Jüdischer Kulturbund

The collection contains various documents pertaining to the Boernstein-Tuerk family. The collection focuses on Ernst Boernstein (1854-1932), his parents, Ludwig (Levin) Boernstein and Fredericke (née Mayer), and his children Katharina, Ludwig, Walter and Rudolf.

This collection documents the life of the violinist Ernest Drucker, with a larger focus on his professional work in various orchestras and ensembles. The bulk of the collection consists of a large body of correspondence of friends and colleagues, most of them other musicians. Other papers in the collection include official documents, newspaper clippings of reviews and concert announcements, programs for performances, a few copies of photographs and some sketches.

This collection contains a wide range of materials, ranging from personal correspondence to programs and mass mailings, which for the most part have to do with various community institutions and membership organizations of the pre-war Frankfurt community.

This collection documents the life and work of Frederick (Fritz) Ritter, an actor, writer, and academic. Included are manuscripts of published and unpublished writings, articles, reviews, clippings, notes, personal documents, and photographs.

The collection contains various materials pertaining to Oskar Schüler, his wife Martha, and their daughter Irmgard Schüler.

Typescripts and correspondence by Schönberg; 2 scrapbooks, one containing concert programs and reviews of Schönberg's works (1921-1948), the other containing articles by Schönberg, mostly on music and culture (1920-1938).

The collection holds mostly manuscripts of lectures given primarily at institutions of Jewish adult education. They were given by various scholars, lecturing on Judaism; Jewish history; Jewish philosophy; and other topics pertaining to Jewish culture.

A nearly complete collection of programs, circulars, and other printed matter of the Kulturbund, Hamburg, from 1934 to 1938. Also a collection of newspaper clippings, many of them about the Reichsverband der juedischen Kulturbuende for the same period.

This collection contains a large volume of correspondence, as well as manuscripts, diaries, scrapbooks, and clippings all documenting the cultural production of the theater critic and dramatist Julius Bab. The correspondence notably contains large amounts of original letters from Gustav Landauer, Gerhart Hauptmann, Richard Dehmel, and Fritz Mauthner, and several other leading cultural and political figures from the first half of the 20th century.

Correspondence of Karl Adler with individuals, including Theodor Baeuerle, Martin Buber, Alexander Dillmann, Theodor Heuss, Paul Hindemith, Otto Hirsch, Kurt Georg Kiesinger, Paul Rieger, and Hans Walz; correspondence with family members, including letters written as a soldier during World War I and the November Revolution.

The collection holds materials pertaining to the physician and musician Kurt Singer, including some of his musical writings; reviews of his books; correspondence, including letters from Max Friedlaender, Wilhelm Furtwaengler, and Siegfried Ochs, and others. Also included are papers of Kurt Singer’s father, the Hungarian-born Moritz Singer, who served as rabbi in Koblenz, including letters from Helmuth von Moltke and Duke Friedrich I of Baden; and documents from his studies at the universities of Berlin and Jena, including a thesis, as well as academic reports signed by Moritz Lazarus, Heymann Steinthal, and Theodor Mommsen.

The Laupheim Community Collection consists almost exclusively of photocopied documents from the 18th through the first half of the 20th century which document the life of the Jewish Community in Laupheim, a city in Baden-Württemberg.

The collection contains various documents relating to the Jewish communities in Chemnitz, Dresden and Hamburg in the late 1930s, as well as biographical information and personal documents regarding Manfred Saalheimer (1907-1967), legal representative of the Dresden Jewish community, and Josef Kahn (1881-?), president of the Chemnitz Jewish community. Also included are tributes to Otto Hirsch (1885-1941), president of Reichsvertretung der Juden in Deutschland.

This collection describes the work and lives of the composer, conductor, and accompanist Warner S. Bass and his wife, the singer Marion Corda Bass. Most prominent among the materials of this collection are the music scores created by Warner Bass; they include works he composed, arranged, orchestrated, transcribed, or performed. Other items include personal documents, correspondence, published sheet music, photographs, essays, notes, concert and recital programs, press releases, and clippings.

The collection contains papers including vital documents, membership cards, awards, medals, diaries, memoirs, diaries, manuscripts, legal papers, correspondence, business records, wills, genealogies and family histories regarding the Pinkus family, notable textile manufacturers in Neustadt (now Prudnik, Poland) in Upper Silesia, and their personal and business affairs. The family was also highly regarded for its support of civic and cultural affairs in the area, and corresponded with several notable cultural figures.

The colletion contains typescripts, invitations, and programs of the Freie Wissenschaftliche Vereinigung and the Jüdischer Kulturbund, Berlin; lectures and articles by Zielenziger, and clippings.

This series contains materials related to performances and activities of theaters and theater troupes, organized by geographic location. Some files also pertain to a variety of local organizations that presented theatrical events and concerts, as well as organizations that promoted and supported Yiddish or Hebrew theater. The last subseries, Yiddish Theater (General) and Unidentified Materials, contains a small grouping of materials not related to specific localities, including manuscripts, clippings, and unidentified materials.

The materials in this series consist predominantly of theater programs; ephemera such as fliers, invitations, and tickets; and newspaper clippings (occasionally scrapbooks). The series contains, in all, an estimated 1700 to 1800 programs. The programs pertain to plays; revues; recitations; concerts, including cantorial concerts; dance performances; honorary evenings; and various special events of local organizations.

To a lesser extent, there are also publications and periodicals; and sometimes generic correspondence such as letters to supporters and fundraising letters, and, occasionally, manuscripts of articles about the given theater troupe, typically intended for publication in newspapers. (Some of the latter items were evidently donated by Zalman Reisen, editor of the Vilner Tog.)

The materials of the above types found under any given heading for a theater troupe, theater, or organization, are typically of mixed provenance, collected by various different individuals.

This series also occasionally includes small amounts of original records of theater troupes, such as correspondence and financial records.

Original letters from troupe members or leaders addressed to the literary historian and newspaper editor Zalman Reisen are found in the files for the Vilna Troupe (Folder 533); and "Ararat" (Folder 596). In the case of the Varshever Yidisher Kunst-Teater (VYKT), there is a small amount of original correspondence received by the troupe, including a letter from Richard Beer-Hofmann (Folder 500).

Fragmentary financial records are included for the Vilna Troupe, 1922 (Folder 538); and a ledger book for the "Baveglekher Yidisher Dramatisher Teater," 1921-1922, under the geographic heading for Warsaw (Folder 633). (According to an entry in Zylbercweig, VI: 4993, the latter troupe was founded by Jonas Turkow.)

Other notable provenance-based groupings of materials in the subseries for Poland are found under the following city headings:

Łuck (Lutsk, Ukraine): papers of the theater director Abraham Kolodny related to the "Yidishe Fraye Bine," 1910-1920 (Folders 621-622), along with theater programs likely collected by him.

Brześć nad Bugiem (Brest, Belarus): a scrapbook documenting performances of the Brisker Dramatishe Studye, 1927-1929, created by M. Sarwer (Sarver), the group's artistic director, along with programs evidently collected by him (Folders 696-697).

Częstochowa: receipts of impresario N. Zolotarew related to a tour of Lidia Potocka (Folder 668).

Also noteworthy is a scrapbook pertaining to a 1934 revival of the experimental Yiddish puppet theater "Khad Gadyo" in Łódź (founded in 1922, a collaboration between and Moyshe Broderzon and the artist Yitskhok Broyner); it contains the script of the performance, photographs and clippings (Folder 615).

Troupes represented with the most substantial amounts of materials include:

In Subseries 1. Poland, under the sub-heading "Poland by Theater Troupe": Varshever Yidisher Kunst-Teater (VYKT); Varshever Nayer Yidisher Teater (VNYT); the Vilna Troupe; Yung Teater/Nay Teater; and the "Kleynkunst," or revue theaters "Azazel," "Ararat," "Sambatyon," and "Yidishe bande."

In Subseries 4, United States, the Yiddish Art Theater, New York (directed by Maurice Schwartz).

In Subseries 6, Palestine (Eretz Israel), the Hebrew theaters Habimah and Ohel, respectively.

In the case of these major theater troupes, most of the material related to them is gathered under their name heading, found under the geographic locality with which they are primarily associated; however, the materials found there also include items pertaining to their tours in other parts of the country or region, and internationally.

On the other hand, files for specific towns, cities, or countries, in general contain many programs and clippings pertaining to guest appearances of individual performers, as well as smaller ensembles and troupes, who are based somewhere else.

Clippings are generally classified according to the main topic of the article (i.e. not necessarily according to the locality where it was published).

It should be noted that throughout the series, a distinction is usually made between professional theater and concerts, on the one hand, and amateur theater, or 'dramatic circles' on the other; when materials are related to amateur groups that distinction is typically specified in the heading. The distinction is especially clear in the subseries for Poland, which includes a separate sub-subseries for Amateur Theater (this follows the scheme established by Jonas Turkow during his preliminary organization of these materials at the YIVO Institute in New York).

Finally, as background, it should be noted that the programs that form the backbone of this series in representing the troupes, theaters, and localities, were among the materials that were organized and cataloged by Jonas Turkow at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York, in the late 1950s to mid 1960s. They bear stamped or handwritten item numbers (falling within the range 175167 to 177690) that Turkow assigned based on his initial sequencing of them in alphabetical order according to the names of the authors of plays (with concert programs grouped together at the end). Subequently, he selected certain programs to form groupings under peformer names (see Series II, subseries 1. Programs) and others to form groupings under the names of theater troupes and geographic headings (constituting the present series). The selection of the programs found in this series under general geographic headings, for particular towns, cities, and countries (as opposed to headings for the featured performer or director, as in Series II) thus reflects the arrangement devised by Turkow, documented in the cross-references he provided on his catalog cards for the programs. For further details, see the Scope and Content Note for Series I, Subseries 2, Programs.

Digital images of photographs and some correspondence, spanning the life of the musician Werner Dambitsch (Warner Danby).