Jun 2018
In the interwar period, Yiddish writers and cultural activists produced a number of stunning literary journals. These journals — often short-lived — are a fascinating repository of modernist art, Yiddish literature and criticism, scholarship, and political polemic. Some were the projects of artistic groups, like the Khalyastre, while some were largely or solely the work of an individual, like Uri Zvi Greenberg’s Albatros. Each is an invaluable snapshot of Yiddish culture in a specific time and place, during a period that saw both incredible creative production in Yiddish and dramatic changes for Yiddish, for Jewish life in Europe, and for the course of modern European history.
In geveb has partnered with the Historical Jewish Press to make some of the most important Yiddish literary journals of the interwar period newly accessible. Beginning with Milgroym—arguably the most visually stunning of the interwar Yiddish journals — and its Hebrew language companion, Rimon, we will be publishing translations of selected writing from the journals along with commentary, criticism, and new scholarship exploring the wealth of material these journals published. Full color scans of the journals are available through the JPress website and will be featured throughout these pages. New translations and scholarship will be added to this special issue regularly. And the project will expand to other journals in the future, some of which are already available on JPress. Want to contribute to this collaborative scholarly project? We hope so, and invite you to contact us.
