Jun 12, 2017
This is the fifth installment in an online bibliographical series devoted to research resources in Yiddish Studies. The search guide is divided into the following units, which are being published in installments:
- “Meta”-resources: bibliographies, web gateways, online scholarship, indexes, library and archival resources, encyclopedias.
- Digital collections in Yiddish Studies.
- Yiddish linguistic scholarship, including dictionaries.
- Yiddish literature and culture.
- Bibliographies of imprints (by country or region); The Yiddish Press
- Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust (Yiddish focus).
Since the first installment of this Research Guide came out we have received suggestions for the inclusion of additional sources, which are always welcome. Readers are invited to contribute suggestions which may be included in updated versions of the guides.
For a PDF version of this guide click here.
Surveys of the publishing output of specific countries or regions constitute a specialized bibliographical genre. The information provided in their citations and annotations is considerably more detailed than what is found in library catalogs. In addition, the bibliographies’ geographical coverage (which is often limited to specific chronological periods) makes them convenient gateways to focused research on their countries or regions.
This section of the Research Guide lists bibliographies and studies of Yiddish imprints in Germany (Berlin, specifically), Hungary, Poland, Romania, Imperial Russia, the Soviet Union, and the United States. Some of these works are more inclusive than others in their coverage. A few focus solely on the Yiddish press in specific countries, while others list both monographs and serials. In addition to bibliographies of imprints, a few more general bibliographies – i.e., not of specifically Yiddish content – concerning Jews in Russia and Poland are included here. All of the bibliographies cited here are print publications; a few of these have been digitized and are also accessible online via the Yiddish Book Center and the Internet Archive.
Complementing this bibliographical coverage, several historical overviews of the Yiddish press worldwide and in specific countries are described in this section.
Bibliographies and Studies of Yiddish Imprints with National or Regional Focus
Mordechai Altshuler, comp. Pirsumim Rusiyim bi-Verit ha-Mo‘atsot, 1917-1967: bibliografyah = Russian Publications on Jews and Judaism in the Soviet Union, 1917-1967: A Bibliography. Compiled by B. Pinkus and A. A. Greenbaum. Jerusalem, Society for Research on Jewish Communities, 1970.
“This bibliography of Soviet publications on Jewish subjects in the Russian language is a continuation of Jewish Publications in the Soviet Union, 1917-1960 [see below]… in which publications in Hebrew and Yiddish were listed” (introduction). 1,399 entries; includes citations for Russian translations of Yiddish literature.
Volf Bresler, “Bibliografishe reshime fun yidishe oysgabes in Argentine,” in Antologye fun der yidisher literature in Argentine [Antologia de la literatura idisch en la Argentina]. Redaktsye-kolegyum: Pinye Kats [et al.]. Buenos Aires: aroysgegebn fun a gezelshaftlekhn komitet lekoved dem 25-yorikn yubiley fun der teglekher tsaytung “Di prese,” 1944: pp. -938.
Argentina emerged as a major center of Yiddish publishing worldwide in the years following World War II, as exemplified by such important book series as “Dos poylishe yidntum” and “Musterverk fun der yidisher literatur.” However, as this extensive bibliography reveals, there was a very active Yiddish publishing scene in that country before the war as well. This bibliography is subdivided into the following sections: Books; Miscellany [zamlbikher]; Pamphlets [broshurn]; Newspapers and Journals. Bresler cites two earlier bibliographies by Jacob Botoshansky and Y. Aksntsov, which are the basis of this more comprehensive compilation. Copies of the Antologye are available in a number of libraries; unfortunately, it has apparently not been digitized by the Yiddish Book Center – most likely due to the fragile and brittle state of extant copies.
Jacob Glatstein [Yankev Glatshteyn], Shmuel Niger [Sh. Niger], and Harry Rogoff [Hilel Rogof]. Finf un zibetsik yor yidishe prese in Amerike, 1870-1945. Nyu York: Y.L. Perets shrayber farayn, 1945.
Essays on the Yiddish press and on specific Yiddish newspapers in the United States.
Available online via the Yiddish Book Center.
Yehuda Gothelf, editor. ʻItonut yehudit she-hayetah. Tel Aviv: Be-hotsaʹat ha-Igud ha-ʻolami shel ha-ʻitonaʹim ha-Yehudim, 1973.
Survey of the Jewish press in Europe before World War II, with chapters on the Yiddish press in different countries, as well as on specific newspapers. Published by the World Federation of Jewish Journalists.
Di yidishe prese vos iz geven. 1975.
Available online via the Yiddish Book Center.
The Jewish Press That Was: Accounts, Evaluations and Memories of Jewish Papers in pre-Holocaust Europe. 1980.
Gershon David Hundert and Gershon C. Bacon. The Jews in Poland and Russia: Bibliographical Essays. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984. (The Modern Jewish Experience.)
Includes two extensive essays, accompanied by bibliographies: “The Jews in Poland-Lithuania from the Twelfth Century to the First Partition,” by Gershon David Hundert; and “East European Jewry from the First Partition of Poland to the Present,” by Gershon C. Bacon. Primarily historical in focus, with citations for Yiddish publications on the topics covered.
Viktor E. Kelner and Dmitrii A. Eliashevich, Literatura o evreiakh na russkom iazyke, 1890-1947: knigi, broshiury, ottiski statei, organy periodicheskoi pechati: bibliograficheskii ukazatel’ (Literature on Jews in Russian, 1890-1947). Sankt-Peterburg: Gumanitarnoe agenstvo “Akademicheskii proekt”, 1995.
Classified bibliography (6,203 entries); successor to the Sistematicheskii ukazatel’ literatury o evreiakh na russkom iazykie (1892; listed below). “The index comprises editions in Russian dedicated to all aspects of Jewish life. It includes editions published not only in the Russian Empire and the FSU, but all over the world.” Publications on Yiddish topics are cited in sections on Jewish folklore and Jewish belles-lettres, among others.
A. Kirzhnits. Di Yidishe prese in der gevezener rusisher imperye. Minsk: Tsenṭraler felḳer-farlag fun FSSR, 1930.
Hard to find, this is still the most extensive bibliography of the Yiddish press in Tsarist Russia.
A. Kirzhnits. Di Yidishe prese in ratnfarband: 1917-1927. Minsḳ: [s.n.], 1928.
This bibliography of Yiddish periodicals in the Soviet Union (1917-1927) has been largely – but not entirely – superseded by the bibliography Pirsumim Yehudiyim bi-Verit ha-Mo‘atsot (edited by Khone Shmeruk and cited below).
Szonja Ráhel Komoróczy. Yiddish Printing In Hungary: An Annotated Bibliography (Ha-defus bi-sefat yidish be-erets Hagar = Yidish drukn in ungarn). Budapest: Center for Jewish Studies at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 2011. (Hungaria Judaica, 25.)
The bibliography includes two main sections: Books; Press and Periodicals. Each section is arranged by place name, with publications listed chronologically under the place names. The geographical scope extends to regions formerly ruled by Hungary: Slovakia, Ruthenia, and Transylvania.
Maria Kühn-Ludewig. Jiddische Bücher aus Berlin (1918-1936): Titel, Personen, Verlage. 1. Aufl. Nümbrecht: Kirsch-Verlag, 2006.
During the period of the Weimar Republic – especially the 1920s – Berlin was a major center of Yiddish publishing. This bibliography includes the following sections: 1. Titles (359 citations). – 2. Persons (primarily authors, translators, and illustrators). – 3. Publishing houses and printers (including individuals). The compiler, a librarian, has published extensively on the history of Jewish libraries and publishing houses.
Leonard Prager. “A Bibliography of Yiddish Periodicals in Great Britain (1867-1967),” in Studies in Bibliography and Booklore, vol. 9, no. 1 (Spring 1969): pp. 3-32.
Essay and annotated bibliography, covering 201 titles. Includes indexes of English titles, transliterated Yiddish titles, and editors.
Augusta Costiuc Radosav. Vocile unei istorii neterminate. Presa idiş din spaţiul românesc extra-carpatic 1855-1900 [Voices of an Unfinished History. The Yiddish Press in the Extra-Carpathian Romanian Territories 1855-1900]. Cluj-Napoca: Argonaut & Mega, 2014.
The text of this 440-page study is primarily in Romanian, but the book also includes an extensive abstract (37 pages) in English, plus an annotated bibliography of 62 Yiddish periodicals published in the Romanian Principalities (later, The Kingdom of Romania, also known as the Regat) from 1855 to 1900.
N. Rubinstein. Dos yidishe bukh in soveṭnfarband in ..: bibliografye. Minsk: Melukhe-biblioṭeḳ un bibliografisher institut fun der vaysrusisher sotsialisṭisher soṿeṭnrepubliḳ a.n. Ṿl. I. Lenin, yidisher opteyl, 1932-1935.
Four volumes of this comprehensive annual listing of Yiddish imprints in the Soviet Union were published. Includes citations for books originally written in Yiddish and books translated into Yiddish.
Jacob Shatzky, editor. Zamlbukh le-koved dem tsvey hundert un fuftsikstn yoyvl fun der yidisher prese, 1686-1936 [Jubilee Volume in Commemoration of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Yiddish Press]. New York: American Branch of the Yiddish Scientific Institute [YIVO], 1937.
Bibliographical-historical essays about Yiddish newspapers and periodicals, from the 17th to the 20th centuries. Partial contents: Menashe Unger, “Bibliografye fun yidisher prese in Erets-Yisroel” (pp. 136-174). Listing of 220 titles published up to 1936. – Yudl Mark, “Yidishe periodishe oysgabes in Lite” (pp. 250-298). Listings of 16 daily newspapers, 30 weeklies and other periodicals, and 13 miscellaneous titles (“nit-periodishe oysgabes”) that appeared in independent Lithuania between the two world wars.
Khone Shmeruk, editor. Pirsumim yehudiyim bi-verit ha-mo‘atsot, 1917-1960: reshimot bibliyografyot (Yidishe publikatsyes in ratn-farband: bibliografishe reshimes = Jewish Publications in the Soviet Union: Bibliographies). Compiled and arranged by Y. Y. Cohen, with the assistance of M. Piekarz. Jerusalem: The Historical Society of Israel, . (“Galuyot” series.)
Classified bibliography (4,154 entries) of Yiddish and Hebrew books and periodicals published in Russia and the Soviet Union through 1960. Includes listings of about 50 Russian-language periodicals and collections. (The work by Mordechai Altshuler, cited above, comprises a more comprehensive bibliography of Russian-language publications in the Soviet Union.) Authoritative for works originally written in Yiddish, this bibliography by and large excludes the thousands of translations into Yiddish.
Robert Singerman. Jewish Serials of the World: A Research Bibliography of Secondary Sources. New York: Greenwood Press, 1986.
“The bibliography presented here has as its primary objective the identification of pertinent source materials for writing a world history of the Jewish press… With over three thousand verified entries, the present work gathers in one single resource a vast amount of the known polyglot literature on serials published through mid-1985, irrespective of language or chronological and geographical limitations” (introduction). Primarily arranged by country, with entries about Yiddish serials (where extant) subarranged as follows: Bibliography; General Studies; Individual Serials.
Robert Singerman. Jewish Serials of the World: A Supplement to the Research Bibliography of Secondary Sources. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2001.
“This new supplement closely follows the original outline” of the 1986 compilation and like it contains approximately 3,000 entries (introduction).
Sistematicheskii ukazatel’ literatury o evreiakh na russkom iazykie so vremeni vvedeniia grazhdanskago shrifta (1708 g.) po dekabr’ 1889 g. Cambridge, England: Oriental Research Partners, 1973. Reprint. Originally published: S.-Peterburg: Tipo-litografiia A.E. Landau, 1892.
Classified bibliography (9,579 entries) of books and articles on Jews, published in Russian from 1708 to 1889. Includes citations for articles about Yiddish authors, in the section on Russian-Jewish literature.
Studia Polono-Judaica: Series Bibliographica. Kraków: Uniwersytet Jagielloński, Międzywydziałowy Zakład Historii i Kultury Żydów w Polsce, 1992-2000. 8 vols.
Since the late 1980s there has been a veritable explosion of scholarship in Poland concerning Jewish topics. This bibliographical series, published by the Center for Jewish History and Culture at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, includes listings of Judaica published in Poland from 1990 to 1996, together with an overall survey of bibliographies of Polish Judaica.
Contents: 1. Przewodnik po bibliografiach polskich Judaików = Guide to Bibliographies of Polish Judaica = Madrikh le-bibliyografyot shel ha-yudaʼiḳah. Opracował Krzysztof Pilarczyk. – 2. Judaika wydane w Polsce: (druki zwarte i niesamoistne: materialy do bibliografii) 1990 = Guide to Judaica Published in Poland in 1990 = Madrikh le-yudaʼikah be-Polin bi-shenat 1990. Pod redakcja Michala Galasa i Krzysztofa Pilarczyka. – 3. Judaika wydane w Polsce: (druki zwarte i niesamoistne: materialy do bibliografii) 1991. Pod redakcją Jolanty Ambrosewicz-Jacobs i Krzysztofa Pilarczyka. – 4/1. Judaika polskie z XVI-XVIII wieku: materialy do bibliografii: czesc 1. oprac. Krzysztof Pilarczyk przy wspoludziale Magdaleny Ruty. – 5/1. Judaika polskie z XIX wieku. Opracował Wacław Wierzbieniec. – 6. Judaika wydane w Polsce: (druki zwarte i niesamoistne: materialy do bibliografii) 1993. Opracowała Magdalena Ruta. – 7. Judaika wydane w Polsce: (druki zwarte i niesamoistne: materialy do bibliografii) 1992. Opracował Andrzej Lorzenz pod kierunkeim Krzysztofa Pilarczyka. – 8. Judaika wydane w Polsce: (druki zwarte i niesamoistne: materialy do bibliografii) 1995-1996. Opracował Wojciech Frazik.
Israel Szajn. Bibliografye fun oysgabes aroysgegebn durkh di arbeter-parteyen in poyln in di yorn 1918-1939 (Bibliografia wydawnictw żydowskich partii robotniczych w Polsce w latach 1918-1939). Warsaw: Yidish-bukh, 1963.
At the time of this book’s publication there were major lacunae in the bibliographical coverage of Yiddish publications in interwar Poland. The focus here on editions issued by working-class political parties filled a major gap. The bibliography is arranged by name of party – running the gamut from the Polish Communist Party to the Poale Agudat Yisra’el, and including the Jewish Labor Bund and numerous Socialist Zionist and Territorialist parties as well. Titles in Hebrew and Polish are also included.
Available online via the Yiddish Book Center.
Yechiel Szeintuch and Vera Solomon. Reshimat ha-yomonim ṿe-khitve-haʻ-et be-yidish she-pursemu be-polin ben shete milḥamot ha-ʻolam = Preliminary Inventory of Yiddish Dailies and Periodicals Published in Poland between the Two World Wars = Reshime fun tsayṭungen un tsayṭshrifṭn aroysgegebn oyf yidish in poyln tsṿishn beyde ṿelt-milkhomes. Jerusalem: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Center for Research on the History and Culture of Polish Jews, 1986. (Polish Jewry Bibliographical Series, 2.)
1,715 titles are listed alphabetically in this “preliminary” (but not yet superseded) bibliography of the Polish Yiddish press during the interwar decades. Includes introductions in Yiddish, Hebrew, and English, and an index by place name.
Volf Tambur, Yidish-prese in rumenye: baytrog tsu a monografye. Bucuresti: Kriterion, 1977.
Published “one hundred years (1877-1977) since the world’s first Yiddish daily newspaper was published in Bucharest.” Includes entries on dozens of periodicals in Yiddish, Hebrew, and Romanian, published in Romania and interwar Bessarabia (present-day Moldova).
Available online via the Yiddish Book Center.
Dvora Zeichner, Ajzik Szechter, Dalia Kaufmann, Jacob M. Kelman. Reshimah bibliyografit shel ha-pirsumim be-ʻivrit uve-yidish she-yatsʼu le-or be-polin le-min shenat 1944 = Bibliography of Hebrew and Yiddish Publications in Poland since 1944 = Bibliografishe reshime fun hebreishe un yidishe oysgabes in poyln onheybndiḳ fun 1944. Jerusalem: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Center for Research on the History and Culture of Polish Jews, Center for Research and Documentation of East-European Jewry, 1987. (Polish Jewry Bibliographical Series, 3.)
Yiddish publishing resumed in Poland after World War II on a fairly robust scale until the events of 1968, when the majority of Jews remaining were pressured into emigrating. The 560 monographic and periodical titles are listed under the following sections: Bibliographies. – Books and pamphlets (Yiddish). – Newspapers and journals. – Hebrew publications and textbooks. (There are 22 titles in the latter category.) The extensive introduction by Jacob M. Kelman is in Hebrew. Includes indexes of personal names and titles.