Slavic Judaica in the YIVO Library
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
IDC is happy to announce it is making available the YIVO Library's Slavic Judaica collection on microfilm. The collection consists of approximately 350 books and pamphlets in the Russian language, from the Library's Vilna and Elias Tcherikower collections, and includes some very rare, unusual and ephemeral books, pamphlets and offprints.
Most of these publications were printed in Central and Eastern Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries (all of them before 1940, and most before 1917). They deal with such topics as Jewish religious traditions, Jewish history, the struggle for equal rights in Tsarist Russia, social and political movements, Jewish community organizations, intergroup relations in Russia and Poland, anti-Semitism, and emigration to America.
Judaica
The Tsarist Russian Empire was the incubator for a number of political and social developments that have had a profound and enduring impact on world history and on the history of the Jewish people in the 20th century. Not only did the 1917 Bolshevik revolution (with its global implications) take place in Russia, but Zionism and the labor movement also flourished in the impoverished and persecuted Jewish communities of the Russian Pale of Settlement.
Because of the political disruptions of the 20th century (wars, revolutions, mass emigration, and Soviet totalitarianism), access to the published and unpublished documentary legacy of Russian Jewry has always been very limited. Libraries and archives within the former Soviet Union were essentially closed to foreign (and most local) researchers, and Judaica collections were often relegated to cellars and warehouses, in a completely chaotic state. While access to ex-Soviet repositories has improved since the late 1980s, much work remains to be done to make their collections truly accessible. For that reason, specialized collections in libraries outside the former Soviet republics assume a particular importance for scholarship.
Vilna collection
The books in the Vilna collection have been the property of the YIVO Library since the period when the YIVO Institute was located in Vilna (now Vilnius, Lithuania), from 1925 until 1940. During the Nazi occupation (1941-1943), the Vilna YIVO library was confiscated and shipped to Germany, where it was to have been incorporated into an anti-Semitic research center headed by the Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg. These library materials were recovered near Frankfurt am Main and returned to YIVO, now located in New York, in 1947. Many of the microfilmed volumes are stamped "Sichergestellt durch Einsatzstab RR," meaning that they were "secured" by the Rosenberg task force. The Einsatzstab's activities throughout Europe have been documented in the book, The Rape of Europe, by Lynn Nicholas (New York: Knopf, 1994). The postwar rescue of YIVO's looted library and archives is discussed in the book, From That Place and Time, by Lucy S. Dawidowicz (New York: W. W. Norton, 1989).
Elias Tcherikower collection
Elias Tcherikower was one of YIVO's founders and until his death in 1943 was head of the Institute's Historical Section. A native of Poltava, Ukraine, his massive personal library is especially strong in Russian-language Judaica, emphasizing Jewish history and the political status of Jews in Russia. Tcherikower collected many of his books in Russia and the Ukraine, and the Tcherikower library and archive followed its owner from Kiev to Berlin to Paris, where the collection was hidden during World War II. Tcherikower and his wife escaped from occupied France to New York and after the war his books and manuscripts were found and bequeathed to YIVO.
Unique research materials
The Russian Judaica in YIVO's Vilna and Tcherikower collections includes some very unusual and ephemeral books, pamphlets, and offprints. The pre-1917 imprints (about 90% of the total group) deal with such subjects as Jewish religious traditions, Jewish history, the struggle for equal rights for Jews under the Tsarist regime, political movements among Jews in Russia (e.g., Zionism, socialism), Jewish community organizations, Jewish-Christian relations, anti-Semitism (including some works reflecting anti-Jewish viewpoints), and emigration to America. This portion of the collection is exceptionally rich, and a high proportion of the titles in it is likely not to be found in any other American repository.
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
IDC is happy to announce it is making available the YIVO Library's Slavic Judaica collection on microfilm. The collection consists of approximately 350 books and pamphlets in the Russian language, from the Library's Vilna and Elias Tcherikower collections, and includes some very rare, unusual and ephemeral books, pamphlets and offprints.
Most of these publications were printed in Central and Eastern Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries (all of them before 1940, and most before 1917). They deal with such topics as Jewish religious traditions, Jewish history, the struggle for equal rights in Tsarist Russia, social and political movements, Jewish community organizations, intergroup relations in Russia and Poland, anti-Semitism, and emigration to America.
Judaica
The Tsarist Russian Empire was the incubator for a number of political and social developments that have had a profound and enduring impact on world history and on the history of the Jewish people in the 20th century. Not only did the 1917 Bolshevik revolution (with its global implications) take place in Russia, but Zionism and the labor movement also flourished in the impoverished and persecuted Jewish communities of the Russian Pale of Settlement.
Because of the political disruptions of the 20th century (wars, revolutions, mass emigration, and Soviet totalitarianism), access to the published and unpublished documentary legacy of Russian Jewry has always been very limited. Libraries and archives within the former Soviet Union were essentially closed to foreign (and most local) researchers, and Judaica collections were often relegated to cellars and warehouses, in a completely chaotic state. While access to ex-Soviet repositories has improved since the late 1980s, much work remains to be done to make their collections truly accessible. For that reason, specialized collections in libraries outside the former Soviet republics assume a particular importance for scholarship.
Vilna collection
The books in the Vilna collection have been the property of the YIVO Library since the period when the YIVO Institute was located in Vilna (now Vilnius, Lithuania), from 1925 until 1940. During the Nazi occupation (1941-1943), the Vilna YIVO library was confiscated and shipped to Germany, where it was to have been incorporated into an anti-Semitic research center headed by the Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg. These library materials were recovered near Frankfurt am Main and returned to YIVO, now located in New York, in 1947. Many of the microfilmed volumes are stamped "Sichergestellt durch Einsatzstab RR," meaning that they were "secured" by the Rosenberg task force. The Einsatzstab's activities throughout Europe have been documented in the book, The Rape of Europe, by Lynn Nicholas (New York: Knopf, 1994). The postwar rescue of YIVO's looted library and archives is discussed in the book, From That Place and Time, by Lucy S. Dawidowicz (New York: W. W. Norton, 1989).
Elias Tcherikower collection
Elias Tcherikower was one of YIVO's founders and until his death in 1943 was head of the Institute's Historical Section. A native of Poltava, Ukraine, his massive personal library is especially strong in Russian-language Judaica, emphasizing Jewish history and the political status of Jews in Russia. Tcherikower collected many of his books in Russia and the Ukraine, and the Tcherikower library and archive followed its owner from Kiev to Berlin to Paris, where the collection was hidden during World War II. Tcherikower and his wife escaped from occupied France to New York and after the war his books and manuscripts were found and bequeathed to YIVO.
Unique research materials
The Russian Judaica in YIVO's Vilna and Tcherikower collections includes some very unusual and ephemeral books, pamphlets, and offprints. The pre-1917 imprints (about 90% of the total group) deal with such subjects as Jewish religious traditions, Jewish history, the struggle for equal rights for Jews under the Tsarist regime, political movements among Jews in Russia (e.g., Zionism, socialism), Jewish community organizations, Jewish-Christian relations, anti-Semitism (including some works reflecting anti-Jewish viewpoints), and emigration to America. This portion of the collection is exceptionally rich, and a high proportion of the titles in it is likely not to be found in any other American repository.