Association of Jewish Writers and Journalists in Poland

Collection description

Collection

Country:: Poland

Holding institution:: The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute

Holding institution (official language):: Żydowski Instytut Historyczny im. E. Ringelbluma

Postal address:: ul. Tłomackie 3/5, 00-090 Warszawa

Phone number:: (+48 22) 827 92 21

Web address:: http://www.jhi.pl/

Email:: secretary@jhi.pl

Reference number:: PL 312/368

Title:: Association of Jewish Writers and Journalists in Poland

Title (official language):: Związek Literatów i Dziennikarzy Żydowskich w Polsce

Creator/accumulator:: Association of Jewish Writers and Journalists in Poland

Date(s):: 1944/1950

Language:: Polish; Yiddish

Extent:: 0.5 linear metres (59 archival units)

Type of material:: Textual material

Physical condition:: good

Scope and content:: This collection comprises records of the Association of Jewish Writers and Journalists in Poland as follows:

Organisational dossier:

minutes and records, reports, declarations: unit 1;

addresses and proclamations, appeals: unit 2;

association ‘journal’: unit 3;

materials and publishing issues: units 4-7;

outgoing and incoming correspondence to and from various Jewish and Polish institutions, domestic and foreign and to and from newspaper editors and private persons: units 8-33.

Personal dossier:

- lists of members, candidate members and staff: unit 34;

- questionnaires and declarations: units 35-36;

- applications and curricula vitae, including those submitted by association candidate members: unit 37

- individual applications: unit 38;

- financial matters, including certificates of association members receiving royalties; name lists of association members and personnel, including recpients of repatriation benefits, grants and subsidies, allowances, interim assistance and products, canteen users; list of recipients of advance fees for articles written for the Yidishe Shriftn almanac; individual application for a benefit: units 39-41;

- membership cards: unit 42.

Financial dossier: units 43-51: lists of royalties.

Theatrical Council:

- organisational files: units 52-56;

- personal files on employees of former Jewish theatres in Poland (actors, clerks, administration officers, technical staff): unit 57;

- financial dossier: units 58-59.

Archival history:: The archive of the Association of Jewish Writers and Journalists in Poland is deemed an integral part of the postwar documentation within the collection of the Central Committee of Jews in Poland (CKŻP). Whether the association-related collection is complete is hard to determine, as the circumstances of the collection’s becoming part of the Jewish Historical Institute remain unknown; this probably happened after the CKŻP was abolished in 1950, but no reporting or receipt-confirming itemised list of contents has been preserved. As is the case with other archival funds from the period, individual documents on the association are dispersed across the CKŻP collection.

Administrative/biographical history:: The Association of Jewish Writers and Journalists (ZLiDŻwP) was one of the first Jewish institutions to emerge in Lublin in 1944, soon after the city was liberated from Nazi occupation. The organisation was officially supported by the Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN) and received a state subsidy of 100,000 zloty. In late November 1944 the Association joined the Central Jewish Historical Commission (CŻKH). The organisation was initially named the Association of Jewish Writers, Journalists and Artists in Poland (Yiddish Farajn fun Jidisze Literatn, Żurnalistn un Artistn in Pojln): such expanded scope was due to the need to consolidate the Jewish intelligentsia and derived from the tradition of a club at 13 Tłomackie Street in Warsaw, once the venue of public meetings and projects of men of letters, journalists, actors, artists, intellectuals and politicians. Among the founders of the Association of Jewish Writers and Journalists in 1944 were Lejb Rochman, Jehuda Elberg, Efraim Siedlecki, Ruben Feldszuh, Grzegorz Jaszuński, Jehoszua Szpigiel, Rachela Auerbach, Władek Godik and Jonas Turkow, who was given the function of chairman.

The organisation restored its earlier name (ZLiDŻwP) in 1945, with a new office in an apartment at 32 Narutowicza Street in Łódź. In spite of the enthusiastic and hopeful attitude of the community it was impossible to restore the organisation to its prewar condition. A number of formerly outstanding members were killed in ghettoes or camps, Herszele Danielewicz, Gerszon Lewin, Jehoszua Perle and Menachem Kipnis among them, and many were dispersed across the world. After World War II there never were more than fifty members at a time, compared to around 300 before 1939. Those applying for membership in the postwar period were classified according to the prewar criteria: the candidate had to present his/her existing creative output in the form of texts s/he had published. Anyone who had had ten of his/her works of any sort published in Hebrew or Yiddish, or who had authored a renowned book or translated a 300-page or larger work, could join the organisation’s board. These requirements were not rigorously observed.

Access points: locations:: Lodz; Lublin

Subject terms:: Jewish press; Literature--Writers, poets, and playwrights; Professions--Journalists; Publishing; Theatre; Yiddish periodicals

Finding aids:: A catalogue in Polish is accessible online.

It includes an index of personal names.

Yerusha Network member:: Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute

Author of the description:: Agnieszka Reszka; Żydowski Instytut Historyczny im. E. Ringelbluma; 2015

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