Yiddish journals given a new life online

Rare Yiddish avant-garde journals created between the world wars are being given a new life online.

In geveb, a journal of Yiddish studies, and the Historical Jewish Press are posting full-color scans of some of the most important of these journals and publishing translations of selected writings.

The first journal to be featured is Milgroym, a Yiddish-language journal published in Berlin between 1922 and 1924. The project will also take its name from the journal, which translates as “pomegranate.”

“These journals — often short-lived — are a fascinating repository of modernist art, Yiddish literature and criticism, scholarship, and political polemic,” organizers explain on the project website. “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.”

The Historical Jewish Press is a joint venture of Tel Aviv University and the National Library of Israel.