Documents

From Sholem Aleichem in Vilna to Rashel and Emanuel Golomb in (Saint Petersburg?), 28 April 1914, about how he has been sick with a high fever and so will probably not be able to stick to his plan to go to Saint Petersburg, as planned, on 4 May. "Bashert tsures! Nu, tsures!" [We were doomed to have trouble! Nu, trouble!] Notwithstanding the fact that he has a "natural and official impressario," he wants the Golombs to arrange an event for him, in addition to the already planned evening event. "And if my official impressario won't let you do it--this, Sarna will also tell you. And Sarna is a guy who is a momzer [bastard], a dealer of and an expert in smoking paraphernalia, I mean, women." He is relieved to have gotten himself released from a contract that required him to go from shtetl to shtetl, which led to his present illness and his having to stay in Vilna. In Vilna, they have "hospitals such as one doesn't see in Switzerland and Italy." He appreciates their offer of hospitality in Saint Petersburg, but after such an ordeal, he needs comfort and peace and will be a very difficult houseguest. So maybe it would be better if they reserved accommodations in a hotel for him, but only a first-class one. He needs two "comfortable" [English word used] rooms with a full bath. He also wants kosher, home-cooked meals, but according to his schedule—not according to when they eat lunch in Saint Petersburg. He acknowledges that he is a "difficult person" to satisfy. RG 107, Letters Collection, Box 16, no. 7.

Emanuel Ringelblum, "A Story with an American Jew, Two Indians, and the English Consul (In the 18th Century)," n.d. Eighteenth-century Polish newspapers carried many "human interest" stories about people of other lands, including Jews in America. Often, these "reports" were sensationalist in nature, and even sometimes untrue. One such story, which appeared in Wiadomości Warszawa in March 1765, described a Jew who had tricked two Native Americans from Pennsylvania into accompanying him to Europe, where he exhibited them. In Holland, two former American colonists, upset that the Native Americans were being exploited "like animals," got the English consul to confiscate them from the Jew and send them to London, where they became quite a sensation, appearing at a royal ball before they were sent home to America. Yiddish. RG 108, Manuscripts Collection, F81.7.

From Zalman Shneour in Warsaw to Abraham Cahan in New York, 28 November 1928. Shneour and his wife and child are visiting her father, and therefore he apologizes for delays this may cause in his delivery of installments of stories that Cahan is publishing serially in the American Yiddish newspaper Forverts: "The Polish post is not as punctual as the French post." He complains that Cahan's refusal to allow the Canadian Yiddish newspaper Der keneder odler to reprint his work has deprived him of income, and he wants Cahan to get the Forverts to make it up to him with a bigger monthly fee for the "4 novels that I have printed week in and week out." He notes that booksellers from all over Europe and America have written to him asking him to publish the novels in book form. Based on this, he is sure that a print run of 5,000–6,000 would sell out, at least 2,000 in Warsaw alone. He knows that the Forverts doesn't publish books but he wonders if they might make an exception this time. He awaits the next volume of Cahan's published memoirs and compares the latter favorably to a memoir by Shmerl Levin that he has recently read. He also alludes to the fact that Cahan is a "martyr" who has put aside his fiction writing for the good of "his party." Yiddish. Hebrew letterhead: Z. Shneour. RG 1139, Abraham Cahan Papers, F135.

From Nokhem Shtif in Kiev to Kalman Marmor in New York, 19 November 1929, wishing him well on his fiftieth birthday, which he has read about in the Yiddish newspaper Frayhayt. Although Shtif doesn't know Marmor personally, he has warm feelings toward him. They are of the same generation, which has achieved so many things, including Zionism and socialism and "war and revolution . . . enough for three generations!" He reminisces about writing revolutionary propaganda with Moshe Olgin about the Kishinev pogrom and Jewish self-defense in Kiev. Yiddish. RG 205, Kalman Marmor Papers, F253/19550.

From Zalmen Reyzen in Vilna to members of the Yiddish Writers and Journalists Club in Palestine, 6 June 1929, about whether they have the authorization to form a branch of the Yiddish Pen Club there. He informs them that the regulations of the club prohibit a discrete organization from serving as a branch of the club, and also, that membership is limited to literary writers and excludes journalists. However, if a sufficient number of individual writers in Palestine join the Yiddish Pen Club, they will consider establishing a separate branch in Palestine. Yiddish. RG 107, Letters Collection.

From Sholem Aleichem in Kiev to Yehoshu‘a Ḥana Ravnitski, October 1903. Notes on his autobiography. Sholem Aleichem fully expects that Yiddish will play a great role in the culture of the Jewish people but that one would need to be "half a prophet or a whole fool to say this out loud." Yiddish. RG 107, Letters Collection, Box 16, F1.

From Der Nister in Berlin to Abraham Liessin, editor of the Yiddish-language journal Tsukunft, in New York, ca. 1920s, enclosing a piece for publication, demanding that Liessen publish it, "notwithstanding your American amoretsim [know-nothings] . . . They don't understand? They will LEARN to understand." Yiddish. (YIVO, RG 201, F763 Der Nister) RG 201, Abraham Liessin Papers, F763 Lestschinsky.

Solomon Birnbaum, “Di yesoydes fun yidishn oysleyg” (The Foundations of Yiddish Orthography), undated manuscript. Yiddish. RG 3, Yiddish Literature and Language Collection, F1838.

From Shloyme Bikl in Bucharest to "Gruder" in New York, 13 December 1938, about arrangements for Bikl’s emigration to America with his family. Bikl cites Yiddish writers such as Yoysef Opatoshu for having helped him procure a visa. He gives news about other Jewish writers in Bucharest, such as Yankev Shternberg, Moyshe Altman, Kraft, and Shefler, and says that everyone is thinking of emigrating. Yiddish. Romanian letterhead: Dr. S. Bickel, Advocat. RG 107, Letters Collection. Published with permission.

From Sholem Aleichem in Vilna to Rashel and Emanuel Golomb in (Saint Petersburg?), 3 May 1914, about the author's upcoming public appearance in Saint Petersburg, requesting that the Golombs book him and his wife two large rooms at the Astoria Hotel, send someone to meet them at the station, and arrange an "aide de camp" for him, who will fend off unwanted visitors. The author's wife will inspect the hall where Sholem Aleichem's appearance will take place, and he expects that they will "find an automobile on the way to the hall." Yiddish. RG 107, Letters Collection, Box 16, no. 22.

Invitation from Agudas Haḥazonim (Cantors Association) in Warsaw to composer, arranger, and choral conductor Leo Liow in the United States, 12 December 1930, to attend a banquet in Liow’s honor on 14 December during his visit to Poland. The invitation mentions that he has apparently already accepted an informal invitation from the group, tendered to him by Mosheh Koussevitzky, cantor of the Tłomackie Synagogue, where Liow had previously served as choir director. Yiddish. RG 1140, Leo Low Papers, F2.