Metadata: The Academic Society for the Study of Jewish History and Literature, University of Tartu
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. 2294
- Title:
- The Academic Society for the Study of Jewish History and Literature, University of Tartu
- Title (official language):
- Akadeemiline Juudi Ajaloo ja Kirjanduse Selts Tartu Ülikooli juures
- Creator/accumulator:
- Academic Society for the Study of Jewish History and Literature, University of Tartu
- Date(s):
- 1883/1940
- Language:
- Russian
- Yiddish
- Estonian
- Hebrew
- German
- Extent:
- 258 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Photographic images
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The archive of the Academic Society for the Study of Jewish History and Literature includes a large body of documents that represent the various activities of this Jewish student association between 1884 and 1940.
Several files include the papers of the society's administrative bodies: account books, the protocols of the meetings of the governing board and general assembly and the papers of the revision commission. These materials contain information on both ideological and organisational issues and reflect such questions as the selection of subjects to be discussed at the society's lecture and debate meetings, the organisation of events in honour of prominent Jewish figures including Heinrich Graetz and Moses Montefiore, the celebration of Jewish festivals, the election of the society's members and functionaries, discussions on the society's expenses and budget and reports on the state and development of the society's library. The collection also includes the society’s annual accounts, which contain various data, and the statute of the society in several editions and languages.
Lists of the society's members at different points of its existence, as well as lists of its alumni including addresses and professions, can also be found in the collection. Several files preserve application letters of students who wished to join the society along with letters of resignation submitted by members leaving the society.
The protocols of the governing board and general assembly also reflect notable social issues such as the society's connections with other Jewish organisations and student societies, contact with alumni and data on cases brought before the society's internal court (mostly disputes between the society's members). The protocols also reflect the discussion of such questions as the selection of the working languages of the society (Russian, Yiddish and Hebrew), the presence of Christian guests at the society's events, and the society's attitude to apostates.
The collection also includes the society's correspondence with alumni (Ya'akov Bernstein-Kogan, Alexander Braudo and others), letters to and from student and other organisations and letters to and from prominent Jewish cultural and public figures (including Sh. Ya. Abramovitsh "Mendele Mokher Sfarim", Sh. Rabinovich "Shalom Aleichem" and Ch. N. Bialik). Invitations to various events held by the society – literary evenings, charity events and concerts – can also be found among the correspondence.
Lists of lectures given at the society's meetings throughout its existence, and the protocols of the debates which followed, form an important part of the collection, reflecting the society's ideological and intellectual environment. Transcripts of some of the lectures are also available. The subjects discussed at the society's meetings include Jewish history from biblical to modern times, Jewish communities in various countries, Jewish thought in various periods, Jewish nationalism, emancipation, Zionism, immigration, and Jewish literature in Hebrew, Yiddish and Russian. Of particular interest are the accounts of the society's history prepared by its members at different points in its existence from the 1890s onward.
Several files include materials which reflect the activities of the society's sections and commissions, including the library commission, revision commission, historical and archival commissions, literary and dramatic sections and Zionist circles (including a group of supporters of Poale-Tsiyon). The catalogues of the society's library, as well as data on loaned books and journals, are also available.
Files from the early 1910s include materials which reflect the preparations for, and the results of, a student census organised by and held among the society's members.
Several photographs of the society's members, along with several postcards, mostly depicting Jewish colonies in Palestine, are also part of the collection.
- Archival history:
- Along with other Jewish-related materials from Tartu, the papers of the Academic Society for the Study of Jewish History and Literature were transferred in 1953 to the Central Archive of the Estonian SSR in Tallinn. This archive is the predecessor of the contemporary Estonian State Archive (ERA); from 1948 until the end of Soviet rule it was known as the Central State Archive of the October Revolution and Social Development of the Estonian SSR, abbreviated to ORKA or TsGAOR ESSR.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
Unlike the majority of institutions for higher education in Tsarist Russia, the University of Tartu (then known as Derpt or Dorpat) enjoyed relatively independent status. Students of this German-speaking institution were allowed to establish and maintain fraternities and societies that flourished through the Tsarist period and the period of interwar Estonian independence until the Soviet takeover in 1940.
The Academic Society for the Study of Jewish History and Literature was founded in 1883-84 by Russian-speaking Jewish students of the university who did not find their place in the existing Russian- (non-Jewish) and German-speaking Jewish student associations. The society became a hub for Jewish-Russian cultural and social activities. Its members organised and maintained a library, held lecture and discussion meetings, organised circles for the study of Jewish literature and were engaged in a variety of other activities. In the mid-1910s Yiddish replaced Russian as the dominant language of the society.
The society existed from 1884 to 1940. During the early 1900s it became less active and ceased operating during the 1905 Russian Revolution. The society reopened and expanded from 1908 onward.
- Access points: locations:
- Tartu
- Access points: persons/families:
- Abramovitsh, S Y
- Bernstein-Kogan, Ya’akov
- Bialik, C N
- Braudo, A. I.
- Rabinovich, S
- 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.
- 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
