Records of the YIVO - Vilna Aspirantur 1934-1940

The Aspirantur, a graduate training program for scholars of Jewish culture, was founded by the YIVO Institute For Jewish Research in 1935. Led by key figures such as Simon Dubnow, Max Weinreich, and Zalmen Reyzen, the Aspirantur educated students who continued to play an important role in the growth of Jewish studies, including Lucy Dawidowicz, Avraham Sutzkever, and Yosl Mlotek. This collection contains research projects produced by the students, evaluations by their professors, and administrative materials produced in the course of running the program, including planning documents, applications, and correspondence.Inventory: Yiddish, 12 pp., English 8 pp., typedMaterials accumulated by the Aspirantur educational division of YIVO - VilnaThe aim of this YIVO division was to educate scholars who intended to pursue their teaching and research careers in the fields of Jewish scholarship. While the Aspirantur was not an accredited academic institution, it required its students to conduct graduate work in the Jewish humanities and social sciences and in Yiddish language and literature and to write papers summarizing their findings. Some of those papers were later published by YIVO. The division also had a Pro-Aspirantur (introductory) program. The teachers in the Aspirantur program included Simon Dubnow, Max Weinreich, Zelig Kalmanovitch, Zalman Reisen, Jacob Lestschinsky, Raphael Mahler, Philip Friedman.Part of the pre-World War II collections of YIVO in Vilnius, Lithuania. Part of the Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Collections Online Project

Germany (Vilna Archives) Collection 1567-1945

A collection of miscellaneous documents pertaining to Jewish life in Germany. The documents are of varied provenance and include the following: Older documents, 17th and 18th centuries. Official documents issued by various German rulers to their Jewish subjects. Included are: *schutzbriefe* (residence permits); permissions to conduct a trade; litigation between the Jews of Frankfurt and the city municipality, 1732-1738; a *mohel* book. Personal and family papers. These are papers of 59 German-Jewish individuals and families, including communal figures and rabbis, 19th and 20th centuries, and include family correspondence, personal documents, business and financial records. Of special interest are: papers of Lina Morgenstern, a writer and social worker, 1860s-1900; Julius Rodenberg, publisher of Deutsche Rundschau, 1853-1913; Bondi family of Frankfurt and Mainz, 1814-1938; Ernest Rabel, professor of international law and member of the International Court of Justice, 1925-1936. Fragmentary records of German-Jewish communities, mostly from the Polish territories under German domination (the Grand Duchy of Posen), including minutes of meetings, by-laws, communal registers, financial records, correspondence, printed matter. Following communities are represented: Berlin, Bromberg (Pol. Bydgoszcz), Filehne (Pol. Wielen), Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, Mannheim, Neisse (Pol. Nysa), Raschkow (Pol. Raszkow), Rybnik.Inventory: English, 24 pp., typedPart of the pre-World War II collections of YIVO in Vilnius, Lithuania. Part of the Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Collections Online Project

YIVO - Vilna Ethnographic Committee Records 1911-1940.

A sub-group of the 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 Byelorussian 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.Inventory: Yiddish, 53 pp., English, 19 pp., typedThe Ethnographic Committee was a subcommittee of the Philological Section of the YIVO Institute in Vilna. Originally, beginning in 1925, the Committee was jointly sponsored by the YIVO and the S. An-Ski Jewish Historical Ethnographic Society in Vilna (founded in 1919 by S. An-Ski and named for him following his death in 1920). 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. Members of the Ethnographic Committee included S. Bastomski, Dr. Max Weinreich, N. Weinig, Nechama Epstein, Zalman Reisen, N. Chayes. In 1930, the name of the Ethnographic Committee was changed to the Folklore Committee. In 1938 the S. An-Ski Society merged with the YIVO Institute and its ethnographic materials were integrated with the archives of the YIVO Ethnographic Committee. These included records inherited from the Society's predecessor, the Society of Friends of Jewish Antiquity (founded in 1913 by S. An-Ski), as well as some records of the Jewish Historical and Ethnographic Society in St. Petersburg (founded in 1908 by Simon Dubnow). Finally, certain folklore materials from the Jewish Bureau of the White Russian Academy of Sciences in Minsk (founded in 1925 and dissolved in the 1930s) were merged with the YIVO materials during the Nazi occupation in Vilna. The records of the Ethnographic Committee of the YIVO Institute include materials from the above-mentioned organizations. Records of each organization are arranged in a separate series.Materials gathered by the YIVO Ethnographic Committee in VilnaPart of the pre-World War II collections of YIVO in Vilnius, Lithuania. Part of the Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Collections Project

U.S. military / IRO - various, including visit of a general (RG 294.5, Folder 471)

10 items.Digital ImageDigital finding aid available

Children, school (RG 294.5, Folder 484)

8 items. Five photos are pasted down on a sheet of paper with captions in Yiddish; one of those photos relates to Camp Beth Bialik, also in Salzburg.Digital ImageDigital finding aid available