ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 456 / C & R L N e w s The Yiddish Library D evelopm ent Program B y F a y Z ip k o w itz Associate Professor University o f R hode Island G raduate School o f L ibrary & In fo rm a tio n Studies W ith in th e next few years, some eighteen to tw en ty academ ic libraries m ay acquire significant collections of m aterials in Yiddish to begin or to augm ent th eir collections in sup p o rt of coursework and research in Judaic studies. T he volumes in the collections com e fully c a ta lo g e d , w ith b ib lio ­ graphic inform ation available in O C L C ’s online u n io n c a ta lo g , a n d th e title s m a y be cu sto m - selected to suit the in stitu tio n ’s needs. These li­ braries will be the beneficiaries of a unique and sal­ u tary endeavor operating out of an old schoolhouse in A m herst, M assachusetts. W ith the rich cultural and professional resources available in the w estern M assachusetts region know n as the Pioneer Valley, the evolution of the N ational Yiddish Book C enter and the Yiddish L ib rary D evelopm ent Program is not surprising, b u t is still very gratifying. Yiddish as a language and as the vehicle of p o p u ­ lar culture, lite ratu re, perform ing arts and politi­ cal thought, is a rem arkable phenom enon. Once the everyday language of the m ajority of east E u ro ­ pean Jews, its im pending doom was signaled by the destruction of these com m unities in the course of W orld W ar II. W hile it was and is the language of Jewish people, it is not the language of their reli­ gious life— th a t language has always been H ebrew . W hile the people w ho em igrated from Yiddish­ speaking com m unities n aturally adopted the la n ­ guages of th eir new hom elands, the state of Israel established th e H ebrew language as its everyday tongue, m odernizing it and educating Israeli citi­ zens in the use of H ebrew . Exceptions such as Isaac Bashevis Singer, who continued to w rite in Yiddish, w ere rare. N ew spa­ per publishing in general, th eater, indeed the en­ tire cu ltu ral setting for Yiddish seemed to be v a n ­ is h in g as th e s u rv iv in g Y id d is h -s p e a k in g com m unities of im m igrants in the U .S ., Israel, and p ost-W orld W a r II E u ro p e , w ere dying ou t or grow ing old. A language in use for about 1,000 years w ould be extinct. But the fabulous invalid proves to be as w iry and tenacious as some of the colorful characters created in Yiddish literatu re. M any elem ents have come together to sustain the Yiddish language and culture: the interest of con­ tem p o rary students in the w orld of the recent past; a recognition of th e richness of the contents of the Yiddish language and culture; the sheer volum e of w ritte n m aterials w hich w ere produced in Yiddish beginning in the last half of the 19th century, and the refusal of m any people to abandon Yiddish al­ together, to n am e a few. Aaron Lansky’s project A aron Lansky was a young g rad u ate student at M cGill University in 1979 pursuing studies in Jew ­ ish history and literatu re. F inding needed m a te ri­ als in Yiddish was next to impossible, so he resorted to going door-to-door in M ontreal’s Jewish neigh­ borhoods asking for books. He found them ; and he also found th a t m any w ere being discarded since th e ow ners did not realize th a t anyone else valued th e m . R e tu rn in g to A m h e rst, M a ssa c h u se tts, w here he h ad earned his u n d erg rad u ate degree at H am pshire College, Lansky conceived of a center for the exchange of Yiddish m aterials, saving them from d estru ctio n an d disuse, an d m ak in g them a v a ila b le to p eo p le w h o w a n te d to use th em . Lansky’s sense of mission, enthusiasm , and rational ap p ro ach to salvaging these m aterials was infec­ tious, and w ith modest financial support and vol­ u n teer effort, the N ational Yiddish Book C enter was established in 1980 to gather, preserve and dis­ trib u te p rin ted m aterials in Yiddish to libraries, collectors, scholars, students and cu ltu ral organi­ zations. Now w ith a staff of tw elve full-tim e peo­ ple, and Lansky as executive director, the NYBC is a non-profit organization dedicated to no less th a n the preservation and revitalization of Yiddish cul­ ture. The role of libraries F rom the beginning, Lansky and his co-workers realized the im portance of libraries in m aking these m aterials w idely available again. Courses in the Yiddish language, Jewish history, east E uropean studies, th e H olocaust and o ther related fields w ere being offered on college and university campuses and in neighborhood centers. Younger generations of Jews w ere seeking to piece together their culture and ancestry, w hile older generations recognized w ith some p ride the value of th eir culture and the need to preserve and tran sm it it. L ibraries are logi­ cal choices as outlets for these m aterials. Lansky consulted w ith Jewish w riters, scholars, te a c h e r s , a n d l i b r a r i a n s , p a r t i c u l a r l y in th e A m herst area. F ro m lib ra ria n s he an d his col- Septem ber 1987 / 457 Yiddish volumes aw ait researchers at the National Yiddish Book Center. leagues sought advice on organizing the m aterials and capturing the im portant bibiliographical in­ form ation which would be needed to make the col­ lections accessible. Even he did not anticipate the volume of m aterials, or the variety, which the C en­ ter would collect, bu t he and the people he worked w ith had the foresight to organize the collection from the start. Why a Yiddish collection? W h at does a Yiddish collection contain and why is the fact th a t the m aterials are in Yiddish im por­ tant? Materials in Yiddish cover an am azing range of the life of the m ind—poetry, fiction, history, po­ litical theory, com m entary on current events, sci­ ence, sociology, the fine arts, even yoga. Beginning around 1860, Yiddish became the vehicle for many writers and playwrights, and the com m onality of the Yiddish language enabled intellectual life to move across national borders and spread even to the new world. Since East E uropean Jews were ostracized and isolated from the communities around them , their cu ltu re developed intensively; almost everyone was literate, and voracious readers were common­ place. Another interesting aspect of Yiddish literature is its contem poraneous settings. The dates and places of publication preserve a slice of thinking, preoccupation, or popularity of particular issues, theories, fashions, or controversies. Many popular authors were translated into Yiddish, providing us w ith a picture of trends and fads in popular read­ ing. In addition, Yiddish publications contain a healthy contribution from wom en writers. The Yiddish language is based in G erm an, aug­ m ented by words and terms from the Slavic lan­ guages and Hebrew. It has been described as a lan­ guage w ith a shrug in its shoulder, a language of w ry irony, a language rich in nuance and expres­ sion. (I once heard the Yiddish actor Joseph Buloff recite tw enty-three separate Yiddish words for “thief.”) The very existence of such a variety of m a­ terials in this vernacular, everyday language is an intellectual phenom enon itself to be studied, while specific subject areas and genres in Yiddish collec­ tions provide rich resources for social and biblio­ graphic study and research. “The funky phase of…rounding up books.” Aaron Lansky described the fifth anniversary of the C enter in 1985 this way: “This is the end of the funky phase of being out there rounding up books. Now the emphasis will be on getting them back into use.” As the C enter began collecting the m ate­ rials, brief annotations were created and recorded on a m icrocom puter database for later use. Over 600,000 volumes have been collected; over 15,000 have already been distributed to libraries and indi­ viduals. A bout a thousand volumes arrive each week. Full cataloging cannot keep up w ith all the new acquisitions bu t the C enter now publishes list­ ings of av ailab le m aterials in its Yiddish Book N ew s, starting w ith Volume 1, n o .l, 1986. Also available to members of the C enter is The Book Peddler: Newsletter o f the National Yiddish Book Center, which describes the activities of the Center and highlights particular parts of the collection. 458 / C & R L N ew s The Yiddish Library Development Program The intentions of the C enter to distribute a ppro­ priately and efficiently the fruits of its collecting are now being actively carried out. In February 1986, D evorah Sperling joined the staff of the C en­ ter as librarian and director of the newly-launched Yiddish L ibrary Development Program . Devorah holds her m aster’s degree in library and inform a­ tion science from Drexel, a bachelor’s in anthropol­ ogy and Near Eastern studies from In d ian a Univer­ sity, and a m aster’s in folklore and folklife from the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a graduate of the C ulinary Institute of America, and has done research in Israel, as well as at the Institute for the Study of H um an Issues in Philadelphia. She came to the C enter after two years as a H ebraica cata- loger at Dropsie College. Sperling brings the values and skills of scholar and librarian to the Center. H er work at the C enter has tw o m ajor directions: as librarian in a highly specialized and complex field w ith inadequate bib­ liographic tools, and as liaison between the C enter and academ ic libraries w hich plan to establish or augm ent Yiddish collections. The Book Peddler (no.8, W inter 1987) describes Sperling as a “lib rar­ ian’s lib rarian ”; she prepares the cataloging for the collection—both corrected inform ation for older records in the O C LC union catalog, and original cataloging for which no records can be found. The corrections are forw arded to Shimeon Brisman, Ju- daica bibliographer at UCLA; he proofreads them and forw ards them to O C LC for enhancem ent of th e d a ta b a se . New records are en tered on th e O C LC union catalog at the libraries at the Univer­ sity of Massachusetts and the University of H a rt­ ford, w hich have received the first tw o collections of m aterials from the YLDP. All the cataloging rec­ ords a re c a re fu lly tr a n s lite r a te d , co n fo rm to AACR2 cataloging rules, and are in MARC for­ m at. (Aaron Lansky has said he knew the C enter needed a librarian, b u t he w asn’t at first sure why. This is why.) By this painstaking cataloging Sperl­ ing is accomplishing not only bibliographic control of the specific collections going to the libraries, but also providing a perm anent resource accessible to the entire library com m unity. Sperling relies on m an y av a ilab le resources—th e L ib ra ry at th e YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, the Judaica experts at the L ibrary of Congress, the LC guide­ lines for Rom anization, as well as other Judaica li­ brarians and researchers. She has been able to tap the rich pool of library expertise in the Five College area as well. * For the Yiddish L ibrary Development Program , tw o types of collections have been established. The Basic Collection, w hich is designed to support u n ­ *The libraries, special collections, librarians and faculties of Amherst, H am pshire, Mt. Holyoke, Smith College, and the University of Massachu­ setts. dergraduate program s in Jewish studies, consisting of about 500 volumes, and the Comprehensive Col­ lection, comprising 1,000 volumes including the Basic Collection and additional selections in the coverage areas. Included are reference works, texts in history, biography, ethnography, social theory and other nonfiction areas, as well as literature and criticism. The Comprehensive Collection is also strengthened by prim ary sources on the Holocaust, including memoirs. Libraries m ay select titles from the special bibliographies prepared by the Center: Yiddish Literature: A Basic University Collection and Yiddish Literature: A Comprehensive Univer­ sity Collection. Sperling estimates th a t by the end of 1987 com plete cataloging for all the titles in the sta n d a rd Basic and C om prehensive Collections will be available on the O C LC system. As director of the program , Sperling works w ith collection developm ent librarians at a variety of in­ stitutions to define institution-specific needs, ac­ quisitions, the feasibility of microfilm ing projects, and the creation of specialized bibliographies. In ­ dividual scholars and catalogers also tu rn to her for help in tracking down obscure bibliographic items or citations. This is often fugitive literature: stand­ ardized or universal bibliographic tools, for the most p art, do not exist. Devorah Sperling has a colum n, “Yiddish L ib rary N ew s,” in The Book Peddler, in w hich she reports on the progress of the YLDP and the cataloging. Not just books The NYBC has been acquiring other “orphans” related to the Yiddish book. The C enter houses sheet music, sound recordings, pam phlets, m aga­ zines, posters, photographs, and m ore, all of which are in need of additional bibliographic description and control before they can be m ade useful. The full-tim e staff, m any volunteers, and interns all participate in the various activities of the C enter, w hich include classes, seminars, translation and oral history projects, m ultim edia program s, docu­ m entary films and publishing. A netw ork of over 200 collectors (or “zanders” in Yiddish) around the U.S. and C anada, forage for, salvage, and send in m aterials to the Center. And the C enter, supported by its over 8,000 members and donors, carefully takes them in, sorts them , preserves them and tries to find good homes for th e m . The YLDP and the NYBC are located at Old East Street School in Amherst, Massachusetts, w ith w arehouse facilities in Holyoke, M assachusetts. The phone num ber is (413) 256-1241. Recognizing the central role of libraries, certain m aterials are being m ade available only to library collections and not to individual collectors. But there happens to be some overstock in a few areas— anyone care to peruse a Yiddish tran slatio n of the collected works of Guy de M aupassant, or a sex m anual in Yiddish? Just ask.