Metadata: "Tarbut" Society in Lithuania and its Branch in Vilnius
Collection
- Country:
- Lithuania
- Holding institution:
- Central State Archives of Lithuania
- Holding institution (official language):
- Lietuvos centrinis valstybės archyvas
- Postal address:
- O. Milašiaus 21, LT-10102, Vilnius
- Phone number:
- (8 5) 247 7830
- Web address:
- http://www.archyvai.lt/lt/lcva.html
- Email:
- lcva@archyvai.lt
- Reference number:
- f. 552
- Title:
- "Tarbut" Society in Lithuania and its Branch in Vilnius
- Title (official language):
- Lietuvos „Tarbuto“ draugija ir draugijos Vilniaus skyrius
- Creator/accumulator:
- Tarbut Society Lithuania
- Date(s):
- 1919/1940
- Language:
- Hebrew
- Yiddish
- Lithuanian
- English
- German
- Extent:
- 1,166 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Photographic images
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The archival collection of Tarbut in Lithuania contains a broad range of materials, originating mostly from the central committee of the society in Kaunas, and represents various aspects of the society's activities. Materials originating from the branch of Tarbut in Vilnius from 1939-40 are also included in the collection (for other materials on Tarbut in Vilnius, see Archival History).
A substantial part of the collection comprises materials that reflect the coordinating and administrative activities of the central committee: protocols of the committee's meetings and circulars; protocols of Tarbut's pedagogical council and teacher consultations; data on the society's general meetings; data on the activities of local branches of the society, including correspondence on the establishment of schools and kindergartens and on educational plans and other issues; data on the society's publications, including copies of the weekly Netivot and correspondence on the publication and distribution of Olamenu, another journal issued by Tarbut; financial data such as budget plans, account books, financial reports on various institutions, applications for exemptions from tuition fees and lists of scholarships granted; data on the society's membership and on membership payments, including lists of names; statistical accounts on the society's activities. Lists of pupils and teachers from various institutions, as well as personal documents and photographs, can also be found in the collection.
Naturally, the educational institutions – kindergartens, schools and high schools – affiliated with Tarbut are widely represented in the collection: the files include statutes of Jewish high schools and other institutions, correspondence with these institutions and other documents such as lists of pupils and teachers and data on various events and activities (parents' evenings, concerts, educational trips and teachers' delegations to Palestine and other countries). The collection also includes information on various educational and cultural organisations, such as bookshops, libraries and professional schools (such as the Mapu library and the Engel chorus in Kaunas and a tailoring school and Hebrew language school in Panevezys).
Several files include data on the society's teaching staff, courses and seminary: lists of teachers and applicants to teaching vacancies (including application letters, personal histories and in certain cases photographs of teachers and applicants); data on the teachers' seminary of Tarbut in Kaunas, its educational plans, budget, scholarships and tuition fees; lists of students and lecturers; papers from the pedagogical council of the seminary; and data on courses, exams and grades.
A noteworthy part of the collection documents the society's interactions with the Lithuanian authorities: correspondence with the Ministry of Education on such issues as the establishment and functioning of educational institutions; state-recognised examinations held in Tarbut schools; the appointment of teachers and school directors; and correspondence with the Jewish Ministry, the Ministry of the Interior and the municipal authorities of Kaunas on the issuance of permits for concerts, reading evenings and lectures (the events' programmes and invitations are included; Hayim Nahman Bialik, Miriam Bernstein-Kogan and Itamar Ben-Avi are mentioned among the participants) with mention of granting visas for foreign writers and artists. Several documents refer to the national policies of the Lithuanian government, such as a 1930 petition concerning the policy of denationalisation handed to the Minister of Education by the central committee of the Educational Societies of the National Minorities in Lithuania. Files from 1939 and 1940 include correspondence and other documents relating to the activities of Tarbut in Vilnius after its annexation to Lithuania (including lists of teachers and pupils, lesson schedules and other data on the Tarbut gymnasium in Vilnius and correspondence on the activity of the teachers' seminary in Vilnius).
The collection also includes data on the society's contact with Jewish organisations both foreign and local: branches of Tarbut outside Lithuania, including its central bureau in Berlin; the World Association for Hebrew Language and Culture (Brit Ivrit Olamit; several documents reflect Tarbut's participation in this organisation's fundraising campaign, Mif'al ha-Sela); various branches of the JDC, OZE, Palestine Foundation Fund (Keren Hayesod) and other organisations. Other materials include letters to prominent cultural figures such as Hayim Nahman Bialik, Zalman Shneur and Sha'ul Tchernichowsky and correspondence with Jewish painters from Palestine (Yossef Zaritsky and Pinchas Abramovich) on the organisation of their exhibition in Lithuania.
Contacts with Jewish Lithuanian bodies and organizations are also represented in the collection: the Jewish fraction of the Lithuanian; The Zionist Organisation of Lithuania (the files include several protocols of its meetings); other Zionist parties and organisations such as Mizrachi, Tse'ire Tsiyon, Maccabi, He-Haluts, Ha-Shomer ha-Tsa‘ir (including a list of branches of this youth movement in Lithuania) and the Yardenia student association.
- Archival history:
-
The Soviet occupation of Lithuania in 1940 put an end to the legal activities of Jewish organisations in Vilnius, including Jewish educational institutions. Exact information concerning the fate of the archives of these organisations after the Soviet takeover and during the Nazi occupation is not available. During the Soviet period the archive of Tarbut in Kaunas was deposited at the Central State Archive of the Lithuanian SSR in Vilnius, predecessor of the modern Central State Archive of Lithuania.
The documents from the branch of Tarbut in Vilnius and the Tarbut teachers' seminary in Vilnius comprise separate fonds in the Central State Archive of Lithuania: LCVA f. 295 and f. 222 respectively. Some of the documents of the teachers' seminary in Vilnius are held by YIVO in New York (Collection RG 23).
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Tarbut was established in Moscow in 1917 as a Zionist cultural and educational society with the aim of developing Hebrew-language culture and education. It was outlawed in Soviet Russia in 1919 but was able to continue and broaden its activities in Poland, Lithuania and several other countries in Eastern Europe. The Lithuanian organisation of Tarbut was established in Kaunas in 1919 and functioned until the Soviet occupation of Lithuania in 1940. The society maintained an extensive network of educational institutions ranging from kindergartens to professional schools and a teachers' seminary. In 1939-40, after the annexation of Vilnius, Lithuanian Tarbut took responsibility for Tarbut’s educational network in the city.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Abramovich, Pinchas
- Ben-Avi, Itamar
- Bernstein-Kogan, Miriam
- Shneur, Z.
- Tchernichovsky, S.
- Zaritsky, Yossef
- Subject terms:
- Correspondence
- Education
- Education--Schools and universities
- Education--Vocational training
- Financial records
- Jewish political activity
- Literature
- Literature--Writers, poets, and playwrights
- Publishing
- Statistics
- Zionism
- Zionism--Zionist organisations and parties
- Zionism--Zionist youth movements
- System of arrangement:
- The collection consists of two inventories, which are arranged in thematic order.
- Access, restrictions:
- The collection is open for reference at LCVA.
- Finding aids:
- An inventory in Lithuanian is available at the Lithuanian Central State Archive (for online access visit the website of the Lithuanian Archives). Descriptions in Lithuanian, Russian and Hebrew are available at the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People
- Links to finding aids:
- https://eais-pub.archyvai.lt/eais/faces/pages/forms/search/F3001.jspx
- 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
