The Mendele Review:
Yiddish Literature and Language
(A Companion to MENDELE)
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Contents of Vol. 09.04 [Sequential No. 156]
Date: 15
March 2005
1) This issue (ed.)
2) Mendel Mann collection
auction
3) Coming issue: Menke.
4) Coming book reviews
(ed.)
5) Assn.of Jewish Writers in Poland 1944-1948(Nathan Cohen)
1)--------------------------------------------------------------------
Date:
15 March 2005
From: Leonard Prager
Subject: This issue.
The main item in this issue of TMR originated as a paper read at an Oxford conference in August 2003. It is included in the recently published Yiddish After the Holocaust, edited by Joseph Sherman. We thank the editor and the publisher for permission to reproduce the essay in TMR. The link http://www.babelguides.com/view/work/54901 leads to a mail-order source for the book.
2)----------------------------------------------------------
Date:
15 March 2005
From: David Nordmann, auctioneer
Subject: Mendel Mann
collection auction
On 23 March 2005 the Mendel Mann collection of paintings, drawings & souvenirs will be sold at Hotel Drouot in Paris. A friend of Chagall and Henrik Berlewi, Mendel Mann (1916-1975) lived in Russia, Poland, Israel & France and was an important Yiddish writer as well as an artist. For further information apply to ADER, Maison de Vente 8, rue Saint Marc 75002 Paris, France. Tel: (0) 1 53 40 77 10 - Fax: (0) 1 53 40 77 20. david.nordmann@ader-paris.fr See the Ader website at http://www.ader-paris.fr/
3)-----------------------------------------------------------
Date:
15 March 2005
From: Leonard Prager
Subject: Coming Issue:
Menke.
A coming issue of TMR will be devoted to a compendious volume of Menke Katz's Yiddish verse translated into English by the celebrated translator-team Barbara and Benjamin Harshav. Menke. The Complete Yiddish Poems. Edited by Dovid Katz and Harry Smith. Maps by Giedre Beconyte. Published by The Smith: New York 2005, 914 pp. For ordering information: artsend@sover.net.
4)--------------------------------------------------------------
Date:
15 March 2005
From: Leonard Prager
Subject: Coming Book Reviews
Dovid Katz's Lithuanian Jewish Culture (Vilna: Baltos Lankos, 2004, 398 pp), will yet be reviewed in TMR, as will be Nancy Sinkoff' s Out of the Shtetl (Providence: Brown Judaic Studies, 2004).
5)---------------------------------------
Date: 15 March
2005
From: Nathan Cohen
Content: Assn of Jewish Writers in
Poland 1944-1948 (Nathan Cohen)
The Renewed
Association of Yiddish Writers and Journalists in Poland, 1945-48
Nathan Cohen
For more than two decades (1916-1939) the address of the Association of Jewish Writers and Journalists in Warsaw, at 13 Tlomackie Street, was famous in the cultural milieu of Jewish, secular Yiddish speakers. The Association's premises served as a social meeting place not only for members but also for actors, artists, educators, occasional visitors and all interested parties within the realm of Yiddish literature. For years, both the Jewish division of the Polish Journalist Syndicate and the representatives of the Yiddish writers who belonged to the International Writers' Association (PEN) worked under the aegis of the Association of Jewish Writers and Journalists. Frequently, stormy debates over the current and future character of Yiddish literature were led from the Association's podium. There, attempts were made to find solutions to the recurrent crises in the Yiddish book market. There too, young writers and poets expressed their frustration over the condescending attitude of the literary establishment. Aside from cultural activities designated for members of the Association, various other activities for the general public were also offered, for which there was considerable demand. During the 1930s the association underwent a political upheaval, the significance of which was its complete transformation from a clearly apolitical line to a radical left-wing position.(1)
All of these long-standing activities came to an abrupt halt early in September 1939. Although writers and poets continued to write in the ghettos and in hiding, the institution, that establishment which served such a pivotal position for all Jewish cultural life in the Polish capital, functioned no longer. However, in the summer of 1944, with the advance of the Red Army into Poland, Jews liberated from the camps and those who were in hiding began seeking relatives and acquaintances, shelter, food and clothing. Local Jewish committees began to organize with the object of providing at least the minimum of material assistance and a sense of personal security at a time when the local population made no attempt to disguise their hostility towards Jews who once again walked freely amongst them.(2)
In Lublin, where the Polish Committee of National Liberation (Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego, PKWN) had operated since 21 July 1944, there gathered a group of Jewish political activists, writers and journalists. In Lublin as well there started to operate, in August 1944, one of the first local Jewish committees, which in late October or early November 1944 became the Provisional Central Committee of Polish Jews (Tymczasowy Centralny Komitet Zydow Polkich). As of February 1945 it became the Central Committee of Polish Jews (Centralny Komitet Zydow Polskich).(3) Several weeks after the establishment of the Lublin Committee, and as a consequence of the heightened historical awareness of the survivors, on 29 August 1944 the Central Jewish Historical Committee (Centralna Zydowska Komisja Historyczna) was founded, and on his arrival in Lublin in November 1944, the historian Dr Philip Friedman was appointed to head it. The Historical Committee shared a single desk in a one-room office with the local Jewish committee.(4) Later, its office moved to Lodz and from there to Warsaw. >From its inception, the committee worked ceaselessly to gather documents and testimony from the years of destruction.(5) Inevitably, Lublin also became a gathering place for Jewish writers and journalists who included Yude Elberg, Leyb Rokhman, Efroim Shedletski, Ruvn Feldshu [Ben Shem], Grisha Yashunski, Yehoyshue Shlayen [Shiloni], Mikhl Hofman, as well as the actors Yonas Turkov, his wife Diana Blumenfeld, and Vladek Godyk.This group immediately began to operate jointly, initially at the beginning of October 1944 in the refugees' residence in the Polish Red Cross building, and later in Leyb Rokhman's apartment in the presence of Dr Shloyme Hershenhorn, a member of the PKWN, and on 23 October they sent a memorandum to the PKWN regarding the establishment of an independent association of Jewish journalists, writers and actors. The request elicited a favourable response and the signatories of the memorandum - Turkov, who was elected chairman of the association, Yashunski and Hofman - received the sum of one hundred thousand zlotys.(6) Once again an Association of Jewish Writers and Journalists returned to function in Poland, only now it also included actors.(7)
The favourable response of the PKWN to this first request made possible the establishment of a Jewish Press Agency (Zydowska Agencja Prasowa) and the publication of a bulletin three times a week between November 1944 and December 1949. This bulletin included brief news items in both Yiddish and Polish. For all practical purposes this was the first Jewish newspaper in liberated Poland. One hundred and twenty bulletins were distributed during the first year.(8) Insofar as this group had no access to a Yiddish typewriter, the bulletin was written by hand and tens of copies were made using carbon paper. Some time later, Yude Elberg brought a typewriter to Lublin from Bialystok. Copies of the bulletin were posted in central locations so that any Jew could have access to them.(9) A second initiative of this group of writers and journalists in the public realm was the creation of a weekly hour of Yiddish radio broadcast presented by Turkov and Blumenfeld; later, fifteen minutes of additional broadcast time was added three times weekly.(10)
The first cultural event held by the Association for the general public was a concert given on 3 December 1944, in which Yiddish songs were performed in the hall of the Lublin Conservatory by Diana Blumenfeld. This evening was held in the presence of Dr Emil Zomershteyn, chairman of the Temporary Committee of Polish Jews, and in attendance were Russian and Polish army officers in the same company with Jewish political leaders and activists who in former days, before the war, would never have participated in such an event. The presence of notable personalities did not prevent hostile elements from disconnecting the electricity to the hall as the perfomance opened.(11) Of symbolic significance was the fact that on that that very same day four Nazi members of the staff of Majdanek death camp were executed, the first to be brought to justice in liberated Poland.(12)
With the passage of time, and the liberation of territories west of the Vistula, the relative growth of the Jewish population and their geographical distribution increased the need for an available Jewish publication.(13) In January 1945 it was reported that a Yiddish printing press had been located intact in Lodz .Y. Elberg went to verify the rumour and invited some friends to give him their assistance. Efroim Shedletski, one of the group, later described the ' find' as 'a heap of dispersed letters, lead mixed with fragments of iron and debris frozen into a single block'.(14) This pile was transferred to a vacant apartment at 32 Narutowicz Street. With the assistance of the printer, Fishl Hellershteyn, who was also whisked out of Lublin, the printing press was reconstructed within a few weeks. Thanks to this discovery, the members of the Association relocated to Lodz, which was then a growing Jewish centre. Among the residents of the city was Mikhl Mirsky, a member of the Polish Communist Party prior to the war and recently discharged from the army. He immediately joined the public political and cultural activity in the city and was promptly elected director of the Central Committee of Polish Jews, chairman of the Regional Committee of Lodz Jewry, and director of the Association of Writers, Journalists and Actors. As an experienced journalist and editor, Mirsky actively supported the initiative to publish a Yiddish newspaper and was elected to serve as its editor-in-chief. The first issue of the weekly, Dos naye lebn (The New Life, hereafter, DNL), the joint organ of the Central Committee of Polish Jews and the Association of Writers, Journalists and Actors, was published on 10 April 1945. The members of the editorial board were Dr Adolf (Avrom) Berman (Left Po' alei Zion), Dr A. Zomershteyn (Ikhud), Y. Turkov (non-affiliated), G. Yashunsky (Bund) and Dr Yosef Sack (Po'alei Zion, Socialist Zionists). The front page of the first issue announced that the Jews returning home and finding only destruction 'will be greeted with a warm word in Yiddish and encouragement. We are now building our home in a free and democratic Poland, in a free Europe.' The editor stressed the importance of the current unity among the Jews of Poland (p.3) and his sentiments were echoed by Dr A. Berman (p.4). The chairman of the Writers' association, Y. Turkov, highly praised the joint efforts of a handful of writers and journalists - saved, thanks to the Red Army - for commemorating the recent past and for bringing their message to the world at large (p.5).
Editing the newspaper was no simple matter. Owing to the lack of adequate printing equipment, the printers were obliged to typeset and print each of the eight pages separately.(15) Most of the writing related to political, economic and social questions about the rehabilitation of the Jewish community, yet each issue allocated space for a literary piece - a short story or memoirs - as well as items reflecting local cultural activity.(16) The paper was received with great enthusiasm. Within the first few months its circulation reached 7000 copies and within the first year 10000 copies.(17) As of November 1947, the paper appeared three times weekly.
During the first year of the Association's existence, the board focused its attention on internal organization. By August 1945 the Association numbered fifty-six members, including members of the Jewish Historical Committee.(18) Since the Association was a body that supplied material assistance to its members, its directors had to appoint a special committee to assess membership criteria and determine the level of assistance required for each member.(19) A central personality who took an active role in assisting the needy, and who continued this activity from the days she had started it in the Warsaw Ghetto, was Rokhl Oyerbakh, who, from the end of her days of hiding in March 1945, had been active in both writing and documentation. She divided her time between active participation in work of the Jewish Historical Committee and her work in extending aid to needy colleagues and developing cultural matters for DNL through the Writers' Association. The need for material aid increased with time, in particular with the return to Poland of writers, journalists, actors and artists repatriated from the Soviet Union between February and July 1946, many of whom reached Poland empty- handed; for some of these people, even for a short period of time, the Writers' Association became, in fact, their home.(20) Each writer who returned from the Soviet Union received a nominal sum of 5000 zlotys as their initial allocation and automatically joined the long line of members (and their families) who received a monthly stipend, free lunch, clothing, basic furnishings, temporary housing, and assistance in locating permanent housing.(21) The financing for the Writers' Association came from a monthly allocation from the Central Committee of Polish Jews, the Lodz Jewish Committee (one must bear in mind that - at least for a certain period - all the needy were located in Lodz), and from occasional contributions from abroad, primarily from the Joint Distribution Committee.(22) As for the first two financial sources, it appears that the relationship between them and the Association was one of mutual distrust and suspicion. Between February and May 1946 via R. Oyerbakh the Association's directors appealed three times to the above two committees asking them not to pose unnecessary difficulties and to supply them with the assistance which was rightfully theirs.(23) In June 1946 a delegation representing the Association met with the Central Committee in Warsaw to clarify the continuing financial dispute. They were promised maximum assistance.(24)
The return of writers, journalists and actors from the Soviet Union as well as the arrival of visitors from abroad allowed for a modest expansion of the cultural activities designated for the general public. Occasionally the Association hosted a welcome for the returnees and for visitors from abroad, as well as memorial evenings for Y.L. Peretz, Sholem Aleykhem, Bialik and others, and meetings with writers, which were a great success. Small groups of writers, on behalf of the Association, also appeared before Jewish audiences outside of Lodz. On 14 April 1946 the permanent premises of the Association were officially inaugurated on 32 Narotowicz Street. In attendance were representatives of Jewish associations and a delegation of Polish writers headed by Wladislaw Broniewski. In honour of the occasion a message of greeting was received from Leon Pasternak, the vice- chairman of the Polish Writers' Association.(25) According to newspaper accounts and archival sources it appears that, aside from these few official events, little significant contact was established between Yiddish and Polish writers (26) and the degree of disregard of the former on the part of the latter remained exactly the same as it had been prior to the war.
In May 1946, the actors decided to withdraw from the general Association and establish an independent one, (27) even though needy actors continued to take their free meals at the kitchen of the Writers' Association. At the same time, the Yiddish PEN Club renewed its activity, an initiative that received the blessing even of Jan Parandowski, the chairman of the Polish PEN Club.(28) In May 1946, Rokhl Korn represented the revival of Yiddish literature in Poland at the World PEN Congress in Stockholm (29)and seized the opportunity not to return; as will be noted later, Korn's move was not unusual. It appears that the Yiddish PEN Club's existence was short-lived, no traces of any subsequent activity having come to light. At the next PEN Congress held in Zurich, Yiddish literature was represented by Avrom Sutzkever and Khayim Grade, both of whom had left Poland many months earlier. A study of the protocols of the board meetings from 1946 show that most issues discussed related to the material subsistence of the Association and its members.(30) Dealing with these urgent matters left little room for fundamental deliberation on the goals of current Yiddish literature and did not allow tensions and political arguments between the Association's members and its leadership, which had simmered since early 1946, to surface. These undercurrents matched the general atmosphere that prevailed then in Poland, and among the Jews. For example, individuals affiliated with the Polish Worker's Party (PPR) and the communal institutions under its leadership gradually limited the freedom of action and legitimacy of the 'non-proletarian' parties including the Polish Socialist Party (PPS ) and the Bund.(31)
Following his emigration in 1945, Yonas Turkov, the first chairman of the Writers' Association, was replaced briefly by Yude Elberg. In January 1946 Mirsky was elected to the chairmanship; however, having occasion to travel to the United States on a public-relations mission, he refused to relinquish the position to his deputy, Dr Ber Mark. The latter had recently returned from the Soviet Union and was the preferred candidate of Shimen Zakharish, a Communist activist and head of the PPR faction in the Central Jewish Committee. Finally, Leo Finklshteyn (Bund) was elected to the position in April 1946, but owing to his poor health, he participated only infrequently in the activity of the Association, so that to all intents and purposes, Mark remained the chairman.(32) Political differences within the leadership of the Association were reflected in the limitations of the mandate given to Mirsky in his travels to the United States. His task in representing the institution and its needs in meetings with individuals and organizations was limited to paving the way for a more extensive and representative delegation to travel to the United States in the future.(33)
First-hand corroboration of the political tensions and divisiveness that operated between the left and the Zionist members of the directorate during the first half of 1946 can be found in the correspondence between Moyshe Grosman (Left Poalei Zion), the Association's secretary, and Dr Adolf Berman, a member of the presidium of the Central Committee of Polish Jews. Grosman describes himself as 'a bridge between the two warring sides in the directorate', and as one who was forced to pacify both sides.(34) Grosman's reports certainly did nothing to improve the standing of the Association in the eyes of Berman who challenged it at a later date, as will be shown.
Against the backdrop of Mirsky's trip, B. Mark was also given responsibility for editing DNL. Mark's senior status in the Association and in the paper, like that of Mirsky before him, who had also been a member of the Central Committee of Polish Jews, did not contribute towards fostering cooperation between the two bodies. Among the members of the Association there was a sense that the Central Committee viewed the paper as their exclusive organ and determinedly ignored the share held by the Association. At a special membership meeting which assembled on 11 November 1946, Mirsky and Mark verified these claims.(35) Although the assembly did pass a resolution to protest before the Central Committee against unilateral steps taken regarding the paper - for example, the uprooting of the editorial board and the printing press to Warsaw, home of the committee - it came to naught. The context of a letter sent from the presidium of the Central Committee to the directorate of the Writers' Association on 11 November 1947 gave the clear understanding that DNL was an organ of the Central Committee and as such its location should justifiably be in Warsaw.(36)
The paper, which continued to exist until October 1950, never ceased to provide a focal point for writers and for literary works and to publish current reports on the state of affairs of Jewish literary life in Poland, yet it was easy to sense the clear political line which dominated both the paper and its literary content.(37) In early 1947 the author Dovid Sfard initiated a small publishing operation under the aegis of the newspaper. It published and distributed booklets consisting of several print sheets of literature and criticism. In the first year of this operation, seven booklets were published, and six more were published the following year. In 1949 the endeavour, named Yidish bukh, became an independent entity under the supervision of the Central Committee and the management of Sfard, and existed until the summer of 1967, during which time it published about 350 books.(38)
The strengthening of the Communist leaning within the public Jewish leadership in Poland was also mirrored in the administration of the Writers' Association. Yet despite this leaning, the Association maintained its independence and continued to appear open and pluralistic. A striking illustration of this openness was the internal trial of Shloyme Lastic, a teacher and journalist who prior to the war had been a known Communist. Lastic was charged with having delivered a demagogic speech in Bialystok at the end of 1939 or early in 1940 in which he singled out for denunciation members who were either not Communist enough or who only pretended to be Communists. (39) At least some of those present on that occasion were also present six years later in Lodz, and they refused to drop the matter of an internal trial for him from the Association's agenda. After six sessions before the tribunal, which included Arn Tsinsinatus, Dr Josef Kermish and Avrom Zak, and following the testimony of a long list of witnesses, on 30 October 1946 Lastic was found guilty of being an informant. According to the judgement delivered by the court, it would have been appropriate to revoke Lastic's membership of the Association, but owing to his partial confession and in view of 'the tragic circumstances of our current existence', it was decided to distance him from the Association for six months and to suspend his membership privileges for an additional six months. In the light of his difficult economic circumstances, however, the court ordered the Association to continue its financial assistance to Lastic even during the period of penalization.(40)
An attempt to maintain the independence of the Association and the literary freedom of its members found expression in a meeting between its representatives and members of the Cultural and Propaganda Department of the Central Jewish Committee in November 1946. One must bear in mind that this cultural department was set up more or less parallel to the Writers' Association, and also had Y. Turkov as its head. As an arm of the Central Committee, it had at its disposal resources both financial and other that enabled it to compete with the Writers' Association and to gain advantage over it, both in terms of public initiative and in terms of the Central Committee's attitude. (41) According to the shrewd report of E. Kaganovski,(42) one of the participants in the above-mentioned meeting, the guest writers instantly understood the current direction it was taking. Dr A Berman, the chairman of the Central Committee, made this perfectly clear by stating that the time had passed when artists could indulge in creating 'art for the sake of art', and that it was now expected of them to acclimatise themselves and their writings to the Committee's political line. The attempts of Committee member Hersh Smolar to cushion this message were to no avail, and his facial expression conveyed clearly how warped was the attempt to convene together writers and politicians. The chairman of the Association, L. Finkelshteyn, responded adamantly that the Association was an independent body and in no need of guidance. B. Mark, a PPR member, attempted to defend the stand of the Association, while his colleague M. Mirsky, a member of the PPR and of the Central Committee, criticized the Association for its attitude of alienation toward the Central Committee. The debate raged late into the night, and with no resolution in sight all the participants left, each going in his own direction. With high irony, Kaganovski subsequently wrote a description of this meeting, remarking that residents of bombed-out and partly demolished Warsaw had certainly wondered that night what could possibly be the meaning of lights burning so late in the windows of the Central Jewish Committee; they could certainly not have imagined that what was being discussed there during those hours was the essence of the writers' social mission.
The year 1946 was one of transition - tens of thousands of Jews arrived in Poland while tens of thousands emigrated.(43) That same year the number of Association members continually fluctuated. As of 25 April 1946, only 29 members were registered, following the actors' dissociation and prior to the acceptance of most of the repatriates; but on 19 June 1946, 40 new members were registered, on 13 September, 46 new members, and on 2 December, 43 with an additional nine candidate members.(44) In parallel with those returning, the stream of those leaving also grew. During the year 1946, 19 members of the Association left Poland and an additional eight were on their way out. (45) The state of affairs was such that in December 1946, just prior to the departure from Poland of the Association's secretary, M. Grosman, there remained in Lodz only a single member of the Association's directorate (M. Mirsky) and another (Maksimiljan Tauchner), who had no fixed abode or permanent address. An extraordinary general meeting of the membership was called to elect a temporary executive committee that would take upon itself the administration of the Association. Four members were chosen: Avrom Zak (chairman), Dr Yekhiel Hofer, R. Oyerbakh and Arn Tsofnas (secretary).(46)
There were a variety of reasons that prompted Jewish emigration from Poland, but the single common denominator was an inability to live alongside the destruction. Y.Turkov, a founder of the renewed Jewish cultural activity in Poland, was among the first to leave, in the autumn of 1945. In his memoirs he gave his reasons: emptiness and antisemitism. He wrote, 'Today Warsaw no longer belongs to me; my yesterday was cut down, and my tomorrow? Better not to think of it - here.[...] Warsaw, my Warsaw - for me you are dead!'(47) Widespread violent and virulent Polish antisemitism were cited more than once in letters sent from M. Grosman to his colleague A. Berman, which included repeated pleas for assistance to help Jews leave Poland and emigrate to the Land of Israel.(48) In the spring of 1945, A. Zak was moved to tears to see writers occupied with literary activity.(49) A year later, however, this initial enthusiasm had waned, and all that remained was work that dulled the horror of daily existence on one hand, and on the other hand the realization that Jews continued to exist in Poland only on a temporary basis, even though the extent of this temporariness remained elusive.(50) At that time L. Finklshteyn wrote to his friend and colleague Meylekh Ravitsh in Canada that the present Writers' Association was merely an illusion of what had once been Tlomackie 13 and that by comparison with friends who had perished, they were merely a shadow.(51) Avrom Sutzkever's brief stay in Poland between spring and summer of 1946 was long enough for him to understand that 'it is impossible to write here, since at our feet are the broken fragments of what was once written.'(52) As noted earlier,Rokhl Korn chose not to return from her mission abroad as a representative of Yiddish writers in Poland. B. Mark, an establishment personality, gave vent to his bitterness, in a personal letter, toward those who were leaving, although he stressed that he did not blame them and added: 'No, not for this did we come here from Moscow, to become undertakers for a live community.' (53) Another establishment personality, Dovid Sfard, recorded in his memoirs a traumatic experience shortly after his return from the Soviet Union. While travelling on a train from Lodz to Warsaw in company with several friends, the train halted abruptly midway. The Jewish passengers were struck with fear, since it was the custom of violent hooligans to stop trains, order the Jewish passengers off, and murder them. Fortunately, this halt was innocent, yet the fear on the faces of the Jewish passengers left an indelible impression on the author for many years.(54) Rokhl Oyerbakh, an idealistic figure of great accomplishment had, as early as July 1939, rejected all opportunities to emigrate, and had determined that the only haven for Yiddish culture was Poland and Poland only.(55) In July 1945, against the backdrop of rising antisemitism, she now wrote that 'the time for us to leave has already arrived, to leave this land and shake its dust from our shoes.'(56) Yet despite this assertion, Oyerbakh chose to continue her communal activity in Poland until 1950, primarily in the realm of Holocaust research and documentation. It is noteworthy that the Association apparently never came out officially with a declaration condemning the intensifying antisemitism in Poland, not even following the pogrom in Kielce.(57)
The weakening connection with DNL strengthened the need to publish a literary periodical that Yiddish writers had felt for a long while. As early as summer 1945 this issue was discussed at board meetings of the Association; other issues raised included establishing a publishing house and founding a fund for supporting writers.(58) In June 1946 members of the Association hoped to create employment and sources of financial support for writers by means of a bi-weekly literary journal they proposed to publish,(59) yet reality dictated a different order of priorities. Contributions from abroad specifically earmarked for the journal(60) failed to speed up progress on the matter. The publishing plans proceeded at a snail's pace and here, too, there was no shortage of differences of opinion. (61) At last, In November 1946, the long-awaited publication appeared under the title, Yidishe shriftn: tsaytshrift far literatur, teater un kultur (Yiddish Writings - A Periodical for Literature, Theatre and Culture), and the editorship of A. Zak, B. Mark, M. Mirsky, D. Sfard, L. Finklshteyn and E. Kaganovski. This monthly journal appeared serially until September 1968 (250 issues). During the first two years of its existence, it served as an open forum for the exchange of ideas on topics such as the mission of Yiddish writers in Poland, the nature of the messages to be conveyed to the readers within and outside of Poland (mainly in the USSR and the USA), literary criticism, poetry and prose. Very little space in Yidishe shriftn was set aside for non-Jewish literature. As of January 1949, a column was added for the works of young writers, and an art supplement was introduced. In this publication as well one can discern the clear political line that guided all its participants. One of the most prominently doctrinaire writers during the first few years of the periodical was the editorial secretary, Dovid Sfard, who confirmed in his memoirs that in those years 'freedom of expression was limited more by the internal censorship of each Jewish editor in his field, than by official censorship'.(62) Parallel with the publication of the first issue of Yidishe shriftn and for two years after it, two extensive literary collections were published, also under the title, Yidishe shriftn. The periodical as well as the collections were apparently well received by the public and were even distributed outside of Poland.
The completion of the repatriation stage in 1946 and the partial and temporary absorption of Jewish writers and journalists allowed the board of the Writers' Association to focus greater attention on, and devote more resources to, cultural activity. The regular publication of Yidishe shriftn was the primary goal of the Association and in this they were successful. During 1947 the Association held more than sixty cultural events open to the public.(63) At a general membership meeting of the Association, B. Mark announced before the Polish guests and members of the Central Committee that the association had already become 'a cultural centre' and he boasted that 'Poland has returned to being a [Jewish] literary centre'.(64) As such, Mark expected that the Association would serve as a strong and stable bridge between the centre of Soviet Yiddish literature and other centres of Yiddish writing overseas. An additional achievement, which the Writers' Association could claim to its credit, was a declaration issued jointly with the Regional Committee of Lodz Jews in regard to a Yiddish Cultural Month (January 1948), which included theatre performances, book exhibitions and meetings with authors.(65)
Characteristic of the atmosphere in the Jewish literary milieu in 1947 was the continuing debate over the issue of participation by Yiddish writers from Poland in an international congress on Yiddish culture. By the end of 1946, Hersh Smolar, a prominent Communist activist in the Writers' Association and in the Central Committee of Polish Jews who was later to head the Committee, expressed the opinion that it was imperative to hold an international Jewish cultural congress under the auspices of the Central Committee of Polish Jews.(66) In the summer of 1947, such a conference was well on its way to reality, but the initiative came from the United States. In reality there were two different conferences, one of which was organized by CYCO (Central Yiddish Cultural Organization), a Yiddish cultural organization with conservative, left-wing leanings (Bund, Po' alei Zion). The other was organized by YKUF (Yiddish Cultural Association), a radical, left-wing cultural organization.(67) The unequivocal response of the Yiddish writers of Lodz was a blanket rejection of any attempt to harness current Yiddish culture to one or another political camp. Rokhl Oyerbakh sought to stress the absurdity in linking politics to culture by noting that Communists at that time were virtually unopposed to Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel, while the Jewish settlers (Zionists) there were struggling against British imperialism.(68) The Central Committee of Polish Jews, as well as the Writers' Association, both adopted decisions unequivocally rejecting participation in the proposed conferences. Furthermore, the Writers' Association renewed its call to convene, jointly with the Central Committee, a steering committee to create the infrastructure for a world congress of Yiddish culture in the spirit of the aforementioned idea put forward by Smolar.(69)
In November 1947, the Writers' Association held a general consultation meeting of all Jewish cultural organizations initiated by the Department of Culture and Propaganda of the Central Committee, and again Smolar repeated his call to writers to close ranks, to establish beneficial links with Polish writers, and with Yiddish writers both in the Soviet Union and in the Land of Israel [sic] , and with 'progressive elements' in the United States as a guarantee for building a renewed Yiddish culture in Poland.(70) At the conclusion of this meeting, an announcement was made regarding the founding of the Jewish Cultural Association in Poland, and a coordinating committee was chosen, headed by E. Kaganovski and with D. Sfard as secretary.(71) Until mid- 1949 we have no information of any initiative or activity on the part of this body.(72) Between 9-13 July 1948, a congress of European Yiddish Culture was convened in Paris with the participation of Yisroel Ashendorf and Binem Heller from Poland. According to Dovid Sfard, the major significance of such a congress lay in asserting the rehabilitation of Yiddish culture and clarifying the need for cooperation and unity between all centres of creativity including the Soviet Union and the Land of Israel.(73) The approach of the representatives of Yiddish writers in Poland towards the question of participation in these cultural congresses well reflects the atmosphere among Yiddish writers in Poland at that time. Although most were identified, to one degree or another, with the Communist Party, at this point they could still permit themselves to boycott, concurrently, both an anti-Communist cultural congress and its Communist counterpart. To illustrate the relative freedom enjoyed by the Yiddish writers in Poland, even in the spring of 1948, one can cite their marshalling (together with the actors and the Central Committee) contributions in the amount of 50,000 zlotys towards the fighting yishuv in the Land of Israel(74) and the publication of an enthusiastic congratulatory message on the occasion of the establishment of the State of Israel. On the cover of the May 1948 issue of Yidishe shriftn the Yiddish writers expressed the hope, along with other hopes, that 'your poetry, Jewish writers from the Land of Israel, will become a shield and an uplifting spirit to inspire the warriors of the Jewish army to acts of heroism for freedom of the nation'. The signatures of forty-six members of the Association were affixed to this congratulatory message.(75) Such identification with the State of Israel was one of the last independent initiatives undertaken by the Association. Several months later, the Central Committee flatly announced that all Jewish cultural activity must be based on Marxist ideology and keep in close contact with the working masses. At that time, also, arose the need for convening an 'Eastern European Jewish Cultural Conference' in cooperation with all the proletarian states.(76) Under the impression that there was a change in atmosphere - or perhaps more accurately with the shattering of the illusion - Rokhl Oyerbakh wrote in a personal letter: 'Today, the only activist elements in our society, everywhere (also outside of Poland), are the political parties; and if they have decided [...] to begin to delve into Jewish culture, nobody can save it from them [ ...]".(77)
During the 1920s and the 1930s the premises of the Association of Jewish Writers and Journalists in Warsaw was the site of heated debates about the character and message of modern Yiddish literature. Writers belonging to one or another literary genre struggled for their right of recognition, and challenged the conservative literary establishment. An extensive Jewish public constituted an involved and active consumer of Yiddish culture and literature, and for them libraries were established, newspapers and periodicals were published, and a multitude of books were printed.(78) In the first years following the end of the World War 2, there was no longer a place for such debates. Potential consumers of Yiddish culture and literature were both numerically and economically diminished, and physically and emotionally broken. With the passage of time, vast demographic changes had occurred in the Jewish community in liberated Poland and the opportunities for cultural activity and consumption remained extremely limited. The overwhelming majority of the surviving writers did not remain in Poland for long. Many of these writers set themselves the goal of rebuilding the cultural life of the remaining survivors, of commemorating the awesome destruction and perpetuating awareness of it for Diaspora Jews and for the world at large.(79) A minority of writers - primarily those who returned from the Soviet Union with a Communist world-view - strove to renew the face of Yiddish literature in Poland in the spirit of the era, to rebuild it on the foundation of Soviet culture and to carry it confidently into the future.(80)
The Association of Yiddish Writers and Journalists played an important role in the physical rebuilding of the fractured literary centre in Poland. It was a place where one could find an attentive ear or a familiar face and receive a measure of material assistance. Because of the Association, Yiddish journalism reappeared in Poland and cultural activity was again offered to the general public under nearly impossible conditions. Despite all this, the Association did not last long. Increasing competition imposed on it from other establishment cultural associations, the emigration of many prominent and active writers, and the growing politicization of Jewish life in Poland, all detracted from the Association's independence and prevented it from fulfilling a significant socio-cultural role. Years later, Hersh Smolar recorded in his memoirs that even a nostalgic longing for the original pre-war Association "of blessed memory" in the guise of the current association was regarded as intolerable at the time.(81) As of mid-1948, the Association is hardly heard from again, and if heard, it is only as yet another proletarian body preaching "solidarity" , "a purged atmosphere", "progress" and " creativity"(82) and whose political involvement greatly exceeded its cultural activity. In 1950 the Association of Jewish Writers and Journalists became a branch of the Polish Writers' Association, and as such, it in fact ceased to exist.
NOTES
*Technical difficulties in web-publishing mean we have approximated certain Polish characters. The published source does not contain these errors. Our apologies.
1. For additional information about the Association see: Natan Cohen, Sefer, sofer ve-iton: Merkaz hatarbut hayehudit bevarsha 1918-1942 (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2003).
2. About the first liberated Jews and their coping with the existential hardships see Daniel Blatman, "Nokhrim bemoladetam - yehudey polin me-lublin (1944) ad kieltze (1946)" in Shmuel Almog, Daniel Blatman et al. (eds.), Hashoa - historya vezikaron: kovetz maamarim shay leyisrael gutman (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2002), pp.162- 186. On the violent antisemitism in Poland in those years, see David Engel, "Patterns of Anti-Jewish Violence in Poland 1944-1946", Yad Vashem Studies 26 (1998), 43-85.
3. For more information regarding these committees and their development see Hana Shlomi, "Reshit hahitargenut shel yehudey polin beshilhey milhemet haolam hashniya", Gal-Ed 2 (1975), 287-315; David Engel, "The Reconstruction of Jewish Communal Institutions in Postwar Poland: the Origins of the Central Committee of Polish Jews, 1944- 1945", East European Politics and Societies, 10:1 (1996), 85- 107; (hereafter Engel 1996).
4. According to Jacob Pat's memoirs. See Yankev Pat, Ash un fayer: iber di khurves fun poyln (New York: CYCO bikher-farlag, 1946), pp. 76-77.
5. Maurycy Horn, "Visnshaftlekhe un editorishe tetikayt fun der tsentraler yidisher historisher komisye baym CCJP un funem yidishn historishn institut in poyln in di yorn 1945-1950", Bleter far geshikhte 84 (1986), 143-159. See also an interview with R. Ben Shem (Feldshu) in the Archives of the Diaspora Research Institute, Tel Aviv University (hereafter ADRI), INV/463.7
6. Efroim Shedletski, "Vi azoy hot zikh gegrindet der farayn fun yiddishe literatn un zhurnalistn in poyln", Yidishe shriftn 1(1946), p. 13. It should be noted that the sum of 100,000 zlotys in those days was not worth more than a few hundred American dollars, even according to the official rate of exchange. Another, independent, organization of Jewish writers and artists was established in Bialystok in December 1945, see: Archives of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw (Zydowski Institut Historyczny, hereafter: AZIH), CKZP/203.
7. The Association's official name was Fareyn fun yidishe literatn, zhurnalistn un artistn in poyln (Association of Jewish Writers, Journalists and Actors in Poland). The word "artist" in Yiddish means "visual artists" (painters and sculptors) but in our context the meaning is "stage artists".
8. See Yisrael Bialistotski, Shikum hayishuv hayehudi bepolin 1944-1950. Unpublished PhD dissertation, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 1990, p.144.
9. E. Shedletski, "Der ershter numer", Dos naye lebn: yubiley oysgabe (1947), p. 7; Yonas Turkov, Nokh der bafrayung(Buenos Aires:Tsentral farband fun poylishe yidn in argentine, 1959), pp. 117- 118 (hereafter Turkov 1959); Jozef Korzeniowski, "Dos Naje Lebn Pierwsza gazeta Zydowska w PRL, Biuletyn Zydovskiego Institutu Historycznego w Polsce" 3/119 (1981), pp.54-55. R. Ben-Shem in his interview (note 5 above) has said that Yehoyshue Shlayen was the initiator of the Jewish Press Agency.
10. Turkov 1959, pp. 33-49.
11. Ibid. p.76.
12. Ibid., pp.76-78; Jozef Marszalek, Maydanek: The Concentration Camp in Lublin (Warsaw: Interpress 1986), p.188. [in English]
13. In regard to the growth of the Jewish population in liberated Poland, see Engel 1996, p.93 and note 29 there.
14. Shedletski, note 8, above.
15. Ibid., and also M. Mirski, "10 numern", DNL, 10 (11.7.1945), p.3.
16. It should be noted that a group of Jewish writers and actors, still in the Soviet Union, sent their congratulations on the tenth issue of the paper. Within a short time these writers returned to Poland and integrated into the Jewish literary environment there.
17. Bialistotski, note 8 above, and also Tetikayt barikht fun tsentral komitet fun di yidn in poyln fun 1 yanuar 1946 biz dem 30 yuni 1946 (Warsaw: n.p., 1947), p. 14.
18. According to a letter from Rokhl Oyerbakh to Meylekh Ravitsh dated 25 August 1945; Ravitsh archives in the National and University Library, Jerusalem (hereafter RA).
19. Many applications for membership are to be found in the collection of the Central Committee of the Jews in Poland in AZIH (CKZP/209). From the protocols of the Association's board meetings, one can learn about discussions regarding the criteria for accepting new members. For that purpose a special committee was also established (file 202). Also to be found there are applications signed by the Association's chairman and secretary addressed to the local and central committees, asking them to supply food, clothing and housing. See for example the Association's diary for 1946, file 198.
20. In a letter dated 23 June 1946, R. Oyerbakh wrote that most of the Association's members had no private address; that all members needed some kind of help; and that they came regularly to the Association to eat and get mail (RA). It is also known that in the middle of 1946 the Association provided 60 hot meals daily. See Yosef Litvak, "The American Joint Distribution Committee and Polish Jewry 1944-1949", in Selwyn Ilan Troen and Benjamin Pinkus (eds.), Organizing Rescue: National Jewish Solidarity in the Modern Period (London: Frank Cass 1992), p.289. For information about the number of Jewish repatriates see Yisrael Gutman, Hayehudim bepolin aharey milhemet haolam hashniya (Jerusalem: The Zalman Shazar Center for the Furtherance of the Study of Jewish History 1985), pp. 20-27 (hereafter Gutman 1985); David Engel, ) Beyn shihrur livriha: nitsoley hashoa befolin vehamaavak al hanhagatam, 1944-1946 (Tel Aviv: Sifriyat haapala, 1997, pp. 120-124 (hereafter Engel 1997).
21. A letter from the Association to the Central Committee dated 13 May 1946 (AZIH.CKZP/202) and protocols of the Association's board meetings (ibid.). For example, between 19 April 1946 and 24 May 1946, 28,500 zlotys were divided between ten repatriated members (a financial report dated 7 June 1946, ibid.).
22. The Joint, as it was familiarly known, sent goods, food and money, but not always directly to the Association; see protocols of board meetings dated 6 April1946, 8 June 1946, 27 June 1946 (AZIH.CKZP/202) and the monthly announcements by the Joint in regard to its support for the Association (ibid., file 200). American money was brought or sent by other institutions such as the Y.L. Peretz Writers' Association in New York and various landsmanshaftn. Money was also raised by individuals, colleagues like M. Ravitsh, Yankef Pat, Yoysef Leyb Tenenbaum and others.
23. See the Association's reply to the Lodz local Jewish Committee's appeal dated 23 February 1946 (AZIH.CKZP/202); A Letter to the Central Committee (note 21, above), of which copies were sent to the Y.L. Peretz Writers' Association and to the Federation of Polish Jews in America: see an open letter addressed to the editor of DNL, signed by ten writers (DNL, 15 [40] [17 May 1946], p. 6). Thus far I have been unable to establish whether or not their demands were met.
24. Protocol of the board meeting dated 8 June 1946 (AZIH.CKZP/202).
25. A news item in DNL, 16 [41] (24 May 1946), p. 2. See also M[oyshe] Gr[osman], "Tsuzamentref tsvishn yidishe un poylishe shrayber", DNL, 13 [38], (30 April 1946), p. 4.
26 In a letter of greeting that the Association sent on the occasion of a Polish writers' conference ( October 1946), it was emphasised that the great Yiddish writers lived in Poland, and that the humane attitude Polish writers had shown towards Jews during the years of destruction was highly appreciated (AZIH.CKZP/202, a letter dated 26 October 1946; and see also a news item in DNL, 39 [54], [1 November 1946]). On another occasion - that of a general meeting of the Jewish Association in October 1947 - Seweryn Pollak, the chairman of the Polish Writers Association in Lodz, said that in the face of the tragedy suffered by both nations [sic] it was surely time to remove the wall dividing the two literatures by translating works from Yiddish into Polish and providing as much assistance as possible to Jewish colleagues (" Algemayne farzamlung fun yidishn literatn un zhurnalistn fareyn", DNL, 76 [156], [31 October 1947], p. 4).
27. Protocol of the foundation meeting at the Association's premises on the 29 May 1946 (AZIH.CKZP/198) and a news item in DNL, 17 [42], (31 May 1946), p.4.
28. Ibid., 12 [37], (23 April 1946), p.2 and 16 [41], (24 May 1946), p. 6.
29. Ibid., 16 [41], (24 May 1946), p.6.
30. AZIH.CKZP/202.
31. Hana Shlomi, "The Communist Caucus in the Central Committee of Jews in Poland: November 1944 - February 1947", Gal-Ed 13 (1993),pp. 81-100; Jeff Shatz, The Generation: The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Communists in Poland (Berkeley, Los Angeles and Oxford: University of California Press, 1991), pp.209-235; Gutman 1985, pp. 80-86.
32. See Moyshe Grosman's letter to Adolf Berman dated 10 April 1946, ADRI P-70/126.
33. ADRI P-70/115.
34. See note 32, above and also letters dated 2 March 1946 and 20 March 1946.
35. AZIH.CKZP/202 and protocol of a meeting on 22 May 1946. The Jewish News Agency went through a similar process.
36. AZIH.CKZP/203.
37. Issue number 40 [65] (6 November 1946), for example, was dedicated to the Bolshevik Revolution. There twenty writers described in flowery language what the Soviet Union meant to them (some of these writers survived the Holocaust in Poland). News and reports from the Soviet Union now occupied more space in the paper and the pro-Soviet tendency of the publishers was clear. A group of Soviet Yiddish writers headed by Ilya Ehrenburg visited Poland to commemorate the very next Revolution Day. The issue of DNL dated 7 November 1947 allocated a large amount of space to Soviet Russian and Yiddish literature. However, one should bear in mind that during this period the paper showed great interest in the struggle for independence in the land of Israel. For a brief review of DNL during the years in which it appeared, see Yosef Goldkorn, "Aliyato unefilato shel Dos naye lebn," Qesher 12 (1992):. 48-68; and see as well Dovid Sfard's memoirs: Mit zikh un mit andere (Jerusalem: Yerushalaymer almanakh 1984), pp.188-189 (hereafter: Sfard 1984).
38. Dovid Sfard, "Yidishe literarish tetikayt in poyln 1946-1968", in: Entsiklopedya shel galuyot, Vol. 12 (Warsaw, #3)( Jerusalem: Khevrat enstiklopedya shel galuyot, 1973), pp. 661-680, and Sfard, Mit zikh un miit andere, 1984, pp. 185-189.
39. A description of the event (without naming any names) is to be found in M. Grosman's memoirs: P. Grim [=Moyshe Grosman], In farkisheftn land fun legendarn dzhugashvili (Paris: Emes un frayhayt, 1949), pp.46-48.
40. A report of the Association's tribunal to its board (30 October 1946), AZIH.CKZP/202.
41. Another source of competition was provided by local cultural organizations who functioned on behalf of the Central Committee, or local committees in Lower Silesia. These organizations gained both political and financial benefits, and contributed much to the development of Yiddish culture in this area. For more information see Bozena Szaynok, 'Jews in Lower Silesia 1945-1950', in Marcin Wodzinski and Janusz Spyra (eds.), Jews in Silesia (Cracow: Ksiegarnia Akademicka, 2001), pp. 213-228 and in particular pp. 220- 223. [in English]
42. The only source for details of this meeting is E. Kaganovski's report: 'A nisht derhaltene rede', DNL 47 [72], (6 December 1946), p. 4. It should be pointed out that in spite of the disagreements, Kaganovski's report was published in DNL.
43. About the mass exodus of Jews from Poland see Yehuda Bauer, Habriha (Tel Aviv: Moreshet and Sifriyat hapoalim,1975); Gutman 1985, pp. 42-53; Engel 1997.
44. Reports of board meetings from the above mentioned dates, AZIH. CKZP/202.
45. A list of names dated 3 December 1946, AZIH.CKZP/202.
46. Meeting protocols dated 11 December 1946 and 12 December 1946, ibid. Some time later a permanent committee was elected with Mark as chairman and Zak as secretary.
47. Turkov 1959, p.302.
48. Letters dated 2 March 1946, 20 March 1946 and 20 April 1946, ADRI P-70/126.
49. Avrom Zak, 'Der banayter literatn fareyn", Dos naye lebn - yubiley oysgabe (1947), pp. 14.
50. A letter from Zak to Ravitsh, 1 July 1946, RA.
51. A letter from Finklshteyn to Ravitsh dated 16 August.1946, RA. Similar things were written also by Kaganivski in 27 September 1947, RA.
52. A letter from Sutzkever to Ravitsh, dated 22 August 1946, RA. Sutzkever stayed in Poland for a few months in the summer of 1946, and towards the end of his stay he wrote the powerful poem "Tsu poyln".
53. A letter from Mark to Ravitsh, dated 12 August 1946, RA.
54. Sfard 1984, pp.201-203.
55. A letter from Oyerbakh to Ravitsh, July 1939, RA.
56. A letter from Oyerbakh to Bashe Berman dated 31 July 1945, ADRI P- 70/51.
57. See Oyerbakh's comments in the protocol of a general meeting, dated 15 November 1946, AZIH.CKZP/202.
58. A news item in DNL, 17 (28 September 1945), front page.
59. Protocol of a board meeting dated 27 June.1946, AZIH.CKZP/202.
60. A letter from Oyerbakh to Ravitsh dated 30 January 1946, RA; protocol of a board meeting from 25.10.1946, AZIH.CKZP/202.
61. For example, concerning the question of who would be included in the editorial board. See in that matter a letter from M. Grosman to A. Berman, dated 20 March 1946, ADRI P-70/126; protocol of the Association's board meeting dated 25 October 1946, AZIH.CKZP/202. About disagreements concerning financing the cost of printing in the DNL printing house, see the Association's letter to DNL dated 20 June 1946, ibid.
62. Sfard 1984, p.188.
63. "Far a hoykh kinstlerisher yidisher literatur", DNL, 78 [156], (9 November 1947), p.4.
64. Ibid. The Bundist journalist Grisha Yashunski claimed at this event that the best conditions for a Yiddish writer to write and create were to be found in Poland.
65. An item in DNL, 2 [170], (9 January.1948), p. 6.
66. H. Smolar, "Far an alveltlekhn yidishn kultur kongress", Ibid., 39 [64], (1 November 1946), p. 3; idem., "Far eyn yidishn kultur kongress, ibid, 54 [132], (25 July 1947), p. 2.
67. Regarding the two American organizations and the conference held by CYCO, see: Charles A. Madison, Jewish Publishing in America (New York: Sanhedrin Press, 1976), pp.215-217.
68. See items in DNL, note 63 above; Yidishe shriftn 10 (1947),pp. 22- 23. See also D. Sfard on the same issue: Yidishe shriftn 9 (1947), pp. 1-2.
69. Ibid. 9 (1947), p. 18; 10 (1947), p. 25.
70. A report in DNL 83 [161], (28 November.1947), front page, and the next issue, p.6. See also D. Sfard, "Oyf der tog ordenung shteyt di yidishe kultur", ibid, 91 [169], (30 December 1947), p.4.
71. See also Bialistotski (note 8 above), pp.172-73.
72. In May 1949 a supplement under the title: Undzer biuletin (Our Bulletin) of the Jewish Cultural Association in Poland was added to the Yidishe shriftn. In October that same year this association held a national conference.
73. D. Sfard, "Di
badaytung fun der eyropeisher yidisher kultur konferents", Yidishe
shriftn 6 (1948), pp.2, 8.
74. A news item on the front page of DNL, 7 [176], (6 February 1948).
75. I cannot tell if this number includes all the Association's members, but even if it does not, it was the vast majority.
76. A report in Yidishe shriftn 9 (1948), p.11.
77. A letter dated 14 July1948, RA.
78. See my book (note 1 above), pp. 39-51, 115-125, 204-225.
79. Yekhiel Hofer expressed this attitude best by writing, "The greater the ruins, the larger the literary memorials" (Yekhiel Hofer, "Literatur-shafung un literatur missye", DNL, 23 [48], [12 July 1946], p.4). See also what Turkov wrote in DNL's first issue, and Rokhl Oyerbakh's articles from the first months of the paper's appearance.
80. See for example what Mirski wrote in the first issue of DNL and similar things he wrote under the title "Tsum oyfboy!", on the front page of issue no. 5. See also Leo Finklshteyn, "Di shlikhes fun yidishn shrayber", DNL, 30 [55], (30 August 1946), p.3; Dovid Sfard, " In dinst fun folk", Dos naye lebn - yubiley oysgabe, (1947), p.27; idem, "Mit zeyer toyt hobn zey undz bafoyln tsu lebn", Yidishe shriftn 4 (1947), front page; B. Mark, "Eyn yidishe literatur", Yidishe shriftn [first anthology], Lodz 1946, . 48-49; Shloyme Lastik, "A shmues mit a fraynd", ibid, [second anthology], Lodz 1948, pp. 189-190.
81. Hersh Smolar,
Oyf der letster pozitsye mit der letster hofenung (Tel Aviv: Y.L.
Peretz farlag 1982), pp.189-190.
82. See front page of Yidishe shriftn 5 (1949), and a report on the general meeting of the Association's members, ibid., 6 (1949), p. 10.
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