Metadata: Viljandi Cultural Council at the National Committee of Jewish communities in the Republic of Estonia
Collection
- Country:
- Estonia
- Holding institution:
- National Archives of Estonia
- Holding institution (official language):
- Eesti Rahvusarhiiv
- Postal address:
- Madara 24, 15019 Tallinn
- Phone number:
- (+372) 693 8666
- Web address:
- www.ra.ee
- Email:
- tallinn@ra.ee
- Reference number:
- 2277
- Title:
- Viljandi Cultural Council at the National Committee of Jewish communities in the Republic of Estonia
- Title (official language):
- Eesti Vabariigi Juudi Vähemusrahvuse Kultuuromavalitsuse Viljandi Kultuurhoolekogu
- Creator/accumulator:
- Viljandi Cultural Council at the National Committee of Jewish communities in the Republic of Estonia
- Date(s):
- 1926/1940
- Extent:
- 14 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection contains materials of the Viljandi Cultural Council at the National Committee of Jewish Communities in Estonia. It includes minutes of the Estonian Jewish Cultural Council (the Kultur-Rat) meetings, minutes and instructions of the Viljandi Council board, records on elections to the 2nd Kultur-Rat and a list of candidates, correspondence of the Viljandi Council with the Kultur-Rat, citizens' applications to become members of the Jewish National-Cultural Autonomy, personal data on Jewish residents and Viljandi Council’s financial records.
Minutes in Yiddish of the Kultur-Rat meetings in Tallinn for 1926-1935 shed light on the issues that preoccupied Jewish autonomy activists from various places in Estonia and from different political factions. The minutes indicate who were the key members of the Kultur-Rat, and include the budgets of the Jewish Autonomy detailing, for example, its economic state and deficit problems. An important part of the discussions at the Kultur-Rat meetings was devoted to issues of Jewish education and to the “War of the Languages” - the controversy that broke out between Yiddishists and socialists vs Hebraists and Zionists. Jewish education was an important issue discussed at the Kultur-Rat meetings where they formulated implementation criteria. For example, on 3 April 1930, criteria were formulated for Jewish schools in Tallinn (inventory 1, file 2). It was decided that politics should not be brought into the schools. They also decided which subjects should be taught in which classes, for how long and what should be the language of instruction. The subjects studied were Yiddish, Hebrew, arithmetic, poetry, religion and the Bible, geography and others (inventory 1, file 2). The minutes also include summaries of discussions on organisational issues such as elections to committees and other Jewish Autonomy institutions. Minutes of the local Viljandi Council detail their social welfare, cultural and educational activities.
Materials on the second election campaign to the Kultur-Rat in 1929 show who were the local candidates on behalf of the "National Block" and who were their political rivals (inventory 1, file 5). For example, Rubin Eitelberg headed the "National block" list and Gottel-Leib Zirilson headed an opposing list. Extensive correspondence, dated 1928-1940, between the Viljandi Cultural Council and the Kultur-Rat in Tallinn on organisational and financial issues is another important part of the collection. Following Soviet annexation of Estonia, the last letter sent from the Kultur-Rat in Tallinn on 6 August 1940 refers to the abolition of all Jewish autonomy institutions (inventory 1, file 7). Personal materials of the Viljandi Jews include copies of identity cards and a list of local activists. The financial materials include cashbooks of the Jewish Viljandi Cultural Council for 1930-1940 and the financial report of the National Committee of Jewish communities in Estonia for 1936-1937.
- Archival history:
- During the Soviet period, the collection was held at the Central Archives of the October Revolution and Socialist Reconstruction in Tallinn (predecessor of the current National Archives of Estonia in Tallinn). Its classification number was 184c.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- In May 1919, the Congress of the Jewish Communities of Estonia was held in Tallinn, at which the National Committee of Jewish Communities of Estonia was elected. The committee included the following members: Makovski (Chairman), Blumberg, Kljatchko, J Gens, Zelmanovitch, Levinovitch, Pajenson and Kolovski. The main goals of the organisation were to protect the rights of Jews in Estonia, to fight until all Estonian Jews who so wished could acquire Estonian citizenship and to develop links with international Jewish organisations. The 1920 Estonian Constitution referred to religious and national equality of ethnic minorities in the country, without fully incorporating the international requirement that religious differences were not prejudicial to civil and political rights. Moreover, the constitution listed only three ethnicities that historically were connected to Estonia: Germans, Russians and Swedes. Thanks to assistance from the Baltic German parliamentary faction, Jews received ethnic minority status in Estonia in accordance with the regulations proclaimed by the Estonian government in 1925. German, Jewish, Russian and Swedish minorities were granted cultural-national autonomy and the Jewish Cultural Council (the Kultur-Rat) was elected to supervise Jewish autonomy. Hirsch (Grigori) Eisenstadt headed the Council and by 1939 its 27 members were divided into 17 General Zionists, 3 Socialist Zionists, 4 Yiddishists, 2 representing the Economic Party, and 1 representative of the Progressive Party. Elections for the local Jewish Cultural Councils were held across the country including in Viljandi. However, in 1926 only Jewish-Estonian citizens, i.e. 67% of all Estonian Jews, had the right to vote. Following the Soviet occupation in June 1940, the Viljandi Jewish Cultural Council and the Jewish cultural autonomy in Estonia in general were dissolved.
- Finding aids:
- The files of the collection and detailed inventories are available on the online database of the National Archives of Estonia and Tallinn City Archives.
- Links to finding aids:
- http://www.ra.ee/dgs/explorer.php
- Yerusha Network member:
- Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People
- Author of the description:
- Ilya Vovshin, Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, 2020