United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Zachary M. Baker

In the years after World War II, Polish Jewish survivors of the Holocaust who had made their way to the Americas and Israel compiled memorial books to preserve the memory of their destroyed communities. From a Ruined Garden gathers some 77 sections from the nearly 1,000 memorial books published. The texts describe daily life in the shtetl as well as everyday life during the Holocaust and the experiences of returning survivors.

The Memorial Books of Polish Jewry

From a Ruined Garden

Rediscover the history that the Soviets tried to erase! This important book addresses topics that may be unfamiliar even to specialists in Slavic or Jewish Studies. You'll find essays, bibliographies, and research studies illustrating the state of Jewish-related publishing ventures in Eastern Europe (especially Poland) and the former Soviet Union in the post-WWII era. Judaica in the Slavic Realm, Slavica in the Judaic Realm: Repositories, Collections, Projects, Publications also documents the efforts of Judaic scholars, librarians, and genealogists to provide access to archival collections in those countries. From the Editor: Throughout the Cold War--i.e., during the aftermath of the Nazis' attempt to exterminate all Jews who fell under their rule during World War II--public discussion of Jews and Judaism was virtually taboo within the Soviet Union proper, and permitted only under stringent controls in the rest of Eastern Europe. Local, regional, and geopolitics all played their parts in turning the "Jewish question" into one of the most conspicuous "blank spots" of an entire era. Until the second half of the 1980s, specialists in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe were deprived of the most fundamental research tools--access to Judaica library and archival collections, and the opportunity to study the languages of Jewish scholarship: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Yiddish. Since then, they and their Western and Israeli counterparts have made an impressive start on filling in the blank spots, as a perusal of this book reveals, but much work remains to be done. Judaica in the Slavic Realm, Slavica in the Judaic Realm will familiarize you with: the Jewish Archival Survey--a remarkable cooperative venture of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, and the Russian State University for the Humanities--which searches for records of the Russian-Jewish past in former Soviet repositories the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts' ongoing efforts to acquire microfilms of Hebrew manuscripts in Eastern European and former Soviet repositories Jewish book publishing in the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Baltic republics after 1990 the collecting activities of the library of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research over a ten-year period Jewish periodicals in the Ukraine--the largest region in the Tsarist Empire to which Jews were restricted until 1917 bibliographical projects in Polish-Jewish studies attempts to document the genealogical records of Eastern European Jews--and the outcomes of those attempts and more! In addition, you'll find three extensive bibliographies, each of which reflects rich and varied facets of the Slavic-Jewish encounter. These are: Shimon Iakerson's listing of 38 Hebrew incunabula (books printed before the year 1501) in the Asiatic Museum of St. Petersburg Vladimir Karasik's checklist of 311 Jewish periodicals published in the Ukraine from 1860 to the present--their schematic breakdown into five different periods represents the bibliographer's reflections on the lives and fates of Jews in the Russian empire, the Soviet Union, and the post-Soviet Ukraine Nikolai Borodulin's classified bibliography of several hundred Jewish books and periodicals (in a variety of languages) from the post-Soviet republics Judaica in the Slavic Realm, Slavica in the Judaic Realm is a one-of-a-kind book that no one interested in the hidden archival records of this century--and this historically significant part of the world--should be without.

Repositories, Collections, Projects, Publications

Judaica in the Slavic Realm, Slavica in the Judaic Realm

In the years after World War II, Polish Jewish survivors of the Holocaust who had made their way to the Americas and Israel compiled memorial books to preserve the memory of their destroyed communities. FROM A RUINED GARDEN gathers some 77 sections from the nearly 1,000 memorial books published. The texts describe daily life in the shtetl as well as everyday life during the Holocaust and the experiences of returning survivors. 26 photos.

Zachary M. Baker

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