Metadata: Library of the Jewish Community of Lemberg/Lwów
Collection
- Country:
- Ukraine
- Holding institution:
- Vasyl Stefanyk National Scientific Library of Ukraine in Lviv. Manuscripts Department
- Holding institution (official language):
- Львівська національна наукова бібліотека України імені В. Стефаника. Bідділ рукописів
- Postal address:
- Stefanyka St. 2, 79000, Lviv
- Phone number:
- (8-032) 236-80-28
- Email:
- manuscr@lsl.lviv.ua
- Reference number:
- F. 50
- Title:
- Library of the Jewish Community of Lemberg/Lwów
- Title (official language):
- БІБЛІОТЕКА ЄВРЕЙСЬКОЇ ОБЩИНИ, м. ЛЬВІВ
- Creator/accumulator:
- Library of the Jewish Community of Lemberg/Lwów
- Date(s):
- 1631/1945
- Language:
- Hebrew
- German
- Polish
- Italian
- Extent:
- 83 archival storage units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Scope and content:
-
Documents in this fonds may be provisionally divided into the following thematic groups:
1) Manuscripts of works of various genres, often comprising several notebooks, in some cases bound in leather, with stamps and “ex libris” bookplates indicating former owners, including:
1.1) Manuscript copies of texts of rabbinic literature, in particular, a halachic tractate, presumably by Yehuda Kahana Heller, titled “Kuntres Ha-sfeikot” (Hebrew: “A Pamphlet on Doubts”; 19th c. copy); etc.
1.2) Manuscript codices, representing detailed commentaries on particular sections of the Mishnah and Talmud, by H. Bloch (1888), I. E. Land-Segal (Kiev, 1890), Balt (1856), etc.; a commentary by an unidentified author to the treatise “Mishnah Sotah” (early 20th c.); unattributed commentaries on Kabbalistic writings, presumably by Joseph Baruch ben Jedidiah Zechariah (mid-18th c.); etc.
1.3) Philosophical and theological treatises by J. Eugen (1632-35), I. Besnaf (1791), H. Margulis (19th c.); a convolute that includes a copy of the tractate “Brakhot,” particular commentaries on the Talmud, and other notes by a certain Eliezer (19th c.); “A Philosophical and Astrological Treatise on the Origin of the Universe” by a certain Samuel (late 19th c.); etc.
1.4) Historical and genealogical works, including: “A History of the Jews Who Came from Portugal,” by an unidentified author (18th c.); “An Historical Study of the Galician Past,” by a certain Eliezer (mid-19th c.); a work by V.-I. Margulis on Hasidism, titled “The Book of the Hasid” (1892); a manuscript book on the history of Jewish families in Lublin (19th c.); etc.
1.5) Drafts and fair copies of literary works, both religious and secular, in particular: “A Literary Description of the Life of a Family from Jaworów” by Isakevich (1660-1710); Rapaport, “Prose and Poetry with Deep Social Themes” (19th c.); R. Margulis, “Stories and Literary Exercises” (19th c.); a copy (made by J. Etinger) of an essay on the game of chess by J. Eichenbaum (mid-19th c.); “Stories of Passover” by a certain Eliezer (20th c.); a satire by an unidentified author titled “New Blessings” (20th c.); a secular work by I. Kutris titled “The Twelve Months of the Year” (1920s); “The Biblical Legend of Cain and Abel” by T. Zaderetskii (1945); etc.; the poetry collections “The Voice of the Dove” by K. Fishman (18th c.) and “Beautiful Songs” by Naftali Hartwig Wessely (1788-89); poems by M. I. Rabinovich (1856); poems by unknown authors on the death of King Frederick Wilhelm III of Prussia (c. 1792) and on the opening of a synagogue (location and date unspecified); theatrical plays: A. Sufrin, The Tower of Jacob (a handwritten copy made by D. Brezan in 1875 from the 1835 original); S. Levin (director of a Jewish school in Lemberg/Lwów), The Sacrifice, on the theme of the biblical story of the would-be sacrifice of Isaac (mid-19th c.); etc.
1.6) Philological research related to the modernisation of Hebrew, in particular, a dictionary of homonymous roots titled The Roots of Things (1860s).
1.7) Materials on folklore, including a collection (by an unidentified compiler) of Jewish proverbs and sayings, with a list of people from whom they were recorded (early 20th c.).
2) Extracts from various sources, memoranda on separate pages, and private letters (the authors and dates of which have in many cases not been established), presumably from personal rabbinical papers, etc., including fragmentary commentaries on the Talmud; literary essays and letters by various authors, including S. Meyerhof, I. Ekoles, Schulter, and others (19th c.); fragments of prayers (17th and 18th c.) and sermons in German, with inserts in Hebrew, attributed to Rabbi Bernard Loewenstein of Lemberg/Lwów’s Tempel synagogue (1872-75); fragmentary pages of literary and historical works (authors unknown) on ancient Jewish history, including sections titled “The Jordan River,” “The Life of Sarah,” “The Sanhedrin during Roman Rule,” etc. (early 19th c.); fragments of literary commentaries (author unknown) on the books of the Prophets (19th c.); cash accounts and receipts of J. Jüttes (1850-51); etc.
3) Thirty Torah scrolls and fragments on paper and parchment (17th – 19th c.).
4) Two inventory logs of the Library of the Jewish Community of Lemberg/Lwów, including over 7,000 titles of books and newspapers arranged in alphabetical order, indicating title, author, place and date of publication, and the person who donated the book (late 19th c. – 1940).
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The Library of the Jewish Community of Lemberg/Lwów was officially opened in 1901 and operated as a public library until 1939 (with a break from 1914-18). Its founding was initiated by representatives of the Lemberg/Lwów Jewish intelligentsia, and funding for its maintenance was allocated from the budget of the Jewish community. Serving as librarians from 1901 to 1939 were H. Bader, N. Stein, L. Freund, J. Handel, L. Nemoy and A. Kohn. The library’s collection was initially formed using donor funds and books donated from the personal collections of Lemberg/Lwów Jews, including S. Rosenzweig, teacher of the Main Jewish School founded by A. Kohn. Later, a committee of trustees was established, which, among other things, raised funds to supply the library with books. According to a report from 1939, the library included 18,000 volumes, 300 early printed books and 106 manuscripts; according to other sources, there were 40,000 bibliographic titles, including 8,000 early printed books, the oldest dating from the early 16th c., and 2,000 manuscripts, including from the private archives of S. Buber, S. Horowitz, Rabbis E. Caro, B. Loewenstein, A. Kohn, and others.
In 1940, upon the Soviet annexation of Eastern Galicia, the library was separated from the Jewish community, nationalised and incorporated into the Lviv/L’vov branch of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, with I. Kohn appointed its director. During the Nazi occupation, the library’s book collections were transferred to the Lviv City Library. In this period, the Nazis removed the most valuable old publications and documents to Frankfurt am Main, where the Institute for Research on the Jewish Question was located; after the war, these materials were transported to the United States. In October 1944, the new library head D. Ye. Kahane reported the loss of 15,000 volumes. Currently, books and archival documents from the former Library of the Jewish Community of Lemberg/Lwów can also be found in various libraries and archives in Ukraine and Poland.
- Access points: locations:
- Lviv
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds comprises a single inventory, without any apparent order of files.
- Finding aids:
- An inventory is available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary