Metadata: Gomel’ Society for the Promotion of Culture among the Jews of Russia (OPE)
Collection
- Country:
- Belarus
- Holding institution:
- National Historical Archive of Belarus
- Holding institution (official language):
- Национальный исторический архив Беларуси
- Postal address:
- ul. Kropotkina, 55, Minsk, 220002, Belarus
- Phone number:
- + 375 (17) 286 75 23; 286 76 92
- Web address:
- https://niab.by/newsite/
- Email:
- niab@niab.by
- Reference number:
- F. 3028
- Title:
- Gomel’ Society for the Promotion of Culture among the Jews of Russia (OPE)
- Title (official language):
- ГОМЕЛЬСКОЕ ОБЩЕСТВО ДЛЯ РАСПРОСТРАНЕНИЯ ПРОСВЕЩЕНИЯ МЕЖДУ ЕВРЕЯМИ
- Creator/accumulator:
- Gomel’ Society for the Promotion of Culture among the Jews of Russia (OPE)
- Date(s):
- 1909/1918
- Language:
- Russian
- Hebrew
- Extent:
- 1 storage unit
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Scope and content:
- Documents housed in the fond may be divided into the following thematic groups: 1) Minutes of meetings of the Gomel’ OPE Committee and general assemblies of OPE members, in particular, on electing committee leaders (1909, 1912, 1916); convening general assemblies (1909/1918); organizing the school, library, and finance commissions (1909), and cheder and lecture commissions (1913), with a list of members thereof; discussing organizational and financial issues, reports on the work of the committee and reports of the chair on the activities of the subordinate commissions (1910/1917). Also discussed at committee meetings were issues pertaining to the provision of material assistance to the Jewish elementary school of Gomel’ (1909), and subsidizing the evening courses (1911) that were in operation at the school; initiating a petition to open an OPE women’s school, and the shortcomings of the operational plan for this school described in a review by the inspector of public schools; issuing grants to Jewish women for completing various courses; opening evening courses at the secondary school of R. D. Syrkina (1912); and organizing a Jewish men’s school in Gomel’ with a list of subjects to be included in the curriculum; there is also discussion about the rejection of a proposal to establish a special educational institution for children of Jewish refugees; about supplying textbooks to Jewish schools and colleges, etc. (1916); organizing the Russian-Jewish library in Gomel’, and ordering books and periodicals for it, performing repairs on the library building, etc. (1909, 1911, 1918); holding evening events, concerts, lectures, and other public events to fundraise for the implementation of the statutory activities of the Gomel’ OPE Committee (1912, 1914, 1915, 1916); electing delegates to the Congress of Jewish Public Figures in the city of Kovno [now Kaunas, Lithuania] and discussing the results of the congress (1909); establishing the M. L. Lilienblum Palestine Committee to award and publish exemplary Hebrew textbooks (1910); discussion on committee members’ involvement in organizing the new Jewish community of Gomel; choosing delegates to the All-Russian Jewish Congress (1917); etc. 2) Correspondence of members of the Gomel’ OPE Committee with various organizations, institutions, and individuals on various issues (1910/1918), in particular, with the Directorate of Public Schools of the Mogilev province regarding the collection of tuition fees at the Gomel’ Jewish Women’s Secondary School of the 2nd rank, as well as on the conduct of the school’s educational process and on rules for admission to it (1910); with the Gomel’ Committee of the Zionist Organization, on possible cooperation in the field of Jewish education (1918); etc. 3) Particular financial documents, including copies of the society’s cost estimate for 1913, indicating expense items (1912); an income and expense statement of the Gomel’ OPE (1918); etc.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Society for the Promotion of Culture among the Jews of Russia (OPE) was established in St. Petersburg in 1863 by representatives of the capital’s Jewish intelligentsia and financial--industrial elite. As set forth in its charter, the society’s primary mission was to promote the dissemination of knowledge of the Russian language among Jews; publish and facilitate the publication of “useful essays, translations, and periodicals in Russian,Yiddish and Hebrew with the aim of promoting education among Jews”; and to “encourage young people who devote themselves to scholarship with grants.” By 1867, the OPE had branches and committees in cities across the Russian Empire, including Moscow, Odessa, Simferopol’, Ekaterinoslav, Riga and others, and by 1913 there were thirty branches of the OPE, including in Minsk and Vil’na. The Gomel’ branch of the OPE began operations in October 1909, when the general assembly of its membership elected S. L. Vygodskii as its chair, I. M. Tverskii as its treasurer and A. S. Gurovich as its secretary, as well as a vice-chair and vice-secretary. Members of the Gomel’ OPE Committee formed three commissions: the school, library, and finance commissions. In 1913, two more were organized; the cheder and lecture commissions. The Gomel’ OPE Committee made grants and supplied textbooks to Jewish academies, schools, and various evening courses; organized the Russian-Jewish library in Gomel’; and held public events, including fundraising evenings, concerts, and lectures. The committee ceased operations in 1918 following the Soviet authorities’ closure of the OPE Central Committee in Petrograd and its branch offices in several cities of the former Russian Empire
- System of arrangement:
- The fond includes a single inventory containing one storage unit.
- Finding aids:
- An inventory is available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary