Amsterdam: Centre of Yiddish printing Amsterdam was a thriving centre of Yiddish printing from the midseventeenth until the mid-nineteenth century. Nearly all the Yiddish books published in the Netherlands were printed in Amsterdam, unlike manuscripts and printed Hebrew books, which were produced throughout the country. Some of the items included in this collection date back to the seventeenth century: The oldest are the 1661 edition of the
Bovo-Bukh and the 1663 edition of
Megilat Ester. The bulk of the books in this collection date from the eighteenth century, a time of great activity for Amsterdam’s printers of Yiddish. By the 1820s, Yiddish printing in Amsterdam had practically come to an end; only rules and regulations were still being printed in that language. It was only after the arrival of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe that Yiddish literature was again published in the Netherlands. Some examples are Chaia Raisman’s
Nit in Golus un nit in der heim (printed in Latin characters; 1931), the two booklets by Jacob Rothstein (ca. 1920 and 1922; printed in Rotterdam), Gedalja Frenkel’s
Shriftn (an oblong booklet; 1932), and Undzer brik (an extremely rare stenciled periodical; 1949).
Inventory of Yiddish books from the Netherlands This new collection is based on the
Inventory of Yiddish Books from the Netherlands, which was compiled by Mirjam Gutschow and is scheduled to appear in 2005. The
Inventory lists all the Yiddish books that have been printed in the Netherlands, regardless of their content. The new collection aims to contain all the Amsterdam Yiddish material that has not yet been filmed; that is, material that does not appear in either the first IDC edition of Yiddish books or in the microfiche collection of Hebraica and Judaica from the Tychsen Collection and the Rostock University Library (Rostock University Library, eds. Hermann Süß and Heike Tröger). Most of the books are extremely rare.
So far, books have been filmed at the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana in the Amsterdam University Library and the Ets Haim/Livraria Montezinos library in Amsterdam. IDC Publishers intends to publish a second collection in the future, comprising books held in libraries in other countries.
Extensive wide range of works The extraordinary diverse collection comprises works of fiction such as
Falentin un’ Orson and
Eyn shen vunderlikh mayse fun eyner kale mit dray khasanim. There are Purim plays and plays by the Amsterdam playwright and director Jacob Dessauer (
Di muzikanten, Arbeyt und flays). Several textbooks were published, for example the grammar book
Luah ha-dikduk in
Zivhe Toviyah or the mathematics primer
Yedi’at ha-heshbon. The latter includes a table showing the reverse of several shilling coins. The historical writings are also important to mention, such as the 1771 re-edition of Amelander’s
She’erit Yisrael – which contains additions to the earlier version – and Solomon ben Moses Prinz’s
Kronik min shenat 544 ‘ad shenat 548 (i.e. 1784-1788). A book like
Sefer ha- Hayim / Sefer Sha’ar Shimon, which appeared in 1714 and 1747, forms a valuable source for Jewish mourning customs and the community life, and provides the background to the regulations of the Jewish communities.
Guides to ethical behavior, like
Darkhe yesharim helek rishon of 1758, are also included, as well as several Bible translations – two with Yiddish notes in the margins – and Bible commentaries, Tsenerene and prayer books. All these will be of interest to scholars studying the religious life of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as well as to those researching the development of the Yiddish language.
The collection also contains editions of the rules and regulations of Jewish communities between 1708-1846. For these, see also IDC’s collection
Rules and Regulations of Dutch Jewish Communities and Associations, 1726- 1943. These two collections complement each other, and together provide a rich insight into Jewish communal life in the Netherlands, mainly Amsterdam.
A special collection of sixteen Yiddish broadsheets forms another part of the collection (others are included with the Rules and regulations and the humoristic Yiddish publications). Some of these broadsheets announce the titles of forthcoming books.
All booklets and broadsheets in the ‘Humorisitc Yiddish publications’ section are in the Ets Haim library. Most were printed for Purim. Many were written by Shloume Duikelaar, but there are two booklets by Jacob Dessauer. Some of the broadsides bear an especially elaborate headpiece. They all are extremely rare.
The collection also contains
Pesach Haggadot. Here a small selection of eleven books from the holdings of the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana was included, most of which are nicely illustrated.
Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana and Ets Haim Library Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana – the special collection of Hebraica and Judaica donated to the city of Amsterdam in 1880 and now held by the Amsterdam University Library – concentrates on collecting all items printed in Amsterdam, of which it owns a substantial collection. The library also holds several smaller collections of, for example, broadsheets and the rules and regulations of Dutch Jewish Communities and Associations (both collections also contain Yiddish documents).
Although the Ets Haim/Livraria Montezinos library – which was founded in 1616 and has been housed in the Portuguese Synagogue complex in Amsterdam since 1675 – collects mainly books and manuscripts with a Sephardic background, it also contains a splendid collection of Yiddish books. A number of these (mainly humoristic texts) are included in the new IDC collection.
Mirjam Gutschow, Researcher at the Menasseh Ben Israel Institute, and cataloguer at the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana, Amsterdam University Library