Collection of Yiddish Literature and Language

Zalman Reisen's Leksikon fun der yidisher literatur, prese, un filologye

Zalman Reisen, editor of the Leksikon fun der yidisher literatur, prese, un filologye, published in Vilna between 1926 and 1929, was the foremost literary biographer of his generation. This key reference work collected biographies and bibliographies of almost all the Yiddish writers of this important period, and served as a predecessor for the current standard in the field, the Leksikon fun der nayer yidisher literatur (Eds. Shmuel Niger, Itsik Shatski, and Moyshe Shtarkman, Alveltlekhn yidishn kultur-kongres, 1956-1981). Almost as important as the sheer amount of information collected in these volumes (which filled four volumes of material collected entirely through Reisen's own bibliographic research and personal correspondence with authors) was Reisen's methodology, which strove for accuracy and objectivity in a contentious era marked by unreliable communication and political instability. In the foreward to the first volume, Reisen apologizes for being unable to include information from those writers who sent their biographies after the work had gone to the printer, as well as those he never heard from. He calls upon his readers to send him information about the Yiddish writers they know, particularly the lesser-known ones, to contribute corrections or additions to what appears in his Lekiskon. Reisen's dialogue with his readers created a work that represents the collective knowledge of his generation.

Reisen's plans for the Leksikon continually evolved throughout the project. Indeed, the Leksikon fun der yidisher literatur, prese, un filologye was itself a continuation of a previous single volume reference work published in 1914. At first, the plan was for the Leksikon to comprise two volumes, the first spanning the first half of the alphabet, and the second to complete it.¹ However, the amount of information gathered quickly required an expansion of the project, which culminated in the four-volume set that was published. In the introduction to the fourth and final published volume, Reisen outlines his plan for a fifth volume, that will contain updated and expanded information on the writers who he was unable to include in the four main volumes, as well as a sixth volume, that would be dedicated to Old Yiddish literature.² Scholars (notably the Yiddish scholar Elias Shulman) have surmised that this collection contains the notes for the proposed fifth volume, which was never completed.

Union of Yiddish Writers and Journalists in Vilna

The fareyn fun yidishe literatn un zhurnalistn in vilne “ Union of Yiddish Writers and Journalists in Vilna, was a professional association, active in Vilna from 1916 until the outbreak of the second world war. Its membership comprised newspaper editors and writers employed in Yiddish-language publishing enterprises, and other Yiddish authors residing in Vilna. The union was founded in 1916 in wartime Vilna, but remained inactive until the end of the war. The union was revived in 1919 by S. Ansky who wrote by-laws of the new association. Ansky became its honorary chairman, and A. Waiter its secretary. In April 1919 Waiter was killed during a pogrom perpetrated by the Polish military. The leadership of the union was passed on to S. Niger and, after his departure to the U.S., to Zalman Reisen. In the subsequent years the post of the chairman was occupied by Reisen, S.L. Zitron, Moyshe Zilburg, Falk Halpern, Dan Kaplanovich, and Moyshe Shalit. A.I. Grodzenski served as the union's secretary for most of the time.

Among its activities, the union arranged for publication of books by its members, established a loan fund, introduced pensions for retired writers, organized strikes, conducted negotiations with publishers and newspaper owners, and arbitrated disputes between its members. The union maintained contacts with Poland's Union of Yiddish Writers and Journalists in Warsaw as well as with regional unions. It was also instrumental in establishing a Yiddish Pen Club Center in Vilna and organizing a national conference of the Yiddish press in June of 1927. Finally, it maintained a well-stacked reading room for its membership.

The Union of Yiddish Writers and Journalist in Vilna was dissolved ca. 1940.

Soviet Yiddish Institutions

Invayskult, later known as the Jewish Division of the Belorussian Academy of Sciences, located in Minsk, and the Institute for Proletarian Culture, located at the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in Kiev, were founded in 1924 and 1929 respectively, and were funded by the government, as part of the Soviet Union's policy of supporting minority ethnic groups. The Institute for Yiddish Proletarian Culture in Kiev (Rus., Institut Evreiskoi Proletarskoi Kulâtury; IEPK), was directed by Nokhem Shtif, and focused its research on philology. It was shut down in 1936. Both institutions had connections with YIVO. In the early years, Invayskult frequently corresponded with YIVO, and oriented their research toward Eastern European, and especially Lithuanian Jews, who were considered "Lithuanian-Belorussian." Nokhem Shtif, the director of the Institute for Proletarian Culture, was also a co-founder of YIVO.

Footnotes

¹Leksikon vol. 1, Hakdome.

²Leksikon vol. 4, Hakdome.

References

Zalman Reisen. Leksikon fun der yidisher literatur, prese, un filologye. 4 vols. Vilna: Vilna Farlag fun B. Kletzkin, 1927-1929.

Alfred A. Greenbaum. Jewish Historiography in Soviet Russia.Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research, Vol. 28 (1959): 57-76. Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3622447

Vladimir Bilovitsky, "Institute of Jewish Proletarian Culture," http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Institute_of_Jewish_Proletarian_Culture.