The Jewish Self-Help Student Society of Tartu

Collection description

Collection

Country:: Estonia

Holding institution:: State Archives of Estonia

Holding institution (official language):: Eesti Rahvusarhiiv

Postal address:: Tallinn, Maneeži 4, 15019

Phone number:: (+372) 693 8668

Web address:: http://www.ra.ee/

Email:: rahvusarhiiv@ra.ee

Reference number:: f. 2289

Title:: The Jewish Self-Help Student Society of Tartu

Title (official language):: Tartu Juudi Üliõpilaste Kassa

Creator/accumulator:: Jewish Self-Help Student Society of Tartu

Date(s):: 1874/1929

Language:: Russian; Yiddish; German

Extent:: 16 files

Type of material:: Textual material

Physical condition:: good

Scope and content:: The files of the Jewish Self-Help Student Society of Tartu include a variety of materials which represent the society's activities in the last decade of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th.

The collection includes minutes of the society's governing board meetings where financial, organisational and ethical matters were discussed. The minutes contain data on the society's income and expenditures, loans granted to needy students, debts owed by current and former members and the election of governing board members and other functionaries.

Minutes from 1907 mention the society's communication with the Riga branch of Society for the Promotion of Enlightenment among the Jews of Russia. Contact with other organisations, including Jewish and non-Jewish student societies in Tartu, are also mentioned. Another frequently mentioned topic is the arrangement of charity events for the benefit of the society. One file is dedicated to the papers of a commission which organised the society's charity summer ball near Riga in 1913.

Other files contain the society's account books from the early 1890s and a list of loans granted by the society between 1909 and 1916, including data on the loans and their recipients. Printed reports on the society's activities from the years 1907-17 and 1920-28 are also included. These reports embrace financial reports and other data on the society's actions, the names of the members of its governing board and personal data on loan recipients who refused to repay their loans.

The collection also includes several printed annual reports of the Academic Society for the Study of Jewish History and Culture, a Jewish student society which existed in Tartu between 1883 and 1940 (see fund 2294 at ERA). These reports are from 1922, 1923 and 1926.

Archival history:: During the Soviet rule, together with other Jewish-related materials from Tartu, the papers of the Self-Help Student Society were transferred to the Central Archive of the Estonian SSR in Tallinn (known from 1948 until the end of Soviet rule as the Central State Archive of the October Revolution and Social Development of the Estonian SSR, abbreviated to ORKA or TsGAOR ESSR), predecessor of the current Estonian State Archive.

Administrative/biographical history:: A Jewish student self-help society (kassa) was established in Tartu in December 1874. Its establishment and activities were supported by the Society for the Promotion of Enlightenment among the Jews of Russia. The society also collected membership fees and was supported by its graduates. At the height of its activity, in mid-1910, it included several hundred members. The society continued its activities during the interwar period. The latest documents in its archive date to the late 1920s.

Access points: locations:: Riga; Tartu

Subject terms:: Aid and relief--Philanthropy and charity; Education; Education--Student organisations; Education--Students; Financial matters; Financial records

System of arrangement:: The collection consists of one inventory, which is arranged according to chronological / thematic order.

Access, restrictions:: The collection is open for reference at the ERA in Tallinn (in certain cases, online access might be available).

Finding aids:: Basic information and inventories in Estonian and Russian are available at the National Archives of Estonia (online access is available). An inventory in Russian is available at the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People in Jerusalem.

Links to finding aids:: https://ais.ra.ee/index.php?tyyp=2&otsing_id=20150916111916709791&sess_id=5e212ccd3bab52cd08d6001f07691d63&op=1&module=202&pealkiri=&naita_ridu=10&sort=&active=1&viitekood=eaa.402&leidandmed=&tasand=0&kokku=1&id=

Yerusha Network member:: Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People

Author of the description:: Alex Valdman, Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, 2014

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