User:Bdconley/yiddishPublishers draft

Modern Yiddish Publishers (1862-present) The modern era of Yiddish publishing began about 1862, when Russian constraints on Jewish printing were lifted and the works of the modern Yiddish writer, Sholem Yankev Abramovitsh (Mendele Moykher-Sforim) were first published. While the centers of Yiddish publishing were in Vilna, Warsaw, Kiev and Moscow, the bulk of Jewish publishing still remained to be a combination of specialized works for religious practice—such as Talmudic tractates, halakhic codes and classics of Kabbalah—and economic Jewish printing staples for household use—such as prayerbooks, Haggadahs and calendars. By the 1880s, a new wave of Yiddish printing began in earnest, with ______. The dispersal of Jewish communities due to local pogroms prior to 1900, created a mass immigration from Eastern Europe to North America, South America and Palestine, which all began presses to accommodate the interests of the new immigrant populations. The rise of the new modern Yiddish writers created a more diversified content, necessitating the printing of pamphlets, journals, dictionaries, educational textbooks, association yearbooks as well as the more exclusive novel and poetry volumes. Many presses emerged from political and cultural organizations, but most of the publishers operated with little profit margin and sought to produce printed works for the sake of the new modern Yiddish culture they hoped to support. With the increase of dramatic violence due to two world wars, the Bolshevik revolution and Stalinist pogroms in Europe, the centers of Yiddish publishing moved to New York City, Montreal, Mexico City, Buenos Aires and Tel-aviv. Following the shoah, the demand for Yiddish materials also moved to Yiddish speaking communities beyond Eastern Europe. As the native-Yiddish speaking immigrant populations began to disappear, so did the demand and careers of printers outside of Europe. But with the demise of the Berlin wall in 1989, the rise of perestroika in the USSR of the 1980s and the loss of communist control of Russia and Eastern Europe in the 1990s, the demand for Yiddish publishing has reemerged and printing has returned to many areas where Yiddish publishing was first begun in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Vilna

 * B. Kletskin (1909/10- ) Founded by Boris Kletskin (1875–1937) in Vilna in 1909-1910, this publishing house became a prestigious presence in both Vilna and Warsaw.
 * Niye Yidishe Shul [H. Leyviks kinderyorn (Childhood Years of H. Levik) (Niye Yidishe Shul, Vilna, 1938)]

Warsaw

 * Kultur-lige Farlag—Warsaw (1922-) Established by Nakhman Mayzel and others after they reestablished the Kultur-lige organization in Warsaw, following the Communist takeover of the Kultur-lige in Kiev in December of 1921. Soon the Kultur-lige Press was the leader in the Yiddish language publishing of Warsaw. The press reestablished the bibliographical journal Bikher-velt, formerly of Kiev, as well as a new weekly magazine, Literarishe bleter, which became the leading weekly for literary Yiddish for the next 15 years.

Kiev

 * Kunst Farlag Published writings, pamphlets and literary anthologies by Yiddish authors. Managed by Nakhmen Mayzel (1887-1966) from 1912-14.
 * Kiever Farlag (after 1917-) Founded by Nakhmen Mayzel (1887-1966) and others. Published at least 100 books in Yiddish during its first four years.
 * Kultur-lige Farlag—Kiev (1920-1931) Founded as the publication arm of the Kultur-lige (1918-) and dedicated to Yiddish culture and education, including literature, theater, art and music. The Communists arrested control of the Kulture-lige in December of 1920 and reorganized it under control of the Jewish Sections of the People’s Commissariat of Education which turned the press into a joint stock company with few shares going to the Kultur-lige organization. After the political changes in the Ukraine, the original founders, including Nakhman Mayzel and others, moved to Warsaw in March 1921 and founded a new press there in 1922.  The press outlived the Kultur-lige organization in Kiev, which seems to have ended all activities in the USSR by 1924.

Moscow

 * Farlag emes	Published Birobidzaner by Dovid Bergelson in 1934.

Chicago

 * L. M. Shteyn

New York

 * Farlag matones (1925-1981): Founded by Lippa Lehrer in 1921 as a children’s publisher for the Sholem Aleichem Folk-Institute (1918-1981), Farlag matones eventually became a leading publisher of Yiddish literature as well.

Solomon Simon (1895[1]—November 8, 1970) was a Jewish author and educator.[2] He published over thirty books, in Yiddish and English, notably his children's books The Wandering Beggar, The Wise Men of Helm, and More Wise Men of Helm. He was also a leading figure of the Sholem Aleichem Folks Institute, a Jewish cultural organization that operated Yiddish secular schools for children.[3] Although he had become fully secular, he felt it essential to assure the survival of Jewish values, culture and traditions in the new generation of Jews growing up in America.[7] To that end, he became a devoted “yiddishist,” viewing the Yiddish language as the singular instrument that could succeed in perpetuating Jewish ideals among secular Jews and their children.[8] He became active in the Sholem Aleichem Folks Institute based in New York City, a secular Jewish organization focused on maintaining evening children’s schools for teaching Yiddish, as well as Jewish culture and history. He served as President of the Institute from 1939–43, 1945–49 and 1952-3; he also played an active role in its Yiddish summer camp, Boiberik, as well as its Yiddish magazine for children and its Yiddish publishing arm.[9][10]


 * Yungvarg Bibliotek
 * Farlag Papirene Brik
 * CYCO

Montreal

 * Jewish School Publishing House [Hayim Nakhman Bialik (Chaim Nachman Byalik) (1973)]

Buenos Aires

 * Farlag Poaley Tsion Histadru
 * Koyim [In de Teg fun de Ershte Nevyem (In the Days of the Early Prophets) (1950)]
 * Yidbukh [Oyf eygene drokhim (On My Own Paths) (1962)]
 * Kultur-lige farlag—Mexico (1935- ) Sponsored cultural publishing projects.
 * Kultur-lige farlag—Argentina (1935-) Sponsored cultural publishing projects.

Tel Aviv

 * Hakibbutz Hameuchad
 * Farlag I. L. Peretz