Documents

Tsemaḥ Szabad, Address for first YIVO Conference, Vilna, 1929. He expresses his conviction that YIVO is a "popular movement, movement of the people," a nonsectarian Jewish national institution that brings together people from different places and of various political persuasions who have in common "love for the Jewish people and its language and culture." He stresses the importance of modern Yiddish schools: "The Yiddish school cannot exist without Yiddish culture and language and Yiddish culture and language cannot exist without the Yiddish school." Yiddish. Typed with handwritten notes. RG 3, Yiddish Literature and Language Collection, F2937.

From Yitsḥak Grünbaum in Warsaw to Kalman Marmor in New York, 30 March 1906, accepting Marmor's invitation to write an article for the Po‘ale Tsiyon publication Der yidishe kempfer, even though he does not share the organization’s ideology. He does not know yet what he will write about; it will be either about Po‘ale Tsiyon or Tse‘ire Tsiyon. He also mentions that there was a delay in the letter reaching him because he was "sitting in the Modlin Fortress." Yiddish. Polish letterhead: Głos Żydowski Tygodnik, Warsaw. RG 205, Kalman Marmor Papers, F118/9620.

From Herz Grossbart in Warsaw to the "Shtern" (club?) in Włocławek, Poland, 23 July 1932, accepting their invitation to perform a "word concert." His fee will be 200 złotys plus expenses, and he offers to send 50@-60 posters for 25 złotys. Yiddish. Letterhead: Herz Grossbart. RG 107, Letters Collection.

From Shloyme Zaynvl Rapoport (S. An-ski) in Kiev to Khayim Zhitlovski, [28 May?] 1913. Rapoport has received the volumes of Zhitlovski's Collected Works and was touched to see that they are dedicated to him: "My entire soul was flooded with tears of joy." He writes about his efforts to distribute the book in Russia, which are not going well because he and Zhitlovski's other comrades have been traveling and thus are not in a position to work intensively on the project. On another subject, Rapoport hopes that when he and Zhitlovski are finally reunited, they can discuss "emigration," a topic about which he has lately been working: "And the work has turned me into a committed territorialist (almost a Zionist)." He wants to put off their reunion until September or October because he must forge ahead with the ethnographic expedition. It is his "whole life." The day before "at 7 o'clock in the evening, I fell in love with a 23-year-old girl and today I have already written her a passionate letter. And if nothing comes of this in the end, no doubt I will fall in love with someone else." He adds a Russian poem he has written "in the style of [Gavrila] Derzhavin." Yiddish and Russian. RG 208, Chaim Zhitlowsky Papers, F73.

From Yisroel Tsinberg in Petrograd, USSR (now Saint Petersburg, Rus.) to Khaykl Lunski in Vilna, 23 August 1935, asking Lunski to send him a copy of a portion of Menashe Ilyer's 1823 Hebrew–Yiddish pamphlet, Sama de-ḥaye, Yiddish title, Lebens-mitl (Necessities of Life), which he believes is in the collection of the Strashun Library in Vilna. Yiddish. RG 3, Yiddish Literature and Language Collection, F2703.

From Vladimir Davidovich Medem in Warsaw (?) to David Eynhorn in Warsaw (?), 18 June 1918. Medem wants to clarify what Eynhorn meant when he said he would like to serve as the editor of the Bund's literary department: does this mean perhaps only that he does not want his own work to be edited by someone else? Or something more? In any case, the Bund does not have the resources to launch a "thick" literary journal of "the Russian type." Medem comments on an article about the German poet Richard Dehmel that Eynhorn has sent, complaining that it is too long for publication. Dehmel, Medem notes, was the "love" of his youth. He takes issue with some of Eynhorn's translation of Dehmel's poems into Yiddish. Also, there is something else he has wanted to raise with Eynhorn for a long time: the way he "Germanizes" the Yiddish language. Eynhorn, he claims, uses the German word Stunde for “hour” when there is a perfectly good Yiddish word, sho. And there are many other examples of German words Eynhorn uses instead of Yiddish words of Hebrew derivation. Yiddish. RG 277, David Einhorn Papers, F26.

From Nathan Birnbaum in Czernowitz, Austrian Empire (now Chernivtsi, Ukr.) to Shmuel Niger in Vilna, 25 January 1909, complaining about both Yitskhok Leybush Peretz and Sholem Asch sabotaging his work, perhaps referring specifically to his new venture, Dos lebn. He accuses them of being fickle and not caring about maintaining connections with circles that they have the power to influence: "They are shallow people who always need new playthings for their nerves." Birnbaum asks Niger to contribute an article to Dos Lebn and is also in favor of him submitting a piece about the new journal to Peretz's Vokhnshrift. "It's good to remind the public about Czernowitz." Yiddish. RG 360, Shmuel Niger Papers, F85.

From Israel Joshua Singer in Warsaw to Abraham Cahan in New York, 26 May 1925, granting him permission to make revisions to one of Singer’s stories. He accepts Cahan's suggestion that he should travel to [and presumably write about, for the American Yiddish newspaper Forverts] various cities in Poland, Lithuania, and Western Europe, but points out that it is not possible for Polish citizens to enter Lithuania. Also, it would be better if he visited the other cities (such as Paris and London) that Cahan mentioned in the summer, and then in the winter, the Polish cities, because in the summer, they are "dead." He also suggests adding the Carpathian region in Czechoslovakia to the list because of the unique Jewish way of life practiced there. Singer complains that local newspapers are reprinting items he has written for the Forverts without his permission and without compensating him. Yiddish. RG 1139, Abraham Cahan Papers, F78.

Article by Abraham Morevski, “Film fragn” (Film Issues), n.d. Modern high culture, Morevski writes, lacks the "ecstatic" qualities of Greek drama or liturgy, and thus is ineffectual as a mass medium. Actors with any sort of integrity at all have been reduced to wandering from one muddy shtetl to another, "looking around with wild eyes," and crying out, "Where is salvation?" It is the cinema that is the true heir of Greek theater, that embodies the "ecstatic" because of its potential for individual expression, but paradoxically, it involves the participation of many people to make a film. It is also a highly complex business enterprise in which even a small mistake can lead to financial disaster. "The main characters are wearing costumes from 1900 but the extras are dressed in clothes from 1800. Who is responsible for the mistake? . . . In the meantime, one must wait for two hours. Now the lead goes off to perform in the theater. Everything is postponed until tomorrow. Is the studio booked by someone else? Then, one has to wait a week. The person in charge of costumes is as white as a sheet. His career is over." Film's potential for creative genius is a slave to finance. If film ever achieves its full potential it will mark the liberation of both the actor and the spirit. Jews must rise to the challenges posed by the new medium, with all its contradictions. "Film is the art of this generation." (A note on the first page indicates that the manuscript may have remained unpublished.) Yiddish. RG 108, Manuscripts Collection, F45.4.

From Mikhoel Burshtin in Warsaw to Yoysef Opatoshu in New York, 26 January 1932, saying that he agrees with Opatoshu's assessment that the second part of Burshtin's novel Iber di khurves fun Ployne (Over the Ruins of Ployne) is less concentrated than the first half. The book has been well-received in the press in Europe, but is ignored in America. He reminds Opatoshu that they have personally met, in Warsaw: "Your characteristic face made a deep impression on me and I can still see you before my eyes." He has written other things but there is nowhere to publish them, as the world of Yiddish literature seems to be in flux, with everyone paralyzed by the need to rethink all previously held positions. In addition, the Yiddish literary scene in Poland is lacking a "central figure" capable of serving as a "moral" example for writers. Working as a schoolteacher takes up almost all of his energy and so he finds it difficult to carve out the time to write. Yiddish. RG 436, Joseph Opatoshu Papers, F23.

From Simon Dubnow in Berlin to Abraham Cahan in New York, 31 December 1928. Dubnow is putting the finishing touches on the final volume of his World History of the Jewish People and will cite Cahan's memoir Pages from My Life in the bibliography of his chapter on Jewish emigration to America. He is enclosing a response he has written to a review of one of his articles by A. Almi in the Freie arbeter shtimme and hopes that Cahan will also publish it in the Forverts. He castigates Almi for printing an anecdote about Shimen Frug, who is supposed to have said, in a speech in Saint Petersburg in 1911, that "Zhargon" (Yiddish) was a "language of and for prostitutes." Dubnow dismisses this story as "coarse gossip" and points out that by 1908, Frug was living in Odessa. He claims that though Frug championed Hebrew as the Jewish national language, he had no "enmity" toward Yiddish and indeed published Yiddish poems. Yiddish. RG 1139, Abraham Cahan Papers, F64.

Cover of Menakhem Kipnis, 60 folks lieder mit notn (60 Folk Songs with Notes; Warsaw: E. Gitlin, 1918). RG 112, Music Collection, F80.

From Yisroel Tsinberg in Petrograd, USSR (now Saint Petersburg, Rus.) to Max Weinreich in Vilna, 1 June 1927, complaining about terms offered by the publisher Yosef Kammermacher. Among other things, Kammermacher has suggested that Tsinberg delegate someone as his representative in Vilna, and Tsinberg wonders if Weinreich would be willing to take on this role. He complains about not having gotten a response from the Jewish Ethnographic-Historical Society about his request for a complete run of the publication Evreiskaia starina. He comments on an article that Weinreich has written in Yidishe filologye about Yiddish etymology, and offers details about how certain words are used in Yiddish in Volhynia. He also sends Weinreich a transcription of text that he has found in a fifteenth-century manuscript from Austria: a mystical incantation in Yiddish. Yiddish. RG 3, Yiddish Literature and Language Collection, F2703.

From Mordkhe Spektor in Warsaw to Yitshak Goydo (Bernard Gorin) in Vilna, September 1893, congratulating him on the establishment of his new publishing house. He has heard that its first publication will be a work by Goydo himself, and he cautions that publishing one’s own work as the first project of one’s publishing imprint is always a bad idea. He himself can't send Dovid Pinski anything for publication at the moment because he is too busy with his anthology series, Der hoyz-fraynd (The Home Companion). He complains that the 20-ruble honorarium [?] being offered is not enough but that he will overlook it this time and send something to publish when he can. Yiddish. German and Yiddish letterhead: Der hoyz-fraynd. RG 204, David Pinsky Papers, F10.

From Zacharias Frankel in Dresden to Dr. M. A. Levy in Breslau, Prussia (now Wrocław, Pol.), May 1853, praising Levy’s literary achievements. He says that he cannot yet give Levy a satisfying answer about whether he has obtained a position at the planned Jewish Theological Seminary in Breslau. German. RG 107, Letters Collection.

From Eliezer Shteynbarg in Rio de Janeiro to the members of the Shulfarayn (School Association) in Cernăuţi, Romania (now Chernivtsi, Ukr.), 1930 or 1931. He plans to return to Romania, largely because he is tired of the hot weather in Brazil, which he calls a "tropical hell." He notes that his time there has not been a total waste and that he has written some stories and created pedagogical material. Yiddish. Yiddish and Portuguese letterhead: Idish veltlikhe shul Sholem Aleichem, Rua General Roca 213. RG 107, Letters Collection.

From Noah Pryłucki in Warsaw to Zalmen Reyzen in Vilna, 6 June 1925, expressing disappointment at the fact that Reyzen didn't publish (in the Vilner tog) the transcript of the speech that he, Pryłucki, delivered in the Sejm (the Polish parliament). Yiddish. Polish and Yiddish letterhead: Nojach Pryłucki, Deputant, Polish Sejm. Warsaw, Leszno 28. RG 3, Yiddish Literature and Language Collection, F2610.

Poem by Moyshe Broderzon, “Tsvey tsufelige sonetn: Hu-ha” (Two Accidental Sonnets: Hoo-ha), n.d. "The earth sweats off the evaporating snow / And a moist lightness hovers over the face of the earth. . . ." According to an accompanying note from the donor of this manuscript, Mendel Singer, this poem was submitted to the Yiddish journal Di tsayt in Vienna in 1924, but Singer does not recall if it was actually published. Yiddish. RG 108, Manuscripts Collection, F11.4.1.

From Mojżesz Schorr on behalf of the Provisional Representation of Polish Jewry in Warsaw to the Board of Deputies of British Jews in London, 10 December 1937, assuring them that Jewish medical students in Poland have an adequate number of Jewish cadavers to practice on despite reports and rumors to the contrary. English. Typed. Polish, Yiddish, Hebrew, and English letterhead listing members of organization's executive. RG 107, Letters Collection.

From Henryk Erlich in Warsaw to Dovid Eynhorn in Paris, 30 September 1931, asking him to compose a new hymn for the Bund in honor of its upcoming 35th anniversary. Yiddish. Polish and Yiddish letterhead: The Bund in Poland, Central Committee, Warsaw. RG 277, David Einhorn Papers, F30.