Esther-Rachel Kaminska Theater Museum Collection

The Esther Rachel Kaminska Theather Museum was founded in 1926 by Ida Kaminska and her husband Zygmunt Turkow, in honor of Ida Kaminska's mother, the renowned actress Esther Rachel Kaminska (1870-1925), who was widely revered as the "mother of Yiddish theater." The museum opened on 25 January, upon the shloshim, or conclusion of the thirty-day mourning period, following the death of Esther Rachel Kaminska, on 27 December 1925, in the room where she had died, in her apartment at 11 Oboźna Street, in Warsaw. The exhibition initially assembled by Kaminska's daughter and son-in-law included photographs, programs, playbills, posters, albums, and letters documenting Esther Rachel Kaminska's career on the stage, as well as the history of Yiddish theater generally. The materials were drawn from the papers and memorabilia held by her family, supplemented with items that Zygmunt Turkow had received as donations or loans from fellow actors.¹ Among the items on display were costumes that Kaminska had worn for her famous performances in Jacob Gordin's plays "Mirele Efros" and "Der umbakanter" (The Stranger).²

As Ida Kaminska and Zygmunt Turkow continued to receive donations of materials related to Yiddish theater, the collection grew, and in 1927 they donated the museum to the recently founded YIVO Institute in Vilna (Vilnius, Lithuania), which during the interwar period was part of the Second Polish Republic and known as Wilno. At the time that YIVO held its first conference, in October 1929, the Esther-Rachel Kaminska Theater Museum was reported to comprise over 1,300 cataloged items, of which 400 were exhibited, and the rest kept in the museum's archive.³ The most significant groupings of materials stemmed from donations of the Yidisher Artistn Fareyn (Yiddish Actors' Union), headquartered in Warsaw; theater director Nahum Lipovski; and the Rappel family. Smaller amounts of materials had been received from Iser Bezman, Isaac Perkoff, K. Ebel, Z. Zylbercweig, A. Kolodny, and H. Torczyner, among others.³ Subsequently, YIVO volunteer zamlers, or collectors, gathered further materials related to Yiddish theater that were then added to the Esther-Rachel Kaminska Theater Museum.⁴ After YIVO moved into its own building at 18 Wiwulski Street, in Vilna, at the beginning of 1933, the Theater Museum had its own exhibition space and storage area, and a dedicated staff.⁵ The director of the Theater Museum at YIVO Vilna, from fall 1928 until the demise of the institute in 1941, was Uma Olkenicki.⁶

Following the Second World War, rescued materials identified as once belonging to the Esther-Rachel Kaminska Theater Museum in YIVO Vilna were brought together again at the YIVO Institute in New York as Record Group 8 (RG 8). In the late 1950s to mid 1960s, these materials were sorted and organized by Jonas Turkow (1898-1988), who also inventoried many of the programs and playbills at the item level, producing a catalog of index cards handwritten in Yiddish. An actor and director in Yiddish theater, Jonas Turkow – who was a younger brother of Zygmunt Turkow – had immigrated to the United States in 1947, and began to work in the YIVO archives in 1958.⁷ In 1966 he immigrated to Israel; he died in Tel Aviv.

References

"Barikht fun Teater-Muzey afn nomen fun Ester-Rokhl Kaminski," in: Barikht fun der konferents fun dem Yidishn Visnshaftlekhn Institut opgehaltn in Vilne fun 24tn bizn 27tn Oktober 1929. Vilna: Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut, 1930. pp. 74-79.

Quint, Alyssa. “Visual Artists and Yiddish Avant-garde Theatre in Poland.” Digital Yiddish Theatre Project. June 2018. yiddishstage.org

Shapiro, Fanny. "Der teater-muzey afn nomen fun Ester-Rokhl Kaminiski baym YIVO." In: Arkhiv far der geshikhte fun Yidishn teater un drame. Vol. I. Ed. J. Schatzky. Ṿilna; New York: Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut, 1930. pp. 512-518.

"Turkow." Encyclopaedia Judaica. 2nd edition. New York: Macmillan Reference USA/Thomson Gale, 2007. Vol. 20, p. 203, section "Jonas Turkow."

Web, Marek. "Tsu der geshikhte funem yivo-arkhiv." YIVO Bleter. Vol. XLVI (1980). pp. 168-191.