Metadata: Cultural Autonomy of the Jewish Minority in Estonia
Collection
- Country:
- Estonia
- Holding institution:
- National Archives of Estonia
- Holding institution (official language):
- Eesti Rahvusarhiiv
- Postal address:
- Madara 24 (Rahvusarhiiv Tallinnas), 10613 Tallinn
- Phone number:
- (+372) 693 8668
- Web address:
- www.ra.ee
- Email:
- tallinn@ra.ee
- Reference number:
- ERA.1107
- Title:
- Cultural Autonomy of the Jewish Minority in Estonia
- Title (official language):
- Eesti Vabariigi Juudi Vähemusrahvuse Kultuuromavalitsus
- Creator/accumulator:
- Cultural Autonomy of the Jewish Minority in Estonia
- Date(s):
- 1919/1940
- Language:
- Estonian
- German
- Hebrew
- Yiddish
- Russian
- French
- Extent:
- 229 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection comprises materials connected to the Cultural Autonomy of the Jewish Minority in Estonia. The Cultural Autonomy of the Jewish Minority was established in Estonia in 1926. However, the collection contains some earlier documents gathered from the National Committee of Jewish People in Estonia. There are minutes of meetings of the National committee of Jewish people (1919-1921), the committee’s correspondence with local Estonian Jewish communities regarding its cultural autonomy (1919), and the charter of the Union of Jewish Societies (1921-1923). Among documents dated before 1925, there is correspondence with the Estonian Interior Ministry and the Ministry of War concerning citizenships and residence permits for Jews (1919-1920). There are also financial documents (ledger, cash book and cash registers) dated 1919-1921. Additionally, the collection includes printed bulletins from Jewish organisations outside Estonia (Bulletin du comité des délégations juives (1922-1923); Bulletin du Comité Exécutif de la Conférence Universelle Juive de Secours (1923)) and a collection of antisemitic leaflets in Russian and Estonian (presumably 1906(?)-1919).
Most of the materials in the collection belong to the period when the Cultural Autonomy of the Jewish Minority was active (1926-1940). The collection comprises a number of documents from the Cultural Council of the Jewish Minority, such as provision on the council (1925), lists of the Councils’ membership and materials on elections in the Council (there were five elections in 1926, 1929, 1932, 1936, and 1940). Minutes of the Council’s meetings are available for 1926-1936; there are also minutes of the First Congress of Jewish Educational Institutions in Estonia (May 27-29, 1928). The Council’s correspondence with the Interior Ministry (1928-1929, 1934-1938), various applications from Estonian Jews and copies of their certificates issued by the Council of Jewish Minority or by Estonian Interior Ministry (1935-1938) are also preserved in the collection.
The collection includes the Cultural Autonomy’s correspondence with various Jewish educational institutions in Estonia as well as correspondence with the Estonian Ministry of Education about Jewish schools and teachers (1926-1929, 1934-1938). Among these materials there is correspondence with a Jewish welfare organisation regarding the establishment of a library and correspondence with the University of Tartu on establishing the chair of Jewish studies (1927-1928).
The Cultural Council’s work on the Jewish educational system is also reflected in numerous teaching-related documents comprised in the collection. These include materials about teaching staff in Jewish educational institutions (1927-1930), copies of educational certificates of teachers (1929-1935), materials about candidates for vacant teaching positions (1932-1937), and payrolls for teachers in Jewish schools (1931-1938, 1940). In addition, the collection includes plans for Jewish school buildings and a curriculum of Jewish language studies for the Jewish evening school (undated). There are also two teachers’ personal files (ERA.1107.1.86. Benjamin Mindelis, a teacher in Valga Jewish primary school (1933-1936); ERA.1107.1.213. Helen Seim, a teacher in Tartu Jewish primary school (1932-1938)). There is also a charter of the Jewish cultural and pedagogical union “Tarbuth” (ERA.1107.1.27, dated 1927-1928, typewritten, in Estonian).
The collection includes financial documents of the Cultural Autonomy for the whole period of its activity. These are financial reports (1927-1928, 1933-1940), ledgers (1927-1931, 1934-1940), cash books (1926-1940), tax ledgers (1927-1939), and lists of taxpayers (1929, 1934-1936). There is also a registry book of events organised by Jewish organisations in Tallinn (ERA.1107.1.60, dated 1929-1938).
The fonds comprises a collection of materials from various international Jewish-related conferences and congresses. These include reports from the Jewish Agency in Palestine (1929-1931, 1937), materials from Keren Hayesod (1930-1938), materials from international Zionist congresses (1931, 1933, 1935, 1937), reports from the Jewish International Executional committee (1933-1936), circulars from International Jewish congresses (1936-1938) and American Jewish congresses (1937-1938), various extracts from newspapers and reports about Palestine. There is also a typewritten report by Juliette Pary “Der Antisemitismus gegen den Frieden” (1938, “Antisemitism against peace”).
In 1936 the Cultural Autonomy of the Jewish Minority in Estonia celebrated its 10th anniversary. Congratulatory telegrams and a list of participants in the anniversary celebrations are available in the collection. The collection also includes some self-reports of the Cultural Council, such as notes on the history of the Cultural Autonomy of the Jewish Minority (1937), an inventory of materials from the Cultural Council (1935-1940) and the personal file of Rachil Katz who was the Cultural Council’s secretary (1935-1939). There are also registers of Jews living in Estonia (two volumes with alphabetical index, presumably prepared in 1930s) and a Yiddish-Estonian dictionary (typewritten, undated).
When Soviet occupation began in June 1940, the Cultural Autonomy of the Jewish Minority was abolished. The collection includes materials from the liquidation committee consisting of correspondence with local Jewish Cultural councils and Jewish educational institutions regarding termination of their work.
- Archival history:
- The Cultural Autonomy of the Jewish Minority in Estonia was abolished in 1940. The materials gathered from the organisation entered the Estonian SSR State Archives in 1953 (during the period of Soviet occupation the Estonian archives were governed by Moscow). Currently, the collection is kept in the National Archives of Estonia in Tallinn (Rahvusarhiiv Tallinnas). The inventory was included in the Estonian Archival Information System (AIS) in 2009 and it was fully digitised.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Act of Cultural Autonomy for Ethnic Minorities in Estonia was adopted in 1925. It recognised as a minority any ethnic group numbering more than three thousand people. In 1926 the Estonian government authorised elections to the Jewish Cultural Council, whereby Estonian Jews were granted cultural autonomy which granted them the right to organise cultural institutions and schools in their native language. The Act also proposed a self-taxation system for minorities. The Cultural Autonomy Act and Cultural Councils ceased to exist following the Soviet occupation of Estonia in 1940.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Katz, Rachil
- Mindelis, Benjamin
- Seim, Helen
- System of arrangement:
- The collection consists of one inventory which is arranged chronologically.
- Finding aids:
-
The inventory is available in the Estonian Archival Information System (AIS).
Weiss-Wendt, Anton. “Thanks to the Germans! Jewish Cultural Autonomy in Interwar Estonia.” On the Margins: Essays on the History of Jews in Estonia. Budapest – New York, 2017, pp. 69-94.
- Links to finding aids:
- https://ais.ra.ee
- Yerusha Network member:
- Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People
- Author of the description:
- Antonina Martynenko
