YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

Resources (49)

• RG 1.1. Vilna [Vilnius, Vilno] Administration Records.

  Boxes 1-41 arranged by folder; boxes 42-49 unarranged. This subgroup consists of administrative records of the YIVO Institute in Vilna [Vilnius, Vilno] from 1925 to 1941. Records of the Organizing Committee: minutes of meetings, correspondence, 1925-1928; records of expenses; resolutions, speeches, proposals. Records of the Executive Board: correspondence with individuals and organizations; minutes of meetings; membership lists; financial reports. http://yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=32491

• RG 1.2. Vilna [Vilnius, Vilno] Ethnographic Committee Records (1911-1940).

  7.7 Linear Feet. Administrative files of the Ethnographic Committee: outlines of plans for the committee; correspondence of the committee with individual collectors; printed questionnaires on Jewish legends, Purim, Passover, Lag B'Omer, Shavuoth, children's folklore, as well as questionnaires on exaggerations and lies. Minutes of joint meetings of YIVO and the An-Ski Society, 1930. Folklore materials: folk plays, Purim plays, Yiddish and Hebrew folk songs, handwritten folktales, jokes, anecdotes, legends. Linguistic material such as notes on Yiddish grammar, Yiddish pronunciation. *S. An-Ski Jewish Historical-Ethnographic Society* http://yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=32492&q=russia

• RG 10. Vilna [Vilnius, Vilno] Jewish Community Council

  Records, 1820s-1940, ca. 11 ft. Minutes of meetings, correspondence, reports, financial records, printed matter, and miscellaneous documents relating to the activities of the Vilna [Vilnius, Vilno] Tsedakah Gedolah, 1844–1918, and to the Naye Kehilla, 1919–40—organizations that succeeded the Kahal (community administration) abolished by the government. Includes correspondence with the Lithuanian government, Jewish National Council in Lithuania, and Russian government. http://yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/findingaid&id=23248&q=

• RG 116. Territorial Collection: Russia and USSR.

  Personal documents, letters, memoirs, testimonies, clippings relating to Jews in pre-revolutionary Russia and in the Soviet Union.
  
  Materials on the anarchist movement. Clippings from Russian and European newspapers about the blood libel trial of Mendel Beilis, 1913, as well as other materials about the trial. Testimonies and memoirs about the pogroms of 1903 and 1905. Materials on experiences in the Gulag. Materials on the experiences of Polish refugees in the Soviet Union during World War II. Writing assignments of children in Jewish children's homes, 1920s, including issues of the handwritten journal *Kommunar*, Vitebsk, 1922. Clippings from the Soviet press about Jewish affairs, 1920s-1960s. Overview available: http://yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=34347&q=russia

• RG 12. Jewish Community Council in Minsk.

  Records, 1825–1921, ca. 3 ft. Includes registers of births, weddings, and deaths within the Jewish population of Minsk, Byelorussia; membership books from schools and beth-midroshim; registers and correspondence pertaining to taxation of various economic strata of the Jewish population; and files relating to the Council's activities concerning the law on Jewish recruits to the army.

• RG 1400. Bund Archives.

  720 items; 35 map folders. The Bund Archives, established in Geneva in 1899, soon after the founding of the Bund in Vilna [Vilnius, Vilno], collects primarily materials relating to the history of the Jewish labor movement in Eastern Europe and the Western Hemisphere. Among its holdings are printed and unpublished matter in Yiddish, Russian, Polish, English, French, German, and a few other languages.The Bund archives was formed as a topical collection on the Bund's history, and on related topics such as Jewish and general socialist groups, other political movements, Yiddish culture, and the Holocaust. In addition, a large number of organizations and individuals donated their records and papers to the Bund Archives. Among papers of individuals the following should be mentioned: Raphael Abramovitch; Israel Abramson; Boris Aisurovich; Aleksandrowicz family; Meir David Alter; Berl Ambaras; Grigori Aronson; David Berkingoff; Leib Berman; Lucjan Blit; Dina Blond; Abraham. Finding aid available: http://www.yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=33762

• RG 2. Lithuanian Jewish Communities.

  Records, 1844–1940, 40 ft. Primarily from the time of the Jewish National Autonomy in Lithuania, 1919–26, and from the Ministry for Jewish Affairs. Also, much material from local communities. A small amount relates to 1844–1918 and 1927–40. Includes records of the Jewish National Council, 1918–26; materials on political life and elections, the first conference of Jewish communities in Lithuania, 1920, and Jewish rights in Lithuania; records of the Historical-Ethnographic Society (Kovno) 1922–40; photographs; and other material on school systems, youth, theater, cultural activities, and professional-economic activities. Unpublished inventory.

• RG 205. Kalman Marmor (1879-1956).

  Papers, ca. 1880–1952, ca. 37 ft. Yiddish writer, literary critic, editor, and lecturer. Member at various times of different political movements and parties, including The World Union of Poalei Zion, Communist Party of the U.S.A., and Mishagola (Russia). Diaries, correspondence, manuscripts, typescripts, clippings, posters, notes, identity and membership cards, photos, and bibliographical cards; about half the papers are arranged. Includes his diaries, journals, and portions of his autobiography (Lebens-geshikhte); family correspondence, from his wife, 1897–1909, and to his wife, 1899–1930; general correspondence, several thousand letters, 1900–1950s; his manuscripts in Yiddish and Hebrew on various topics; materials on Joseph Bovshover (1873–1915), Yiddish poet; materials on Jacob Gordin (1853–1909), Yiddish playwright; papers of Morris Vinchevsky (1856–1932), Yiddish and Hebrew writer, socialist leader (traveled to Russia); materials on Aaron Liberman (1845–1880), early Jewish socialist; materials on Jacob Milch (1866–1945), Yiddish writer; materials on David Edelstadt (1866–1892), Yiddish poet, including his Russian poetry and letters to his sister Sonya; manuscripts of many writers, including M. Vinchevsky, D. Ignatov, Chaim Zhitlovsky, and Zalman Reisen. The unarranged portion of the papers contains material relating to the CPUSA, Friends of Soviet Russia, 1920s-1930s, Marmor's stay in Russia, 1931–35, and many other groups and subjects. Unpublished partial inventory in Yiddish (NUCMC 61–12).

• RG 208. Chaim Zhitlovsky (1861-1943).

  Papers, 1886–1943, 30 ft. Russian-born philosopher, radical, and literary figure. He was a theoretician of socialism and Jewish nationalism in the Diaspora, one of the founders of the Jewish Socialist Workers' Party (SERP), and a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. Emigrated to the U.S. in 1908. Includes family and general correspondence, manuscripts of Zhitlovsky, his first wife, Vera Lonova, and other individuals, photographs, and clippings. Some materials and documents relate to the SR Party. Ca. 33% of the collection is in Russian. Unpublished finding aid.

• RG 215. Berlin Collection, 1931-45

  24 ft. Records from the Reichsministerium fur Volkaufklarung und Propaganda and the Reichskommisariat fur das Ostland (i.e., for occupied territories in the East). Correspondence, memoranda, reports, minutes of meetings, clippings, documents, and printed matter, mainly relating to the Jewish question. Includes directives about German agricultural colonization in Eastern territories, 1940; instructions on policy for treatment of Jews in occupied territories, 1943; correspondence between the Propaganda Ministry and the Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, plus an organizational scheme of the latter, 1941; German soldier's account of an attack on a Ukrainian village, 1941; memorandum of a high Soviet officer on the reasons for stubborn Russian resistance, 1944; reports on the morale of the Red Army; materials concerning the church in Latvia, Lithuania, and White Russia; reports and correspondence on the situation of the Jews in Estonia; letters from Ukrainians to Hitler, 1932 and 1941; list of 118 leading personalities of the Ukrainian emigration; and much more material on the Baltic countries, White Russia, Poland, Ukraine, and the USSR as occupied territories. Card catalogue in English and draft of detailed catalogue.

• RG 22. Khevra Mefitzei Haskolo (Society for the Propagation of the Enlightenment).

  Records, 1909–38, ca. 2 ft. Founded in 1863 to unite "enlightened" groups among Russian Jewry to stem criticism of Jewish separatism in education and culture. Correspondence, reports, financial records, minutes of meetings, printed matter, posters, and other documents. Concerns cultural activities, schools, and World War I. Includes correspondence with the Russian government, 1909–11, and with towns around Vilna, 1909–18.

• RG 220. Gershon Epstein.

  Collection, 16th20th c. ca. 4.5 ft. YIVO's principal collector in France and Germany after World War II. Includes rare manuscript Judaica from Western and Eastern Europe, some relating to Jewish folklore. Unpublished inventory.

• RG 223. Abraham Sutzkever-Shmerke Katcherginski Collection, 1806-1945

  7 ft. Jewish writers from Vilna [Vilnius, Vilno] active in Vilna ghetto life and in anti-Nazi resistance, 1941–45. Correspondence, manuscripts, reports, circulars, posters, and documents relating to Jewish life in Vilna from 1806 to the extermination of the ghetto. Includes 1942 map of the ghetto; diaries of Zelig Kalmanowitch, Herman Kruk, Yitzchok Rudashevsky, 1941–43; materials on the history, culture, schools, theater, health system, housing, etc of the ghetto, ca. 1941–43; photographs; historical documents rescued from the destroyed Vilna YIVO; manuscript diary of Theodore Herzl; manuscripts of Simon Dubnow, Chaim Zhitlovsky, and others; pinkassim (community record books) of Jewish communities of Vilna and Shkud, 17th–19th c.; and much more. Unpublished inventory in Yiddish (NUCMC 61–3392).

• RG 24. Rabbinical School and Teachers' Seminary

  Records, 1847–1914, ca. 18 ft. Correspondence, reports, memoranda, financial records, and other documents. Curriculum of the Rabbinical School, established to train teachers for government schools for Jewish children, included secular subjects and Judaic subjects. In 1873 the seminary was converted into a teacher's institute only. Contains correspondence with the Ministry of Education's office for the province of White Russia; materials on courses, administration, and school activities; and much data on candidates for admittance. Finding aid available: http://yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/findingaid&id=23250&q=

• RG 270. Union of Russian Jews.

  Records, 1945–60, 14 ft. Fraternal organization based in New York providing relief for relatives in the Soviet Union after World War II. General correspondence and minutes of meetings of the Executive Committee; correspondence with Soviet Jews; index of persons contacted in the USSR; manuscript on Russian Jewry, 1860–1917, and Soviet Jewry, 1918–61; and other correspondence and financial records.

• RG 3. Yiddish Literature and Language (1870's-1941).

  29.08 Linear Feet. This collection consists of fragments of many literary collections which were part of the YIVO Archives in Vilna [Vilnius, Vilno] before 1941 and of materials which originated in Jewish institutions of higher learning in the Soviet Union, notably in the Institut Far Yidisher Proletarisher Kultur (Institute for Jewish Proletarian Culture) in Kiev. A portion of these materials was collected by Zalman Reisen, the Yiddish linguist, literaryhistorian and author of the *Leksikon fun der yidisher literatur, prese un filologie* (Lexicon of Yiddish Literature, Press and Philology), 4 Volumes, Vilna, 1926-29. The materials pertain to the fifth volume of the Lexicon which was intended as a supplement to the first four volumes but which was never published. Other materials come mainly from personal papers accessioned by the YIVO in Vilna. Materials on Yiddish writers: individuals files on about 600 writers from Eastern Europe consisting of autobiographical notes and letters, biographies, bibliographies, manuscripts and typewritten copies, newspaper clippings, commemorative materials, announcements about lectures. Finding aid: http://yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/findingaid&id=343130&q=

• RG 30. Russia and the Soviet Union Collection (Vilna [Vilnius, Vilno] Archives)

  ca. 6 ft. Correspondence, reports, clippings, posters, documents, and printed matter relating to Jews in the Russian Empire and in the Soviet Union. Materials on Jewish political activities, 1845–1921; records relating to Birobidjan; government ukases and edicts relating to Jewish life; police reports about Jews and non-Jews under police custody, 1870–1911; materials about Jews in the Russian military, 1885–1915; police documents on Polish revolutionaries, 1863–70; and general records about different localities in Russia, 1902–17. The bulk of the collection covers the period of the Russian Empire. Government documents, 1845-1908. Decrees and announcements of the Tsar. Petitions to the Tsar, 1860-1892. Anti-Jewish laws, 1881, 1882, 1894. Documents about Jews in the Russian army, 1885-1915. Catalogue record: http://search.cjh.org/beta:CJH_SCOPE:CJH_ALEPH000133715

• RG 309. Leon Baratz (b. 1871).

  Papers, 1920s-1954, ca..5 ft. Jewish-Russian lawyer, teacher, and publicist (pen name L. German) in Kiev and Western Europe. Writings, handwritten and typed, on such subjects as Jewish conditions in Soviet Russia, Zionism, the Diaspora, and the World Jewish Congress. Also, clippings, letters, autobiography, and materials on his father, Herman Baratz, historian and public figure in Kiev.

• RG 335.2. American Joint Reconstruction Foundation (AJRF).

  Records, 1920–39, ca. 12 ft. Established as a joint effort of the Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Colonization Association in 1924 to aid economic reconstruction of Jewish communities in Eastern Europe after World War I by establishing cooperative credit institutions, commercial banks, and workers' cooperatives and rebuilding destroyed housing. Correspondence, financial reports, and reports on the situation in various communities from AJRF offices, divided into 19 series. Reports on Russia in the AJRF general records, 1921–28 (series 1); on Ukraine, 1920 (2); on Lithuania, 1920–25 (4); on Latvia and Estonia, 1922–26 (5); and on Agro-Joint, from the Moscow office, etc., 1925–37 (12). Also, clippings, photos, and other material. Inventory.

• RG 335.3. American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. War Orphans Bureau.

  Records, 1919–23, 7.5 ft. on 14 microfilm rolls. Organized relief work for Jewish orphans mainly in Eastern Europe. Includes ca. 390 individual case files, correspondence, disposition reports, geographical files, internal records, and information on adoption in the U.S. Indexes by name of orphan and by foster parents' name.

• RG 335.7. American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, New York. Landsmanschaften Department.

  Records, 1937–40 and 1945–50, 15 ft. Memoranda, correspondence, reports, etc. Landsmanschaften are benevolent associations of emigrants from the same town. The Landsmanschaften Fraternal Division was originally created in 1919 to generate aid from the associations for their native towns. Discontinued in 1924, it was re-established in 1937 to aid the AJDC reconstruction program in Eastern Europe. Substantial portion relates to Russian Jewish localities. Unpublished inventory.

• RG 348. Lucien Wolf and David Mowshowitch.

  Papers, 1890s-1950s, ca. 14 ft. Mowshowitch (1887–1957) was on the Jewish Board of Deputies in England, secretary to Lucien Wolf and later secretary of the Foreign Department of the Board of Deputies. Wolf (1857–1930) was a publicist, historian, and secretary of the Joint Foreign Committee formed by the Board of Deputies and the Anglo-Jewish Association. Correspondence, private papers, reports, minutes of meetings, manuscripts, etc. concerning the Joint Foreign Committee, the political situation of Jews in various countries, Wolf's work on the Paris Peace Conference, and the lives of both men. Includes Wolf's lectures on English-Russian relations, his correspondence with Prof. Simon Ashkenasy, 1921, and Maxim Vinaver (Vinawer), 1917; documents and correspondence pertaining to Soviet Jewry; materials relating to the Beilis Trial; Vladimir Jobotinsky's appeal about military service; and Mowshowitch's papers, including items on Russian antiSemitism and translations of Russian poems into Yiddish. Published inventory in Yiddish; unpublished inventory in English.

• RG 358. Joseph A. Rosen (1887-1949).

  Agro-Joint director files, 1921–38, 16 ft. Agronomist, leader of Jewish agricultural colony projects, and director of the Agro-Joint project for Jewish agricultural colonies in the USSR. Agro-Joint (American Jewish Joint Agricultural Corporation) was established by the American Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) as its operating agency in the USSR in 1924 to develop the land settlement of Russian Jews on a large scale. It also conducted general relief and professional training and worked for industrialization. Discontinued in the USSR in 1938, dissolved in 1954. Reports, surveys, financial records, minutes of meetings, correspondence, maps, and clippings. Includes various agreements with the Soviet government and with other relief organizations (YMCA, American Relief Administration); minutes of NKZ (Commissariat of Agriculture) meeting on results of JDC colonization work, 1923; essay by Louis Fischer, "The Forward to the Soil Movement of Jews in Russia" (1925); letter from Moscow to Felix M. Warburg on the worsening situation of Soviet Jews, 1927; Agro-Joint Main Office (AMO) annual and periodic reports, and files; records of the Agro-Joint Agricultural Department, including statistical summaries, 1924–38, of Jewish agricultural settlements in 10 western Soviet provinces; regional files for southern Russia (Crimea, Ukraine), White Russia, Moscow, etc.; and much more. Unpublished inventory (NUCMC 60–1116).

• RG 366. Isaac N. Steinberg (1888-1957).

  Papers, 1910s-1963, 25 ft. Russian-Jewish political writer, leader of the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party during the 1917 Revolution, minister of Justice in the first Bolshevik government, leader of the Jewish Territorialist Movement and of the Freeland League for Jewish Territorial Colonization, and founding member of the YIVO Institute. Includes correspondence, manuscripts, and typescripts of books by him and others pertaining to Russia and the Russian Revolution (e.g., When I Was a People's Commissar), manuscripts on Maria Spiridonova, materials from the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party (correspondence, statements and resolutions by the party's Central Committee in Russia, 1918–20, and photos of some members); Steinberg's personal papers; family correspondence ; manuscripts and typescripts of books and articles, essays, lectures, notes, etc. by Steinberg and others; diaries, calendars, photos; materials on the Freeland League; and material on Jewish colonization efforts. Unpublished inventory (NUCMC 60–2362).

• RG 4. YIVO Collection of Autobiographies of Jewish Youth, 1932-39

  7.5 ft. YIVO-sponsored contests produced ca. 375 autobiographies of young Jewish men and women, aged 16–22, living mainly in Poland and Lithuania before 1939 (arranged geographically by author's place of origin). Some include correspondence, diaries, etc. sent in by the participants. Also, material relating to the contests and the YIVO youth research division. Unpublished inventory with name index and Moses Kligsberg's published guide, 1965.

• RG 405. Dr. Mendel Sudarski (1885–1951) and Alta Sudarski.

  Papers, 1938–58, 5 ft. Physician, Jewish communal leader in Kaunas, Lithuania, chairman of the Federation of Lithuanian Jews in New York, and author; and his wife, active in Yiddish cultural organizations and in relief efforts for Jewish refugees in Shanghai and for Russian Jews. Correspondence, manuscripts, notes, and some photos pertaining to the book Lite (Lithuania, vol. 1, New York, 1951), which he co-edited; and correspondence and receipts for food and clothes packages for Jews in the USSR, 1950s.

• RG 406. Julius Borenstein-Leah Eisenberg Collection on Early Jewish Migration, 1868-1930

  Ca. 3.5 ft., 5 microfilm reels. Materials on the history of Jewish immigration, mainly 1860s-1914. Includes items on the reaction of European and American Jewish organizations to the persecution of Russian Jews and their efforts to assist emigration of these Jews to America. Relates to such organizations as the Comite de Secours pour les Israelites, Alliance Israelite Universelle, Deutsches Central Komitee fur die russischen Juden, Baron de Hirsch Institute, Russo-Jewish Committee, and Jewish Colonization Association. Unpublished inventory.

• RG 421. Daniel Charney (1888-1959)

  Papers, ca. 1920s-1959, ca. 6.5 ft. Yiddish writer and journalist. Includes his correspondence with such individuals as S. Dubnow, S. Nepomnyashtchy, Barukh Vladeck, and Shmuel Niger (the last 2 his brothers); family correspondence; his manuscripts; photos; correspondence of Vladeck (1886–1938) with Eduard Bernstein, Karl Kautsky, S. Asch, Marc Chagall, and others; and Charney's diaries, 1935–36, notebooks, and personal documents. List of correspondents.

• RG 46. Lithuanian Consistory of the Russian Orthodox Church.

  Records, 1807–1900, ca. 4.5 ft. Consists of 196 files for 290 persons, mostly women, residing in the former Pale of Settlement, applying to the Consistory for conversion to the Greek Orthodox faith. A few are cases of conversion of entire families, minors, former students of the Vilna [Vilnius, Vilno] Rabbinical School, Jewish soldiers, etc., and 2 are of converted soldiers (Cantonists?) who asked permission to return to Judaism (forbidden by the law). Unpublished inventory in Yiddish.

• RG 500. Alexander Pomerantz (1901-1965).

  Papers, 1920s-1960s, 2.5 ft. Yiddish writer and bibliographer, member of the faculty of the Institute for Jewish Proletarian Culture at the Ukrainian Academy of Science, Kiev. Comprises correspondence, including letters from Soviet-Yiddish writers (I. Fefer, M. Erik, and Abraham Kahan); correspondence with Yiddish cultural and political organizations in the U.S.; materials on the Institute for Jewish Proletarian Culture in Kiev (his notes for lectures, diplomas, clippings); notes for the biography of Max Erik, historian of Yiddish literature; manuscripts and notes on executed Jewish writers in the USSR; Pomerantz's published and unpublished articles in manuscript; correspondence and other materials concerning Grodno and the Grodno landsmanschaften in various countries; and other matter.

• RG 557. Reichsicherheitshauptamt (RSHA) (Reich Central Security Office). Einsatzgruppen (task forces) in the USSR.

  Records, 1941–42, 2.25 ft. Task forces or mobile liquidation units of the RSHA that followed the army to carry out special tasks in various countries. Includes top secret reports of the chiefs of Security Police and the SD in the Soviet Union containing detailed information on task forces' activities, and reports from the-occupied Eastern territories (Ostgebieten) by commanders of the task forces stationed in the USSR concerning anti-partisan operations and other problems of the Security Police. Card index.

• RG 56. The Vilna [Vilnius, Vilno] Chief of Police (1831-1918).

  The collection includes materials pertaining to: the illegal activities of political suspects and convicts (students, Catholic priests, and revolutionaries); Jews and military conscription; disputes over financial matters and inheritance of real estate; residential rights of Jews; criminal and civil cases; Yiddish and censorship. The collection also includes miscellaneous records, some of which provide material of special interest for scholars of Jewish and Russian social history. Finding aid available: http://yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=34072&q=russia

• RG 587. Isaac A. Hourwich (1860-1924).

  Papers, 1896–1924, ca. 4.5 ft. Yiddish, Russian, and English publicist, economist, lawyer, lecturer, and one of the organizers of the first American Jewish Congress in 1918. Manuscripts, documents, reports, minutes of meetings, memoranda, correspondence, etc. pertaining to Russia and the labor movement, the fifth Congress of the Jewish Labor Bund, 1903, the Russian Social-Revolutionary Party, and American Jewish affairs. Also, microfilm of his unfinished memoirs, published in the weekly Die Freie Arbeiter Stimme. Unpublished inventory.

• RG 601. Leon Feinberg (1897-1969).

  Papers, 1920s-1968, ca. 14.5 ft. Yiddish journalist, poet, novelist, editor, and translator. Correspondence; writings; manuscripts of Feinberg, S. N. Feinberg (his father), Mani-Leib, and Moshe Nadir; speeches and lectures; and clippings, some of which relate to Russia, where Feinberg lived for part of his life. Unpublished inventory.

• RG 7. Music (Vilna [Vilnius, Vilno] Archives) (1890's-1930's).

  Manuscripts of musical works for the Yiddish theater, including music for about 450 operas, operettas and vaudeville skits. There are also manuscripts and printed sheets of art, popular, dance and liturgical music. Most of the music was written for theatrical works in Yiddish and Hebrew but there are also pieces for plays in English, Russian, Polish and other languages. Composers, arrangers and musicians include: David Beigelman, Joseph Brody, Adolf Gimpel, Isaac Nozik, Arnold Perlmutter, Joseph Rumshinsky, Peretz Sandler, Herman Wohl, Sholom Secunda and Sigmund Mogulesko. Playwrights include: Abraham Goldfaden, Jacob Gordin, Moishe Hurwitz, Joseph Latteiner, Solomon Libin, Nahum Meir Shaikewitz (Shomer), Boris Thomashevsky, Isidore Zolatarevsky. FInding aid available: http://yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=32498&q=russia

• RG 713. Herman Bernstein (1876-1935).

  Papers, 1897–1935, 29 ft. Journalist, author, diplomat, and political leader. Includes correspondence, 1908–35, with many prominent cultural figures (e.g., the family of Leo Tolstoi, Leonid Andreyev and his wife) and other family/general correspondence; literary manuscripts; financial records; photographs, some of the Russian army in World War I; documents; translations of works by Tolstoi, Andreyev, M. Gorkii, and A. Chekhov; interviews (1 with Tolstoi); and clippings. Also, news dispatches from Russia and the Paris Peace Conference, filed when he was a correspondent for the New York Herald. 1917–20; materials concerning his libel suit against Henry Ford for publishing the Protocols of the Elders of Zion; and other items relating to the Russian Revolution, Russian Jews, pogroms, and Jewish journalism. Unpublished finding aid.

• RG 725. Mendel Osherowitch (1887-1965).

  Papers, 1920s-1967, 10 ft. Yiddish journalist, poet, novelist, historian, organizer of the Federation of Ukrainian Jews in America (Association to Perpetuate the Memory of Ukrainian Jews), and editor of a book on Jews in the Ukraine. Correspondence, manuscripts, typescripts, photographs, printed matter, clippings, etc. Correspondents include Sholem Asch, Salo Baron, Albert Einstein, Aaron Glantz-Leyeles, Jacob Lestchinsky, Jacob Shatzky, Zalman Reisin, Abraham Sutzkever, Alexander Kerensky, and many organizations. Manuscripts and other material relating to the book Yidn in Ukraine; material on the Babi Yar Memorial, 1963, and of the Headquarters of the Russian Fascists, 1932; manuscripts by Abraham Cahan (Kahan), Dov Sadan, Moshe Starkman, and Hillel Rogoff; and other materials. Unpublished inventory.

• RG 774. Maxim Kovensky Collection, 1906-13

  Ca. 1 ft. Former member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party in Russia. Contains original flyers and appeals of the Party, clippings from Russian and Yiddish newspapers about the Socialist Revolutionaries, and typescript declarations of the Party.

• RG 80. Central Archives of the Editorial Committee on Collection and Investigation of the Materials Relating to the Pogroms in the Ukraine.

  Records, 1802–1924, 61 microfilm rolls. Records relating to the daily operation of the Central Archive as well as documents, correspondence, minutes of meetings, manuscripts, memoranda, reports, etc. pertaining to the pogroms, 1903–21, and to Jewish life. Materials on the Kishinev pogrom, 1903; effects of the 1919–21 pogroms on various cities; lists of victims, 1919–21; statistics on relief work in the Ukraine; photos of destruction and victims; E. Tcherikower's notes on pogroms; records of official Jewish organizations (Jewish National Council, Jewish Ministry, Jewish National Assembly) and other Jewish organizations (United Zionist Labor Movement in Russia and various Soviet Jewish groups); historical documents; letters sent to the tsars; materials on the Beylis trial and Schwarzbard trial; memoirs of Shmuel Rabinovich, 1936–37; correspondence of the Eastern Jewish Historical Archive in Berlin, 1919–24, with individuals and organizations; and many other records of the editorial office. Inventory.

• RG 80-89. Elias Tcherikower Archive.

  Described individually infra (not in its entirety).

• RG 81. Elias Tcherikower (1881-1943).

  Papers, 1903–63, 45 microfilm rolls. Historian, secretary and founder of the Eastern Jewish Historical Archive in Kiev and Berlin, founding member of YIVO, chairman of the Historical Section and Research Secretary of YIVO. Manuscripts, notes, correspondence, reports, clippings, and documents relating to his writings, 1910–40, plus personal correspondence of his family. Subjects covered: World War I and Jews in Russia; the Chmielnicki massacres, 1648–49; Jewish historiography; the Society for the Propagation of the Enlightenment; Aaron Liberman, history of the Jews in the Ukraine; various trials of Jews, including some involving the Protocols of the Elders of Zion; and the Jewish Colonization Association. Correspondents include Alfred de Ginzburg, Simon Dubnow, and Ilya Dijeur. Inventory.

• RG 83. Marc Ratner.

  Papers, 1906–13, 3 microfilm rolls. Co-founder of SERP (Sotsialisticheskaya Yevreyskaya Rabochaya Partiya), the Jewish Socialist Workers' Party, in 1906. Correspondence, reports, minutes of meetings, circulars, manuscripts, and financial records relating to the activities of the Foreign Committee of SERP. The Party was based on a synthesis of nationalist and socialist ideas; after 1917 it joined with the Zionist Socialists, establishing the United Jewish Socialist Workers' Party. Correspondents include Ber Borochov, Z. Goldin, Pinkhas Dubinsky, Shimon Aronson, Virgilia Verdaro, Alexander Ziskind, Chaim Zhitlovsky, Michel Levitan, Yehuda Novakovsky, and Misha Fabricant. Inventory.

• RG 84. Maxim Vinawer (1862-1926).

  Papers, 1918–23, 4 rolls. Lawyer, Kadet Party leader, historian, foreign minister in the Crimean regional government, 1918–19, and editor of the Yevreyskaya Tribuna, Paris, 1920s. Correspondence, memoranda, reports, documents, and clippings. Includes records of the Partiya Narodnoy Svobody (Party of National Liberty), such as his correspondence with P. N. Miliukov and other members of the central committee of the Party about current political affairs; inter-office communications about his position as minister of foreign affairs in the Crimean regional government; and correspondence with, inter alia, the Institut d'Etudes Slaves, Chaim Zhitlovsky, the Conference Politique Russe, N. Tchaikovsky [Chaikovskii], M. Rostovstev, and D. Merezhkowsky. Inventory.

• RG 85. Sholom Schwarzbard (1886-1938).

  Papers, 1917–38, 4 microfilm rolls. Jewish political activist and writer who assassinated Simon Petlyura in May 1926. Poems about his assassination of Petlyura, poems by Anna Schwarzbard, personal documents, clippings, handwritten memoirs, typescripts entitled "At War with Myself," and correspondence with groups and individuals such as YIVO, the French ambassador to Moscow, Israel Ostroff, Noah Prilucki, Zalman Kalmanovitch, and Anna Schwarzbard. Inventory.

• RG 86. A. Charash.

  Papers, 1912–18, 2 rolls. Doctor of sociology, author, and member of the Zionist Socialist Workers' Party and other groups. Includes records of the ZSWP, such as resolutions about emigres returning to Russia through Switzerland and Germany, 1917–18, lists of members of the United Jewish Socialist Workers' Party and of its Emigration Committee, applications with photographs, minutes of meetings and circulars of the Western European League of the Party; and correspondence with Rafael Asch, Z. Gordin, Yitzchak Gorsky, Pinchas Dubinsky, Y. Zakalnik, H. Manilevitsch, Aron Syngalowski, and others. Some material on Russian-Jewish emigre students in the West. Inventory.

• RG 87. Simon Dubnow (1860-1941).

  Papers, 1632–1938, 8 rolls. Historian, political writer, and educator. Community records from Mstislavl (his birthplace), 1760–1895, Pinczow, 1632–1740, Piotrowice, 1726–1809, and the Burial Society of Stary Bychow, 1686–1869—all original pinkeysim (record books); copies of record books of Tykocin, 1769–77, Zabludow, 1650–1783, Birze, 1755–96, and Dubno, 1670–71; partial records of the Lublin community from the 18th c. and other communities; documents from blood libel trials in Miedzyrzec, 1816, and Bobowno, 1829; documents from Nowa Uszyca, 1839–40; documents concerning restrictions, privileges, and other matters issued by East European rulers and governments for Jews in various localities; minutes of a commission to publish documents relating to blood libel trials in Russia, 1919–20; material on Gzerot Takh-Tat and Jewish massacres of 1648–49 during the Chmielnicki uprising; copies of archival documents of the Russian Ministry of Justice and Senate, 1799–1800; reports and documents pertaining to Russian pogroms of the 1880s, Kishinev pogrom, 1903, Homel pogrom, 1903, and pogroms of October 1905 and in Bialystok, 1906; Dubnow family papers, including material of Rabbi Benzion Dubnow, Simon's grandfather; and correspondence with, among others, Shmuel Alexandrovich, 1896, Yitschak Antonovsky, 1897, Chaim Zhitlovsky, Maxim Vinaver, 1922–23, Shmuel Silberstein, and Chaim Zuskind. Inventory (NUCMC 60–2386).

• RG 88. Gregori Gurevitch (Gershon Badanes) (1852-1929).

  Papers, 1880–1929, 2 rolls. Early Russian-Jewish revolutionary, subsequently disillusioned and became a Jewish communal leader. Correspondence with Pavel Axelrod, 1925, Jacob Lestchinsky, 1929, N. Grinberg, 1924–28, N. Meisel, 1922, the Archives of the Russian Revolution, 1924–27, and others; materials about pogroms, including reports and memoirs, 1917–19; manuscripts and notes in Russian, ca. 100 pp., about individuals and political affairs; and printed matter, including his Yiddish translation of Mr. Aldanov's "St. Helena." Inventory.

• RG 89. Baron Horace (Naftali Herz) de Gunzburg (1850-189).

  The collection relates to Gunzburg's philanthropic and communal activities as well as to Jewish life in Russia. Correspondence between Gunzburg and Russian authorities about unjust conscription of Jews into the Russian army and about improving the political and legal situation of Russian Jews. Correspondence between the Hevrah Mefitsei Haskalah and Jewish journalists about the Jewish press in Russia, in particular about the newspapers *Hamelitz* and *Kol Mevasser*. Correspondence with rabbis of Russia and Poland about the creation of a rabbinical seminary in Russia. Minutes of meetings of the Hevrah Mefitsei Haskalah. Petitions to the government about the political and legal situation of Jews in Russia. Records of the Vilna Committee for Improvement of the Situation of Russian Jews, 1869. Materials relating to anti-Jewish propaganda in Russia. Biographical note: Member of a distinguished Jewish family in Russia which was known for its efforts on behalf of Russian Jewry with the Tsarist authorities. Banker, philanthropist, communal leader. Patron of scientific, cultural, and social institutions and of writers, artists and musicians. Gunzburg fought to prevent the passing of anti-Jewish decrees and participated in the Pahlen Commission (1883-1888) which was established to review the laws pertaining to Jews. Headed the Hevrah Mefitsei Haskalah (Society for the Promotion of Culture). As Chairman of the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA) Gunzburg encouraged the development of agriculture and crafts among Jews. Born in Zvenigorodok, province of Kiev. FInding aid available: http://yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=32547&q=russia

• RG 89. Baron Horace (Naftali Herz) Guenzburg (1833-1909).

  Papers, 1850–95, 2 rolls. Banker, philanthropist, head of the Jewish Committee in St. Petersburg, and chairman of the Jewish Colonization Association in Russia. Leader of the Khevra Mefitse Haskoleh (Society for the Propagation of Enlightenment), pertaining to which there is correspondence and minutes of meetings. Other correspondence between Guenzburg and various Russian authorities about unjust conscription of Jews into the Russian army, about the improvement of the political and legal situation of Russian Jews, with Jewish journalists about the Jewish press in Russia, with Jewish personalities in Russia about educational problems, and with others, especially rabbis of Russia and Poland concerning the creation of a rabbinical seminary in Russia; also, petitions to the government about Russian Jews' situation, notes on their legal situation and on educational activities among them, records, 5–22 October 1869, of the Vilna Committee for Improvement of the Situation of Russian Jews, and materials relating to anti-Jewish propaganda in Russia. Inventory.