVO Chief Archivistand editor of Poyln,visited the fair andmet with Bernd F. Lunkewitz ofAufbau-Verlag, the

publisher of the book’s German edition, whichwas on exhibit at the fair.

Poyln: Jewish Life in the Old Country, is an award-winning album of pre-war photographs by AlterKacyzne, edited by Marek Web and originallypublished in 1999 by Metropolitan Books inassociation with the YIVO Institute. The German-language volume, Poyln, Eine UntergegangeneJûdische Welt, was published in September 2000 byAufbau-Verlag, Berlin, to coincide with this year’sbook fair. The Poyln album was prominentlydisplayed at the Aufbau-Verlag bookstand in the

centrally located Exhibition Hall 4.1 which wasdevoted to literature and the arts.

To underscore the choice of Poyln as its centralpresentation title at the fair, Aufbau-Verlag incooperation with Hessische Rundfunk (RH), theradio and television authority for the province ofHesse (of which Frankfurt is the largest city),arranged a special exhibition of 56 selectedphotographs from the book. The exhibition ranfrom October 10-22 in the HR FrankfurterFunkhaus building. Elegantly framed andinstalled in a large and well-lit exhibition hall,Kacyzne’s exquisite photographs of Polish Jewsfrom the 1920s could be contemplated in all theirsplendor by visitors. At the opening, LucJochimsen, editor-in-chief of the HessischeRundfunk, Salomon Korn, the chairman of theJewish community of Frankfurt, and ArnoLustiger, a popular German-Jewish writer andjournalist, addressed the large crowd. Lustigeralso read from his own translations of some ofKacyzne’s Yiddish poetry.

The appearance of Poyln, Eine UntergegangeneJûdische Welt was also noted in the leadingGerman newspapers. The Frankfurter AllegemeineZeitung published a major review by ArnoLustiger, which was reprinted in translation in theEnglish-language edition. The popular culturalweekly Die Zeit illustrated its special book fairissue with several Kacyzne photographs. Manylocal and national newspapers wrote reviews ofthe Kacyzne exhibition.

After closing in Frankfurt, the exhibition travelsin Germany, first stopping in Berlin and thenMunich. Discussions are underway about bringingthe Poyln exhibition to the United States.

YIVO’s Marek Web (L) withBernd F. Lukewitzof publisherAufbau-Verlag.

Poyln Meets the World at Frankfurt Book Fair

9

After More than a Half Century at YIVO

Bina Weinreich Retires Bina Weinreich has been associated with YIVO

almost since it first moved to the UnitedStates in 1940. At the age of 18, she was a studenthere and studied with the greats of the time—Max Weinreich, Jacob Shatzky, Shlomo Noble,Abraham Menes, et al. In class, she met herfuture husband, Uriel Weinreich, as well as other young people who would later becomerenowned: Shmuel Lapin (later executivedirector of YIVO), Joshua Fishman (world-famous sociolinguist), Khane Mlotek (YIVOmusic archivist), Yosl Mlotek (long-time edu-cation director of the Workmen’s Circle) andMendl Hoffman (emeritus member of the YIVO Board of Directors).

Mrs. Weinreich began her YIVO work as theassistant to the Director of Research, Dr. MaxWeinreich. As Dr. Weinreich’s assistant, she usedher knowledge of Spanish to compile a bib-liography of Judezmo (Ladino) books that had been donated to YIVO. She interviewedHolocaust survivors, preserving the recordingsfor the sound archive of spoken Yiddish. A fewyears later, she and Uriel worked together to laythe groundwork for the Language and CultureAtlas of Ashkenazic Jewry; she also helped himwith his dictionary, a twenty-year endeavor. In1959, the Weinreichs jointly published “Yiddish

Language and Folklore: A SelectiveBibliography for Research.”

In the early 1970s, Bina returned to YIVO as a full-time staff member. Her many jobsincluded: editor of the YIVO-bleter andYIVO Annual, unofficial assistant to theUriel Weinreich Yiddish Summer Program,member of the Research and PlanningCommission, chair of the PublicationsCommittee, and editor-in-chief of YIVO News.

As a specialist in folklore, Bina co-curated aYIVO exhibit on Yiddish folklore, presentedmany academic papers, chaired sessions andread papers at YIVO conferences. In 1988 YIVOpublished her book Yiddish Folktales (translatedinto English), which received glowing reviewsand was later published in Italian and Japanesetranslations.

For the last ten years, she has been a key mem-ber of the Max Weinreich Center, teaching agraduate course in Yiddish folklore, languageand literature. A number of her students, fol-lowing her example, now are themselvesteachers of these subjects.

Over the coming years, Bina Weinreich hopesto concentrate on her folklore research. We wishher a healthy, happy, productive future!

ARomanian-language edition

of Max Weinreich’sHitler’s Professors: ThePart of Scholarship inGermany’s CrimesAgainst the JewishPeople (Universitatilelui Hitler: Contributiaintelectualilor lacrimele Germanieiîmpotriva evreilor) hasbeen released byEditura POLIROM,Iasi, Romania, with anew introduction bySir Martin Gilbert. Itis translated by Radu Pavel Gheo. The Romanianedition appears in a limited run of 2,000 copies.The Italian language rights to Hitler’s Professorshave been sold to Il Saggiatore of Milano. A firstrun of 4,000 hardback copies is planned.

H i t l e r ’s Professors in Romanian,Italian Edition to Follow

Claude-Gerard Marcus, former Deputy Mayorof Paris and Honorary Member of the French

Parliament, visited YIVO in August. Marcus is also Chairman of the Musée et d’histoire duJudaïsme, which hosted the YIVO exhibition “The Power of Persuasion: Jewish Posters fromInterwar Poland” earlier this year. During hisYIVO visit he discussed further collaborationefforts between the two institutions.

F o rmer Deputy Mayor of ParisAnd Museum Chair Vi s i t s

Claude-Gerald Marcus, former Deputy Mayor of Paris (L),with Krysia Fisher, YIVO Photo Archivist.


News UpdateZamler Project in Hasidic Communities Forges Ahead

The Zamler Project, which began in the fall of1999, continues to interview members of

hundreds of shtiblekh founded bysurvivors of lost Jewish Europeancommunities over the past 50years. Efforts initially focused on Brooklyn, but have widened to include contemporary EasternEurope. Recent intervieweesinclude a 92-year-old Holocaustsurvivor from Galicia and thedaughter of the highly respectedKozhnitzer Rebbe of Warsaw. Acomputerized slide show ofimages collected during the earlystages of the Zamler Project is partof the “YIVO at 75: Milestones and Treasures”exhibition currently on display in the YIVOGallery at the Center for Jewish History.

The slide show, prepared by Zamler archivists,includes street scenes of Borough Park; views ofshtiblekh and synagogues in the New York area;Hasidic rebbes and their followers; observance ofJewish holidays, including the tiniest and largestsuccahs in Borough Park; and historic andcontemporary images of Hasidic sites in Ukraineand Poland. These last include the survivingsynagogues and tombstones of Hasidic leaders.The show also features wall posters and photos ofceremonial objects.

Project archivist Abraham Joshua Heschelpersonally took many of the photographs in the

exhibit. During a trip to Poland and Ukraine inAugust, he also interviewed some of the fewremaining Jewish residents of pre-war Hasidiccenters, including Gora Kolwaria (pre-war homeof the Gerer Rebbe), Zinkov and Chechelnik.Heschel also interviewed a Polish woman who, inthe 1930s, worked in the home of the AmshinoverRebbe in Amshinov.

Some of the slide show images appear courtesyof photographer Lance Breger. Rare turn-of-the-century photos of Hasidic rebbes are part of theprivate collection of Yitz

Anew Jewish high school program openedthis fall in Moscow, sponsored by Project

Judaica, the Russian university-based program ofJewish Studies and archival research. The ProjectJudaica High School Program, with an inauguralclass of 26 tenth-grade students, is supportedfinancially by UJA-Federation of New York. Itrepresents a collaboration of three organizations:the Russian State University for the Humanities(RSUH) Preparatory High School (litsei); theLipman Jewish Day School; and Project Judaica.Project Judaica was created in 1991 as a jointeffort of the Jewish Theological Seminary, YIVOInstitute for Jewish Research and the RSUH.

The pioneer class has begun an ambitiouscurriculum of Yiddish and Hebrew languages,East European Jewish history, and Jewishliterature, under the leadership of HelenaKolchinskaya, administrator of the High Schoolprogram. Academic instructors come from the

three sponsoring institutions: humanities fromthe RSUH litsei; other general studies fromfaculty of the Lipman School; and Judaic studiesfrom Project Judaica.

The employment of young, Russian-bornJudaica specialists is an exciting feature of thenew program. Anya Sorokina, a graduate ofProject Judaica and instructor in Yiddish lan-guage and culture, studied Yiddish at RSUH with the renowned octogenarian Yiddishist,Shimon Sandler, as well as at YIVO. Anotherfaculty member, Artur Klemper, is a fifth-yearstudent at Project Judaica.

The new high school program represents animportant step in the continued revitalization ofJewish educational and cultural life in the formerSoviet Union. Project Judaica has already createda new group of young Russian Judaica scholarswho are beginning to train the next generation.

P roject Judaica Opening Doors to the Next Generation of Scholars

Rabbi Nochum Moshe Twersky of Kovel-Rachmastrivka,blessing Jewish soldiers. courtesy of Yitz Twersky

Grand Rabbi Isaac MeirHeschel ofKopyczynitz (1862-1934).Copyright Chasdei Moshe - Kopyczynitz


By Esther Mishkin

Iwalked through the beautiful and invitingmemorial rose garden at Beth Shalom, Britain’s

first Holocaust memorial just outside London. Itwas full of flowers and streams, where relativeshad planted bushes to remember family memberswho did not survive. In this garden, among thesculptures, my memories turned to the 6,000,000gone and to each lost community, big and small,including my own.

The Smiths, a Baptist family, decided to build a memorial to the Holocaust on their own landwith their own money, in 1995, after visitingJerusalem’s Yad Vashem. In their view, althoughthe Jews were the victims, “the Holocaust was aChristian problem.” Beth Shalom is smaller than other Holocaust

memorials. The rooms are full of information onthe life and times of vibrant communities from the prewar period through the ghettoes andcamps. Its compact size facilitates learning andcontemplation.

In the finely decorated library, I talked withStephen Smith, head of Beth Shalom, about howmuch I liked it. I also discussed YIVO’s historyand role in the pre-war Vilna Jewish community. I presented him with a copy of Poyln: Jewish Life inthe Old Country, YIVO’s award-winning album ofphotographs by Alter Kacyzne. He thanked YIVOand me, saying that the book would enrich theBeth Shalom library.

Esther Mishkin, a retired social worker, is a memberof the YIVO Women’s Committee and has been avolunteer at YIVO for the past six years. Born inKovno, Lithuania, she lost both her parents and twobrothers in the Kovno Ghetto while she alone survived.

B r i t a i n ’s First Holocaust Center

YIVO Volunteer Visits Beth Shalom

YIVO’s Esther Mishkin with Stephen Smith in the memorialrose garden at Beth Shalom.

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

I want to help YIVO preserve our Jewish heritage.

❏ $50–Entitles you to YIVO’s newsletter in Yiddish and English.

❏ $100–Poster reproduction from YIVO’s collection.

❏ $180–A packet of YIVO postcards

❏ $360–A Yiddish recording

❏ $ 5 0 0 – A book from Y I V O

❏ $1000 and more–All of the above and a listing in YIVO News.

❏ Other

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

❏ VISA ❏ MasterCard

Card No. Exp. Date

Signature

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

Name

Address

City/State/Zip

Telephone (h) (w)

Fax e-mail

YIVO MournsWe express heartfelt condolences to our Board member Motl Zelmanowicz, on the recent loss of his wife, Dr. Naomi Pat Zelmanowicz . Her devotion to theYiddish language, to writers and to all of Yiddish culture was unique. She will be sorely missed.

The YIVO Board and staff mourn thepassing of Morris Morowitz , lifelongYiddishist and father of Jacob Morowitz,YIVO National Board of Directors andPresident of the Chicago YIVO Society.May his memory be for a blessing.

Bruce Slovin and the YIVO Family

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peaking Yiddishand living our

daily lives in Yiddish are no longer natural for most of the Jewishpopulation,” said ItzikGottesman, AssociateEditor of the YiddishForverts. He was deli-vering the keynoteaddress to the gradu-ating Yiddish summerprogram students inAugust. “We must

create our own natural svives (milieus) for nur-turing Yiddish. To foster that, we need to havecontact with the older generation.”

Gottesman said he was interested in folklorebecause it is based on living people. “One cannotsay that nobody sings Yiddish folk ballads any-more, when it is still possible for me to sit in anolder singer’s apartment and listen to him singsuch a ballad. Knowing Yiddish is a key to theolder generation—use the opportunity.”

Gottesman’s message was appropriate for theannual siyem (ceremony of completion) for YIVO’s33rd session of the Uriel Weinreich Program inYiddish Language, Literature and Culture. Hisaddress was preceded by greetings from YanklSalant, YIVO Director of Yiddish LanguagePrograms, and remarks by Dr. Carl Rheins, YIVOExecutive Director. Following the speeches,students demonstrated what they had learnedover the previous six weeks by presenting songs,original poems, skits and essays—all in Yiddish.There was even a multimedia performance withbunnies, hunters and Yiddish song—a 21stcentury Yiddish equivalent of “Rashomon.”

This year’s enrollment was high—56 studentsfrom Belarus, Canada, Cuba, Czech Republic,Germany, Netherlands, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy,

Russia, South Africa and, of course, the UnitedStates. The students’ geographical diversity wasmatched by the diversity of their backgrounds,including visual artists, graduate students, trans-lators, historians, linguists, musicians, lawyers,singers, librarians and retired persons.

Morning Yiddish grammar and literature classeswere taught by Hanan Bordin, Mijal Gai, NaomiKadar, Rivke Margolis, Avrom Nowersztern,Mordkhe Schaechter and Sheva Zuck. Afternoonconversation classes were taught by Pessl Beckler,Semel Stern, Rivke Margolis, Benyomin Moss,Leye Robinson and Kalmen Weiser. The folkdanceworkshops included traditional Yiddishfolkdance, led by Michael Alpert, and Hasidicdance, taught by Jill Gellerman. The Yiddishfolksong workshop was led alternately by LeaSzlanger and Adrienne Cooper. Irena Klepfisztaught a translation workshop, and Hy Wolfedirected the theater workshop, which gave astunning performance at the siyem. ChavaWeissler, Kobi Weizner, Anita Norich, EleanorReissa, Egon Mayer, Dovid Rogow, JeffreyShandler, Samuel Kassow and Dovid Fishmangave lectures.

To receive a brochure for the 2001 zumer-program,please contact Yankl Salant at: (212) 294-6138, fax:(212) 292-1892, e-mail: [email protected].

YIVO Yiddish Summer Program at Columbia University

Itzik Gottesman speaking at siyem.

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Dr. Zellig Bach Scholarship Fund

Rev. Samuel A. Baker MemorialScholarship

Leah (Manya) Eisenberg ScholarshipFund

Arn Un Sonya Fishman-FundatsyeFar Yidisher Kultur (Aaron and SoniaFishman Foundation for JewishCulture)

Forverts Association

Fruchtbaum Foundation

Abe Goldberg Yiddish LanguageScholarship Fund

Ester Kodor Koyn-Priz Far Yidish-Lerers (Esther Codor Cohen Prize forYiddish Teachers)

Frances Litwer Krasnow MemorialScholarship

Nita Binder Kurnick Scholarship

Shmuel Lapin Memorial Scholarship

Leib Lensky Scholarship Fund inMemory of Sara and Meir Kshiensky

The Max and Anna LevinsonFoundation

Sara Norich Memorial Scholarship

Golda Masha Plotkin Scholarship

Bessy L. Pupko Scholarship Fund inMemory of Zelig, Abraham andJoseph (Osia) Pupko and Paula PupkoOlkenitzkaya

The Ruth & Misha SchneiderMemorial Fund

Sholem Aleichem Kultur-Tsenter

Louis Williams Scholarship Fund

Norman and Rosita WinstonScholarship Fund

Harry and Celia ZuckermanScholarship

Scholarship Funds and Recent ContributorsIt is only fitting that the scholarship funds and recent donors be mentioned by name as recognition of theirenduring dedication.

“ We must create natural ‘svives’(milieus) for nurturing Yi d d i s h , ”

Itzik Gottesman

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A Jewish Heritage Mission Join Us on Our Journey to Germany,

the Czech Republic & Lithuania,May 24 - June 4, 2001

It all began in Vilna in 1925. None of the photographs ormovies you have seen, nor the books you have read, nor the museums where you have cried, could ever adequatelyprepare you. Touch and feel the Jewish world that vanished!Recast a mere journey into an inspiring expedition intoEurope’s richest Jewish heritage.

• Depart JKF, May 24, 2001 for Berlin, home to Western Europe’sthird largest Jewish community • Visit Theresienstadt, Ponary,Ninth Fort, the Slobodka Yeshiva in Kovno, former ghettos, theMausoleum of the Gaon of Vilna, the Jewish museums, theHolocaust Memorial and Orianienburgerstrasse Synagogue inBerlin, Franz Kafka House in Prague • Meet with representatives of local Jewish communities and institutions and speak to the last of the Holocaust survivors • Stay at deluxe hotels • Depart Vilna for JFK, June 4, 2001.

Your learning experience will be enriched by Scholar-in-Residence Professor Samuel Kassow of Trinity College(Hartford, CT), who will accompany the group in Pragueand Lithuania.

Total Price: $3,895For more information, call Ella Levine at YIVO: (212) 246-6080.Reservations must be submitted no later than February 20, 2001.

Yiddish At YIVOYiddish Summer Program

Six-week intensive program in YiddishLanguage, Literature and Culture, at alllevels, taught at Columbia University.

For more information, call (212) 294-6138.

Continuing EducationYiddish Language and Literature

Elementary, Intermediate & Advanced.

New Offering: Yiddish Literature in Translation

Spring 2001 semester begins at the end of January.

For more information, call (212) 294-6154.

Jerrold P. Fuchs, a long-standing member of theYIVO Board, and member of the Yale College

class of 1963, has established a new annual en-dowed fellowship at Yale. Starting in 2002, it willpermit a Yale undergraduate or graduate studentto spend four weeks pursuing a research project inthe YIVO Archives or Library.

The fellowship is Fuchs’s second major gift toencourage collaboration between YIVO and Yale.In 1995, Fuchs established an endowment thatallows YIVO and the Slifka Center for Jewish Lifeat Yale to sponsor joint academic programs. Thefirst such collaboration occurred in May 2000,when the Yale-YIVO Endowment joined with YaleUniversity and the Littauer Foundation to sponsoran international conference on the life and work of Yiddish writer Sholem Asch. It attracted suchdistinguished scholars as David Roskies, NaomiWarnke, Anita Norich, Paula Hyman, Ruth Wisse,and Avraham Novershtern.

Calling All Alumni of theYiddish Summer Program!

Yale and YIVO Cooperate

New Scholarship Established

YIVO is seeking all alumni of the UrielWeinreich Program in Yiddish Language,

Literature and Culture. A program newsletter—Zumer in nyu-york (Summer in New York)— will besent to all students and faculty who participated in at least one zumer-program since 1968. The firstissue will appear in Spring 2001.

We want to create a true network of zumer-programniks past and present, including those from the earliest years. If you are an alumnus andhave not received a questionnaire, please contactYankl Salant (see below) or fill it out on the YIVOwebsite at http://www.yivoinstitute.org.

If you are in contact with participants from theearly years, please give YIVO their names andaddresses, or email addresses. Contact YanklSalant at (212) 294-6138, or fax: (2120 292-1892, or email to [email protected].


On October 19, ProfessorDeborah E. Lipstadt dis-

cussed “Holocaust Denial: ANew Form of Anti-Semitism”before a crowd of more than 250people. Her lecture was the firstof YIVO’s 75th Anniversary Dis-tinguished Lecture Series.

Lipstadt, Dorot Professor ofModern Jewish and HolocaustStudies at Emory University, de-scribed the strategies used in herdefense against writer DavidIrving’s suit over her book,Denying the Holocaust: The Grow-ing Assault on Truth and Memory(Free Press/ Macmillan, 1993).

In a suit filed in England,where the burden of proof lieswith the accused, Irving claimedLipstadt and publisher PenguinBooks wrongly portrayed him as a Holocaust denier. Professor Lipstadt noted the tremendous

encouragement she had receivedfrom Jews and non-Jews, includ-ing Emory University, through-out the preparation and trial.

The judge’s verdict in book

form, The Irving Judgment: Mr.David Irving v. Penguin Books and Professor Deborah Lipstadt hasjust been published by Penguinin the United Kingdom.

Professor Deborah Lipstadt and YIVO Chairman Bruce Slovin touring the “YIVO at75” exhibit before her lecture.

First YIVO 75th Anniversary LectureDeborah Lipstadt Discusses Victory over Holocaust Denial

On September 18, YIVO helda tribute evening in memo-

ry of Dina Abramowicz, thebeloved YIVO librarian, whoworked until her death atnearly 91. She had worked atYIVO for 53 years. Close to 250people—family, friends, fellowlibrarians, scholars, researchers,writers and admirers—paidtheir respects to Abramowicz,who dedicated her life to thestudy and dissemination ofYiddish language and culture.

The evening opened withBruce Slovin’s personal remi-niscences about Abramowiczand a short video of her at work and at leisure. Thekeynote speaker, ProfessorSamuel Kassow of Trinity Col-lege in Hartford, reviewed theimportance of Abramowicz’swork, its roots in her native cityof Vilna, and her impact ongenerations of scholars. Otherspeakers were Zachary Baker,

former Head Librarian of YIVO;Fanya Gottesfeld Heller, writerand member of the YIVOBoard; Professor AvrahamMelezin, a member of the PaperBrigade and Simon Palevsky,long time friends and col-leagues in Nusach Vilne. The lastspeaker, Esther Hautzig, authorof children’s books, shared hermemories of Abramowicz asthe children’s librarian in Vilna."When I was six years old, Dinaused to examine me about thecontent of each book, beforehanding me a new book toread," Hautzig noted.

Closing the tribute evening,YIVO Executive Director CarlRheins announced the crea-tion of two funds: the DinaAbramowicz Emerging ScholarFellowship Fund and the DinaAbramowicz Memorial BookFund. Contributions can bemade to either fund throughYIVO.

YIVO Pays Tribute to Memory of Dina Abramowicz

Bruce Slovin reminiscences about Dina Abramowicz.

Keith Weiser

15

he story of the Jews is the central story ofthe Holocaust,” noted Dr. Yehuda Bauer,

Head of the Center for Holocaust Research at YadVashem and Professor of Holocaust Studies atHebrew University in Jerusalem in his YIVOlecture on November 21 at the Center for JewishHistory. “Much more academic research has beendone on the actions and attitudes of theperpetrators and bystanders.”

Bauer went on to discuss the importance ofstudying and understanding the points of view of the victims, an area of research not favored byacademics. Among the many other provocativeideas Bauer outlined, was that images of Jewish

resistance have to “be revised in all directions.”The popular images are over generalized. Theyalso omit discussion of Jewish life before andduring the ghettos/Holocaust. Bauer cited dailysurvival strategies, as well as heroic efforts bydifferent communities and community leaders. “Itwas not just the death,” he stated.

Author of several books, including The Holocaustin Historical Perspective (1978) and Jews for Sale?Nazi-Jewish Relations, 1939-1945 (1994), Bauer'smost recent book, Rethinking the Holocaust has justbeen published (2001) by Yale University Press.Certainly those who attended this lecture foundsome of their own ideas challenged by YehudaBauer and will be rethinking their ownperspective on the Holocaust.Bel Kaufman

Sholem Aleichem Remembered:

Bel Kaufman, thegranddaughter of

the celebrated Yiddishauthor Sholem A l e i c h e m ,and the author of the1964 bestseller, Up theDown Staircase, deligh-ted the YIVO audiencewith her poignant remi-niscences in her address,“Survival With Humor:Memories of SholemAleichem,” delivered onOctober 23 at the Centerfor Jewish History. This was the inauguralprogram of a series co-sponsored by YIVO and

the Sholem Aleichem Memorial Foundation, ofwhich Ms. Kaufman’s husband, Mr. Sidney Gluck,is president.

Kaufman spoke movingly of her grandfather’slegacy of humor and insight as reflected in hiswriting and in his attitudes towards life. Shedescribed her emotion on visiting the greatmonument to Sholem Aleichem on SholemAleichem Street in Kiev, a city once soaked inJewish blood. Of Sholem Aleichem's enduringfame, Kaufman noted that wherever she travels,the love people feel for him “spills over on me.”

Sholem Aleichem wrote in his will that he wouldlike to be remembered with laughter, or not at all,Kaufman commented, and he asked that on theanniversary of his death, his family and friendsgather to read one of his merry stories aloud. Thistradition, first carried out by Kaufman’s grand-mother, her aunt, her brother, and herself, hascontinued unbroken since 1916.

Keith Weiser Beginnings of Yiddish Press in Poland

Yehuda BauerPutting The Holocaust in Historical Perspective

Dr. Yehuda Bauer (3rd from right) before his YIVO lecture on November 21, 2000.With him are (L to R) Dr. Carl Rheins, Dr. Sylvia Brody, Benjamin and Vladka Meed,Ambassador Herbert Okun, Dr. Daniel Soyer and Dr. Arnold Richards.

Bel Kaufman with hergrandfather author SholemAleichem, 1916.

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The Max Weinreich Center's lecture series beganon November 6 with the Aleksander and Alicja

Hertz Memorial Lecture. Keith Weiser, a doctoralcandidate in Yiddish Studies at Columbia Univer-sity, spoke on “Noyakh and Tsvi Prilutski and theBeginnings of the Yiddish Press in Poland.” Theearly Yiddish press, said Weiser, owed its consi-derable success in no small measure to the work of Tsvi and Noyakh Prilutski.

Tsvi Prilutski was an eminent journalist andeditor. His son, Noyakh, was an extraordinarypolitical and cultural activist. Founder and leaderof the Diaspora nationalist party Folkspartey,Prilutski was a campaigner for Jewish nationalrights and a pioneer of Yiddish scholarly work.

The Prilutskis' first newspaper, Der veg, estab-lished in 1905, set high standards, but closed afterthree months. Five years later, they founded Dermoment, which was published until 1939.


Feb. 14 at 7:30 PMLeslie EpsteinGrowing Up with Hollywood and the Holocaust: Personal Reflections

Leslie Epstein grew up in Hollywood, the son and nephew oflegendary screenwriters Philip G. and Julius J. Epstein (Arsenicand Old Lace, Casablanca, and others). He attended Yale, andlater, Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship. Epstein is the acclaimedauthor of eight works of fiction, including King of the Jews (1979),a novel about the Lodz Ghetto; and most recently, Ice Fire Water(2000), a continuation of the adventures of Leib Goldkorn, acharacter from earlier novels. Professor Epstein is the Director ofthe Creative Writing Program at Boston University.

Wednesday February 28 at 7:30 pm Anna FoaThe Jews of Europe From the 14th Century to the Present: Identity and Creativity

Anna Foa is Associate Professor of History at the University ofPerugia and a research fellow at the University of Rome. Her talkwill draw from her recent book, The Jews of Europe After the BlackDeath (2000), a work which challenges widely held assumptionsto depict the history of Jewish life in Europe as the story ofcreativity and stability, as much as of catastrophe. Professor Foawill be introduced by Andrea Grover, Adjunct AssociateProfessor of Humanities at New York University.

Tuesday April 10 at 7:30 pmCynthia Ozick and Sidney Offit In Conversation

Cynthia Ozick is a world-renowned fiction and essay writer,whose work has been translated into more than 15 languages.Her work has won many honors, including the John CheeverAward (1999), and has been anthologized in Best American ShortStories of the Century (1999). Her most recent book is Quarrel &Quandary: Essays (2000).

Sidney Offit is a writer, teacher, and the curator of the GeorgePolk Journalism Awards. His novels include Memoir of theBookie’s Son (1996) and books for young readers. Mr. Offit is theformer Senior Editor of Intellectual Digest and is currentlyPresident of the Author’s Guild FoundationA joint program of YIVO and the Sholom Aleichem Memorial Foundation.

Thursday April 26 at 7:30 pmFanya Gottesfeld HellerAgain and Again: Ensuring the Legacy of the Holocaust

In commemoration of Yom Hashoah (Holocaust RemembranceDay), Fanya Gottesfeld Heller, author of Strange and UnexpectedLove, A Teenage Girl’s Holocaust Memoirs, will draw on herexperience as a teacher and scholar to explore the exten-sion ofthe impact of the Holocaust to human rights today. Heller will beintroduced by Froma Zeitlin, Professor of Classics andComparative Literature at Princeton University.

YIVO Public Programs – Spring 2001 Distinguished Lecture Series

Film and Discussion Series: The Hungarian Jewish Experience

All films $7.00/Students and seniors $3.50. Tickets may bepurchased from the Center for Jewish History box office. To order with amajor credit card, call (917) 606-8200. To order by mail, indicate theprogram(s) for which you want tickets and send check payable to: Center for Jewish History/Box Office15 West 16 Street, New York, NY 10011-6301

Monday March 19 7:30 pmTriumph of Survival: A Jew from Hungary

Israel, 1999, 63 min., Hebrew with English subtitles

Filmmaker Naomi Azar accompanied her parents on their tripback to Hungary and captured their hitherto untold stories. Wesee constant tension between their nostalgia for Hungariantraditions and anger at fellow Hungarians, between the need tominimize the impact of the Holocaust on their lives and the needto remember. Azar, a member of the “second generation,” reflectson the struggle between recognition of the effect of the Holocauston her life and appreciation for her parents’ efforts to establish ahappy, normal life for their children.

Speaker: Dennis Klein, Professor, Kean College

Monday April 23 6:30 pmThe Kastner Trial

Israel, 1995, 184 min. Hebrew with English subtitles

The trial of Malkiel Greenwald, better known as the “KastnerTrial,” electrified Israel in the 1950s. Kastner was a Hungarian

Zionist leader, who by negotiating with Adolf Eichmann, savedthe lives of some 1,700 Jews. He survived the war and moved toIsrael, where he ran for Knesset in 1953. Accused of collaboratingwith the Nazis by Greenwald, Kastner responded with a libelsuit. The trial examined Jewish behavior during the Holocaustand gave rise to great controversy. Now, almost fifty years later,this riveting docudrama explores the different understanding ofthese events that has evolved within Israeli society.

Speaker: Motti Lerner, Screenwriter, The Kastner Trial

Monday May 14 6:30 pmSunshine

Hungary/Germany/Canada/Austria, 2000, 180 min., English

Istvan Szabo, the acclaimed director of Mephisto and Colonel Redlbrings together an all-star cast (Ralph Fiennes, William Hurt,Rosemary Harris, and others) in this epic history of a HungarianJewish family. The story of the Sonnenscheins spans threegenerations and over one hundred years and provides amicrocosmic view of Hungary’s turbulent history. It charts, inhuman terms, the impact of ideology and fanaticism on 20th-century private lives.

Speaker: Israel Horovitz, Playwright, and co-screenwriter,Sunshine

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All music, theater, and literature programs are jointly sponsored byYIVO and the Sholom Aleichem Memorial Foundation

Monday February 12 at 7:30 pmJoseph Wiseman and Pearl Lang Readings from Sholem Aleichem and Itsik Manger (English and Yi d d i s h )

Joseph Wiseman has starred in many hit film and theaterproductions over the past 50 years. He received a Drama DeskAward for the title role in H. Kippart’s In the Matter of J. RobertOppenheimer. Wiseman’s film credits include Viva Zapata, Dr. No,and The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. His many contributionsto Jewish literature and theater, include helping to shape thelong-running radio and television series, The Eternal Light.Recently he has been involved in a translation project focusingon the Yiddish poetry of Itzik Manger.

Pearl Lang is a world-famous dancer and choreographer whoworked as a soloist with Martha Graham’s Company. She hasappeared in Broadway musicals, including Carousel and Finian’sRainbow, and has taught at the Yale University School of Dramaand the Juilliard School of Music. In 1992, she received theNational Foundation of Jewish Culture’s Jewish CulturalAchievement Award. As the Director/Choreographer of thePearl Lang Dance Theater in New York, she draws much of herrepertoire from her Jewish heritage.

Thursday March 22 at 7:30 pmIssachar Miron (composer/narrator), Kenny Karen (voice andpiano), and Neva Small (narrator)The Heart and the Rose

A concert of English, Yiddish and Hebrew inspirational anthems,love longs, dance music, children’s songs, and poems from TheHeart and the Rose, a new CD by Issachar Miron, a leading Israelicomposer of popular, liturgical, and classical music.

In the 1950s, Miron’s song Tzena Tzena Tzena Tzena was the firstsong from Israel to become an international hit. His work alsoincludes oratorios, symphonic, and choral music. He is a prize-winning poet, director and writer of many films and radio andtelevision programs.

Vocalist Kenny Karen is a cantor and acclaimed studio singer,who is sometimes referred to as “King of the Jingles.” He is theonly male studio singer to have been inducted into the recordingindustry’s Hall of Fame.

Translation and narration will be provided by Miron and actressNeva Small, a star and performer in many films, such as Fiddleron the Roof, as well as in Broadway and Off-Broadwayproductions.

Sunday April 29 at 2:00 pmEmily CorbatóHeritage: Music by Jewish Composers

This concert of music by Jewish composers organized andperformed by acclaimed classical pianist Emily Corbató includespieces by contemporary composers such as Ernest Bloch, FelixMendelssohn, and George Gershwin. It also includes stunningworks by less recognized masters such as Vivian Fine and RobertCogan, some of which have never before been performedpublicly in New York.

Emily Corbató has performed at Carnegie Recital Hall andMerkin Concert Hall in New York, and the National Gallery ofArt in Washington, D.C. She has been involved in performing,recording, and editing for publication the piano works ofAmerican composer Ernst Bacon, and she is featured on the CD,Ernst Bacon: Remembering Ansel Adams and Other Works.

Wednesday June 6 at 7:30 pmLeonard Wolf and Suzanne TorenVini-der-pu

“Ot iz er, Edvard Ber..” So begins the Yiddish translation (Dutton’sChildren’s Books, 2000), of A.A. Milne’s classic, Winnie the Pooh.Join us for delightful readings in Yiddish and English by LeonardWolf and Suzanne Toren. With Varshever, varshever, varshever tort(Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie) and more surprises!

Leonard Wolf, Yiddish translator of Winnie the Pooh, is a univer-sity teacher and writer of poetry, fiction, social history, andbiography. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, Harper’s, TheNew Yorker, and other literary magazines. He is the translator ofPantheon’s Yiddish Folk Tales and of the works of many great 20thcentury Yiddish poets and writers.

Suzanne Toren has appeared on and off Broadway, and inregional theaters throughout the U.S., as well as in televisionshows, including Law and Order. She is particularly well knownfor her work in the Yiddish theater and regularly performs withLeonard Wolf in the Golden Peacock Troupe, reading Yiddishpoetry and stories.

Wednesday May 30, Exhibition Opens to the PublicYiddish Theater Star Ida Kaminska Remembered (1899-1980)

This commemorative exhibition will explore the life of IdaKaminska and her Yiddish theater family. Ida Kaminska’smother, Esther Rokhl Kaminska was a pioneer in Yiddish arttheater, acted in the first Jewish films made in Warsaw, and was afounding member of the famed Vilna Troupe. Ida followed in hermother’s footsteps by becoming an actress and co-founding the

prewar Warsaw Yiddish Art Theater and the postwar JewishState Theater in Warsaw. She starred in many stage productionsand in the Academy Award-winning film, The Shop on MainStreet.

The exhibition is open to the public Mondays-Thursdays, 9:30am-5:00 pm, except for Jewish and federal holidays.Exhibition made possible through the generous support of Ewa andJosef Blass and Victor Markowicz

All events are held at the Center for Jewish History.Admission is free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.

Seating is limited. Please call 212.246.6080 to reserve a place.

Music, Theater and Literature

Exhibition

YIVO is bolstering its collec-tion of Judaica from the

former Soviet Union, especiallyfrom the Baltic States of Latvia,Lithuania and Estonia. A gen-erous grant from the IrvingTershel Book Fund in Latvianand Baltic Jewish Studies ena-bled the Library to enter into anagreement with MIPP Interna-tional, a dealer specializing inpublications from the Baltics.

Among the items receivedunder the agreement is the exhi-bition catalog, Vilna GhettoPosters—Jewish SpiritualResistance. The catalog, withexplanations in English, Yiddishand Lithuanian, shows 16 VilnaGhetto posters from the collec-tion of the Vilna Gaon JewishState Museum. Mostly hand-written, the posters are silenttestimony to the vibrant culturallife behind the Ghetto walls of1942-1943. One poster announ-

ces a concert in honor of the100,000th book circulated by the Ghetto library. The librarianwas the late YIVO librarian Dina Abramowicz. Its directorwas Dr. Herman Kruk, whosediary has been translated fromYiddish into English, and will bepublished next year by YIVOand Yale University Press.

Among the many other newaccessions from the Baltics are:• The Great Synagogue of Vilnius,

by Alge Jankeviciene (1996), adetailed description of thearchitecture and history of theGreat Synagogue in Vilna.

• Hands Bringing Life and Bread,compiled by Dalija Epsteinaiteand Viktorija Sakaite (1999),an illustrated work on Lithua-nians who risked their livesrescuing Jews in the Holocaust.

• The Book of Sorrow, compiledby Yosif Levinson, containsillustrations and descriptions

of over 200 sites of massmurder of Jews during theHolocaust.

• Vilnius Ghetto: Lists of Prisoners,compiled by Irina Guzenberg(1996-98), a full list of inmatesof the Vilna Ghetto and laborcamps, based on a May 1942census taken by the Nazis.

• Holokausts vacu okupetajaLatvija 1941-1944 (Riga, 1999),published in Latvian. It is adetailed history of the perse-cution of Jews in Latviaduring World War II. Thebook makes use of archivaldocuments and trial records.

• The Estonian Folklore Archives(Tartu, 1995) includes infor-mation on Jewish soundrecordings.

• The Estonian NationalBibliography, 1675-1940,compiled by the library of theEstonian Academy of Sciences(1993). It covers publishedbooks and articles in German,Russian, English, Swedish,Esperanto, French, Yiddishand other languages. The library received the

following books that werepublished in Ukraine:• Evrei na Ukraini, by M.

Shestopal, (1999) a descriptionof the Jews in Ukraine, theirhistory, customs andtraditions.

• Na zlami vikiv (1998) comme-morates the 1000th anniversaryof Jewish life in Ukraine. A Belarus publication of

special interest is Niametska-fashystski henatsyd na Belarusi(1941-1944). Published in Minskin 1995, it includes documentson the Nazi genocide in Belarus.• Two history books—Stranitsyistorii evreev Belarusi (Minsk,1996) and Evrei Belarusi: iz nasheiobshchei istorii, 1905-1953 (Minsk,1999)—include archivaldocuments on the history of theJews in Belarus and focus onperiods of destruction andpersecution.


Miriam Weiner, author oftwo award-winning books

on Jewish roots, has presentedthe YIVO Library with three me-morial books published by theSearch-Publishing Agency.Listing soldiers from theZakarpats’ka, Volins’ka andKhmel’nits’ka regions, the booksare part of a 250-volume seriesentitled Kniha pamiati Ukrainy,which lists all six millionUkrainian soldiers who died

in World War II. Each entryincludes the soldier’s name,father’s name, date and place ofbirth, date and place of death,and religion or ethnicity. Jewsare clearly identified.

Additionally, Weiner presentedYIVO with the project’s intro-ductory volume, Bezsmertia:kniha pamiati Ukrainy 1941-1945(Immortality: Memorial Book ofUkraine 1941-1945). Published inKiev, the 800-page book tracesthe histories of battles and listsall decorated Ukrainian WWIIsoldiers. Weiner had receivedthe introductory book fromProfessor Petro Pachenko of theUkrainian Academy of Scienceand Roman Vishnevsky, directorand deputy director of thiscommemoration project.

Weiner is author of Jewish Rootsin Poland and Jewish Roots in theUkraine, co-published by YIVOand Weiner’s Routes to RootsFoundation.

Ukrainian Memorial BooksPresented to Library

YIVO’s headlibrarian, AvivaAstrinsky (L),receives theUkrainianmemorial booksfrom MiriamWeiner.

YIVO Library adds to Baltic and Ukrainian Collections

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A Selected BibliographyNew Yiddish Culture in Germany Reaches YIVO Library

• Asch, Sholem. Mottke der Dieb: Oper in ZweiAkten. Text von Jonothan Moore; Musik undDeutsch von Bernd Franke. Bonn: Bonn Chance!,1998. This booklet, sent to us by David Mazower,great grandson of Sholem Asch, accompanied a1998 Bonn production of Asch’s Motke Ganef.The play, a rich depiction of the Jewish under-world, first appeared as a novel in 1916 and waslater adapted for the Yiddish stage; productionshave starred Isaac Samberg and Mike Burstein.The booklet includes a synopsis of the play aswell as biographical sketches of Sholem Asch,Jonothan Moore and Bernd Franke. It also in-cludes an extended conversation between Frankeand Paul Esterhazy on themes of the play, hismusical strategies, and his interest in the workof Asch and in Yiddish literature in general.

• Jiddische Buecher und Handschriften aus denNiedelanden: Eine Ausstellung der Abteilung fuerJiddische Kultur, Sprache und Literatur. Dusseldorf:Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet und Amsterdam:Menasseh ben Israel Instituut voor joodsesociaal-wetenschappelijke en cultuurhistorischestudies, 2000.This catalog accompanied an exhibition of rareYiddish books and manuscripts from libraries inHolland and Germany. The exhibition coversbiblical commentaries, liturgical works, travelreports, theater, community life, and a collectionof wit and humor. The catalog includes aselected bibliography; an introduction by Dr.Marion Aptroot, one of the curators of theexhibition; and facsimiles of pages.

• Kuchenbecker, Antje. Zionismus ohne Zion:Birobidzan: Idee und Geschichte eines juedischenStates in Sowjet-Fernost. Berlin: Metropol, 2000.This book discusses the origins and history ofthe Jewish Autonomous Region in Russia fromits early formulations, through its founding in1934, to its contemporary condition.

• Manger, Itzik. Die Megille: The Complete Songbook.Dresden: Megille Verlag, 1998.Manger’s classic Yiddish verse rendering of thePurim story appears in English, German, and

Yiddish, with accompanying musical notation.Dov Seltzer composed the music; directorSchmuel Bunim (who died before the appear-ance of the volume) created the playful illus-trations; and the RockTheater Dresden, whichproduced the play, developed the German text.

• Ottens, Rita and Rubin, Joel. Klezmer-Musik.Kassel: Baerenreither; Muenchen: DeutscherTaschenbuch Verlag, 1999.This book presents the varied history ofklezmorim and their music, from their roots inmedieval Rhineland to the East European shtetlto the contemporary period. It analyzes rituals,musical styles, and personalities.

• Rabon, Israel. Die Strasse. Translated by ThomasSoxberger. Salzburg : Residenz, 1998.

• Skirecki, Ingetraud (compiled and edited). Die Wunder von Chanukah: Juedische Fest- undFeiertage in Geschichten. Berlin: Aufbau Verlag,2000.Classic Yiddish short stories in German trans-lation, written by Zalman Shneur, SholemAleichem, and Y.L. Peretz, are organized aroundthe Jewish holidays andShabes. Included aredrawings of Anatoli Kaplan(1922-1980), a biography ofKaplan, a glossary of termsand an essay by HeinrichSimon, “The Annual Circleof Jewish Holidays.”

• Zychlinsky, Rajzel. Gottesblinde Auguen: ausgewahlteGedichte. Aus demJiddischen von KarinaKranhold. Herausgegebenvon Karina Kranhold undSiegfried Heinrichs.Chemnitz: Oberbaum, 1997. Poems of the Yiddishpoet Reyzl Zychlinsky arep resented in Yi ddish withGerman translation.

Itzik Manger’s Die Megille: The Complete Songbook.

The YIVO Library recently acquired several important Yiddish literary works that have beenpublished in Germany over the last few years. They cover a range of subject and genre,

from exhibition catalogs to works in translation. At the same time, klezmer music is extremelypopular in Germany, and one German publisher, Verlag M. Naumann, has begun to publishnew Yiddish translations of classic European children’s literature. Taken together, thesephenomena suggest an ongoing German engagement with Yiddish language and culture.

Here is a sampling of YIVO’s recent acquisitions:


Stanley Bergman, headof YIVO’s Preservation

Department pulled on hiscotton gloves and sprinklederasing powder onto a page ofa 111-year-old copy of theYiddish book Klyatshe (TheNag), by Mendele MoykherSforim. He gently rubbed out adark smudge in the corner of adog-eared page. The book, withhandwritten notes by theauthor, was one of more than100 items that Bergman wasrestoring for the “YIVO at 75:Milestones and Treasures”exhibition (see page 1), now on display at theCenter for Jewish History (CJH). Besides cleaningsmudges and straightening dog-ears on dozens ofpages, Bergman humidified the book and mendedwhatever damage he could before the exhibit. Thehistoric paperback volume is now on display in aspecial cradle inside a vitrine next to the YIVOreading room.

“My mission in life is preserving our people’streasures,” said Bergman. “These documents arethe cultural record of the Jews of Eastern Europe.”

In the weeks before the exhibit opened, the labstabilized, conserved and archivally mountedbooks, documents, photographs, posters, and

periodicals. One piece, a 1936 Yiddish poster for the film Love and Sacri-fice, required flattening,cleaning, mending,backing with buff paperand then encapsulation inMylar.

Normally out of thelimelight, YIVO’sPreservation Departmentis also showing off itscareful and artful effortsin a display that explainsvarious tools and pro-cesses for the treatment ofdocuments. On view onthe CJH mezzanine level,the display featuresexamples of items thatwere conserved andencapsulated, situatednext to similar itemsbefore preservation.

A Decade of DedicationOver the past ten years, the Preservation

Department has worked to stabilize YIVO’sarchival collections. The department has micro-filmed more than 1.5 million of the most brittlepages and documents, making them available toresearchers without further compromising theoriginals. Newspapers were re-housed in acid-freewrappers, and thousands of unique historicalposters were stabilized and encapsulated in Mylarsleeves for easy viewing and safe handling.

"We have to look for the most important nationaland cultural treasures," Stanley Bergman noted."We try to preserve them first."

In the new state-of-the-art preservation lab,YIVO is tackling the specific preservation needs ofeach of the paper-based collections, including themany rare books from the YIVO library. Futureprojects planned include the re-housing of 3,000fragile pamphlets; preservation and encapsulationof the YIVO poster collection; developing andimplementing a computerized database for thephotographic archives; and completing item levelpreservation of the remaining 800 archival boxesin the Vilna collections.

A Labor of Love

How YIVO Preserves Our Cultural Treasures

Stanley Bergman (L) and his assistant, TatianaAlisonova, in the Preservation lab.

Books and calendar ready for preservation treatment at theYIVO Preservation Laboratory.

Rare Vilna Newspapers FoundWhile processing collections for preservation,staff found copies of the Vilner tog (Vilna Daily),dated 1937 through August 17, 1939. Over-looked by a YIVO microfilm project in the1960s, these unique newspapers describe dailylife in Vilna ten days before Germany invadedPoland. The newspapers now have been micro-filmed for posterity.

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On a recent trip to Buenos Aires, YIVO SoundArchivist Lorin Sklamberg spent an

afternoon at Radio Jai, LatinAmerica’s first Jewish radiostation. Founded in 1992 in thewake of the Israeli Embassybombing, Radio Jai broadcastsJewish music, talk shows andnews 24 hours a day, sevendays a week, including aweekly program by theBuenos Aires branch of YIVO.

While touring the station’soffices, Sklamberg excitedlyrummaged through several pilesof long-playing and 78-rpm discs,including recordings by many ofArgentina’s most renowned Yiddish music andtheater performers. Miguel Steuermann, RadioJai’s Executive Director, graciously agreed todonate the discs to YIVO’s Sound Archives ifSklamberg would provide a CD with “the creamof these treasures” for the station’s collection.Steuermann then suggested an ongoing exchangeprogram between Radio Jai and YIVO. He alsooffered to initiate an on-air collection campaignencouraging listeners to donate their Yiddishrecording collections to YIVO, which would in

turn provide Radio Jai with music for futurebroadcasts.

Sklamberg returned from BuenosAires with 35 78-rpm discs and 86

LPs, including klezmerperformances by Sam

Liberman, Berel Stal andSergio Feidman (father ofclarinetist Giora Feidman);folk and theater songsrendered by Benzion Witler,

Sarah Gorby, Henri Gerro andRosita Londner; bilingual

Yiddish-Spanish material byMax Zalkind; cantorials by David

Hickopf and comedy routines byJosé Griminger.

These rare treasures fill a major gap in YIVO’s collection and will allow future resear-chers a glimpse into the Yiddish cultural heritageof Argentina.

Radio Jai features an up-to-date web site, www.radiojai.com.ar,with links to its own live broadcasts and programming scheduleas well as links to general and Israeli news, the weekly Torahportion, Jewish cultural events in Buenos Aires, and Jewish music.Radio Jai’s web site links Latin American Jews, no matter wherethey live, to a virtual, global community.

The manuscript music collec-tion of renowned Odessan

composer and choirmasterDavid Nowakowsky (1848-1921)is now housed in YIVO’s MusicArchives, thanks to the David

Nowakowsky Foundation. Hisgrandson David Novack facili-tated the gift. Cantor DavidLefkowitz of the Park AvenueSynagogue, who has produced a comprehensive catalog anddatabase of Nowakowsky’smusical compositions, deliveredthe 14 archival boxes of musicmanuscripts to YIVO.

When Nowakowsky movedfrom his native Malin to Odessa,Russia, he became assistant to Nissan Blumenthal, ChiefCantor of the Brody Synagogue,and later to his successor, PinhasMinkowsky.

Nowakowsky was responsiblefor training the Brody choir. Healso served as Music Director ofthe Odessa Orphan Asylum andtaught at various area musicschools. Despite his active pro-fessional life, he managed to

write hundreds of synagoguecompositions. Although onlytwo works were published in hislifetime (Shirei Dovid and TefilasN’iloh), his music was copiedfrom manuscript and passedfrom cantor to cantor.

Nowakowsky was well-knowneven in secular Russia andEurope. When Tchaikowskyattended an performance of theNowakowsky symphony fororchestra, he apparently com-mented, “In Nowakowsky waslost a first degree talent, and it is a pity that he did not devotehimself to secular music.”

The historical Nowakowskycollection, which had been lostfor nearly two generations afterthe Second World War, is animportant addition to the syna-gogual music collections in theYIVO Music Archives.

YIVO and Argentina’s Radio Jai Build New Partnership

I m p o rtant Synagogue Music“Lost” Nowakowski Music Collection Donated to YIVO

Center: a label of one of the LPsobtained fromRadio Jai.

H O L O C A U S T• Teresa Cahn Tober donated the

notes written by her uncle,Arthur Zimand, which weresmuggled out of the JanowskaRoad extermination camp inLviv, Ukraine. The notes are tohis mother, Rose, and to a Polewho tried to help him; Zimanddid not survive.

• Jana Frank Wallach donated alarge collection of documentsgenerated by the imposedJewish Councils in the Pragueand Theresienstadt ghettos.

• Chaya Lifshits Waxman andLillian Lifshits Faffer donatedapproximately a hundredidentity cards of Jews depor-ted from the Biala Podlaskaghetto. They also donatedover a hundred prewarphotographs of the Jewishcommunity in Suwalki,

Poland, as well as extensivedocumentation of the activitiesof the Suwalki and VicinityBenevolent Association.

• Jewish identity cards were also contibuted by SamuelHomewood and by an anony-mous donor via Dr. BenjaminNadel.

• Jack Welner donated theYiddish text of a long poemthat was recited by workers invarious “resorts”—industrialenterprises—in the ghetto ofLodz, Poland.

• Holocaust-related materialswere also donated by SusanKardos and Isaac Kowalski.

H I S T O RY • Andrew Hoffman donated,

via Carol Oshinsky, the papersof his brother, Tibor HaziHoffman, and of his sister-in-law, Magda Gal, who wereworld-class table tennisplayers and winners of numer-ous championships. Theystarted their careers inHungary, but, as Jews, had toemigrate to the U.S., wherethey continued their sports

careers. This is only the secondsports collection in the YIVOArchives.

• Sol and Florence Axelroddonated their collection on theJersey Homesteads, a commu-nity of Jewish chicken farmersand needle trades workers,located in Monmouth County,New Jersey.

• Dorothy Goldberg donated alarge supplement to the pa-pers of her father, the Yiddish-language Socialist editor IsaacLevin-Shatskes, includingmany photographs of Jewishlife in prewar Dvinsk, Latvia.

• Helen and Norman Goldsmithdonated supplementary mate-rials to the papers of the LaborZionist activist Morris MoisheGoldsmith.

• David and Lena Breslowdonated a large collection ofdocuments on the Workmen’sCircle activities in the Bronx.

• Perry Pesakh Milbauer do-nated a large addition to therecords of Camp Boiberik, anon-partisan, Yiddish-centeredsummer camp for childrenand adults.


New Accessions to the YIVO Archives

Family group, Dvinsk Latvia, 1937. Donor: Dorothy Goldberg. Identification card of Aaron Abram issued by the Amsterdam Judenrat, 1942.Anonymous donor.

23

New Accessions to the YIVO Archives• Dr. Gail Malmgreen donated

three Yiddish posters fromIsrael.

• Lawrence Schleifer donated,via Cecile Greif, a German-Jewish calendar from 1927/28.

• Roni Gechtman donated hiscopies of Bund leaflets frominterwar Poland. The originalsare in Polish archives.

• Sol Zucker, Dr. Daniel Soyerand Renee Miller donatedbuttons and leaflets related tothe 2000 U.S. Presidentialelection and to events in theMiddle East.

L A N D S M A N S H A F T NAND GENEALOGY• Gabriel Spitzer donated the

memoirs of his great aunt,Rosalie Braverman, describingher childhood in interwarPoland.

• Issy Pilowsky donated thememoirs of his father, JosephPilowsky, concerning Polandand South Africa, spanningfrom World War I to the 1960s.

• Irene Benson donated approxi-mately 200 letters from

relatives in the former SovietUnion, from the 1930s-1960s.

• Anita Smith and Theresa Sadindonated the premarital corres-pondence of their parents inPinsk, Belarus, from 1923.

• Lilian V. Falk donated hergrandfather’s letters, writtenin Vilnius from 1914 to 1941.

• Elise Fischer donated personaldocuments of her late uncle,Irving Robins, who enlisted inthe U.S. Army in 1920.

• Pearl E. Manne donated hermother’s letters, written in theBronx in 1942-43.

• Sanford Silverman donatedIsaac Shapiro’s self-publishedEnglish exercise book. Shapirocame to the U.S. in 1876.

• Gary Mokotoff donated a copyof the Kobriner BenevolentAssociation’s 40th anniversarysouvenir book, dated 1929.

• Dr. Eric L. Friedland donatedhis translation of parts of theNovograd-Volynskiy (Zvihl),Ukraine, memorial book.

• Dorothy Shapiro donatedmaterials on Jewish

congregations in SullivanCounty, New York.

• Michael Deutsch gave addi-tional materials to the recordsof the Boys’ Congregation ofTalmud Torah Tifereth Israel ofBrooklyn, and Martha Kaplandonated additional documentsto her family’s papers.

L A N G U A G E ,L I T E R A RY ANDF O L K L O R E• Rachel Biderman donated

the papers of her husband,Yiddish-Hebrew-EnglishZionist writer and editor Israel Mordechai Biderman.

• Marion Glassman donated alarge increment of letters andmanuscripts of her father-in-law, Yiddish novelist and criticBaruch Glassman.

• Professor Joseph Tussmandonated a large number ofmanuscripts and other docu-ments to the papers of hismother, Yiddish poet MalkaHeifetz Tussman.

• Adah Fogel donated addi-tional materials, including her English translations, to thepapers of her father, Yiddishnovelist and poet MenachemBoreisha.

• YIVO’s distinguished folklor-ist, Bina Silverman Weinreich,donated a large increment tothe papers of her husband,YIVO’s great linguist UrielWeinreich. She has also do-nated approximately 350 LPrecordings.

• Dr. Richard Tomback donatedadditional documents to thepapers of his parents, the YIVO zamlers David and LeahTomback.

Hehalutz booklet written by Freda Whittaker, London, 1943. Donor: Eiran Harris. [continued on page 26]

Dan Belafsky,semi-pro baseballplayer, PerthAmboy, NewJersey, circa 1905. Donor:Morton Frankel.


• Dr. Sharon Fliterman Kingdonated the manuscript of herEnglish-language novel aboutthe Holocaust. It is intendedfor adolescents.

• Zamler Eiran Harris has sent insome unusual items, includingportions of a manuscript of theBook of Esther in a Yemenitescript.

• Chaim Beider donated anessay about his soon-to-be-published lexicon of SovietYiddish writers.

T H E ATER AND ART• Olga Sztein donated the pa-

pers of her mother-in-law,Julia Flaum, a leading Yiddish

actress who performed inPoland, the Soviet Union andIsrael. These include drawingsby the great Yiddish novelistEfraim Kaganowski.

• Isabella Leitner donated a setof nine lithographs by GersonLeiber. Each lithograph incor-porates a portion of Leitner’spoem, which is a reflection onher surviving Auschwitz.

• Sophia Adler donated a 1957tape of the Yiddish poet LeviBerman reading his 1910 tran-scription of the Purimshpil(Purim play) performed inSiauliai (Shavl), Lithuania,interspersed with memoriesand songs by Yiddish poetNahum Yud, orginally ofMohilev, Belarus.

• Simon B. Golden donatedmaterials of the touring“Nawenad” Yiddish theatricaltroupe. This group performedsophisticated revues forJewish refugees in Switzerlandduring and after World War II.He also has donated his par-ents’ correspondence, whichreflects their wanderings inEurope before and during thewar.

• Doris Gold donated additionalmaterials of the FolksbieneYiddish Theater in New York.

• Bob Tartell donated materialsof the Gilbert & SullivanYiddish Light Opera Companyof Long Island, New York.

MUSIC AND DANCE • Lori Pandolpho and Leo H.

Seitelman, co-presidents ofTemple Beth Emeth v’OhrProgressive Shaari Zedek ofBrooklyn, along with RabbiWilliam Kloner, donated alarge collection of cantorialand liturgical items, including276 78-rpm recordings, 33 lp

discs, and other Jewish musicmaterials.

• Miguel Steuerman, ExecutiveDirector of Radio Jai, theJewish-oriented radio stationin Buenos Aires, donated 85 lpdiscs, as well as 35 78-rpmdiscs, all recordings made byartists whose careers werecentered in Latin America.

• Ruby Jacobs donated 170 78-rpm and 48 LP recordings.

• Bella Baron donated 42 record-ings, consisting of both 78sand LPs.

• Louise Albert donated 30 78-rpm recordings of Yiddishtheater and cantorial music.

• Lucy Leventhol Brody dona-ted, via Living Traditions, 2478-rpm recordings.

• Rosalind Dann donated 41 LPrecordings.

• Barbara P. Marcus donated 1678-rpm recordings of klezmer,Yiddish theater and cantorialmusic.

• Milton and Edith Millerdonated 12 78-rpm recordings.

• Irwin Miller of the JewishHistorical Society of GreaterStamford, CT, donated ten 78-rpm discs of klezmer andYiddish theater music.

• Charlotte Schwab donatedeight recordings, as well asJewish ritual objects.

• Felix Fibich donated twovideos about his uniqueJewish-based choreography.

• Sidney Stark donated sevenreel-to-reel tapes of concertsby the Labor Zionist AllianceFarband Culture Chorus, from1946-1971.

• Irv Fletcher donated four reel-to-reel tapes of Yiddish musicsung by him.Breindl Lerman (on right) and sister pose in Pinsk, Belarus,

circa 1920-1930. Donor: Dorothy Goldberg.

New Accessions [continued from page 25]

25

• Shmuel Rubinstein donated,via Assaf Astrinsky, a tape ofthe singing and reciting of hisbrother, Avrom Rubinstein,who was a South AfricanLabor Zionist activist as wellas a Yiddish performer.

• Isabel Belarsky donatedpersonal documents of herfather, the basso SidorBelarsky.

• Thomas Garber donated acopy of “Stars of David: Musicby Singers of JewishHeritage,” a CD-ROMcompilation based on a set ofaudio cassettes published inItaly that feature Jewish operaand concert singers.

• Frances Schrager donated, viaProfessor Laura Fishman, 22pieces of Yiddish-theater sheetmusic, six of which are new toYIVO’s collections.

• Shaindle Borenstein donated,via Sonia Hamlin, printed andhectographed music sung inthe Yiddish-oriented Boiberiksummer camp.

PHOTOGRAPHIC ANDVISUAL MAT E R I A L S• Joanna Szczek donated, via Dr.

Michael Steinlauf, a largeincrement to the papers of her

husband, the Polish architectStanislaw Szczek, whichinclude architectural, icono-graphic and historic evidenceabout several hundred syna-gogues in Poland. Mr. Szczek,who was not Jewish and whoworked entirely at his ownexpense, assembled thesematerials over several dec-ades. Most synagogues arerepresented by architecturaldrawings done in his hand.

• Dr. Judah Marmor donatedphotographs of his father,prominent Yiddish editor,critic and literary historianKalman Marmor, whose

extensive papers form one ofthe most important collectionsin YIVO.

• Celebrated writer BelKaufman donated a photo-graph of her as a young childsitting on the knee of SholomAleichem, her grandfather.

• Debra Price donated photo-graphs from the InternationalWorkers’ Order.

• Morton Frankel donated pho-tographs of Jewish life in NewJersey prior to World War I.

• Marvin Itzkowitz donatedphotographs of Bundists inLoszyce, Poland.

• Anne Marie Boisson donatedfamily photographs as well asphotographs of Jewish life inMainz and Pinsk from the1930s.

• Chava Fried donated aphotograph of her husband,Efraim, and the other editorsof the Yiddish wall newspaperfrom the Jewish DisplacedPersons Camp in Bad Gastein,Austria.

• Stanley and Ruth Rosenbergdonated Rosh Hashanahpostcards from the 1920s.

Below, UrielWeinreich (L) inthe U.S. Army, nearthe town of Fulda,Germany, February1946. Donor: BinaWeinreich.

Julia Flaum, Yiddish actress, and Yiddish writer Ephraim Kaganowski, post-warPoland, circa 1958. Donor: Olga Sztein.


Donors of $1,000 - $4,999

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

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

Members of YIVO’s Aspirantur (graduate studies) program, Vilna 1939. LucyDawidowicz (first row, 3rd from left) wrote From That Place and Time (New York,1989), a memoir of her stay in Vilna on the eve of World War II. (YIVO Archives)

Young Jewish men pose by weaving workshop looms in avocational school for yeshiva students, Sighet, Rumania,1920s-1930s. (YIVO Archives)

Anonymous (2)

Paul A. Abecassis

Rosina K. Abramson and Jeffrey Glenn

Carmela and Milton R. Ackman

Wilma and Arthur Aeder

Helen V. and Sheldon M. Atlas

Roz and Michael H. Baker

Krasdale Foods, Inc.Sigmund Balka

Amy and Stephen M. Banker

Esther and Dr. Mark Barbasch

Sanford L. Batkin

MSB StrategiesMartin Begun

Millburn Corp.Jayne and Harvey Beker

Hermitage Capital CorporationJohn Bendall, Jr.

Arthur W. Berger

Joan and Joseph Birman

Eve and Anthony Bonner

Elizabeth and Warren Brody

Jules H. Bromberg

Rose Anne and Lucien Burstein

Marilyn and Marshall D. Butler

Harry and Marilyn CaginPhilanthropic FundMarilyn and Harry Cagin

Carter Stone & Company, Inc.Leslie Carter

Casdin Capital Partners, LLCSharon and Jeffrey W. Casdin

Irving Chutick Foundation, Inc.Louise and Jack Terry

Emanuel and Anna Cohen Foundation,Inc.Gloria and Morris L. Cohen

Congregation Tifereth Joseph - AnsheiPrzemysl

Conners Capital Management Inc.Sandra and Daniel A. Conners

Jaime P. Constantiner

Rena Costa Foundation, Inc.Rena Costa

Richard & Rosalee C. DavisonFoundation, Inc.Rosalee C. and Richard Davison

Rosalind Devon

Charles Dimston

Lillian and Elliot Eisman

Rosalyn and Irwin Engelman

George Epstein

Bambi and Roger H. Felberbaum

Herbert G. Feldman CharitableFoundation

Janet and George P. Felleman

Phil and Cheryl Fishbein

Jack Fishman

Sheila and Larry Fishman

Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloyRichard P. Fishman

Max & Clara Fortunoff Foundation Inc.Alan M. Fortunoff

Each issue of Yedies highlights items from the YIVO collections.The following images are from the “YIVO at 75: Milestones andTreasures” exhibit, currently on display at YIVO.

Samuel and Jean Frankel FoundationJean and Samuel Frankel

Gillian E. Friedman

Miriam and Richard S. Friedman

Meyer and Tzippe FruchtbaumFoundationMordkhe Schaechter

Caryl and Stanley Fuchs

Jerrold P. Fuchs

Ruth Gay

Ellen Berland Gibbs

Lucille and David Gildin

Gilsanz Murray Steficek, LLPRamon Gilsanz

Myrna and Norman J. Ginstling

Carl Glick

Rachel Maidenbaum Gober

Specks & GoldbergMargaret and Perry Goldberg

Gilbert & Carol GoldsteinPhilanthropic FundCarol and Gilbert Goldstein

Michael S. Gordon

Yvette and Larry Gralla

Richard Grand FoundationMarcia Grand

Eugene M. Grant and CompanyEugene M. Grant

Kraft Haiken & Bell LLPBobbe and Edward R. Haiken

Barlow Partners, Inc.Patricia G. and George A. Hambrecht

Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.Susan and Roger Hertog

George H. Heyman, Jr.

Ellen and David S. Hirsch

Marc L. Holtzman

Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc.Chris and Morton P. Hyman

Mel Ilberman

Inter Documentation Company B.V.

International Duplication Centre, Inc.Marcy Gilbert

NELCO Sewing Company, Inc.Ania and Leon Jolson

Drs. Tamara and Charles Kaner

Morris J. & Betty Kaplun Foundation,Inc.Zvi Levavy

Emile Karafiol

Sima and Nathan Katz

Susan and Jerome L. Katz

Linda and Ilan Kaufthal

Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, Inc.Lillie and Martin Pope

Pearl and Ralph Kier

R.A.K. Group, LLCRandy Kohana

Nathan & Helen Kohler FoundationMarilyn Buel

Eastlake Securities, Inc.Murray Koppelman

Carolyn and Steven Kotler

Helen Krieger

Steve Krieger

Lowenthal, Landau, Fischer & Bring,P.C.Marlene and Edward J. Landau

Laskin Charitable Foundation, Inc.

Leona and Meyer Laskin

Dalia and Laurence C. Leeds

Eileen G. and Peter M. Lehrer

Seymour and Barbara J. LeslieFoundationBarbara J. and Seymour Leslie

Carol L. and Jerry W. Levin

27

From October 1, 1999 – October 31, 2000


Leaflet announcing public meeting insupport of the newly formed State ofIsrael. May 1948. (U.S. TerritorialCollection, YIVO Archives)

Memorial service on theanniversary ofWarsaw GhettoUprising (April 19, 1943). Phototaken in DP Campin Cremona, Italy,1946-1950.(YIVO Archives)

Urban Foundation/Engineering, LLC.Elsie and Leon Levy

Bobbi and Harvey Lewis

Ella Lidsky

Madeline and Irwin Lieber

Lucius N. Littauer Foundation Inc.William Lee Frost

John L. Loeb Jr. FoundationJohn L. Loeb, Jr.

Wertheim, Schroder & Company, Inc.Eleanor and Mort Lowenthal

Ida and Max Lubliner

Mack CompanyCarol and Earle I. Mack

William Mack Charitable TrustPhyllis and William L. Mack

Elizabeth H. and James R. Maher

Mark Family FoundationSusan and Morris Mark

Vladka and Benjamin Meed

Joseph Meyerhoff Family CharitableFundsTerry M. Rubenstein

Milstein PropertiesAbby and Howard P. Milstein

Esther and Jonathan Mishkin

Carole and John A. Moran

Ornella and Robert E. Morrow

Weiss, Peck & Greer, L.L.C.Jay C. Nadel

Ruth G. and Edgar J. Nathan

New York Times Company Foundation,Inc. Barbara and Arthur Gelb

Estate of Elias Newman

Deborah and Samuel Norich

Des Moines CompanyEdward Ochylski

Nancy and Morris W. Offit

Rahill CapitalBarbara and Joel R. Packer

Jill Gellerman Pandey

Rose and Hyman H. Parrell

Patricof & Co. Ventures, Inc.Susan and Alan J. Patricof

Arthur and Marilyn Penn CharitableTrustMarilyn and Arthur Penn

Barbara and Louis Perlmutter

Philip Morris Companies Inc.Stephanie French

Philip Morris International Inc.David E.R. Dangoor

Marcell & Maria Roth Fund Inc.Irene E. Pipes

Ann and Harold Platt

Lee Harris Pomeroy ArchitectSarah and Lee H. Pomeroy

Louis Pozez

Rabina Realty Inc.Mickey Rabina

Lewis Rabinowitz

Jack Resnick & Sons, Inc.Judith and Burton P. Resnick

Heidrick & Struggles, Inc.Gerard R. Roche

Nanette and George S. Rosenberg

Tina Rosenberg


Bookstore in the Jewish quarter of Paris, ca. 1920. (TerritorialPhotographic Collection, YIVO Archives)

Donors [continued from page 30]

Jewish Melodies, Album 1, performed by Sidor Belarsky, basso cantante,accompanied by Lazar Weiner, piano. Cover illustration by Saul Raskin. Recorded ca 1947, New York City. (YIVO Sound Archives)

29

Lief D. Rosenblatt

Ruth and Arthur Rosenblatt

Nitza and Henry Rosovsky

Rubenstein Associates, Inc.Amy and Howard J. Rubenstein

Nan and Herbert F. Schwartz

Sherry L. and Barry F. Schwartz

Nancy Bissell and Robert Segal

Seidman & Co., Inc.Herta and Samuel N. Seidman

Sequa Foundation of DelawareMarjorie and Norman E. Alexander

Lehman Brothers Inc.Jean and Martin D. Shafiroff

Natalie and Howard Shawn

Sholem Aleichem Folk Shul No. 21, Inc.Bella Gottesman

Patricia and David Shulman

Chris-Craft Industries Inc.Ann L. and Herbert J. Siegel

Mae S. Silver

Silverstein Properties, Inc.Klara and Larry A. Silverstein

Dr. Adina and Michael C. Singer

Todd James Slotkin

Joan and Ira H. Slovin

Marion Scheuer and Abraham D.Sofaer

Sara and Martin L. Solomon

Eva and Edward Sperling

Norman & Carol Stahl FoundationCarol A. Stahl

Laidlaw Holdings Asset Management,Inc.Alan Stahler

Fairchild CorporationIrja and Jeffrey Steiner

Vera Stern

Max StollmanFoulston, Siefkin L.L.P.

Mikel L. Stout Esq.

Helene and Morris Talansky

Tanner & Co., Inc.Estelle N. and Harold Tanner

Sara and Benjamin Torchinsky

Dorothy C. Treisman

Union of Needletrades, Industrial &TextileJay Mazur

John and Mira Jedwabnik Van Doren

Wagner Family FoundationLeon M. Wagner

Sima and Rubin Wagner

Ocram, Inc.Marco Walker

Gladys O. and Allen C. Waller

Nina and Walter H. Weiner

TPMC Realty CorporationDavid R. Weinreb

Weiss Peck & GreerSuzanne and Stephen H. Weiss

Lilyan Wilder

Judith Wilf

Louis Williams Foundation, Inc.Elliot Scher

Calhoun Winton

AON Group LimitedJohn R. Wise

Vedder, Price, Kaufman & KammholzCharles B. Wolf, Esq.

Workmen’s Circle Branch 48-81 -Cultural Committee

Herman Wouk Foundation, Inc.Betty and Herman Wouk

Eta and Henry Wrobel

Genevieve G. and Justin L. Wyner

YIVO Committee of MiamiMindel Wajsman

Marjorie and Aaron Ziegelman

72A Realty AssociatesArthur D. Zinberg

Matilda and Philip Zinn

Di Klyatshe (The Nag) by Mendele Moykher Sforim. Printed in Odessa, 1889. Thehandwritten corrections are believed to have been made by the author.

Libe unLaydenshaft(Love andSacrifice).Poster for aYiddish film.New York, 1936.


We encourage our readers to write (by regular mail or e-mail) with comments andresponses to Yedies.

Letters to Yedies

Dear Editor: Learning about the death of DinaAbramowicz made me very sad. I got to know Ms. Abramowicz a few years ago when I visitedYIVO to find pictures for a book I was planning topublish. The book was a contemporary history ofthe Vilna ghetto, written by Grigory Szur.

Ms. Abramowicz listened carefully to myrequest, but asked me to come back later. I wentback to YIVO that afternoon, because I did notwant to disappoint this fragile, but impressive, oldlady. She told me then that she was related to theauthor of my book in a very personal way.

Ms. Abramowicz told me that she herself was asurvivor of the Vilna Ghetto. When the ghetto wasliquidated in 1943, she was put on a train ‘to alabor camp.’ She managed to get off that train justafter it had departed for its unknown destination.The only thing she could think of doing was towalk to the fur factory Kailis, now transformedinto a military uniform repair workshop—the onlyplace in Vilna she knew that Jews were stillworking as forced laborers.

She received a hostile reception there. Peoplesaid that by her illegal presence, she was not onlyputting her own life at risk, but also theirs. Finally,she was approached by a man who offered her ref-uge for a fortnight. She said to me, ‘This man wasyour author, Grigory Szur. He actually saved mylife.’ Later Dina Abramowicz managed to escapethe barracks and join the partisans in the woods.

To my knowledge, Abramowicz never found theopportunity to write this story down. With thisletter, I just want to share this memory of DinaAbramowicz, this admirable personality, whom Iwill never forget.

Jan MetsPublisher, Mets en Schilt

Amsterdam, Holland

Dear Editor: Dina Abramowicz has personifiedYIVO for me since I made my first visit there in December 1959. True refinement seems toexpress itself through noble service. AlthoughDina Abramowicz—who always addressed meformally, as chaverte, then Dr. Wisse—was alwaysin the service of others, I always felt that I wastrying to live up to her standards of a purer world, the highest level of scholarship and theVilna aristocracy. May her memory be blessed.

Ruth Wisse, Harvard UniversityDepartment of Near Eastern Languages

and CivilizationsCambridge, MA

Mourning Dina AbramowiczDear Editor: I was saddened to read of the passingof Dina Abramowicz, with whom I felt a personalconnection. Many years ago she “put me on” to theYIVO library’s invaluable collection on the Jewishlabor movement in England. That enabled me tocompose a solidly documented chapter on the sub-ject of my dissertation, which later became a book,The Jewish Immigrant in England, 1870-1914. In mystruggles to master Yiddish, she readily came tomy aid as I worked my way through the Yiddishpress. She was a unique asset to YIVO and toscholars and students. I am therefore sending acontribution for the Dina Abramowicz Book Fund.

Lloyd Gartner, Tel Aviv UniversityDepartment of Jewish History

Ramat Aviv, Israel

Dear Editor: I was delighted to see that YIVO wasorganizing a tribute to Dina Abramowicz, thenterribly saddened to discover that it was a memo-rial tribute. I contacted YIVO seeking informationon the original of the Little Jargon Storybook referredto in Israel Zangwill’s Children of the Ghetto. I wasreferred to Dina Abramowicz, who spent a greatdeal of time with me on the telephone, explainingthe history of the Maaseh-Bukh and other Yiddishcollections of medieval folktales, as well as theorigins and variants of several legends discussedin Zangwill’s novel. A few days later, a thick enve-lope from YIVO arrived in the mail. It containedphotocopies of items from the YIVO collection. Ihad always hoped to meet Dina Abramowicz andthank her in person. Indeed, both her voice andher prodigious energy had suggested to me thatshe was a much younger person.

Meri-Jane RochelsonAssociate Professor

Florida International UniversityNorth Miami, FL

Become a Member of YIVO To d a yHelp ensure that our children and ourchildren’s children will study, enjoy andremember the history, language andculture of our East European ancestors.

31

Letters to Yedies

75th Anniversary ExhibitionDear Editor: Hearty congratulations on the YIVOAnniversary Exhibition. Since we are partners inthe preservation of our beloved Yiddish languageand culture, we share with you the pride and joyabout this milestone event, as we shared the workand sorrow back in 1994 and 1995, when you lentus a helping hand. We hope that you will be thereagain for us when we put on our own “IWO at 75”exhibition in 2003.

Dr. Saul Drajer, ChairmanIWO

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Dear Editor: Thank you very much for such awonderful evening at YIVO on October 19, 2000. Itruly enjoyed meeting Professor Deborah Lipstadtand members of the YIVO Board as well as theenriching discussion, the delicious dinner and theopportunity to attend the “YIVO at 75” exhibition,with the guidance of Mrs. Ella Levine (Director ofDevelopment and External Affairs) in Lithuanian.

Dr. Lipstadt’s lecture, “Holocaust Denial: A NewForm of Anti-Semitism” was a thrilling experienceand a great success. Academics like Dr. Lipstadtremind us of the need to preserve and fight, ifnecessary, for our history and dignity.

Dina KopilevicEmbassy of Lithuania

Washington, DC

Thanks to YIVODear Editor: It is hard to express my surprise anddelight upon receiving the box with copies ofYIVO-bleter, Yidishe shprakh, a copy of the YIVOAnnual and the second volume of the Language andCulture Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry. I cannot recipro-cate in kind, but I can assure you the materials willbe put to good use here in Düsseldorf.

Professor Marion AptrootAbteilung für Jiddische Kulture,

Sprache und LiteraturDüsseldorf, Germany

Dear Editor: Many thanks to Dr. David Fishmanand Dr. Hershel Glasser for coordinating theYiddish Seminar program. It was most interestingand informative—from the first lecture on Yiddishorthography to the last lecture on Yiddish litera-ture in Israel. I look forward to the next series.

Florence SolomonNew York, NY

Dear Editor: I was deeply interested, indeedmoved, by my visit to the Center—let aloneamazed by your archivist’s capacity to summonup pictures from Alytus, Lithuania on screen fromthe time my mother was a girl there. I wouldn’t besurprised if she knew Shimele, the village clown,but I know she would be astounded at the ideathat, 75 years later, someone could summon up hispicture on a computer screen for her son to see,half a world away.

Admiring appreciation,Jack Rosenthal

President, The New York Times Company FoundationNew York, NY

Dear Editor: Thank you very much for your kindletter inviting me to visit the exhibition comme-morating the 75th anniversary of the founding of YIVO. Thank you also for having sent me thelast issue of the YIVO Yedies which I read withgreat interest. As a token of my appreciation,please find enclosed a copy of the catalogueprepared for the YIVO exhibition that Mrs. FiraBramson and I organized in our UniversityLibrary. The vermissage was very well attended.

Prof. Dr. Stefan SchreinerDirector, Institutum Judaicum

Universität Tübingen, Germany

ArgentinaDear Editor: I would like to take this opportunityto introduce to you Radio Jai, the first Jewish radiostation in Latin America. The station was foundedin 1992 in Buenos Aires, a few months after theIsraeli Embassy was bombed. Since those difficultdays, our cultural message has become one of themost important milestones in Argentinian Jewishlife (incidentally, the local YIVO hosts a regularRadio Jai program, Di Naye Yidishe Sho).

Over the past eight years we have developedadditional expressions of Jewish culture, includinga small recording company and a publisher. Wehave had the great privilege of bringing TheKlezmatics to Argentina twice. Their shows were abig success in our city. We and YIVO alsodiscussed ways of exchanging material andinformation. This small but meaningful projectcould be the beginning of a continued culturalexchange aimed at expanding and enrichingJewish cultural life worldwide.

Lic Miguel Steuermann, Executive DirectorRadio Jai, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Editor’s Note: See related article on page 21.


A delegation of distinguished scholars from the Baltic Sates—Latvia, Lithuania andEstonia—during their August visit to YIVO. They met with YIVO Executive DirectorDr. Carl Rheins (center).

32

Scholars from Baltic States Visit YIVO

Sparked by the International Visitor Program ofthe United States Department of State, a dele-

gation of five historians and researchers from the Baltic States visited YIVO on August 8 to meetwith Marek Web, Head Archivist, Aviva Astrinsky,Head Librarian, Lorin Sklamberg, Sound Archivistand other YIVO staff.

The delegation included John Zins, United StatesDepartment of State English Language Office;Markas Zingeris, Deputy Executive Director ofResearch in Holocaust, International Commissionfor Evaluation of Nazi and Soviet OccupationalRegimes Crimes in Lithuania; Argo Kuusik,Director, Museum of Tallinn Technical University;Dr. Rudite Viksne, Researcher, Historical Instituteof Latvia; Ronaldas Racinskas, Executive Director,International Commission for the Evaluation ofNazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes Crimes in Lithuania; Dr. Antonijs Zunde, Associate Profes-sor, Department of Contemporary American andWestern European History, University of Latvia.

"This was an important opportunity for YIVO toexplore greater understanding and professionalexchanges with libraries and archives in Latvia,Lithuania and Estonia," YIVO's Executive Director

Carl Rheins noted. "There are many points ofcommon interest and resources to share. We hopethis is just the beginning of a new collegiality."

The U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Program seeks to improve and expandrelations between the United States and othercountries, and to build cultural, educational and professional links.

Zamler [continued from page 10]

Twersky, who graciously permitted the ZamlerProject to copy them.

The contemporary Eastern European photographsand interviews collected by Heschel complementmaterials currently being gathered in the NewYork area by the Zamler Project. Archivists havealso established numerous new local contacts,scheduled interviews for the future, and gatheredposters, field recordings of Hasidic gatherings,printed materials and other archival materials.

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