An-Ski, S., 1863-1920

This collection contains papers of Abraham Moshe Bernstein, a renowned cantor, choir master, composer of Jewish liturgical and secular music, music teacher, musicologist, writer, and translator. The bulk of the materials consists of Bernstein’s liturgical compositions and arrangements in both published and manuscript form, as well as a substantial collection of manuscripts and published works by various composers and arrangers. The materials include Hasidic folk songs and melodies, religious songs, Jewish hymns, popular songs, children’s songs, operettas, liturgical pieces, and musical exercises for students; choral volumes and partbooks; unidentified and fragmented musical manuscripts; manuscripts of Bernstein’s own writings; personal correspondence; a photo of Bernstein on his deathbed; secular and religious songs, Sabbath hymns, Hasidic folk songs and melodies, assembled by Bernstein for the S. Ansky Jewish Historical Ethnographic Society in Vilna.

The Abraham Sutzkever-Szmerke Kaczerginski Historical Collection contains letters, manuscripts, and historical documents which were saved by the Yiddish poets Avraham Sutzkever and Szmerke Kaczerginski in the Vilna Ghetto. Sutzkever, Kaczerginski, and other members of the Paper Brigade, conscripted Jewish workers who were forced to work under the Einsatzstab Rosenberg, saved thousands of books, manuscripts and documents at great risk to their lives by hiding them in various places in the Vilna Ghetto. After the war the surviving members recovered many of the hidden items. Sutzkever sent many of these rescued materials to the YIVO Institute in New York from the period 1947 to 1956. The collection consists of 8 series and includes correspondence of writers, intellectuals, communal leaders, rabbinical figures; manuscripts of Yiddish and Hebrew writers; theater documents; folklore materials; rabbinical responsa and writings; historical and legal documents; pinkasim and Jewish communal records.

Includes clippings concerning the staging by Mark Arnstein (Andrzej Marek) of his own Polish translation of "Der dibek," Warsaw, 1925, and Lodovico Rocca's opera at La Scala, Milan, 1934, among other adaptations. In Yiddish, Polish, and Russian.

Also includes a page of unidentified notes listing articles about Ansky's work. In Yiddish.

This collection consists of the correspondence of Zalman Reisen, and correspondence to the Union of Yiddish Writers and Journalists in Vilna. In addition, it contains fragments of literary collections which were part of the YIVO Archives in Vilna before 1941 and of materials which originated in Jewish institutions of higher learning in the Soviet Union, specifically the Institut Far Yidisher Proletarisher Kultur (Institute for Jewish Proletarian Culture) in Kiev and Invayskult in Minsk. The collection was formed in the YIVO Archives in New York ca. 1950. The bulk of the collection comprises files on about 600 Yiddish writers from Eastern Europe consisting of autobiographical notes and letters, biographies, bibliographies, manuscripts and typewritten copies, newspaper clippings, commemorative materials, announcements about lectures.

The collection contains play manuscripts, programs, playbills, posters, photographs, correspondence, agreements, scrapbooks, clippings, printed ephemera, and memorabilia relating to Yiddish theater primarily in the early twentieth century, especially the interwar period. Also included are items of printed ephemera related to Yiddish film, Hebrew theater, and a broad range of Jewish performers, including cantors, singers and dancers. Geographically, the materials originate predominantly in Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe, including parts of the Russian Empire and, later, the Soviet Union; and, to a lesser extent, the United States, especially New York City. Also included are materials from Western Europe, Palestine (Eretz Israel), South America, and other regions around the world. Among the theater personalities represented in the collection with significant amounts of material are Herz Grossbard, David Herman, Joseph Winogradoff, Rudolf Zaslavsky, Zygmunt Turkow, Jonas Turkow, Moyshe Lipman, Ida Kaminska, and Esther Rachel Kaminska. The theater groups best represented include the Varshever Yidisher Kunst-Teater (VYKT; Warsaw Yiddish Art Theater), founded by Zygmunt Turkow and Ida Kaminska; the Vilna Troupe; Yung Teater / Nay Teater (Warsaw; Vilna), under the direction of Michael Weichert; the Moscow State Yiddish Theater (known by its Russian acronym "GOSET"); Maurice Schwartz's Yiddish Art Theatre, of New York; and the Hebrew theater "Habimah." A wide variety of other professional as well as amateur theater groups are represented with smaller amounts of material.

The collection holds original translations and clippings of Russian and Yiddish literature into German by Fega Frisch. Also included are some personal documents, such as education records and ID papers.

The collection contains the records of the Vilna branch of the Hevrah Mefitsei Haskalah, an educational and publishing organization, established in 1863 to propagate secular knowledge and acculturation into the Russian society among the Jews of the Pale of Settlement. The Vilna Branch was organized in 1909 to assist Jewish education in Vilna and vicinity. During World War I and after Vilna became a part of independent Poland, the organization continued to propagate secular education and maintain schools, libraries and teachers’ courses. The materials include minutes, correspondence, memoranda, programs, leaflets, announcements, and clippings.

This collection contains correspondence between Chaim Zhitlowsky and many important political figures and organizations, as well as manuscripts and other writings, some written by Zhitlowsky and some written by others. There are also notes and other materials from speeches and lectures that Zhitlowsky gave, financial documents, articles written about Zhitlowsky, newspaper clippings of articles by Zhitlowsky, materials from celebrations held in Zhitlowsky’s honor, photographs, excerpts from his works, and various other assorted items. These materials serve to illustrate both Zhitlowsky’s importance in the Yiddish and Russian literary field and his deep involvement in the American and Russian-Jewish Socialist, Territorialist and Diaspora Nationalism movements.

This collection contains the personal and professional papers of Joseph Buloff and Luba Kadison, leading actors of the Vilna Troupe and of the Yiddish and English stage, both in the United States and internationally. Most of the information concerns their theatrical careers, including play manuscripts, drawings and photographs of plays and actors, reviews, flyers, and musical scores. There is also some personal biographical information about Buloff, including his memoirs and audio cassettes of interviews. These materials show the importance and influence of Buloff and Kadison for Yiddish and English theater for over sixty years.

The Yiddish Writers and Journalists Union (Yid. Fareyn fun Yidishe Literatn un Zhurnalistn in Vilne) was active in Vilna from 1916 until 1940. Its membership rose over the years to 47 persons. Union members were employed in a variety of Yiddish dailies and periodicals, and in publishing houses. The Union was dissolved during the Soviet occupation of Vilna, 1939-1941.

The Records of the YIVO Ethnographic Committee is a sub-group of Record Group 1, Records of YIVO - Vilna. The activities of the Ethnographic Committee consisted of collecting folklore materials, preparing and analyzing folklore questionnaires, corresponding with folklore collectors throughout the world, and maintaining a museum. This collection also includes surviving fragments of the collections of the S. Ansky Jewish Historical and Ethnographic Society which was active in Vilna from 1920 until 1940, and of Invayskult, also known as the Jewish Bureau of the Belorussian Academy of Science in Minsk (founded in 1925 and dissolved in the 1930s). Record Group 1.2 includes both administrative files of the aforementioned institutions and folklore and historical materials, which were gathered in these institutions' archives.

- "Der dibek"/"Tsvishn tsvey velten," 9 items. In Chrzanów, troupe of Sh. Ludner. In Koło, 1921. In Philadelphia, 1933, honorary evening for Moishe Feder. In Vilna, guest performer Abraham Morewski, dedicated to the memory of A. Vayter. In Łódź, circa 1920, staged and directed by David Herman. In New York, 1928, directed by Abraham Morewski. In Łódź, on two other occasions. In an unspecified locality in Poland, appearances of the Vilna Ensemble, featuring Nekhama, Kadish, Khash (Chasz), and Szryftzecer. In Pińsk, circa 1920-1921, "Yidishe Khaveyrim-Trupe No. 2," of the Yiddish Actors' Union, Warsaw.

- "Dibbuk" in Helsinki at the Finnish National Theater, season 1933-1934. Performance in Finnish.

- "The Dybbuk," 3 items. Performances in English. In Philadelphia, with Mira Eppelbaum. In New York, 1936, the opera "The Dybbuk," by the Detroit Civic Opera Company. In New York, 1936, directed by David Vardi and Alice Lewisohn.

- The Dybbuk (film) in New York.

- "Der dibek" (Act III) in Warsaw, 1925, as part of a program for the benefit of the Yidisher Artistn Fareyn.

- "Tog un nakht," 2 items. In Vilna, 1923, farewell performance of Avrom Slabodski. In the Bronx, New York, 1924.

- "Der din-toyre mit got" in Vilna, 1921. Directed by Isaac Nozyk, on Ansky's first yahrzeit. Sponsored by the Fareyn fun Yidishe Literatn un Zhurnalistn in Vilna.

Typescript, with handwritten emendations. 10 leaves.

Dramatization by an unknown author of a work by ("instsenirt loyt") S. Ansky.

Actor's role book for the role of "Meshulekh" (messenger). Signed and dated on cover: Nachbush, 15 November 1920. Accession no. 142/2520 (stamp). 10 leaves.

Fragments in Yiddish and Russian, consisting of the title page and list of characters only.

Contains 3 acts. Stamp of Chaim ben Moshe Markan, Vilna. Inscribed to actor Levin.